I keep starting
And never finishing blog posts. I think I want to move on, find a different blog with a different name. This blog feels heavy, like I’ve had it through too many phases.
I <3 Daft Punk
I really like them. Like, a lot. I think I’ve already written at least one other blog post about them. They appeal to everyone I know, though!
For instance, not only do I like them, but so does one of my step sisters, who gave an album to my dad, who likes them. I remember jamming to them in middle school, and when I got to college, they were still the cool thing to listen to. 🙂
Happy times! Enjoy!
Meet Sassy Pants
This is Sassafras, also known as Miss Sassy Pants (on days where she’s being particularly sassy)
After playing with one of my friend’s gerbils a few times, I decided I was ready to introduce a little furry rodent into my life. Thus, Sassafras.
She’s pretty fiesty, but surprisingly friendly. Her cage is on my dresser, right next to my desk, and whenever I’m sitting down she always comes running to my side of her cage and peeks out at me. She’ll stay there, watching me, and she comes whenever I make little kissy noises. She’s not too fond of being taken out of her cage, but she’s really interested whenever I open her cage door. We’re taking it one step at a time.
Welcome to my world, Miss Sassy Pants!
Rocks and Sand and Water
I might have to visit in again in summer, when it’s warm, just for this beach. I really like this beach, even if I’m alone. I spent an entire January sitting on it, reading Dracula, after all, completely alone.
It’s Possible
That there may be a person who, while innocently sleeping next to someone, may or may not reach out their hand and intertwine their fingers together, all the while sound asleep. That same person, who may or may not exist, might also hold said hands the entire night.
It’s possible that it might be one of the cutest things that someone may or may not have experienced. Ever. 😛
Happy Valentine’s Day, world. Remember that it is a day of love, and as such, not reserved for people you’re dating. Love your family, love your friends, and shower them with the affection you know they deserve.
(Or bitch and moan about being single. Whatever gets you to February 15)
A Double Take
I’ve been reading Questionable Content for about a month, going through it from the beginning. Then, to take a break (and because i forgot about it) I went and checked out another comic I had gone through beginning to current, to see what was going on.
So I go to Anders Loves Maria and see…. this. I was really confused for all of a minute and thought maybe my vision was permanently damaged from reading so much QC lately.
It was weird, s’all I’m saying.
But on another note, I actually have finally completely caught up to QC, and it’s such a feeling of accomplishment. To me, it reads like long novel with slow development, so if you figure every comic is a page, the “book” is over 1,000 pages. Thus the feeling of accomplishment. Also, it means that I need a new comic to read front to back, so if anyone stumbling on this blog has a recommendation, I’d surely appreciate it 😛
A Few of My Favorite Things
I decided to do a happy post. So, in true Sound of Music fashion, I’m going to tell you about a few of my favorite things. Here are seven things that make me smile really really big.
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one) I really really like Valentine’s Day. I think I’ve only actually spent one or two of them with someone I was dating, but that was never the point. My sister loves the holiday, and loves to use it as a way to express love not solely to significant others, but to people who are important. Like family. So we usually pick a day close to the holiday and spent it together with our mom, eating lots of chocolate things that will, as Kyle likes to say, put us in a sugar-induced coma. My mom decorated the table with pink and white and red little lovey things, and filled a pretty white dish with the best candy ever, See’s hearts. They only come out once a year, so they’re very very important
two) I think I’ve spotlighted her enough on my blog, but nothing is better than the cutest puppy in the whole world. Right now my mom would be a little irked to see her sleeping on the couch with its super-cute new cover but I think she’s cute enough to get away with murder. So I let her. Right now, though, she’s snoring. Her favorite things list doesn’t include staying up super late writing happy things, even if mine does. She prefers a reasonable bedtime, but she’ll settle for sleeping in late with me in the mornings. Isn’t that nice of her?
three) I am addicted to art/writing supplies, and my newest favorite things in that department are the new journal, bottom, and sketchbook, top. My cute new journal has neon-colored paisleys on the cover, which is the coolest thing ever, and my classy new sketchbook looks simple and sleek. The inside contains full-paged pen & ink drawings and testings of my new chalks.
