Headspace

America Wants A Queen

2011-04-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

Below is a short essay that I wrote in 2007 for a college English class. The assignment was to make some sort of observation about American behavior. The Essay was titled "America Wants A Queen" and recently, with all of the hoop-la being made in America over the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton, I felt like sharing this essay. It seems a bit ridiculous how overly excited so many Americans are about a "Royal Wedding" that has nothing to do with their own country. (I have several British friends who are not even half as excited as some American's I have seen talking on television.) I personally don't think it is such a big deal, but here is my essay. I think it was true in 2007 and I feel it is still valid today in 2011.

America Wants A Queen

Over two hundred years ago Americans fought for the right to be free of royal control. Upon winning the battle, a new leadership was formed based upon a popular vote. A method that has endured to the present, because Americans believe that a person with the support of the people is better suited to run a government than someone who is merely born into a certain family. Americans claim that democracy is the only way, and that monarchies and other such governments are relics of the past. However, they will only say this when speaking about government. The true hearts of Americans are laced with jealousy for their cousins across the pond, because the truth is, Americans long for a monarch. A person who will sit in a big gilded chair, dressed in fine robes, adorned with jewels from head to toe, and who will smile encouragingly to the massive crowds of common folk. The American president does little to fulfill this desire for the people.
Instead, Americans make royalty out of celebrities. Oprah is the ‘Queen of daytime television’, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are the ‘King and Queen of Hollywood’, the late Elvis was ‘The King’, Michael Jackson was the former ‘Prince of Pop’, and even Britney Spears has been called a ‘Pop Princess.’ There is no doubt that many people view the children of celebrities as heirs to the thrones of Hollywood, whether the children have any acting talent or not, it is considered their birthright. Obviously, the desire for a monarchy system is not dead in the hearts of Americans. It is frighteningly becoming more and more apparent that Americans care more about having a leader with a pretty face than one who knows how to run a country. Current polls ask citizens who would make a better president, Hillary Clinton (the wife of a former president), or Oprah Winfrey (perhaps the richest woman in America). People choose Oprah, because they like her talk show, but does she know anything about running a country? Perhaps it would not be such a bad idea for Oprah to be elected president. Oprah did not get rich by accident. She got rich because people trust her. She tells people what to buy, and what charities to donate to, and people listen. Maybe if she were president, people would not mind paying their taxes, (because it’s for Oprah), and perhaps the country could pay off its deficit. However, then Oprah would also be stuck with the real business of running a country. Like dealing with a war, feats she may not be capable of handling, and when she fails, the country will lose faith in her. No, it would be better for America to adopt a situation similar to that of England. Let us have a Queen to stand up at ceremonies and wear a pretty crown, and a president that can be blamed for everything that goes wrong. Then America will be happy. Until that day, America simply has Oprah, ‘the queen of daytime television’ and a president everyone loves to hate.

Pics I have so far for Bills birthday project

2011-03-01T23:20:00.000-08:00

Ok guys these are the images I HAVE for the project so far, it's getting too hard to tell people what I have and what I need, if you don't see it here, please draw it or take a picture or whatever! Please and thank you!

Please send all submissions to me at heatherproa@gmail.com or find me on skype (look me up under pinkpixiedf)

If you don't know, we're drawing scenes from the song The Epic Ballad of Bill (track 16 on Short Stories). I'm putting them together as a music video for Bill's birthday on Thursday. I'll still take submission early on Thursday!

Epic Ballad of Bill

Mushroom cloud

Bill chant

Bill perched on top of the world

Iron Man

Last years comic dork (who doesn't know who the red hulk is)

red hulk

green hulk

Searchlight transformer

Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris attacking stormtroopers

Chuck and stormtroopers

Reincarnation of Palpatine

stormtroopers

Vader and Stormtroopers

Darth Maul

Everybody know's Bill

Terminator

No need to run....

Like lightning!

Bill's so awesome

Bill is Epic

Bill is everywhere

Bill is everywhere

Bill in China

Bill in Illinois

Bill in Manhattan

The most epic story that ever occurred

Hello, I Speak Nerd

2010-12-05T01:13:00.000-08:00

Hey! I'm blogging again!

So, it's the holiday season which means I've been keeping busy by working two jobs. (I've been working two jobs during the holiday season for the past several years.) During this time of year I often work 14- 17 hour days, so I spend a lot of time away from the computer. Being away from the computer makes me a little sad these days because currently, the only way I keep in touch with friends in through the internet, mostly Twitter, Skype and YouTube.

I have only a couple of friends who live in the same general area as me (I say it that way because we technically live in different cities), but mostly all of my best friends are spread out across the face of the earth. Normally I feel close to my friends even though we are so far away, because we would converse so much through social media, but now, I feel so far away from everybody because I am rarely at my computer. Even when I am at my computer, it is usually at very odd times (like 1 am Pacific time), so nearly everyone I know is asleep, or at work if they live someplace where it is daylight during my nighttime.

ANYWAY, that's not even what I wanted to talk about in this blog, I guess I just wanted some sort of "introduction" for why I'm blogging again all of a sudden. I just miss the conversation and if I can't be around when other people are awake, I'll write some blogs so people can read them whenever they are around and we can continue sharing ideas and stories and keep our friendships alive.

With that said, here's a little story:

So I was at one of my jobs the other day (to be clear, it is my "second" job where I am only a 'seasonal' employee, so I have only been working there since October and will be let go at the end of December) and I was stocking shelves with another worker. We were putting out some WOW expansion packs and my co-worker started to tell me that he is sort of a nerd because he plays WOW a lot. I said to him that the only details I know about WOW are what I've learned from Watching The Guild. He stared at me for a minute and then said that he didn't know what I meant exactly. I said, "The show, The Guild. You can watch it on YouTube....?" He didn't know what I was talking about. I was sort of surprised really that someone who claimed to be pretty obsessed with World of Warcraft, had not heard of The Guild, but maybe I'm just a little too nerdy. I explained the show to him a little further and got more into discussing YouTube, because I'm a youtuber, not a WOW player. As is only natural, he responded with what he knew of YouTube, which sort of made me sad. The only YouTube videos he knew of were all viral videos like Alien Baby, Leave Brittany Alone! and Chocolate Rain. Although, when he mentioned Chocolate Rain, I brightened up and told him that I had met Tay Zonday at an online video convention (VidCon). He was surprised at this and so I had to explain VidCon to him. When I paused in my discussion, he stared at me for a moment and said "Ya.... I think you're a bigger nerd than I am."

Haha! Being a Nerdfighter, I totally took that as a compliment, but I didn't even begin to discuss Nerdfighteria with him. I thought it might be too much for his obviously infant nerd brain. (LOL, that sounds so horrible!) But really, it was sort of funny to me (like I have more nerd cred than him or something, hehe, is that even worth anything?!) Situations like that make me miss all of the people here on the internet though. It's nice to have regular conversations where you don't have to constantly explain yourself.

So let me sum up this blog like a letter:

Dear Internet (CC Nerdfighteria, ClassyLadies),
I miss you. Let's talk more, because we speak the same language and that makes me happy.
Sincerely,
PinkPixieDF

P.S. I told an officer today that "the best way to contact me is through Twitter". They asked for my primary forms of contact (i.e. home phone, cell phone and e-mail) I told them that they could have that information, but I'm rarely home, I only check my e-mail maybe once a week and I never answer my cell phone because I'm nearly always at work. Also, I will be getting a new cell phone in the next couple of weeks so my number is about to change. I told them that using Twitter would bypass all these potential problems, but they still wouldn't accept my Twitter information. Oh well, I guess it's for the best. I don't need the police hovering over my Twitter account.

P.P.S. I was only being questioned by an officer because one of the companies I work for is in a lawsuit against someone who committed credit card fraud and apparently this person purchased things at my register a few months ago. The police required a statement from me about that particular transaction. (I'm not in any trouble or anything!)

Okay, goodbye for today.

Avatar Re-release Review

2010-08-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

Hey there! So yes, I've been away from Blogger for a few days. I was on vacation in Wisconsin and I was staying at a house that had an extremely slow internet connection, so it wasn't really worth the effort to try and upload a blog. Also, I was rather busy the whole time I was there. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I tried to keep up with BEDA by tweeting my blog. I did still miss a couple of days, but oh well.

Anyway, I am back home and today I went to see the re-release of AVATAR. It was just as awesome as the first time around. There were new scenes, just as promised. There were three new scenes in fact.

I will try my best not to give real "spoilers", but I will give you a general idea of the new scenes.

The first new scenes is towards the beginning of the film, when Grace, Norm and Jake first venture into the forest in their Avatar bodies, we get to see the school where Grace taught the Na'vi to speak English.

The second new scene is near the middle of the film, we see the aftermath of a battle that took place between the Na'vi and the humans who destroyed the sacred tree. (Remember Jake and Neytiri wake up to find the tree being destroyed). Apparently, some of the Na'vi fought back and destroyed the machine and the humans who were running it.

The last "new" scene is toward the very end, we get to see Tsu'tey's actual final moments. In the original version of the film, we see Tsu'tey jump from his ikran onto one of the ships and kill many of the soldiers, but he is then shot by the last soldier and he falls from the ship, supposedly to his death. This scene is still in the movie, but later, we see that he is found by Jake, Neytiri and some other Na'vi. Tsu'tey is still alive, but dying. He speaks to Jake and Neytiri before he dies.

Personally, I am happy with the inclusion of these scenes. It was nice to see the school that they talked about so much, but we never saw before. The other two scenes also fill in some gaps that were in the film before. I really liked the scene of how Tsu'tey really dies. It was kind of sad before to think of him only falling to his death and that is the end. It is better to know that he died with his friends at his side.

Anyway, I'm glad I got to see this movie in the theatre again. I would recommend going to see it again if you have the chance. If you liked it the first time, you definitely wont be disappointed seeing it again.

Alrighty, goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Prayers for Esther

2010-08-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

How can I write about anything else today when someone who is very well known across the internet and very well loved is battling for her life right now?

You probably know her as CrazyCrayon, but if you don't know the name CrazyCrayon, her name is Esther. Esther is a Nerdfighter, which to me, means she is family. She has cancer and tonight she is exceptionally ill.

My prayers tonight are for Esther and her family. Please keep Esther in your thoughts.

That's all I can really say today. Oh, and Happy Birthday to John Green, without his existence, many of us would not have ever known Esther. Gosh, this is a really big day in Nerdfighteria. Let's be thankful that the world has worked out in such a way as to bring us all together, even if our togetherness only exists regularly in cyberspace, we are all real people, living real lives, and right now, I am praying real prayers for a real person.

Today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life"

August 24: "When we realize that our true nature can never be known, only continually discovered, then we become fearless explorers of reality we are created to be - moving in and out of complementary or conflicting moments alike with the same ease as does a dolphin take delight in carving its way through the endless currents of the sea."

Avatar All Over Again!

2010-08-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

Hi peoples! Today is almost over, but I won't let this day get away without keeping up with BEDA!

Guess what?!?!

They are re-releasing Avatar (the movie with the blue aliens, not the Airbender one)! It goes back into theatres this Friday (August 27). It will only be shown in 3D and 3D IMAX and only for a limited time. I don't know how long a "limited" time actually is, but I plan on going to see it! They've added in about 8 minutes of extra footage that wasn't in the original version. I know that movie was already so long, but I remember when I saw it, I just didn't want the movie to end. It was so pretty, I could have watched that movie forever probably.

I am going on a trip this weekend. I will be in Wisconsin the 26th to the 29th (I'm going to see my friend Bill be a race car driver!) so I don't know if I will be able to see it while I'm on my trip, but I will if I can, if not I'll probably go check it out on Monday.

Anyway, that's really all for today.

Here's today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life"

August 23: "Learn to act in the moment -do as this moment asks- and life won't have to give you a kick to remind you of what you are supposed to do!"

Eye Candy = Inspiration

2010-08-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hey there, so I'm just a bit excited today because I found some new inspiration and I just really really love it.

About a week ago there was a music video featured on Youtube. The video was from the channel MonsterHigh. Something about the look of the video intrigued me, so I watched it. I actually kind of liked it a lot. Today I did some more 'research' into what MonsterHigh is all about.

As far as I can tell, www.monsterhigh.com is a website for young girls. It is centered around a group of characters who are all the children of famous monsters and they attend high school at "Monster High". The website makes a series of 1 minute cartoons and they are posted on youtube at www.youtube.com/monsterhigh.

I watched all of the episodes of the cartoon today and I just really liked it a lot. Mostly, I fell in love with the "style" of the cartoon. The colors and the outfits and the makeup on the characters is all just so much fun. It's all really girly and cute.

Here are the main characters of the cartoon:

These are some pictures of my favorite characters/outfits:

I really really want to make actual costumes of some of these outfits. They would be amazing for halloween! I am just excited because these cartoons have given me so much inspiration for makeup and nail designs and costumes. I'm excited to "play" with the inspiration I am getting from this. Anyway, that's all that I could think to share with you today.

Check out an episode of the cartoon:

.
..
...
...btw, today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life" is here:

August 22: "Life is going according to God's plan only if you are."

Well, that was awkward....

2010-08-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Little story to share with you today.

So there is a guy I work with whose wife just left him. I don't know all of the details, but from overhearing tid-bits of conversations and such, I gathered that he went home from work about a week ago and she and all of her stuff were gone.

That's pretty sucky news. So, everyone at work is trying to be a bit nice to him, me included.

Today, he and I both had to work outside, so we were talking. We mostly talked about how we both want to move away from Las Vegas and then we were talking about movies and some of our favorites and then all of a sudden, he asked me if I wanted to go out with him to the movies tonight.

Um......?

Hello awkwardness.

At that moment I'm thinking, "Dude, I'm being nice to you because I know your wife just left you and that's got to be tough. I wasn't being nice to try and get you're attention. Maybe you're just trying to 'move on', and I can understand that, but this is really too soon. Technically, you are still married and this is really weird for you to be asking me out on a date."

But how do you actually say all of that to somebody? I'm sure the guy is hurting, and I didn't want to be mean to him. I told him I was busy tonight, that I had to attend Saturday night church. I hope that doesn't make me a bad Christian, using church as an excuse, but I didn't know what else to say to him.

Thankfully though, he didn't seem too upset by me saying no. We kept talking about movies for awhile and then we both had other things to do. I don't know. Anyone have any ideas of what to say in a situation like that? I'm really curious, because, what if he asks me again?! I don't know what else to say.

Maybe we can find some inspiration in today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life"

August 21: "In this life, because of its invisible laws of perfect reciprocity, anything that we do to help another outgrow the limitation of his or her present nature produces the same order of growth within ourselves."

I'm Not a Celebrity!

2010-08-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

Today I had a story that I wanted to share with you, but it seemed best to do it through a vlog. So I made this video:

So yeah, anytime I wear a hat and sunglasses, or even just sunglasses, people look at me as if they think I am somebody famous. It always throws me off when people look at me that way, or say something to me about it.

I think it is kind of appropriate to share this story today, after yesterday's blog. Maybe this is another reason why I don't seek fame? Maybe some people want to be famous for the simple thrill of being seen and recognized. I know from experience that it kind of creeps me out when people recognize me and treat me different, as if I might be some kind of celebrity. A couple of years ago, when I was going out to shows all of the time, people would often come up to me and say that they recognized me from Myspace. If they had talked to me on Myspace, then we usually became friends, but when people I didn't even know would come up to me and they knew my name and knew my face, that kind of scared me a bit.

One time I was at a concert at the House of Blues. I was there by myself and at one point a guy came up to talk to me. He said, "Hey, haven't I seen you at the Beauty Bar?" - I looked at him and I was pretty sure that I hadn't met him before, but I said, "maybe, I do go there a lot." He then said, "Ya, you were there taking pictures or something." - Then I knew what he was talking about. About two months prior to this conversation, I had been at the Beauty Bar to see some bands play. One of my best friends at the time was a photographer, and he worked for the Beauty Bar. I wasn't actually taking pictures that night, but I was with my photographer friend nearly the whole time that I was there. It really surprised me that this guy at the House of Blues would remember me after having only seen me at the Beauty Bar one time. I had only been at the bar for a couple of hours that night, and I had never actually talked to this guy, so it really kind of creeped me out. I guess some girls might be flattered to know that a guy was paying that much attention to them, but ya, I know now from experience, that I don't really want that kind of attention.

Put it this way, if you are reading this and you haven't met me in person, please make an effort to connect with me online before we meet in person so that I don't get creeped out to know that you know everything about me and yet we've never talked before.

Ok, that's my blog for today. Here is today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life."

August 20: "What doesn't go right for the one that understands that, once awakened to real life, nothing can go wrong?"

I Don't Want to be Famous

2010-08-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hey hey.

So I remembered something that I'd like to talk about. This idea comes from a video posted by John Green on the Vlogbrothers youtube channel nearly a year ago.

To get this blog in the proper context, it would be best if you would watch this video and then continue reading.

Fame: The Road Trip

I really like the points John makes in this video. I think when I first watched this video, it stuck in my mind because,...well, John Green has a way of taking ideas that I agree with and putting them into words that make sense. I think it is very true what he says. When you take the desire to be famous and strip it down to it's barest form, it is really just a desire to be respected by the people whose opinions we feel matter.

This whole topic today is another one of those topics that I have not really voiced before, for fear of sounding shallow or something. For a long long time now, at least since I was a sophomore in high school, I've felt pretty certain that I had no desire to be "famous" myself. However, I had/have a very real craving to be friends with "famous" people. I've always phrased it to myself in this way: "I want to be best friends with all of the people that everyone else wants to know."

The most amazing thing though, is that this desire has almost always been met, in one way or another. In middle school and high school, my closest friends were some of the most popular people in school. Even today, I get to say that I am friends with people like Bill Martin (Dr. Noise) and Molly Lewis (sweetafton23)! Although, you probably see how this all can come out sounding really shallow. As if my only intention in being friends with these people is to "ride on their coattails" or something. I really have no desire to "get in on" the popularity of my friends. I am insanely happy for my friends and whatever level of fame they attain to. I get so excited for them when they are recognized in a public place, when people ask to take pictures with them and want their autograph. I don't want that for myself, but I want it for my friends. I am just happy that I get to be friends with these people, and know them on a personal level. To other people, they are idols, but to me, they are real people, real people that I call "my friends".

Partly why I wanted to talk about this topic, in connection with John Green's video, is because his video makes me wonder about myself. I say I have no desire to be famous, but if you look at the desire to be famous according to John's definition, then really, if all I am seeking is approval, respect and attention from the people I admire, and if I've found that, even if it's only from a handful of people, then I guess I do have a desire to be famous.

So then I think about it again, and I think, yes, maybe I want to be famous, but I only feel famous if the people who are paying attention to me are themselves famous. And.... wow! Saying it that way makes me feel conceited and prejudiced.

I guess I can only hope that people who know me, will know me well enough to know that my friendship is genuine. Yes I want to be best friends with famous people. I've had the chance to rub elbows with quite a few famous people, I've had the chance to sit down and talk and have dinner with some big names and that makes me happy. It makes me happy even if no one else knows that I am friends with these people. It just makes me happy that I know it. Anyway, I strive to be a good friend to the people whose friendships I have been blessed with. I suppose if I wasn't a good and true friend, then I wouldn't be so lucky in friendship as I am. So right now, I choose to take comfort in knowing that these people choose to be friends with me just as much as I choose to be friends with them. I hope no one ever feels the need to call me shallow. It's not as if I avoid being friends with people who are not famous. That is not the case at all! What I'm getting at here is that, if I feel famous at all, I feel so when I am considered a friend of someone who is already famous.

That's all this blog was about. John's discussion on Fame has had me thinking for nearly a year(!) and this was my first attempt to really sit down and answer his question. "Who is the silver-backed gorilla of your jungle?" I think I know the answer to that question now. I think we should all be aware of whose attention we are trying to get. It really puts all of your endeavors into perspective.

As for me, I really don't care if I never have 100 subscribers on youtube. I have 95 followers on twitter and at least 78 of those are actual friends, people I have hung out with and know personally. Even right here on this blog, I have about 8 subscribers. I am happy knowing that at least a few of my friends read every post. That is enough for me, because I'm not trying to be famous here on the internet. I have the respect and support of my good friends, and their approval and friendship is enough to make me feel famous already. :-)

Have any thoughts? Feel free to share it in the comments. We'll leave off again with today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life."

August 19: "It only seems that there is something more important for you to do than to just quietly be yourself."

I Have Writers Block

2010-08-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hello! Hello?

I'm not even sure if anyone is reading these anymore. :-(

I really don't know what to write about today.

Actually, I want to show you something.

These are all of my journals and prayer journals from the past 15 years. (I only started keeping journals in 1995.) Well, actually, I've added three more since this picture was taken last year, but still. Obviously, I write a lot. Writing for myself is very different from writing for other people. When I write for myself, I write about what interests me, but when I write these blogs, I try to write about things that interest other people and sometimes I can't share everything that is on my mind because it is too personal. I think right now, that is my problem. All of the things that I would like to talk about are things I shouldn't share or just don't want to.

So, I'm sort of at a road block right now. Sorry, this is all I have for you today.

I'll leave you with today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life."

August 18 "One simple guideline for finding yourself in any crowd of stressed or confused thoughts is to remember, right in their midst, that you are none of them."

Get Rid of Roaches without Chemicals!!

2010-08-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

I am really super tired today so I just have a bit of pest-control advice to share. Recently, a friend suggested to my mom that the best way to deal with roaches is to sit out a jar filled only slightly with old coffee grounds and a little bit of water. It attracts roaches like mad, and once they get inside the jar, they can't get out again! It really works! It's sort of gross to peak into the jar in the morning and see all of the roaches trying to get out. We used old spaghetti sauce jars, so we could just screw the lid on and throw the jar out.

