Random Thoughts

So I was just thinking about the reading I did in school, and I recalled that there was a book by… uh, someone, called 'The Cat Who Went to Heaven' that was an option for us to read in our history class if we'd finished another book before the due date.

As I recall, it was a decent enough book, about a cat who befriends an artist in some eastern country where the religion suggested that cats were bad and could never go to heaven and the artist has to paint a mural for some prince or something. I can't say anything about how accurate it was to the culture it presented since I barely remember what it was about and it was back in middle school that I read it, but there was one very significant flaw with the book that made it difficult for me to fully appreciate it (though I did in the end anyway).

This book was severely lacking in mustached journalists who went around solving mysteries with a couple of siamese cats. Talk about a total letdown...

I AM SO UNINSPIRED

So due to me not being able to concentrate on anything for extended periods of time (well, unless it's Legos or Pokémon) I haven't really been able to get any new posts up.

Sorry about that. In the meantime, have a Lego Pyramid Head riding an alligator.

Also: if an actual Silent Hill Lego set exists I am so totally buying it someday.

Screw Adulthood, Man!

So I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of my Halloween costume yet. I did finish it, but wearing it is a pain and there are a few things I need to fix and then I have to dress up and get my mom to help me take pictures and blah blah blah here's what else I've been up to lately.

Those of you who know me (and know me relatively well) will know that I tend to gravitate towards kids' toys to entertain myself.  Why? Because they're #@*%ing awesome, that's why. Also because we have a lot of them from when me and my three older siblings were all kids. Most of these toys are in storage, but I did make a pointed effort to find the legos and bring them home so I could build things.

Of course, I like to make sure I have them sorted first.

By which I mean I connect all the ones that are the same shape because I don't have enough different compartments to sort things into. But you get the point.



There is a slight problem, though. All the things that I want to make with legos require quite a lot more of the regular building blocks than I have on hand. So, I've decided to see just how much I can build by building a singular entity. In this case, a tower built on a 16x16 whatever-unit-you-use-to-describe-those-little-connecty-round-bumps base. I started out hoping to have the outside of the tower look like it was made completely out of the regular block shapes, but then I started running out of the regular shapes so I decided to get creative and use everything that I could possibly use to build this monstrosity. At this point I'm having to get really creative, but it's a fun challenge and my tower's really friggin' tall now so I'm really enjoying myself.

You can probably tell where I gave up on trying to make it look pretty with the regular block pieces and just started using everything I could stick on there.

So yeah, that's what I've been doing when I'm not doing inventory for the gallery or wasting time playing games on facebook. Pretty cool, huh?

Still loving Escher Girls

So remember that Halloween costume I talked about a while back? Here's a sneak peek:

Only imagine I'm like 50 times sexier. And not wearing pajama pants. Also, I think this is the first time I've looked at my boobs and thought, "Huh, they look kinda small," since I went through puberty.

So yeah, I'm going to be making a few adjustments to the original design, mainly due to time constraints and only having access to materials through the smallest (or second smallest, I forget which) Wal-Mart in the world, but at this point this costume is definitely happening. So yay for that, I guess.

Things about me that usually get a surprised reaction, Part 1

So I guess I'm going to start a series of posts about things about me that, when I tell other people about them, tend to get some surprised reactions out of people. Why did I decide to do this? Because I just had a thought about pancakes and I wanted an excuse to tell the world that I don't like pancakes.

So, uh, anyway, I don't like pancakes.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hear me out, people. It's not that I think they're bad, it's just that they're not high on my list of favorite breakfast foods. This is because I don't generally like to start my day off with something as rich as pancakes, and I've had one too many occasions where I've eaten too many pancakes for breakfast (usually at the Patio Pancake Place in Salida, CO which is owned and run by extended family and has some awesome food and great service so if you're in Salida around breakfast or lunch time you should check it out) which is not always a bad thing in itself, but when there are enough times that it's followed by having to sit in a car for a few hours - especially when you're prone to carsickness and forgetting to do things that can help prevent said carsickness - then it loses its appeal really quickly.

So basically I can't really eat pancakes because they remind me of being carsick. Crepes are still cool, though.

MY BRAIN HATES ME.

