four-eyes rella

Tattoo party - for the ladies only.

2012-02-10T04:57:00.000-08:00

Welp, Mikel Johnson is the best. Last summer he did a guest spot at my work, and I was there, hovering over his shoulder practically the entire time watching him tattoo. He does really interesting stuff, lots of black radical tribal, Maori, mandalas, dot work, etc. He's not afraid to tattoo a throat or a thumb. He doesn't even give a care.

Anyway, maybe because I was constantly and forcibly inserting myself into his comfort zone for days on end, he said to me one day that he would give me a tattoo if I wanted next time he was in town.

Uh YES PLEASE!

So a few weeks ago I heard a rumor that he was coming for a visit, just to tattoo me and Sarah! I can't even explain to you guys how fortunate I feel. It's like being in a really cool family, working at the tattoo shop. And times like this are almost unbelievable.

Mikel drew me a mandala while he was still in Vancouver, and posted it on his tumblr (click here to see the drawing). Then when he got here we just kind of picked a spot and went for it. I am getting to the point where there's not many 'easy' places to just throw a tattoo, so we figured it would look cool behind some stuff I already had. And yes it does!

Do you like how both my animal friends have found a way into every singe self portrait I ever take? What a couple of jerks.

This tattoo has no lines at all, it's all dots. It was the easiest tattoo I've ever gotten. It barely even hurt. I told Mikel I just felt like I was lying there and hanging out with him, not even getting a tattoo. He has a really mellow happy sort of aura about him anyway, and that, plus the lack of pain and the fucking awesome tattoo made for a really great experience. And because I live so far out of town I never really get to do the hang-out-after-hours thing with everybody. That was nice too.

When I was finished Sarah got her thumb tattooed. I'm gonna be honest, I can't remember what the name of the symbol is, or what Mikel said it signifies. Something about the path of enlightenment in Thailand I think?? Here he is drawing it on:

And tattooing it:

You can see the finished tattoo here.

And then our friend April got some dots on the sides of her hands. Doesn't it look neat? My favorite part was when she yelled "MOTHERFUCKER" hahaha I guess one of those dots hurt pretty bad.

So, in conclusion, I am loving life and feel very special and happy. The end.

Things I Love Thursday

2012-02-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

I love my motherflippin' knee tattoo and I don't care who knows it! :) I love getting tattoos on body parts I'm not particularly fond of or hate showing. It gives me an entirely new perspective. I literally said to Gerry that "somebody's wearing shorts this summer!" haha (Psst...the 'somebody' is me!)

I also love...

My friend Kyle's newest paintings. I especially like the weird shapes coming out of eyeballs.

You can find more of his artwork here. And cool tattoos he's done recently too!

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Die Antwoord on Letterman. I can't not smile when these guys are on stage. And I don't know if you can tell but they are swearing a LOT, they're just getting away with it because of their accents.

We're seeing them play live in a couple weeks!! :) So excited!

I also love...

How to deal with plagarism. Which I conveniently stole from Diana.

An interview with Chris, Simpsons' Artist. I have also decided that interviewing this guy is a goal of mine. He's the funniest dude I've ever heard of.

Mark Jenkins' sculptures.

Learning to love your body regardless of size. This is important for everyone. Related: How can I get over the feeling that I have to look pretty?

Lauren's birthday surprise!

Before I die - a tumblr of items off peoples' bucket lists.

Louis vs. Rick. A man teaches his cat to use instant messaging. "mittens blum" LOL

This video is so clever. You think he's just a jerk but then...well you'll see. (Thanks Chelle)

Bark off, McDonalds!

Grilled cheese social.

Why I took my 7 year old to a tattoo parlor

How to back up your Wordpress or Blogger blogs.

Sandwiches > flowers.

Scription chronodex planners. I'm thinking of DIY-ing something like that for myself in a moleskine. .

Kyla's new friend, hahaha so cute.

And last but not least...

The internet is my religion. Intense.

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You will be changing the world of each person you serve.

2012-02-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

Kristin. Ladies and gentlemen...you must get to know this girl. I insist.

I first really found Kristin's blog when she had just made the decision to work for Operation Smile in India. She was detailing her suitcase contents and reading lists in vlogs, and the excitement in her writing was palpable. She was going on an adventure and I was instantly hooked.

When she arrived to work in Guwahati her stories became very humble. When reading them you can almost see her slowing down and utterly absorbing the culture and the feelings, the hope and dispair and love and excitement. The emotions in a job such as hers have got to run high, but all of Kristin's tales are of other people. Never negative, always full of optimism.

Her blog is a great read, even for plain ol' voyeuristic lurking, but there's something amazing going on over there that you can be a part of as well. She's created a charitable organization almost by accident.

In her own words from a guest post on Sometimes Sweet:

For a longer time than I like to admit, I walked past these children and though my heart ached deep inside my chest, I did nothing. After weeks of planning, talking with friends, going back and forth and feeling discouraged, I made a decision. It was a basic one: I was going to feed the kids. I went down to the slums that first week scared, shaking and alone.

I had made 20 meals and in under five minutes they were filling the bellies of 20 hungry children. It was clear, I had to keep this going. Now I am almost two months into this project that I call Asha Guwahati, and it is growing by the day.

The goal of what I do is simple, I want to show the children of this slum and street community true love. I feed them without expectation of anything in return. I am still just one person orchestrating these feedings out of my kitchen. I currently make 50 meals at a time, one to two times per week.

It takes me around three hours to make the food, and less than ten minutes to pass it out. Every feeding I have different friends come and help, everyone that helps gives of their time freely. Once a month we hold a street kids day where we bathe, trim hair, and cloth 20-30 kids. I am not changing the world as a whole but very certainly, very slowly, the whole world of each child we care for is changing.

She started using her own money to build little lunch boxes for the neighborhood kids who were clearly malnourished. And then some people heard about this and offered to send her some money. And so she fed more. And then more people heard, and she was featured on Sometimes Sweet ... twice, and suddenly she had enough money for six thousand meals. She's recruited help from friends, and it's all amazing.

I emailed her and asked if she would do a little guest post over here and she said yes (!!) and even sent photos! So without further adieu, the one, the only, the Kristin!

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I remember when I was a child, we lived in a town where a train track passed through. Though the track was miles away, I could hear the blasts of its horn as it travelled by. At times it kept me awake at night, even though it was half way across the city. I remember when I was a child I could hardly walk from the front door to the mailbox without a pair of shoes on. If I stepped on the tiniest of rocks I might cry out in pain. When I was growing up I went to school every day, had a meal on the table every evening and most certainly found myself tucked away in bed at night. I remember when I was a child I dreamt of leaving all of that.

I remember standing in the door of my closet one year ago at 25 years old, crying to my (then) boyfriend telling him that I did not belong in the life I knew anymore. I sobbed as I was so worried that my need to change everything and give my life to service might come across as me feeling I was above others. I remember meeting his eyes and telling him "I am not better than this... I am less than this. I am so much less than this."

I remember what it felt like to get on a plane and truly leave it all behind. I remember the very first patient I took care of in Guwahati, I remember the first child I handed out a meal to, the first pair of dirty feet I stooped down to wash, the first wound I cleaned on the street corner. I remember sitting at my kitchen table having a true epiphany that my life was no longer mine, instead it belongs to the children who were deemed untouchable.

All of my memories are nothing compared to what the children here remember. Some remember a life of being an outcast, told to cover their smiles because they have a cleft lip. They remember the feelings of shame, being told it was their mother's bad luck that caused their broken smile. Some of them remember finding hope, being told they are beautiful. Being played with and loved on and given surgery for nothing in return.

Some remember sleeping on cold, hard ground with trains barreling by just feet away. They remember being evicted from their cardboard homes by the government. They remember being told they are the lowest of the low. They remember fellow children dying every year from Cholera as the monsoon rains flood their slum. They remember learning to sniff glue, to get high to make their hunger go away. The children of Lakhtokia remember the first meal served to them by myself and later on my friends. They remember being scooped up into huge hugs, being bathed, being served and loved without expectation of anything in return. They remember the joyful reunions, they remember learning how to give to one another.

Be the hope, create memories for the children in your lives that inspire wholeness. In your smallest of actions, know there is greatness. In life we do not often get to truly see what the light we plant inside others grows into. I promise that if you give selflessly and love endlessly, you will be changing the whole world of each person you serve.

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If you want to donate financially to help Asha Guwahati, you can do so via PayPal. Just send the money to ashaguwahati@gmail.com through PayPal. Easy. It costs Kristin about 25 cents to make a meal so really, every teeny little bit helps. Kristin is not an NGO, and cannot provide receipts or letters for tax purposes or whatever. This is a real informal deal, but I promise you, every cent will go toward helping people who need it and that's all that matters.

If you think you can help another way, if you want to say hello, if you want to fly out to Guwahati and shake Kristin's hand, you can write to her at kristinechaos at gmail dot com.

And I highly recommend you follow along with her adventures here.http://kristinechaos.blogspot.com/

Single Secret Behaviour

2012-02-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

Oh shit, I was tagged in a meme post thing.

WAIT, COME BACK! I promise it's not a 45 question survey about my favorite toenail polish color and what car would I drive for the rest of my life. One of my favorite bloggers is making me tell you guys about a weird behavior I was forced to hide when I moved in with my significant other.

It's hard to think of one, actually. Ryan and I have been living together for years, and he's been finding out the weirdest and most embarassing stuff about me on a pretty consistent basis. Singing to the cat? Duh. Licking the flavor off the potato chips before I eat them? Natch. But I don't think he knows this one yet.

I drink beverages while I'm in the shower. Sometimes in the morning I'll bring a coffee in there for kicks, but usually it's when I'm getting drunk at home alone. Here's a hilarious picture I was tagged in on Facebook of what I look like when I'm drinking, to illustrate my mindframe.

Why yes that is me and Ryan Mason drinking on a rooftop, jealous? Don't be, that face ruins the entire photo.

Wait a minute, wai-ai-ait a minute. Let me clarify that I do not drink at home alone very often. But when I do and I want to shower you can definitely catch me with a beer or even a glass of wine in there. It's mostly because I think it's funny. But it's also a time saver! Win-win! Funny time savers are the bee's knees.

I'd like to tag a few people and find out what their weird quirks are. Steven Andrew, Amalie, Rochelle and the recently married Danielle. Come onnnnn, it's fun.

Say no to crack.

2012-02-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

Thievery at The Joint.

2012-02-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

The Joint Pizzeria is right next door to Tattoo Zoo, and I probably eat there on average one day a week. Lucky for me they make pretty much any pizza you can dream of. Pesto? Potatoes? Vegan 'cheese'? Vegetarian 'meat lovers'? No problem. Gluten free crust? Yup. Anything. They will even make nachos or my favorite, quesadillas, if you ask nicely.

Anyway the photos on the wall are the ones my sister came to Victoria for. There are a few on the walls but as you may notice in the second picture there's an empty booth...because somebody stole one of the pictures! I told her to take it as a compliment.

You should read...

2012-02-04T05:24:00.000-08:00

Let me start out by telling you that this was my sister's idea...you all remember my sister, right? Let me refresh your memories.

Cute, right? And this is her hung over.

She had a great idea for a series on my blog. Well, she didn't want it to be a series. Or maybe she did. She never mentioned the word "series" but maybe she was thinking it and I picked it up subconsciously over the internet? Anyway the other day on Twitter she asked me if I would blog about some of my favorite books and why I like them. And I thought...yes, yes I will do that.

So here we go. Welcome to ... You should read. Part one.

You should read...

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I loved this book and I really didn't think I would like it at all. I liked it so much that Ryan and I actually had one of those moments where he came into the room, I was lying on the bed on my stomach with my feet in the air like a teenager in Seventeen magazine. He said "dinner's ready" and I was all like "JUSTLETMEFINISHTHISCHAPTER THEY FOUND A T-REX"

So yeah, I know what you're thinking, and YES it's an old book. You have to get over the racism and sexism and the old words. But it is not a slow book, and if you have any imagination at all you will get lost in the lost world. Which seems like it was probably just Brazil, but whatever.

Anyway it's a pretty funny novel that reads like a children's book for really smart children. Which is about the level the average 21st century adult is reading at, right? Perfect.

The Lost World is written mostly in letter format, the protagonist is a journalist who basically gets dared to go on this ridiculous expedition with some scientists to find dinosaurs and he's like "What the heck, what else am I going to do?" because his girlfriend was leaving him or cheating on him or thought he was boring or something like that. So he goes on the expedition but keeps writing back to the newspaper he was working for, and that's what we, the readers, get to see. Mail service was amazing back then, hey? Spoiler alert. Not really but I have to tell you that they do end up finding dinosaurs and it's cool damnit. Dinosaurs are cool.

The end. Read this book. Or go here and have someone read it to you for 24 hours. You can probably find forty seven copies of this book at the used book store. Go get one. And laugh at the super retro cover. But then you really should read it.

The BEST painting ever.

2012-02-03T05:46:00.000-08:00

My awesome friend Colin Wiley painted this painting in 2009 for an art show. I've had my eye on it for two years while it hung in the tattoo shop, and the other day Colin gave it to me!!!!! I can't even tell you guys how cool it is. I mean...you can see. But AAGH I LOVE THIS PAINTING. Look how great it looks on our dark brown wall. I am beyond stoked about this.

Bumper Sticker or Custom Paint Job: An Open Letter to Lisa Khoury from Caitlin

2012-02-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Thanks to Nova for letting me post this on her blog. If you haven't read the article "Why Put a Bumper Sticker on a Ferrari?", well, consider yourself lucky. Seriously though, in the article a plucky young wannabe-journalist named Lisa Khoury wrote what I'm sure she thought was a snappy article about her feelings on tattooed women. I don't want to spoil the surprise for you who haven't read it, and really I can't express to you how pedantic and unoriginal her ideas, and delivery, are. If you haven't read it, you should check it out before you read my open letter below.