Anyway, if you get roaches on your patio or front porch, you might try this and see if it works for you.

Okay, that's all I'm writing for today. Here is today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life".

August 17: "The unexpected sweetness of any perfectly silent moment is that we enter into it through a still secret part of ourselves that is its perfect reflection."

Painting With Light

2010-08-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Hey there! So today I want to talk about painting with light. More simply, that means: photography.

Before I took up nail art, pretty much the only other type of art that I have ever been good at is photography. I like to "paint" with light.

Over the years, I've used many different cameras and today that is sort of what I wanted to talk about/show you.

People tend to think that they have to have a fancy, expensive camera to take good photos, but that simply isn't true. If you understand the science behind a photograph, basically, if you know what you are doing, you can coax a great photograph from nearly any camera.

The camera doesn't make the photographer. Photography truly is a skill and an art that requires some talent.

When I first began studying photography "professionally", I used a 35mm film camera. It was a Canon, though I can't remember the exact model name. That camera was stolen from my house nearly 6 years ago, so I don't remember. Anyway, here are some photos I took using that camera.

In the beginning, I mostly only used black and white film because I developed the film and the photos on my own, and black and white film is easier and cheaper to develop than color film. I really like working with film, especially black and whit film. I am sad that film cameras are dying out. It really is a shame. I could say so much more on that subject, but it would just be a rant, so I'll move on.

These next pictures I took using the camera on my cell phone.

Like I said, these were taken with the camera on my phone. I have a Samsung Gravity with a 3 mega pixel camera and no flash. When working with a low-quality camera it is still possible to take great photographs. It helps to be aware of the lighting, and also to consider color and composition. A great subject and interesting lighting can overcome a lack of sharp focus.

Most people these days have a fairly decent digital camera at their disposal. I do too. I have a Kodak EasyShare Z1285. This is a 12 mega pixel camera. It comes with a 'point and shoot' setting. However, has two other settings for more creative control. There is the P/M button for the most creative control (users can define the depth of field and aperature) and there is the ISO setting. The ISO setting is really a more advanced version of the 'point and shoot' setting, it basically just tells the camera that you will be shooting in a low light setting, so this option tells the camera to increase it's sensitivity to light. In manual cameras, the ISO setting is a little bit more involved, but on a digital camera, it really is just a dressed up version of the 'point and shoot'. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures I took with my Kodak EasyShare.

Obviously these photos were all taken during a single shoot. I noticed the potential for a great photograph during this moment and my kodak was the only camera that I had with me at the moment. I took each of these photos using the P/M setting on the camera and played around with the settings in that mode. The down side to using these types of cameras is the short lens. Sometimes, the best shot can only be obtained with a longer lens, and these cameras just don't allow you to compensate for that.

Now, I do have a semi-professional digital SLR. My highest quality camera is a Canon Digital Rebel Xti that I bought about 3 years ago. This camera is considered semi-professional because it has 7 different "auto" settings. These settings allow the novice to take relatively professional looking photographs in a 'point and shoot' fashion. However, for the more skilled, there are 5 manual settings that allow for more creative control.

These are some photo's I've taken with my digital SLR:

So, ya. I just wanted share some photography insight with you, and show that, you really can take great photographs with nearly any camera. Just understand that you are "painting" with light. Be aware of lighting, color, composition, motion and understand your camera!

Anyway, I will leave you with today's quote from the book "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life". Take a moment to think this quote over, and goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

August 16: "Each moment of life is only as precious as is our ability to attend to it."

Re: An Uncensored Blog

2010-08-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

Hey, so I'm going to tie up some loose ends from yesterday's post and reply to some points made in the comments on yesterday's post.

Yesterday, I just typed out that blog and posted it without taking any time to organize my thoughts, so it was kind of all over the place.

Basically, I had made that video for my family of my aunts memorial, and I had posted it on youtube, and essentially, I just wanted to say two things.

First I wanted to say: "Here, I made a video. This video is about something sad, but you don't need to feel obligated to comfort me, and I want to tell you why."

Second, I wanted to say that I am sad for my family members who are overcome with depression because of my aunt passing away, and I wanted to explain why it is that depression no longer controls me.

I think I got those points across, but maybe I didn't do it in the most coherent way. That blog yesterday could have been organized better, but I just hashed it out and didn't edit it.

In the comments my friend Julie talked about how her aunt also passed away and now her uncle is dealing with depression because his life had revolved around his wife, and now his life is so empty without her.

Her comment is what really made me want to talk about this some more. I think all of us, at some point, will go through a time of severe depression. It takes a long, long time to recover from an experience that tears your life apart. I guess part of the point I was trying to make, is that, while I was overcoming depression, I grew stronger and wiser. I learned to always look ahead, to see what situations in life might cause me pain. So that now, somewhere in the back of my mind, I'm always aware of the situations that could be difficult for me. Sometimes I just sit and think about these possible situations and I ask myself, what I would do if such and such bad thing happened. It might seem weird, but ever since I started doing this, life hasn't really surprised me with any bad situations. Sometimes bad things happen, but I've already been mentally prepared for it, so when the bad things happen, I am calm and I can think clearly and react rationally.

One of the reasons the whole depression thing is so important to me at the moment is because of my mom. It was her sister who passed away. I am sad for my mom. Her mother (my grandmother) passed away nearly 13 years ago, but her dad (my grandfather) passed away just 2 years ago. My mother was severely depressed when her dad passed away, and now she is depressed again, because her sister has passed away.

I am anxious for my mom, because she was the youngest of 6 kids. It is very likely, that in future years, she will have to bury her 4 other siblings and her aunt and uncle. Because of my experiences with depression and learning to look ahead and prepare myself for potential rough times, I wish I could help my mom to realize that she needs to do something to prepare herself for the inevitable. I am afraid that if she doesn't learn how to cope with the pain of losing her family members, then she is going to be overcome with depression every time another one of her family members passes away, and I am sad to think that my mom might spend most of the rest of her life being depressed because of people she loves passing away.

I fully admit that losing someone who is close to you is not easy. I imagine that if my brother or sister or one of my best friends passed away, I would probably grieve for at least a few months. I know I would be sad, but to be honest, I really do spend time thinking about what life would be like if this happened. Ever since my life fell apart at the beginning of 2008, I've tried to prepare myself for anything that life might throw my way. I just didn't want to ever give life another chance to sneak up behind me and tear my happiness away. So I've learned to fight for my right to be happy, but I've also learned to let things go when the time comes. I've learned to cherish every moment that I get to spend with my friends and family because I never know which moment might be the last. I am glad that I've learned to do this, because life feels so much more fulfilling now. When you truly begin to view your life from the perspective that it could all be taken away in an instant, then every moment feels like a gift.

So, ya... I think that's all I wanted to say today. I'll just conclude by sharing something that helped me through my depression. During 2008, I stopped watching tv. I think TV can be a great escape for some people, but for me, I had to give it up. TV helped me to forget about my pain, but it didn't help me to grow and deal with my pain, so I stopped watching it. Instead, I spent my time reading. I told you yesterday that I prayed and read the Bible, but I read a lot of other books too. One of the books I read was called "365 Days to Let Go: daily insights to change your life". It was just a book of quotes/proverbs, one for every day of the year. These daily readings were just really helpful to me. I think I'll start including them in my blogs everyday.

The one for August 15 says:

"Beauty is more than just the experience of a unity greater than thought can measure; beauty gives evidence - through our awareness of its expression - that no observer exists apart from what is observed."

Alright, goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

An Uncensored Blog

2010-08-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hey there! So.....I don't really know where to start this blog.

Let's start with the title. I am going to be really honest today, and that is what I mean by "uncensored". See, I feel that I view the world very differently from most people. I don't react to situations the way most people do. I don't normally get upset about things that most 'normal' people get upset about.

I feel that the way I view the world and the way that I react to certain situations might make other people feel offended or awkward, so most of the time, I hide my true feelings. For instance, in the time that I have been making youtube videos, I've wanted to make so many more vlogs than I actually have, but I guess I'm afraid of people not accepting me. This isn't the same as being insecure though. Really, I'm afraid that my views will offend people and that will lead to them not wanting to associate with me. I'm afraid that people will think that I am insensitive, but I don't mean to be.

I feel like I'm not making much sense.

I'm writing this blog about this topic today, because, just a few weeks ago, my aunt passed away. The thing is, I'm not looking for your condolences. I'm not sad. I'm a very practical person, and in my world view, people die. It happens. It is a fact of life. Right now, I am more sad for my family members who are still hurting. I'm sad to see them being depressed.

I feel that I should mention that I am a Christian. So yes, I believe in an afterlife. I believe that when people die, they go to Heaven, or Hell. The thing is, I actually believe it. So, I don't see any point in wasting my time being sad. If my aunt is in Heaven, then why should I be sad? This is where I think I might offend people. I'm afraid that people will view my seemingly indifferent attitude as disrespect for my aunts life, or that I somehow have missed out on the preciousness of life and connection with other people. I guess some people might view a time of grieving as a sign of respect for the deceased. If you have that view, I suppose that's fine, but I don't see it that way. I think grief is something experienced by those of us "left behind" and I don't think it matters one way or another to the dearly departed if we spend one minute grieving or five months.

Let me interject on myself for just a minute. I think it is a very different thing if you spend time being upset about being separated from someone you love by distance. That person is still alive and part of this world. I just think it is ridiculous to be depressed about someone who has left this world. At some point or another, you have to get on with your life. Why waste time? You only get so much and that is my point.

I've been through severe depression before. I have. I don't want anyone to think that I don't know what it is like to be depressed. I do know. I wish I could bring myself to tell you about the horrible life I was living that lead to my most severe depression, but I guess I'm still too embarrassed about it to just tell everyone. The thing is though, I didn't want to be depressed. I wanted to live life and be happy. I felt that I had a choice. I could choose to sit in my room alone and wallow and give in to my depression. Or I could choose to overcome my depression, which is what I did. Some of you may know that I have a tattoo on my wrist that says "Hope". I got this tattoo as part of my desperate attempt to escape depression. I wanted something that would remind me everyday that I didn't have to be depressed. I have always been a Christian, but during my darkest days, I barely knew if God was real. I "hoped" that he was. I "hoped" that everything I had ever been told about God was true. I "hoped" that all the promises in the Bible were real. I put my hope in God. I got my tattoo as a visual reminder of my prayer and of everything that I was "hoping" for. Slowly, over the course of months and months of forcing myself to get out of the house instead of staying at home alone, and hundreds of hours spent praying and reading the Bible and other books, trying to learn who God really is, eventually, I found that I wasn't depressed anymore.

I said I was going to be really honest today, so I guess I really should be. If you know me at all, then you know that I have often said that there was a time that I went out to "shows" by myself, all the time. Well, that was during the time that I was trying to overcome depression. I forced myself to go to those shows so that I was surrounded by people. It gave me a chance to make new friends, and ultimately, it worked. I made many friends by going to all of those shows in 2008, but my most lasting friendship has been with Bill Martin, who introduced me to Nerdfighteria and the youtube community.

Everything about my life now, is a result of how I chose to live my life in 2008. You may not believe in God, but I do. Sure, I chose to go out to shows, and that made it easier to meet people. But, I wouldn't have had the strength to go if I didn't have my faith in God. I would read God's promises written throughout the Bible, and I took them to heart. I chose to believe them completely, and that gave me the strength to keep looking for a better life. To keep believing that life doesn't have to hurt all of the time. And now I am here. I have met so many wonderful people in the past two years and I have been a part of so many amazing moments. Life is so much more rewarding now than it was before 2008.

My point in all of this is that, the life I live now resulted from a choice I made. I chose to not give in to depression. I chose to find another way to live life and I never gave up looking. So, forgive me if I offend you with my next statement, but based on my own experiences, I feel that depression is a choice. It is, admittedly, a feeling that can come at you with no warning, but I think we have a choice to allow that feeling to control our lives, or to tell it to go away.

I choose to not be depressed. I choose to not be sad, as much as I can. So my aunt passed away, and that is sad, but I still have a life to live. Giving in to depression right now is not going to make my life any better, so I choose not to let myself be depressed about it. This attitude is making it very hard for me to be around my family right now. They are all very sad and I am afraid of offending them, so I stay in my room a lot right now.

The only thing I have to offer my family is this video I made of the memorial we held for my aunt after she passed away.

I loved my aunt, and I love my family. I just can't bring myself to want to spend time being sad. There is so much to do in this life, so many people to meet and connect with, so much life to plan and look forward to and to LIVE, but we don't have an infinite amount of time to do all that there is to do. I just don't ever want to miss out on the good things in life due to the fact that I was sitting in my room being depressed. I re-read that last sentence, and I hope it doesn't come out sounding selfish. I just realize that life is short, and I don't want to miss out on it.

Since I am a Christian, I believe in an eternal afterlife. If you are part of my Christian family, then I will see you again in Heaven, please don't expect me to mourn for you very long if you leave this world before me. If I mourn at all during this life, I mourn for those people that I love who are not Christians, because I will not see them again after this life. Those are the people I want to spend more time with, because, if they do not go to Heaven, then this lifetime is all we have. That thought is the one thing that really makes me sad, and that is what really drives me to not want to waste the time that I have, being away from people that I love.

Okay, this blog turned out way longer than I planned, so I'll stop here. I hope I haven't scared anyone away. :-)

Tag Games

2010-08-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today we have a vlog/blog. I was tagged by my friend Will to make a video answering some questions.

So here is my video:

The people I tagged are:
MichaelMidnight
Sara(cleverestwitch)
Leslie(foundhergrail)
Barry Aldridge
Bobby(TheMeFund)

The Questions Are:
1.What's your favourite TV show and why?
2.Favourite YouTube channel and why?
3.What's your worst habit?
4.Worst movie you've seen? Why was it the worst?
5.Favourite gadget and why?
6.What video camera do you use for your videos? Show us them!
7.Favourite smell?
8.When and where is your next vacation? If you don't have one planned, where would you go and why?
9.What is your favourite Internet meme?
10.When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you were older? Can you remember why?

Feel free to make a response of your own and tag some friends. Tag games are fun!

Or just answer the questions down in the comments if you like. This is all I have for you today. Goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

Pinball Madness!

2010-08-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today has been a good day. My friends Chris and Molly came to Las Vegas and we spent a few hours hanging out at the best place in Las Vegas, the Pinball Hall of Fame!

The Pinball Hall of Fame has been in Las Vegas for a few years, but I only just went there for the first time last month when my friend Bobby came to town. Today was only my second time going, but it definitely will not be the last time. The Hall of Fame is both a museum and an arcade. There are hundreds of games there, games dating from the 1970's to today! -And they are all playable! Even better, the games are cheap! The games cost between 25 cents and $2.00 (at the most, and that's usually for multiple plays of a single game). Most games are 50 cents. To add even more to the awesomeness, the Pinball Hall of Fame is a non-profit museum and the majority of the proceeds go to the Salvation Army.

If you ever have the chance to come to Las Vegas, you have to set aside a few hours to hang out at the Pinball Hall of Fame. You can look them up at their website www.pinballmuseum.org. They also have a twitter, you can follow them @PinballHallFame.

Here are some pics of the museum that I stole from Molly's twitpic page.

These are some pics I took.

Ya, so it is an awesome place. It made for a great day to hang out there with two good friends. I don't really have any friends in Las Vegas anymore, so I've been pretty bored lately, and slightly depressed really. Having friends in town made me really happy today. Well, that's all for today. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Shopping Etiquette

2010-08-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

Hey there! So today I am blogging from work again. I am on my lunch break, but I'm not eating. My job had a bar-b-que today and I've already eaten before my lunch time.

So being at work has reminded me of something that irritates me nearly everyday. This is a rant and and a "teaching" of sorts.

As a cashier, one of the most annoying things to deal with is customers who pay with a $100 bills.

-Customers assume that we cashiers have an endless supply of money in our cash drawers.

TRUTH: We do not!

At most retail stores, cashiers start their shifts with a very minimal amount of money, usually only $100 or $200. That's it, so obviously, if our first customer has only a small purchase, we can not make change for a $100 bill.

Also, even though we make money during the day, we are required to "strip" our tills of excess cash throughout the day. This protects the store against major losses in the event of a theft. Therefore, because we never have very much money in our drawers, $100 bills are nearly always irritating to deal with if the purchase amount is small.

As someone who has worked as a cashier for the past 6 years, this is my plea and my advice to you. Please, please, please do not ever use a $100 bill to pay for a purchase that is less than $50.

Also, if you ever do use a $100 bill to pay for a small purchase, then you forfeit your right to be upset if the cashier has to make you wait for change, or if she sends you to another register.

Lastly, what are people doing with $100 bills anyway? Unless you get paid in cash, and the person paying you gives you a $100 bill, the only other way you get them is from the bank/casino where you cash your check. I happen to know that when you cash your check, the teller asks if you would like small bills or large bills. Take the small bills!!!! Why do people take $100 bills if all they are going to do is turn around and spend it on something that only costs $6. It's ridiculous and rude!

Ok, I'm done now. Sorry this was so "ranty". :-)

Shady Business

2010-08-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

Ah, ok so I didn't blog yesterday. Ya, I'm already over it. Are you? Good, then let's move on.

So, right before I sat down to write this, I was still procrastinating on writing today's blog, instead I was going to go sew something on my sewing machine. Well, as I was pulling the machine out of the box (yes, I keep it stored in it's original box because I can't keep it out all of the time), I remembered the slightly shady story of how I got my sewing machine and suddenly I decided this would be a great blog, so here we go.

The story of how I got my sewing machine goes back several years. Over the past six years I have worked at a toy store off and on (ie. I have not worked there for an entire year straight, I always quit and go back and quit again, and go back again... I have a roller coaster relationship with that job.) Anyway, I think it was during my second year of working there, which would be about 4 years ago now, right after Christmas, the company decided to do a major mark-down on hundreds of video games. They sent us a list of at least 150 titles that were going to be marked down to $5. The crazy thing is that some of those titles were still selling for $50 at other stores, so this was going to be a HUGE sale! Well, the we had large quantities of most of the games that were being marked down, so our managers were not opposed to some of us employees buying some of the games for ourselves.

Now, here I am going to admit something I did that is probably the most outright dishonest thing I have ever done as far as taking advantage of a store and their 'return' policies. See, at that time, the PSP (portable playstation) was still brand new and I really wanted one, but I could not afford it. So I had this idea. What if I bought a few of these games at $5, and take them over to that "neighborhood superstore" (you all know the one I'm talking about) and return them for store credit? These games were worth $30-50 each at that "other" store. I figured, I could invest some money into these games, redeem them for store credit at that "other" store, and use the credit to buy myself a PSP.

So, that's what I did. Sort of. I invested about $80 into the $5 games. I returned most of them for store credit at the superstore and got nearly $400 in store credit. Some of the games, it turned out were not sold there, so I had to sell them on ebay, but that was alright because they ended up selling for more than $50! I don't remember exactly how much money I ended up with after all that, but still, most of it was in store credits. So, I had the store credits, and the money from the ebay sales, but then my plan altered. Since I worked at a toy store, I saw that nearly all of the PSP's we had sold were being returned. It turns out, those units break very easily. So my desire to buy one waned, and here I was, stuck with nearly $400 in store credit which I had intended to use to buy a PSP. So instead, I just bought whatever. School supplies, clothes, a hair straightener, a blow dryer, and I figured, why not buy a sewing machine too? I wanted one, and I had the "money". So I bought one.

That's how I got the sewing machine in the first place. Now my story could end there, but it doesn't. I had that sewing machine for about a year, when suddenly, it stopped working. Something was wrong with the tension on it and I know enough about sewing machines to know that it would cost more to have it repaired than the machine was actually worth, so it just sat there in it's box for almost a year. One day, my mom needed to borrow my sewing machine and I told her how it was broken. My aunt was there during this conversation and she asked where I had bought the machine. I told her where I got it, and she told me to just take it back. I still had the original box and everything. I told her I didn't feel comfortable doing that, so she put it in her car, drove to the closest "superstore" and told them that she had this sewing machine that didn't work anymore and she wanted another one. Well, apparently that's good enough for them. They gave her a brand new one! She brought it back to my house, and so I still have a sewing machine that I never 'really' paid for.

Now just in the interest of full disclosure, I want to tell you why I don't feel so guilty about returning those video games to that store. One of the ladies that I worked with at the Toy Store had a son who was a manager at the local "superstore". She knew full well what I was doing and she got in on it too. She told her son about it, and he rolled his eyes and said she could get away with returning "a few". So I didn't feel so bad, because one of the managers there "knew" what we Toy Store employees were up to. Anyway, that's my blog for today. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Blog.... about NASCAR

2010-08-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

I don't really feel like writing today at all, but I don't want to give up on my attempt to blog everyday!

So darn it, here we go!

I don't know what to talk about today. I just got home from work tonight and found out that my friend Bill was in a car accident yesterday. You probably know Bill, and you might already know about the accident, because Bill is a race car driver. He races on a track in La Crosse, Wisconsin. You can watch the video of his race and crash right here. (Bill's car is the #16 car, it is black and red - he starts out in 4th place in this race.)

Bill said this was a pretty nasty crash, although, visually, it doesn't look as terrifying as the crash he survived in May.At the very end of the video, you can see that he crashed pretty bad.

There is a video that shows the crash actually happening. Bill showed it to me once, but I couldn't find it. Oh well.

Anyway, just so you know, Bill is not a bad driver. He doesn't always crash. In fact, he won a race on July 3!!! You can watch him win, right here.

