My Clarisonic Challenge - Big "Thumbs Up!"

About a month ago, I started using the Clarisonic PLUS and after several weeks, I can honestly say that my skin has transformed from pretty darn good to absolutely stunning! It is more smooth than ever before, no redness in the cheek area like I've had a tendency to experience, my pores are cleaner and almost invisible, and my skin care products are absorbed so much better than before I used Clarisonic.

A great feature, too, is that the Clarisonic PLUS comes with a body brush so you can use it to clean and smooth the skin all over your body! This is a major plus because the unit is not cheap but for the money, you get more than one kind of use out of it. My body skin was in much worse shape than my face, although not terrible but rather neglected. However, the Clarisonic is getting it into nice shape. I use the Clarisonic Body Polishing scrub with the Clarisonic PLUS and the results are smooth, glowing skin. It's fantastic.

One I've noticed though is that while the unit is rechargeable and holds a charge for a fairly decent amount of time (~week), it works best when fully charged. What I mean is that the sonic movement is slower and considerably less effective when the unit isn't at a full charge. I'm still experimenting with how long is the optimal time to leave it without being charged to full capacity. I will keep you posted.

Love the Clarisonic PLUS and will definitely be purchasing the Opal for my eye area. I just have to wait until I have some money....

Vogue Influencer - Clarisonic PLUS

An honor has been bestowed upon me and that is that I have been named a Vogue Influencer. What that means is that I get to try out some pretty awesome products and then write reviews about them! As you can probably tell, I have no shortage of opinions about things and most certainly am not afraid to share them. Thus, being asked to try out some fashion items/products and share my experiences is a no-brainer!

The most recent product I'm testing out is The Clarisonic PLUS skin cleansing system. It retails for approximately $190 but is worth every single penny! What's great about the PLUS system is that it comes with a face brush and a body brush, and decent trial sizes of face and body cleansers. However, what I love are the features and how much my skin (face and body) has improved in the last three weeks of using the Clarisonic PLUS.

The Clarisonic web page says that the system will improve the tone, texture, and firmness of your skin while making pores appear smaller. It also lets you know that your skin will be 6X cleaner than washing with your hands alone. All of these claims sounded good to me but the most interesting was the one that said my skin care products would be better absorbed thus more effective after using Clarisonic PLUS. I had to dive in a try it.

After just one day of using the PLUS system, I could see a difference in my skin. I use Retin A as part of the Obagi Nu-derm skincare regimen so I was little concerned about "brushing" my skin as I feared it would be too much trauma on my face. I need not have worried. The sensitive face brush came with my kit and since the instructions state clearly not to press on your face with the brush but rather just let it do its job relatively effortlessly, I did just that with great success.

The little peeling, flaky skin cells from the Obagi products disappeared! No redness, no irritation, but rather clear skin that allowed my daytime Obagi products to go on smoothly, get absorbed more readily, and glowing skin all day long. I LOVE this system.

Another of the features I adore is the various timer settings for cleansing the face. The Clarisonic PLUS has a perfect 1 minute setting that momentarily stops the sonic brush after a preset period of 20 seconds on the forehead, 20 seconds on the nose and chin, and 10 seconds each on each of the cheeks. Not enough time for your face? Not a problem. There is a 2 minute setting as well.

When you put the body brush on your Clarisonic PLUS, the timed settings go away which is great. This ensures that you have a perfectly polished decollete, legs, arms, back, etc. I use the body brush with the Clarisonic body polish in the kit and my skin looks smooth and sexy.

Perhaps two of the best features that make the unit versatile and convenient is that it is waterproof (can be used in the shower/bath) and it is rechargeable (comes with a charger) thus it is cordless! So far, I am using the heck out of my Clarisonic PLUS, and I have only charged it 2x in nearly 3 weeks. It holds the charge quite nicely although I suspect that over time, like most any electronics with rechargeable batteries, it will need to

Check out the Clarisonic PLUS system for yourselves. I'm going to purchase an Opal for my eye area. That's how much I love the results I'm seeing from my PLUS system.