I shared this link with Nova, one of my favorite ladies (tattooed or otherwise), and we decided to do a "guest post trade" on each other's blogs. Fabulous idea, right? Without further ado, here is my letter:

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Dear Ms. Khoury,

I get it. You're in your early 20s, still in college or a recent college graduate. You know a lot about tattoos because you've seen people with them from afar or maybe even saw an episode of Miami Ink. You can understand, even from a distance, all of the dimensions of a woman's choice to get tattoos. Awesome.

By way of an introduction, I am a twenty-something professional working in higher education. I travel across the country visiting colleges and universities and guiding them in the creation of effective training strategies. I speak three languages and received highest honors in my Russian degree. I am married to my high school sweetheart Rob, an Army combat veteran whom I almost lost during a 13-month deployment to Iraq and who recently accepted a position as a wildland firefighter in New Mexico.

I also have tattoos.

I got my first tattoo at age 19, a tiny word in Gaelic that loosely translates into "soulmate." My husband had the same thing tattooed on his arm--along with the word "comrade" in Arabic for his Army buddies-- and carried it with him for the entirety of his Army enlistment. Far from "proving a point" or "craving something new," I got this tattoo because I chose to have a physical manifestation of something that meant the world to me, in this case my relationship. On the other hand, I also am getting a tattoo in the next few weeks that was offered as a gift by my artist. The meaning behind the design in and of itself isn't as deep, or really all that deep at all. But like all of my tattoos, it is reflective of my journey and of the various relationships and events that make up the sum total of that journey.

Suffice it to say I was extremely resentful of how you so naively frame women with tattoos. It is positively egregious that I find myself having to tell a young woman coming of age in the 21st century that "class" does not come from physical beauty, having one's nails done, or wearing high heels. It comes from strength of character, intelligence, curiosity, integrity, and kindness. It comes from not judging others who may believe differently than you, who wear different clothes or hairstyles, who make the choice to put pictures or words permanently on their skin, or who choose to keep their skin bare.

It's bad enough to judge a group of people of whom you clearly have no knowledge or understanding, but to suggest that we replace tattooing with manicures and high heels? I find it appalling that you so easily deride tattooed women for not doing something "productive" but imply that "productivity" translates into buying new clothes and new shoes.

Indeed, it is my opinion--and the opinion of many--that tattoos are not mutually exclusive with productivity; one can have tattoos and work hard at their job, volunteer or give to charity, just as one can not have tattoos and do those same things. To imply that "elegance" comes from embracing a very stereotypical image of what women "should be," and not, say, from the ability to hold an interesting and intelligent conversation is not only antiquated, it is unquestionably harmful.

We are in an unprecedented period of history, when women are closer than ever to being completely equal to men at least in the eyes of western society; viewpoints such as yours, namely that a woman's true strength lies in her appearance and that her appearance is only marred by adding artwork, only manage to set back the progress we have made. It's even more tragic when it's our fellow women who do this to us.

Your reference to "gym memberships" or "yoga" in place of tattooing was also extremely naive. I live in a small town of 7000 people, and should you go to our local gym you would find that the majority of the returning patrons have at least one tattoo. Some of the most fit people I know--one of them my tattoo artist and another, my husband--are also the most tattooed people I know. I suppose you would be surprised at how many people with tattoos take care of themselves and view their bodies truly as temples; after all, when's the last time you saw a temple that had no decorations or adornments at all?

You know, only someone who had never set foot inside a tattoo parlor could say something like, "Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo. You get a tattoo, and that's it," because had you ever gone through the tattoo process you would know that there is far more to it than ink on skin. One of my tattoos took a total of 25 hours to complete, and the experience of those 25 hours--talking with my artist, developing a relationship, watching the art take form--is just as valuable to me as the tattoo. And you know what? Every time I look at that tattoo I'm reminded both of the period in my life that it represents (namely my husband's Army enlistment) and of the fun I had working on it with my artist.

In short, Ms. Khoury, I can tell you that I learned far more about myself from having tattoos than I ever have from wearing high heels, getting a new hairstyle or a manicure. I know, however, that my experience is not everyone's. I do not pass judgment on those who choose not to get tattoos any more than I pass judgment on those with different hairstyles, though interestingly the people from whom I receive the most judgment are those who do not have tattoos. We all choose to live our lives in our own way, and as long as we aren't hurting others I don't see a reason to pass such harsh judgement, particularly if you have no understanding of those of whom you speak.

I hope, Ms. Khoury, that you come to see how harmful articles like the one you wrote are. And I hope you get to know some tattooed people, because despite your best efforts to generalize, we probably will surprise you.

Caitlin

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Thanks for reading and please make sure to check out Nova's post on my blog.

If you write your own response to Ms. Khoury, please share it with us in the comments or send her an email at lisa .khoury@ubspectrum.com.

Things I Love Thursday

2012-02-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

I love that so many people have asked to see more of my face on this blog. It's very flattering and I can understand it. Sometimes all you have to go by is the little Google profile picture someone took of themself from their skinniest angle five years ago. Sometimes I'm shocked when a blogger suddenly posts a picture of themself after I've been reading their stuff for a year. Most of the time they look NOTHING like their profile picture and it kind of makes me want to unfollow them because I feel like I've been mislead. Same with people who use uncredited photos, I feel so angry when I find out they're not the incredible and interesting photographers I was lead to believe. Instant unfollow.

---

Another thing I wanted to quickly mention was the little survey I posted a few days ago. Thank you so much to everybody who responded, I think I have like forty-ish of them to sort through. I'm going to keep it open for another week or so, so please feel free to go fill it out if you haven't already. Come on, I know you like talking about yourself as much as I do!

The people who volunteered to do a guest post, I will be in contact soon, that's very exciting. I asked you to write some ideas in the survey, and a few people have messaged me since saying they'd like to do guest posts but didn't know what to say. If that's the case please let me know, I can tell you what to write about, no problemo.

As for the TILT question, most people, maybe 95 percent, like the Things I Love Thursday posts as they are, a few said "do whatever you want" and there were only a couple people who thought they were overwhelming. Obviously it is my blog and I was never going to stop doing these, but I did want to know what you guys thought. I'm glad you agree with me for the most part! :)

Anyway, bla bla bla, on with the show. Things I Love Thursdays are here to stay.

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I love...

Interview with a one year old. (video)

Camera holding suspenders.

Chocomole? Count me in!!

This post is hilarious. I have a few 'weed cats' of my own.

Chantilly and Elycia team up to answer blog questions. (video)

I can't even handle all these photos at once, they're all too amazing.

Violin soloist totally owns a cell phone ringtone mid-concert. (video)

25 things I learned from opening a book store.

T-rex trying to do things.

Poor little guy. He can't help the way his arms are!

See more here.

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How to fire a bad friend.

This is why you need to be careful what you put online. (Thanks Suzy)

Hippies of Haight St., San Francisco 1967.

Celebrity sleepovers. (video)

My friends are all married with kids. Will they abandon me?

Ashley is having bloggers link back to their favorite posts of the month. Cool idea!

This article on 'The Marilyn Meme'.

Kristin Bell meets a sloth and totally cries about it. She's awesome. And if you liked that, check out Kristin Bell's Body Of Lies. hahahaha (videos)

Portraits of ladies in cardboard fashions.

BENSPOTTING. Congratulations Ben! haha

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This video. SERIOUSLY number seven. NUMBER SEVEN. I hate when people say that one.

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Quotation marks and punctuation: in or out? So helpful.

I do not love this - transgender people can't fly out of Canadian airlines unless they're basically 'in disguise' because their appearance must match the gender listed on their ID. There has to be a way around this, Canada!

My friend Colin gave me an AMAZING painting he painted.

How to make your photos more dreamlike.

This art installment is very cool!

On bisexuality, polyamory and "having to choose".

Famous paintings improved by cats.

David Lynch on creativity.

This girl who can say any word backwards in under three seconds. (video)

These photos of famous actors who were given scenarios to emote. (Thanks again Suzy)

I have the coolest friends. This is Kyle Carter, he works with me at Tattoo Zoo. He decided to try tattooing a traditional tattoo by hand on his friend! Here's a video, it turned out really well, you can't even tell it's a stick and poke. Do not try this at home, he's a professional and this was done at a real (clean) tattoo shop.

What it's like to get your knee tattooed.

2012-02-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

In December I ever so casually asked my boss Gerry if I could get a rose tattoo from him sometime in 2012, because I decided that was my New Year's resolution and he makes really nice roses. Somehow we decided I should get two, one on each of my knees.What the heck was I thinking? haha just kidding. But I was scared as hell.

I started googling knee tattoos like crazy. I couldn't picture how it was going to look, and honestly there's not much out there on the internet about them. It makes sense when you think about it, hardly anything will look good in that spot because of all the bending. In the end I decided just to trust Gerry and see what he came up with.

Yesterday was the day.

We talked about the options: doing both of the outlines, or just finishing one entire tattoo, or going for the gold and getting both done in one sitting. I am SO GLAD I didn't try to do both of them! hahaha I knew I wouldn't be able to sit through both tattoos because even though you'd think a rose is just a small palm-sized-ish easy tattoo...it's not when it's on the knee. You have to consider how much the surface area expands when you bend it. The one tattoo took around 2.5 hours, it's pretty big!

We put the stencil on with my leg straight out, and then I bent it and Gerry drew a bunch of leaves and petals and spiky things on with a sharpie. And then there was a lot of looking in the mirror and people saying "Okay straighten it. Bend it. Straighten it. Bend it." It didn't seem too difficult for Gerry to figure out what would look good. And so we went for it.

The outline went pretty well, it felt really weird though. And there was one leaf kind on the inside I immediately declared my 'enemy' because it really hurt a lot. Right on the kneecap and the spot below your knee that gets skinned when you fall down were really easy for me, but around the sides (as I had been warned, thanks Amalie!) were pretty terrible. After the lining we took a little break and Gerry took this instagram photo.

I was actually planning on making a little video of me getting tattooed, but hoo-boy I'm glad I didn't. It was getting pretty crazy up in there, even at that point. Not that it particulary hurt really bad, but my body was not having it. I had so much adrenaline, and my reflexes were totally making me want to kick my leg out straight. It was the weirdest thing. I'm normally a pretty good tattoo client but I got all shaky and shivery like I've seen so many other people do. So I got myself a drink of water and a sucker, we took a three minute break and then, just like that I was good to go again.

I'm making it sound so dramatic but I couldn't help it, my body was going crazy. I have to confess...I even moved a few times! Usually I sit really well but I couldn't control my lower leg! It literally took me concentrating as hard as I could in a few spots just to sort of stay still. Gerry's pretty good at guessing when people are gonna wiggle, and roses are really forgiving, so you can't really tell but I was not at my best that day.

Coloring that fucking enemy leaf was the worst, but Gerry's real good at just kind of powering through, even when I'm breathing weird and going into the fetal position, hahaha. I tried to tell him how much I appreciate that all-business approach, but I think it sounded like I was calling him mean. I meant it as a compliment damnit! I wasn't at full mental capacity by that point.

I don't know about you guys but when I get tattooed my IQ drops dramatically for the rest of the day. Later at the grocery store I couldn't figure out how much money to give to the lady, she had to tell me "Okay just take that dollar back now." And later I told Ryan I felt like I couldn't follow the plot of and epiode of New Girl, and we should be watching Wipeout Canada or wrestling or something, haha.

Anyway, back to the tattoo. After we got going again it got weirder. I told Gerry I wished somebody was there to hold my leg down. I also couldn't stop laughing at one point because it just felt so strange and I had to hide my face and hug my elbows as hard as I could for like an hour to get rid of some of the crazy adrenaline-fueled energy I had.

It was really intense, actually. I couldn't relax and go to my happy place like I normally do because I had to focus so hard on not moving. But again I'm making it sound so terrible and dramatic, I'm just letting you in on what was going on inside me, the tattooee. On the outside I'm sure I didn't look as insane as I felt. Or maybe I did a little bit...Gerry told me the way I was sitting was making him sad, hahaha.

But I LOVE IT. I'm so happy we did it, and I am definitely going to get the other one done soon. Well, soon-ish. Not like, next week or anything. Because I'm getting my arm tattooed next week!! AAAHHH :) But also because I need a month or so to recover from this one. I think if we tried to do the other one today or something I'd be flinching away from every touch. Ah, reflexes.

So, in conclusion, knee tattoos feel really weird. But they look cool.

(photos stolen from Gerry's instagram)

It feels pretty 'swell' today. Heh heh.

LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

2012-01-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

These people are cool and they didn't pay me to say that. Click around and get to know them a little better because you really should.

ONE TWO THREE

lately

2012-01-30T05:42:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been...

Reading - Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. This is the second book by her that I expected to be sort of a lame love story and BAM it's super hard-core violent and crazy. I really have to stop judging her books by their titles. You should all read this book, it's insane.

Frustrated about - the gigantic queues on the library website! Hurry up, people!

Watching - Ryan and I went secretly to see the movie We Bought A Zoo, you know, the heartwarming Matt Damon movie? Let me tell you guys something, it was awesome. And bring a thousand tissues because I'm a real tough guy and I was choking back tears like every twenty minutes.

And we borrowed Conan O'Brien Can't Stop from the library on a whim. It's a behind the scenes documentary about the weird tour Conan O'Brien did when he was prohibited from appearing on television for six months. I thought it was going to be just his stand-up routine but it goes a lot deeper. Here's the trailer.