It is pretty cool that he won, because that was only his 8th time racing. Ever. And yet he won, against all of those more experienced drivers. :-)

Ya, I didn't intend for this blog to be all about Bill... but why not? I'm kind of into racing now and I think it is awesome that my best friend is a licensed NASCAR driver. I started to enjoy racing actually more than a year ago, way before Bill became a racecar driver, although it was still him who influenced me. I first started watching races when I would hang out at Bill's house and we would watch them on his computer. Eventually we went to some NASCAR races out at the Las Vegas motor speedway, and those were fun. I have to admit, I still haven't learned all of the rules, I'm still learning, but I know enough about the sport now to appreciate it as a sport.

If you know nothing about NASCAR, let me tell you just a little bit about the 'big leagues' and how they compare to the races in which Bill competes.

In the major NASCAR races (the ones in which the 'big' names race) the cars race at around 200 MPH (that's 321.87 km/h). They usually drive between 100-300 laps, sometimes more.

The races that Bill competes in are 15 laps long, and the cars stay at around 90 MPH. So, that may give you an idea of the stamina, strength and endurance needed to compete in the big races. Still, 15 laps can seem like an eternity. You never know what is going to happen on any given lap.

If you are not familiar with racing, you might get the idea that people who watch races are most excited about the crashes. Actually though, once you become a fan of racing, you realize quickly that, although crashes can be kind of spectacular, they are actually pretty annoying. Crashes slow down the race and can be really irritating.

Anyway, I think that's all that I have to say. I'm tired, so goodnight.

VIRUSES!!!@#$!$% - and First Friday (cont.)

2010-08-07T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hey there! So last night my computer caught a virus AGAIN! This new virus was very similar to the one that infected my computer last month. The same one that forced me to stop blogging for several days. Thankfully, since my friend Bill fixed my computer last month, I already had an anti-malware program installed on my computer, so I was able to fix the problem myself this time.

Anyway, since I have been hit twice by this type of virus and even last week my friend Mary got the same virus on her computer, I feel I should talk about these extremely annoying viruses so that if you happen to catch one, you can recognize it right away and know what to do.

The two programs that have attacked my computer are the spyware programs known as Sysinternals Antivirus and Antivir 2010. Both of these programs sneak their way onto your computer and masquerade as Anti-virus software. They pretty much hi-jack your web browser, not allowing you to access the internet at all. They are designed to disable any legitimate anti-virus software that is already on your computer so that, it almost seems impossible to remove these pesky programs that just show up out of nowhere. These types of spyware will torment you with pop-ups saying that viruses have been found on your computer and they wont allow you to do anything until you "buy" the full version of their program. DO NOT BUY IT!!! It is just a scam. You will lose your money and the problem will just get worse.

You do not need a fancy expensive anti-virus program to remove these viruses from your computer. There is a free program you can download from www.malwarebytes.org that will successfully and safely remove these programs from your computer. The tricky thing is that you can't download this program once you already have the virus, unless you really know a lot about the way computers work, because the viruses hi-jack your web-browser, so you can't go looking for a solution.

I know that when Bill fixed my computer for me, he disabled everything that starts up automatically when my computer turns on, which in effect, "turned off" the virus. That allowed him to access the internet in order to download the anit-malware program that would actually remove the virus. Honestly though, I couldn't tell you exactly how he did it. I would suggest downloading the anti-malware program 'just in case'. That way, if you get one of these viruses, you can simply turn off your computer, restart it in "safe mode" and then run the anti-malware program. Your computer will be fixed in less than an hour.

Anyway, that is my advice. The last thing I have to say about that, is that I got the Sysinternals Antivirus 'bug' from a MySpace page, and my friend Mary got it too. So I suggest staying away from MySpace. I am not actually sure where I picked up the Antivir 2010 virus. The only website I was logged into when it actually took over my computer was this one! (I was working on my blog!) I doubt that I got the virus through Blogger. I think it is more likely that I picked it up somewhere else and it just didn't 'manifest' right away. Okay... enough about that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It seems a bit odd to completely change topics in the middle of a blog, but the way the internet works now, if I wait till tomorrow to tell you about my experience at First Friday last night, well... then it will already be 'old' news. So, I did make it out to First Friday last night. I brought my Flip camera with me and made this video:

My friend Adam Michaels (from the band Searchlight) is an artist (notice "Adams Art Box" in the video above), and I bought some Alice In Wonderland prints from him.

I *WISH* that I could have the actual paintings of these two prints, but I could not afford them. He also had paintings of the Cheshire Cat and an interpretation of the Mad Tea Party that I would have loved to have, but still,... I can only afford to buy art on the cheap.

I did also buy some pins last night.

There was a booth that was selling products made entirely from recycled materials. These pins were made from aluminum taken from soda cans and recycled paper. I spent a good while looking through the thousands of pins they had on display there, I chose these six as little gifts for some friends of mine. I meant to buy more for more of my friends, but there were SO MANY pins to look through, eventually I gave up looking.

Anyway, I think this blog is really long enough, so I'll say goodbye now, until tomorrow. :-)

Star Wars Nail Art & First Friday

2010-08-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know what to talk about today, so I just want to show you my nail art for this week.

My friend Stephen, who I've mentioned before, suggested this nail design to me. If you don't remember, Stephen is the co-creator of www.wookieepedia.com, and obviously is quite a Star Wars fan.

So here it is:
my own little army of Stormtroopers + Darth Vader

Other than that, I really don't have much to say today. It is Friday, also it is the first Friday of the month, which means today is the First Friday art festival here in Las Vegas. I guess I could tell you about that.

I know some other cities also have a First Friday festival, but if you don't have one, basically it's a big block party that happens every month, obviously on the First Friday of the month. I've been going to First Friday events ever since I was a senior in high school, 7 years ago. Mostly it's an event for artists to showcase and sell their art. Since I went to an art school for high school, this festival was a big deal to my classmates. It was a great way for them to get noticed in the community and for them to make some money from their art. The city closes down some of the streets to traffic during the festival so that people can just walk around between galleries. They have street vendors and music and dancing and it's just one of those events you can go to and you can always be sure that you'll have a good time. One of the galleries provides chalk so anyone who wants to can create chalk art on the sidewalk.

First Friday officially runs from 6pm to 10pm, but over the past few years, the bars downtown have jumped onto the First Friday bandwagon. Once the actual art Festival is over, the over 21 crowd usually heads over to Freamont St. for discounted drinks and live bands at the Beauty Bar or at The Bunkhouse. Usually there are bands playing for free at the stage under the Fremont St. Experience canopy. That can be a good time too, but usually it is over-run with tourists, so I don't usually go there. There are three or four other bars on Fremont St. that have First Friday specials, but they don't have space for live bands so I rarely go to those.

Just as I was writing this, I was going to say that First Friday is always a good place to run into friends and a great way to meet new people. I just remembered that I first met my friend Ricky (drummer of the band Searchlight) outside of the Beauty Bar at a First Friday event.

So anyways, that's what I'll be doing tonight. Hanging out downtown, checking out some art, and hopefully seeing some friends. :-)

Fears

2010-08-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my friend Michael made a VEDA video talking about the things he fears. (Watch his video here.) Instead of leaving a long comment on his video, I decided to respond here.

I have the strangest, most illogical fears. I am not afraid of bugs or heights, or airplanes or swimming in the ocean. The things I fear are very unlikely to ever actually happen to me. I have three fears that I will share with you.

1.) I am afraid of being burried alive. I think I aquired this fear when I was very young and I read something somewhere about how people used to be burried alive accidentaly. I think this was all urban legend, but the story goes that, hundreds of years ago, when people would slip into a coma or simply get knocked unconscious, sometimes their heart rate would go very low and their breathing would be so slow that it would look as though they were not breathing, and people would bury them, thinking they were dead. There were stories of this happening, and then sometimes a close friend or family member would have a horrible feeling that would cause them to have the grave dug up, and they would open the casket to find that the person had woken up, and tried to get out, but then had died of suffocation. These stories might not actually be true, but when I read them, they really frightened me, and still, I fear the idea of being burried alive with no way to survive.

2.) I fear being left in space. Not just being in a ship and being stranded with no power or something like that. But sometimes you watch a movie or something and there is an astronaut who is outside of the ship, working and somehow he gets seperated from the ship. Being that alone and helpless is what I fear. Obviously this is something that is extremely unlikely to ever happen to me, but still it frightens me.

3.) Whenever I go to someone else's house, if I go into the bathroom and the shower curtain is closed, I am always convinced that if I open the shower curtain, I will find a dead body in the shower. I have no idea where this thought came from, but it is the first thing I think every time I walk into a bathroom with the shower curtain closed, and I'm always afraid that it will be true.

So there you go. That's what frightens me. I guess I am lucky that I never have to actually face these fears. I bet if you did a psycho-analysis on me, you'd find some interesting things as to what these fears say about me, but I'm content not really knowing. :-)

That's all I have for today. Goodbye 'till tomorrow.

I Recieved A Second-Hand Song

2010-08-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hey there. I only have about an hour to write today so I just have a little story for you.

About two weeks ago a friend of mine at work gave me a gift. This friend of mine is an older man, I forget his actual age, but I think he is about 56 or so. He said he was feeling creative and he was going through some songs he had written over the years and decided to write them out nicely and frame then for some friends of his. He found a love song he had written about an girl named Heather that he had dated about 10 years ago. So he wrote this song out by hand and framed it for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Timeless Temptations of Heather

Moonlit nights filled with anticipations
Always reminded of Timeless Temptations
Of kissing and touching your very soul
Securing your heart from lifes bitter road

Walking hand in hand under skys above
Searching deep into the Sea of Love
Comfortably numb from questions of Why
Forever drowning in your Sensuous Eyes

To touch and hold you through the night
Letting you know everything is alright
To me you're the gift of Gods creation
Our souls intertwinning in Timeless Temptations

The wonderous beauty of your glowing smile
Is making my life all worth while
Nevermore enduring pressures from within
Expressions of Love can now begin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the bottom of the frame, under the lyrics, my friend wrote a note that says

"Hand copied for Heather, a cool chick I work with @ Home Depot, a song about a Heather I had on my Harley, 20 years younger than I, in 2001."

A few other people at work received songs too. I just thought it was really nice. So this song now hangs in my room, and that's the story behind it.

Anyway, I have to go to work soon, so goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

I Like Birthdays

2010-08-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

I like birthdays. My whole life, my mom always set an example for me by making a big deal out of my and my siblings birthdays. She always bought us new clothes and let us choose a special meal for our birthday.

I really feel that it was my mom who taught me that when it is someones birthday, everyone else should treat that person special on their birthday. The funny thing for me is that, growing up, I often felt neglected on my birthday, because my birthday is in the middle of the summer. I was only in school on my birthday for one year of my life when I happened to attend a 12-month school for sixth grade. Unfortunately for me, the most popular girl in my grade had the same birthday as me, so none of my classmates remembered me. I said it was funny, because feeling neglected on my own birthday nearly every year, never made me feel any less enthusiastic about making a big deal out of other peoples birthdays.

When I was in high school, I especially made a point to remember other peoples birthdays. It didn't matter if the person was my friend or not, if I knew they had a birthday, I'd do something to help make that day special for them. One year, I remembered a friend of mine named Ga-Nesha. She and I had been friends since 4th grade, but in our Junior year of high school, we did not have any classes together so we were not very close friends during that particular year. Still, when her birthday came around in January, I remembered and I brought her a gift. I had to go find her in one of her classes during a passing period since we didn't have any classes together. I remember when I found her and gave her the gift and card I had brought for her, she started to cry. It turns out that no one else had remembered her birthday so far that day (I think it was already after lunch.) About a week after her birthday, she came and found me in one of my classes, and she had a gift and a balloon for me! It had made her so happy that even though we were not close friends at the time and we didn't even have any classes together, I still remembered her birthday, and she said it meant so much to her that a simple thank you just wasn't enough. :-)

I guess I'm telling this story because, I think it is really important to remember people on their birthday. Sometimes, you have no idea how far a simple gesture will go. Just giving someone a card or makeing them some cookies, or buying them a bag of candy and putting a bow on it. It makes me so so so so happy to see someone else being happy because I remembered them on their birthday. I love it when someone is a close friend or a family member and I know them well enough to buy them the perfect gift. It's so amazing to watch someone open a gift and to see them get so excited when they see that you've really paid attention to who they are and what they want.

So, if you normally don't make a big deal out of birthdays,... just try it differently next time. I challenge you to do something extra special and creative for the next birthday that you know of.

Things That Are Not Happening...

2010-08-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

Way back in June I wrote a blog talking about several options that I had as far as jobs and school. I was being considered for a promotion at my current job. My grandparents had offered to pay for me to attend beauty school in order to get a nail tech license and I also had an offer from one of my college professors to go back to school as his grad student this fall.

Well, so far, none of these things have happened. Just a few days ago, I went through a THIRD interview for the promotion that I applied for at work. I'm beginning to think that it will never happen though. I have a feeling that not all of the managers believe that I should be promoted, so they keep stalling, or something.

My grandparents called me this past weekend to say that they could not afford the full cost of the beauty school programs. They had thought it would be much cheaper than it actually is. I don't have any money of my own to go to beauty school, so that is something that is not happening.

Also, the professor who offered to take me on as a grad student never e-mailed me again. Perhaps he got busy and forgot, perhaps he changed his mind, maybe he didn't have the funding, who knows. I wish he had e-mailed me back again, even if just to say that it wouldn't work out. I can't officially say that this will never happen, but I can say truthfully that I will not be going to grad school THIS fall.

Still, I am not discouraged or upset. In my last blog, I also mentioned that I wanted to re-write my resume and apply for jobs related to my degree. (I have a bachelors degree in geology.) In these past two months I've decided that I want to focus more on applying for jobs pertaining to technical writing.

Today I went to meet with a friend of my mothers named Kelly. Kelly is a successfull business woman, so I asked her to help me re-write my resume. She said my current resume isn't really that bad, but we looked it over and I will be re-writing it completely this week. Once that is done, I'll put it out there, and we'll see what happens.

I don't really have much else to say today, so goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

BEDA

2010-08-01T21:36:00.001-07:00

*BEDA = Bloggin Every Day in August!*

Hey there! So I had so much fun blogging everyday 'till VidCon, I thought I'd keep going with BEDA.

I guess it is a good thing for me that there is such a thing as BEDA because right now I have so many ideas of things to talk about I have to refrain from writing about everything all at once.

First I'll start with some news. I am known all over the internet as "pinkpixiedf", except on youtube, where I have gone by the username "faeryfaith". Well, today I have changed that. I now have a new home on youtube at www.youtube.com/pinkpixiedf. If you are my friend, please go subscribe to me there, as that is the channel I will be commenting from in the future and also where I will post any new videos. However, I am keeping my old "faeryfaith" account active as a place to post nail tutorials and make-up related videos.
Anyone who knows me personally, knows that I rarely post vlog type videos, but I did post 3 videos today! (2 videos on the FaeryFaith channel and 1 on the PinkPixieDF channel - go check em out!)

One of the videos I posted today was about a sale happening at the make-up store ULTA. I was so super excited about this sale because they are giving away amazing free gifts with a minimum purchase of only $17.50 and they have so many products that are Buy One Get One 50% off and also, Buy One Get One Free deals.

I had to work all day today, so I got to the ULTA store only a half hour before it closed. I didn't have much time to shop around so I only bought the few things I knew that I wanted. I will hopefully be going back later this week to take advantage of the sales.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you what I got.
These are the items I actually paid for. My bill was only $29!!

This is what I got as a free gift:

And just for fun, this is everything together!

All of that, and I only spent $29!!!

To get the free gift I had to spend a minimum of $17.50 on ULTRA brand cosmetics. I bought a pink blush and purple gel eyeliner. Together, they were $21. I also bought a Stila eyeshadow palette for $10. My total only came to $29 because I also had a coupon for $3.50 off. All-in-all it was a good shopping day. If you love make-up as much as I do, or if you want to love make-up, but hate the prices, then you should really go take advantage of this sale. (I am not being paid to say this! I just really love make-up and these are great deals!)

Anyway, I'll stop there for today. Have a good night. Goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

My Top 10 Beauty Products

2010-07-25T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hey there! So today, I thought I would share some of my favorite make-up and beauty products with you. It was kind of hard to narrow it down to a top 10 list, so actually, I decided to focus more on which products I would reccommend to others. The 10 products I list really are some of my most favorites, but they are not necessarily the products I use the most often. Although, if you read through, I think you'll see that I found a way to sort of cheat and add in a few shout-outs to the products I do use on a more regular basis.

These products are not listed in such a way as to reflect a rating, (i.e. #1 is not better than #10, nor is #10 better than #1. Actually, I listed the products in the order that you might actually use them if you were applying your make-up for the day.)

#1. STUDIO SECRETS PROFESSIONAL: MAGIC PERFECTING BASE by L'Oreal Paris

This product is a face primer. It is relatively new. I found a coupon for it and decided to try it out. This is the only face primer I have ever used so I can't compare it to any others, but after using this product I would definately recommend using a face primer. This is a beautiful product that you apply after your moisturizer, but before your concealer and foundation. It smoothes out your skin making it feel silky and soft, and it helps your make-up last hours longer than it normally would. Also, I have rather oily skin and I live in a desert where normally I sweat and my make-up doesn't last, but I find that when I use this product, my oily skin and the heat and sweat have less of a wearing effect on my make-up.

#2 URBAN DECAY SHADOW PRIMER POTION

This product is an eye primer. Use it before applying eye makeup. I absolutely recommend this product! This is one of my most favorite makeup products ever because it consistantly lives up to its reputation. This product will make your eyeshadow look vibrant and beautifull ALL DAY! It helps eyeshadow to stay in place, it prevents creasing, flaking and smudging. Seriously, when you use this product, you can put your eyeshadow on and feel confident all day that your shadow will still look amazing even 10 hours after you put it on.

#3 Kabuki brush

Please please please don't tell me that you still apply your loose powder with a pouf! If you are not using a kabuki brush to apply your loose foundation powder, you are completely missing out! These brushes are made with short handles and have a large plume of super-soft bristles that apply the powder more evenly over your face. The best way to use a kabuki brush is to tap some powder into the lid of your powder container, swirl the kabuki brush into the powder, tap off the extra, then apply the powder to your face using circular motions.

#4 Double-ended Smudging/Feathering brush

This is a brush in my collection that I love. You don't necessarily have to buy a double sided brush like this one, but I'm glad this is a two-in-one brush so that I can get away with talking about them both at once. This brush is extremely usefull when applying eyeshadow. I use the smaller end to apply make-up to the crease of my eye. It packs the shadow on thick for a bold look. If I want a softer look, after I apply the shadow with the small end, I use the larger end to soften the look by lightly smudging the shadow from the outside corner toward the inside corner. This is a valuable tool to have if you are a fan of smokey eyes. I also like to use the larger end as a blending tool to soften the contrast between the color in the crease of my eye and the highlight color just under the brows.

#5 ALMAY Trio's

This is more of a general recommendation than a specific recommendation. I think every girl should have a shadow compact with colors pre-determined to bring out her features. You don't have to buy one from Almay, other brands make similar shadow compacts. The reason I recommend these is for convenience. I love to go all out with my makeup everyday, but sometimes, you wake up late. At some point in your life (maybe more often than not) you will be in a hurry. These shadow compacts are life savers in those situations. Sometimes I have very little time to do my makeup, so I'll use the time I have to apply moisturizer and foundation and then I'll grab my Almay trio compact, throw it in my bag, and head out the door. The shadow can be easily applied in 2 minutes (you can find that time in the car, or on the bus.) They are also good to have because they are made to compliment your natural features and not your outfits, so you can make them work no matter what clothes you have on.

#6 L'Oreal Paris - High Intensity Pigments (HiP) Eyeshadow Duo's

If you want bold color, but don't want to pay department store prices, then I definately recommend this line of eyeshadows. They cost between $6 and $8 depending on where you shop. Each container has two complimentary colors. The containers also have mirrors and two applicators included. (I wouldn't recommend using these applicators on a regular basis, but I'm glad they are included. There have been a few times that I would forget to put my makeup brushes in my bag before leaving the house. Those little applicators save the day in those situations.)

#7 120 Color Eyeshadow Palette (from Ebay)

Can you really say no to 120 colors?! These palettes are available on Ebay from many different suppliers. The majority of them ship from China and you usually only have to pay the cost of shipping. I got mine for $14. My sister envied this product when I got it, so I ordered one for her birthday from a different seller and hers came all broken. It wasn't packaged as well as mine had been, so I would be very careful about who you order from. I bought mine from the ebay seller "eachdesk". Although, you can order this palette from www.buyincoins.com for about $15 (free shipping) and their products come well packaged. The shadows themselves are actually very good quality. The colors are bold and pretty, they have a very good color pay-off. I use this palette constantly. This is a very good product if you want lots of color options with good quality for a low price.

#8 Gel Eyeliner

I only recently started using gel eyeliners and I absolutely love them! They stay put, they don't smear or smudge and they don't irritate my eyes. I normally use liquid eyeliner, and still do most of the time because it's faster, but the liquid liner gets into my eyes and sometimes it irritates my contact lenses. I love that the gel liner stays on my lids and doesn't get into my eyes. I use the gel liners for bold looks and for doing winged eyeline designs and cat eye's. I personally don't use gel liners on the lower lids or waterline, although I know that some women do and they haven't had a problem doing that. I personally wouldn't recommend it, but I don't know that it is unhealthy, so you might try it. Some gel liners are sold with an applicator brush, many are sold alone, without a brush. There are two brush styles you can use to apply a gel liner, a regular eye-liner brush, nearly every makeup line has one available. You can also use a small angle brush, which is what I prefer to use. I think the angle brush gives me a better advantage when making the winged design. I personally buy very small angle brushes from art supply stores because they are cheaper than makeup brushes but they are made the same way and work just as well.

#9 Red Lipstick

Every woman should know how to rock the red lipstick look. This is definately not something for everyday (unless you are a dancer maybe), but I would recommend that every woman have a red lipstick that suits her. It took me a long time to find a red lipstick that would look truely red on me and that would last. I am sort of cheating here, because I have to use two products to achieve the perfect look. I use a lip liner from Rimmel London's EXAGGERATE line. The one I use is #024 RED DIVA, I use this lip liner to line my lips and fill them in completely. Then I apply a lipstick from Max Factor, it is #40 Ms. Right Now. Together, these two work perfectly for me. It is a good idea to use a lip liner all over your lips before applying a lipstick, because the lip liner lasts longer, so even if the lipstick fades, the liner will still be there. Even more so, I absolutely recommend Rimmel London's EXAGGERATE line of Full Color Lip Liners, because they provide excellent color pay-off and they last forever! Seriously, when I use this red liner, I pretty much have red lips for at least two days. It really lasts.

#10 Pink Sugar Perfume - Available at Sephora

Looking for a unique, bold and playful scent? Pink Sugar is consistantly one of Sephora's most popular items. I first bought this perfume in 2003 because it smelled absolutely delicious and I haven't been able to give it up since then. (I've been through three bottles of it in the past 7 years). This is a strong perfume that I would recommend only wearing when you "go out". Although, I have been known to wear it to work or school. Anytime you wear this perfume, someone is bound to ask "Do you smell cookies?" It really does smell delicious. However, if this scent is too much for you, I would also recommend a perfume called Be Delicious from DKNY, it is a sort of fruity scent that really is beautiful. My bottle is nearly empty and I will definately be buying more when it runs out. If a flowery scent is more your thing, I suggest Princess by Vera Wang. The large bottle of this perfume costs $75, but it is absolutely worth it. I've been through two bottles of it in 4 years. It is one of my most favorites.

Finally we are done! I know this was a long blog. Hey, just be glad I didn't start talking about mascara! I could write a whole blog on that topic alone. I do hope you enjoyed it though and that you found some helpful tips. Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or comments, well that's what the comment section is for! :-) I enjoy reading your feedback. Also, what are your favorite beauty products? Do you have any beauty secrets to share? Let us know in the comments! Until next time, goodbye.

Nerdfighter Nail Art

2010-07-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

So, maybe I should have included this story in my blog about VidCon, but I actually forgot about it until I was re-reading my blog and realized that I didn't talk about the nail art that I did for VidCon.

I didn't really do anything special on my own nails for VidCon, but my friend Edi (theoriginaledi) came to visit me in Las Vegas a couple of days before VidCon so that I could paint her nails with a special design just for VidCon.

This is what we did:

It's kind of hard to see here, but it says "NERD FITR" on her nails!

I was excited that the John and Hank faces turned out so well. The best part is that during VidCon, Edi was able to show both John and Hank her nails. I wasn't there when Edi showed Hank, but I was there to show John. It was on Friday during VidCon, Edi and I were both hanging out near the DFTBA Records merch booth (I spent a lot of time at that booth, it was a good place to hang out because everyone stopped by there several times a day!) Anyway, John came to the booth and it just occured to me that Edi was standing right there too. I tapped John on the shoulder and said, "Hey John, can I show you something?" He was just like "Sure, what's up?" and I told Edi to come over, and we got to show him. He thought they were cool.

On Saturday during VidCon, I painted Edi's nails again. This time we painted her nails in honor of our friend Doctor Noise. We painted her nails in a sort of lavender with black letters that read "DCTR NOISE" with a spider design between the two 'words'. It was pretty awesome, but unfortunately we do not have a picture of that design. Oh well.

Anyway, that's all I have to share with you today. I plan to keep blogging regularly, maybe not everyday, but this blog will not fade into obscurity, so feel free to ask me questions that you'd like me to answer in future blogs or whatever. Goodbye 'till next time. :-)

My VidCon Experience

2010-07-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hey there! So you might know that I was blogging everyday until VidCon. VidCon officially started on July 9, 2010. I had to leave off blogging a few days early because my computer got a virus and I couldn't do anything with it. Luckily, my friend Bill (Dr.Noise), who went to VidCon with me, is amazing at fixing computers and he fixed mine for me.

So, anyway. VidCon has come and gone and I've been home for nearly a week now. I wanted to write this blog sooner. I intended to blog during VidCon actually, but I was too busy during the conference and my head has been so full of awesomeness ever since I got home and also, trying to deal with a bit of PVCD, I just wasn't able to write anything until today.

I've tried writing this blog twice today. I think giving a detailed recap would be boring, so I am only going to discuss some highlights. VidCon officially lasted three days, but my friends and I arrived at the hotel on Thursday, the day before the conference was offically set to begin, so my story starts there.

Thursday
I got to the hotel with my friends Bill and Bobby (TheMeFund) almost exactly at 5:00pm. The awesomeness began immediately. We checked into the hotel and decided to go get some food. Going down the elevator, we ran into our friends Molly (sweetafton23) and Chris (ckwright) who were hanging out with Alex Day (nerimon) and some other British friends whose names I seem to have forgotten. They were going up, we were going down, but Molly and Chris said they would join us for food. So we waited in the lobby and ran into Tom Milsom (hexachordal). Molly and Chris came back down to join us and Tom ran off, but told us to wait, and a few minutes later he came back with John Green. I had to mention this because I thought it was adorable. When Tom came back he said "I brought you a John." We chatted for a bit, but then John had to go back to whatever it was he had been doing and the rest of us set out for food. Tom went with us, and I personally am so glad that he did. It was the most time I got to spend with him during the conference and he was just a sweet and awesome guy to hang out with. I just wanted to hug him for not being a jerk. :-)

After dinner we went back to the hotel and got in the registration line to pick up our badges and tote-bags, but someone pulled a fire alarm and we all had to move upstairs. It was irritating to lose our place in line, but it ended up being pretty awesome because EVERYONE was in the lobby. All of a sudden I was surrounded by familiar faces; Mickeleh, Karen Kavett, Todd Williams, Caitlin Sky, Kristina Horner, Luke Conard, Johnny Durnham, Craig (WheezyWaiter) and even Mystery Guitar Man. Oh, and I met Steve (footynutguy)! After a while we got the word that the fire alarm had been dealt with and it was okay to go about our regular business. Todd said he had to get things set up at the DFTBA Records merch booth and said he needed help. Chris and I both followed him and offered to help. My memory fails me at how it happened, but I remember that Molly and John (Johnzsinferno) were there helping us too. Somewhere in here was the first time I saw Hank since I got to the hotel and he was just walking around. I remember thinking "He should be in disguise! People are going to maul him!" He seemed to be alright, but busy. Anyway, I spent an hour or so helping out at the DFTBA Records merch booth, which was fun. It was definately a good place to be at the moment, because EVERYONE kept stopping by. John came over several times and Charlie McDonnell, Alex Day, Tom Milsom and Johnny Durnham were hanging out quite a bit too. At some point, Todd and Caitlin had to leave to go pick up some posters and Chris and I were left alone to guard the merch and then Chris left me too and I stayed to hold down the fort!

Eventually people came back and I got to go meet up with the rest of my friends (ie. the Classy Ladies!) We went up to our hotel rooms and just hung out until it was time to sleep.

Fiday (Day 1 of VidCon)
Friday was my busiest day during VidCon, I volunteered a bit, and ran into a ton of friends. I went to panels and meet and greats, and watched the main-stage shows. As far as this blog goes, I just want to talk about the evening. I have two absolute favorite moments from VidCon and my first favorite moment occured during the 'concert' on the first night. Michael Aranda was onstage. He started up some music and then Charlie McDonnell and Alex Day stepped up to sing Exterminate, Regenerate. I didn't know I was going to be so excited about that particular performance until it was actually happening and I realized how freaking excited I was to be watching those three guys onstage and to be in a room full of people who were all singing along to a song about Dr. Who! It was awesome.
After the concert there was a dance, but I found myself going to a party at the X-Bar in the lobby of the hotel with Bill, Craig (WheezyWaiter), Martha (martha_s) and Morgan (flawedartist) instead. There were several familiar faces hanging out at that party. I chatted with Mickeleh, Travis (sivartis) and his fabulous boyfriend, Rob, also, my friend Michael Midnight was there and we had a chat too. P.S. I can now officially say that WheezyWaiter bought me a drink! Thanks Craig!

Saturday (VidCon Day 2)
Ewww... Saturday was a rough day. See, I never ate dinner on Friday, and then I had several drinks at that party on Friday night. So, of course, I woke up late with a hangover on Saturday. I didn't get out of the hotel room until nearly 12pm. I was dehydrated and tired most of the day. I really don't remember much of what I did during the earlier part of that day. I do remember that I went to a panel to see Molly, Hank and Julia Nunes talk about songwriting. The conversation they had just before the panel began was brilliant! Hank shared a nightmare he had that there was an earthquake and everyone at VidCon died. This led to a conversation about what would be written on a vloggers tombstone. We came up with some fun quotes; "Hank has unsubscribed from life" and the best one: "the body is in the dooblydoo".
Again, the evening was more eventful and noteworthy. My favorite bit at the concert was watching a live performance of the Double Rainbow song. After the concert, I skipped out ont the dance again and instead I hung out in the karaoke room for a bit. Later in the night I got some pizza with my friends Bill, MK and Will (actually there were two Will's). Will (Redd) introduced us to Tab, a diet soda that tastes like bubbles! Haha. Tab has a very unique taste that seems to disappear as soon as you taste it, so all I could say is that it tasted like bubbles. :-)

Sunday (VidCon Day 3)
Sunday was a good day. First, there was the brunch. I got to hang with my Classy Lady friends + John (johnzsinferno) and his awesome mom. After the brunch, everyone went to the 'big tent' to watch the final match of the world cup. This was my second most favorite moment of VidCon. Sitting in that room watching that game, surrounded by at least 400 nerdfighters, most of whom I know by name, it was just an amazing, incredible feeling. Not to mention, it was made even better because Tom Milsom and John Green were commenting during the breaks. It was just amazing to share that time with so many friends.

After the game, many of us convened in a smaller room to listen to Bill sing some songs before Hank hosted a live game of Truth or Fail. I always enjoy watching Bill perform. (That is how we became friends in the first place! Two years ago, we met because I was a fan of his band.) So that was fun. Then it was time to play Truth or Fail! Everyone in the room had to stand up and then Hank gave us our two choices. Everyone had to move to one side of the room or the other, depending on which 'Fact' we chose. Everyone who 'Failed' had to move to the back of the room before the next set of 'Facts'. We played two games and OMG!!!!!! I WON THE SECOND GAME!!!!!!!! It was amazing because there were prizes! That's how I won my new Flip camera with this fancy VidCon logo!

It is so much more satisfying to win a game of Truth or Fail when you are playing against a room full of people and you actually get something tangible as a reward! So much more fun than simply tweeting "Hey I got 5/5 on the new Truth or Fail!"

After Truth or Fail, it was time for Calvinball, hosted by my friends Molly and Chris. If you have no idea what Calvinball is, please educate yourself here. It just tickles me to remember that this actually happened. I love my friends for having the most awesome ideas, and speaking of friends with awesome ideas, we come to my final VidCon memory. During Calvinball my friend Bobby came over with Tom Milsom and Andrew Slack (from the HP Alliance) and they said they wanted to make a video to remind people to vote for the HP Alliance to win some much needed $$$. They said they needed a big crowd of people, so we opened the doors to Calvinball and everyone came out to help with the video. They recorded the video in one take and it turned out amazing. The HP Alliance went on to win the contest they were in, thanks to everyone who voted! It's an incredible feeling to be even a tiny part of something that is changing the world.

And that's it. It was time for us to leave the hotel after we helped film the video. The Classy Ladies stayed in LA for a couple of extra days. We went to Disneyland and had a blast, but VidCon was over. It is over. I can not wait for the next one. It was an amazing time. It's hard to deal with the reality now, waking up in my own bed, knowing that when I step out of my room I won't happen to run into Charlie McDonnell, there is no hope of sharing an elevator with WheezyWaiter, Hank Green is not sleeping just down the hallway from me. That was VidCon, but now I'm back to everyday life. There is definately a feeling that something needs to be done to make everyday feel more like a day at VidCon. I miss everyone's faces. Anyway, I'll just say goodby now or I'll keep rambling. Goodbye.

Have any questions about VidCon or anything else? Leave 'em in the comments.

International Flights

2010-07-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

*Day 27* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

Just a quick blog today. I'm on my way to work and I am soo busy. Just a couple of days ago my friend Helen flew to Oregon from her home in England so she wrote her blog about her experience on the plane. This blog is simply a response to her blog.

I've travelled to Japan, so I have also had an experience with international flights. I had to take three planes and then drive for 3 hours to get to where I was going. It was a really long trip. I first flew from my home city, Las Vegas, Nevada to San Fransisco, CA. Then from there I flew to Nagoya, Japan. I changed planes again in Nagoya and flew from there to Fukuoka, Japan. (Nagoya and Fukuoka are on two different islands, but I forget the the names of the individual islands.) I met up with my brother and sister-in-law in Fukuoka and from there we drove to there home in Saesebo.

I never had any problems with customs, but I did have a problem changing flights in Nagoya. First, my flight from Nagoya to Fukuoka was being delayed by two hours. This worried me because my brother was waiting for me in Fukuoka and I had no way of calling him to tell him that I would be late. Also, I was sad, because I was so tired and hungry, but even though I had already changed my money, I didn't know how the money worked in Japan and I was afraid to buy anything. I admit, I was a bit scared because I didn't speak or read any Japanese and I being tired really didn't make me feel adventurous. Anyway, for my connecting flight, I was given a ticket that said Gate 7. So I went to Gate 7 and waited out the two hours, however, when I tried to board at Gate 7, the computer wouldn't allow me to board. Eventually, we figured out that I was supposed to be at Gate 5, which had already been boarding for half an hour and was about to leave! I almost missed the flight! Although, it didn't make much sense, the planes at Gate 5 and Gate 7 were both going to the same place! I honestly don't remember how I finally came to understand that they wanted me to board the plane at Gate 5 because I don't remember that anyone spoke english. I remember them writing things on my ticket in kanji, which I didn't understand at all. Somehow though, it all worked out.

As far as complaints about in-flight entertainment and such. Oh man was I mad! On the plan from California to Japan, I happened to have the one seat in the plane with a video monitor that was broken, so I couldn't watch movies or watch the flight progression or anything. I had a cd player with me, but what really got me through that flight was an in-flight radio station that was playing Disney music. They weren't just playing music from the movie soundtracks, they were also playing the background music that is played at the Disneyland theme park and some of the music from the rides. I had a gameboy with me which I could watch movies on (yes, they did make a few movies that were playable on the gameboy- I still have the Shrek movie for the gameboy) so I wasn't completely without entertainment, but still, when you pay for something, you expect to get what you pay for, and I didn't.

Alright, I'd love to say more, but I have to go to work soon. Only a few days left till VidCon! I am so excited! Have any topics you'd like me to write about before VidCon? Let me know in the comments and I'll respond. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Today Is Our Independence Day!

2010-07-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

*Day 26* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

"Let England know our willingness,/For that our work is good,/ We hope to plant a nation/ Where none before hath stood." ~Newes From Virginia 1610

"One cannot be an American by going about saying one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work." ~ Georgia O'Keefe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today is the American Independence Day! I feel compelled to write a patriotic blog today, so this is what you get.

Today we celebrate our Independence from England. It is a day where we remember the men who fought so fiercly for our freedom. We remember the men who founded our country and the values that drove them to seek Independence. We celebrate it on July 4, because it was on July 4, 1776 that our Continental Congress adopted The Declaration of Independence. (Even though we did not actually gain true freedom until much later.)

I'm half tempted to go into a history lesson about the writing of The Declaration of Independence, but I won't. All that I will say, is if you do not know much about the history, there is a brilliantly hilarious and truely entertaining musical called "1776" that tells the story of the The Declaration of Independence. You must watch it some time.

Today I really just want to talk about what I think it means to be American. I included the quote at the top from Georgia O'Keefe because it rather eloquently conveys they way I feel. America is a nation where anyone, no matter how lowly of a person you are, anyone can aspire to be whoever, or whatever they want to be, but you have to be willing to work your way up. I was born and raised in America and I feel that I have been ingrained with that feeling that I can do anything I want to do, so long as I put forth the effort. No one is going to hand me my dreams, I have to work for them on my own. I think people who immigrate to America also come here understanding that America will give them the opportunity to live a better life, but we expect them to work for it.

I admit that Americans often give off the idea that we are lazy and accustomed to luxury, but at our heart, we are a nation of people who are willing to work to earn our keep. I think, we all fall victim to the desire to get something for nothing. Who doesn't want an easy life? But, when the luxury fades and so do the opportunities for people to work hard, then our nation shows it's true colors. Especially now, our entire country has been suffering from an economic recession. My own sister has been out of a job for almost two years. Our opportunities are disappearing, and that is freaking us out. For over two hundred years, our country has stood on the principal belief that everyone is entitled to the pursuit of happiness. We've all been taught that if we work hard, we can have whatever life we want, but now, there is no work. The only avenue to happiness that we know of is disappearing. It is a sad time.

But Americans also know how to hope. We battled for our independence from England, we struggled through a bitter civil war, and we suffered through the Great Depression and we still made it through. You don't have to look far to find the spirit of hope in America. Listen to the lyrics of our National anthem, and you will see, the spirit of America is hope. It is not defiance, or pride. It is hope, that we will survive through the battle. We will, because that is the spirit of America.

"O! say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

I have one last quote to share with you and then I will say goodbye. I think the quote is a good testament to our past, and a good warning for the future. We should not forget it.

"Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity and hardihood - the things that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, saftey first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life." ~Theodore Roosevelt (the 26th president of the United States)

Thanks for reading. Have a happy Independence Day! Be safe, and goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

Nail Art

2010-07-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

*Day 25* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

Today I'll talk about nail art. I have been doing nail art for almost a whole year now. I have done a total of 44 different designs on myself. (This is not counting times when I just paint my nails one solid color.)

Here are some of my favorites designs that I have done.

These were my nails for last Halloween. I got this design from a nail tutorial on youtube, I would link it here, but the video is no longer available.

These were my nails at Christmas. This turned out so pretty I think. I got this design from a nail tutorial video, Snowflake Nail Tutorial. In the video, she uses a brush to make the snowflakes, but I used a white nail art pen, it was much easier and faster that way.

This was another desing I copied from a nail tutorial, although I tweeked it a bit also. (I usually do my nails a little bit different from the tutorials.) Mardis Gras Nail Tutorial

I love Alice In Wonderland. This design was from a nail tutorial. Alice Nails

-Yes, I've gotten a lot of design ideas from nail tutorials. I'm not ashamed of this. I had no idea what I was doing at first. I had to start somewhere. The more designs I do though, the better I get and it's easier now to look at someone elses design and add my own twist to it. I've also come up with several designs of my own. Let's keep going.

Obviously, Hello Kitty. The pink and purple polka dots was my idea. I watched several Hello Kitty nail tutorials before I tried this design, just to get the idea of how to create the Hello Kitty face with nail polish. I used fine-tip nail art pens.

This one was pretty much my own design. I was going to the NASCAR races with my friends and I felt like doing something fun with my nails to show my racing spirit. So I just painted the nails black and the tips white. I used a fine tip nail art pen to make the checker pattern.

This was another desing I took from a nail tutorial. Purple Rock Star Nails I really like this design a lot. I want to do it again with a blue base.

This is another Alice In Wonderland inspired nail design. This was my own design. I made a nail tutorial for this design. Alice In Wonderland Nail tutorial

Another design taken from a nail tutorial. Stitched Heart Nail Tutorial. I really like this design a lot. It was one of my absolute favorites.

Spider-Man nails! I did these on my own. I'd been wanting to do super-hero inspired nail designs for awhile, and one night I just decided to give Spider Man a try. I used the cover of the third movie as inspiration. You can't really tell from the picture, but I used three colors of red to make a gradient from dark red to a light orange-red at the top of the nail. I sponged on black polish at the tips. These nails were incredibly detailed, but they were way easier to do than I thought they would be. I think, of all the designs I have done on my own, I am the most proud of this one.

If you want to give nail art a try, here is some advice.
-Don't skip out on base coat and top coat. Always use a base coat to prevent your nails from turning yellow. Using a top coat helps the desing to last longer and dry faster.

-Invest in fine-tip nail art pens. My favorite brand is sold at Sally Beauty Supply stores. They are actually cheaper than the Sally Hansen pens that are easier to find, but I wouldn't recommend them anyway because they tend to be watery and the paint chips off, even if you use a top coat. Also, check out www.miginailart.com they have a really great product.

-Just go for it! Don't be afraid to make mistakes (you will make mistakes). Usually, you are the only one who notices the mistakes. Have fun and be creative. If you get nail polish all over your fingers, then paint your nails at night, in the morning the extra paint will wash off in the shower.

That's all I have for you today. If you have any questions about nail art, or any blog topics you'd like me to discuss, then leave it in the comments. Otherwise, goodby 'till tomorrow. :-)

Once Upon A Time, Heather Dreamed of Hollywood

2010-07-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

*Day 24* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

Did you know that before I went to school for geology, I dreamed of being an actress? You probably didn't. Most people who know me now, don't know that I was a theatre student for most of my life.

Well, I was! Starting in the fourth grade, I started going to magnet schools (specialized public schools that students had to audition for to be accepted). I chose to go to school for theatre and I was accepted into the program. Between 4th grade and 8th grade I performed in several plays and one-acts. When I got into high school, I still went to a theatre school, but I changed my focus from acting to technical theatre. I auditioned for a couple of plays in high school, but I never made it in. Instead, I made costumes for nearly every play that my school produced while I was in high school.

