Saturday, July 20, 2013

Egg Social

Totally forgot this existed.  I did this back in '08, to entertain myself when I was bored at 2 AM.  Also, this happened while I was attending Leeds Uni, so it always reminds me of England:)


PS. I did this with one egg.  The eyebrows, eyelashes, bow-tie, and handles of the sunglasses are little pieces of tape, but the lenses, mask, hair, and face dots are Sharpie.  I probably had way too much fun doing this.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

I Have Incredibly Strong Powers of Persuasion

But only with myself. I know this because I’ve taken note of situations in which my powers of persuasion work. For instance, sometimes I am out of stuff and I need to go to the store and get more. Sometimes this stuff is vitamins or shampoo. Other times it’s more important and necessary stuff, like toilet paper or food. Most of the time it is all of those things together because I wait so long that I’m out of everything. So I make a list and then I make a plan for when I will go, which is usually on my way home from work. Because once I’m home for the day, I don’t want to leave again. It takes a very awesome, enticing, made-especially-for-Erin treat to get me to leave the house once I’ve come home for the day. Like a movie I really, really want to see (sometimes even that’s not good enough).

Or the promise of lots and lots of snow that I can play in.

Or a present, like…

A rainbow-tailed pony with tattoos of tinier rainbow-tailed ponies all over its body!


And saddlebags full of both sweet and savory snacks to consume on the ride!

Or the ice-cream man is here (and even then I have to hear the music, to prove it’s true, before I’ll go outside).

Don’t get me wrong—I love the outside. But on days that I am forced to go out, like for work or errands or social obligations, I despise being out (especially during the summer, in Texas) and all I want is to go inside and work on my own, quiet, activities from the comfort of my home.

Anyway, the plan is set and has been set probably for several days, because I tend to set my plans for days in advance just to give myself ample time to mentally, emotionally, and physically prepare for the task(s). And then the day rolls around and I’m like, “Today is the day. After work, I must go to the store."


But then I go to work, get distracted from my self pep talk, forget all about what I was pepping myself up for, and then absentmindedly start to think about all the awesomely fun things I’m going to do when I get home and what delicious snack I will enjoy.


Then I remember.

And every time it’s like hearing a story about someone’s dog getting run over, which is especially sad because you knew that dog (well, you didn’t know him per say, but you met him a couple of times and had a nice play in the yard, with a stick), but also you have suddenly and mysteriously contracted amnesia, so your short-term memory is shot, so you forget everything outside of a ten second thought cycle, so you forget about the dog, think some more happy thoughts, then the person, who strangely knows all about your sudden and mysterious short-term memory loss, tells the story again, about the dog getting run over, because this person is a sadist, and this continues on and on throughout your day till you feel exhausted by the emotional roller coaster, but you don’t know why because of the amnesia, which you don’t know you have, because it’s fucking amnesia.

I think, on the day of, I subconsciously force myself to forget, as some sort of defense mechanism, or self-preservation against braving the wild of the outside world.

Especially the grocery store.




Because of such horrors, I’ve trained myself to believe there is only one track in my mind and no stops except the one at the end, called ‘Home’.


And the hour creeps closer and then it becomes a countdown to the moment when I know I must sacrifice my personal time to do things that will keep me alive and healthy.


But after a while, I remember that I was supposed to have already resigned myself to it.


I know it must be done, so I grit my teeth and say, “Get over it. Just do it because you know you have to and if you run through the store fast enough then maybe you can be in and out and only be ten minutes later than usual getting home!” So I get in my car, fully intending to stop at the store or the post office or the bank or whatever other boring but necessary buildings you can think of—oh! the oil-changing place for your car. Yeah, that one’s real boring.

Then, something magical starts to happen…My brain—completely independent of me—begins to throw out reasons why I shouldn’t go, or reasons why I don’t really have to go as bad as I previously thought I did.


I’ve done enough today, I deserve to relax.

There’s still enough toilet paper for at least two more pees, maybe three, if I conserve. So we’re not totally out.


