A New "True" Home For My Totes

I have totes that I sell at craft fairs and I have totes that I sell at Underground in Smithville. Now some of my t-shirt tote bags will be at True Jersey in Tom's River. Like them on Facebook, or support their store online.

Family Friday: Beyond Batman

With the release of Batman:  The Dark Knight Rises in theaters, retailers have brought DVDs of the Batman shows that I grew up with - namely Batman:  The Animated Series and Batman Beyond - to the forefront. We snatched up Season 1 of both series. While I was watching an episode of Batman Beyond, I felt I had an insight into the tragedy at the midnight showing of  The Dark Knight Rises.

In the episode, "Golem," Willie is a picked-on kid at the high school that Terry - the new Batman - attends. After being picked-on and pushed around by a bully, Willie's frustrated dad demands, "So what are you going to do to the guy who did that to you?" "When someone pushes you, you push back," and "I'm not raisin' no wuss." When Willie asks how he should deal with it his father replies, "Hit 'em where it hurts. You figure it out." Driven over the edge by the pressure of being picked on and the added pressure from his father to do something about it, Willie steals his dad's golem - a twenty-foot tall robot that works with a human controller. Willie uses the golem to destroy the bully's most prized possession - his car. An encounter with Batman during this incident accidentally fuses Willie's mind with the robot's, making it possible for Willie to control the golem without using the remote control. This also means that when the golem gets damaged, Willie feels it. He continues to attack the local bullies and even confronts his father, throwing his taunts back in his dad's face and almost killing him when Batman intervenes. Of course, Batman saves the day and Willie ends up in a juvenile facility, but I want to focus on Willie's relationship with his father and the influence this had on Willie's actions.

 Willie's father was insistent that Willie fight back against his persecutors by any means necessary. I don't think Willie was trying to earn his father's acceptance by stealing the golem; I think he wanted to show his father how destructive he could be while taking his father at his word. So what does this have to do with the Colorado grad student who shot up a theater full of people watching The Dark Knight Rises? It goes to show the sort of familial relationships that can produce a killing mindset. We can't assume that the killer in this instance had this kind of family relationship, or even one like it, but it is worthwhile for us to think about these factors before we blame all of the killer's motivations on the movies. And of course, we must always remember that Batman himself never kills or condones killing.

Family Friday: Kids Movies That Are Actually Good For Your Kids #3 - Hoodwinked and Hoodwinked 2

Shawn got Hoodwinked 2 which caused us to go back and watch Hoodwinked. Although the movies have many similarities to the Shrek movies, I think they stand on their own very well.

In Hoodwinked, the classic story of "Little Red Riding Hood" is re-examined from the viewpoint of each character in turn:  Red, the wolf, Red's grandmother, and the woodcutter. Related to the classic scenario, is the mystery of the "goody theif." It's more fun to watch the narratives unfold by themselves, so I won't spoil that, but the movie admirably shows how, as one character puts it, "If a tree falls in the forest there will be three stories:  yours, mine, and the tree's."

Hoodwinked 2 took on the story of "Hansel and Gretel," mainly from the perspective of our main characters from Hoodwinked as they get involved in the "Hansel and Gretel Story. while Hoodwinked 2 does not look as in-depth into the fairy tale as Hoodwinked, it still produces some very satisfying twists. The main message of  Hoodwinked 2 is summed up when Red's grandmother tells her, "A person can never really fail unless they give up."  The temerity to keep trying even when things are going badly is a character trait that is badly needed among the children of this youngest generation, and even among the young people of my own generation. I have seen too many of them give up at the first sign or hint of failure as though everything should just be handed to them, and despite continuous protestations that their goals are so very important to them. I strongly believe that this tendency to give up is because members of my generation and below get discouraged when our goals aren't as easy to attain as as they seem to be "in the movies." The fact that a movie is addressing this issue is both amusing and heartening.

In addition to many references to other fairy tales, these movies give subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) nods to The Village People, XXX, Kill Bill, Terminator, Lassie, Starsky and Hutch, Don Quixote, Peanuts, Silence of the Lambs, Entrapment, Mission Impossible, Star Wars, and several others that I failed to either recognize or name. Despite this inundation of references, Hoodwinked and Hoodwinked 2 are a great pair of movies which stand well on their own story-telling merit.

Every Day I'm Stumblin'

I have been looking at how people find my posts, and it looks like people just stumble upon my page. Literally. There is a website called stumbleupon.com where you enter categories that you are interested in and the site directs you to a random site that coincides with those categories. It actually seems like a pretty cool idea for those of us looking to find sites you might never be able to find if you weren't looking for them. I wonder if posting about stumbleupon on a blog that is frequently found with stumbleupon will create a causality loop. Hmmm.....