Listening to -a lot of Dimmu Borgir. I know they're not for everybody but I really like it. Here's one of my favorite songs. You should listen to it and pretend you're watching an epic battle scene in a 3-D fantasy movie or something.

I've also been listening to the band Ghost...they have over the top Satanist lyrics but the music is really good. Check it out. But just remember I warned you about the silly amount of devil-related songs. Here's a good one:

Nervous about - that whole gettin' my knee tattooed tomorrow thing. AAH

Looking forward to - starting a college class in February. It's called 'medical terminology' and I aim to get an A+. We'll see how that goes. Wish me luck!

And finally, here's a video of a baby pomeranian howling with some wolves. I love the head tilt.

Two things...

2012-01-29T04:17:00.000-08:00

I created a short little "how's my blog doing?" survey and I would be SO happy if all you readers out there would take the time to go answer my questions. I promise it won't take long, and it would really help a sister out.

Click here to take survey

AND if you didn't know, Victoria over at Batzy Rockshop has been drawing me in my outfits. That's right, I'm a style blogger, didn't you know? (Not really.)

Anyway here's the latest one.

Awesome, right?

If you click the picture you can see my weird short pants that I really like to wear a lot. Here's Victoria's blog, twitter, flickr, etsy, pintrest and facebook. She's one of the rare bloggers who will have little random twitter conversations with me, most people just ignore my rapist wit.

If you get the reference there, you win my respect and a high five.

Quick time lapse graffiti video.

2012-01-28T05:24:00.000-08:00

Remember in October I showed you guys way too many photos of the Quake of the Cans paint in? I just found a time lapse video showing everyone working on the wall. It's neat watching them all run around like little ants.

My bus tweets. Again. Already. Things just keep happening. The first two go together.

2012-01-27T05:38:00.000-08:00

(click here to see the video, there's a better visual at 1:07ish actually)

Welcome to my world. At least nobody stole my teeth though, amirite?

Things I Love Thursday (now without the annoying video!)

2012-01-26T11:24:00.000-08:00

I love how dramatic Yeti can be in the early morning with the right lighting.

I also love...

Dr.Seuss, as told by the people of Burning Man. I saw a friend of mine in this video (3:32)! What!

Animals talking in all caps.

This NSFW post on the movie Libertine.

18 things women can do that I just don't understand. Yup. Agreed.

This little video about Hense, a graffiti writer in Atlanta.

Introvert? More like intro-jerk.

119 amazing facts.

Hannah's Canadian adventure.

The ten seconds project. You have ten seconds to hide from your camera!

This Flickr photoset of New York in the 80s.

Kristin Luna's ride up to Angkor Thom.

Beauty is embarrassing.

IRL Beavis and Butthead. AAAH

What Chelle discovered in her freezer.

The scientist and the stairmaster.

Tough reads, but worth it: why I talk about rape and my rapist friended me on facebook.

How to make just about anything happen. Even though I'm way too scared to do this myself nine times out of ten, it's really good advice.

Behind photographs, a series of portraits of famous photographers posing with their iconic photos.

The worst bus story of all-time.

2012-01-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

Painting by Tiffany Liu.

OH NO YOU GUYS do you want to read the creepiest bus story ever ever ever? It was sent in from a lovely lady (who didn't want any credit) and I can't even...

Just click here to read it. Nightmares. Because WHATTHEFUCK

Tattoo Tuesday!

2012-01-24T16:01:00.000-08:00

Lucky me! Click here to read the interview!

diptych: fan tan alley, it's so narrow!

2012-01-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

Randomly

2012-01-23T06:59:00.000-08:00

Here are just some things. Like a self portrait I took in the bio room at work. Why? I was trying to get a good shot of my outfit for Victoria and I'm so very terrible at taking pictures of me.

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Here are five people on twitter who make me laugh: one two three four five

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After reading about Arielle's coin collecting compulsion I had a flashback to this crazy genius prankster I used to work with in a grocery store in Calgary. He used to get all the cashiers to trade him American coins for his Canadian ones (they regularly get mixed up together and we just take them at par). Then when he saved enough up he would take them to the bank and trade it for Canadian money for a profit. That was during the period where the USA money was worth quite a bit more than Canadian.

This guy also used to take toothpicks and draw swear words and penises in the margarine, close it back up and put it back in the cooler so customers would get a surprise when they got home.

What else...he also used to change his nametag so it said Chris.T, but put the T really close to the Chris so it looked like it said Christ. I guess we got away with a lot though because my nametag used to say "Some people call me the space cowboy."

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Some of my top favorite google searches that have brought people here this week are: leaky boobs, bowie matroyshkas, connection orange, church peels, girls smashing cars, armpit partyfotos, the answer is "no", noba whale penis, weird soap, the real loch ness monster pictures, and best of all...

why do I get lightheaded when I shop at WalMart, I have a pacemaker. hahaha Sorry buddy, I wish I knew the answer to that. It can't be good.

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Here are five blogs I'm particularly enjoying today: one two three four five

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Here's some snow pictures. It's already gone, it's been raining for two days straight.

triptych: in the sky and under your bum

2012-01-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

down by the water

2012-01-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

lately

2012-01-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

Reading: I just read Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami and it was not what I expected. At all. Very very ... strange. I can't even tell you if I enjoyed it or not. I read it pretty quickly, maybe over three or four days, and I kind of feel like I missed something. Anyway, give it a try if you're into weird psychological experiments or unicorns. Not even joking.

Watching: All the Arrested Developments and all the Parks and Recreation I can get my hands on. I mean like six episodes at a time. It feels kind of gluttonous.

Listening to: A lot of Mastadon's album Leviathan. Quite good. Quite good. It took me a couple listens and then I was hooked. Here's a couple of my favorites from that album.

Blood And Thunder by Mastodon on Grooveshark

Seabeast by Mastodon on Grooveshark

Doing: Pretty much nothing. First of all, it's been snowing here in Victoria, which is practically the end of the world. This city falls apart when it snows. Forget driving anywhere, they NEVER plow the streets or salt them or anything. They just let the ice build up and hope it melts soon.

Tank doesn't like going pee these days, let me tell you something. He runs out, does his thing and is immediately knocking to come back in.

On top of the cold, I've had this endless flu that is just taking it out of me. I actually think I injured one of my uh...sinus tubes the other day from blowing my nose too hard. It really hurts still! Ryan and I had a big adventure yesterday though, we walked all the way to the pharmacy to get me some off-brand Neo-citran-ish stuff.

I tried to make a cute video and ended up with this pile of garbage because I wasn't taking it seriously and was just swinging the camera around like a maniac and showing boring stuff but whatever. This is what our walk was like basically. You like those boots? They're like 1999 Rocket Dog fashion.

Looking forward to: the Die Antwoord concert adventure Ryan and I are going on in February. Oh and I think I'll be able to pay for a college class with this upcoming paycheque, so I guess I'm looking forward to some new learning experiences. I'll keep y'all updated on that if it actually happens.

Thinking about: getting my kneecaps tattooed!!!!! For real. AAH do any of you have yours done? Any advice or stories you want to share? I'm totally scared.

I also tried Klout out on Twitter this week. I'm still not sure what it is? But anyway these are the top fourteen things I "have influence" on... both homosexuality and homophobia? Zoos? What? I like that octopus made the list. That's pretty awesome.

Things I Love Thursday

2012-01-19T09:44:00.000-08:00

I love when I unintentionally make my pets look creepy in photos. I also love...

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This is what Madeline did. In her words: I shot a little video every day of 2011 on my Canon Powershot, then I edited it all down to a little over a second each. It’s interesting to be able to look back on my year and remember these little moments. I love living in LA. I love the friends I’ve made. And I love seeing how much has changed over just one year being here. Sure, I guess now that I see it, I got sick and worked a lot this year (lots of driving, running around doing errands all day). But oh well, it’s motivation for 2012.

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Raving in the Black Sea - Kazantip sounds like Burning Man but way more hardcore.

Murder in Cambodia.

Photographs of weird Russian prisons by Michal Chelbin.

Tips on gaining twitter followers.

This movie, The Woman In Black, looks so creepy!

Are crime scene photos art?

What books will become.

Hannah, the 'famous person dork' hahaha. This girl's vlogs are some of my favorites.

These 'rescued paper' notebooks.

100 cameras.

How to avoid becoming one of those couples.

Just in case you all live under a rock and don't read Kaylah's blog, I couldn't let anybody not see this cat GIF website.

Do not watch this video.

Moorea's arrowhead rings. HINT HINT EVERYBODY

Okay I'll admit it, I want these fake tattoos. These too.

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The Empathetic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin.

(found via my friend Cody)

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I can't wait for Jenny's book to come out! It's gonna be hilarious.

I love improv everywhere, help them reach their goal if you can!

The new birthday tradition around our house. Should I do it for my 30th in October?

This video of our friends at Government Street tattoo. Jamer, the guy at the beginning of the video and the one drawing and stuff is the guy I was writing about earlier this week. And the other guy tattooing, Chris David? You can tell his tattoos a mile away, he's so good!

Lessons learned from 12 hours of forced focus.

The amount of work these girls put in to dressing like characters from Beauty and the Beast.

Seven things you learn about yourself while traveling solo.

Suzy and Barclay's traveling style.

Elly's description of what a camel looks like when it's standing up.

These re-scanned photos that were taken with a Hasselblad from early space exploration, light leaks and all.

What Carly, an autistic teenager, had to say once she figured out how to communicate.

I got to do a what I wore post over at Batzy Rockshop...and she made an illustrated me! :)

Amazing places to experience around the globe, part one, part two and part three.

Ask a mortician, episode five! I love these videos.

And last but not least, I was going to repost some of the links from Gala's latest carousel post but there are too many good ones. Promise me, if you're still in the mood for getting sent all over the internet, go there next. And watch the video on dealing with slow walkers.

SOPA AND PIPA

2012-01-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

If you don't know about this, especially if you live in the USA, check it out.

diptych: downtown Victoria

2012-01-18T05:16:00.000-08:00

A positive spin on public transit by Sarah.

2012-01-17T06:19:00.000-08:00

Our next bus story comes from Sarah. She keeps a blog on her transit experiences, and says "I have to admit ... most of my stories are kind of all about the Public Transit lovin'. I really loved taking the bus, and thoroughly miss it. The types of people I met were always interesting, even when they were really fucking crazy. Actually, ESPECIALLY when they were really fucking crazy..."

So pretty much, she's like, the bravest person on earth. Take it away, Sarah!

---

Ernie

From late 2009:

I met a man named Ernie today on the 33 Fremont bus. I was heading home from dropping off a rental truck with a friend, and I was still tired and headachy from my cold. The bus was almost empty, other than two woman up front and one man in the very back. I sat in the back, close to the door, far enough away that I thought conversation with the man in the back would be impossible, as I'd seen him looking at me as I got on the bus.

Well, far away conversation is not in fact impossible for those willing to yell. He loudly told me I work at Safeway. I looked back and shook my head. He then loudly told me I work at another grocery store. I looked back again and said no. He caught my eye, stared at me for a couple seconds, and when I turned away again, he loudly asked me if I had a good heart. He had a strong Jamaican accent, and was yelling, so I wasn't sure I'd heard him right. So I asked him to repeat himself. He asked again if I had a good heart. I just looked at him for bit, and said "I'm not sure. I think so."

"AHHH!!! You're not sure!" he yelled "But you THINK you have a good heart!".

"Well," I said "I don't really think you can be sure. I mean, if I was sure I had a good heart, do you really think I'd have a good heart?"

This caused a giant laugh to swell from his chest, and I mean giant. The man sucked all the air on the bus into his prodigious lungs and expelled it in the loudest laugh I've ever heard. He then got up and came closer, sitting down right behind me. This prompted a muttered "Shit" from me and a frantic searching for my headphones and MP3 player. Before I could get them safely in place, though, he started a conversation.

"So", he says, "You're pretty, but if you don't have a good heart I'm not really interested in you"

"Oh yeah? Well, I might not have a good heart. I mean, I'm not sure, and while I think I do I could just be delusional."

"Well, I'm not always cheerful. This might be a freak moment of cheerfulness for all you know. I could be an incredibly gloomy person."

"No. You're cheerful. I can tell. You smile alot. And you're laughing at me instead of running screaming into the safety of your headphones."

With a guilty start I look down at the headphones clutched in my hand. "Yes, well... what's your name?"

"Ernie"

"Hi Ernie, I'm Sarah."

We talked for a bit, then. It turns out he's the owner of a shop I pass all the time, called New Born Tribe. It's a very Rasta shop, and I've never been in. When I confessed this, he proceeded to make fun of me. "Oh, yes. It's all the black men in dreadlocks. I can see why a little girl like you wouldn't want to go in. It's a pretty scary place. You don't know what we do in there."

Instead of the giant FUCK YOU this deserves, I say "Well, from the look and smell of it, I'd say you sell music, clothes, African flags, and lots and lots of incense. And probably a pipe or two." (I refrain from saying "And a misplaced sense of pride in an identity that most of you will never understand." I don't like Rasta very much.)

This prompts another GIANT laugh, and he tells me I have to come by and see what it's like. I say I will. He then invites me to a reggae show he's putting on at a club down the street from my house.

Now, this club is probably the last bastion of blackness in my neighborhood. It is the only place in this area that I still see a consistent sea of young black men out in front of. It's also rowdy, loud, and has a reputation for getting violent on the weekends. But, the show he's inviting me to is on a Tuesday, and I'm about to say I'll go when he starts teasing me for my hesitation. He starts carrying on a conversation with himself, pretending to be me in my own head.

