current favorites this moment: 3-28-2010

*

Avon products: I'm in love with the Calm and Composed face lotion and the loose powder eyeshadow. Even if the blue makes me look a little Barbie and the Rockers until it settles in.

Daylight: I'm so glad that the morning sun comes through my windows-- I was scared that when I moved rooms, I wouldn't get any sun at all, since the one window is under the porch awning and the other is directly onto the stairs.

Yesterday's sweet tea for breakfast: Hot tea is bitter and gross the next day, but sweet tea is lovely and has just enough power to get me going. And it requires no effort!

Kittens coming home: Somehow they both got out last night, which is especially distressing in Archie's case, because he's deaf and kind of dumb, but they both came back to the door at dawn and meyowed until I let them in. They're covered in under-the-house-schmutz and they smell like fresh outside-ness, but they're both fine.

Science Magazines: I always loved them; it's just that now I have a teeny bit of extra money to buy them, even when they cost eight dollars a piece (which is not a favorite). It's nice being up on science again; I want subscriptions; maybe I'll save up and get several. Maybe I'll start a science news column on Examiner if they'll let me.

Not a current fav: Having to work both jobs because they're both packed for the Rhythm and Ribs festival that I can't even go to because I'm working.


* Picture from http://lachatnoir.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/shiny.jpg, borrowed gratefully but without permission.

Who wants to be an Examiner? Attention all friends and neighbors!

http://www.examiner.com/Become_an_Examiner.html
or get here through any of my articles on Examiner (there's a link toward the bottom near the comments)

It's time again for Who Wants To Be An Examiner? Topics I've found that are available this time around that I thought some of you might like:

Liberal Topics Examiner (under Politics)

Math Geek Examiner (under Education and Schools)

Public Schools Examiner (under education and Schools)

Tarot Examiner (under Religions and Spirituality)

Folk Culture Examiner (under Society and Culture)

Telecommuting Examiner (under Careers and Workplace)

Cuban Food Examiner (under Food & Drink)

Cloth Diapering Examiner (under Family and Parenting)-- I'm looking at you, Jamie and Sarah

Dance Fitness Examiner (under Fitness and Weightloss)

Travel Photography Examiner (under Travel) -- someone get dad a reliable interwebs

Pizza Examiner (under Food and Drink)

Bakery Examiner (under Restaurants)

Lesbian Relationships Examiner (under Relationships)

Goth Culture Examiner (under Society and Culture)

Halo Examiner (under Games and hobbies)

Dirty Jobs Examiner (under Careers and Workplaces)

College Life Examiner (under Education and Schools)

Korean Food Examiner (under Food and Drink)

Shoes Examiner (under Style and Fashion)

Horse Examiner (under Pets)

Petfinder Examiner (under Pets)

Duct Tape Art Examiner (under Games and Hobbies)

Game Industry Examiner (under Games and hobbies)

Gadgets Examiner (under Gadgets and Tech)

Beading Examiner (under Home and Living)

Allergy Examiner (under Health)

Parkinsons Examiner (under Health)

Photography Examiner (under Recreation)

Dalai Lama Examiner (uner Religions and Spirituality)

Little Known Facts Examiner (under Neighborhoods)

Origami Examiner (under Games and Hobbies)

Green Culture Examiner (under Societies and Cultures)

Bicycle Transportation Examiner (under Transportation)


... and many more!


If you decide you want to try out, you'll need one sample article that can be your first article if you're accepted, and titles / ideas for three more. When you get to where it says Referred By in the application, make sure you put Samantha Holloway, Jacksonville TV Examiner, or the code x-11396 so I get credit for referring you!

And feel free to send this on to whoever you think can fill these roles well and indefinitely!

Thanks!
Me

PS: Some tips to help you get it:
- good grammar and spelling are very imporatant because there's no editor that will do it for you, and you have to show you can do it for yourself.
- it's supposed to be like a newspaper, so stay clear, explain ideas, avoid the 'I' pronoun, be general, and stick to the facts (if you go for a commentary or editorial one, start there, then extrapolate the way you would in a paper).
- sound as authoritative as you can without over doing it.
- you'll have to write at least three articles a week, but it doesn't matter when in each week-- pick a topic you can talk about for a long time before you run out of subject and have to go looking for new ideas (which makes it much slower and more tedious).

random thoughts: 3-24-2010

I think one of the best parts about a day off is not having to put on a bra until I want to, and getting to wear whatever makeup I choose, and eating whenever I feel like it.

I'm endlessly fascinated by terrariums and the little jars and bottles they live in, but I think if I grew one for myself, it would likely go wild and be less a perfect miniature world and more a wild jungle probably full of miniature dinosaurs.

I need to finish cleaning my room, but I think I'll ignore that today; I want to have a day for relaxing.

Maybe after I get paid on Friday, I'll take a trip down to the Winery and get some Rosa. Life is better with a glass of wine and a lunch in the sun.

Would it be strange if I kept a camera on me at all times and started taking pictures of the neat outfits and hair and mustaches I find around town? A sort of miniature Sartorialist?

I need a cup of tea. Maybe I'll make a whole pot for once, of one of my fancy teas...

The last two days, I've been living with Meg Ryan bangs, and it's... strange. They're not the ones I flattened my hair to get, but they're the ones I've woken up with, and I kind of like them. They make my messy French buns look more French.