Angry Conversations With God: A Review

I was browsing for books on world religions in my local library when I came across Angry Conversations with God:  A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir. "Well," I thought to myself, "This has got to be good." It is the story of one woman's journey towards a healthier relationship with God. In this book the author lays out her life:  the times she felt God's presence, the times she feared His absence, how she tried to coincide what she felt God wanted with what she wanted, her desperate struggle to find a church she could be comfortable in and a partner she could share her faith with, and all the ups and downs that connect those struggles.

This book resonated with my own struggles with faith and my relationship with Divinity. I smiled at a lot of instances that the author described that reminded me of my own experiences, especially the experience if trying to keep a Christian faith (or indeed any faith) as a high school and college student. Mostly, though, I cried for the author's pains especially her extraordinarily gifted description of her "Dark Night of the Soul." Now, books, movies, and television rarely engage me emotionally to the point where I would cry. Usually these media give me a more objective than subjective approach. The fact that this book touched me on such a level is the reason I would recommend it so highly. I would suggest this book to anyone who has ever felt lost from God, anyone who is looking to find their way back to God after a fallout with the church or their own faith, and anyone who believes that God has a sense of humor.

UPDATE 7/25/12:  There were a couple of thing I forgot to mention but think I should add. First, I felt as much sympathy for God as I did for the author while reading this book. Second, the book's author is Susan E. Issacs. I put that in the tags, but not everyone looks at those (including me) so I figured it should be in the body of the post just in case someone wanted taht information.

Devoted To My Craft

I haven't posted anything in about a week. This is mostly because I had a detailed commission to keep me busy. My friend is going to Otakon, and he had me make his costume. He is going as Jade Curtiss from the game, Tales of the Abyss. I have to say that I am really happy with the outcome, especially since I went from seeing the character for the first time too finished costume in only one week. I don't think I've ever done that before - usually when I make costumes they are of characters I have been familiar with for months or even years. But this turned out better that I had imagined, and he really does look impressive in it. Here's to you, Tom. Have a great time at Otakon!

Family Friday: Children's Medicine

Something must have happened to children's medicine. Somewhere, someone must have decided that children don't need children's medicine - that they can take the same over-powered solid pills that adults take. Because that was what the doctor prescribed for Shawn this week for his ear infection. Shawn is a heavy for his age, but I don't think it's enough to require a level of antibiotic that gave me bad side effects as an adult. At 8 years old, Shawn is far from mastering swallowing a pill whole. That required me to grind the pill up into powder and mix it with applesauce and cinnamon. Of course, that just made the applesauce taste like medicine and not the other way around. The only way to get the pill down in a timely manner was for me to divide the lump of applesauce/medicine into a number of smaller, more manageable-looking lumps and get him to take them in succession. The advantage of this method was that I got to review fractions with Shawn at the same time that I got his medicine into him. It was an operation that took almost all my patience. But Shawn told me he loves me. It is these all-too-infrequent rewards that make the work of childcare worthwhile.

What's That Up There?

These are my duct tape flower hair ties. I sell them at craft fairs:  $5 each or 2 for $8. They are fun to make, and I have a near-endless variety for sale. But these are only a small sample of what I make. You can see more at my Facebook or Flickr.

Getting Ready For Grave Rubbings

 Some of the headstones in Stonington, CT.

I have been researching interesting grave sites in New Jersey. I got the idea, oddly enough, while I was in Stonington, CT. There was a small graveyard there with beautifully engraved headstones. Later that same week, there was a lecture about the history of the graveyard and the people buried in it. These engravings interested me so much that I started thinking about doing grave rubbings. The stones in Stonington were too delicate for me to try on them, but I thought about doing ones in New Jersey because we have some pretty interesting people buried here and it might be more fun for me to explore the graveyards of my home state. I will be charting how my progress goes, and I will be selling the grave rubbings at Smithville's Artwalk on September 8th this year.

Upcyclers Unite!

Yesterday I went down the main street in Westmont to check out the Creative Reuse Center. It's a tiny storefront filled to the brim with pre-owned things - bits and bob that would normally end up in the trash can like leftover craft supplies, partial bottles of glue, games pieces or games with missing pieces, and obsolete teaching aids.

My first purchase from the Creative Reuse Center

Nothing has a set price, you just pay by donations. I am thrilled to have this as a resource and I expect to go back frequently. If you are ever in the Westmont, NJ area you should check it out :  134 Haddon Ave. Or if you can't make it to my special part of the Garden State, check them out on the web at www.gardenstatecreativereusecenter.com and see how you might make a similar home for creativity in your own town.

