Tuesday Bruiseday

Tuesday bruiseday stands for the day your ego gets beat all to Hell. You may think you're all that and a bag of chips but guess what so does everybody else.  Does your ego get your work done?  Does your ego pay the bills? Does your ego spend time volunteering for worthy causes? Today is your opportunity to give your ego a swift kick in the ass and tell it goodbye.  If you're one of those people who has to prove that you did something before it became popular, or you thought of something first, or you did something super terrific but nobody was around to see it, you need a swift kick in the ass to go along with the one your ego needs.  Everybody is great at something and if we all sat around and bragged about what we're so good at we'd never get anything done.
Onto the rest of the stuff....

This is still a work in progress, especially since one of the dogs licked this while I had it leaned up against a bookcase so I could work on something else. (I think someday, if I wish really hard, I'll get a room to work in that's bigger than a closet.)  The last time I painted with a group of people someone encouraged me to paint snow. I responded with, I'm so over snow right now. So I've been painting bright, summer scenes. Now that summer is just around the corner I wish it were snowing. Crazy I know, but once the grass turns green and the leaves come back so does all of the noise that comes with it. Constant sounds from lawn mowers, cars, weed eaters and people. Why is it that some people think they're the only one's around? The noisy table in the restaurant, the people who insist on talking in a movie theater, or those people who stand in the middle of a parking lot to chit chat. How is it that they turn off the rest of the world? I'm sort of jealous because I think they may know some inside secret to how the universe works. Until I know for sure I'll just have to continue to believe they're jack asses.

Here is my Bob Ross moment.  I painted some happy little trees with some fluffy white clouds. This one is a total experiment. I wish my camera would capture what it really looks like because this and the previous one don't look that washed out in person. Actually none of my work has ever been photographed really well and I doubt anyone else's has either. This is the part where I tell you that you should go visit an art museum, or go to a gallery to look at the work in real life. It's important to experience different things, it's how we grow as people. Once people start growing, learning and experiencing new things then society will grow along with it. Some people's lives can be described as always going through the drive-thru and ordering the same thing every day. If they would actually park the car, get out and go inside they may experience something new. There is one fast food restaurant around here that has a limited menu at the drive thru but an extensive one inside, if you never get out of the car to see what's on the menu inside you could be missing out on some truly great stuff.

 Speaking of trying new things in a non-metaphorical way, I decided to make my own koni salad. I realise that a lot of people spell it kani salad, and I have no idea why it's spelled one way or the other, but I'm spelling it koni. I thought it would be super easy if I used this chipotle mayo. It's chipotle and I'll give you a dirty look if you pronounce it chipolte. First off, this mayo choice was cheap and fast and not that great. Sorry Kraft but your chipotle tastes like you use artificial smoke flavour, which is NASTY! If you're going to go this route I'd suggest making your own or finding a brand that tastes better.  It did have a good spiciness to it, but flavour wise, bleeeeech.

 I went ahead and tried to make my salad anyways thinking (hoping) that the flavours of the other ingredients would help. I used one whole cucumber.

 and a whole package of fake leg style crab. Seriously, it's just fish, it tastes good and it's easier than real crab.

I cut the cucumber in small parts to make it easier to work with. 

 I used a vegetable peeler to peel off the skin.  Which by the way, did you know that kids today are taught in school that cucumbers are fruit? Apparently kids are now taught that vegetables grow underground  like potatoes, onions and turnips. Everything else is fruit. The fuck you say. Yea, I cursed because that's just stupid.

 I sliced up the cucumbers several times to make thin pieces.

 Then I cut up the crabfish.

 This is the part where, if you have a smart mouthed kid who tells you that cucumbers are fruit, you can make them help you pull the crabfish apart. It's fun and they'd probably enjoy it. Make sure they wash the boogers off of their hands first please.

 Throw the cucumbers and crabfish in a bowl.

 I used 1/3 cup of the chipotle mayo. I just guessed at the amount, but it turned out to be just the right amount.

Then I mixed it up and put it in the fridge. When you go to eat/serve it you can add panko breading to it and roe if you want. It only took about 15 minutes to clean, cut and mix so it's a pretty easy and quick salad to make.

