Thoughts From the Dirty City

I love this quote and I like to think that the impossibly bad typography is intentional.

…and it has gotten me to thinking about movies I haven’t watched in a long time that need to be revisited.
On the list so far:

The Burbs
Fight Club
The Never Ending Story
The Cube
28 Days Later
Heathers
Ferris Buellers Day Off
A Trip To Bountiful
Reality Bites

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I’m giving up on Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog. Actually, I gave up on it about a week ago I’ve just been to lazy to find something else to read. It’s not that the book was terrible or anything, just not my thing. It’s a collection of pseudo short stories, a lot of rambling nonsense and one clever little play smushed in the mix. I think what bugged me most about this book was the authors need to use the biggest word he could think of in every farkwading sentence. You’re smart and have a great vocabulary, I get it. If only he was actually saying something with all those big words. Alas, halfway through I started to think that none of the rambling was really going anywhere and gave up.

Since putting Corn Dogs down I’ve been supplementing with Grimm’s Fairytails. A lot of the stories are familiar ones (Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, etc) but some I had never read or heard of. Most of them were only a few pages long and nowhere near as grim as the title would have you believe. All the tails are odd and seem to just stop mid thought and wrap everything up in a sentence or two. Probably something to do with them being written for kids. It’s been nice just leafing through and reading in bursts, but I’m ready to dive into a novel again.

So I went to the library and grabbed the first thing that looked interesting. I do this a lot at the library. There is a list of books I want to read and authors I enjoy, but somehow when I walk into a library my mind goes blank and all I can think is “books…burble…words…huh”. Sometimes the random grabs work out, sometimes not so much. Either way, I have something to read again!

The random grab: The Plague by Albert Camus. (I blame my recent stomach issues for drawing me to a book about disease.) Here is hoping it works out better than the Corn Dog book.

Also:
Working extra hours and spending vast amounts of time hunched over a production table with an exacto have rendered me nearly brain dead the last few days. My hands, shoulders and feet ache. I will be so freaking happy when this project is wrapped up and I can get back to some sort of normalcy.

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My OPI obsession has been pretty well documented here over the years. For a long time I didn’t wear anything but OPI. Mostly this was due to the fact that they came out with new lines on a regular basis that were drool worthy enough to keep me from looking elsewhere. But a while ago I was having trouble tracking down the new lines and was compelled to try something new. Thus Essie entered into my collection. I really loved the Essie and ended up getting a few shades (red, brown and an earthy green).

This weekend I went out in search of new nail polish and was once again dismayed by the offerings of OPI. They seem a bit obsessed with this shattered nonsense. I bought it a while ago, and generally liked it. But it’s sorta novelty polish and I got tired of it pretty quick. Since that was pretty much all I was finding in the OPI section I moved on.

Essie has a cute new french inspired line, but they all seem like colors I already own or wouldn’t really get much wear out of as I don’t do pastel as a general rule. So on I moved…and found this:

Nothing says summer is coming the way day-glow does! I love this color It made my nails look like they were painted with a highlighter. But I’m kinda glad I picked it after lopping off all my nails. I don’t think this much bright would work with really long nails. Also, it turns out matte finish polish looks weird on toes. What is fun and funky on fingers jut looks busted and old on toes. Nothing a top coat can’t fix.

This is my first bottle of Zoya polish and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. This is part of their new summer line “Mod Matte” called Mitzi. I tried an OPI matte polish a few years ago and hated it. I loved the finish, but it chipped almost instantly. I’ve had this on for almost a full day now and it seems to be holding strong, though the natural oils from my skin and lotion are shining up the matte finish just a bit.

All these great choices of polish. I feel this summer is going to come with a whole lot of polish changes. Which reminds me…I am WAY over due to sort through my polish bin and toss the stuff that’s old. Old polish goes on crappy and chips a lot sooner. But it’s a good thing, I’m going to need the room

PS – my nails are so effing bright and happy now!

 

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My whole life I have loved to draw. Sometimes more than others…but it’s always been there. The need to put pencil to paper. I don’t do it very often anymore, and most times when I do it feels a little forced. Honestly, right now I can’t remember the last time I opened up my sketchbook to draw. But the desire to do it is as strong as ever.

It’s hard to explain…I want to do it, but once I start I feel like it’s an obligation I’m fulfilling rather than something I’m doing simply because I want to.  I’ve been trying to figure out why this is happening for a while now. Mainly I think it has to do with my own over analytical self telling me I’m not any good…or it’s a waste of time.  That frankly is just stupid. But the insecurity won and  I’d sort of put my sketchbook away along with the thoughts of why things had taken the turn they had. Until a line in the book I’m reading put it back in front of me.