Family Friday: Kids Movies That Are Actually Good For Your Kids #2 - Up

"Good Afternoon, my name is Russell and I am a Wilderness Explorer in Tribe 52, Sweat Lodge 12. Are you in need of any assistance today sir?" Boy, if only we were all as brave as that kid.
 needs
Carl is an old man. Never had children; lost his wife, Ellie, to illness. His only regret is not taking her on her dream vacation - Paradise Falls. So when he ends up about to be forced into a "retirement community" he figures he has nothing to lose, and takes his house there by attaching hundreds of balloons to it and flying down there along with Russell who wound up along for the ride because he was under Carl's porch at liftoff. When they land near Paradise Falls, they go through all sorts of difficulties trying to get the house next to the waterfall including meeting up with, and then getting chased by, Carl's childhood hero. Eventually, Carl learns the lesson he needs in order to get back home.

This movie is about letting go:  of the past, of expectations, and especially of material possessions. Only, when Carl lets go of the need to get the house next to the Falls was he able to rescue Russell and his other companions. Up, more than its contemporaries, demonstrates what really matters in life:  the friends you make, the love you share, and the spirit of adventure to really get out and enjoy life.

BRAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNS!!!!

As my friend at Silver Cicada Designs reminds me, it's not too early to start preparing for Halloween. That goes double for me because this year I'm making Halloween products in preparation for Smithville's second annual Zombie Walk which is run by my friends at Underground.

Sewn Back Together Wrong

This wacky shirt is called "Sewn Back Together Wrong" inspired by the first Metalacolypse episode in which the band members of Dethklock (totally fictional and brutal to the point of absurdity) try to bring back their cook by sewing his dismembered pieces back together - wrong - and write a song based on it which plays during the closing credits.

To make this shirt, I cut the shirt from the middle of one shoulder seam to just under the opposite armhole then I twisted this top part to put the armhole where the neck hole should be and the neck where the armhole should be. Then I punched small holes along the cut edges and sewed them back together with strips cut from another tee shirt that I stretched into cords. I cut off and reattached the opposite sleeve in the same way.

This is the shirt I will be wearing, but you can see more as I make them at my Facebook page, and please come visit me at the Zombie Walk on Sunday, October 28th. Learn more about the Zombie Walk on their Facebook page.

A Web Store Home Of My Own

Last night, I finally made myself a web store. I only have my Tarot prints up on it right now, but if all goes well, I will add T-shirt tote bags and purses made from upholstery fabric. Check it out at www.phoenixrefashioning.bigcartel.com.

Horror and Romance

I watched the Evil Dead movies today. I've never tried to before because I am really afraid of zombies and all manner of undead. I watched the first one when I was just out of high school, and I was so scared that at one point I actually screamed and hid under the blanket (and I'm not afraid to admit that). Now I have forced myself to watch them because I wanted to know what they're all about - mostly because I love Bruce Campbell and these movies are what he is most famous for. Honestly, the main reason I avoid horror movies is the same reason I tend to avoid romantic comedies:  both genres are dependent people doing really stupid things. If the girl hadn't run out into the woods in the middle of the night...if the guy had just talked honestly to his girlfriend...there wouldn't be much of a movie, would there? It frustrates me. There are of course exceptions in both genres, and the less the plot is dependent on the characters' utter lack of common sense the happier I am. As for Evil Dead - I cannot love the movie for its own sake, but Bruce Campbell is eye-candy to me and as long as I focus on that I am ok. :)

Kids Movies That Are Actually Good For Your Kids #1: School of Rock

School of Rock is one of the best Jack Black movies I have ever seen. In it Black's character, Dewy, makes a rock band out of the private school class he is substitute teaching. He uses their natural musical talents to get them into the Battle of the Bands. It's a cute movie and, unlike most of today's comedies, the jokes are funny instead of just stupid-funny. All of that is great for a movie in general and a kid's movie in particular, but what really makes School of Rock stand out is the evolution of Jack Black's character, Dewy.

Dewy starts off as a desperate guy trying to make his rock dreams come true, and it only gets worse for him when his band kicks him out. He pretends to be his roommate in order to pick up a substitute teaching job to raise money while he tries to get a new band together. He can't get anyone to play with him, but he realizes that the kids in his class can play classical music so he teaches them about rock and convinces them to be his band. This clearly starts out as a revenge fantasy for Dewy:  he is trying to get back at the band who kicked him out. But as he spends more time helping the kids find their individual roles in the band and shows each one how his or her role is important, he begins to focus on what is best for them, and less on using them as a vehicle for his own self-aggrandizing scheme. By making the band more about them and less about himself, Dewy becomes a better person.

