I read the first part of this series two years ago, and have been waiting for the sequel ever since! The books feature an intriguing setup where magic is linked to life force. With each spell a witch does, they’re basically draining their own life force and giving up minutes, days, years of their life. Each witch must think carefully whether or not she wishes to use power and on what. Is a life worth saving if it means giving up a year of your own life?

The series is about Kamala, a young witch, who wants to join the group of sorcerers who can use unlimited magic. Nobody knows the secret to their powers, but Kamala is determined to be the first woman to join them.

If you haven’t read the first part yet (Feast of Souls), I can highly recommend it. If you have… go get the second one!

Wings of Wrath: The Magister Trilogy Book Two by Celia Friedman is available on Amazon.co.uk for £5.99 and on Amazon.com for $10.38.

I tweeted about this dress last week, and I’m still not sure whether or not I should get it. Still think it might be a bit too costumey, and not something I’d actually end up wearing often:

It’s available at ThinkGeek for $39.99.

Interesting links for August 20th through August 31st:

• BBC News – Will geeks inherit the earth? – Article from the BBC about geeks and politics. And Cristiano is in it!
• Domestic Sluttery – Keeping Cosy: The Crime Scene Scarf – Awesome scarf. Must. Have.
• A man, a theremin and a horde of London Bridge commuters – Armed only with a theremin, Nick Franglen is hymning London’s commuters, and they’ll be helping – whether they know it or not.

I’ve been asked to cover a cool project called Game Runners, and it looks like it could be great fun!

Game Runners is an experimental project where PlayStation, members of the public and young people from diverse backgrounds come together to create social (pervasive) games. The project has been developed by PlayStation and Hide & Seek with a team of 8 initial Game Runners who PlayStation have picked to train as game designers and work to make the games relevant.

There are three games in development: Flags, Blocks & Hoops. The games are in prototype stage and during August there will be a series of playtests to develop the games. I’ll be attending the first playtest tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see how the 3 games will turn out to be. Knowing the Hide & Seek type games, there’s sure to be some running around and smart thinking!

Check out the Game Runners Facebook Page, where you can learn about the different games, meet the Game Runners and vote for your favourite game. The most popular game – as decided by the fans – will be selected and put forward into development and then put into action at a live event in October, where fans can try out the game for real.

I’ve been back in London now for a couple of days; it’s so good to be back! I was 3.5 weeks in the Netherlands and, while it was good to see family again, I was glad to come back home. Plus I had two new roommates to meet: our two newly adopted cats, Casey and Dusty!

I haven’t blogged much since I’ve been back, mainly because of these two. They’re so cute! Here’s a pic of me and Dusty:

Dusty is the more quiet one of the two, but likes to be held (and cuddled). He’s a bit on the skinny side, so we’re making sure he gets enough food. He’s got a little square bit of white near his neck, but is completely red for the rest:

Casey is clearly the more dominant one of the two, but can be really sweet too. He’s got white paws and a huge piece of white fur around his neck.

Neither of them will settle on your lap, and I’m still wondering if I can turn them into proper lap cats. They will come and sit next to you though, and both of them are completely mushy and let you do anything to them. I’m still trying to get the hang of everything, but it’s so much fun getting to know these two.

There’s a new Simon’s Cat video! The first one is still my favourite, but all his videos are pretty funny. Especially if you have cats:

I’ve already posted a couple of trailers for this movie, but I can’t wait to see it! It’s already out in the US, but we’ll have to wait one more week for it. The trailer does show a lot, so if you’ve already decided to see this movie, I’d avoid watching it.

This isn’t really a proper post; you won’t find an entire review here. But… I got to see The Last Airbender a couple of weeks ago, and wrote up a review for Bleeding Cool. They are one of my favourite sites, with news, reviews and more on comics and movies. So head on over to Bleeding Cool for my review of The Last Airbender!

I’m still in the Netherlands (cat/house sitting), so it’s been a bit quiet around here. I’ll be back in London next week, so hopefully I’ll be in a better blogging mood then.

I wrote about Avril Loreti’s Etsy store a while ago with the cute Squeeze Me pillows, but I discovered another cute item she sells. Blackboard coasters!

Pwetty… The coasters are $14, but with an added shipping cost of $4.50 if you’re outside the US or Canada (it’s $1.50 shipping to Canada and $2.50 shipping to the US). Check out Avril’s Etsy store for more details.

I never really got into Dawson’s Creek, so I never cared much for Joshua Jackson. I love him now in Fringe though, and this Funny or Die video only makes me like him even more: