IT'S RANT TIME!!

I've talked about this a lot, because it's something I feel very passionate about. I'm going to talk about it more because it just keeps happening. No one seems to learn. Rantiness follows the jump.

OH VACATION

I'm back from a four day romp in NYC! Two friends from out of town were visiting over New Years and we had a big NYC adventure planned. Good times were had by all. I really enjoyed shopping in Brooklyn. Thrift stores are your friend! Brooklyn was my favorite part. We only spent the one day in Brooklyn which I was sad about. If I decided to go to NYC for graduate school I'll want to live in Brooklyn for sure. It's (mostly) more affordable and I like the atmosphere better. The streets are wider, the buildings shorter, less crowded. You're not constantly getting bumped into by tourists who can't walk and stare at the big buildings at the same time. Brooklyn is the place for me!

Manhattan was cool too, don't get me wrong. You can't MOVE though. People are always standing around in the middle of the side walk, gaping at things or yelling on their cell phones. There's always someone in your way in Manhattan. At least in the parts we were walking around. There are probably more mellow parts of the island but we didn't find any of them.

Next time I go I just want to explore. There's so much to discover in New York! The city is designed to take a lot of money from people who don't know any better and we sure didn't! I want to find the good places to shop/eat/play that don't cost an arm and a leg. I know there are lots because people do have to live in the city on budgets. There are lots of poor, low income, and middle class people who live in New York. I want to find the places they do their every day things. Mostly I want to experience what it's like to live there for myself.

I was hoping to see more weirdos! Maybe the cold keeps them covered up in their wool coats. I know I was bundled up and couldn't show my true colors until I found an awesome mustard yellow and red plaid coat for $18.50 at Buffalo Exchange! The first two days in the city were spent wearing my grandmother's old coat. It's nice and warm but it's totally shapeless. There are trash bags out there with more shape to them! I was really excited to find the new coat because it has a shape to it! I felt much sassier in my new coat! I just don't feel myself if I'm not wearing something bold and colorful. As much as I get annoyed when people stare at me I would feel much more uncomfortable if I wore all black and grey. I would rather deal with ignorant people who can't appreciate bright colors and bold patterns than dress to disappear.

ANYWAY! I really liked being in the city. We had good times, we ate AWESOME pizza and Thai food (Tom Yum noodle soup!) and did some very fun shopping. I got a new tube of Urban Decay Primer Potion (which I love) because my old tube was all dried out and almost totally empty. Very glad to have that particular beauty basic. Wearing eyeshadow before having the PP was such a waste!

This post is such a mishmash. I'll make another one in the next few days about some items I've received in the mail that will really change the look of my Etsy shop for the better! I'm still waiting on a few items to arrive but I have enough to get started and I can't wait to get back to work! I have so many ideas floating around in the ol' head. There's so much more to come!

INSPIRATION MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND

I just wanted to make a quick little list of people who inspire me to create, to keep trying, to work my hardest, and to be my best!

First up we have Twinkie Chan!
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This woman inspired me to learn how to crochet! I had a couple months of being marooned in the desert at my mother's house after graduating college. I needed a distraction from the misery of doing absolutely nothing all day (it was too hot to cast resin cause of no a/c in 100º heat) so I decided to learn a new craft! I fell in love with crochet. Twinkie was a huge part of that. I saw the sculptural potential in crochet that knitting just didn't seem to possess. My mom is a knitter and I always wanted to learn a yarn craft to feel closer to her but I just never could wrap my head around it. Crochet was a different matter. I started to understand it almost instantly. I'm not a whiz or anything but i've started sculpting with crochet and it feels amazing. My portfolio for my MFA applications is going to be so soft and fuzzy! Thanks Twinkie!

Next we have Athina LaBelle of Eclectic Essentials Boutique!