Of all the plays I performed in, there are only three roles I want to tell you about. In the fourth grade, my class performed a Shakespeare play called 'The Comedy of Errors'. The basic plot of the play is that there is a set of twins each named Antipholus who were separated when they were young. Also, both of the Antipholus characters has a servant named Dromio, the servants are also twins, separated at the same time as their masters. Well, the Anitpholus of Syracus is in Ephesus, looking for his lost brother. In fact that is where his brother actually lives, and the whole comedy begins when the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus sees the Antipholus of Syracus in town and drags him home, thinking it is her husband. In the actual script the Dromio characters are played by men, but to be fair, my teacher chose to have girls play the Dromio characters. I played the part of Dromio of Ephasus. I actually don't have any pictures from this play, or I would show you.

In the fifth grade our class performed Romeo & Juliet and I had the honor of playing the part of Juliet. That was a lot of fun. I loved the dress I got to wear for this role and I had so much fun pretending to die. I do have pictures somewhere, but they are lost at the moment.

In the 8th grade we were performing 'The Emporers' New Clothes'. During auditions for this play, I had only read about half of the script and I decided to audition for the role of Patches. I just really wanted to be in the play and Patches seamed to be a fun and over-looked character. I didn't think that many other people would want to audition for that role, so I auditioned for the part and I got it. Once I got the part, I finished reading the script only to find that Patches gets crowned as King at the end of the play! Ha! So that turned out to be a really fun role to play. Especially because I was the only character that was 'allowed' to laugh at the character of the King when he walked out on the stage wearing only his underwear! I think this was probably my favorite role I ever performed. It was the most fun.

Another tid-bit worth mentioning from my acting days is that I got to be an extra in a movie when I was in the Fifth grade. The movie was called 'For Which He Stands'. You can google it. It turned out to be a rather dull movie, but I was in it! I got paid $120 I think for being in that movie. It was the first paycheck I ever got and I was only 11 years old. (I still have the paycheck stub, but it is in a photo album in the bottom of a chest somewhere in my garage, so I'm sorry, I am not going to go dig it out to scan it and show you.)

Like I said before, by the time I got to high school, I changed my focus to the technical side of theatre. I got to help make costumes for a lot of plays, but I think the best time I had was working on a musical called Honk! It was essentially a play about the ugly duckling story, but working on the costume crew for that play was the best. All of the characters were animals, but we didn't dress them in cat, duck, goose, frog, or swan costumes. We dressed them in clothes that 'suggested' the animal that they were, and their movements and dialouge conveyed the rest. It was an amazing show to watch. Anyway, it was a lot of fun for a long time because we performed it early in the school year, but we were told that the school would be taking that play to the Thespian Festival in Licoln, Nebraska during the summer. So when school was over in June, we resumed rehearsals, we spruced up all the costumes and the sets. We ran the show again for one week before going to the festival, and then we packed it all up and went to Nebraska. Going to the Thespian Festival was an amazing event all in itself. What an amazing time. We saw 2-3 major stage productions every day and there were one-acts and monolouges to go watch nearly all day if we wanted and all kinds of workshops. There were dances at night after the plays and the final night, we were all required to dress in formal attire. There were students at the festival from a Japanese school and those girls came to the final performance dressed in elegant kimonos. They were so beautiful. *Sigh* I miss being a theatre student a lot sometimes. Anyway... that's my story for today.

Here's some pictures from plays that I helped make costumes for in high school.

Honk! The frogs teach Ugly a lesson about love.

Honk! Prepare for takeoff! The geese lead the way.

Caucasian Chalk Circle

Hello Dolly!

Les Miserables

Ok, okay. Goodbye 'till tomorrow.

VidCon: What's the big deal anyway?! (um... Classy Ladies!)

2010-07-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

*Day 23* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

This blog is a response to 3 people all at once. My friend Blake asked me to tell the story of how I met/found the people that I am going to see at VidCon and why is the whole trip to VidCon worth it to me. Also, in the past few days my friend Mary Kate posted a vlog (watch it here) discussing this same topic and my friend Helen posted a blog in response to Mary Kate's video. (Helen's blog) Mary Kate, Helen, and I all met eachother in person for the first time last year at the Northwest Youtube Gathering in Portland, Oregon, so check out their posts if you want, their stories kind of tie into mine.

To tell the story of how I met/found the people that I will be seeing at VidCon, we have to go back to the summer of 2008. That was the summer I met Bill Martin, you might know him as Dr. Noise, but when I met him, I only knew him as Bill Martin: the lead singer of Hang 'Em High. I was a fan of his band and would go to nearly all of their shows. I always went alone because I didn't have any friends at the time. (2008 was a bad year for me and I had a falling out with all of my friends in February of that year.) Anyway, being alone wasn't so bad because Bill and his bandmates were always really friendly to me. Whenever I would go to their shows they would hang out with me and we became friends.

In October of 2008, John Green was on a book tour for Paper Towns. Bill had recently just finished "The Tetris Piece" video and was planning to go to see John Green in Santa Monica, CA with his bandmates, but none of his bandmates were able to go. Three days before the Santa Monica event, Bill asked me if I would go with him to a "gathering". At first, I couldn't go either (I was starting a second job that day), but I took a chance and asked my boss if I could possibly start at a later day and he said sure. So, the day before going to California Bill explained to me about the vlogbrothers, I didn't have much time to watch their videos, so I found a playlist of the "top 20 vlogbrothers videos". I watched those and that was all the knowledge I had of the vlogbrothers or of nerdfighteria when I went to meet John Green for the first time.

Anyway, I am really really glad that Bill took me with him that day. We met a lot of awesome people that day, at least some of them are still my friends today; Amber (theamberyone), Karissa (imgonnabeatree), Chris (ckwright), Gen (justGen), and Elayna (akalaynee) (and three of those are Classy Ladies! More about Classy Ladies in a bit.)

Me, Bill and Karissa! Candid photo taken by Elayna at the Paper Towns book signing

I think I sort of started watching the vlogbrothers regularly after that, but I still didn't really get into the whole youtube community until later. In March of 2009 Monica (shortMonica) from the shortsisters756 came out west. She, Bill and Todd (Toddly00) hosted a mini youtube/nerdfighter gathering at Huntington Beach. That was the day I really got to know Chris (ckwright), Gen (justGen) and Elayna (akalaynee) better and we met some new friends too; Amy (amyhirschman), Najela, Amanda, and Lauren are the ones I remember most. I finally joined Twitter after the March gathering and that's when I started subscribing to other nerdfighters on youtube.

the Huntington beach gathering

The last major event I have to talk about is the Northwest Youtube Gathering that was in June of last year. Bill had decided to go, but he wanted to drive there and he wanted a few people to go with him to help pay for gas. I said I would go. Bill's roommate, Andy, was supposed to go with us, and Bill's girlfriend was comeing too. As the time got closer though, Andy couldn't or didn't want to go and so Chris (ckwright) offered to join the ride at the last minute. Honestly, I really didn't know what to expect from this gathering at all. I didn't really know who was going to be there, I was just excited to be traveling with my friends. (I kind of love road trips).

Anyway, when we got there, we met up with all of the people from vlogtag [Helen (helenzebcharles), James (aslanenlisted), Bobby (themefund), Adam (adamthealien), Leslie (foundhergrail), and Mary Kate (timelord_mk)] plus a few other lovely people, a couple of whom I'd already met, like: Amber (theamberyone), Karissa (imgonnabeatree) and Trevor, and Molly (molly23). Collectively, these are the "classy ladies". These are the people that Bill, Sammi, Chris and I stayed with while we were in Portland and this is the group of people that I would consider to be my closest friends. These are the people that I am most excited to see again at VidCon. I have seen Molly, Chris and Amber many times since the NWYTG, and Adam came to visit me and Bill in Las Vegas last October, but the rest I have not seen since that weekend in Portland. This is why I am so excited for VidCon. (Not to mention, Bill has since moved away from Las Vegas and I haven't seen him in 4 months.)

the classy ladies at NWYTG 2009

There are so many other people that I met at the NWYTG and at subsequent events and even just online that I am excited to see at VidCon. Going to VidCon is not only worth it, it is absolutely important to me to go because of all of the people who will be there. To me, youtube and nerdfighteria is not a community of strangers, it is a community of friends and friends I haven't met yet. These gatherings are where I grow and strengthen my friendships and make new ones.

Hank Green's impromtu nerdfighter gathering in Las Vegas, NV - November 1, 2009

Hank Green's "This Machine Pwns Noobs" tour. Los Angelas, Ca -November 14, 2009

Nerdfighters at the Los Angelas Times Festival of Books/ Will Grayson, Will Grayson book tour with John Green and David Levithan. Los Angelas, CA - April 25, 2010

*Only 6 blogs left till VidCon! If you have any topics you want me to discuss or questions you want me to answer, leave a comment. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Before Twitter, there was Upoc?

2010-06-30T19:34:00.001-07:00

*Day 22* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

I had absolutely no idea what to write about today. I kept thinking of topics, but then I couldn't think of anything to say about those topics. So, I started looking through my "stuff". I looked at old homework, essays I wrote for school, geology reports, short stories, poetry, just whatever, trying to find something to talk about. Then I came across a notebook I made in 1999. Basically, to make this notebook, I went through a bunch of magazines and cut out band biographies, cd reviews, book reviews, celebrity quotes and articles about fun websites. I pasted all of the clippings into the notebook in an organized way and decorated it with glitter and markers and such. The notebook itself is a sort of interesting look into the past, but anyway I was flipping through the pages and reading some of the clippings when one really caught my eye.

The following text is quoted from the clipping I had pasted in my notebook, word for word. (I think this came from a Seventeen magazine in 1999, but I really can't be certain, so I can't site it properly).

"MAKE THE CONNECTION: Getting in touch with your friends can be a hassle- do you ring their cell, dial their pager or e-mail them? With Upoc.com (which stands for universal point of contact), you can get your crew the urgent news about your date last night. Send messages through Upoc.com, and they'll reach your pals wherever they are. You can even subscribe to public groups dedicated to everything from celebrity sightings (so you know where Brad Pitt buys his coffee) to haiku."

That sounds a lot like Twitter doesn't it? My first thought was "wow, someone else had the idea first, but looks like the creators of Twitter got it going".... only I got on my computer and checked out Upoc.com. It still exists! Apparently Upoc Networks were the pioneers of SMS technology. They were asking "what are you Up2?" seven years before Twitter asked "what's happening?"

Did you ever text in a vote for American Idol prior to 2006? That text was powered by Upoc Networks. If you check out UpocNetworks.com, you get the idea that Upoc Networks is a massive company that somehow just doesn't get talked about much. (I have certainly never heard of them before.) However, you might notice that the Upoc Networks website is only current up to 2008! That is because Upoc was sold to Dada Mobil in 2006 and is currently still owned by that company (now called Dada Entertainment, LLC). I find it strange then that the website for Dada Entertainment is only copy-righted up to 2009. The only product of theirs that shows a current 2010 copyright, or any news as of 2010 is the music website Dada.net. It also made me laugh to see that you could "follow" Dada.net on twitter (that familiar blue [t] is in the top right corner of their homepage), but there are no links to Upoc.com (the site that is similar to twitter, and shares the same parent company as Dada.net.) Also, if you do go to Upoc.com, you will see that it is listed as a beta, a test, which was launched in 2007! I guess Dada Entertainment gave up on Upoc.com and gave in to the Twitter bird like the rest of us. It is sort of sad that the company that first imagined the short bits of info we now know as "tweets", has faded into obscurity, and is even neglected by it's own "parent". Awww, poor Upoc.com. At least the idea lives on in a rather amazing way.

So there you go a history lesson that I didn't even plan. We learned it together! Alrighty, this blog is long enough, goodbye till tomorrow.

P.s. I've only got a week left until VidCon starts. Are there any topics you want me to discuss in the next 7 days? Have any questions for me? Let me know in the comments.

10 Things I Don't Leave the House Without

2010-06-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

*Day 21* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

I'm typing this blog from work today and trying to not get caught using the computers for non-work related things. So, to be quick I decided to tell you the 10 things that I never leave home without.

If I'm really in a pinch, I can do with just 7 things and I will tell you those first, but 10 is a nice round number so I'll add a few things to my list, anyway, having 10 things would make me more comfortable if I really could only have 10 things with me besides clothing.

The first 7 things are in no particular order, but I absolutely never leave the house without these 7 things.

1. Blistex (chapstick)

2. small spiral note-book

3. pen

4. hair-tie

5. cell-phone

6. my I.D.

7. cash/credit/ or debit card ( at least one of these three)

Really, if I have at least those 7 things, you could take me anywhere and I wouldn't complain. But if I could have just three more, I'd be even happier.

8. re-wetting drops for my contact lenses

9. pressed face powder/compact

10. I'm tempted to say my keys, but if someone else is driving, then I don't need my car keys and as long is someone is home to let me in when I get back, I don't really need keys, so I'm going to say a brush because I do always have a brush or comb in my bag when I leave the house.

And that's it. If I had at least those 10 things, I could leave my house and wake up in China and I'd be "ok".

What about you? Are there some things you can not leave home without? Feel free to share in the comments.

Team Summer

2010-06-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

*Day 20* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

Ok, so my friend Helen wrote her blog about 5 reasons why she hates summer (and is therefore a TeamWinter supporter - read her blog here). Well, I am a Team Summer person, so I have a few things to say in response to her arguements, and then I'll say a few things about why I hate winter.

It is really better if you go read Helen's blog first because I am going to address some specific things she says.

1. Helen complains about car trips during summer, her arguement is that she has no AC in her car. I admit, this sucks, however I have this same problem. I have no AC in my car and I live in a desert where it often gets to 118 degrees (that's 47C) in the summer. Yes the steering wheel gets super hot, so I bought a steering wheel cover that's made of cotton to protect my hands. Also, even though I wouldn't say that it is pleasent to drive around in 118 degrees with no AC in your car, I prefer to always drive with the windows down anyway. I feel stuffy driving in cars with the windows up, even if there is an AC, so I just deal with it.

2. Helen also complains about humidity. While I do admit that humidity absolutely sucks. I am still Team Summer, because I live in a desert, we have a very dry heat here. It is very rare for it to be humid in Las Vegas, so basically, humidity is not a problem here and therefore is not a factor in my choice of Summer over Winter.

3. The last point that Helen makes which I have something to say about, is sitting out sun-bathing and doing nothing. I don't sun-bathe much anymore, but when I did, I would always bring a book and read while I stayed out and got some sun. Anyway, it's hard for me to imagine people "doing nothing" in the summer. I live in a tourist city, summer means lots of travelers and pool parties and lots of fun.

Now for my arguement against winter, which honestly is nearly the same arguement that my friend Bobby gives in the comments to Helen's blog.

1. Snow and ice are extremely inconvenient. Too much snow can trap you in your house. It is difficult to drive in. Ice can knock out power lines and leave you stuck in your house with no heat or power or water for days and days.

2. People always say that if you are cold, you can always put on more clothes. When I get cold, I feel like my bones have turned to ice and it does not matter how many layers of clothing I put on, my bones are cold and I freeze from the inside out.

3. Freezing and being constantly cold and unable to move makes me depressed. For me, winter is the time that people sit around and do nothing, at least I don't do as much in the winter, because half the time I'm too cold to move.

4. Bobby also points out that winter is depressing for him because of it being a "family time" season. This bothers me too. For several years I would work two jobs during the holiday season while also going to school, so I rarely had time to see my friends. Then all of a sudden, there would be a holiday and I wouldn't have to work, and all that I wanted to do was see my friends, but I couldn't because it was "family" time. So holidays were/are irritating to me. I'd rather spend that time with friends, being forced to spend it with family makes me hate the winter holidays.

So there's my side of it. Mostly I'm Team Summer because I hate being cold, but I absolutely love the sensation of walking out into the sunlight and feeling the heat of the sun sink into my body and warm me up. Anyway, goodbye 'till tomorrow.

Randomness

2010-06-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

*Day 19* I'm blogging everyday till Vidcon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

It is Sunday and I am really tired. This blog is not about anything specific. It's just me rambling.

For the past six months I have been working evening shifts at work, usually 2:00 -10:15pm. So during this time I've been sleeping usually from 2:00-10:00am. Now, all of a sudden, they moved me back to morning shifts, 5:45am-2:15pm. Today was my first day back on morning shifts and it sucked because I could not fall asleep until 2am and therefore, I barely got any sleep last night and then had to work all day. Blah.

For this reason you do not get a very great blog today.

There are just two things I want to tell you about my life right now. I am obviously getting ready to go to VidCon and part of that preparation is that I am making a few Dr. Noise tote bags to sell during the convention. I wasn't going to do this at first, but more a couple of people requested that I have bags available at VidCon, and a couple people have already pre-paid, so I am working hard to get those completed on time.

Second, I think I have made a decision about what I want to do with my life immediatly following VidCon. I've decided that I really want to go to beauty school for manicuring, if I can, before I go back to grad school or get a real job. I still need to talk to my grandparents (they offered to pay for beauty school) but I think they have gone on vacation because they haven't been answering their phone. So hopefully soon that will be sorted out, if it all works out, I should be starting manicuring school about two weeks after VidCon. That would be exciting.

Alrighty, I need to take a nap or something. Goodbye till tomorrow.

Jewels In the Desert

2010-06-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

*Day 18* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

I don't know where I got the idea for this blog, but I like it. Today I am going to tell you about some interesting things you can find in the desert here in Nevada and in California. Some places you might like to check out if you ever have the chance.

The first stop on our tour is Racetrack Playa.
This place is so amazingly cool. It is essentially a dry lake. It only has water maybe two times a year, and even then it is only a few inches deep. The thing that makes this playa so cool is that large rocks move across the playa, leaving tracks in their wake, but the best part is that no one knows how the rocks move. No one has ever seen a rock moving or been able to film a rock moving at Racetrack Playa, but take a look at the pictures and see for yourself! This is definately one of my favorite places to go visit in Death Valley.

*PS- I'm too lazy to use my own photos so I did an image search on google and I found this, which coincidentally was posted by my some of my classmates from UNLV. (Yep, I had classes with everyone in that photo up there). I don't feel so bad stealing pictures from the internet when I am taking them from people that I know.

This is just funny:

Let's move on, shall we?

Stop Two: Ubehebe Crater (that's pronounced You-BEE-HE-BEE)

Ubehebe Crater is a massive crater left from the explosion of a Maar volcano. A maar volcanoe forms and erupts when hot magma comes into contact with groundwater, flash-heating it and the resultant steam blasts a crater in the ground. Ubehebe sits in a field of smaller craters, but Ubehebe stands out because it is half a mile wide, and 777 ft. deep. It is truely an amazing feature to see with your own eyes, though if you ever go see it for yourself, I advise you to be prepared for wind. It is always incredibly windy atop the rim of the crater.

Our trip continues to a man-made feature, but one that is well worth a look if you have the time.

Stop Three: Scotty's Castle

Scotty's Castle was built by a man named Albert Johnson in 1922. He moved to the area because a man named Walter Scott had convinced him to fund a mining venture, which later turned out to be a hoax. Somehow though, Albert Johnson forgave Walter Scott, and Albert built his house at the urging of his wife. See, Albert had a bad back from an old accident and his wife noticed that living in the heat helped him with muscle aches, so they decided to stay. Walter would joke that the house was his and that is how it came to be called Scotty's Castle. (The story of the house goes on, but this is enough for this blog.) The house is now owned by the National Park Service and is open to tourists.

The last stop on our trip today is well worth the reading, because this beautiful feature is on private property, and you will only ever be able to see it in person if you can manage to track down the owner and get his permission to go view it.

Stop Four: Fly Geyser

The story of Fly Geyser began in 1916. A drilling project was started in Northwest Nevada, they were hoping to reach water in order to create some farmland, only the drill encountered a pocket of geothermal water. This turned the area into a sort of marsh and eventually a natural geyser formed. This original geyser is now inactive, but others have come up more recently. Fly Geyser formed in 1960 and is still continuously active today. It is a breath-taking formation of earth and water. The minerals in the water give the geyser it's brilliant colors.

And there you go. The next time you start to think that the desert is only sand and heat, think again and remember these places. I have only shared with you four of the many beautiful things you can find in the desert, but there are many many more stunning scenes to behold. I have lived in the desert nearly all of my life and I absolutely love it. I hope you enjoyed this blog. Goodbye 'till tomorrow.

My Muses: Part 2

2010-06-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

*Day 17* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

I'm starting to run out of things to talk about. So today we'll finish up talking about some of the people who inspire me.

Next up on my list is the lovely TARINA TARANTINO:

Tarina started off her career as a model. Later she worked as a make-up artist. She made fun and sparkly jewelry for herself in her spare time that other girls would ask to buy off her, even when she was just walking down the street. Her husband noticed that she would always come home without any jewelry because people were always buying it up so he suggested that she should start her own business. She did and now her brand name is HUGE! You can check out her beautiful creations at www.TARINATARANTINO.COM.

Moving on....

This is Raquel Reed. She is an alternative model but she also has a day job working as a make-up artist at a MAC store in New York. She has recently started making music too. I admire her for her creativity with make-up and the crazy outfits that she wears.

The next person I want to talk about is someone that I am no longer a fan of, but he was the first person who inspired me to have the confidence to take risks with my make-up.