I'm not going to give away the ending, but this movie clearly shows what's best about working as a team and why you don't have to win the big prize to be successful. Watch this movie with your kids, and then talk to them about it to make sure they understand why it is a more uplifting movie than it seems at first blush.

The Gamer In Me

As I have mentioned before, I am not a hardcore gamer, even though most of my friends are. I just have so many other things to do, the business I am trying to build (including new product experiments), books I want to read, painting, and organizing my life and my stuff, that I don't have the time or the energy to spend cultivating gamer skills. This is most noticeable in shooters or platform games. People who have played video games since childhood find these pretty easy, but I never even touched a controller until I was well into college life so it would take months of practice to bring myself to the level of my peers. But even with these disadvantages, there are games that I enjoy.

My favorite kinds of games are fighting games and puzzle games. Puzzle games require mental skills that I already have, and I like fighting games because I can get away with button-mashing. I don't win much against more skilled people (practice, remember?), but as long as I can give a good fight and I don't go down too easy I don't care. I guess the point is that being a casual gamer can be fun as long as you have a good grasp of sportsmanship.

Belated Family Friday Post: Rolling Thunder

Yesterday we had thunderstorms all day long, along with several brown-outs and one black-out, so I didn't turn on any electronics just to be safe. Hence the belated post.

When we have kids, out of all the things you worry about, one of the last is what they might be afraid of. After all, we are likely many years away from our own childhood fears. Shawn is afraid of zombies, just like me (I still am), but he is not afraid of thunderstorms; he is just annoyed by them because it means he can't play video games. I was never afraid of thunderstorms either, except for one specific time that I can still remember.

A thunderstorm hit while I was at the Acme with my dad. I can't remember how old I was, maybe five or six. We had to run out to the car with the cart in the pouring rain. My dad got me and the groceries safely in the car, but then he shut me into the  car and went to take the empty cart back himself.  Now this was years before anyone thought to put cart returns in the middle of the parking lot, so he had to go all the way back to the store. It was dark and raining too hard for me to see outside of the car. I only knew that there was thunder and lightning and my dad was in the middle of a wide open parking lot with a metal shopping cart. I was terrified that he wouldn't come back, that lightning would hit him and he would die. He made it back of course; the chances of him getting hit were more astronomical than my child's mind could comprehend. I'm sure he was only gone for a few minutes at most, but it felt like an hour to me as I was caught up in the fear.

Oddly enough, this experience didn't change how I feel about thunderstorms. I loved them before and I still love them now. I always found them exciting to watch, and I love how clean the world feels afterward, like the very air has cleared out.

The Hanged Man

In my second post after I started this blog, I talked about my "Hanged Man" Tarot painting. I chose to paint the Norse God, Odin, hanging upside down from the World Ash tree complete with wolves and ravens. I finally finished it last week, and now it is dry enough to show:

You can see my whole "Refashioned Tarot" project on my Facebook and Flickr.

Canvas Mixers

For my birthday, my mom took me to Canvas Mixers in Collingswood. With instruction, you can go from blank canvas to finished acrylic painting in three hours. Here is mine:

 A Bird of Paradise flower

You can find out more about Canvas Mixers on their website.

A Reason To Celebrate

While at work today, I found out that my cousin, Sharon, was invited to give a lecture to a photography class at Gloucester County College. Sharon is a talented pinhole photographer. Check out this cool example:

 "Sitting Through Hoops" by Sharon Harris

www.sharonharrisphotography.com

I'm pretty excited about this lecture opportunity for her, and I'll see if I can interview her about the experience later on. You can find Sharon's photography and information on both her and pinhole photography in general on her website.

The Value Of Good Advertising

Today I got a T-shirt made featuring the Tarot card paintings I have done and advertising my Facebook page. I'm really happy with it because it gives me something cool to wear at craft fairs that shows off my work. I'm also really happy because making the design for this shirt encouraged me to finally name my in-progress Tarot deck:  The Refashioned Tarot. I love the name because it refers to my business name, Phoenix Refashioning, and because I am refashioning the classic Tarot images to reflect a more universal understanding. Check out my facebook page to see my ever-growing collection of Tarot paintings as I work my way to my goal of 78 unique paintings. And while you are there, please press the "like" button!

Family Friday: The Absentee Post

Derrick and Shawn have gone down to North Carolina with Derrick's parents for a cousin's wedding. They aren't going to be gone for very long, and since I don't actually live with them normally, it's not like I'm spending much more time without them than I usually do. Nonetheless, under the circumstances, all I can bring myself to say is this:  I miss my guys. That is all.