Speaking of food, here's something that I learned recently, the PLU codes found on vegetables and fruits, if you can figure out which is what, are actually a code that can possibly tell you if your food is organic or genetically modified. My first job ever was in a grocery store and I thought the numbers were just so we could ring them up in the cash register and help with inventory. It really does tell you more than that. Snopes has some information that sort of makes sense. This website has pretty much the same information but explains the coding a little bit better. According to that site my lemon that used to be attached to this sticker was most likely covered in poison and grown in depleted soil. Wow. The stickers to keep an eye out for have five digits and if it starts with a 9 it's organic, if it starts with an 8 it's the closest thing to a member of the X-Men in real life. 

Something else that probably has horrible things on the label, but it's oh so good. Bubbaloo is one of my favourite treats. It's chewing gum with the liquid in the center. The flavour only lasts about 5 minutes, but it's good while it lasts. This one you see pictured here is spicy.  SPICY GUM! It's amazing.

I made a trip to Aldi and found their brand of coffee for the Keurig.  I'm a Tassimo fan myself, but my machine is on the fritz so my mom let me borrow one of her Keurig machines. The only thing the Keurig has over the Tassimo is that you can use your own coffee if you get one of those filters, otherwise Tassimo makes a way better cup of coffee. Back to Aldi coffee. It's just ok. It's half the price of the other brands and tastes good, but it's not the best. There is another brand that makes inexpensive single serve cups that taste better called Cameron's. They don't sell it in any of the grocery stores where I live so Aldi coffee will have to do. The new parts for my Tassimo are on their way though. (hooray)

The book for this week, Smashed Story of a Drunken Girlhood.  Right away I could relate to this book. Not because I had a drunken girlhood, but reading it put me right back to my experiences.  I was the observer of other girls drunken girlhoods. I'm not going to claim that I never drank, I did but not that often. I knew girls who drank all the time and they drank for the same reasons why this girl did. It was peer pressure, but of course she said it wasn't peer pressure. She was a follower, but said she wasn't. She's a lot like the girls I went to school with. They wanted to fit in and bond with their friends and if that meant drinking that's what they did. I hung around girls who thought it was stylish to dress like white trash. They'd wear wife beaters and cut off jeans. I didn't and I never understood why some of those girls did, especially when they looked so uncomfortable. If they looked uncomfortable on the outside they had to be miserable on the inside. This book isn't ground breaking or earth shattering but it's worth reading. It will either remind you of your own stupidity or help prevent you from being an asshole. Guys may not relate so well with this book but it could help them understand why women do some of the things they do. I got this book at the half price book store, it was only $2 and well worth it.

Comic book for this week, Kill Shakespeare. I've been meaning to read this but kept putting it off. I was worried about what would happen if it was really good. I waited way too long to find out that it's not really good so I won't have to worry about freaking out about how good it is. Thing is, it would be good if it wasn't trying to be "Shakespeare". The art, I really like it.  The story is great too, but the writer got lazy and threw in a bunch of, thee, thyself, thou, thy and 'twas. If it would have just stayed modern throughout it would have been less annoying. It reminded me of those jack ass people who add an "o" on the end of a word and they think it's Spanish. 

Finally, here's the daily doodle. My sketchbook is almost full and I'm curious, what do people do with sketchbooks once they're full? I usually throw mine away, mostly because I don't want to end up looking like a crazy fool like Kevin Spacey's character in the movie Seven. So many notebooks, so much crap! So what is the normal thing to do? Do I find a shelf to keep them on and if it gets overcrowded start throwing them away? Let me know what you do, unless you're some weird psycho killer because I don't want anything to do with what you're doing. 

Rhymes With High

I always knew he was a pest.

Tuesday I Live In Stupid Town Tuesday

The way the last few days have been going I just don't think I can handle the blues today. I need something to bring me back to life. If only this song came with a real beach, waves and a surfboard.
I can't even begin to tell you just how ridiculously stupid the last few days have been.  The area where I'm living seems to be a pit of negativity.  Mean, nasty, horrible people.  All I could do was try to save myself by burning some sage last night. I think it worked in my home, but I don't think there's enough sage for the surrounding area. That's OK, if I worry about myself then I won't have to worry about how all of the jackasses in town are going to manage. This really is stupid town. Lucky for me I've never been accepted into this town, I must not be stupid enough.
Yesterday was really bad and nothing I did seemed to get me out of my funk. (until I burned the sage and said some prayers).