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I just recently discovered Athina's work. She inspired me to start playing more with pastel colors in my resin! I always left the pastel colors in a corner, all neglected. I love pastel but I would forget about it in favor of brighter, more saturated colors because that's what I usually am drawn to. Seeing how this stay-at-home mom/jewelry designer used pastel colors to such wonderful ends I was really inspired to start playing with them myself. I've fallen so much in love with my pastel glitters! I've been mixing pastel with bold saturated colors and the result is really great. I'm loving it and loving her jewelry! She's also inspired me in part to start working with chunky curb chains and beading for the necklace part of my pendants. I'm so tired of slapping a pendant that I worked hard on onto a commercial ball chain with no personality. I want my chains to be just as DIY and fun as the jewelry they suspend.

And now for Amy Shrinkle!

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This girl makes some of the most awesome clothes! Not only that but she makes her clothes in more than just her own size. I love that! There are a number of other handmade clothing sellers who ONLY make clothes in their own size. I might not be a fatty anymore but I'm tall and have wide hips so a size 4-6 is out of the question for me! Even at my skinniest (I looked like an unhealthy twig!) I was a size 10-11 because of my height and bone structure. It feels really good to know that there are designers who understand that there are different types of girls out there and they ALL deserve to look fabulous! I can't wait for the launch of her Sugarpill cosmetics line. She always has amazing makeup on and I can't wait to see what the mind behind her makeup looks has been working on for 4 years! You know that after 4 years of conceptualizing and building that her makeup isn't going to be repackaged junk that you can get for $5 an ounce. It's going to be bold, original and fun. I'm so looking forward to it!

This next girl was a close friend some years ago. We lost touch a little bit but I still hold her in my heart. I'm talking about Roux!

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Hilary (aka Roux aka Tom Hoshino) was a really good friend back in the early 2000's. I even went to visit her in Cincinnati! I had a blast with her. There was a group of us on VLC (before it was mostly just furry porn). We all drew each other's characters constantly. We talked all the time. It was a good feeling to be part of that group. I miss all those people. I started moving away from the anthro scene but I still love the colorful characters and I don't think there's anything weird about anthro art. The porn can be a little weird but it's not like these people are having sex with REAL animals so whatever. I would never be an advocate of art censorship! Anyway, Hilary still really inspires me! Thanks to her I've been feeling the drawing itch a lot lately. I even drew today! It felt great and I would really like to get back into illustration for fun. I hated being an Illustration major in school but I love drawing. I think I just needed a drawing hiatus. NOT drawing did me a lot of favors but it's starting to feel wrong. I know I have a lot of talent in that area and it's silly to waste it. I know that there are people who would be happy to hear that I'm putting pencil to paper again. Maybe some day my illustrations will be popping up on DeviantArt again! I miss you Hilaroux. You were and still are a big influence on me!

And finally (for now) Sam MacKenzie!

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I LOVE this kid's work. Ha. I say "kid" but he's only a year younger than I am. This Australian is a favorite artist of mine. has been for years. I really look forward to his big sketch compilations. I think I enjoy artists' sketches and unfinished doodles more than their completed pieces. I feel like you learn more about their process and how their brains work from their doodles. I love his range! From pretty girls to silly doodles to big burly men with arms the size of trucks. His drawings can make me laugh and I do love to laugh. Looking at his work makes me BURN to draw things. Particularly cute girls in their underoos! He seems to really understand anatomy to the point of warping and bending it to his will. I like that. I also love boobies! Boobies make me happy. So thanks Sam! Thanks for boobies and inspiration galore!

That's it for now! There are a billion more people and things that inspire me every day. Too many to list really. But as of right this minute these are the people who are on my mind. I wanted to give them some credit for helping me keep the creative juices flowing! Without people to inspire us we would never do anything new or original. No artist can exist in a vacuum. We need other people around us doing things, making things, thinking, breathing. Otherwise we become stagnant and boring. With all the inspiration on the internet there's NO reason to be boring or uninspired. There are a million reasons to make something!

What inspires you internets? Colors? People? Books? Places? We all draw inspiration from somewhere. I would love to hear about yours!!