"Hmm..." he says, "This old black dude is inviting me out. He's pretty sexy, maybe I'll have a hot date. But I don't know... this could be scary. Maybe I'll bring my friends. Yes. That's what I'll do. I'll bring some friends and it'll be nice and safe. I'll go hang out with the black people, and listen to this sexy dude singin' some good reggae, and it'll be scary but I'll have fun."

I'm laughing hysterically at this point, because you can tell this guy is making fun of every little white girl in his head, but he's trying to make it sound like a good idea to me at the same time. It's barbed humor, because he's making fun of me, but it's actually pretty close to what I was thinking, minus the racial stereotyping. I'm charmed in spite of myself. I tell him I will be there, and that yes, I will be bringing friends. We shake hands and he gets off the bus.

So, I head up to the front of the bus to ask the bus driver about my stop, and stay up there to chat for a bit. The bus driver is an older black man, tubby and tired looking, but with a very sweet face.
He looks at me in the mirror and says "So. Were you just being nice?"

"Excuse me?"

"You really going to hang out with that dude? Or were you just being nice?"

"Uhh... I said I was going to, and I most likely will. Why?"

"No reason. Just wonderin' what a girl like you is doin' talking to a man like that. How do you know if he's nice or not?"

"I don't. Why? Do you know something I don't?"

"I'm just sayin'. He might not be nice. How do you know?"

"All I know is what people tell me. He seems nice, and that's all I've got to go on. He's charming."

"Oh, well, charming. You be careful, young lady."

Now, I don't know this dude from adam. I've never been on his bus before. And now he's lecturing me. This leads me to think he knows something about this Ernie character, so I try to pump him for some more info. Nothing. Eventually it comes out that "girl like you" = white, and "guy like him" = black. Which makes me sad. It's not that this guy is prejudiced. He just honestly doesn't think I could possibly be interested in getting to know this person. We chatted for a bit longer, and I got off the bus feeling invigorated by the conversation. It's so rare that people come right out and challenge both their own preconceived ideas and yours. It was interesting.

---

Thank you so much Sarah, I really enjoyed reading this! If you liked this post, let Sarah know in the comments, I'm sure she'd appreciate it. Also, don't forget to check out her Portland bus blog here.

If you want to share any bus or public transit stories here, whether they're good or bad, please email me at novaisawesome at gmail dot com.

diptych: graffiti - THIEF and KDR

2012-01-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

In the parking lot.

2012-01-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

diptych: getting dark on y'all. Not for the weak of spirit.

2012-01-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

(photos taken in Chinatown at night)

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Do you ever contemplate your own mortality? Duh, of course you do because that's what people do. I feel like lately I've been thinking about death quite a bit. Not in a suicidal way or anything weird or too morbid, don't worry. It's just that I've finally realized and understood that I am going to die someday. So is Ryan. So is my mom. So is everybody.

I mean, I'm not an idiot, I've always known the words that say that everybody dies and I have been to many funerals and I knew people who do not exist anymore...but for some reason the emotional anguish of knowing that it will happen to ME is something new.

I've found myself lying semi-awake at night for hours, alternating between that weird half-sleep twilight and full-on heart pounding panic. Because I am afraid of that single moment where I will realize I am dying. I'm not afraid of being dead. I am afraid of knowing that I am dying.

Damn you, sentience! Damn you conscience! That whole "knowledge of your own mortality" part of humanity is bullshit! Why do we need to know that? It's taking part of the joy out of my late twenties in a subtle yet very real kind of way. It's making me too cautious and a little bit un-fun.

You know when you look at tumblr and it's like "ooh a cute video of a kitty, naked lady picture, naked lady picture, naked lady with tattoos, kitty, naked lady holding a kitty, hipster with bowling shoes on in the forest, naked lady picture, hipster with balloons instead of eyes, DEAD BODY I WISH I NEVER SAW THAT LOOK AWAY LOOK AWAY"

If you're not on tumblr that's the gist right there.

Anyway that happened to me the other day, but rather than quickly scrolling away as I usually do, I read the article. It was about beheading...or rather it was about the experience of being beheaded from the victim's point of view. I won't post the picture because ew, but this is what I read:

Does Beheading Hurt?

On many levels, it’s one of life’s great unanswerables. Does beheading hurt? Who would know?

On a spiritual level, many would agree, beheading hurts us all. It’s designed to. The mere sight of a severed head seals itself into every witness; always we wonder as we tug at our throats: But does it hurt? Is there pain? Does the brain remain aware?

Yes to all. Yes, it hurts very much to have your head cut off, and the longer it takes, the worse it hurts. Once your spinal cord is cut and your head is severed you will continue to experience the full spectrum of pain, without the heavenly numb of shock-absorbing chemicals, which are back there with your body. You can’t talk, of course, but you can move your lips and appear to scream, and you can focus and blink your eyes, as proved by dozens of deathhouse deals.

A severed head is conscious, and in some ways hyperconscious. The head knows it’s been picked up by the hair and shown to the crowd. The head sees the crowd, hears the crowd, smells the breath of the executioner, thinks happy thoughts, cannot believe how long 40 seconds is, because 40 seconds is how long the average head remains fully aware, if not alive. Forty seconds of indescribable pain and horror.

(by Curt Fisher)

I guess I read it because we were just watching the Game of Thrones series again and I won't ruin the show for you if you haven't seen it but somebody gets their head cut off. So I was more curious than usual about the experience that comes with beheading. But I've become obsessed with those forty seconds. Those forty seconds are what are keeping me up at night. Forty seconds is an awfully long time to be so helpless in the knowledge that something irrevocable has happened and it's too late and it's over.

Anyway I know I'm not coming up with something profound and new, talking about my own mortality, but it's been bothering me too much to not say anything. I had to get it out somewhere. Thanks, internet. You're my analrapist.

***

Strange, I wrote this a few days ago and couldn't sleep that night. Normally I go to bed and am sleeping in minutes, that night I was up for hours tossing and turning, again thinking about scary and morbid things. And the next day I found out a friend had died. I'm not writing this for sympathy or any 'thoughts and prayers are with you' bullshit, I just think it's a weird series of events.

There is actually something really weird about a young person passing away in this age of social media. I'm not sure how I feel about it. First of all I found out the bad news via somebody's Facebook status which is rather surreal. And then all day long people posted on his wall...some of the posts were of genuine, heartfelt memories and lovely "I'll miss you, may you skateboard in heaven" or whatever, that type of thing. But then there are the others, and these are the ones that kind of bother me.

I sometimes feel like people will latch onto others' tragedies for their own gain. A great example of this is during high school a few people I knew died of various causes; suicide, car accident, drug overdose, etc. Of course it is sad, and of course everybody has their own way of expressing grief, but there are always people who hardly knew the deceased who are ... can I say overly dramatic without sounding terribly insensitive?

Some people want it to be about them, and relish the drama of the situation too much. I mentioned high school because teenagers are natural drama queens and you can't walk two steps down the hallway without tripping over somebody who has fallen to their knees, sobbing, in those situations. But there are absolutely adults who still act this way. They're the ones who'll whisper the grisley details of the person's death to you in the back of the funeral hall. And today they're the ones who post facebook statuses with generic "RIP ____" and tag the dead person in the post.

Coming from a small town where people I knew overdosed on heroin more than I'd care to remember, you see this a lot. Maybe there's not enough excitement in the town, or maybe they just don't get enough attention and crave sympathy. Who can tell? I might be judging too harshly but really the other day I was real bummed out by the whole situation because although I didn't know this person super well, a lot of my friends are genuinely grieving and heartbroken, and I felt that because this person was well known in skateboarding and tattooing circles, people were latching on and demeaning his true relationships with people.

Or maybe I'm just angry because I'm sad? Anyway I can't imagine how the families of celebrities feel in these situations.

***

One of my friends is going to nursing school, and she is being forced into working the maternity ward for months. Like me and a few of our other friends, she is very anti-baby. It seems that quite a few of us have been born without maternal instincts. We never want to have babies. We don't think pregnancy is cute or beautiful. We don't want to be called "mama" and we hate when people put pictures of their babies or breastfeeding on Facebook. We feel weird when you hand us your floppy infant and struggle to be polite about it while looking at the clock and counting the seconds until we can hand it back. I almost feel like it's an evolutionary phonomenon, our species is overpopulating our habitat, it's time for us to stop breeding.

Anyway, that's beside the point. What she told me is that in the maternity ward at the hospital there's a wing where she wants to work. It's for people who are having stillborns and people who had to terminate their pregnancies for whatever reason, stuff like that. But the nursing students aren't even allowed to go in there. They used to make them go in and attend these types of births, but it "bothered the students too much". So todays nurses will have never seen a dead baby until suddenly they will. Because that's their job.

Doesn't it seem like something they'd really try and prepare you for? Like, show you the worst case scenarios? She says it's all glitter and rainbows in their classes, talking about the 'miracle of life' and bla bla bla. That seems counterintuitive to me.

We also talked about the value that is placed on the lives of individuals who are suffering and just want to die. She's worked with the sweetest 90 year old women who have told her they're finished but the doctors and their families keep giving them drugs. No matter how tired they get they're forced to push on. I feel like I'm swimming into real controversial territory here so maybe I'll stop, but it's some food for thought anyway.

diptych: me and tankee mcgee

2012-01-14T05:14:00.000-08:00

lately on my bus...

2012-01-13T05:11:00.000-08:00

Here are some true tales of my bus rides in the past week...as told by me on Twitter.

Things I Love Thursday

2012-01-12T01:43:00.000-08:00

I love that mossy trees like this are literally in my own backyard.

I also love...

Koalas to the max. I found this very addictive and frustrating at the same time.

The cat scan.

These ice cream cone lamps.

Shit white girls say ... to black girls. The hair thing! haha Also if you 're thinking about making one of these videos yourself, click here for some ideas.

25 free attractions in San Francisco.

In praise of calling it quits. I'm not ashamed to quit something that's not working for me, how about you?

Free online university and high school classes and lectures. Amazing.

Underwater ice fishing. Wait, what?

Some ~~interesting~~ hilarious sex-partner criteria

These Song of Ice and Fire illustrations - one, two, three and four. Unfortunately I don't know who made these, and no amount of Googling will help me. Damn you, Tumblr!

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This high speed photo taken of a coffee splashing, by Jack Long.

Found via Laughing Squid's Tumblr.

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Don't Even Reply - e-mails from an asshole.

Yeti Spaghetti playing the part of mink stole. Très chic.

Japanese bodysuit tattoos.

The 15 funniest autocorrects from December 2011.

How to be a bicycle babe.

The 20 New Year's resolutions for 20-somethings. Very good ideas in here!

Pizza is my lover, the calendar. Hilarious!

Dreams don't just come true.

This Doritos commercial that never made it to the SuperBowl. It should have.

Don't fear the square and compass, ladies of the freemasonry.

How the internet has taken the glamour out of behaving badly.

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I'm such a damn sucker for flashmob marriage proposal videos. It's ridiculous. Here's one Suzy posted a few days ago that had me in tears. I believe in the comments I called her an asshole for making me cry, haha. Sorry Suzy.

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How to walk in heels ... and when not to.

I know I must have mentioned Tattoo Rant before, but the newest post on there, 'funk', gives you a little look into what being in the tattoo industry can feel like sometimes. It's not all mohawks and tv shows.

That there may actually be a Party Down movie coming soon!

When disasters strike...help send Karen to Haiti.

The pictures of Zimbabwe on Lucky Pony.

Willow plays fetch in some leaves. (video)

The authenticity of contradiction.

Kristin Luna just got back from a year on Semester at Sea ... look what she has lined up for the future. OH her life!!!

How to put together a nice care package.

These pictures of the Trenton State Hospital. WOW

And last but not least...

Living With A Lion, 1970s. WHAT? Two questions: Where can I get a lion to read on, and what is the dad wearing in these first three photos?

All images by Michael Rougier. Found here.

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The Quiet Vegetarian

2012-01-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

I'm working at Sarah's Place as I'm typing this out. I suppose being surrounded by rad vegan stuff reminded me I wanted to tell you about this book.

I've just recently read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and can not recommend it enough. For all the defensive steak eaters out there who are already getting up in arms at the past two sentences, yes I am writing about a 'do not eat animals' book ... but it's not your typical vegetarians-patting-themselves-on-the-back type book.

It isn't preachy, it's based only on fact (with references for everything). It explores the difference between the farm you think an animal is raised on and the actual factory farm your meat comes from. The stories are heart-wrenching but very true ... one of the last chapters made me cry on the bus, it was so terrible, but I read it anyway.

I feel like everybody needs to know the information Foer is putting out there, meat eater or not. He sneaks into factory farms in the middle of the night, he interviews ranchers and slaughterhouse employees who are both for and against eating meat, he explores the environmental impact of factory farms, he does his research and cites his sources well.

This book was sort of preaching to the converted for me, I already knew most of the things he was writing about, but it was a really good reminder as to why I stopped eating dead bodies. Sounds gross, right? Well it's true! Carcasses. Corpses. You're welcome.

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I grew up eating meat at nearly every meal until I was about 23 years old. But I kind of feel like my eyes have been opened to the truth and I cannot unsee what I've seen. I don't feel right supporting an industry that routinely tortures animals. I have, over time, become a quiet vegetarian.

I try to let people feel comfortable with their own decisions and I try my best not to judge people's choices. I certainly try not to say anything about what others are eating, because I know I could do better myself. I don't always eat vegan, (insert lame placation about cheese here) and it's something I'm constantly working on and thinking about.

This post isn't to ask you to change, but I am saying that you should know the facts about what you're eating and make a decision from there. If you're truly okay with what is going on then by all means, eat your steak and wear your dog-fur Uggs and I'll leave you in peace. But I believe it's wrong to just turn a blind eye and pretend all your hot dogs died peacefully in their sleep.