This is Jeffree Star, if you didn't already recognize him. He is one of the more original "internet celebrities". I first saw his pictures in 2007 when I noticed him on AFI's top friends list on Myspace. He is a genius with make-up, there is no doubt about that. In the beginning, his attitude and confidence just inspired me to be a stronger and more assertive person and to not be afraid to try new things. For that I am thankful to him, but over the years I watched from the internet as he exploited his friends and constantly acted like he was back in highschool. I offically decided to stop supporting him in any way back in 2008 when I happened to comment on a photo of him that I thought he looked better with pink hair than blonde hair. Apparantly he was offended somehow and he wrote me back calling me a bitch and "unfriended" me from Myspace, so that was the end of that.

Another colorful guy that I have followed and been inspired by is this blue-haired boy:

His name is kaiden Blake. He is a model and has worked a lot with Audrey Kitching and Clint Catalyst (the two people I talked about in my first blog about "muses"). I like Kaiden more because he really seems to treat his internet fans like family. He found me on Skype one day and that sort of blew me away. He is a really normal person, just trying to figure life out like the rest of us.

I wish I could go on and on about the people who inspire me, but I will leave off with this last one.

Her name is Hanna Beth. She is also a model. I wish I had hair just like hers. I think she is beautiful. I love her as a model, I think her pictures are just wonderful to look at. She is also a very real person despite having a more glamorous job. She is very family oriented and I like that about her.

So there you go, this is a pretty good list of the people who inspire me. Like I said, most of them are models, so I mainly look to them for fashion and make-up inspiration and sometimes photography inspiration as well. However, all of these people are constantly working on side projects, they are always being creative and that just inspires me to keep being creative too. Way back in 2007 (when I first came across most of these people) I was very undisciplined and I had lost my confidence and ambition to be creative, sometimes to even get out of bed. Everyday when I would wake up, I would think of these people and tell myself that none of these people would be who they are today if they didn't get out of bed in the mornings. So, ya. There might be better role models in the world, but these are the people who gave me the courage and inspiration to be who I am today.

So who inspires you? Tell me about it in the comments, and goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Getting Paid to Play

2010-06-24T00:10:00.000-07:00

*Day 16* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

This is another "I bet you wish you had my job" sort of blog. :-P

This past Father's day my friend Molly posted a video in which she told a story about how her dad once bought her the one Pokemon card she had wanted the most. Her video made me remember my obsession with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. I used to watch Pokemon when I was young, but I was never interested in collecting the Pokemon trading cards. I started watching Yu-Gi-Oh! when I was 16 because it would come on right after Pokemon and I got hooked on that show. I think because that show was actually about a card game, that got me really interested in the cards and I started buying them like mad.

*Here's Molly's video if you want to watch

Collecting Yu-Gi-Oh cards was an addiction really, but I kept it quiet. I didn't hang out in the "anime" crowd at school, so I tried to keep my love for Yu-Gi-Oh! to myself as much as I could. Only a couple of my friends knew that I liked Yu-Gi-Oh and that I collected the cards. They sort of made fun of me for it, but they were still my good friends, so I never held it against them.

Anyway, I kept watching Yu-Gi-Oh even when I was out of high school and in college. I still loved it. One summer, we moved from Las Vegas to Henderson (Henderson is a suburb of Las Vegas, if you were a visitor here you would not be able to tell the difference). Anyway, since we moved, I needed to find a new job that was closer to my new house. Our new home was about 10 minutes away from a Toys R Us. I thought it might be fun to work there, and I saw that they held trading card tournaments on Saturdays, so I went in and applied.

I was called in for an interview and about halfway through the interview they happened to ask why I wanted to work there. I mentioned about the trading card tournaments and that I collected the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and knew how to play and I thought it might be fun. When I told them that, they said "Why didn't you say that at the beginning?!?!" It turned out that they didn't have anyone at the time to run the Saturday tournaments, and none of their workers knew how to play any of the games. So they hired me as their special events co-ordinator. So, all of a sudden, I had a new job running trading card tournaments. I not only got paid to play Yu-Gi-Oh for two hours every Saturday, I had to learn to play the Pokemon TCG as well as the Duel Masters TCG, and a couple of years later I had to learn Zatchbell also. The best part was that the company would periodically send me several boxes of starter sets and booster packs so I could build my own decks (I wasn't required to have my own cards even though I did). So I got tons of extra cards that I didn't have to pay for! (I collected some Pokemon and Duel Masters cards this way too, but I don't think that I have any of the Pokemon cards anymore.)

Just as a side note so that you know that I worked for more than just a few hours on Saturdays, my job as the special events coordinator included a lot of other things, like organizing new toy demonstrations and sometimes we would have "character" meet and greets (for example we had a model come in once and dress as Barbie from FairyTopia, another time we had a Care Bear in the store... stuff like that.)

Anway, it was exciting to be getting paid to play a game that my friends had teased me about in high school. I still have all of my Yu-Gi-Oh cards! and some of the Duel Masters cards.

Before I say goodbye, I just want to say, as sort of a response to Molly's video. When I collected Yu-Gi-Oh cards, the one card that I wanted the most was a Dark Magician Girl card. She wasn't a trump card, but it was very difficult to find an English version of this card. For a long time, the only ones I ever saw were Japanese cards (which are not "legal" in US tournaments, so if you are a card collector, you know that it's better to have "legal" cards.) Anyway, one night I bought a few booster packs while I was working at Toys R Us. I went out to my car and opened the packs and inside one of the booster packs I found her! A Limited Edition, Gold Foil, Holographic version of the Dark Magician Girl!!!

I just about screamed when I saw the card. That was probably the happiest moment of my card collecting life! (I later got another Dark Magician Girl card, it was a "Secret Rare Promo Card" with a different drawing on it, though I don't know why they called it a 'secret' card, it was sold along with a special collectors tin and it was packaged so that you could see the card. I only bought the tin because it had this card!) Anyway, that's all I have to say about that. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Question: Did you collect any trading card games? If you did, what was the one card you wanted most, and did you ever get it?

STAR WARS

2010-06-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

*Day 15* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

*omg! Only 15 days to go!

So yesterday I sorta promised you that I would talk about Star Wars. So why not? Although, be forwarned, this blog will be a bit long.

I am a Star Wars fan. I didn't grow up that way though. Actually, I hated Star Wars when I was younger, I even made fun of some of the nerdy boys at school who really did like Star Wars (I am so sorry for this now.) You probably wont believe it, but I did not start to like Star Wars until Episode 1 came out in the theatres. I know what you are all going to think "Episode 1 sucked!!!" Let me tell my story.

When Episode 1 came out, I was on vacation. I had gone with my aunt to visit my Great Aunt and Uncle who lived in a really really really tiny town in northern Nevada. Tiny town = population 500, it's actually classified as a village. Anyway, when you are used to the city, life in a farming community can get rather boring, so one day my Aunt decided to take me to the next town over to go to the movies. She said she was taking me to go see Star Wars Episode 1. To thouroughly convince you of my dislike of Star Wars at that time, let me pull a quote from my diary the day before the movie.

June 22, 1999 - "...tomorrow my Aunt and I are supposed to go the movies to see Star Wars Episode 1: the Phantom Menace, though I would rather she went and I stay here and help my uncle with the yard work."

*omg! Did you notice that date? June 22, so I first began to like Star Wars on June 23, 1999. That's exactly 11 years ago. What a coincidence that I am writing this today (I seriously didn't plan this!)

So anyway, as much as I didn't want to go, I went and I ended up really likeing the movie. You can say all you want about Jar-Jar Binks. I wont stop you. I was enthralled by Anakin, Queen Amidala and Qui-Gon Jinn. Those characters just grabbed my attention and stole my heart. To seal my love for the Star Wars universe, the next day, my Aunt made me watch Episodes 4-6 all in a row. The whole story finally made sense to me and I LOVED it!

Now, fast forward to June 2005, when I was in Japan. That was the summer that Episode 3 was released. By this time I was a complete and total nut for Star Wars. (I had taken to reading nearly every Star Wars book ever written.) So, two things related to Star Wars happened while I was in Japan. First, while I was there, the movie theatre on the Navy base was having a Star Wars marathon. All six movies being shown in the theatre for a whole day! What an awesome event! I couldn't miss that! But that wasn't even the best of it. Temura Morrison and Daniel Logan (Boba Fett and Jango Fett) were touring Japan to help promote the movie and they were going to be at the theatre just before the movies started. Aaah! So I got to meet them! Look 0_0

So that was the sorta cool thing I alluded to yesterday. But wait! My story goes on. In 2005 Myspace was still sort of new and it was a really big deal back then. Everyone was using it. So while I was in Japan, I would stay up late and go onto the myspace groups to talk to the American Star Wars fans. The largest Star Wars fan group on Myspace was run by a guy named Steven Greenwood. He was a co-creator of the Wookieepedia (a Star Wars division of Wikipedia). He was always online it seemed, and even though I was super busy during my stay in Japan, I seemed to be online a lot then too. So he and I ended up sharing a lot of opinions across the forums and eventually we realized that we were both the same age and that we were both geology majors in college, so we naturally became "internet friends".

Steven and I have been as close as internet friends can be ever since then. Over the years our conversations have started to focus more on our interest in geology and our future careers than our interest in Star Wars. Anyway, he lives in Clarksville, Tennessee and about two years ago now, my cousin moved to Clarksville because her husband joined the Army and he was stationed there. I couldn't believe it! So last year for spring break, I went to visit my cousin and I spent some time hanging out with Steven. I'm telling you all of this, because Steven has a Star Wars room in his house. It is absolutely incredible and I have pictures! These pictures hardly do the room justice, but have a look! 0_0

Yep, that is Steven's Star Wars room. He never told me about this room until I was at his house and before he took me to this room, he started acting like it was a big deal. Ha, I had no idea the awesomeness I was about to see. When I opened the door, it was just amazing! :-) (Anyway, Steven is a really cool guy and is a bit of a nerdfighter now. You can follow him on Twitter @riffsyphon1024 or find him on Facebook www.facebook.com/stevengreenwood).

Two quick stories I still have to share with you. First, when I came home from Japan in 2005 my sister got a new boyfriend. She showed me his picture and I instantly recognized him as a boy I used to go to school with in the sixth grade. He was one of the boys I used to make fun of for being a huge Star Wars fan. When I met him again, he remembered me from school too and I apologized to him for having made fun of him about likeing Star Wars. (I thought you all should know that!). LAST STORY: in 2006 I had the chance to meet Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Matthew Wood (voice of General Greivous). I got autographs from both of them, but I will only show you the R2-D2 that Kenny Baker signed for me.

Okay, okay. I'm done now. Those are my Star Wars stories. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Japan and Boyfriends

2010-06-22T00:23:00.000-07:00

*Day 14* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

So I didn't know what to write about today. As I was sitting and thinking, I thought I might talk about the time I went to Japan for a month. I was going to tell you about the whole process of actually getting there. (I traveled there alone and I didn't speak any Japanese, so I ended up having some difficulties when I had to change planes). Anyway... I wasn't really sure if that was what I wanted to talk about.

Then I had the idea of maybe looking at an old diary or journal and re-reading what I did on this date several years ago and talking about that. Just out of curiosity, I picked up the nearest journal and flipped to June 22. The journal I happened to pick up was from 2005. I was in Japan in June of 2005. So, then I figured maybe that was a good sign that I should talk about Japan today.

June 2005: As I said, I was in Japan. I went there to visit my brother and his family. He and his wife were both in the Navy. They had a one year old son, my nephew Joeseph, and there were no 24 hour day care centers near their house, so they actually paid me to go to Japan for a month and babysit my nephew. They usually had a neighbor watch him, but she had just had a baby of her own and so they didn't want to impose on her while she was enjoying and taking care of her own baby. So that's why I was there. They paid for my tickets to go there, they paid for pretty much everything while I was there, and they paid me $500 before I went home for babysitting.

I had a lot of fun in Japan. I got there the day before my 20th birthday. 20 is the legal drinking age in Japan, so we went out to the clubs for my 20th birthday. My brother had set up a blind date for me. My date's name was Carlos. I really liked him. He liked me too. We found ways to hang out everyday for a whole week, and then he asked me to be his girlfriend. --This was a pretty significant moment for me, because, I'd never really had a boyfriend before. Technically I had my first boyfriend in the 8th grade when I was 13, but we were only "together" for about two weeks and then he was with someone else. So I never really liked to count that as a relationship.-- So anyway, I said yes and it was awesome. The whole time I was in Japan, I had a special someone to share every moment with. Also, I guess it's fitting that I'm writing this today because it was around 1:00am on June 22, 2005 that he asked me to be his girlfriend.

Anyway, I did a lot of fun things while I was there, but I think I was most excited that there was a military ball during the time I was there. My brother told me that we would be going to a ball during my stay, so I brought a dress with me. It was even better then that I had a boyfriend while I was there, because he was in the Navy too , so I went as his date. This was us on the night of the ball.

Eventually my stay in Japan ended and my relationship with Carlos also did soon after that. I came home in mid-July and he broke up with me sometime at the beginning of September I think. I was upset at the time, but it is easy to look back now and wonder why I even liked him at all. He didn't even like musicals! (Not even GREASE!)

I meant to talk more about Japan itself in this blog, but this is what you get. Some memories of my first 'real' boyfriend. There was another rather cool thing that happend to me while I was in Japan, but it has to do with the Star Wars films and I think I should save that little story to include in another blog about Star Wars. Maybe tomorrow. Ya, probably tomorrow.

Well, goodbye till then.

My Alter Ego: PinkPixieDF

2010-06-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

*Day 13* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

Today I thought I'd tell you all the story behind my user name "PinkPixieDF". I first chose the name "pinkpixie" in 2003. I needed a new username for AIM. I first thought of using the word pixie because I have a personal preference for fairies and pixies. They are not a "huge" interest of mine, but I like them. Also, if you remember 2003 was the time when pink was the new black. The color pink was EVERYWHERE. I was wearing pink almost everyday because that was pretty much the only color of clothing that you could find in the stores. So I came up with "pinkpixie" because it was alliterative (and that's fun), it sort of described me at the time, and it was also a sort of commentary on the culture at that time.

The only thing was, somebody else already had the username "pinkpixe". So, my brother had the idea of replacing all of the i's with L's. So my AIM name was actually pLnkpLxLe, but if you type it this way PlNKPlXlE, it looks more like pinkpixie. As social media forms grew I decided I wanted to keep the "pinkpixie" name but I thought it was silly to keep spelling it with L's instead of i's, so I needed to add something to it to make it more personal. I started adding the "DF" to my username in 2007.

"DF" stands for "Despair Faction" which is the name of the AFI fan club. Yes, I am a huge fan of the band AFI and I am a lifetime member of their fan club. At some point I noticed that many AFI fans on myspace would add a "DF" somewhere in their myspace usernames and that is what gave me the idea to add DF to the pinkpixie. So there you go. I am "PinkPixieDF".

Everyday I have been so worried about writing blogs that are too long, and now I feel like this blog is too short. Oh well. If you like, share the story behind your username in the comments. Goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

The Big Bang

2010-06-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

*Day 12* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

So today I'm going to talk about the Big Bang theory, (the actual theory, not the television show). I feel like my blogs have been kinda lame the past few days, so I figured I should talk about things that I actually know a thing or two about and also that I am passionate about. That's not to say that I'm "passionate" about the Big Bang theory itself. However, I find that many people don't really know what the Big Bang theory actually is. This is frustrating to me on several levels. As a scientist, it irritates me that so many people "think" they know what the Big Bang theory is, but if you ask them, their definitions are incorrect. It also bothers me because I happen to be a Christian and it makes my life as a Christian and a scientist rather difficult because so many Christians understand the wrong definition of the Big Bang and therefore, they become upset when they find that I accept the Big Bang theory.

First, I have to admit that I didn't always know the actual definition of the Big Bang either. Since I was raised as a Christian, all that I ever knew was that there was some scientific theory called the "Big Bang" which suggested that the entire universe suddenly came into being at some point in time that scientists call "the Big Bang". (If you ask around, this is the loose definition that most people attach to the Big Bang, only it's wrong.)

I first read a more correct definiton of the big bang in 2003 when I picked up a copy of Stephen Hawking's book, The Theory of Everything (a really amazing book btw, you should read it some time.) The actual definition of The Big Bang is that at some point, all of the matter in the universe was at the same point (i.e. the distance between galaxies was "zero"). Hawking says it this way, "At that time, which we call the big bang, the density of the universe and the curvature of space-time would have been infinite"(*). Hawking then goes on to explain how all of the theories about space-time would be invalid at the point of the big bang, so that anything happening before the big bang (the time when all matter existed together at a single point) would be irrelevant to anything happening after the big bang. Therefore, since we can not say anything about events that might have happened before the big bang, then as far as science is concerned, we have to say that time began at the big bang.

Now, lets just stop there for a second and review. The big bang theory essentially says two things.
1) at one point, the distance between all matter in the universe was "zero", this is called a singularity, and we call this time the big bang.
2) If there were any events before the big bang, they can not be understood from our position in space-time after the big bang, so we say that time began at the big bang.

Got it? This is the definition of the big bang. If this doesn't sit right with you, go research it for yourself. (I did. I respect Stephen Hawking, but I didn't come to accept all of this just from reading his book. I have a habit of questioning everything. I had very good teachers who taught me to do that.) I do encourage you to research it though, because I do not have space in this blog to explain all of the evidence for why scientists believe that the big bang theory is the most accurate description of how time and space began. (Just for quick reference though I'll tell you, they accept the big bang model because the universe appears to be expanding as if from a single point.)

Now, the rest of this blog concerns Christians and their understanding or lack of understanding of the big bang, although even if you are not a Christian, you might want to keep reading. There are some surprising twists in the history of the big bang theory.

I think many Christians are afraid that scientists are simply trying to find ways to explain away God, and so they simply do not even listen to what scientists say at all. I for one, never wanted to be afraid of anything. I'd rather know the truth, even if the truth is ugly. So I had a look into all of this science stuff. I think I should quote Hawking again here, he explains this so well.

"... if the universe is expanding, there may be physical reasons why there had to be a beginning. One could still believe that God created the universe at the instant of the big bang. He could even have created it at a later time in just such a way as to make it look as though there had been a big bang. But it would be meaningless to suppose that it was created before the big bang. An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when He might have carrioud out his job." (**)

First I just want to say, that, as a Christian, it makes me happy that scientists who are athiests (Stephen Hawking is an athiest) still include in their publications the possibility that God might exist. This is something that I have tried and tried to point out to my Christian friends. They all assume that scientists are all athiests and are hostile toward the church, but they are not. Every scientist has his own personal opinion, but it is his duty to consider all possible theories unless there is sufficient evidence to exclude them. Basically, I'm saying that, if you are a Christian, don't be afraid to look at the science. Scientists are not out to convince you that God does not exist.

Later in Hawkings book, he goes on to say that there were a lot of scientists who did not like the idea of a big bang because it too strongly suggested that something or someone had caused time to begin (something had to trigger the matter to start expanding, it could have just stayed in the singularity) In fact, the Catholic church officially accepts the big bang as being in accordance with the bible. Are you Catholic? Did you know this? Can you believe this? Christians accepted the big bang, and scientists wanted to disprove it. (As far as I know, scientists have still been unable to disprove the necessity of a big bang.) So then, I wonder, how did it all get so twisted and mixed up so that today, the majority of people believe that on the one hand there are Christians who believe that God created the universe and on the other hand there are scientists who say the universe came from an event called "the big bang". Back in the 50's, 60's and 70's Christians were rejoicing and scientist were grumbling. I don't know how I came to be taught that the big bang was an anti-God theory, but I was.

I hope I have enlightened you a little bit. If you are not a Christian, I hope two things for you. One, that you would at least take away from this, the more accurate definition of "the big bang". Two, I hope that if you are an athiest, that you would not be hostile to those who do believe in God. So far in my life as a scientist, I have been encouraged to find that other scientists did not think less of me for believing in God. I only ask that you would do the same.

I know this was a really long blog, I've been wanting to write it for several days. I was afraid I would end up writing forever. I'm sorry, but I hope you enjoyed it. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

* the quote above is from page 35 of the The Theory of Everything by Stephen Hawking.

** the second quote is from page 15 of The Theory of Everything by Stephen Hawking

Some Colorful People, a.ka. My Muses

2010-06-19T20:26:00.001-07:00

*Day 11* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

I am a girl. Obviously, but I love being a girl. I love to dress up in cute and pretty clothes. I love to wear fun make-up and paint my fingernails. Today I just want to share with you some of the colorful people who inspire me to have fun with the clothes and make-up that I wear. Most of these people are models, so I look to them for fashion advice and beauty tips.

A few years ago I came across this pretty face:

Her name is Audrey Kitching. She's done modeling for Jessica Louise, Skelanimals, and PETA (to name just a few). I adore her. Besides being a fashion inspiration to me, she has also convinced me to never get the Gardasil vaccination (which almost killed her last year). You can read her blog about that scariness here I would love to meet her someday, I almost did once. She was making appearances at all the Beauty Bar's on the west coast about two years ago. I went to the Beauty Bar in Las Vegas the night she was supposed to be there, but I waited for her to show and finally left because I was bored. (She didn't go to the bar that night until after 2am, I left just before that! Ah, oh well.)

Anyway, being a fan of Audrey led me to this wonderful person:

That is Clint Catalyst (with Audrey). Clint is simply one of the most amazing people I have ever known of. He is a model, an author, an actor and a fashion expert. He is brilliant with words and is quite possibly the only celebrity that I would completely freak out about if I had the chance to meet him. I have not met him yet, but thanks to social media, I have talked to him in e-mails and he knows my name! Clint subscribes to me on youtube and quite often lists my name in his "Follow Friday" suggestions on Twitter.

I think Clint Catalyst is just my favorite all-around artist. If you would, please check out these videos he has made. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I always do.