I'm pretty sure my biggest problem with my current life is that the schedule isn't mine. I have to always be doing something for someone else, and there's not much time to make and consume a whole pot of tea or to take an hour playing with today's makeup or to wander around the house watering the plants or to just sit and stare off into space. In addition to the usual inspiration-browsing and reading and writing I want to do. Right now, everything has to jostle for time; I want the time to do it all.

weird ideas: ancient astronauts

I have no problem with the idea of other life in the universe. In the words of Carl Sagan, it'd be an awful big waste of space if we're alone. But here are the problems I have with the Ancient Astronaut idea:

- They use all these weird images from all over the world as 'proof', but the pictures don't look the same, even when we account for differing art styles

- If all civilization came from aliens, then we're all descended from idiots who weren't smart enough to make it on their own, and we happen to have numerous and varied examples of just how smart and surprisingly sophisticated people were in the past. My ancestors the idiots. Nope. *

- There's absolutely no reason for aliens to look or think or act anything at all like we do, or even be close enough to recognize us as sentient life or vice versa

- Out of all of the millions of years of world history, we're just a narrow sliver; chances are, if aliens just randomly show up, they won't coincide with us

- It shows lack of imagination; I don't understand it, so people in the past who lived in a different world and had entirely different understandings probably wouldn't understand it either, and therefore it's obviously from some powerful exterior source? Nope again. That's just religion pretending to be nonreligious. Religious sentiment is built in to the species, and this is just another manifestation.**

- There are similarities between many great civilizations, true. But this can as easily be explained by the fact that humans all have the same basic build and functioning, all people in the world came from the same original place and culture, and echoes would have continued even as they diverged, people even thought to be isolated often turn out to have been connected in strange and unexpected ways. Nothing exists in a vacuum. People who have never met will often have heard stories of stories of stories of each other.

- Things that aren't understood have a tendency to be minimized by those who don't understand because it's easier to declare something impossible than to try to understand it.

- All the things that are claimed to be so similar are really very different in close investigation: Mesopotamian pyramids were solid and filled with dirt, Mexican pyramids were temples made of big blocks often fitted together like jigsaws, Egyptian pyramids were tombs with a clear and definite history and evolution still standing right next to them. The 'proof' doesn't stand up. People just like big things. It's the same impulse that built Chartres Cathedral and all the massive skyscrapers all over the world today, and we know they aren't built by aliens or by alien knowledge.

- It proves how little critical thinking people use. In scifi, it's great. Otherwise, it makes very little sense.

And that's my two cents.

* It short changes humans, and it puts limits on human ingenuity, which is cruel and in turn limits future understanding.

** Which is fine, but just admit that it's a religious impulse.

neat green things: mexican ecovillage

It's called Huehuecoyotl, Huehue for short, and it's purpose is to teach, produce music and serve as an example for social change. Aside from the music, pretty much the goal of all ecovillages. What's great about this one, though, is that it's beautiful. Downright gorgeous. Not a muddy shack anywhere, and I think that that's the real accomplishment: proof that living light on the earth and sustainably isn't something akin to going back in time to the middle ages.

From Planet Green. More info Here.

neat green things: home-made musical instruments

This article from Planet Green tells you how to make a Rainstick, a Balloon Drum, a Cigarbox Guitar, a Pipe Flute and a Key Chime, all of which seem easy and wonderful, and I think I might have to start making them soon. I'm sure I can scrounge materials around town, and I love noisemakers-- I've literally got a box of them in my room, and a jar full of several pipes I don't really know how to play but periodically attempt to learn, which confuses the dog and makes the cats all bugger off.

I love the idea of making things for myself. I love the idea of reusing things that have been declared 'junk' by our society to make something beautiful-- not just a junk sculpture, since those usually are sort of ugly (though I do like the ones in Ripley's lobby that have sheep with old rotary phone heads), but something that continues to create beauty and have a further use for the society. Especially since there's nothing saying you can't decorate them after they're made, and especially especially since people keep cutting music education from the schools (which is what I'm blaming for the boringness of so much modern music).

So there I am. And I knew I shouldn't have thrown away those old keys I had laying around...

i can't make it to icfa...

... because of my recent family trauma that made me miss a week of work, which made me have to use just enough of my savings that I just can't afford it anymore.

So if you're going, my dear friends, I'd like to ask a favor. First, print up this accurate and detailed portrait of me:

Then, take the picture with you. While you're at my favorite place in the world, be sure to start the day with more than one cup of tea, have two or so vodka and crans for lunch, pay too much for at least one ethnic dinner, stay up too late and wake up too early in the morning, say at least one thing you regret for the rest of the conference, and, most important, take pictures of yourselves and our friends holding this silly picture and send them to me. That way, it's almost like I'm there, too.

Please?

etsy lets you shop locally!

Etsy is one of my favorite online shops. There's so many wonderful things there, beautiful things made my fantastically talented artisans from all over the world (try a search for 'hammered silver bangles' or 'stacking rings' or 'swedish' or 'bellydance' and see what I mean).

And now they let you shop local! In my area, there are 57 recently updated shops. The best of them are:

Hunter Glass- really neat hand-made glass sculptures

Muse Belts - fun leather belts that aren't like anything sold in stores

Jasmine Scott - contemporary and hand-made resin rings

Matt Ewing - super-interesting and complicated, almost Steampunk rings

Dandelion Wish - Hand-embroidered felt stuffies and adorable little notebooks

AJs Jams - neat local flavors of home-made jam

Lotus Hoops - Hooping hoops from right here!