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Do you want to know a few animal-friendly things you can do during the holidays?

Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving always seem to be the times of year when I'm most with people that feel the need to discuss/question/disregard my being vegetarian. We are by no means perfect, but here are a few ways our family keeps the holidays a teeny bit more animal friendly:

1. Well first of all...the food. I'm lucky that we are all vegetarians in our household, so rather than a turkey or whatever as the main course we usually end up eating tofurky. Do you really need bacon in that salad? Real butter in those potatoes? Ham in those peas? What's important is getting together and sharing a meal and good conversation. Not the turkey. Not the ham.

2. We don't shop at stores that sell furs, we don't support companies that use fur or leather in their clothing, and we don't buy anything down-filled or tested on animals. It's actually really easy to find awesome animal-free gifts pretty much anywhere.

3. Ryan recently started a tradition with his kids in which on every turkey-dinner-based holiday they drive out to a lake and feed some ducks. It's kind of like a giving back to the poultry community in a funny way. It's a nice outing and it makes the kids feel better about the holidays.

4. Hosting a vegetarian during the holidays? Here's a post I wrote last Easter that you should read.

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Obviously these are very small things and there's so much more a person can do. Every small step, every time you eat vegan or vegetarian rather than eating meat, every time you use your buying power at a small real farm rather than a factory farm, every time you treat an animal right, you are making a difference in this world.

Imagine if you did one thousand small acts of kindness in one year, how much kindness that adds up to. Your actions can make a difference in the world.

sunset by the water

2012-01-10T05:27:00.000-08:00

Lately...

2012-01-09T06:39:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been...

Listening to Black Breath. Terrible band name, it makes me think of rotten teeth! But man, it's been a really long time since I've heard a song and been like "YES". I...uh..."found" some new music on the internet and somehow I got it onto my computer, like, by magic or something. Anyway, all of a sudden I am excited about music again. Here's the song that got me all pumped.

*note* very metal and RAAAAAH so if you're not in that mood maybe skip it. But if you feel like running around and punching things then this one's for you.

I also got some Dimmu Borgir which I am really into, Adele (haha shut up, she sings prettily), Mastodon, Electric Wizard, Doomtree, Trampled By Turtles (some cool modern bluegrass), Absu, Liturgy (so far, do not recommend), Baroness, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Yob, Ellie Goulding (Ryan really likes her so I'm trying it out), Wolves in the Throne Room (not my favorite), 3 Inches of Blood (locals, woo! I've seen them play and my boss has tattooed them a bunch, but I've never had any albums before.) and the sountrack to Treme. Oh yes and The Sword, Corb Lund, Chingon, At The Drive-In, The Black Keys, Dio, Elvis Costello, Queen, Lamb of God, Metallica (I never had the Ride the Lightning album for some reason) and Lila Downs.

I'm still just wading my way through it all, it's very exciting. I have to stop denying myself some crazy metal, even if nobody else in my life likes it. It makes me happy, damnit. Even Dimmu Borgir, who makes me laugh because it's like, SO BLACK METAL but it's really awesome at the same time.

Watching...Treme.Have you seen it? Because if you like music at all you probably should. It takes place in New Orleans three months after hurricaine Katrina hit, and kind of focuses on the musicians trying to get gigs in the few places that are left, plus some of the injustices and hardships that some people had/have to face. I found it really heavy and didn't want to watch the second season, but Ryan is all over it right now.

Ryan also got me the movie Harold and Maude from the library, telling me "you have to watch it". I was really uncertain. It sounds so lame! And look at the cover! But whaaat, it's creepy as hell with a Ferris Bueller attitude. I absolutely recommend it to all the hipsters out there. I really enjoyed it.

Reading ... I was on book four of the Song of Fire and Ice series, and it expired just as I was on the last 300-ish pages. (They're huuuuge books and the library only loans them out for 3 weeks at a time. I was trying to read two of them in that time. Fail.) Luckily I got a super rad autographed copy of Chuck Palahniuk's Damned for Christmas! I read it in one day, no joke, no exaggeration.

I just found book five of the Song of Fire and Ice at the library randomly...like, a paper copy. Damn these things are HUGE.

via

So I guess I have to just find a brief summary of book four to catch up on the last few chapters and then zip through this tome. No problem, haha. I'd like to keep reading at this rate. I took all your suggestions in that 'who reads my blog' post and added them to my wishlist on the library website, but if there are any more suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.

Thinking about ... becoming a medical transcriptionist. It sounds like an ideal job. That, or a medical sterilization person in a hospital. Anyone out there do these jobs? Know anyone who does? Any advice?

Laughing about ... the fact that we got a microwave for Christmas and haven't even tried it out yet. We just don't have anything that really needs to be microwaved! Also, that Ryan's kids are so far removed from this convenience-based lifestyle that they were explaining this special type of popcorn that goes in a microwave to us as though we've never seen it before. "It's in a kind of flat bag but it has popcorn seeds inside of it." We played along. I think I said "NO WAY" and made a very interested face.

What have you guys been up to lately?

around Victoria

2012-01-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

The funniest story of the year.

2012-01-07T05:28:00.000-08:00

I can't even think of this story Ryan told me on New Year's Eve without completely cracking up. Even when I'm on the bus. How embarrassing.

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So it all started with us mixing up some NYE 'wizard's brew' with the kids. For the record, Wizard's Brew is not as awesome as it sounds, it's just ginger ale, orange juice and sparkling orange juice. And a little magic. The kids did get to take turns pouring the juice and pop* though and that's soooooooo fun, right? And they got to pour as much as they wanted of each ingredient, you know? Great times.

We talked about the fun-level at some length as the potion mixing was going on, and the conversation reminded me of this one time when I was eleven or twelve, when I got in really big trouble for mixing up all the different shampoos and conditioners we had in the bathroom.

For the record, I was trying to do the world a favor by making the perfect shampoo. It had to smell nice, have a pretty color and save you time by washing and conditioning your hair at once. It was a lot of hard work...measuring with the various shampoo caps, pouring out excess, mixing with my index finger...etcetera.

I knew I shouldn't be doing my amazing laboratory-grade experiments with my mother's cosmetics so when I failed to make a shampoo worthy of human trials, I tried to discard the evidence by pouring it down the sink. You guys, have you ever tried to pour an entire bottle of shampoo down a sink drain? It does not pour right down. It pools, and heaven help you if you turn on the tap to try and wash it down...and that's when my mom walked in.

The kids were full of questions. What kind of shampoo did I use? Did it cost a lot of money? How did I clean up the shampoo in the end? Did I feel bad? Oh yes, kids, I was full of remorse. I still am. You should never ever ever waste shampoo like that.

What I didn't tell the kids was that when she asked what I was doing I shouted "It's rotten! The shampoo is too old," like I was doing the family a favor by dumping litres of shampoo down the sink. Needless to say I got in big trouble and that's the end of that story. I remember it very clearly though, I must have been terrified out of my wits at the time.

Well anyway, my story reminded Ryan of this...the funniest story I have ever heard.

His parents used to buy ten-packs of Irish Spring soap, in bar form, and for a while when he was maybe ten or eleven years old, suddenly the soap was going missing at an alarming rate. Because he spent hours trying to perfect the Irish Springs soap-cut.

Yes, that's right. Ryan thought that this guy looked so cool he locked himself in the bathroom with a butter knife and tried whittling long slices of green soap into the garbage can. AAAHHAHAHA it's too funny, I can't even.

*Yes, pop. I get so self-conscious about my Canadian-isms sometimes here because I know that over half of my readers are Americans. But 'soda' just doesn't feel right to me. So there you go.

diptych: batman and a ceasar

2012-01-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

Things I Love Thursday

2012-01-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

I love spending alone time with Tank-a-roo. I also love...

This video of Oscar the blind kitten playing with a ball.

Minimalist children's story posters.

Miss. Indie is giving away a camera I want here.

Splitsider's list of the best humor writing of 2011. Click the titles of the articles to read them.

These koala pictures. It looks like a little old man!

All the single ladies - real long but interesting.

Ten ways to get ready for 2012...a bit late, but still useful for cleaning out your brain.

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Le Duo Maintenant (found via my friend Larissa who is learning to do this kind of thing!!). They aren't even human, I swear. If you're in a hurry just watch from 6:54 to 7:30 because it's unbelievable.

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YouTube's most shared ads of 2011

This camera collection. So jealous!

Dean Murdoch (from FUBAR)'s twitter. HAHAHA it's always funny. Shanto.

Assume positive intent.

This dove rescuer! :)

This hilarious poem that G. Nolst Trenité wrote about English pronunciation.

Beautiful swear words.

What boys do on the internet. (video)(nsfw)

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Chronic Bitchface - I have this for sure.

via Krisatomic

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Ask a mortician, episode four! :)

Guide to spotting undercover cops at Burning Man.

Croissantasaurus rex.

Unintentionally sexual church signs.

Cookie Monster "singing" God's Away on Business. hahaha

Honest logos.

A caffeine addict's guide to the world.

Grow the eff up.

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T is for Toilet - an animated horror story about childhood potty training fears...in claymation!

*note* Do not show this to children ever.

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11 points guide to being an amateur wine snob.

Falling in love with chick flicks.

This interview with Cameron Garland...one of my best sponsor buddies! I love his work.

This birthday wish.

6 killer writing tips from a great-grandmother of a copy editor.

These two pictures of Tank make me laugh.

Tips to tap into your curiosity.

This video of 1960s fashion in Greenwich Village, New York City.

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And last but not least...

These photos of Guatemala by Kim Winderman.

For more of her work, click here. I wish I had the guts to take more true-to-life photos like this when I was in Mexico. Next time! Oh hell yes, next time! I'll bring every camera I own! :)

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Wade Davis.

2012-01-04T08:44:00.000-08:00

If I had to name a hero, as in someone I look up to, it would be Wade Davis.

He is probably the world's most interesting man. He's super intelligent, he's one of the best photographers I've ever seen, he's the most well-traveled, he's the most open minded and has had the most experiences of anybody I've ever heard of. He has written some of my all-time favorite books. He must be fearless, as he has probably done more crazy drugs than anybody, from all corners of the earth. (You can hear his description of some of the highs in the video at the end of this post.)

Photo by Wade Davis.

He's an ethnobotanist from British Colombia, Canada which, for some reason, makes him seem like a 'real human' to me, not some untouchable professor from the USA or some crazy explorer from China. I actually had the pleasure of seeing him speak at the University of Victoria about six years ago about the deforestation of the amazon and about rubber. This man made rubber the most fascinating subject I had ever heard. And I was so star-struck that I basically ran out of there when he was done because I wouldn't know what to say to him if I ran into him afterward. I guess it's what people feel like with their favorite band, I'm a total fan-girl, haha.

Photo by Wade Davis.

Wade Davis often speaks out about the horrifying prospect of language loss, and languages going extinct, which, if you are a long-time reader of Four Eyes Rella, you know is one of the issues I am most passionate about, linguistically and culturally speaking.

He's now an official National Geographic Explorer. That's his job title.

Anyway, I'll end this rave and let you get a small taste of his awesomeness. This twenty minute video is worth it just for his photos. Oh, and the story about the shit knife.

For more about Wade Davis, you can click here for more TED Talks or here for his National Geographic profile, or here for an unoficial Wade Davis fan website.

diptych: two types of beautiful

2012-01-03T07:02:00.000-08:00

diptych: cats vs dogs

2012-01-03T05:24:00.000-08:00

Hating the bus goes global: Melbourne, Australia

2012-01-02T06:40:00.000-08:00

This next post is by Christine. She says she has no photos of herself at all, so let's just all imagine she looks like this. 

 (Bettie Page photo by Bunny Yeager)

Anyway, here's what Christine has to say about public 'transport' in Australia. Enjoy! 

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In Melbourne we have Trams, Trains and Buses. We also call it “Public Transport”  

Trams are giant, rattling sardine cans made to run slowly and make you late for everything, even when you leave an hour early. They are usually always packed full of people and you have a high likelihood of standing for the whole way or if you are lucky enough to get a seat, be glared at the entire way by someone standing or get bags, small children, other people or your seat neighbour to fall on you as the tram driver takes another corner way too fast. A high percentage of crazies take the  trams.  

I avoid buses like the plague because the drivers have a strict schedule they must meet so they usually tailgate, go too fast and stop too suddenly and most of the time the streets the buses are allocated are too small for the bus, or even two cars side by side. Not as many crazies because the bus drivers make sure everyone has a ticket. 

Trains are the best place to meet the crazies. One morning I was on my usual train when a man decided the best thing he could do that morning was explain loudly to the train about how a sports ground in a nearby suburb was built upon marshes in the dark ages. Really riveting stuff… When he got told to shut up he abused the train with the words “I am a free citizen and I must educate the masses” or words to that effect and then abused the people who told him to shut the hell up for the next 20 or so minutes. 

If you visit Melbourne please make sure you have headphones, music and preferably a drivers licence because public transport is not something tourists should see. 

Not that anyone, including the locals can work out the system anyway. 

Its all character building right? 

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It is all character building, isn't it? I must have loads of character by now. Anyway, if you enjoyed this, please let Christine know in the comments. And if you have any advice or stories about public transit transport, please email me at novaisawesome at gmail dot com. I'd love to share your story!

Seven questions to ask when you're not sure who you're becoming.

2012-01-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

This was originally posted on unicorns for socialism and I think it's a brilliant way to start the new year. Everybody should ask themselves these questions every once in a while. Here are my honest answers. What about you?

1. What am I freakishly good at?

I am freakishly good at reading people and subtext. I can single out a pretty or interesting thing in a world of ugly. I am good at waiting and practicing patience. I am good at listening.