Family Friday: The Things We Do...

This post is dedicated to the crazy things that parents do to look cool for their kids. I think that, even more than showing off for a romantic interest, parents are driven to jump through hoops in the hope of gaining their children's approval/pride. The words, "That's my mom/dad. He/she is the coolest," rank right up there with, "I love you." How do I know? Experience.

I was talking with one of Derrick's roommates about a video game he was playing, one that takes more time and skill than I possess. I'm mostly a casual game-player. I enjoy puzzle games, fighting games, as well as some other games that don't require skills above button-mashing. More on that in a different post. So I say to the roommate, "I haven't played that game. I'm not really much of a career gamer," and Shawn pipes right up with, "You're not much of a gamer at all."

 Shawn was born with a controller in his hand. Me... not so much.

I don't know what came over me. I had a sudden, intense, and overwhelming desire to take a game and play it until I was good enough to impress Shawn, despite the fact that I don't have the time for that kind of practice and I never had any previous inclinations toward marathon gaming.

The point of this example is to highlight one of the less common ways we show love for our children, because we definitely wouldn't behave so irrationally if we didn't love them so much.  

Update: Sheeple!

If you saw yesterday's blog post about the Woodbury Block party, you saw this print that I got from local artist, Angela Capel:

This print is called "Bruce and the Emo Sheep," and you can find it and all her other awesome art at harmlessfangirl.deviantart.com.

Woodbury Block Party

Having a table at the Woodbury Block Party was such a blast! The weather was beautiful, there were lots of people, and it was just a fun time overall. Going with my friend, Mel only added to the fun. I got this great print from a table near ours:

 

The artist didn't mention a title, but I'm going to check out her website tomorrow and post an update to this post then.

Family Friday: Food Fights

Is it me, or is it getting harder to get kids to eat? I don't just mean vegetables, I mean anything that doesn't come in a pre-printed package. At this point the only food I have made that Shawn will eat without complaint is meatballs. Even when Derrick made hamburgers Shawn refused to eat one. He only wants to eat hamburgers from McDonald's or Burger King. Does anyone else have this problem? True, Shawn doesn't see homemade food much when I'm not around, but does that mean that it's too late? Is there any hope that I can get this kid to eat a normal meal with us like a normal family? Anyone out there who understands what I'm going through, please feel free to share your story, solution, or perspective.

More Non-8-bit Plumbing

Today the plumbers came early and were finished by the time I got home from working at the train station. They were able to replace the pipe with minimal damage to the yard. The leak was right under the sidewalk, so they barely dug into our yard at all, but they did have to dig by the house so it was a good thing we moved the bushes yesterday. So now all we have to do is replace the missing part of the sidewalk.

Why Can't Plumbing Be Like Super Mario?

Today I helped my dad dig up two bushes from our front yard. We packed the root balls in blankets and carted them to the backyard along with several wheelbarrow-fulls of topsoil. Why? There is a leak somewhere between the house and the curb. There is no way of telling where it is from the surface, so the plumber is coming tomorrow to dig up the front yard until he finds it. Well we got the bushes out of harm's way. How bad can this be? Check in tomorrow to find out.

Family Friday: Field Day

Shawn running the cup-stacking relay

 

Shawn had a field day event at school yesterday, and Derrick and I were able to come watch. There were a bunch of relay races, a tug-of-war, and a bucket brigade. It was a lot of fun to watch Shawn in the games with his fellow classmates. He seemed very excited to see us there - pointing us out to all his classmates. Moral of the story:  Never pass up an opportunity to see your kid at an event.

Me at field day. Shawn is in the background with his water bottle and pretzel stick.

Repenning Fine Arts 22nd Annual Student Show

Yesterday my family and I went to the Repenning Fine Arts Student show in Audubon, NJ. My mom and I each had a painting in the show. I don't remember how long my mom has been taking lessons there, but I have been going there since I was eight years old. As usual, the show was like a big party. Lots of great food, talented live musicians, and swarms of people. Even as crowded as it was, it was a lot of fun to go and see all of the artwork - from a child's first acrylic to the oil of a commissioned artist. Best of all...free admission! Check out Repenning Fine Arts on Facebook.

Local Music Review: Chris Westfall

In addition to showing art that I pick up from local artists, I'd like to start showcasing local musicians. I'm starting with the Chris Westfall concert I worked at last night.