 I even went outside and painted yesterday.  That turned out to be crap too. See, it's crap. Just looking at this reminds me of how crappy yesterday was. I'm going to burn this. Probably with sage.

I did get to spy on some wildlife last weekend. This is a Great Blue Heron playing with its food. It caught a fish, then carried it to the grass and threw it on the ground. Then it pecked at it and tossed it in the air. It did that a few times then picked it back up and flew away with it.

 See, here he is before he threw his food on the ground. Perhaps he's tenderizing it?

There he goes, flying away with his tenderized fish. This shot isn't that great because the stupid tree in front of me made it hard to focus on the bird. Also, sometimes you just get caught up in the moment and don't realise you're not in focus. It's not amateur, it's just paying attention to what you're seeing and not what you're doing.

Something else that brought a smile to my face this week. Hot and spicy pickles.  These are so delicious!

Something else that's so delicious, goat milk paletons. For real, they're made with goat milk.

See, it's nutritious candy. Nutritious candy should make everybody happy.

Next up, I FINALLY figured out how to make a tract. If you're not familiar then get familiar. Those really awful religious comics that people hand out are actually kinda entertaining.  I like the way they look and they didn't look like they'd be that hard to make.  Well, after about 20 sheets of paper that were printed the wrong way I finally figured out the secret to printing these bad boys out. Bad is right. I used several of the one page comics that I write and post here on Wednesday to fill up this book. Now that I know the "secret" to printing these out it's game on, look out!

If you're interested in making your own tract and find it's not  as easy as it looks, hit me up and I'll gladly help you out. I've got the secret to it written on a piece of paper and locked it in a vault for safe keeping.

I got a new journal/sketchbook.  The price sticker ripped off part of the cover so I had to re-draw the finger.  It's silly really and I can't quite figure out what the original artist was drawing on this hand. Just below the index finger, what's going on there? I don't know, the cover isn't it's finest moment anyways.

Here's the great part about it.  This book is made out of sugar cane paper. When sugar cane is turned into sugar there is waste called sugar cane bagasse which can be recycled and turned into paper. Sugar cane grows faster than trees so paper made from sugar can should be a no brainer. Inside it I already wrote some words of wisdom. These are words from Peter McCollough's blog over at Leica's Camera Blog. http://blog.leica-camera.com/photographers/blog-contributors/look3-blog-contributors/peter-mccollough-ideas-for-breaking-out-of-a-creative-drought/ I wrote a few of the quotes he mentions that I felt were inspiring/helpful. "Hesitation is destruction." "Welcome failure because it leads to growth." "Don't worry about the answers. You'll never find them until you embrace the questions." "Stay away from imitating others. Know the difference between inspiration and imitation." and one of the best ones "Your subconscious is like a secret factory, if you feed it good things than good things will probably come out."

Here's the book of the week. Again, it is mostly pictures, but there are plenty of words to read too. I've been so busy that I haven't been able to read a decent book. A friend let me borrow one that looks good so next week I should have something exciting to share.  Although this one is pretty exciting. I've always been interested in fashion.  Fashion is a great way for people to express themselves. Unfortunately today people lack a lot of self expression.  Unless of course pajamas and flip flops is some form of self expression then whatev.  Just express yourself away from the direction my eyes are looking please. Even if you don't take the time to read the book and learn about the designers the pictures are plenty entertaining. It's also funny because this book covers the 20s through the 80s and you can see how styles overlap and intermingle.

You can also see that Lady Gaga is less than original. Her old hat is old hat. This dress is Paco Rabanne and the "headdress" is Alexandre Boutique. Underneath all of that is Penelope Tree and this was 1967. Lady Gaga is so stale.

