pet love

Tank was trying to sleep and I got all up in his face with a camera.

Yeti hates having her picture taken. 
But I did my best so she wouldn't feel left out.

Oh Japan.

All these earthquakes. I never comment on huge disasters because it's already being said all over the world: so sorry, we're thinking of you, get well soon...hope that whirlpool works out for you.

I can't imagine what it feels like to have a 6 meter high wall of black sludge destroy everything I ever knew. Terrifying doesn't describe it. No word does. Devastation? No. It's worse.

Imagine being in a building that wasn't built to code in an earthquake. And you're on the fifth floor. Also? It's on fire and there's a tsunami outside. I mean...from afar the photos of burning apartment buildings are touching but really put yourself in there. Desperate, panic, you and your family are going to die. How can we sit here and watch and say "I pray for you." and feel good about ourselves?

Oh, well I also updated my facebook status. You know, solidarity.You go, Japan.

I saw people on tumblr being all like "stop talking about this boring tsunami", and am disgusted with all of you who feel that way. We're sitting here on our asses, comfortable and safe, peering into the private destroyed lives of thousands of people. The least we can do is be compassionate. 

I don't know where I'm going with this. I just feel like I had to say something.

I am in no position to help, but if you are, please do. When these disasters occur, find a reputable place and donate your money. Donate your time, labor and love. I hear the Red Cross does wonders.

Thanks for listening.

My writing. And my journal.

Erin at My Beautiful Disaster tagged me to do one of those handwriting memes. And I was all like "Why the hell not?" Plus, I had that free space beside this pizza in my journal. So, you know. I don't know. Here it is!

Tadaaaa!

The questions were:
1. What's your (blogger) name?
2. What's your blog's URL?
3. Write "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
4. Favorite quote?
5. Your favorite song?
6. Your favorite bands/singers?
7. Anything else?
8. Tag 3 bloggers.

Here's  a close-up, in case you can't read my cramped chicken scratch writing. 

 

As you can see, I tagged your mom. I don't know who on earth I could tag...I'm pretty sure nobody actually reads this kind of thing. Usually I don't. It's like, the second I see the word 'meme' I go into skim-mode because they're normally just a strange way of allowing a blogger to talk about themselves obsessively. But if you're into the whole 'meme' thing, please tag yourself and leave me a comment letting me know where I can see your writing. And I swear I'll read the entire thing. Bonus points if you work in a picture of pizza! ;)

Also, if you wuv Radiohead, I wrote an entire blog post on my favorite song a while ago here.

It's Thursday. So here's some things I love. That's the thing I do on Thursdays.

This week I love...

The Black Apple's Wisdom Tooth painting.

This Cracked article on the complaints we have about modern life and how they're statistically B.S.

These amazing paper animals!

These REALLY WEIRD and REALLY NSFW Japanese paintings. I can't look away!

These world landmarks reflected in bubbles. 

 I also love:

These papercuts by Jayme McGowan.

This awesome diagram of men's pant waistlines throughout their lifetime. Hint: age 57 is the 'high point'.

Kaelah's post on the Jobsintown.de ad campaign...the ads are amazing!

This Amazing Transforming Oven Lounge. 

Whisky in a can. Not that I'd drink this, but I think the idea is neat.

This Star Wars Shower Tile Mosaic.

These dolls by Mimi Kirchner:

These ridiculously beautiful photos of New Zealand.

Dr. Sketchy's reverse mermaid costume sculpture.

Pepperoni shoes. I'd rock these by the way.

Um....look over here!  I'm practically famous now by the way.

This failbook post. I don't get most of it, but I love this nerd humor.

and last but not least, Alex Stoddard's self portraits:

Holy crap he has an amazing artistic vision. My imagination would never take me that far.
Or maybe it would...hmm...

What do you love this week?

Give the gift of followers.

Here are a few blogs with less than 100 followers that I am loving these days.

Date a girl who reads.

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“Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.”

Rosemary Urquico  (via burn0ut) ---   I found this quote on Tumblr and LOVE it. I don't think I could live without reading.

A little fisheye!

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ALSO, check out this giveaway on A Beautiful Journey! You can win a pair of TOM's shoes. YES PLEASE!

- free blog (Two posts in one day? Yes, because my music monday was RUINED by the YouTube sheriff.)

You know those cute little owls that bloggers have in their sidebars all the time that proudly proclaim "AD-FREE BLOG"? 

I don't see anything wrong with a blogger having advertisements, as long as they're tastefully placed and not all up in my face, (whoa, that rhymes!) so I felt like using that banner would have been a little hypocritical...but I really like the owl guy, so I decided to make myself a little guy that pertained to my blog instead. Here are some of the prototypes:

I started having too much fun, and thought of all the other bloggers out there in the world who maybe have ads on their blog but like the little owl guy with the speech bubble, so I made a bunch more. You all can steal any of these and use them if you like, just right click on the image and save it to your own computer. The original image is actually quite large, so you can resize it to whatever fits your own format.

 

 

You're welcome. :)

And if you want me to make you a personalized one, send me an email, I'd be happy to oblige.

Music Monday: The Best Grammy Performance I've Ever Seen

Alright, well originally I had this whole video thing posted on how great the performance by the Avett Brothers, Mumford and Sons and Bob Dylan was but youtube removed it because of copyright infringement, bla bla bla...whatEVER.

So for now I guess you can just listen to my favorite Mumford and Sons song. Because it's really really good.


Also, blogger isn't allowing me to delete the video so...it's still here.