The Bitter Boor

The Bitter Boor, or BB for short, is someone I work with in the world of criminal justice consulting. She is a poor man's consultant, does not have my drive or experience, is about 25 years older than I, and is about as loud, negative, and ignorant as any one human being can be. It is infuriating especially when she comments on the lack of quality in others' work when her own work product sucks. At the moment, I have to do a clean up job on a case they took away from her stupid ass because she sucks. Of course, she tells herself that she's so great that they threw her out of our unit because she is too good and it's intimidating to others.

Here's another visual so that you get a mental image of what this woman looks like. She is easily topping the scale at over 200 pounds. She dresses like a factory worker complete with sneakers, Dickie's type khaki pants, and short-sleeved, cotton collar shirts in outdated plaid and floral prints. Oh yes, the shirts are loose, not tucked in, entirely too casual, and have front pockets similar to men's shirts. If it wasn't for the bright colored patterns, I'd think she bought them in the men's department.

Here's the fashion kicker. When she goes to court, she dresses her factory-worker-not-so-chic garb with a denim jacket that has little embroidered flowers all over it. She puts the jacket on because we're required to wear a jacket when we appear in court. Of course, what the office has in mind is the type of tailored jacket that goes with the business suit you should be wearing. It boggles the mind that she is allowed to get away with what she does except that she claims she's deaf in one ear (I don't believe that for a minute) and she's just about at retirement age.

I had tried to befriend The Bitter Boor because initially I thought she was an experienced professional who could show me the ropes of the unit we work in but I couldn't have been more mistaken. It turns out that her caustic personality and loud, shouting, can't-ever-admit-she's-wrong behavior alienates everyone. She finally got kicked out of the unit a few months back and they moved her back where she came from. Of course, they had kicked her out four years ago and were sick when they found out she was returning.

Last week, I had it out with BB, went to the head of my unit, and BB got in some hot water. I hear that she's pissed beyond belief because I used against her information that she told me in confidence. That is true. She told me some stuff that, when she pissed me off and tried to undermine the work I am doing on one of her previous cases, I used against her.

Technically, I did betray her trust and that wasn't very nice of me. Truth be told, it makes me feel gross and a little trepidation because I shared things with her, too. The difference is that she shared things with me that she does that are strict violations of company policy. I shared gossip and opinions about things that go on in my unit. BB could use that stuff against me but there isn't anything I can do about that now but wait and see what happens.

The good news is that I'm out of there for a couple of weeks. I so need the break. Those people are insane and The Bitter Boor is the leader of the crazy pack.

The Latest Dissertation Drama

I still haven't heard back from The Ingenue as to whether she will serve on my dissertation committee or not. That really sucks for many reasons. First, she's clearly just as rude and maladjusted as the rest of the shitty faculty in my program. I mean, at least acknowledge my email and let me know that you've received it and will think about it. It seems that one excuse for non-responsiveness may be that The Ingenue has her wedding coming up or that just past and may be out of town dealing with all of that but I know for a fact that she was on campus the day I sent her the email and the email was sent early enough in the day that she would have gotten it before she left for the day.

I also hear from one of our recent program grads (and The Predator's student) that The Ingenue checks every move she makes with The Predator. This is another reason why The Ingenue may not be a great choice for my committee. The Predator wasn't too keen on me asking her in the first place but I did it anyway. If The Ingenue agrees to serve, then The Predator has, in effect, two votes on my dissertation (i.e., he has more power since he seems to control her decisions...remember that The Predator is now our program director and he is a megalomaniac). It may actually turn out best if she declines.

If The Ingenue does decline, though, that means I still have to find a replacement for Lucifer or decide to proceed with Lucifer on the committee. This really sucks.

Interim Success

Well, Lucifer finally signed off on my proposal and I turned the paperwork in to the college just in the nick of time. The Dean told me that as long as I get my dissertation done on schedule and turn in the rest of my paperwork on time for the rest of time, I will have no problem graduating as scheduled next summer. Whew!