Another reason why I didn't have time to read a "normal" book is that I chose to read this comic book.  I'm a huge fan of Flash Gordon and I'm a huge fan of old comic books. When I found volume one and two I jumped on them and have no regrets, especially since they're in great condition and I only spent $10 on them. Flash Gordon doesn't get a lot of mention anymore and I wonder if it's because nobody wants real life heroes.  This is one of the reasons why I enjoy Flash so much and why I used to love Batman. Flash Gordon and Batman are two comic book characters with no superpowers. They're humans, they have no x-ray vision or spidey senses. That's what makes them great, that's what inspires others to be great. I know I'll never have the power to fly or turn invisible but neither does Flash and he still fights the bad guys, so maybe I can too?  LONG LIVE FLASH!

Just had to add that little part in for emphasis.  Am I the only one who gets the chills when he lays down that sword and jumps for joy?  I LOVE THIS MOVIE.

 Finally we've made it to the daily doodle.  This is in my sketchbook.  I've been showing stuff from that lately which is weird. Seriously, the stuff inside it is really weird, but it's also weird that I'm sharing it. It's like a private invitation to look at my brain. This sketchbook is basically my subconscious vomiting onto paper. I scribble in here and often don't even know what I'm doing. I believe I did this while watching The Hobbit. If you can find anything symbolic between the two you're doing better than I am. I really put hardly any thought into what goes in here.  I'm hoping that 200 years from now someone will find it and think it's a secret book and they try to decipher its meaning. That gives me an idea.
Try to stay positive, even if you're in a pit of negativity like I am. Let's worry about ourselves first because until we're perfect we shouldn't worry about how other people are living their lives.

Tuesday Hooker Bluesday

John Lee Hooker is one of my all time favourites so that's why I picked him for today.  I hope you're not like me.  Sometimes when I have something favourite I try not to use it, like a favourite pair of socks or a favourite lipstick. I don't use it because I don't want to lose it, but if I don't use it what's the point?  I know people like that, they buy stuff and covet it so much, never use it then when they finally get it in their mind that they're wasting it, it's not good anymore.  For example buying some sort of fancy shower gel or perfume, then when they finally decide to stop looking at it and start using it it smells awful.  If you're not going to use it, or give it as a gift don't buy it.  If you have something that's a favourite don't be afraid of it.

Here's what's on the easel at the moment. I was apprehensive to try this since I'm still experimenting with cloud structure.  Tree structure is just as hard.  Whoever teaches us that the sky is blue and the trees are green needs to stop. They need to shut up their mouth and open their eyes and look around before they utter such nonsense. Anywho, back to buying stuff and being afraid to use it.  Why do we do that?  I know I'm not the only one.  People buy computers everyday and they're afraid to use those. I bought a very large, very expensive box of pastels once and I let them sit forever.  I was afraid to waste them. I was afraid that I didn't know what I was doing and that by not knowing I would waste them.  Turns out they were going to waste by just sitting there.  Don't buy anything unless you intend to use it, or give it to someone who will use it.

Now I'm going to go on another little "rant" that I've talked about before.  The sketchbook.  It's been awhile since I wrote about it because I decided to just let it go, but since I found a perfect example of what I was going on about I thought I'd bring it back up.  There are artists out there who create "sketchbooks" that are not really sketchbooks.  They're books with finished pieces, which are not really sketches.  So when I found this Degas Sketchbook for $2.00 at the half price book store I scooped it up to prove my point, plus it's Degas. I love Degas.

This is a sketch.

This is not a sketch.

I hope the pictures are self explanatory.