Me with Chris Westfall after the concert. See his website at www.chriswestfall.com

Chris Westfall is a folk singer and musician local to South Jersey. He has performed as far north as upstate New York, as far south as North Carolina, and while he only typically goes as far west as Colorado, he has performed in California (wish it had been while I was there). He even goes to Nashville to record his albums, which I know from my own traveling experience is a grueling trip from New Jersey.

Chris plays six- and twelve-string guitars as well as the piano. When you listen to him, you can tell his original compositions are inspired from some unfathomable musical source. My favorite of these is "Gandhi, Buddha" which ranks right up there with John Denver's "Annie's Song" for exactly how you should feel about someone you are in a healthy loving relationship with. I also love "Down This Road" because it's so realistic and self-aware, and "We'll Be There By Morning" because it's so hopeful and uplifting. He also covers classic tunes from other artists. My favorite's of these are John Denver's "Eagles and Horses" and "Calypso" because they make me feel like I'm flying, and Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl" because it makes me feel like dancing and because I am a brown-eyed girl myself.

Chris is really an experience to see in concert. He has so much passion for what he does, he sometimes stomps his foot on the stage in rhythm to what he is singing and playing. He is inside the music at these times, soaring with it like an eagle, and you are right there along with him.

Last night, only about 40 people showed up at the concert, but you would have thought it was twice that number by the sheer volume of applause. I know because I could hear it out in the lobby where I was selling tickets. (I clapped too, but I don't think anyone could hear me.)

A little before the intermission, I was able to move my ticket table close enough to the room to hear the rest of the concert. The first song I heard when I got there was "North to Alaska," a song Chris was inspired to write during an Alaskan cruise. He did a cover of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" that I think was better than the original. It's amazing how much a slight decrease in tempo and a single guitar accompaniment can improve an already great song. In between songs, Chris tells interesting and often amusing stories, sometimes about his music career and the songwriting process, sometimes about his daily life. All of them are worth hearing. After the intermission, he played his catchiest original, "Heading to the Mountains," along with some covers, including John Denver's "Country Roads" which had everyone singing along. He also sang a touching original composition, "I'm Coming Home," for National Armed Forces Day, and "Running River," a song written for him by one of his musical friends. I personally think "Running River" must be his favorite song. All the times that I have seen Chris Westfall in concert, he has consistently put more of himself into this one song, every single time, than he has for any other song I have ever seen him perform. He just rises to a whole other level of awesomeness.

I fell asleep at a Livingston Taylor Concert once. His voice was so soothing and his musical style so comforting that I felt perfectly safe, as though I was wrapped up in a blanket. That is how I felt at Chris Westfall's concert last night, except I didn't fall asleep. I attribute this to Chris' ability to offset his soothing, melodious songs with peppy tunes that have you dancing in your seat or singing along - or both!

If given the chance to go to a Chris Westfall concert, you absolutely should not pass it up. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sing - even if you don't think you can.

For more information, music samples, and concert dates, visit Chris on his website.

And Bringing Up The Rear...

Phew! Just got the last few stragglers of Decepticons up on Flickr. These include my very favorite Soundwave with his minions (see above) and all the group shots.

Are you intimidated? I'm intimidated.

Family Friday: The Four Agreements and "Domestication"

I interrupt your regular waves of the Decepticon invasion to bring you Family Friday. I want to do a weekly series of family-related posts. Although I do not have any biological children of my own, I have plenty of exposure to an 8-year-old, Shawn. I have watched him grow from toddler-hood and I played a large part in his early development. So these posts will mostly concern my experiences and my thoughts about these experiences. On occasion, I will also spend time talking about children's media, since kids absorb so much from the media they are surrounded by, especially movies, television, and video games. But today, I'm posting a bit of parenting theory that occurred to me while I was reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.

A quick summary for those who have not read this book. Ruiz explains how the belief systems and social norms that govern our lives are made up of agreements that we have made with ourselves, with other people we know, and with society at large. Some of these agreements are positive in nature, while others are harmful to ourselves and others. Ruiz seeks to show us how to have less suffering in our lives by emphasizing the positive agreements and breaking harmful agreements until only the positive agreements remain. Of course, when you break all those negative agreements the will leave a void that you need to fill up to keep the negative agreements from coming back. Ruiz gives us four very powerful agreements to keep our harmful agreements at bay. They are:

• Be impeccable with your word
• Don't take anything personally
• Don't make assumptions
• Always do your best

What I like best about this book is how easy it is to understand and implement the concepts and strategies in the book. Ruiz uses plain language and clear examples. Best of all, four agreements are easy to remember and keep in your mind. If you read the book over and over again, it will act as positive reinforcement that will make it easier to honor the four agreements. It doesn't even get boring, as with each read-through you will notice new points that you missed before, and that can help too. That's a lot of bang for your buck since the book is short and relatively inexpensive (MSRP $12.00) as a result.

