why I had to cut my own hair

because those jerks at Lab Salons were doing this. The entire place closed down so they could go to the Sasquatch Music Festival together in a motorhome.

P.S. Aren't they all so damn cool? And fun?

Sasquatch 2010 from lab salon on Vimeo.

NEW SHOES!

(Yes those are pajama pants I'm wearing...at 2pm. It's my day off, don't judge!)
I guess these guys are going in the garbage tonight.

I cutted my own hair. Just in the front.

connect the moments

Crazy, I just put two and two together and realized I hung out with the singer of The Smalls once as a teenager. I was just kind of listening to random songs I like on the YouTube instead of doing work, and the face belonging to the voice I know so well brought back a super random memory from high school.



My friend was driving down dusty back roads in central Alberta one summer day. We were with a random guy whose name was Mike. I remembered him all these years because my friend and him were smoking a joint and she was emphatically trying to convince him to get his band to play at some outdoor music festival and he wasn't sure about it. I was just sitting in the back trying to act cool, like I didn't care that this guy was in some band or whatever. And I'm pretty sure I was either deathly hung over or drinking at the time. He was older than us and I think maybe her and him were an item of some kind, but I'm not sure. That was in her terrible drugs 'till you drop phase...I wonder if she would even remember this.

But I do. The scene is really clear in my mind. I even remember somebody saying 'The Smalls' but back then I didn't know who they were and didn't care. I actually only really started liking them in my mid 20s. Which I am still in. That is to say, recently.

I don't know, just felt like sharing. I love it when a moment finally makes sense. It's like "Oh, those THE SMALLS, yeah, I totally know that band.'

Neat.

and the winner is...

...not the one in the middle.

fotosfromthefairforyou

Graffiti, ultra close-up

Google yourself.

Well, I went ahead and googled myself the other day. Luckily I have never really been one to use my full real name on the internet. Except for here and here. But as for my most common pseudonym (novarella)...it's pretty out there. You can find this blog, my old travel blog that I don't know how to delete even though I erased/moved all the photos years ago, my blog catalog account and an interview thingy that I made years ago for my other old blog, my (totally boring crappy) youtube channel, my flickr account (which has barely any public photos), my fairly inactive book crossing account, and...someone else's facebook account. Who is apparently a sex doll.

What the hell is this? Somebody has MY FAKE NAME? The name I made up when I was three years old? And they're an inflatable sex toy? The fuck?

Have you ever googled yourself? Do yourself a favor and try it. I wish the photos on my travel blog from 2005 were still up, it would have been like reading my old diary or something from my train trip/living back at home as an adult days.

Why am I blogging after midnight? There's gonna be gremlins in the computer for sure!

Work stuff...

This phoenix Colin did at work the other day is so great, just thought I'd share it here as well. And it was her first tattoo! Wow. She sat like a champ.

just a rainbow, because I get a four day weekend! WOO!

To all you suckers in Alberta, haha it's not snowing here. Just ... grey. Except for this pretty rainbow!

My job is super glamorous.

somebody please get me this skirt or this dress

Mo' music.

Whenever somebody says to me that they 'love all music...except country' I wonder if that also means bluegrass ... you can't not love bluegrass.



(The guy in the overalls look so much like my friend's little brother!)


I used to think I didn't like any rap or hip hop but the guys at work are really changing my mind about that as well. You can't limit yourself, music-wise. I have found I even like (some) bollywood stuff, turkish folk music, russian pop, crazy south african hip hop*, classical music and yeah, even some pop country songs.

*If you have never heard of DIE ANTWOORD, well, you have now. They're from South Africa and sing in English, Afrikaans and Dutch, and they're crazy. In a good way. Plus, that guy's tattoos are fucking sweet.

favorite song of the day

I'm pretty sure anybody who doesn't get feelings when they listen to Maynard James Keenan sing has no soul.

army guys

Apparently this guy made these letters, but I found it here.

the fair

Techno music: bass bass bass bass bass bass
Flashing lights giving me a seizure, not literally but I did find myself swaying and going cross-eyed watching the sidewinder go round and round.

I stood there in the wind waiting for two of the three kids we brought to the fair. They were on some ride with some ridiculous name. They were sitting in a kind of metallic egg on the end of a gigantic arm of a machinated octopus. And spinning. Spinning at the end of the arm while going in circles around the base of the thing. I was standing, trying not to get pick-pocketed and thinking about maybe putting my hood up. Was that rain or just someone spitting off the ferris wheel?