My next little tangent might sound, or look weird, but I have a point, I really do.  See that picture, it's the soup that I made today.  I tried to get a close up of the tiny little circles floating on top.  The reflection of the camera is bad and the steam was fogging up my lens. Whatever, the point to focus on is the little floating circles on top.  When I was a kid I sat down to eat a bowl of my mother's soup.  I noticed those floating round circles on top, except hers were orange, she uses V8 or something in her soup so they appeared orange.  I asked her what the round floating circles in the soup were.  With a very annoyed tone in her voice she informed me that they were carrots.  I was amazed.  WOW, how talented is my mom that she can cut carrots that thin and small that they float right on top and are transparent.  I went a good 15 years believing that my mother was some sort of master chef who could probably split baby fine hairs.  So I finally grew up and figured out that the tiny round circles were oil, or fat, from the meat and they're in fact NOT carrots.  I also learned that when you ask a question you should pay attention to the person who is answering you.  It's quite possible that the person who is answering you never really paid any attention to the question.  If my mom had taken five seconds to turn around, look at what I was asking her she may have given me a correct answer. Instead now I know to never believe anything she says when I ask her a question.  See how that works out?  I don't want you to think I'm hating on moms, this sort of thing occurs in any child/adult relationship.  Or any relationship for that matter.  If someone respects you enough to ask you an honest question, you should respect them enough to take the time and give them an honest response.

The book for this week. Don't make fun, I was very busy last week so I didn't have much time to read.  Yes, this actually has words in it, it's not just pictures. I got this at that half price bookstore also. The 40s are such a mystery to me because all I've ever heard about them were stories about the war. It's sad because this book doesn't help, it's mostly pictures about the war.  In a way it's great though, it has mostly pictures of Europe so I can see what war really looks like. War is not pretty.  When I looked at some of the pictures it got me thinking, people back then must have been so strong.  They lived through bombs and gunfire and who knows what else and they still carried on.  A lot of them are still carrying on.

Look at this picture of this woman.  She has all of her belongings and even her dog with her as she tries to find a safe place to live after her house was demolished by a bomb. She isn't giving up and she isn't letting her furry friend down.  Some people abandon their pets for the dumbest reasons.  How is it that this woman could carry all of her possessions and take her dog too?  It's amazing how people are today, they think they have it so rough.  Being thrown out of their homes that they could never afford in the first place and they act like the government is to blame. What is wrong with people today?  Well, I could go on and on and this is just one picture in a book filled with similar ones.  It's sad and also amazing to see what it was like then and compare it to today.  The people back then were strong, they fought back, rebuilt and soldiered on.

Comic book for this week.  It's an oldie, a goody, but not really so much of a comic book.
These are the best if you enjoy the characters and their back story's.

Here's one of my favourites, Deathlok.  It gives his back story and then it gives detailed pictures of how he works.

I don't know why blogger keeps posting pictures sideways, but after spending 35 minutes fixing the last one I figured you can deal with this one.

I think these are cool. I was thinking how these would be pointless if they were DC characters because DC keeps changing everyone's back story's and their abilities.  I found this and many others in a 25 cent bin.  Great stuff can be found in the bargain bins, don't be afraid to look in them.

Finally, the daily doodle and some short final words.  I was reading a magazine last night and the editor asked this question, "Remember a time when exercise wasn't something you had to check off on a daily to-do list but was simply a by-product of having fun?"
That got me thinking, yes, being a kid is/was great.  We try to grow up too fast and once we're grown up we're miserable about being old.  It's close to Summer so hopefully you take the time to run through a sprinkler or two, play some sort of outdoor sport and try to catch some fireflies.
Speaking of being outdoors, it's allergy season and I see a lot of people suffering.  I hate to see people suffer, but I hate to hear them complain even more. If you have allergies and aren't doing anything about it please shut up your mouth. Here's a website that lists the allergy capitals of the US http://allergycapitals.com/
It also has helpful links to information about allergies and asthma.  So pop an antihistamine, take a couple of puffs from your inhaler and go out and play some kickball, or fly a kite, or blow bubbles.  Anything that you loved to do when you were a kid.  Or sit inside and figure out when it was that you started hating the things that you used to do that once made you so happy.