They’re just vitamins I can skip one day—it’s not like a prescription medication—I can stop whenever I want—vitamins don’t rule my life! You can’t tell me what to do, vitamins, you’re not the boss of me‼


There is still that can of lima beans and a whole sleeve of crackers left. Plus there’s always Ramen. So I can’t really say I don’t have food and I need more. People are starving all over the world. How picky and spoiled am I? What, am I too good for Ramen now?

There are plenty of dishes you can make out of cream corn and Nutella…

Or maybe just the one.


Or maybe you’re better off just eating them individually.

And guess what, fatty? If you don’t buy groceries you will be forced to eat what’s in your pantry and then you’ll be eating super healthy and also not very much portion-wise, which will all serve to help you lose weight. I bet you can’t even do it—I bet you don’t even have it in you to eat that can of spinach for dinner.

Yep, all by itself.

 

Oh, you think you can? Prove it then. Go straight home and cook that spinach and eat it all for dinner with nothing else and then you can say you have conquered the act of eating.

Plus, if you chicken out, you can still order a Jimmy John’s sandwich and they will deliver so you still won’t have to leave the house. Mmm…Jimmy John’s. Yep. That’s dinner tonight. Way better than the spinach. I should save that anyway, in case of an emergency. Like what if the Jimmy John’s closes suddenly without warning?


Or what if someone comes over and I want them to leave but they stay until it’s clearly dinner time?  Solution: When food is brought up I can offer them the spinach. Spinach has an amazing knack for clearing a room.

 



  




Or in the case of a zombie invasion, I can use the hefty can of spinach to throw at a zombie’s decaying head.

 

It’s head will be so soft and the can so hard that it will go through the undead skull, like a meat tenderizer going through a jello mold, and that will take care of one zombie.

 

And if I can get past the thought of putting my hand into zombie brains to retrieve the can, I can use it against other zombies until they’re all gone because a can of spinach is the weapon that keeps on giving!

Spinach makes you strong because spinach itself is strong all on its own.

 

The cylindrical suit of armor reinforces that.

How did this become all about spinach all of a sudden?

Anyway, I also do this thing where I stupidly try to overthrow my much stronger subconscious self, who is controlling my brain, and I say things like, “Well, I still have time to go—I’m not home yet. Even though I’ve passed the grocery store, there is still that CVS on the corner.” Then, “Even though I passed the CVS on the corner, there is still that dollar store in the shopping center, across the street from my neighborhood.” Then, “Even though I passed the dollar store in the shopping center, across the street from my neighborhood, there is still that gas station. Gas stations probably have toilet paper at least—that’s the most important thing I need anyway.”

“Okay, now I’ve passed the gas station and I’m pulling into my apartment complex. If I pee more than twice for the rest of the night, I can always borrow some toilet paper from my roommate—or, in the event that he, too, is out, I can always ask the person next door, which, yes, will require me to leave the apartment, but at least I won’t have to walk down the stairs.”

“Or I can just hold my pee till I get to work tomorrow morning!”

Sometimes I also tell myself that if I’m not going to go to the place where I can get all the things, then there’s no point in going anywhere because I need all the things equally so I might as well wait till I can go to the place with all the things, because I certainly don’t want to have to go to two different places to get all my things. And this feels like a firm resolution and almost the same as the feeling of accomplishment I get when I’ve actually gone to the place and gotten all the things I need.

Thus, I end up at home, sans stuff, but still feeling pretty good about myself for making what is clearly the best choice. So I decide to reward myself for all the hard work I’ve done today and all the responsible behavior I exhibited both during and after work (having a logical train of thought and a reasonable discussion with myself totally qualifies as very adult-like, responsible behavior) and order myself a Jimmy John’s sandwich, and watch that documentary about lions on my Netflix Instant Queue.


 


 


See?? Extremely strong powers of persuasion!

Or I guess you could also call it having little to no will power.

But I’m a glass-half-full kinda girl.


PS. I will give someone a prize if they dare to actually make a batch of inverted chocolate chip cookies successfully.

