Normal Gets You Nowhere

2011, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

Michelle-belle is a big Kelly Cutrone fan. I can take her or leave her. I mean, she’s ok –  smart, strong, talented. I like that. I just find her a little… much. I’m a fan of “freaks” and normal can be so boring – unless you’re part of a family full of freaks which means normal IS freaky. Heh.

The most interesting thing about Normal Gets You Nowhere is that it caused me to think of some really weird things like… how come there are no male supermodels? (patriarchy, duh) And just how do you define “supermodel”?  (I spent a lot of time reading about supermodels last night just because of of Kelly Cutrone.)  Also, might I suggest Kelly Cutrone check out Scarleteen for future reference or when a waiter’s daughter asks her how to give a handjob.

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Altered Book Project — Step 2: Get Some Color on Some Pages

1 Comment / 2011, Altered Book, Books in Bed /

I bought a bunch of new art supplies a year ago because I wanted to try and push myself into starting this project once and for all… and the supplies sat in a plastic bin on one of the Billy bookshelves right behind me all year long. Every now and then a kid would reach for the bin and I would use the Denise voice to get her to back off of my stuff.

When I opened the bin yesterday, I was surprised to see that I had not bought any watercolors. I had watercolor pencils (which are fabulous, of course) but no tube or cake watercolors. Disappointing. I poked around in Elly’s room to see if I could find a couple of tubes to borrow for a couple of days – no luck.

So, I started with what I have right now. Watercolor pencils and acrylics first. (Chalk and oils next, maybe.)

It’s been a very long time since I played with any craft supplies so all I did was splash and spread and get the feel of the paper with the brushes (and my fingers) and the products.

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I did glue a couple of pages together to see if that’s going to be necessary more often than not.  I used some weird scrapbooking glue stick – so far, it looks like the adhesive is going to hold up but we’ll see since I did use watercolor pencils on those pages and when you use watercolors… you use… water. (I know that shocks some of you.)

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Notice the you can still see the original text underneath the watercolor pencil pages. That’s ok. The page isn’t done and I’ll want some text to be just barely visible so the message I’m hiding is obviously being hidden. That’s really part of  the point of this particular altered book project – to get a glimpse of the “original message”.  On some pages I’ll be manipulating the original message to tell the story I want to tell… but I’m getting ahead of myself, way ahead of myself.

At least I’ve started and it didn’t hurt a bit.

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Plain Kate

2011, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Plain Kate is on the Cybils shortlist in the YA Science Fiction/Fantasy category…. And with that, I take a sigh of relief. Because the ending of this book… wah! While listening, I thought it was middle grade SciFi/Fantasy and that bit seemed a bit much.  (It involves cats… and knives… and blood… and fire… and it was rough….)

Anyway, about the book itself, it started a little slowly but once Plain Kate had moved to her father’s stall and Linay arrived, things moved more quickly.  The biggest problem with the book, for me, is that Kate didn’t connect the dots more quickly. This lack of understanding made it seem like it was middle grade rather than YA. I cannot imagine a teenager alive who would not have rolled her eyes at Kate’s inability to figure out WHO Linay was. It was almost painful. Kate wasn’t stupid and she should have figured it out much, much earlier.

Other than that… enjoyed it quite a bit.

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Happyface

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

A couple weeks ago, Elly asked me to reserve a book called Happyface… so I did. She read it and then she bugged me non-stop to finish whatever I was reading so I could read Happyface… so I did.

It’s a combination graphic novel/novel. It’s a bit about bullying. A bit about a dysfunctional family. It’s about alcoholism. Dating. Family relationships. Reinventing yourself only to find you’re still who you were, sort of, before the reinvention – because you haven’t dealt with who you were before the reinvention.

It’s a wee bit sad. It’s also funny in the right places. And thought-provoking in others, particularly if you’re a teenager who’s on the outside looking in. Or maybe on the inside wondering how to get out.  This could be a Cybils shortlister, I think.

I’m impressed that Elly liked this book so much.  Now I have to figure out when I can sit down and discuss it with her. We might have to video chat or something in order to have that conversation before I forget what the book was about. Heh.