This one is like watching a water-color painting come to life and it's narrated by the amazing Pauley Perrette:

I had several more fashionably inspirational people that I wanted to talk about but I realize this blog is getting long, so maybe I'll talk about some others on another day. I'll leave you with one of my favorite photos of Clint Catalyst.

Goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

Art That Pays

2010-06-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

*Day 10* I'm blogging everday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

First, OMG, it's 'day 10', that means there are only 20 days left to go until I can see all of my friends and meet so many new ones! This is very exciting.

Second, today was a really long day for me, as of right now, I have been awake for 17hours. I am very tired, but I am excited. Earlier this week a co-worker of mine asked me if I would paint her nails today for a wedding that she is going to this weekend. I sad yes, and today I did paint her nails,... and she paid me! This is the first time I have ever been paid for my nail art. So that was really awesome.

You may or may not know that I also make tote bags. I am currently working on four tote bags, two of which were commissioned. (Yay! I'm being paid to make tote bags too!)

Being paid for the things I create makes me so happy. A few years ago, I was living my life in such a way that who I was on the outside (what other people saw when they looked at me and my life) in no way resembeled the person that I felt myself to be on the inside. When I realized this about myself, I made up my mind to change my life so that I would truely "be" myself, in every way, and all the time. One of the things I felt inside, was that I wanted to be an artist in some way. I wished for a talent that would be worth something (at that time, I was very poor, and was wishing for any way to make money). It has been more than three years since I really set my mind to changing the way I lived, and in that time I started making tote bags and painting my nails simply because I thought it was fun. And now, people are paying me to do these things! Three years ago, I only 'wished' for an artistic talent. Even though I had gone to art schools for most of my life, and I had studied photography and ceramics, I didn't feel that I had any real talent. Though, apparently it seems I just hadn't found my niche until now.

I'm not exactly sure what my point is in this blog. I guess my point is that, I majored in a science in college because I wanted to be a scientist, but I wanted to be an artist too. So, I am glad and thankful that my bachelors degree in geology affords me the right to call myself a scientist; and the fact that people have paid for my art affords me the right to call myself and artist too. So, I guess what I'm saying is... I'm making the changes I wanted to make in my life. The person that I am now is so much closer to who I really want to be than who I was three years ago, and that makes me happy.

Ok, so I just hammered this blog out, and I'm really sorry if it is not completely coherent. I am so tired. I must go to sleep now, goodnight.

The Longest Lasting Birthday Gift

2010-06-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

*Day 9* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

Today is my 25th birthday. So I figured I should write about something birthday-related today. At first I thought I would talk about the best birthday I've ever had. Only, I don't think I've actually had "the best birthday" yet. (I'm only 25, I'm pretty sure I have a lot more birthdays to go). See, I've had one or two awesome birthday parties in the past, but nothing that I would call "the best". Today has been a pretty fantastic day, and up till now, this has been one of my favorite birthdays of my life so far. Only, I don't feel that I can call this "the best" birthday because, even though all of my friends have wished me a happy birthday, and some of them even made me an awesome video on youtube, none of my friends are actually here to celebrate with me.

Now, please don't think that I am complaining. I have had a wonderfully awesometastic day and my friends have made me intensly happy with their tweets and facebook comments and videos. I'm just saying, that I think that I have yet to have "the best birthday ever". Someday, I will get to celebrate my birthday with my friends and look forward to that being my best birthday ever.

So, instead, I thought I would tell you about the best birthday present I ever received. At first I didn't even know the answer to this topic. When I started to think back to all of the gifts I've been given over the years, it only took a few seconds to remember the first diary I ever received. When I turned 8 years old, my friend Mike gave me a diary. I didn't particularly want a diary, and I wasn't exactly bursting with happiness about the diary I got when I was 8. However, I feel that I must admit, that diary was probably the best birthday gift I ever received. I say so, because I have been diligently chronicling my life in diaries ever since.

When my friend gave me that diary, he gave me more than a book with blank pages inside. He gave me a key to a habit that would allow me to remember my life. It's amazing that I still have that diary from my 8th birthday. So here I am, 17 years older, and I can still read through those pages and remember who I was way back then. That is an amazing and lasting gift. I have recieved many brilliant presents in my life, but I think that this gift of being able to remember who I was at any age since I was 8 years old is truely the best birthday gift I've ever been given.

What about you? Do you have a favorite birthday gift? Leave a comment and let me know. Anyway, goodbye 'till tomorrow. :-)

The Most Fun I Ever Had While Working

2010-06-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

*Day 8* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

The best job I ever had only lasted one week and I have no idea how I could ever get hired into such a position ever again.

During the summer of 2006 I was working three different jobs (I never had a day off basically). One of the companies I worked for was called Camp Las Vegas. Their flashy pitch was that they offered kid-friendly 4-hour tours on the Las Vegas strip for children. Basically, it was a 4-hour baby-sitting service for tourists. There was a morning shift and an evening shift. Only, we never had a lot of customers.

I don't even want to tell you about my job with Camp Las Vegas, but it was because I worked for them that I got to work the most fun job I've ever had. While I was employed by Camp Las Vegas, a convention planning company contacted my boss and said that they needed some extra chaperones for their childrens entertainment. Basically, a convention was in town that encouraged guests to bring their whole family and promised that entertainment and supervision would be provided for children ages 7-17 for 14 hours of the day. Since we didn't have much going on at Camp Las Vegas, four of us were sent to work as chaperones for this one week.

On the first day, the children were diveded into age groups and split between 6 chaperones. I got the group of 17 year olds. I was actually very happy with this because I was only 21 at the time. I think the kids in my group were happy to have a chaperone that was so close to them in age. We sort of became 'friends'.

Anyway, we spent the whole week taking those kids to every kid-friendly attraction that exists in the Las Vegas area, and also every fun restaurant. We had two or three meals a day with them and we were truely with them for 12-14 hours every day. We went to gameworks, the mini gran prix (think race cars), the Hoover Dam, Shark Reef (that's an aquarium), Madame Tussauds wax museum, The Adventure Dome (Las Vegas's only theme park) and we ate at the most fun restaurants like Planet Hollywood and The Rainforest Cafe. We even had a pool party with them one day. Late at night we had a ballroom at the hotel where we would watch movies and play games. Some of us would all sit in a corner and paly Mario Kart on our Nintendo DS's and DS Lite's.

This job was incredibly fun because I didn't have to just supervise these kids while they got to have all the fun. I got to have fun right along with them. I played games with them at Gameworks. Ate lunch with them at Planet Hollywood. Got frightened in the wax museum by figures that turned out to be real. Rode alongside them on the roller coaster at The Adventure Dome, and raced against them on the track at the Las Vegas Mini Gran Prix. Not to mention, I was getting paid to do all this too.

Working as a chaperone for a convention was the best job I ever had. If I only knew where to start to be able to work this kind of job more often, I'd sign up again and again.

What was the best job you ever had? Or, what fun job do you know of that you would like to have?

Where is the train station?

2010-06-15T22:06:00.001-07:00

*Day 7* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon. What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

Ok, I am really really tired today. I was at work for 9 hours and then I came home and cooked dinner for me and my sister. We ate dinner, cleaned the dishes and now I'm sitting down to write this, but all I really want to do is go to bed.

However, I don't want to miss a day of blogging if I really don't have to. So, you may be wondering why I titled this blog "Where is the train station?". When I was in grade school, I studied French for 4 years and I've continued to try and teach myself the language even though I no longer study it in a formal class setting. I've also been trying to learn Japanese and Spanish for many years, and for many years I have been frustrated with the books and cd's I have bought to help myself learn these languages.

So many of them start off with the assumption that you are traveling, so they teach you to ask for the train, the airport, or how to find a taxi, a hotel, your luggage, or a good resturaunt. I don't use any of this language in daily life, so I forget these phrases almost as soon as I learn them.

I work in a store where about half of our customers are spanish speakers. It would be great if I could assist them in their own langauge, but I'm always stuck thinking, "how do you say, "it's at the end of aisle ten"?". I know how to say, "I want to buy a train ticket" in spanish, but that is honestly, very unlikely to ever be a useful phrase for me.

Recently, I've realized that my job is very repetative and predictable. As a cashier and returns cashier, there are only a handfull of phrases that are absolutely necessary for me to know in order to do my job. I've become determined to write my own language program specifically designed for the job I do.

Eventualy I will be able to speak Spanish, Japanese and French, even if all I know is the phrases I need for my job, that's all that really matters to me anyway, because that is my daily life.

Okay,.... bed time :-)
QUESTION: If you could speak another language that you don't already speak, which one would you learn?

Poetry

2010-06-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

*Day 6* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

I'm sort of cheating today. I have two ideas for blogs that I want to write, but they both require a few hours of work to write. I need something easy for today, so I am going to share two or three poems with you that I wrote in high school. (They are all very short.)

The first one is called 'Longing For The Sea', I wrote it when I was 16. It was winter time and I was sitting in my chemistry class wishing it was summer vacation.

Longing For The Sea

I want to leave this place,
To be in the sun and sand.

These people here, they just don't know,
This passion comes from deep in my soul.

My longing for the music of the sea,
Is greater than any other feeling within me.
I wish to be out, on my way, and free.
On the beach, in the sun, is where I should be.

If you could only be told,
Of the pain this longing creates -
You would release me from the cold,
and open those frozen gates.

Then I could be free, to visit the sea.
I'd smile as the heat of the sun warms me.
And this longing that is a part of me,
This passion for the sea, would finally cease
to torment me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This next poem is called 'Darkness'. It is a bit depressing, but it was heavily influenced by Star Wars and other science fiction books I was reading at the time. Imagine this poem being written by a slave in the Star Wars universe and being under the control of the emperor. It might make more sense that way (at least, you'll understand why I wrote it, please don't think that I wrote it about my life.)

DARKNESS

I sit and stare out the window,
I can hardly see,
The world is covered in a cloud of muck.
Everywhere there is loneliness and suffering.
Hurt and hatred rule over our minds and bodies.

We are under the control of Evil,
It runs through my veins like an unstoppable river.
It burns under my skin like poision.
There is no good to replace the venom.

We are trapped in this dark world.
There is nowhere to go
and no reason to be happy.
I only pray that a glint of hope will come to me.
Maybe I will survive this curse and escape.

Someday, we will find the light.
We will.
And then, there will be no more darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This last poem is really short and kind of fun. I wrote this poem for a creative writing class. I wanted to write a poem that talked about the process of writing poetry. Weird, I know. It didn't exactly come out that way, but here it is.

Just Words

It starts with words on paper,
Flowing across the page.
Then imagination goes to work,
And I step out of my cage.

With a pen as your tool,
Color me happy in shades
of red, yellow, green and blue.
Paint my life a world of kindness,
Using words of love and happiness.

Write me a meadow with a sunny day,
A place where I can live and play.
Draw me a garden,
filled with roses and birds.
Finish the story,
and it will mean more to me
than just letters and words.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that's all for today. I hope you liked the poems. Goodbye till tomorrow. :-)

Listen to the Music

2010-06-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

*Day 5* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

How do I introduce the topic of this blog?... hmmm.... How 'bout this. About a year or so ago, I was at the movies and a preview for the Sherlock Holmes movie was shown. It was the first time I had ever seen it. My very first reaction to the preview after seeing it was, "Did you hear that music? I think it's the same composer who did Pirates of the Carribean."

This is my confession, I am obsessed with movie soundtracks. When I watch movies, I sometimes pay more attention to the music in the background than anything else. In fact, I was right in my assumption about the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack. The composer of the soundtrack for that movie was Hans Zimmer, who was the producer of the soundtrack for the first Pirates movie and the composer for the other two Pirates movies. He is amazing.

My favorite thing about soundtracks is that while a movie itself might flounder, the soundtack can still soar. Sometimes you find amazing soundtracks attached to the most unlikely movies. Today I just wanted to share and discuss some of my favorite soundtracks.

I think I first began collecting soundtracks in 1997. That was the year Fox released the animated film "Anastasia". I still love the soundtrack for this movie even today. I listen to it all the time, the songs are so much fun to sing along to and some of them are really emotinally deap and moving.

In 1998, I picked up the soundtrack for Disney's Tarzan even before the movie came out in theatres because I saw that Phil Collins had written the soundtrack, and Phil Collins is simply a musical genius. This soundtrack has 14 tracks, only 9 of them are songs with words, but it is still one of my favorites. Even Rosie O'Donnel and N'sync lend their voices on a couple of songs. :-)

There are two soundtracks from 1999 on my top 10 list. The first one is the soundtrack from Pokemon: The First Movie. This is an absolutely fantastic soundtrack full of fun, upbeat pop songs that are still fun to listen to today. This is absolutely one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, I'm always impressed with it everytime I listen to it. The second soundtrack from 1999 is from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. So many amazing artists contributed to this soundtrack; Semisonic, Save Ferris, Sister Hazel, Letters To Cleo and several others. This soundtrack is a good mix of emo, pop and r&b, I like listening to this soundtrack when I go on roadtrips.

2001 was also a good year for soundtracks. I have two favorites from this year. First is Shrek. If you've ever watched the first Shrek movie, you can not deny that you find yourself singing along with "All Star" by Smash Mouth during the opening credits or with "Bad Reputation" during the scene where Shrek has to defend himself from all the Knights who are competeing to go rescue Fiona. Throw in Eddie Murphy's cover of "I'm a Believer" and even with just those three songs, this would be a great soundtrack, but all of the songs are fun. I don't own a copy of this soundtrack, but I wish so badly that I did. I love it. The other soundtrack from 2001that I highly recommend is a soundtrack that I first bought simply because David Bowie had a song on it. The song is "Golden Years" and the soundtrack is for the movie A Knights Tale. I am so glad that I bought this cd. Every single song on this soundtrack is fantastic, having them all together on one cd is brilliant. Queen, David Bowie, Heart, Eric Clapton, Thin Lizzy, and Third Eye Blind are just a few of the artists found on this soundtrack, and unless you are musically clueless, you have to admit, it is an awesome lineup.

In 2004, I was highly impressed with the soundtrack for the movie Blade Trinity. According to sales records, this was actually the least popular soundtrack of the three Blade movies, but it was my favorite of the three, probably because I found that the soundtrack kept me entertained when the movie did not.

The next soundtrack on my list was originally released in 2005, but I did not hear it until 2006. In 2005, the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was released in Japan. I first watched the film in 2006 and immediately fell in love with the music. I searched everywhere for the soundtrack only to find that it was not available in America. I had to order it from Japan. (Thank God for being able to shop online and order things from other countries so easily!) This soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and he is simpley a genius. There are 26 tracks on 2 discs and according to wikipedia, Variety magazine noted that the styles of the songs vary between "sparse piano noodlings, pop metal thrashings and cloying power ballads" which I have to completely agree with. Perhaps my favorite song on the soundtrack is "Advent: One-Winged Angel" which is the theme song for Sephiroth (the villain) and it is absolutely incredible. It starts off with just orchestral drums, then succesive orchestra type instruments come in to play in a layering fashion all building up to.... BAM! An electric guitar! Rock music takes over the orchestra music and then.... a choir starts singing in latin with the music alternating between classical orchestra and rock, it is a fantastically wonderful and fun song to listen to. The whole soundtrack is amazing but two of my other favorite songs are titled "Battle in the Forgotten City" and "J-E-N-O-V-A". Check it out if you ever have the chance.

The last soundtracks I want to mention are very new. I am not much of a "twilight" fan at all, but have you looked at the soundtracks for Twilight and New Moon?! Muse, Paramore, Linkin Park, Perry Farrell, Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, The Killers and OK Go are just some of the names of artists you will find on these soundtracks. What amazing lineups. Really. I don't own either of these soundtracks yet, but I can't wait to get my hands on them. Sweet sweet music!

I know this was a long blog, but I tried to keep it to a top 10 type review and anyway, I happen to know that at least two people who read this blog regularly will probably appreciate this entry *ahem* Helen and James *cough*cough* :-)

Goodbye 'till tomorrow.

"Downtown" - Taking Advice from Song Lyrics

2010-06-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

*Day 4* I'm blogging everday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

Early in 2008 I was in a severe depression. I had lost all of my friends, I was suffering a broken heart, and at the time, I didn't even blame anyone. I felt that I had knowingly put myself in a bad situation and that I deserved all of the bad things that were happening to me.

Only, I didn't want to be depressed. I didn't want to hurt as bad as I was hurting. I realized that the life I had been living was not the life I wanted for myself, and I didn't even want to spend the time being depressed that I had lost everything. I wanted to move on, but at first I didn't know how.

One day, while I was at work, the song "Downtown" by Petula Clark came on in the store. I remember listening to the song and just thinking,... "you know... maybe this song is right. Instead of sitting at home all alone and depressed, I should just go out and look at the pretty lights and let myself be distracted from all the things that are making me upset."

Around this same time I had just bought myself a semi-professional digital SLR camera. I bought the camera in hopes that if I gave myself a creative outlet that would also help me out of my depression. So one night, I took my camera and I headed out to downtown Las Vegas. While I was there, taking pictures of neon signs and random, interesting things, I saw several flyers for upcoming shows. I saw on one of the flyers the name of a local band whose music I had been listening to on MySpace for some time. I really liked them and I remembered how much fun I used to have going to shows when I was younger and in high school. So I decided to go to their show. I would be going to the shows alone, but I didn't care. I was desperate to do anything that would keep me from sitting at home and being depressed.

So, I started going to shows again, and taking my camera with me. After a while, I started seeing people at shows that I had known in high school and I started making new friends, mostly with people in the bands because they got used to seeing me at every show. This is how I met two of my closest friends, Bill and Ricky.

Today, I live a much healthier and happier life and most days I feel like I have more friends now than I can possibly count. I don't miss anything about the life I had before 2008. I am glad that I was able to get out of my house and meet new people who became good friends and helped me to overcome my depression. I am also thankful and excited that I live a life now where I am constanly meeting new people and making new friends. (So excited for VidCon!) It sometimes makes me laugh to remember that my motivation to get out of the house and go hang out "downtown" came from a song. Thank you, Petula Clark, your lyrics led me to find a better life.

I kept mentioning that I had my camera with me, because I wanted to share with you some of the photos I took when I hung out "downtown":

When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go - downtown
When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know - downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown - no finer place, for sure
Downtown - everything's waiting for you

Don't hang around and let your problems surround you
There are movie shows - downtown
Maybe you know some little places to go to
Where they never close - downtown
Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova
You'll be dancing with him too before the night is over
Happy again

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, where all the lights are bright
Downtown - waiting for you tonight
Downtown - you're gonna be all right now

And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to
Guide them along

So maybe I'll see you there
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares
So go downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown - don't wait a minute for
Downtown - everything's waiting for you

Sorry, the pictures make this blog so long. I just really wanted to share them with you. Anyway, I'll say goodbye now, 'till tomorrow. :-)

Harry Potter and Sub Reality

2010-06-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

*Day 3* I'm blogging everyday till VidCon! What is VidCon? Check it out at www.VidCon2010.com

So, my friend Helen wrote her 'Day 3' blog about Harry Potter, because a friend of hers is doing research for his masters degree in adaptation and he is using Harry Potter for his dissertation. If you would like to help him with his research, he has a survey you can fill out here.

At first I didn't think that I had much of anything to say in a blog about Harry Potter, but, again, Helen's blog reminded me of something that I can talk about. The title of Helen's blog page is, "Of course it's happening inside your head", which, if you have read Harry Potter, you would know that this is a quote from the seventh book. Actually, it's only part of a quote, the full sentence is "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" Now, just keep that quote in mind for a minute. I'm going to switch gears here and talk about something entirely different, but it will all come together in the end.

Last summer I helped my friends, Bill and Adam, record a music video for a song called "Sub Reality". In the music video Bill and Adam portrayed two characters, Adam's character spends most of the video chasing Bill's character and about a third of the way through the video, Bill's character reaches a dead end and has to confront the man chasing him. In this scene, the song stops playing and Bill says "this can't be real" and Adam replies, "Why not?"

Before we filmed this scene, we were discussing what we were about to do and what each of them were going to say. Bill knew that he wanted to say "this can't be real", but he did not know what Adam should say in response. So I suggested that Adam should simply say "Why not". Bill and Adam both asked me if I really thought that would be okay and why I thought so. So I said to them, "remember in the seventh Harry Potter book when Harry says, "is this real? Or has this all been happening inside my head?"?... and then Dumbledore says "of course it is happening inside your head, but why does that mean that it isn't real?" Dumbledore is basically saying "why not", so I think, if it works in Harry Potter, it will work in this music video." Anyway, I thought it would be very fitting for those words to be inspired by that particular scene from Harry Potter because the theme of the song is about not knowing what is real.

In any case, my arguement convinced them and so, when Bill exclaims "this can't be real", Adam replies "why not", and that response was inspired by Harry Potter. If you know my friends Bill and Adam and have seen the Sub Reality music video, well then, this was a little piece of backstory that I'm sure none of us has ever shared before. If you do not know my friends Bill and Adam, please check out the video below and go subscribe to my friend Bill on youtube!: www.youtube.com/doctornoise

Anyway, that's all for today. :-)

Whoa, History! It's ALIVE!!

2010-06-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

This is a blog about history.

Or it could be about the really crazy awesome feeling you get when you realize that you can point to something current that is a direct result of something specific that happend a long long time ago and really far away.

.....or something like that.

So, a while ago I was reading a rather awesome book called 'Jesus Wants to Save Christians'. (Again, this is a blog about history). Anyway, a certain chapter of the book discusses an incident recorded in the Bible of an Ethiopian slave who happened to be on his way home to Ethiopia from Jerusalem. (It is important to note that he was not just any slave, he was an official under the Queen, and was in charge of the treasury of the country.) The story in the Bible (recorded in Acts, Chapter 8) tells how Philip, one of the first Apostles meets with this Ethiopian and explains the scriptures to him so that the Ethiopian man becomes a believer and is baptized.