2. What do I geek out about?

I geek out about basically anything to do with languages and linguistics. If I had to choose between four videos called "sex" "celebrity gossip and fashion" "the craziest sports injuries ever" or "the history of English pronouns" guess what I'd pick. hahaha

I am starting to understand the draw to web design and other kind of abstract aesthetic arts, but I'm not quite there yet.

3. If I was a horrifically superficial and shallow person, what would I really want?

To have an awesome library that has a suit of armor in it or something. To be pretty and have shoulder length hair and know how to style it all the ways. To not need glasses but have a few pairs just in case I felt like wearing them. To have a beautiful and sophisticated business lady-ish wardrobe with lots of blazers and cool blouses and trousers and stuff. To live in a large-ish house somewhere near a city center but still on a quiet street with a pretty view. To have as many pets as I want and someone who will clean the litter box and cat puke and acutally do all my housework because doing laundry is so boring.

4. What do I want to be known for?

I want to be known as being reliable and responsible, undramatic and level-headed. I want to be known as a smart person. I want to be an integral part of a powerful team.

5. If I had a full year off and a stipend of {insert 'How dare you?!' amount of money here}, how would I spend it?

I would travel and force Ryan to come with me. I mean it. We would go to places that are 'on my list', you know, everyone has an 'i want to go there' list. I would also go to unexpected places, and places we hardly know exist. I would bring a few of my favorite cameras, lots of film, and take thousands of photos. I would get tattooed by my favorite tattooers all over the world too and buy Ryan tattoos too if he wanted. We would stay in hotels, hostels and tents, and eat in restaurants and with street vendors ... a mix of everything.

6. What's going to be carved on my hypothetical tombstone?

"Live your life for love and happiness", or something like that.

7. If my parents/my grandma/whoever holds my sense of personal propriety in check was GONE and there was noone to offend, upset or disappoint, who would I become?

A writer. I mean, like, maybe a horror story writer or I'd try writing about drugs or sex or violence or something like that. I'm very very very conscious of people I know reading everything I write and it keeps stopping me from getting anywhere.

2011 in photography

2011-12-31T05:27:00.000-08:00

You don't realize how much you've learned until you look at what you were doing a year ago. For example, overprocessing photos in picnic and photoshoppy type programs is stupid, and GEEZ just format your photos so they're all the same damn width. I can't believe I wasn't doing these things only a year ago. Sorry readers. So very sorry.

Anyway here are a few pictures and film photography posts from 2011. I sure got a lot of tattoos!

January

I showed off my film photos from Cuba, shared some of my first fisheye photos I ever took here and used my grandma's old Canon AE-1 around downtown Victoria.

February

I used the Canon AE-1 in a bathroom and at the park. I used my weird little blue plastic camera at the Seattle Zoo, City Hostel.

March

I shared some more of my first fisheye photos here and here.

April

I shared some fisheye photos here, here, here and here and I took this weird self portrait at the bus stop.

May

I shared some fisheye photos here, here and here.

June

I took some lomo fisheye photos of downtown Victoria.

July

August

I used my lomo actionsampler camera at a Slayer and Rob Zombie concert, and then on Tank and a broom, I was in a photoswap (and here are the pictures I took for it), and I tried a lomo 360 spinner camera.

September

I stopped doing film photography at this point because I had to take so much time off work due to busted feet that I had to cut out all fun expenses like ... developing film. :(

It'll be back soon guys, I promise!

October

November

December

Secret boyfriend-girlfriend language.

2011-12-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

(If you're new here, this mural was my birthday present to Ryan in 2010. Click here to read about it, and why it's saying 'clover feild' haha.)

I saw a post on some uh, interesting vocabulary Sarah Von and her best friend use when they're together (here) and it reminded me of some of the weird things Ryan and I come up with when we're together.

Tout le monde and qu'est-ce que c'est. We use it as kind of a "well, there you go" space filler in a conversation. Maybe this is a Canadian thing, but it's really hilarious to use bad French in inappropriate times. It's like ironically acting like a pretentious bilingual person maybe? Anyway somehow Ryan started saying things that make absolutely no sense, like "ferme le chat dans les yeux" and "le cadeau est dans la tete". It usually comes after we've made a decision or ended a silly conversation. It has become so ingrained in our house-speech now that we don't even notice it...and it's starting to come out in public which is embarassing to say the least.

Medium. This one was started by me, I think a couple years ago when I had a Spanish literature prof who would answer "regular" when we'd ask "¿Que tal?" It's the perfect sentiment for those days when nothing special is going on in your life and you just feel normal. Not excited, not depressed, not tired, not sad, not happy, not great...just normal. So if you ask how something is, how my day was, or how I'm doing, you may get a "medium" or "regular" in response.

K'ai'v. When my younger brother (I won't say which one in case they find this post somehow in the future and get embarassed) was a little guy he was always asking for a drink of pop. (Soda, Americans. I'm talking about "soda" OKAY?) Anyway he'd ask for "a sip" in a real sheepish voice, and mushed the words "can I have" all into one syllable. K'ai'v. As in "Nova, k'ai'v a sip of your pop?" Now we use K'ai'v whenever we are asking for a favor or for something we are shy about asking. "Ryan, k'ai'v the last bit of coffee?" "Nova, k'ai'v that money you owe me?"

What are some of your secret code words or embarassing habits? Don't tell me Sarah Von and I are the only ones who do this. Because I know we're not.

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Bonus: this hilarious deer in the rain photo I took a couple weeks ago. It makes me laugh every time I look at it because seriously, the deer's all like "AAAGH I'LL KILL YOU". And then I wonder if I should be worried that there are deer with laser beam eyes living on my block.

Things I Love Thursday

2011-12-29T09:11:00.000-08:00

I love office supplies...especially notebooks and ball point pens. I love that my friend's dad follows me on Twitter and bought me a cool journal for Christmas, along with a note encouraging me to keep writing in the new year. And I love that on boxing day I had enough money to go up the street to Staples and buy myself some more pens to write in it with.

I also love...ending sentences with prepositions on purpose. Oh, and...

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This video of a lion cub trying to roar. D'aww.

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This is the thing: when you hit 28 or 30 ...

This head tattoo. (via Guy Le Tattooer tumblr)

Adam Baker's TED Talk on freedom.

These pictures of Oaxaca.

That me, Tank and Yeti were featured on the Windshield Diaries blog the other day!

These REALLY cool insect photos by 'Amishboy'. Apparently all he used were bugs, household items and artificial lighting. They are beautiful! And not digitally manipulated at all. So inspiring.

The Louvre is introducing something new...Nintendo.

The Guardian asks celebrities what they see when they look at themselves in the mirror. (Thanks Sarah)

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This video - it's a beautiful song sung by PJ Harvey and Nick Cave,

and the video will melt your ~~loins~~ heart.

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Tommy's pictures of Shanghai.

Questions to ask yourself when contemplating quitting.

How to use bloglovin' now that Google Friend Connect is going away.

Pimp my snowman. (Thanks Suzy)

This response to gender bullying in a classroom.

Staying inspired, comint up with new ideas and blogging regularly.

These dramatic photos made using flour.

Stop bargaining with yourself.

These triptichs of American soldiers before, during and after their tour of duty in Afghanistan.

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This painting by Emily - The Black Apple.

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Life lessons from the 1968 Playboy Bunny manual.

The gifts we give each other.

Elizabeth's pre-wedding photos.

I may have shared this before, but I love Gala's eyeball sweater.

I don't do art for free.

This part of an interview Steve Jobs did in 1995. How inspirational! And true!

Do you suffer from decision fatigue?

True story, I'm a supermodel.

Possibly the most reassuring life advice I've ever been given.

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via

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These cinemagraphs.

These photographs of a mermaid out of water.

These tributes to Jim Henson.

She who tries, wins.

Find out if you're civilized enough to live in the Victorian Period. (WARNING stupid loud music automatically plays) For the record, I totally failed the quiz.

Rosemary's Babies - Satanic cults and their hapless victims. (Thanks Leigha)

These memos from the Vogue magazine editor-in-chief in 1963...as dictated from the bathroom.

Why creative people are eccentric.

12 happiness habits for busy people.

diptych: unicorns and sailors

2011-12-28T06:49:00.000-08:00

If I Were A Banned Book

2011-12-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

I just found this on Tumblr and thought I should share it with all y'all out there, I know you guys love books as much as I do. At least some of you do!

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If I Were A Banned Book

If I were a banned book, I’d be the dirty bits and the heaving breasts and the twisted sheets and the scented oils and the chains and rope and dripping candle wax. I would coax you into multiples, and I would urge you to invite another. I’d be the empty bottle of gin on the kitchen table. I’d promise to call, but never would.

If I were a banned book, I’d tell you to challenge authority and question everything and demand answers. I’d tell you that the 1 percent is nothing without the rest of us labeling the 1 percent the 1 percent. I’d teach you to cook anarchy and embrace diversity and kiss your same-gender lover in public.

If I were a banned book, I’d let you ask me about sex and growing up, and I’d sing the caged-bird songs, and I’d be each of the nobodies who would answer to the name nobody. I’d teach you to sail a raft and swim against tides and dance in towns where dances aren’t danced.

If I were a banned book, I’d be the light on long-past midnight in your attic, and I’d be the cauldron around which dance witches and in which fire burns and toil and trouble doubles.

If I were a banned book, I’d bring flowers to the grave of a mouse and I’d teach you that forever sometimes means forever and sometimes means less than forever but always means what forever will mean to you, then, at that moment.

If I were a banned book, I’d be the secrets you write in your diary and I’d be the lies you write in your diary and I’d be the truths that you wish weren’t truths that you write in your diary.

If I were a banned book, I’d be cupboards and wardrobes and the hidden door under astairwell in which lives the boy who lived. I’d be beanstalks and magic shoes and godmothers, winged and otherwise. I’d be potion poultice poetry. I’d be words wings wizardry.

If I were a banned book, I’d dance with insects outside of an enormous peach, and I’d race wolves in woods overgrown with ivy and snow. I’d be the substitute teacher who’d let you smoke cigarettes outside. I’d be the comic book hidden behind your history book.

If I were a banned book, I’d urge you to go ask Alice, and wrinkle time, and ride in talking cars. Everyday, I’d crown a new king fly-lord, and everyday would be a good day to say goodbye to something.

If I were a banned book, I’d be the Pigman and I’d be a Wallflower and I’d be the story of Sleeping Beauty, written under a penname. I’d kill mockingbirds and I’d talk about the things we talk about when we talk about things like death and love and sex and forever, which, as I already would have taught you, sometimes means less than forever but always mean what forever will mean to you, then, at that moment.

By WILLIAM HENDERSON at Thought Catalog

diptych: you wanna go for a walk? Find the car?

2011-12-26T23:32:00.000-08:00

presents! Be jealous. Be so, so jealous. (photo heavy)

2011-12-26T03:31:00.000-08:00

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And from Ryan, because I know you're all dying to know...This super cute fox ring and two tickets to see Die Antwoord in February together. Ryan keeps telling me to say on Facebook that he "put a ring on it" but I really think that's a bad idea. Half my family and friends would uh, get the wrong idea, I'm sure.

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Uh, heck yes! I win Christmas, I think.

I've been drinking for three days straight. WOO! Wine, mimosas, coffee and baileys...osm.

Since Ryan and I have had a few days off together we finally had the time to watch the HBO show Treme. (About New Orleans a few months after hurricaine Katrina got to the city.) It's so darn cool. New Orleans is such a rich and interesting place. And oh, the music. If you haven't seen it, you should give it a whirl, we're only on the fourth episode of the first season and we're like "WHAAT". My dad spends quite a bit of time in New Orleans and he said that people he knows there told him the show is pretty true to life. There's all kinds of famous musicians who I'm not cool enough to know about in the show too apparently. The only one I even recognized at first was Elvis Costello. And that's after they call him "Elvis" in the show. And I *think* I saw Dr.John.

Happy day dyptich.

2011-12-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, I quit my job at the aquarium!*

Hope you get some rad gifts or made somebody happy today. I have finally discovered the joy of coffee with Bailey's in it. All-day holiday drinking FTW! Here's a couple more photos for the holidays. I love how that first one turned out, it was an accident actually, I was trying to do a nice clear shot of the parliment buildings at night, but this is better. And I actually took the second one in a WalMart, in the decorations aisle. I had mandalas on the brain and it reminded me of one.

*It's not as dramatic as I make it sound, my stupid feet will not allow me to walk and stand for seven hour shifts is all. And that job is very walky and standy. Ah well, cool things are on the horizon this coming year. Wait and see!

Scary Santa Saturday, part 4 of 4.

2011-12-24T06:54:00.000-08:00

All these Santas via Sketchy Santas. So. Awesome.

Cool People, Silly Questions.

2011-12-23T06:51:00.000-08:00

(Read  this in a Law and Order voice for fun.) 

Sometimes I ask people to  answer some questions so I can post them on my blog. And sometimes they  answer me. This is what today's post is.

DUN DUN

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THE QUESTIONS: I had everybody choose five of these questions and answer them. Too bad nobody tried to draw me or anything else with their eyes closed. Those are my favorite type of drawings. 

-Name three things you like that start with the letter R.
-Tell us one beauty product you can't live without. 
-Teach us an awesome DIY project. 
- Tell us about your pet(s) and/or share a photo.
-What are five of your favorite books?
-If you could cross-breed two animals, which ones would you choose and why? What would you name your new hybrid?
-Draw a picture of me, Tank and Yeti, and share it here. 
-Draw a giraffe, elephant and rhino poker game with your eyes closed and share it here. 
-Tell us an embarrassing story, something that happened to "your friend" is okay.
-Share a photo you've taken that you're proud of. 
-Share a delicious vegetarian recipe.