Tuesday Ho Zay Bluesday

Not my typical choice of blues, but I'm tired of the rain and felt we could all use a little pick me up.  Some swinging guitars and a simple beat, now all we need is Elvis and some hot beach babes to get into some sort of fiasco.  You know the great thing about Elvis movies, every time he found himself in trouble he worked his way out by breaking out in song. If life were like an Elvis movie......
I've been so super busy that I don't even remember half of the things I did last week.  I did go see the movie, 42, and I'd recommend it.  Honestly I'd wait until it comes out on DVD, but if you like to go to the movies then it's money well spent.  Harrison Ford did an excellent job of playing Branch Rickey. There were only a few times where I thought; wow, Han Solo got fat and he's playing an old man.  Seriously though, most people probably think this movie is about Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the MLB, but it's really about Branch Rickey and what he did to break down the colour barrier and how the people of the United States were changing.
It must've been some sort of theme for me last week because I also watched, To Kill A Mockingbird, on the big screen.  I took my nephew to see it and I think once he sat still he enjoyed it.  He was outraged at the guilty verdict.  He couldn't understand why an innocent man would be found guilty.  Fortunately and unfortunately the colour discrimination went right over his head. I say unfortunately because duh, that's one of the main parts of the story.  I say fortunately because it may be a good indication that children now don't have to deal with issues like colour discrimination. With all of that said it was a good week for movies.

 Last week was absolutely horrible for painting outdoors, or en plein air if you will.  It's been raining, snowing, sleeting, raining and raining again. The rivers are all beyond their flood stages and everything is waterlogged and soggy.  I thought I'd paint something a little more cheerful and sunny.  This is a vineyard somewhere, I don't remember where.

I'm constantly in the pursuit of finding the best art supplies.  I've quickly become a fan of Art Spectrum.  I quickly went through the jar of Art Spectrum that you paint onto your own paper.  I thought I'd try their pre-primed paper and found this pack of 10 sample papers (warm tones).  It has one sheet of 10 different colours that they have available. They have 20 all together, the other ten are available in the cool tones.  If you paint with pastels and haven't tried this paper yet I highly recommend you try it and to keep your eyes peeled for their future products.

You put the lime in the coconut......This needs no lime, but it would be better if it had a little frog on it. It's certified organic and fair trade but it's not Rainforest Alliance Certified.  I guess you can't be perfect.  This has a natural sweetener in it and is low in caffeine. I could drink this stuff all day it's so good.

This week seems to be all about the coconut.  It should be, coconuts are delicious. This granola bar is so good it tastes like candy and I ate a crap ton of them during Lent when I gave up candy.  Good stuff.  I'm always apprehensive to try this sort of thing out because one box is kinda pricey and I hate buying a whole box and not liking them.  So this is the only flavour I've tried so far. The rest don't look that great to me.  If anyone has tried a different flavour and liked it please let me know. Just thought to check the Kashi website. and it looks like they occasionally post coupons, which would be a good opportunity to try different stuff.

The book for this week.  I think I'll re-read this book every year at this time.  Earth Day was yesterday and believe it or not I've always been kind of an environmental minded person. I always took every opportunity in school to write about environmental issues.  I think I was in the 6th grade when I wrote a paper about using Styrofoam cups and aerosol cans. I remember not having any idea what CFC's were but I didn't need to be a scientist to know that they're bad. I guess I just don't understand why adults preach about showing elders respect and never taking the time to teach kids about respecting the Earth and the other animals that we share the Earth with.  I don't know a single person who enjoys having someone else's garbage in their yard so why should it be ok to throw trash out of your window while driving down the highway?  Trust me I could go on and on about this but I'll leave you with a couple of things to think about. This one http://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-news/decline-in-migratory-birds-coming-to-india-govt_843933.html That's a news article about how places in India are so polluted that migratory birds aren't going back there. Here's the other thing to think about.

Now for the comic book of the week.  I had zero expectations for this one.  Reading the title made me think that it was going to be REALLY stupid and lame, but it turns out that the name is just REALLY stupid and lame. "Victorian Secret Agents"?  Come on, that's just stupid. It's actually fun and, in parts, funny. It's sort of steampunk. I say sort of because I think steampunk needs more than just flying machines and goggles.  If steampunk and superheroes coexisted this would be a good example of that. I'm not sure if it's worth reading, but since I read this first issue and the ending is a bit of a cliffhanger I'm going to have to get #2 to see what happens.

Finally, the daily doodle.  Just some crap I put in my sketchbook as I was listening to music and I let the music dictate my mood. If you're wondering I was definitely NOT listening to the blues while I did this.   That's it for now. I'm off to watch Evil Dead and eat popcorn.