The guy running the ride wasn't on any obvious drugs, not like the guys at the Himalaya ... hello cocaine! Nah, this guy looked cold and bored.

But then along came the fun guy, another carnival worker who proudly shouted 'I'm only nineteen!' as he made sure everybody's safety bar was locked into place.

He was obnoxious, flirting with the high school girls and shouting and high-fiveing the guys. The ride started up and I couldn't stop watching him. It was a pretty great act. Again, not like the guys at the Himalaya, who shouted "Everybody scream!" and "I can't hear you screaming!" and "Do you want to go backwards?" As if it were a recording on a loop.

This guy, mister nineteen, when people went by he went "RAAAAAAAA!" and scared them. He had every single person laughing as he (dangerously) chased after them with an inflatable hammer and tried to hit them. He pretended to high five the girls and then did the 'psyche' thing at the last second. It all fit in to the carnival atmosphere perfectly.

When the ride was over and the kids got off, they were practically climbing over each other to tell me about him.

"...and he was trying to give us a high five..."
"...and like, he like, said his name was mister awesome..."
"...that guy was cool huh?"
"...and he scared us..."

We were standing there waiting in the cold after the ride, because Ryan and his oldest boy had decided to go on the Zipper.

Dun dun duuunnn.

The Zipper was the kids' arch nemesis ride this year. Last year it was the Ferris Wheel. And the oldest guy finally decided he wasn't scared and he would totally go on it. But only if his dad came too.

We stood there, and I tried to keep the conversation about mister nineteen going so they would forget the wind and rain.

A group of cowboys walked past, fresh from the rodeo beer gardens by the smell of them.

"Hey guys, those are real cowboys!" I whispered in my best imitation of awe.

"WOW! COOL!"
"REAL COWBOYS! WOAH!"
"Did they ride horses to get here do you think?"

The boys watched the leather jackets and cowboy hats walk by with wide eyes and slack jaws. The cowboys didn't notice.

Ryan and the oldest boy showed up soon after and were surprisingly quiet about the whole Zipper thing. Luckily the other two had plenty to say about mister nineteen.

Ryan hung back and whispered to me that the kid had chickened out but didn't want anyone to know. They just watched the Zipper and went on another ride instead.

At the end of the night when the park was closing, we headed to the car. A drunken cowboy and his tight-jeans-not-skinny-jeans-but-wranglers stopped us.
"Hey"
"Hey guys!"

We stopped. I was suspicious.

The cowboy gave the kids a stuffed animal he won on the midway.

They still can't shut up about it.

I didn't go on any rides this year...thirty bucks for a pass? No thanks.
But you know what I did do? I took four hundred and something photos.
Which, to me, was just as fun.

maybe I need new shoes

what was under the floor...

We tore up tile after tile by hand with a big heavy scraper thingy at the shop. And by 'we' I mean 'everybody else' because ... yeah that thing was heavy. I did try it once and thought I was excellent at it until I later found out I somehow found the only part of the floor that had hardly any glue holding the tiles on.

Most of the floor underneath was regular old cement with regular old insanely sticky black glue stuck all over it. But then we discovered ... this:


(The boss, working hard)


(Chris, probably working hard)


(Me, taking pictures of myself at work)



Too bad we had to cover it up. Maybe? Or too bad it didn't cover the entire floor. We couldn't leave it like this, that's for sure.

Now the floor is almost finished, finally; it's painted black and it's all like, classy and junk. We're closing the shop down for two days (Sunday the 30th and Monday the 31st) to make it ultra awesome.

And that, my friends, is what we found under the tiles.

The end.

Where cursors come from:

i found this here

ICP is not for me

Well, Facebook has done it again. It connected me with somebody I never ever wanted to see after moving away from my home town.

Again.

This guy...I'm just gonna say it: He sold drugs to my friends. And I'm not talking a little pot. He was kind of a mule, I suppose, as he was always coming straight from Edmonton to whatever party I had snuck out my bedroom window to attend that evening. (sorry mom)

He was the first person I've ever known who carried a gun, and he was the first person I knew who had forearm tattoos. He was also the first person I walked in on while he was shooting heroin in the other room. I was completely oblivious to what kind of people my friends were. Looking back I think 'what the hell were they doing hanging out with teenage girls?' but then I don't want to think about that. Gross.

Anyway this guy ... he was scary. Still is, as far as I'm concerned. He's extremely tall, and has a voice like a giant. I can't separate rumors from truth about him...he's the bad guy of legend in our home town, and so I am pretty sure he has done it all. All the bad stuff.