My only issue with this book is a parenting concern. Not surprisingly, we learn how to make agreements from our parents. We even learn many of our first agreements from them. Ruiz calls this process "domestication." He gives the impression that this domestication  process is harmful to the child and causes suffering later in the child's life. Adopting the four agreements is supposed to reverse this domestication and return us to our natural state. This sounds great, but those of us who want to avoid inflicting the past generations possible mistakes on the future generation are faced with a problem:  If the "domestication" method of raising children is wrong, what should we do instead? Most of us were raised by a system of punishment and reward - "domesticated" much like a puppy. I can buy into the idea that this method is harmful but I don't know any other way, and this is the one piece of vital information that is missing from Ruiz's book.

I don't have the answer, so I put the question to the collective consciousness of the Internet. Any thoughts or ideas of how to successfully bring up children without a system of punishment and reward? Please comment. For the children you have, the children you one day want to have, or the children you never want to have yourself but at least want to be healthy and pleasant enough for you to share the world with.

Decepticon Invasion Third Wave

The third wave of  Decepticons is up on Flickr! We have even started breaking them down into sets to make viewing a little easier for everyone. This wave particularly showcased the combiner sets.

And Unicron, of course.

Oh, yeah. We went there.

Decepticon Invasion Second Wave

The second wave of Decepticons is up on Flickr! Here we have all those Barricades and Megatrons. Yikes!

Find them all here.

Decepticon Invasion First Wave

Finally, the invasion begins! Got the first wave of Decepticons up on Flickr, and may I just say that there are way too many Starscreams. View them here. Two more waves will follow so get ready!

New Sketches

On May 4th, I participated in a Dr. Sketchy's event. I use the sketches I make during these events as bases for watercolors that I frame and sell. I go over my sketches with permanent marker, erase my pencil lines, and then paint them with watercolors. This time it occurred to me that before I do that, I should preserve the sketches in their original form. So I scanned them into my computer and uploaded them to my Flickr. You can see them here.

Today Is A Good Day To Talk About Decepticons

I cannot be called a Transformers geek. I have enjoyed the new movies, the old movie, and a few of the G1 episodes, but I don't have vast amounts of knowledge on the canon of the show. So my understanding of what makes Decepticons Decepticons is that Autobots were the default mode of mechanical alien beings and then a group of evil-minded mechanical alien beings broke away from the Autobots and became the Decepticons because their unifying purpose is to be anti-Autobot. I could be wrong. Please don't hurt me.

Decepticins have these characteristics:

1. They enjoy destruction/don't care about the consequences of their actions, and
2. They have cooler vehicle (and often even robot) modes than the Autobots

I am not making this up. Soundwave - way cooler than Blaster. Devastator - way cooler than Ultra-Magnus. Even Starscream - much as I hate to admit this considering what an annoying character he is - is cooler than Blurr. And Unicron just beats all.

This said, there are a few pics up on Flicker of Decepticon vehicle modes. Check them out here.

Decepticons, Assemble!

Stayed up so late last night trying to get Decepticon photos done that I passed out before I could post. In the middle of photographing everyone in vehicle mode, Derrick and I decided that when we take the robot mode photos we should splice them together with the vehicle mode photos. This means we can't post onto Flickr until we take some robot mode pictures, which requires Derrick transforming them into robot mode. In the meantime, I have gotten up early and fought to get on the Internet so that I can bring you this, the first Decepticon group portrait. Enjoy!

Transform and Roll Out!

My friend, Derrick, has enough Transformers toys to fill not one, but two china cabinets. For some time, he has wanted to make a photo record of all of them for cataloging purposes. Now he has a week off from work and we have created a stage to photograph the Transformers on. This is THE PROJECT. I will keep a running record of our progress here. You will be able to see the uploaded photos daily, starting tomorrow, on Derrick's flickr page at www.flicker.com/combatantbeast.

May The Forth Be With You

This post is late. Very late. Because when you find out there is a National Star Wars Day it takes a little while to recover. On Friday, Underground - my favorite store in Smithville - had a Dr. Sketchy's event. There were two models and lightsabers and a Darth Vader helmet, and it was awesome. Someone even made stickers of the event and gave them out. We spent several hours sketching the models and listening to a mix of songs about  Star Wars. There were the obligatory Weird Al ones, but also many I had never heard before like "Star Wars Cantina" which is sung to the tune of "Coca Cabana." Check out what Dr. Sketchy is all about at www.drsketchy.com. Afterwards, I slept a lot, got absorbed int reading a lot, and did prep work for THE PROJECT. More on that later.