So I was going to go out on another dish-adventure today but it's been raining for most of the day and there's even snow up on the mountains so that didn't happen.  Instead, I've got a post for you that could be seen as making light of a serious issue (because it kind of is) but is really just me sharing one of the weird things my brain does when confronted with a serious issue.  Basically I wanted to go on a rant about something but then I remembered how much I hate trying to write out my thoughts on serious issues because I get really frustrated whenever I can't fully say what I want to say and also I'd rather be playing with legos right now.  Anyway, I do want people to know what I think about this but I'm saving the full rant for another day when I can actually concentrate on it.  Just thought I'd say that as a disclaimer or something because OMG ANXIETY okay seriously now onto the post.

One of the problems with having a strong obsessive-compulsive streak is that it tends to make me want to argue against blunt, all-encompassing 'such-and-such is always this or that' statements.  I also have to make it very clear whenever I'm making a generalization because I know there are exceptions and I don't want to perpetuate stereotypes or whatever, so a lot of my time is spent going 'okay so things are like this EXCEPT when this or maybe sometimes this could happen or-'

THIS IS ANNOYING. Especially for me. See, you don't have to worry about it because you can't read my mind (and if you can… why don't you go do something a little bit more useful with your life? Seriously, that's kind of rude) but I get to live in my mind all the time so I get to hear the stupid arguments my brain makes ALL THE TIME.

Now, granted, there are times when this can be useful.  For instance, when someone's making a hurtful statement or is blatantly wrong and the consequences of said person being wrong are… well, pretty bad, then it's good to argue and point out when someone's generalizing or whatever.  The thing is, my brain also does this when I hear statements that I agree with.

Take the phrase 'rape is never okay.'  On a logical, rational level, I agree wholeheartedly with this statement.  The very definition of rape is having sex with someone without their consent, and I don't think it's fair to force an activity on anyone, especially one that can result in so a multitude of physical and mental health problems.  The excuses rapist apologists throw out there, like 'I'm a man! I can't control myself when I see a hot piece of ass like that!' or 's/he shouldn't have gone out drinking if she didn't want to get raped,' 'she should've been wearing a burkha,' or 's/he didn't actually say no so s/he must have wanted it' are, to put it bluntly, complete bullshit*.

But then my brain kicks in, and it decides that, since not everything in the world is in black and white, that there MUST be an exception to the rule.  And then it has to go and find it.  Oh, and it also has to make it fit in with my beliefs, because otherwise my brain would just be a total asshole.  The result?  Usually something like this:

Rape is never okay.  Okay, well, maybe there's someone out there who… no, wait.  Oh, I know!  If there's an evil virgin out there whose virginity is literally destroying the world through some evil virgin-magical force of evilness and they're refusing to lose their virginity because, well, evil… then, well, maybe.  But the odds of that happening are pretty slim so yeah, rape is never okay.

So basically my brain takes the BS excuses from whoever I'm arguing against and comes up with extreme hypothetical scenarios where maybe their arguments would be valid, but I don't like to share them because… well, you know, they're pretty stupid and impossible so there's really not any sort of point in sharing them.

*If you disagree with this statement, then I can only say the following: You don't have to agree with me, but I don't have to respect you for being an asshole.

The Circle of Dishes

So I was unloading the dishwasher the other day and I thought, you know what? Dishes must have a really fucking boring life.

I mean, think about it.  All they do is get food put on them, go to wherever you want to eat with you, probably sit on the counter/table/nightstand/floor/whatever for a while, get washed, and get put away.  Sure, maybe sometimes they'll get to go outside when you want to sit out front and eat your food, and maybe you'll do something a bit more interesting with them like use a cup to trap all those bees that keep flying into your house because your windows don't have screens and the one window they love the most doesn't open, but other than that it's pretty much the same routine.

Well, you know what? I won't stand for it any longer.  I'm going to break the circle.  I'm going to give my dishes the fucking dish-adventure of a lifetime.

So let's start with a plate on the windowsill in the sun room.

Pretty awesome, huh?  But this is only the beginning.  It's time to take it even further.


OUTSIDE!

BY THE CREEK!

OVER THE BRIDGE!

IN THE ALLEY BY A FENCE! 

DOWN THE ROAD!

HUT WITH A VIEW!

SITTING IN THE WINDOW!

Just look at that gorgeous view.

So, that's the first adventure of the sandwich plate.  Pretty fun, huh?  Just remember, kids (or, um, dishes), don't play in traffic.

Next week: Plates in the Playground