However, I need to get rid of Lucifer. He must go. I've already sent my proposal to another of our faculty (a newbie junior faculty member) who I will call The Ingenue. I'm not getting a good feeling that she'll join my committee. I sent the proposal and a nice email asking her to join but I haven't received even an acknowledgment. My best guess is that The Predator (another of our illustrious faculty) has discouraged her from serving on my committee and she just isn't sure how to deal with it. The Predator is out of town at the moment so she's probably waiting until he gets back to broach the subject. I think The Predator may have some influence, one, because he's her boss and two, because he had already mentioned to me that I probably shouldn't ask her since my research isn't her "area."

Here's the thing, though. My research is MY area and no one else's. It's actually quite novel (simple but in a very novel area of my field). No one on my committee, including Lucifer and The Predator, research in this particular area of our field. Lucifer didn't like that and reacted poorly but the bottom line is that we are encouraged to come up with novel research that will lead to us sustaining a research program once we go off and have our own academic labs. How are we supposed to do that if we continue doing our professors' research?

Nevermind. I am going to do everything in my power to avoid an academic job in research. In fact, if I can avoid asking those fools for letters of recommendation, that is exactly what I will do. I want no part of it if I can avoid it.

In the meantime, I am hoping that The Ingenue will come through. However, I'm not optimistic that will happen. I won't blame her, though. It's a very tough to deal with those creepers who comprise our program faculty and she's right under The Predator's thumb. I just wish she'd at least acknowledge that she received my email.

Great Balls of Fear (and Fire)

I sent out the revised dissertation proposal at about 6 pm yesterday. Yes, it was a Saturday and I know I should expect immediate responses but since I had heard from one of the profs on my committee on meeting up this week on other projects we're doing, I expected to at least hear back from him. I didn't and now I'm flipping out a little.

When I sent the proposal, I did it strategically. Basically, I emailed each prof separately with a copy of the proposal and a request to stop by their office mid-week to obtain their signature indicating they approve my project. My advisor thought this was a good strategy because then each needs to respond to my individual email indicating that they will/will not sign. I have a sense this will make them a bit uneasy given that they are supposed to make the approval decisions as a committee, but I need my paperwork signed. I figure the technicalities of how the dissertation committee decisions are supposed to work are the responsibility of the committee members.

Lucifer got to hide behind the other committee members on the day of my proposal presentation when his being the lone holdout made it so that no one signed off according to my advisor. Now I'm forcing a situation where, as my advisor put it, he'll have to reject me twice. The difference is that he'll have to do it all on his own and attempt to justify why. I have no doubt that he will if he feels like it but this way I can at least have an individual dialogue with each member to see exactly why they won't personally sign off. I'm just hoping that won't be the case.

Maybe they'll all sign off and I can move on with my life.

Stress, Stress, and More Stress

In the next 24-48 hours I will forward along my revised dissertation proposal to committee members for approval. The reality is that I expect three of the four members to sign off but Lucifer is a wild card. I have no idea if he'll be reasonable or continue being a creep about all of this. I can't make the summer deadline now no matter what but I want to get this project moving so that even if I can't technically graduate until Fall 2012, I'll be done by next summer.

I'm so stressed over this. I'm not sleeping restfully and have a knot in my stomach. If Lucifer refuses to sign off, I have no idea what my next step will be. Obviously I'll have to change my dissertation to meet his arbitrary whims but I'm resisting that because this is my project, I believe in it, it is novel and my other committee members are fine with it. I despise this man for making my life hell.

Then, there is my job, which in theory I love. It is great work. However, I'm getting yanked around in terms of money. I volunteered there for about a year and they started paying me an hourly rate a couple of months ago that is insulting given my education and experience. However, I really didn't have any bargaining power because I was working for zero dollars before.

The deal was always to make me full time with more money and benefits but it's not looking promising and even if it could happen, I'm not sure I'd want that now. I'm having second thoughts because some petty nonsense has happened around there in the last few months that makes me think I'd be better off leaving things the way they are for the time being.

The office administrators treat the three of us in professional positions (with advanced degrees and experience) as though we are glorified secretaries. That doesn't sit well with me because I feel I've attained a certain status in terms of my education and experience that warrants treating me as a colleague rather than a subordinate. It's unlikely that they will change so it will be up to me to modify my approach.

Let's see what happens...