And Going And Going...

Still working on that project pile. I didn't know some of these pieces were projects until I found them while cleaning out my closet. Now I'm pairing failed projects together to make new pieces. It's a fun, if impromptu, exercise. Also, the art piece that I won in a silent auction is finally hung up. An artist in Stonington, CT ran a workshop on Tunisian Collaborative Painting, and this piece is one of the products of that workshop.

It Just Keeps Going And Going And Going.....

Today I worked on the project pile that I had created while cleaning my studio/bedroom. I finished several projects, but I still have a long way to go. Hopefully there will be time left to continue working on it when I get home from garden work tomorrow.

A Clean and Neat Living Space...

...is the sign of a seriously disturbed mind. Although my living space has a long way to go before I can be considered seriously disturbed, today I finally finished giving my studio/bedroom the major cleaning and organizing it deserves. It took me all day today and part of yesterday. Of course in the process, I uncovered a dozen or more projects that need to be completed. So I have something to look forward to tomorrow. :)

At The Arts Festival

I decided to take my time with this post because it will be my first time posting an image. Yesterday I went with my best friend to an arts festival in Gloucester City. He knew an artist there and we went to see her work, as she was doing a painting of the Walt Whitman Bridge on site. While we were there, I came across the stall of an artist who draws comic book characters. I bought a print from the "Poison Ivy" folder, and it certainly looked like her, but after I went on the artist's website I found out it was actually entitled "Original Sin." I think the characterization fills both titles perfectly. I love her use of vivid colors. Check out her work at www.lauraguzzoart.com.

A Weed By Any Other Name...

I love all my jobs, but there is something special about my gardening job. So far, it is the only job that gets me outside. It's good to get outside to feel some sun and breathe some fresh (or fresh-ish) air. I like to have my hands in the dirt and there is a real satisfaction in clearing the weeds away from the plants they are choking the life out of. Which brings me to today's conundrum. How exactly does one classify a weed? Until I took this job, I didn't consider clover to be a weed but my boss wants it gone so I have to pull it. In her defense it can get pretty tall, a good 6 inches or so when left un-mowed. Today I came across a low-lying weed that looked a little like clover with tiny yellow flowers and it covered the ground like a carpet. I started to pull it but it seemed too nice of a ground cover to get rid of. I pulled the taller, more choking weeds from these smaller weeds and went to my boss to ask her if I could continue to cultivate them. She said yes! I guess a weed is a plant that you don't want to stay where it happens to be growing.

Posting a little late tonight because of art class. A little background on my latest project, quickly. I have a fascination with Tarot cards. I love the different artistic views shown in different decks, as well as the way the images symbolize deeper meanings. I have three decks, but only one that I really love and feel connected to. That one, in case anyone is curious, is the Robin Wood Tarot Deck. I have toyed with the idea of creating my own deck off and on since I was in college, but for some reason I only just came up with the idea of painting the images early this year. I am painting them in oils on 5x7 canvases. So far I have painted "The Fool." "The Magician," "The Hirophant," and "The Hermit." I'm not doing them in any specific order, just as inspiration strikes. Tonight I worked on the angel for "The Lovers," and the wolves on "The Hanged Man." The angel is looking a little sickly, but the icon image I'm using as a guide looks sickly too so I guess that's ok. Anyone familiar with Tarot might be wondering why I am painting wolves on "The Hanged Man." Well, instead of a man who may or may not be representing Odin, I am painting Odin hanging from the World Ash, as he does in the myth about how he obtained the runes and their wisdom. In the image that I have of Odin, he is pictured with two wolves in addition to the two ravens that sit on his shoulders so they are all being included in my painting. Since he is hanging upside-down, the wolves sit on either side of the tree while the ravens perch in its branches. As I finish each painting, I will post it to my flickr account. When I have painted all 78 cards I hope to make them into a deck.

Welcome To My Nest!

Hello World,

This is my very first personal blog. Actually it's my very first blog ever. I did a lot of reading before I decided to publish a blog, and it seems the number one rule of blogging is to be consistently interesting. Well, from my point of view, to have a consistently interesting blog requires one to have a consistently interesting life. Now these aren't words that I would usually use to describe my life, but I am not letting that get me down. In fact, I am seeing it as a wake-up call that I am wasting my time every day I don't spend doing things that interest me enough to write about. So starting with this blog, my goal is to find something interesting to do, or at least something interesting to think about, every day so that I can share it with you, the world, the internet, whoever you happen to be. So without further ado, let's start this wild ride!

Love,

Aimee