four) Rarely do I have the excuse to buy a new cooking book. Especially with my mommy the excellent chef always at hand, I never lack for advice in the kitchen. But we both agreed I need a personal guide to baking, since that’s my favoritest thing in the kitchen. There’s an understood quiet rule that you can only buy aesthetically beautiful cookbooks and this one certainly achieves it. It has full-page pictures of the finished products, as well as about five pages with pictures of “perfect” goods compared to under-, over-, and other -cooked bads. The best part is that the book was seriously discounted and we got it for a steal. Also, it’s pink, which is all I can really hope for in a book. I can’t decide to make madeleines or raspberry thumbprint shortbread cookies first. Such a dilemma!
five) While the person who bequeathed him to me is no longer a person I’m in friendly contact with, I have to include this lil lemur guy on my happy things list. Most find him creepy, others find him disgustingly, childishly “pop” cute, but I find him irresistibly perfect. He is too cute for his own good, but not in a bad way. And in an illogical kind of way, that statement makes sense so shush. He is my friend and I shall tolerate no ill-will on his behalf. If a reader of mine doesn’t understand why he is perfect in my opinion, then I think you’re missing a fundamental piece of information about me. I like the silly, the whimsical, and the creepy-cute. He lives on my bookshelf and guards the cup of tea usually resting to cool next to him.
six) This is my newest favorite happy escape book. It’s by the same author who did my other super happy favorite escape book, City of Dreaming Books. I need this book the same way I need this post, and I like it. It’s full of silly scribble illustrations to show me what’s going on, which I appreciate. It makes me remember how to be whimsical and fantastical which I’m pretty sure are two of the most important things in my world. My author has written another book, as well, so I’ll have something the next time I need a brand new favorite happy escape. Yay.
seven) While reading a good book, I’ve found a cup of tea is essential. It’s very very very important to my sanity to have it readily available to sip on, and over the years I’ve narrowed down my four favorites. I like earl gray in the morning, jasmine and peppermint throughout the day, and then peppermint or chamomile when I try to sleep. I like other brands of tea as well, but this brand I buy for the name. It’s a super silly indulgence, but I don’t much care. I like that my teas, all lined up in a row, say “stash” on them. I’m allowed to have these kinds of indulgences, right?
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This is what my face looks like concerning all these seven things (except less posed, I think). These things are what I think of when the dog bites, or if a bee should sting, or if I’m just plain feeling sad.
I like that all I have to do is remember them, and then I just don’t feel quite so bad.
Also, singing that song should be my not-so-secret number eight. Hush
A Bad Day
For any and all incapable of interpreting the subject line, this isn’t a happy post. This is me complaining. You’ve been warned! 🙂
Some days just plain ol’ suck. This was a day where nothing went right, and I had to do things I didn’t want to do, and my trust was betrayed, and I cried. In fact, the high point was when I was relating everything to my sister, sobbing, and eating chocolate (we stopped by the gas station on the way home and I picked up four different kind of chocolate candy bars. And root beer. It was that bad.)
Now, I’m kind of known for getting worked up over nothing, and I know my moods can go way out of wack before they ever should, but that really isn’t it. Today sucked.
So I’m ending it, officially, now that Carol is fast asleep, on the couch, with chocolate (Kit Kats), a book I’ve already read and plan on rereading, and a comfortable sweatshirt. Then I’ll go to sleep, go home to my mum who will give me a nice big hug, and then I shall walk my adorable puppy.
See? See how adorable she is? 🙂 She looks so eager to love and ready to please… Okay, but also it looks like the most emo, MySpace-appropriate self-portrait-y that a dog could ever possibly manage. Except that she just moves a lot when I snap pictures of her and this is one of the few non-blurry ones. 😀
The Process
My process, at least. How elitist can I sound, saying that?
Well, I lately started going to yoga a couple of days a week and it’s pretty nice. A few of the poses really resonate with me, and the form stays in my head long after yoga. This is one of them
This is just a scan from my journal, where I spent two pages outlining the form and then filling it in. This one girl in yoga wore shorts, which completly baffled me. I mean, granted, it was her first time, but…. I would never be comfortable wearing shorts to yoga. I bet she never does it again… 😛
I was a little sad that I didn’t lay out the body on the paper properly, so she doesn’t have a full left arm. I thought about ways to fix it, and they all led to me tracing her on a new piece of paper and finishing it out.