COMPANIONS OF XANTH

via gamershell.com

via abandonia.com

Via abandonia.com

There's this old game released in 1993 called Companions of Xanth. It's based off a Piers Anthony book called Demons Don't Dream. I never read the book but I LOVED the game. Of course in 1993 I was 8 so I couldn't really appreciate the puns and metaphors that make up the game. Almost every character in the game has a name that is a pun. A great deal of the dialog is puns. There's puzzles and riddles and all kinds of fun word play. I love word play!

Anyway I've been wanting to play this game again for several months but I couldn't for the life of me remember the name of the game, the characters, the release date. Nothing. I searched and searched through databases of video games released in the 1990s but I wasn't finding anything that sounded familiar besides stuff like Bomberman, Final Fantasy VII, and 007 Goldeneye. Not exactly what I was looking for! Finally I called my brother and asked him if he remembered. This hurt my pride a little because I was so determined to find it on my own. It was worth it though because he remembered immediately what I was talking about and gave me the title of the game!

With the title I was able to find an emulator for the game and I'm currently playing through right now! I remember a lot from when I was younger so that's helping solve the puzzles. It's not really a hard game to begin with. I'm playing it for the nostalgia mostly. I'm so glad that I found it and was able to download it for free. It's a lot of fun. Cute and silly with a lot of "Ha! See what they did there?!" with puns and metaphors.

One of the things that always amused me was the metaphors in the game. They're taken very literally. If you kick a bucket in the game you die. Also don't bite any dust! I don't remember if anyone offers to sell you a farm but I wouldn't buy that either! For someone who loves word play it's an excellent game. I think word play is the highest form of language. Knowing your language so well that you can alter it to hilarious ends is a fantastic ability. There are native English speakers in our country who can't enjoy puns because they just haven't learned enough grammar and vocabulary to understand them. That makes me really sad.

Word play is very close to my heart and so are video games! Any childhood favorites that you would love to get hold of? Maybe some vague memories of a game that influenced your life? I would love to hear about other's childhood game memories! Maybe we share some favorites!

And now back to the game!

Update 11:30PM 12/25/09: Just finished Companions of Xanth! It's not a very long game. Total play time was probably 4-6 hours over about 3 days. It's not a long game but it was still lots of fun. Just like I remember it! Only this time around I could fully appreciate the puns! It was worth looking up. I'm really glad I was able to find it again and play. I'm so grateful for the internet and all it has to offer, especially when it comes to old bootlegged games! Maybe I'll look up some more old games from my childhood.

GUILTY PLEASURES

I have a number of guilty pleasures! They range from bad TV, internet celebrities I follow, eating too many cupcakes while my boyfriend isn't looking, to things I say, and clothing combinations.

Here is a list of some of my guilty pleasures!

☆ Charmed - I love that silly show! It's so campy, the acting (at least by the extras and guest stars is usually TERRIBLE! The plot is nonexistent and the dialog is ridiculous. But I love every minute of it. It's so bad it's good!

☆ Cupcakes - This might seem like it doesn't belong but the reason it's a guilty pleasure is I usually eat WAY too many. My boyfriend isn't a health nut or anything but he lost 100lbs this year so he's at least much more health conscious than he used to be. He eats a lot of veggies and lean meat and doesn't want me baking cupcakes all the time because they're too tempting for him to have in the house all the time. He also doesn't like it when I eat too many sweets. We butt heads about this all the time because if I could I would live off cupcakes and candy! Sometimes I sneak cupcakes when he's not around or already asleep. I feel bad about it sometimes but cupcakes are IMPORTANT damnit!

☆ Jeffree Star - I almost never agree with his attitude, especially when he's talking about how he's better than everyone else or telling other people to suck it, but I love him! I have no idea why. Maybe it's because he's a sparkling Glamazon, or because he's a pink haired freak much like me, only he's got a lot more people making him look good than I do. Maybe I just love pretty things. I've always had a weak spot for gay boys in makeup. Whatever the reason I can't seem to stop watching him! I don't like his music and I don't really even like HIM... But I love him. It's weird!