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Journal Junkies Workshop

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

My library’s new website (which really isn’t that new) has this little feature when I first log in that shows “recently reviewed books” in a little flippy slideshow thing. I cannot tell you how many books I’ve reserved just because I saw the cover flip by after I’ve logged in.

Journal Junkies Workshop is one of those books.

I’ve read a lot of books about journaling, altered bookmaking etc… and this is actually one of the best. It’s interesting. There’s a nice intro about Dan Elden and visual journalists that really puts you in the mood to play with your own journal. The information about different supplies you might use and techniques you might use with those supplies was also excellent.

I’ve been putting off my altered book project for YEARS (literally) and I swore I would do something before this month ended. I’m ready now. I even have some ideas about what I might do on a few pages.

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Maybe I Should Say Goodbye to Lists?

Daily Dose, Work /

I didn’t make a list today and look at all of the things I did. Well no, don’t look – I’m not going to write them all out, that would kind of defeat the purpose of not having a list wouldn’t it?

Then again, there were far fewer things to deal and deal and deal and deal with.

So maybe it wasn’t the lack of lists, maybe it was just the lack of … well… you know.

So what about that Facebook? Zuckerberg is brilliant, isn’t he? Evil brilliant but I can’t fault him for that.  Makes Google+ seem even more boring than it already is.  (Y’all hate me for saying that, don’t you?)

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To Dos Undone

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Work /

I started the day with a beautiful To Do List and I was sure I was going to be able to knock out 90% . Hah.  The list… so totally not done.

1)      Facebook x10 -> I did this one… barely.

2)      Two morning reports -> Done.

3)      Take a deeper dive into the analytics -> Totally NOT done.

4)      Figure out what’s going on with the two missing projects -> I did send an email, after business hours – so that’s at least something.

5)      Blog x2 -> hahaha. Not even close.

6)      Talk to Diane about Hootsuite. -> hahahaha. No.

7)      Submit a template request -> Done. YAY.

8)      Go through the “tickets” and figure out what’s outstanding -> Not done. Sigh.

9)      Buzz Kathy about an old TO DO that I can’t do for awhile. -> Nope.

10)   Create some new lists to track some new stuff. -> Oy. No.

11)   Program Health. -> Oops. I started, didn’t finish – now I’m screwed for the morning. Oops. Darn.

12)   Think about games. -> I opened a link… and promptly closed the link.

13)   Go to Meijer for free Pasta -> DONE.

14)   Fold a load of laundry -> Nope.

15)   Submit my expenses -> Nope.

16)   Reserve some more books for my trip to Charlotte -> Sigh. I’m gonna be bookless. Good thing my mother has books – even if they aren’t on my challenge lists.

So… a pretty big fail.  What wasn’t on my list…

1)      Submitting new tickets.

2)      Answering 50 emails that I didn’t expect to need to answer.

3)      Spending far more time in Hootsuite than I normally do.

4)      Scanning a pages from a physics text book.

5)      Dealing… I did a lot of dealing today.

I think tomorrow I’m starting without a list.

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All Airlines Should be Virgin

Daily Dose, Travel Log, Work /

I’ve been grumbling (mostly) to myself for ages about Virgin America not flying out of ORD. All of my peoples (see yesterday’s post) got to fly Virgin while I was stuck with United. Or worse – Delta.

Finally, Virgin comes to ORD and Lisa Freaking Stone calls me to Belmont. Yay and Yay! Even more YAY is the fact that the cheapest flight option was Virgin with arrival/departure times that worked in both directions.

And… it’s been the most pleasant flight experience I’ve had in years and years and years.

I’m going to be very sad to fly United at the end of the month. Sigh.

All airlines should be Virgin.

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BlogHer Belmont – My Peoples!

Daily Dose, Work /

As much as I like to be at home, in my own office, in my own bed, with my own family… I do love coming to BlogHer Belmont because these are my people. They just are.

A fun dinner with Lisa, Elisa, Julie, Lynn, Stacy & Rita after a productive day – lots of hugs – and some geeky talk with Liz.

It’s good to see my peoples.

I’ll miss them when I head home tomorrow.

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