“At such times I reminded myself that life was not a test and no one was grading me. Except my own superego, of course.”

I think I have a tendency to get in my own way a lot. I need to take a step back. Be a bit nicer to myself and not give so much power and authority over my life to my stupid insecurities.  If I’m doing something simply because I enjoy doing it, who gives a shit if I’m any good at it. The point isn’t to be good or bad, it’s just to be happy.

On that note. I picked up my sketchbook again…and plan on spending some time with it. As much or as little as I want. And only because I want to.

The following are the last entries in it. None of them are new…just seeing where I left off. Hopefully there is a lot more to come.

 

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The following short quiz consists of 4 questions. The questions are not that difficult.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Wrong Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the refrigerator.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?
Correct Answer: The Elephant. The Elephant is in the refrigerator. This tests your memory.

OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You swim across. All the Crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

Many preschoolers got correct answers. Most adults got them all wrong.

**I have ZERO idea where this came from originally. I’m doing a bit of house cleaning on the old wordpress front and found this in a pile of discarded drafts of posts.

Today, it made me laugh.

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I have been thinking about the upcoming New Year quite a bit lately, more so than I would like to admit. I have been looking back over the last years (years) and deciphering what it is about my life that needs changing. What issues need resolved. I know this is nothing new, and in fact almost everyone starts to spend a bit more energy pondering the rearview mirror this time of year.

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Just need to post something – promised myself a post today. Sorry, right now this is the best I could come up with.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness.
		- Emo Philips

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The other day I took a walk during my lunch break. I was just wandering around taking in my new surroundings and not really paying attention to where I was going (shocking I know) and got myself good and turned around.  I jogged a few blocks hoping to run accross a street i recognized to no avail. I was lost.

I scoped out the passersby looking for the least menacing character I could find. I spotted an older, nice looking gentleman with a dog (people with dogs always seem more trustworty). I asked him if he could point me in the direction I need to be.  He didn’t look up or make eye contact of any kind, or even make any gesture as to what direction I should head. He just calmly started giving me highly detailed directions. It seemed off, but whatever he was going to get me where I needed to be.  It wasn’t till about half way through his directions I realized he was blind….yup…I had to get directions from a blind man…

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Parking Tickets

Make no mistake about it; a parking lot is a battlefield. Armed with this bad boy, you can now let your enemies know exactly how you feel about their crappy parking. All without talking to them or keying their cars.

Check them, and all the Ready Booklets out at Shinebox Print

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By this point we all know I have a kind of fetish when it comes to OPI nail polish. What you might not know is that I am almost equally obsessed with checking out fashion shows. Unlike OPI, you aren’t going to find any Anna Sui in my closet but it isn’t for lack of want. So when I heard that the new OPI line was an homage to the French Couture lines I couldn’t get to the store fast enough. So fast in fact that I bought before I blogged.

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I have a secret love of the Golden Girls. I think I have seen just about every episode and I know all the words to the theme song by heart. I just wanted to pay tribute to one of the Ladies who made the show what it was.

So, thank you for being a friend.

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Redesigning something as ubiquitous as the milk jug is a daring move. It is almost a given that the majority of people are going to find reasons for hating it. I remember not long ago the milk jugs stopped being clear. Yellow and clear jugs started appearing everywhere, and I hated it. I remember saying, “a yellow milk jug, it’s just weird”. But then I discovered the reasoning behind the change: it makes the milk last longer. So what are the benefits of the new “square” jugs?

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The following is a compilation of random crap from random sources. Some true, some partially true, some totally made up, all totally useless (unless you count giving me something to do to avoid working on my budget).

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Gandhi said “the world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for
everyone¹s greed”

What, you thought I was going to make some kind of joke or something?

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It’s that time again! Summer is finally kicking Spring out of the way. With summer’s entrance comes a new line of fun finger hues from OPI. Just what I needed to shake the dust off another work week.

“This season, OPI goes mod-ern with Mod About Brights, the newest selection of shades in the Brights by OPI line.

Mod About Brights captures the fun and edginess of the mod “invasion” of the Sixties, but with a bright twist that makes these colors exciting and current for 2008. And with fashion right now being all about strong color and vivid, graphic prints, these are the shades that look up-to-the-minute on fingertips and toes.

If you love color, you’ll be Mod About Brights”

I am torn once again as to which is my favorite. I am really liking the orange and green, but I think the pink will be more functional. I have a little time to decide, the new line isn’t due in stores until June.

To see the entire line visit OPI.com

(my picks up to now, I will have to see them in person to make my final choice)

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