☆ Scene Hair - I LOVE SCENE HAIR! Oooh man it hurts to admit that but I do. I love big, choppy, brightly colored scene hair. The bigger the better. When I got my hair cut over the summer I wanted choppy layers that I could tease up if I wanted. I don't straighten my whole head, just the bangs, so it's not actually "scene hair" but it's close. I've had candy colors in my hair since I was 14 (10 years!) so that's nothing new. I just love the way scene hair looks. It's funky, it's versatile, it's cute! And my hair looks cute with a scene inspired cut!

☆ Hostess Orange Cupcakes - Even though I bake now and make my own awesome orange cupcakes I still love the orange Hostess cupcakes! They don't have any ingredients that you could actually pronounce... In fact I don't think they're actually food but they're so GOOD! I could eat 10 of them in one sitting. I used to buy them almost daily from the gas station on the walk to classes while I was in college. NOM NOM NOM!

☆ Christmas TV Specials - Smurfs Christmas special anyone? I LOVE Christmas specials. It's funny because I HATE Christmas music. I don't even really like Christmas besides getting gifts and seeing family... Hell I don't even really like the family part. My family is NUTS. But I love the TV specials. When I was younger I would be glued to the TV during Christmas break watching all the specials from Smurfs to Scooby-Doo to freaking PAC-MAN! All of it. I love it! I even love the stop motion animation Christmas specials like the Nutcracker. Although the beginning of the Nutcracker would always scare me. The part where little boys and girls who stay up too late get taken away. That would freak me right the fuck out! It still gives me the willies a bit.

☆ ANY Horror Movie - As long as it isn't a slasher flick (with a few exceptions) I will watch it and enjoy it. Sometimes the worse the horror movie the more I love it. The Silent Hill movie? LOVE IT. (Arguably the Silent Hill movie wasn't "bad". It was just going in the same direction of the bad dubbing that the games are victims of. The dialog was stilted and rigid just like in the games and I'd like to think it was done on purpose!) The second and third Resident Evil movies? Ooooh yeah I watched them. They were terrible but I still watched them more than once! I even BOUGHT the second movie! The first RE movie was pretty bad ass though. No complaints there. I'll watch just about ANYTHING with zombies. I love zombies. I'm scared to death of the actual zombie apocalypse. My boyfriend and I have had very serious discussions about what we will do in case of zombies. We've got a plan all laid out and it isn't your average "Go to the ammo shop and load up with guns then hole up in the country" kind of plan. We have PLAN plan! We're gonna SURVIVE that shit! Also we have sworn that if either of us is bit we will kill each other. If he gets bit by a zombie I have promised to pull the trigger and he'd do the same for me. That's real love!

☆ Plaid With Stripes?! - Well not necessarily those two together but I have been known to mix polka dots with stripes and other clashing patterns. I love to wear my floral print leggings with my pink boots that have a doodly map of France printed on them. I love to mix prints that wouldn't/shouldn't go together. I LOVE to clash. It's so much fun to break the rules of fashion and do your own thing. It's gotten to the point where if I'm not clashing in some way I feel uncomfortable! :3

☆ "Where did you get that?!" "Oh this? ...I made it" - I know it's not kosher to brag but when someone asks where I got something I made myself I can't help but blush and feel special when I tell them that I made it myself! The look of amazement on their faces is so priceless and it gives me such a boost! There was a particular time when a woman at my retail job was looking for a specific hat and I just couldn't find it for her. I was wearing a hat I had crocheted the night before. She asked casually "What about that hat (meaning mine), does it come in solid colors?" and I had to say "This hat? Oh... It didn't come from here. I made it." She looked astounded and it really made my day! Having something unique that you just can't buy in the store is priceless.

That's all I got for right now! How about you internets? Anyone want to share their guilty pleasures with me? Everyone has something they love but are just the littlest bit embarrassed by! Charmed is a big one for me. I have a lot of trouble declaring my love for that show because it's so BAD! I kept my Charmed watching secret and would get all sketchy when someone asked me what I was watching! Come on! Share with me!