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THE ANSWERS: 

ALYCIA of The Curious Pug.

Name  three things you like that start with the letter R: Reading, reruns of  my favorite shows, rocking out, reminiscing, and riding down hills in a  wagon.

Tell us one beauty product you can't live without: Lip gloss! I get anxiety if I realize I don't have any with me.

Tell  us an embarrassing story, something that happened to "your friend" is  okay. I went to college at The University at Buffalo so we were fairly  close to the Canadian border. Well, one day on my way back to school  after winter break, I was talking to my friend who was with me and not  really paying attention to where I was going and ended up missing my  exit. I realized my mistake when I came to a huge toll booth that said  Canadian Border Patrol, or something to that effect! Oops. I can  understand missing an exit but having to backtrack a hundred miles or  so? Yea.

What  are five of your favorite books? The Hunger Games (book1), The Girl  with the Dragon Tattoo, Dead to the World, Sellevision, and The Host.

If  you could cross-breed two animals, which ones would you choose and why?  What would you name your new hybrid? I'd cross-breed a bulldog and a  shih tzu and would call it a Bullshit! (Ok, I stole that from Dumb  & Dumber)

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Rae of Say It Ain't So

Three things you like that start with the letter R: Road Trips, Rats (i used to have five!),  and Rainbows  

Tell  us about your pet(s) and/or share a photo. I am obsessed with my pets. I  have five right now. I have two pugs, Phyllis and Priscilla. 
 
They have a  Tumblr: http://phyllisandpriscilla.tumblr.com/   (Editor's Note: GO LOOK AT THE DOGS THEY'RE SO CUTE) They are both  differently-abled pound puppies and I try to take them everywhere. My  husband and I are definitely crazy pug people. 

We also have three cats. I  don't have a picture of any of them together so here is a picture of  Murray Hewitt. 

He is the first cat that I have ever gotten. We got him  right after we got married. We also have a siamese/torti named Scampi,  and a little white cat with tabby spots named Scout.

Five  of your Favorite Books: These are the books I read over and over again:  Watership Down by Richard Adams, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by  Wolves by Karen Russell, The Witches by Roald Dahl, Be My Baby : How I  Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, or My Life as a Fabulous  Ronetted by Ronnie Spector, Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters  (Whenever I am in a really bad mood i can read his essay "100 Things I  Hate" and it makes me cackle with glee)  

One Beauty Product you can't live without: Hurraw lipbalm  It is the only vegan lip balm I have ever tried that actually feels  AMAZING on my lips, not grainy. And it tastes good too! I accidentally  washed the first tube I had and I almost cried. The coconut is my  favorite.

A delicious vegetarian recipe: I wrote a post about some amazing vegan sweet potato pancakes that were in Bust magazine this fall. They taste really good and make your house

smell amazing!

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Danielle of Danfredo Rivera! 

Tell  us one beauty product you can't live without: Tweezers because I'm a  hairy beast and need to pluck my eyebrows everyday lest the unibrow  takes over. 

What are five of your favorite books? The  Happiness Project by Gretchen Ruben, The Kite Runner by Khaled  Hosseini, Free Food For Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, I Hope They Serve  Beer In Hell by Tucker Max and Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel  Silverstein. 

Teach us an awesome DIY project. DIY Stupid Wedding Banner 

Tell us an embarrassing story, something that happened to "your friend" is okay. Um, one time my friend had really bad gas  and wanted to share it with  everyone within smelling distance. She ran  into the kitchen where  everyone was hanging out and assumed a gas  sharing stance. She  accomplished her mission, but she also shit herself  in the process.

Share a photo you've taken that you're proud of. I call this picture, "Drippy Rolls." 

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Malori of Sunday Morning Sugar

What are five of your favorite books? I love to read!  The following are five of my favorite books: The Delivery Man By: McGinniss Jr., The Virgin Suicides By: Jeffrey Eugenides, A Wolf at the Table By: Augusten Burroughs, Bright and Shiny Morning By: James Frey and Grab on to me Tightly as if I Knew The Way By: Bryan Charles

For a complete list of books that I've read in the past few years, feel free to check out my book list on my blog!

A delicious vegetarian recipe!  My go-to site for great vegetarian recipes is Fresh 365.  I recently made her recipe for stuffed peppers and just about died and went to heaven.  I suggest you make these immediately.

My  favorite beauty product: I'm not big on beauty products or makeup,  but I  don't mess around with my chapstick.  I have like three or four of   them in every purse/bag/pocket.  My two favorites are yes to carrots and EOS.  And if you're wondering about flavors, mint is obviously the best for both brands.

An  embarrassing story: I live in downtown Chicago and take the train   everywhere.  One day it was raining pretty hard and I was rushing   between my internship and my second job... I was in a grumpy mood and   walking REALLY quickly because I was running late and wasn't going to   get to eat. 

I run into a subway stop to rush down the stairs only to   realize that it is an escalator which is EXIT only and is moving in the   opposite direction of the way I want to go. I avoid falling over and   run to the next entrance of the subway and again attempt to rush down   the stairs. About three steps down I slip and completely fall down 3 or   4 steps.  

I immediately started laughing at myself only to turn around   and see a guy behind me looking REALLY angry. 

The moral of the story  is  that you should never take yourself too seriously because karma will   spite you and make you fall down the stairs. The other moral of the   story is that people who live in cities don't like anything that holds   them up so if you do fall down the stairs you better hope a local isn't   behind you because they'll be PISSED!

If I could  cross-breed two animals ... it would be an English bulldog and a  bunny.   Why?  English bulldogs are the best but how cute would they be  if they  were fluffy AND JUMPED AROUND!?  I would name it a bun-dog  because that  kind of reminds me of "hot-dog" which is also such a good  thing...

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Pixie of SilverPixieFly

Name  three things you like that start with the letter R. Robin (the  Dick  Grayson version), Red Velvet Cake, Rent (the musical)

Tell us one beauty product you can't live without. My MAC

 foundation.  I would be lost without it. 

Tell us about your pet(s) and/or share a photo. I have two pets,   Shadow Cat and TokiDoki. 

TokiDoki is a chihuahua mix who has been in   the family for about 3 years now. My husband and I found her at the   SPCA when we lived in Seattle. We had been dog shopping for about a   month and just could not agree on anything...until we saw her. Honestly, we weren't looking to take a pet home that day, but we just   fell in love with her. The day after we brought her home I had to get   my wisdom teeth pulled, so we both spent the week sleeping in bed all   day. Toki is very cheerful and spoiled. Everyone that meets her falls   in love like we did.

We found Shadow Cat last year when we were   searching for a companion for TokiDoki. We originally were looking for   another small dog, but decided to check out the cats just for kicks. Poor Shadow Cat had a horrible flee condition when the SPCA here in   Virginia found her. Because of this she was missing a lot of her fur   and was a bit under weight. Next thing I know, we are at a pet store   getting the basics so we could go back and adopt her before the shelter   closed for the days.  Shadow Cat is very affectionate with people, and   she loves to tease TokiDoki.

What are five of your favorite books? Battle Royale by Koushun  Takami,  Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Watchmen by Alan  Moore, Alas  Babylon by Pat Frank, The Killing Joke by Alan Moore

Share a photo you've taken that you're proud of.
  

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Steven Andrew

Name three things you like that start with the letter R. Rain. Reading. Rapping. (KIDDING), but imagine me rapping, hilarious!

Tell us about your pet(s) and/or share a photo. I've got a cat, her name is Nala and she's crazy!

What are five of your favorite books? God, this is going to be tough..The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk. The Stranger by Albert Camus.

Tell us an embarrassing story, something that happened to "your friend" is okay. Ugh,   this happened to me senior year of High School. 

I was in this awesome   extracurricular activity that was called S.A.D.D (Students Against   Destructive Decisions).. we had a play one night and we usually spoke   and handed out flyers at these events. Well, me trying to be the   "president" of the group felt confident enough to walk on stage and talk   about the group and read off this paper. 

Well, I got on stage, mic in   hand.. read the first few words and then got so red people thought I  was  going to pass out. I started shaking so badly I couldn't see the  words  on the paper and just froze. People started clapping and cheering  for  me, but seriously? I felt like such a fool. 

Even better, I had to  sell  refreshments during intermission. EVERYONE was asking if I was  okay.

Share a photo you've taken that you're proud of.

I'm not sure why, but I love this picture from my Diana Mini. It was my first time taking a plane and I was nervous/excited!

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Lynsey of Dressed to Chill
 

 Three things you like that start with the letter R: The Raconteurs. Reading. Red toenail polish

Five of your favorite books: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson, Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham.(PS. you can read more about my favorite books here)

If you could cross-breed two animals, which ones would you choose and why? What would you name your new hybrid? If  I could crossbreed two  animals, I'd choose a parrot and a dog, and call  it a pog. I can't  begin to imagine what a pog would look like, but my  reasoning behind  the crossbreed would be that it would be cute, cuddly,  and loyal like a  dog, but be able to actually communicate using words,  like a parrot.  If you combined the intelligence of, say, an African Grey  Parrot with  the patient, affectionate personality of a Labrador  Retriever, you  might just end up with the best pet ever- an  African-Grey-Lab Pog.

Share a delicious vegetarian recipe.  

My Mom's Family-Famous Taco Salad

You will need:
1 head of lettuce, shredded
1 can of kidney beans (or black beans...or both)
1 lb Colby cheese, shredded
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, chopped
Several tomatoes, diced
1 regular bag of taco flavored Doritos, crushed

1 cup Crisco oil
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
This   is my mom's family-famous taco salad. Normally it's made with   hamburger, but I think it would be good as a vegetarian taco salad, too.   I like it a lot, and so does everyone in my extended family. 

It's easy   to make, too- all you do is toss all the vegetables together, mix up  the  dressing ingredients, and then toss the dressing in with the salad.  You  can mix the crushed Doritos in, or serve them on the side to  sprinkle  on top so that they don't get soggy. Great for parties and  potlucks.

Share a photo you've taken that you're proud of. 


Attached   is a picture I took of the palace square in  Amsterdam during the   semester that I studied abroad there. I don't  really remember taking the   picture, but I like how it captures the  movement of the city. It's   probably my favorite picture I've ever  taken.

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Courtney of Nobody Too.

Name three things you like that start with the letter R.

Reading, Red (the color), Royal (my cat)

Tell us about your pet(s) and/or share a photo. My cat, Royal, who's pretty much the coolest. He's massive by cat  standards (somewhere around 20lb), has a great mustache, and one grey  toe. 

I don't know if I could live alone and not have a pet, and if I'm  going to have a pet I'd prefer it be a cat, and if I'm going to have a  cat I prefer it be Royal. He's affectionate, but not always up in my  business. He likes to be in the same room as me but doesn't need to be  on top of me all the time. Like most cats, he enjoys empty boxes,  rubberbands, catnip, and putting his butt in your face. His favorite  things are eating and sleeping.

What are five of your favorite books? Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, The Awakening by Kate Chopin,  Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman,  Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. 

If you could cross-breed two animals, which ones would you choose and why? What would you name your new hybrid? I'd  cross a sloth and a bat. No real reason, I just think it would look  cool--basically just a sloth with bat wings. I'd call it a hang-glider!  Get it? That was terrible, I apologize. 

Share a delicious vegetarian recipe.

Black Beans and Rice

1c rice of choice, uncooked

1 can black beans

½ of an onion, diced

½ of a bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp cumin

1 tsp olive oil

¾ c salsa (more as desired)

Cook rice according to package and set aside. In a  large sauté pan, sauté onion, pepper, and garlic until soft. Add rice, beans,  cumin, and salsa and simmer for about twenty minutes (add more salsa or other  liquid if it starts to dry out too much). That’s it! This is great as a side dish, but I usually eat it as a meal with a little cheese and sour  cream on top. Also makes great burrito filling. Really it’s just good all around.

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Hey, did any of you notice these are my sponsors for this  month?? They rule, big time. To the max. Please email me if you want to  sponsor Four Eyes Rella in January. It's quite affordable, and I  promise it will make your entire life ten to thirty percent more  awesome. How, you ask? Magic. Straight up.

I forgot to ask...

2011-12-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

Way to leave it to the last minute, Rella! Anyway for the new year I want to do this a little bit differently...I'm going to charge $5 for any shops or blogs who want a 200x100 ad over there ---->
OR we can do an ad trade if you have a blog that has adspace. I like the uniform look of same-sized ads a bit more than the larger ones.

This month is gonna be exciting, I smell my first giveaway on the horizon, as well as more bus stories, more epic TILT posts, and whatever other crazy schemes I can come up with.

Please let me know ASAP at novaisawesome at gmail dot com if you want in on this, and for all you I traded with last time, please email me if you want to keep this swap going. I will send you all the info you need nearer to the end of the month.

Things I Love Thursday

2011-12-22T05:11:00.000-08:00

I love how cool bricks look when they're painted black.

I also love...

How to appreciate my body art without making me hate you.

The new drunk history video with Ryan Gosling, Jim Carrey and Eva Mendes.

There are 13 santas in Iceland. And they're mischevious little fellas.

Grammar Nazis. I love Inglorious Basterds and these guys do a hilarious parody. Thanks Caitlin.

Also found via Caitlin? Some of the best xmas sweater tees I've ever seen.

Don't pierce your daughter's ears at the mall.

Why waiting in lines drives us crazy.

This rundown on the types of Christmas decorators out there.

Harold Hubert Piggybottom and all the antics he gets up to at Ashley's house every year.