It's just a little piece of history, and if you accept the Bible, then from this you can suppose that this is the story of the first Ethiopian Christian and you might assume that this man went home and shared his faith. Maybe, maybe not. Is it really any big deal?

In any case, it was a big deal to me. I've read this story before, years ago, but I was so excited when I read it again a few weeks ago. I have a friend that I know from work. He moved to America from Ethiopia a few years ago. He is an Orthodox Christian and his name is Efrem. His name is significant because "Ephraim" is a name in the Bible. Joseph (think, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) had a son named Ephraim, and my friend Efrem is named after Josephs' son. (He is, I asked him about it.)

I just thought it was amazing to read about this tiny passage in the Bible about one man becoming a Christian over 2000 years ago, and here today, I know a man who is from that same country and he is a Christian today. I felt like I was witnessing time travel. So many years ago, one man went home to Ethiopia with a new faith, and right now, today, I can see that that mans faith lives on in his countrymen, even more than 2000 years later.

That is just really cool to me. Anyway, "that's all I have to say about that". Farewell, till tomorrow.

30 days till VidCon, or something like that....

2010-06-09T23:56:00.000-07:00

Ya, so I'm not much of a vlogger, but I'll blog everyday till VidCon. So here goes....

If you're reading this, I assume you already know what VidCon is, if you don't, you can find out about it at www.VidCon2010.com, it's too much awesome for me to try and explain on my own.

Is it 30 days? 29 days? I'm not sure right now. I'm tired. All I know is that it's about a month away and I am excited for it, but I don't really want to talk about VidCon in this blog. I want to talk about options and life decisions.

I graduated college last year with a bachelors degree in Geology. I haven't done much to advance my career since I graduated, I have just been working part time at a home improvement store. Since the beginning of this year, I've been asking myself, "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?"

I really want to go to grad school in California, but I can not afford to move there unless I have a better job first. So, my hope of a plan was to get hired somewhere, move to California, work for a while, then eventually go back to school to get a masters degree. Simple plan, but then options started popping up everywhere. A couple of full-time supervisor positions opened up at my job which I am qualified for, so I applied for the promotion. (I have been interviewed, and I am told a decision has been made, though they have not actually informed me of their decision, and, as of right now, I am still in the same position I've always been in.)

Also, a few weeks ago, an old professor of mine was shopping at the store where I work. He asked me if I was already in grad school. I told him my intentions of moving to California and eventually going back to school. He then suggested that I apply to UNLV, the school I received my bachelors degree from, and where he works. He said he had the funding to take on a student this fall. Basically, he was offering me a fellowship, to work for the school, and the school would fund my studies. WHAT AN AMAZING INCREDIBLE OFFER!!!! Getting into grad school is not exactly a walk in the park, but here was this teacher, basically handing me an acceptance to a grad program and promising me a fellowship. I'm certain that's not something that happens everyday, so I felt extremely grateful and excited. However, there are two things that hinder the excitement. One is that, if I accept this teachers offer, I do not get to choose what to study as a masters student. I would have to get my masters degree in Hydrogeology. (I wanted to master in geophysics or engineering geology). The second thing is that I still have not taken the GRE- Graduate Record Exam (it's like an SAT for college graduates). I would have to take this exam before I could be accepted into a grad program, which means I have to spend the rest of my summer studying for this test and saving money to pay for it. The test costs about $150. As of right now, I've told the teacher that I am interested in his offer and I am currently studying for the GRE, but I am waiting for further details from him.

A third opportunity has also been given to me recently. For the past year or so I have been painting my own nails as a hobby. A lot of people have suggested that I become a nail technician in the meantime, while I wait to go to grad school. Being a nail technician would be fun, except that where I live a license is required and that requires at least 6 months of school, which also costs money that I do not have. Except that my grandparents have offered to pay for me to go to school to get a nail technicans license. I have meetings with two separate beauty schools this week to get information about their nail tech programs. My first thought though is that I am not prepared to commit to their class schedules. (Five hours every evening, five days a week, every week, for 6 - 9 months). I'm not sure if beauty school is really something I want to do 'right now'.

So that's what is filling the headspace right now. I've got a pending promotion at work, a tentative fellowship offer to go to grad school, an offer from my grandparents to go to beauty school if I choose to, and nothing to stop me from applying for entry level geology jobs at the same time.

I am definately looking forward to VidCon, but I am also nervous and excited about the days and weeks after VidCon and finding out which of these options will become a reality.

I'm a Christian. I'm a scientist.

2010-05-02T01:50:00.000-07:00

If you know me at all, you probably know at least one of two these two things about me;
1. I am a Christian
2. I am a scientist, a geologist specifically.

Whenever I tell people these two facts about myself, I am always asked about how can I possibly be both. How can I believe in God and yet also sit through lectures on the theory of evolution? Being a Christian and a scientist was never a problem for me until people started asking me these questions. I find it irritating, because I find myself spending time trying to find satisfying answers to these questions that, to me, are needless and irrelevant. I'd rather be studying the stories written in the rocks, or studying God's word.

From my own experience, I've come to the conclusion that, as a group, Christians are more hostile towards scientists in general than scientists are towards Christians. Scientists, even those that do not believe in God, know that they must allow for the possibility of a God, and they dutifully make those concessions. Christians however, tend to view all scientists as being anti-God and generally look at all scientists as people who are sadly lost. There certainly are scientists in existance who are hostile towards those that choose to live by faith, but in my own experiences I have been more afraid to tell my Christian friends that I am a scientist than I was to tell my geology classmates that I am a Christian.

As a rule of life, I believe that all fears, hatred and misunderstanding come from ignorance and a lack of communication. I've always wanted to write, and these are the two things I care about the most: my faith in God and my love for studying the history recorded in the rocks. I have a lot to say about both of these things and so, I think I am going to write blogs explaining the science to the Chrisitians and showing scientists that faith is not necessarily undermined by revelations in science.

I wish I could really get started right now, but seeing as I am writing this at 2 am, I doubt I could do my arguements any justice at this hour. I will post again soon, if you are interested, check back. :-)

~Heather

I'm not sorry that I didn't pay for my pizza

2010-03-26T23:40:00.000-07:00

So here's a rant.

Yesterday at work, a man came into the store where I work and gave several of the employees coupons for a free pizza at his pizza resturaunt. He said he was the manager at the resturaunt and he wanted to generate some business. Well, that makes sense, at a free pizza would be nice.

So, today I went with my sister to the resturaunt to redeem the coupon. After speaking to the man who gave me the coupon yesterday, I was under the impression that the resturaunt would be a cozy little place to dine in with great customer service. However, I was sorely disappointed.

First, walking toward the resturaunt, there was a man sitting outside with his feet up on a table (and his shoes were off) talking on a cell-phone. Something about his appearance made me assume that he worked at the resturaunt (maybe he didn't, I never found out) but his presence there by the door with his shoes off seemed unsanitary and unwelcoming. My sister and I walked in to find no one standing at the counter. We waited at least four minutes before anyone came out to take our order. When someone did come out, I thought it would be prudent to tell him up front that I had a coupon, so I showed it to him. He took it and seemed completely perplexed by it until a woman came out from the kitchen and confirmed with him that it was a valid coupon, immediately after she told him it was alright, he went into the kitchen to make the pizza, completely neglecting to ask if that was all that I wanted.

Someone did come out to ask if we wanted the pizza "to-go" or to "dine-in". I told them we would be dining in, and they disappeared again. At length a man came out with our pizza, before he could disappear again, I asked if we could purchase some drinks. He called a woman out from the kitchen to charge us for the drinks (I had to buy three even though I only wanted two because I only had my debit card and they had a $5 minimum charge policy). So finally I sat down to my pizza and drink (with straws but no lids, because they did not have lids to fit the cups they gave us) and then realized that there were no plates or napkins...... there was no one around to ask for any such thing. After a moment, we spotted some napkins near the cash register. So that made things a bit more comfortable. Halfway through eating, someone came out to assist another customer who had come in. They called over to ask if we were enjoying our food. My sister answered "yes" and they disappeared again before I could ask if maybe we could have plates. Eventually we finished eating and left (no one was around to say "Thanks, have a nice day").

I felt that the employees there were offended that I came in for a "free" pizza and did not feel obligated to be nice to me because I was not paying for my food. This all really bothered me because I work in a customer service position myself. I don't always like my job or the people I have to deal with, but I am paid to do a job, so I do it, and my job is to keep the customers happy and wanting to come back. I am sure that the manager of this resturaunt gave those coupons out with the intention that people would go into the resturaunt and have a nice meal and enjoy the experience so much that they would continue going back. Unfortunately in this case, the employees working at this resturaunt did not impress me in the least and I will not be going back.

I know this story is not terribly interesting, but it was just somethng that for some reason really bothered me and I felt like ranting about it. Have you had a bad customer service experience lately? Do you work in customer service? Do you act differently toward people that you know are getting a discount or not paying at all?

In my own experience, if I can help a customer get something for free, or get them a discount, I do it. I want my customers to like shopping at the store I work at. I don't like my job really at all, but it pays my bills, and if people don't shop there, then I can't work as much and I don't get paid as much. So it literally "pays" for me to be nice to customers. It disappoints me that some people don't realize this.

2009 Remembered

2009-12-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

So, I felt the need to look back over the year and remember all the fun/interesting things I've done. Feel like stalking my past? Hehe,.... this is what I did all year when I wasn't working or still studying for school. I think I counted 17 Searchligh shows.... and yet I still feel bad about the four or five that I didn't go to. :-)

January:
01: New years @ The Dive Bar
02: Harry Potter Marathon with Shane and Noelle
17: Last Ever Hang Em High show @ the Bunkhouse
18: Lydia Vance show @ Wasted Space
23: Searchlight show @ the Box Office
24: Went hunting for geodes in the Black Mountains

February:
05: The Stript @ The Bunkhouse
13: Made Valentines gift bags for homeless children
show w/ Miseriacordium @ Dustins house
14: Valentines Day
27: Searchlight's CD release show @ The Farm

March:
03: Bill's birthday, went to Shark Reef
06: First Friday with Noelle
07: Made a Dr. Noise tote bag
Think, Verbatym, Ashbury show @ The Farm
12: Searchlight show @ The HOB
13: Jack Conte show @ The Freakin Frog
14: Mini nerdfighter gathering @ Huntington Beach
22: Searchlight show @ The HOB
26: Grandma's Birthday dinner
27: Lydia Vance show @ Wasted Space

April:
03: Searchlight show @ Green Valley Ranch
04: The Addicts show @ Wasted Space
06- 13: Spring Break -vacation in Tennessee
30: Puppies born (4 of them!)

May:
05: Searchlight and Lydia Vance @ Wasted Space
09: Graduation from UNLV
14: Walked in a Bikini Parade hosted by Holly Madison
on the Las Vegas strip, paid $100
Searchlight show @ The Beauty Bar
16: Searchlight Show @ The Box Office
(Earl was here! Dinner w/ Earl & Bill @ Lucky's)
23: The Stript show @ The Penthouse
28: Lydia Vance show @ HOB
29: The Stript show @ The Farm

June:
04: Searchlight @ The Farm (my cousin was here!)
06: Went to Adventure Dome and Gameworks w/ my cousin
12: Lydia Vance show @ Boomers Bar
13: Lydia Vance show @ The Farm
17: My 24th Birthday!!!
Open Mic night with Bill and Adam @ S&K
20: Searchlight show in Moapa
25-29: NWYTG!!!!!

July:
10: Searchlight show @ The Farm
18: Hang with Bill, Chris, Molly and Amber in Pasadena
19: Gen's Birthday lunch (with EVERYONE!)
LA Galaxy vs. AC Milan "football" game. LIVE!!!
24: Dinner with Heather M., Monique and Jim
25: Some random show @ Boomers Bar (hang with EVERYONE!!!)
26-29: Sub-Reality video shoot
31: Harry Potter @ the movies with Bill and Alex

August:
01: Six Shooters & Bright Lights, Big City show @ The Beauty Bar
02: Crowd shots for Sub-Reality music video
03: Set Film Festival (Bill's "Where's Adam?" video shown!)
07: First Friday with Bill, Ricky, and Adam.
08: Hots show @ The Bunkhouse
09: Sebastions Birthday
I got sick with laryngitis
10-14: I had no voice
15: Hang with everyone @ Chris's house in Pasadena
Searchlight show (with Everyone!) @ Mr. T's Bowl
16: Hang with Bill, Chris, Molly, Amy, Gen and Elayna
22: Some random show @ The Beauty Bar
28: Start going to Salt & Light Bible Study on Friday nights
29: The Addicts show @ Premier Nightclub (a shady place!)

September:
04: Pan De Sal show @ The Bunkhouse
05: Dinner with Bill, Gen, Elayna and Amy @ Lucky's
06: Walked The Strip with Bill, Gen, Elayna & Amy
(seriously walked it too, cause Bill is crazy and
made us park far from where we wanted to go!)
07: House Party at Cathy's with everyone.
Met Penn Jillette
Ethiopian dinner with Efram, Cassie and Lucas
08: Jury duty
11-13: Dr. Noise band rehearsals (I sat in to record video!)
17: Helped Bill record scenes for the Stockholm Syndrom video
18: I Am Ghost show @ The Farm
25: Went to a show somewhere.... @ The Farm? not sure anymore
26: Truck Races with Bill
29: Some random show @ The Beauty Bar

October:
02: Salt & Light bible study
03: Salt & Light Ladies Breakfast and Bible Study
07: Adam (the alien one) arrived in Las Vegas!
08: Searchlight, Driftless Pony Club, Dr. Noise show @ The Bunkhouse
Hung out with EVERYBODY!!!
09: Went to the movies and to Circus Circus with Everyone!
10: Searchlight @ The Box Office
11: Video shoots for Daydreamer and Greed
12: Set improv show @ The Rack
13: AdamTheAlien goes home to Washington :-(
OOOh, I discover I'm can really paint my own nails!
15: Searchlight show @ The HOB
22: Searchlight show @ The Rio Pool
23: Salt & Light Bible study
29: Start working @ Toys R Us again (two jobs! oh no!)
A Smile From the Trenches CD release show @ The Farm
30: Show @ The Dive Bar
31: Halloween
Hots and Koffin Kats show @ The Beauty Bar

November:
01: Mini-nerdfighter gathering with Hank Green @ S&K
Dinner with Bill, Hank, Katherine, Shawn, Michael,
and Stephen @ Lucky's (yay, fun times!)
02: Set improv show @ The Rack
14: Nerdfighter Gathering in LA with Hank Green (and everyone!)
26: Thanksgiving
28: Searchlight @ The Farm
Jay Leno @ The Mirage

December:
03: Dr. Noise @ The Farm
13: Company Holiday Party @ Planet Hollywood
14: Set improv show @ The Rack
21: Set Philm Festival @ The Rack (Sub-Reality video shown!)
25: Christmas!
Avatar @ the movies (sweet movie!)
26: Penn & Teller @ The Rio with Bill

Tales from the Depot

2009-12-15T22:02:00.000-08:00

I work the returns desk at the Home Depot. Every customer that returns something has their own sob story. Usually, we don't care to hear why they are returning something. If they have a receipt, we take it back, no problem and no explanation needed. We only start asking questions if something is broken, or there's no receipt, or something just doesn't "feel" right.
Anyway, today I had a customer come in to return two new and unopened tools. These tools are BRAND NEW (as in, they've only been invented recently and released for sale in the past few months.) I guessed these tools had been meant as Christmas gifts. I think both tools are actually really cool, so I was curious to find out why she might be returning them, so I ventured to ask, "We're these going to be Christmas gifts and you just don't want them now?"
She answered, "Yes, they were for Christmas, but I found out my husband is cheating on me, so fuck him! His Christmas present is a divorce!"
Slightly taken aback by such an answer, I replied, "Oh, wow. I'm sorry to hear that."
Then, just as we completed the transaction, she added, "what's worse, it wasn't a woman he was cheating on me with either!" And then she left.
Of all the crazy stories I've heard while working the returns desk, this one is the craziest I've heard, and yet, I beleive this story more than most of the others I've been told.

"Goodbye": A short story with a tragic ending

2009-10-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

*Short Intro*: There is a song from the band From Autumn To Ashes called 'Short Stories with Tragic Endings'. That song always made me want to write a collection of very 'short stories with tragic endings' and so I did. Here is one of them. It's not perfect, but here it is.

"Goodbye"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He shoved me to the ground. I struggled to get back on my feet, but he gripped my shoulder and pushed me back down. I felt the cool steel of his gun being pushed against my temple. All in an instant, I remembered that day a month or so ago when he had shouted at me;
"You had better watch you back! Some day you're gonna get it!" I had rolled my eyes and turned my back on Jarred Williams that day. Jarred was the leader of the gang that dominated my neighborhood. He and all his cronies were black. My family were Mexicans. I was never afraid of Jarred at all. I knew he had done some crazy things, but I never believed he would really hurt me. I thought that all of his tough talk was just to cover up how much he really liked me. I just took his threats in stride and didn't worry about them. My life was hard enough anyway. Perhaps I had been wrong.
I looked at him to see if he really meant to do it. Where I had always thought I saw veiled attraction, there was now only anger and hatred. He had given in to the demands of his gang and now, I would die. In a moment, I realized that if he had chosen his gang over me, I didn't want to live anyway. I smiled at him, then closed my eyes. The last thing I heard was his normally smooth voice, now gravelly with fear and rage whisper, "Goodbye." His finger squeezed on the trigger, and it was all over.

Elsa's Deception (a short story)

2009-10-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

She stormed out leaving him to simmer in his guilt. The moment she had gone and the door was securely slammed behind her, Elsa stepped back into the realm of vsibility. Ronald blushed and looked away. He wished the faerie hadn't seen his fight with Harriet. He was supposed to be in charge, always in control. His servants should never see what makes him week. They could use it against him.
"Well, she isn't very nice, is she?" Elsa said, staring at the door. Ron regained some of his composure, "That is my fiance. I will thank you to keep ill comments to yourself." Elsa turned meekly and assumed an innocent expression. "Of course master, whatever you say!"Elsa smiled to herself as she hovered just beyond the visible spectrum.
So this was the woman her master was crazy about. He never should have let such an opportunity occur. Now Elsa knew what made him week. She could use this against him and she wasn't about to waste any time. She assumed her regular form and stepped into the realm of human visibility. Ronald blushed when she appeared and looked away. He knew he should not have let the faerie see his fight with Harriet, but there had been no time to dismiss her. Now she knew his weekness, he just hoped she wouldn't use it against him. Apparently, hope was not on his side.
Elsa swept over to Ronald and placed her hands softly on his shoulders. "My poor master." She said soothingly. She kicked on her mind control. "Your Elsa would never treat you like that." She walked around to face him. Ronald closed his eyes. He couldn't believe she was doing this to him. Now that she knew his weakness, there was nothing he could do to stop her, but he could certainly try to resist her.
Elsa lifted his face with her hands. Laying on the seductive power of her race, she whispered, "Open your eyes master." Under the spell of her mind control, Ronald could not resist. His eyes opened against his will.
Elsa transformed into an illusion of Harriet just as Ron lifted his eyelids. When he saw her, he moved to wrap his arms around her. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I am sorry too," she replied. Then, before he could see through the illusion, she leaned closer and kissed him deeply. For several seconds of bliss, Ronald returned the kiss. Elsa wanted it to last, but she had a goal, and an eternal kiss was not on her wish list. She tore away, dropped the illusion and walked away, releasing her spell on Ronald. He blinked. He looked around the room wildly. Then it hit him. Elsa expected him to be furious. Expected him to dismiss her immediately. She was hoping otherwise, but she knew that magicians never liked to be fooled by their servants.
Ronald stared at Elsa. Watching how her body shimmered in and out of visibility. Her outline was always discernable, but at some moments she was as transparent as a window from head to toe, then the next second her face and hair would be the only visible features while the rest resembled silver glass. He realized that she had forced him to kiss her by making herself look like Harriet. Why had she done that? It didn't seem like any way for a faerie to get revenge. He continued to stare at her, trying to find a motive amongst the shimmering beauty.
Elsa grew impatient, but she retained an outward appearance of calm tranquility with just a hint of guilt. Finally, she broke the silence.
"Do you hate me now Master? Shall I leave?" To her surprise, Ronald walked right up to her. Standing behind her, he wrapped his arms around her just, as she had done to him. "That kiss was amazing," he whispered into her ear. Elsa smiled, success! "Does my Master want more?" She asked seductively.
Ron did not answer, but moved his hands down her shoulders and across her chest to release the clasps holding her robe in place. The buttons came apart easily and the robe fell to the floor. Elsa turned around meekly and asked in her most innocent voice, "Does not my Master want his Harriet?" As she spoke, she transformed herself into the Harriet illusion. Ron ran his fingers through her hair. He stared into her eyes.
"No Elsa, I want you." Joyfully, Elsa assumed her own shape. He picked her up and layed her on his bed.

The End

_____________________________________________________________

*ahem* ok there it is. I dunno why that ending seems a bit too, rated R for me. LOL. I'm kinda shocked that I actually wrote this. I had forgotten about this story until I found it tonight. I do remember writing it although I can't remember exactly when I wrote it, but I do know that this story is something I wrote because I was in the midst of reading a plethora of fantasy novels; Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, Faery Wars, The Amulet of Samarkand, and The Golden Compass. This story was based on all of that plus a dream that I had. Feel free to let me know what you think. This is the raw story though, I didn't edit anything as I typed it.