So now she has both arms, which I like. I was staring and thinking about this full, completed person, and decided she needed a background. I thought about drawing one in around her, but I was a little too inspired by the card-making gathering I had just been at. I decided to create a background for her, so I traced and then cut her out. You can *kinda* see the lines where I cut her out.
So I created a background. It took a good few hours to do it, and I’m sure I did it in the least-efficient way possible, but it was pretty fun. I traced out on a white piece of paper all the main lines (window frame, room outline, etc), and then used the pieces as guidelines. I held them over the five or so sheets of paper I picked for both the floor boards and the window scene, then cut through all of them. Mix-matched the pieces of paper and turned it into a big puzzle! Like I said, time consuming and paper-wasting, but actually a lot of fun.
I put together all the pieces, and then used these scrapbooking sticker-tape pieces that elevate the image to paste of on the girl, so she’s like an eighth of an inch higher than the rest of the scene, and printed out the title in a typewriter font, taped them on the same way, and voila!
Diving Right In
It was a gradual evolution of choices, but in the end, it looks like I’m diving right in to the world of outsider music.
A few months back a friend (Glenn) and I were walking through the bookstore and he pointed out a book by Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia. I read Sack’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat when I was in grade school and loved it, and have since perused his book An Anthropologist On Mars. I also loved loved Awakenings, which was based off his work.
So hearing the recommendation for Musicophilia, I tucked the thought in the back of my head and continued on, planning on looking into it when I had some more time.
Some time goes by and I do find the space in my day to read it, so early January I pick it up from my favorite bookstore EVER, Elliot Bay Bookstore (yeah, no plug here…) and I start reading it.
Reading it makes me scared I’ll go into a seizure, though, and it’s turning me into a hypochondriac. I love the book, but I’m scared to read it while also listening to music. I mean… It’s just a little scary. In a dorky way. For me. The book is incredible, though, and I really love how accessible Oliver Sacks makes his field in his writing. I never feel like what he’s saying is going over my head.
Parallel to this, I’ve been going to the theater with my mom a lot, and I keep seeing this preview for this one movie, The Soloist. It looks amazing, but I know I won’t be able to make it ten minutes in the actual movie with a dry eye. It just won’t happen.
I decided, on a whim, to get the book first and read it. I figured it would better prepare me for the movie. Reading it hasn’t made me cry quite yet, but it’s so fantastically beautiful and sad, I know it’s only a matter of time. I love it, though, and I think it’s really well written.
As a side note, those who know me pretty well know that I avoid movie-sponsored books like the devil. I’ll go out of my way, pay a few dollars extra, whatever it takes to avoid the “Now A Major Motion Picture” sticker. But I bought this copy willingly, even though it’s cover is basically a movie cover. It’s beautiful. This book cover makes me want to become a book cover designer, just so I can make things look this pretty. 😛 Yeah, I’m a dork. So what.
So the last tie-in was watching the Inauguration stuff yesterday. As unusual as it is for me, I wasn’t really into it. I just didn’t care a whole lot about Obama’s speech (gasp, shock, I know, I know) or any of the political tidbits. I didn’t even like the poem much, but not because it isn’t high caliber or anything. It just didn’t resonate with me.
What did resonate with me, though, was Yo-Yo Ma’s performance of John William’s composition. It was composed especially for the Inauguration, and it just moved me. I thought it was beautiful. It also (and here’s the tie in) reminded me of the cello music in the trailer for The Soloist.
…So I hopped onto iTunes and the internet and eventually found this.
And, of course, I ended up buying on iTunes the entirety of Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach’s The Cello Suite. It’s beautiful, and the music accompanying me reading Musicophilia as well as a book about a man driven to the depths of his mind, all the while retaining his passion and ability to make music.
See? Diving right in, and tying it all together.
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PS-I still haven’t found a video/clip/mp3 of Yo-Yo Ma’s performance at the Inauguration, so if anyone finds a copy, can they leave a comment? I’d be much obliged.
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