He requested to be my friend on Facebook a couple days ago.

Whatthefuck?

Are we 'friends'? Like...at all?

Like...

really?

REALLY?



no.



I honestly kept the request waiting for a couple days to let it sink in. First of all...he has a facebook account. I didn't realize fucking frankendraculas were allowed to use the computer.

Secondly, he remembers who I am even though I haven't seen him since I was about fifteen years old, which is weird.

Third...he's still alive? Not in jail? Shocking stuff.

So I thought 'meh, might as well check out his profile.'

There were pictures of KIDS (he has children?!?!?!?!), dogs, oil rigs, really cold looking winters, ...typical Alberta stuff.

"okay," I thought, "he seems like a normal human after all."

And then I got to his 'about me' section ... the best part was the 'favorite books'...there was only one, entitled something like: Violent J: behind the makeup

Do you know who Violent J is?
Ever heard of Insane Clown Posse?



HAHAHAHAHA

Listen to the lyrics in this song. This is not a joke song. It's serious. In fact, I'm gonna post the lyrics below so you can read along. I'll put the awesome parts in bold so you can really appreciate their ... depth and intelligence. My comments are in red.



We got a theory, see like, we got a theory about magic and miracles. That’s right…

If magic is all we ever known then it’s easy to miss what really goes on, but I have seen miracles in every way and it have seen miracles every day, (awesome rhyme, guys) Oceans spanding beyond my site, (this isn't ICP's fault but whoever transcribed this song was clearly a genius) and a million stars way above em at night, we don’t have to be high to look in the sky, and know that is a miracle open wide. (what does that even mean?)

Look at the mountains trees the seven seas, and everything chillin under water please, hot lava, snow, rain and fog, long neck giraffes, pet cats and dogs. I have seen 85 thousand people all in one room together as equal, pure magic is the birth of my kids I’ve seen shit that shock your eyelids, (hahahaha!!!)the sun and the moon even mars the milky way fuckin shooting stars, ufo’s, (really?) a river flows, plant a little seed and nature grows, Niagara falls and the pyramids, everything you believed in as kids, fuckin rainbows after it rains, there’s enough miracles here to blow your brain, I fed a fish to a pelican and Frisco bay and he tried to eat my cell phone he ran away, (um...what?) and music is magic pure and clean you feel it you can hear it and it can’t be seen.

Are you a believer in miracles? (Music it’s all magic, you can’t even hold it) Do you notice and recognize miracles? It’s just there in the air, are you a believer in miracles? (Pure motherfucking magic, this shit will blow your MF mind.)

Music is a lot like love, it’s all a feeling and it fills the room from the floor to the ceiling, I’ve seen miracles all around me, stop and look around its all astounding, water, fire air and dirt, fucking magnets, how do they work? (Hahahahaha!! I think this is my favorite line)I don’t want to talk to a scientist, ya’ll MF lying and getting me pissed,(yeah, scientists are lying...it's all just magic) solar eclipse and vicious weather, 15,000 Juggalos together (I hope I never have to see 15,000 Juggalos at once...ew) and I love my mom for giving me this time on this planet, take nothing for granted, I seen a caterpillar turn into a butterfly, miracles aint nothing to lye (?), shaggys little boys look just like shaggy and my little boy looks just like daddy, miracles each and everywhere you look and nobody has to stay where they put, this world is yours for you to explore, it’s nothing but miracles beyond your doors, the dark carnival is your invitation,(sorry 'dark carnival', I'm busy that day) to witness that of there our explanation,(?) take a look at this fine creation and enjoy it better with appreciation, (really?) crows, ghosts, the midnight coasts, the wonders of the world, mysteries, the most (the most? what?). Just open your mind and in no way to ignore the miracles of everyday, that’s real.
Are you a believer in miracles? (Magic every in this bitch, it’s all around you and you don’t even know it.) Do you notice and recognize miracles? It’s just there in the air, are you a believer in miracles? (Pure motherfucking magic, this shit will blow your MF mind.) (I don't think the transcriber really paid attention here at the end...it totally doesn't match up. Whatever.)

Saturday Night Live recently made a video parody of it...it's awesome.


What the fuck is a clock? hahahahaha


So thank you, terrifying guy from my past, for making me realize just how much I've changed and what I escaped when I left all that behind.

And if you find this blog please don't kill me.

:)

I also found this guy, who is totally taking the piss out of 'juggalos'. Nice one.