This should actually probably be under 'things I think are disgusting Thursday' but anyway, if you haven't seen these pictures of spiders up in some trees in Pakistan after a flood, you should check this out, it crazy.

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This photo by Katinkaja.

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Did you know the Mayans never really predicted the end of the world in 2012?

German village produces 321% more energy than it needs.

Blue ribbons for Jack.

The YouTube sensations (haha) Mike Masse, Jeff Hall and Sterling Cottam. They played some shows in a pizza joint in Salt Lake City and he did spot on covers of tons of rad songs. Some of my favorites are No Rain, Paranoid Android, Space Oddity, The Sound Of Silence, Blackbird, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For , Africa, Old Man, Can't Help Falling In Love With You and Linger (with Brenda Andrus). Seriously, they do a lot of songs. Very well.

Jenni's fisheye lomography photos of a cloudy day in Munich.

My new tattoo from Gerry! (pro tip: do not call him 'Gary')

Handmade Ryan Gosling.

These anagrams.

More info on Krampus, for those of you who liked him earlier this week.

This shirt, I want it so much!

Here's a little Christmas heartwarmer for y'all. (Thanks 'Chelle)

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This.

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My sister Lyndon's tumblr, because of photos like this and this, or this one of our youngest sister. Can you tell she's adopted? haha

Watch a girl who writes.

12 things you probably didn't know about the movie Home Alone.

This really creepy houseplant. And learning about a new type of phobia I've never heard of but is apparently really common.

True story: I have synaesthesia.

The video for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' version of 'Do You Love Me?" (one of my all-time favorite songs)

21 killer gift ideas for bloggers. (I'd like #3 please.)

That I got to do this guest post on Danfredo Rivera's blog. (It's about s-e-x! shh)

How to sign 'It's Like Christmas In My Mouth'. (Thanks Rochelle)

Russel Monk's 'neighborly portraits in Mexico'.

Either way, I don't really mean it.

B-boy Santa and some other Christmas-like things.

2011-12-21T05:26:00.000-08:00

Because...you know, why not?

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And some Christmas-y photos I've taken around Victoria the past week or so.

A felted santa head, made by Ryan and some very cool decorations on a stranger's lawn.

Downtown Victoria's eco-friendly xmas trees.

Red and Green lights at the inner harbour and my most special tree ornament, given to me after my Grandma died.

This. Oh, and hunchbacks.

2011-12-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

I had kind of a weird revelation in the shower about the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Uh, let me back track a bit, that sounds weird.

So in my new job at the aquarium, part of what I have to do is what is called a 'dive show', which basically means you go down into the aquarium, there's creepy music and a voice-over that plays on the speakers, and a diver shows the audience various animals. My job is to narrate the show and control the volume and lights and stuff like that. Anyway part of the voice-over thing is an exerpt from something Victor Hugo wrote about being eaten alive by an octopus.

So later on my new workmates and I got to talking, and we couldn't remember what Victor Hugo was famous for.

"Didn't he write 'Around the world in Eighty Days?'"

"No, that was Jules Verne"

"I think he wrote Frankenstein or something to do with monsters."

"Hm maybe."

"No, it was something French! I think he wrote Les Miserables!"

"Oh yeah, that's it."

Anyway, I must have been thinking about the dive shows while I was in the shower last night and realized that he also wrote the Hunchback of Notre Dame, that was the monster we had been thinking of. And I thought some more about Quasimodo. And then about hunchbacks.

Wait...hunchbacks...are not ... monsters.

Somehow, maybe because my only real experience with the Hunchback of Notre Dame has been in story form and the Disney movie, I never put it together that Quasimodo was just a man with a weird back.

I had him in the category of Bigfoot and Nessie and Frankenstein's Monster for my entire life. In reality, he would have been some sad boy with terrible spinal problems who was shunned and hidden away in a church.

Ah, perspective.

Tattoo Inks and Corn Flakes

2011-12-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

At my three jobs.

2011-12-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

Scary Santa Saturday, part 3 of 4.

2011-12-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

It's time for another edition of SCARY SANTA SATURDAY! :)

Did you know that in Austria (and maybe other places?) Santa is known as pure good...and then there is Krampus...the evil to balance all that goodness. If you're bad, rather than going on a lame old naughty list you get grabbed by Krampus' tongue and thrown into a sack. Then he brings you back to his ... cave? House? Apartment? And he eats you for dinner. Look at this cool parade they have in Graz, Austria!

via

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And now here's some regular old scary santas.

Hating the bus goes global: Chicago, USA

2011-12-16T06:13:00.000-08:00

Meet Malori. She's one of us. She takes the train. These are her stories.

My name is Malori and I’m a student in Chicago, Illinois. My main mode of transportation is the “L” which is our elevated subway system. I’ve lived here for almost three years and in my time on the trains and busses I’ve experienced some seriously odd sights, sounds, and smells. Rather than sharing one story I thought I’d share my top 5 best public transit stories of all time. Going in order from least offensive to most offensive—let’s kick things off, shall we?!

This is how the “L” looks--image source

5) For number five I simply want to draw attention to the way the subway smells: sort of a mix between high-powered cleaning supplies, drunk-person vomit/piss, old food, and sweat. Some cars are worse than others but for the most part it is a seriously unappealing smell. My freshman year of school I went on a field trip with one of my classes. We hopped on a train and suddenly realized that a woman sitting in the car had peed… All. Over. The. Train. At the next stop we leapt over the puddle of urine and into the next car over. I showered immediately when I got back to my apartment.

4) The train is not always reliable. Sometimes trains fall behind schedule or have to run express due to overcrowding. Earlier this year I waited for a train home from work for at least 30 minutes. Three trains on the tracks heading the opposite direction came and left in the time I was waiting. I finally got on and we went ONE STOP before the conductor announced the train would be running express to a stop that was WAY farther than I needed to go. After all of that waiting I ended up having to walk home.

3) Public transportation gets REALLY crowded during the summer in Chicago. This is a problem because everyone is already sweating and miserable from the crazy humid weather we have then we’re crushed like sardines into the train cars, which just exacerbates the problem. Over the summer I was heading home from some shopping and decided I’d rather take the train than walk the few miles home. I squeezed onto a car and waited until we reached my stop. The whole ride I kept feeling like the guy behind me was WAY too close but it’s difficult to tell if someone is being creepy or if there really just isn’t any space so I decided not to say anything. Finally, the train got to my stop. As I went to step off, the man behind me took the opportunity to full-on grab my ass. Apparently he thought it was totally okay because I couldn’t see who he was. This is not the only time someone has groped me on the train.

2) Sometimes the “L” doesn’t take me where I need to go and I have to hop on the real train (the “choo-choo” variety). This is a different experience than the “L” because it’s generally more quiet, people have a bit more space, and have to stay on for longer. This train is called the Metra in Chicago—I have to take it when I visit my brother who goes to school about an hour outside of the city. One night my roommate and I were heading back downtown on the Metra after spending some time at my brother’s school. We got on and sat down on the upper-level across the aisle from a guy who was loudly rapping. Not long after sitting down, the rap-star wannabe makes his way over to our seats. He gets too close to me, says something incomprehensible, then sits on my lap and puts his arm around me. Ummm… who does that? Seriously?

My roommate and I had been drinking so rather than helping me, she is laughing so hard she cannot breathe. As this stranger sits on my lap, he begins to tell me about the music he is rapping to which sounds something like this, “mother fucking nigga bitch…” After a couple minutes he attempts to put one of his headphones in my ear so I can listen along. I am really grossed out by other people’s headphones and there is NO way a stranger is putting their headphone into my ear. I keep pointing to the empty seat in front of me and asking if he’d like to get off my lap. Rap-star is having none of it—apparently my lap is far more comfortable than the empty seat. For the next 25 minutes he stays on my lap rapping to me and attempting to put his headphones in my ears. I spent those minutes trying to get him off of my lap and blocking his attempts to make me listen to his music. Finally he stands up, tells me to have a nice night, and goes on his way. I don’t even have words to explain how ridiculous the entire experience was. This also resulted in an immediate shower upon returning to my apartment. Some people are crazy…

1) My number one story is actually my dad’s story. My dad comes up to visit my brother and I quite often and is no stranger to horrible public transit experiences. One night he was riding the Metra from Chicago to the suburbs that house my brother’s school. A white woman sat down on the train next to a black gentleman. Apparently she wasn’t happy with her seating options so she pulled the conductor aside and complained about having to sit next to someone who is black. This woman must not have been to bright because the conductor she was complaining to was also black. Also, it’s no longer the 1800’s… I’m 100% sure that sitting next to someone who is black is no different than sitting next to someone who is white/purple/yellow/brown/teal/etc. If you’re racist and refuse to sit next to someone who is a different color than you, drive. She failed to realize that she’s an idiot and continued to complain to the conductor. At the next stop, they politely asked her to get off of the train. If I was the conductor, I can’t say I would have been so polite…

So those are my top five public transit horror stories. It’s not all bad but it’s definitely not something I enjoy doing. I’m so happy to have had the chance to share with all of you! I can’t wait to read the other posts from ladies who also hate public transit—these stories always crack me up.

To hear more from me, stop by my blog Sunday Morning Sugar. I cook, craft, and dress all fancy-like even though I don’t do many fancy things. It’s good times all around!

HAHAHA wow. Thanks Malori!

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If you want to participate in the public transit hate-fest, have any stories to share, have any tips for surviving the bus or just want to vent, please email me at novaisawesome(at)gmail(dot)com.

Things I Love Thursday

2011-12-15T05:19:00.000-08:00

I love this old photo of me finding out Dwayne has aids. Degrassi FTW!

I also love...

...that I got a new job here ... in fact, today is my first day! Wish me luck! :)

Finding out that a blogger I've been reading for a long time is a real life illustrator for Hallmark greeting cards! How cool is that?

This post on inspiration vs imitation.

A photo of my legs is gettin' around on Tumblr.

Cut away leaf art.

The story of Sean.

Danielle's Latest: On Being Visibly Tattooed in a World That Isn't.

Christmas around the world.

This video, demonstrating how laughter is contageous. I even caught myself laughing along by the end. No kidding. Thanks April!

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This...found via Miss. Indie.

Hahahahaha amazing.

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The idea of a one word New Year's resolution. I'd choose 'responsibility' I think. But my resolution is already chosen: get a rose tattoo before I'm 30. It's just weird that I have no roses because I work with four guys who tattoo roses on people every single day pretty much.

Ask a mortician, episodes two and three.

Yes, pitbulls suddenly snap. (Thanks Rochelle)

My friend Gilly is looking for a roommate and writes about how it's going...people are weird.

Old re-purposed or decaying theaters, as photographed by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.

25 weird toilets around the world.

For the love of the lady mustache.

The passage in Moby Dick about Queequeg's tattoos.

This is what it looks like when one guy tries to do a Haka flash mob. My favorite is the police man telling him "You can't just scream in New York City."

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This portrait made from millions of dots. Talk about patience.

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Jimmy Kimmel's latest challenge to parents - give them a present they'll hate and film their reactions. It's definitely on par with the halloween candy video.

All you Radiohead fans, you may appreciate this arrangement played by members of the Morristown Colonial Symphony.

Beca's newest tattoo, so sweet.

China's 'Wonderland'. It's kind of like Disneyland but creepy and abandoned.

Harmless weapons by Kyle Bean.

Louis CK. Period. I think he's the funniest comedian out there today. Also, this. Buy it! I did, I'm gonna watch it later today.

This graph.

Ivy & Em jewelry - it's all made from recycled bike parts!

This picture my friend Sarah sent me on Twitter. Halloween costume, anybody?

(Another old one of me from my MySpace days. The shirt says 'a clean house is a sign of a wasted life' on it. Damn hippie! And my mom got me that skull necklace because she's cool.)

diptych: one beautiful fall afternoon

2011-12-14T10:20:00.000-08:00

diptych: chalk drawings

2011-12-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

being a tourist in my own town

2011-12-13T06:59:00.000-08:00

I love when people come to visit me. It's like an excuse to take photos of things I see every day, where normally I feel weird or embarassed to do so. Which is silly, I know. I still do it sometimes but it's easier when you're showing someone around. I also find I notice the beauty in the normal things again. These were all taken at the inner harbour in Victoria, just across the street from the Fairmont Empress hotel.

I'd also like to thank every single person who commented on my 'who reads my blog' post because WOW you guys really took the time to answer my questions, and I feel like I know you all a bit more. I've been replying to each comment, if I missed you don't worry, I'm still mid-reply! :)

I can't wait to read all the books you guys have recommended me too, geez, you think you know something about books and then bam, nope. I'm starting with Ender's Game after I finish the books I'm already reading because three separate people said it was their all-time favorite.

Thanks again everybody! And if you get a chance, go back and read everybody else's comments. I have the coolest readers!

Good mail days! :)

2011-12-12T09:22:00.000-08:00

I am so effing lucky ...check out some of the cool stuff I've gotten in the mail lately.
I've been meaning to say thank you to you guys for weeks now but just keep forgetting to post it.

THANK YOU!!

I think my favorite thing is the closed-eyes portrait of me. Closed-eyes drawings never fail to make me laugh for some reason. It's a game I like to play while traveling...two people close their eyes and draw something and whoevers is more recognizable wins. Try it sometime, it's hilarious.

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Also uh, remember when I busted my feet and made friendship bracelets for days and days? Well I am selling them here in surprise pack/blind box-type dealys. It's ten small, five medium or two large bracelets for twenty bucks. I don't know how to tell you guys this but I'm not a millionaire or even a thousandaire and I could use the extra cash these days, you know, if you're feeling bracelet-y or charitable. That would be awesome.

(These are pictures of my rejects mostly, I wouldn't sell the crappy ones to you, obviously.)