PPS. But it has to LITERALLY be opposite—as in, melted chocolate chip balls with tiny balls of cookie dough mixed in.

PPPS. Bad idea? Good idea? Disgusting? Or the most delicious thing ever…?

PPPPS. There isn’t actually a physical prize if you do this. It’s more of a “I will send four minutes worth of happy, positive thoughts your way,” kind of thing.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A Little Musing.


I’m not a particularly anything person.  I just am.  And I try to be.  But sometimes, dagnabbit, a girl needs her small moments of rage and squealing excitement.  And sweeties.  And when she doesn’t get sweeties, thus ensue rage and squealing excitement till she does.  Things can commence in this manner for immeasurable amounts of minutes, at the end of which, even she must stand back and say, “Oh my stars and garters!  Look what my fretful hedonism hath wrought!”

On the other hand, at least now she has two whole bags of Werther's Original hard butterscotch candies to enjoy.

Monday, January 7, 2013

I'm gonna say some more stuff on here soon.

That was all I wanted to say really.

But a new post is imminent.

For realsies.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Suspicious/Illegal/Just Plain Weird Things I've Asked Google

Before I commence with this list I want to make something clear.  This list I am about to commence with only exists because...well, wait, the list itself exists because I made it, but the things on the list, that is, the things I have asked Google, only exist as questions I've asked Google because I'm a writer.

Still confused?  Yeah, me, too.  Let me clarify: These were questions I asked in the name of research for my books.

Okay, so here we go.



My List of Suspicious/Illegal/Just Plain Weird Things I've Asked Google In No Particular Order*



1.    Best way to break into a house

2.    Date rape drug and how fast it works

3.    How long does it take to die from carbon monoxide poisoning?

4.    How to hotwire a car

5.    Effects of Nitrous oxide and how fast it works

6.    Guns with longest range/distance

7.    Fastest cars for fast getaways

8.    Anthrax

9.    How long before a person dies of starvation?

10.  Best places to hit someone to incapacitate them

11.  Parts of a gun

12.  Best Poisons to hide in food/drink

13.  Sedatives

14.  How long after you’ve been hit does a black eye show up?

15.  How long does a black eye take to heal?

16.  How long would someone be in a cast for a broken leg/arm?

17.  How fast does a tranquilizer dart work?

18.  Has anyone ever stopped to think about how many times James Earl Jones played characters who said they were the fathers of the films' heroes? (Okay, that one wasn’t for book research, but it came into my brain one day and I just really wanted to know.  In case you’re wondering, Google did not have the answer.  At least not a comprehensive answer.  It only came up with quotes from the two movies that were already on my list.)

19.  Death by choking

20.  Can a person die from inhaling the fumes of human excrement for too long?

21.  How long before a person dies from inhaling the fumes of human excrement?

22.  Self-mutilation

23.  Most popular forms of self-mutilation

24.  Sounds of leg bones breaking

25.  Most efficient way to dig up a grave

26.  How to break through a window

27.  How to correct a broken nose

28.  How to check for signs of internal bleeding

29.  Most commonly reported side effects of the morning after pill

30.  And last but not least: Beastiality.  But before you guys start getting all judge-y on me, remember what my books are about.  Or maybe you don’t know what they’re about and you’re just reading this post randomly because you stumbled (seriously randomly) onto this blog.  So for those people, I’ll tell you.  The Lone March series is about weres, as in were-wolves, were-cats, were-ravens, etcetera and so on.  So that’s people who are also animals and can take one of their forms at any given time.  When you think about were-people and then you think about relationships, naturally you think next about were-people in relationships.  And to the common human brain, the word relationship = sex.  So were-people sex can get confusing (read: interesting).  I was just curious.  Leave me alone.


 * This list may be updated in the future, as I see fit.  Or as I see fit to ask Google more strange questions.

You know, maybe if Google wasn't so smart I would stop asking questions like this.  So really it's Google's fault.  It is Google that has made me this weirdo, not me.  I'm pretty sure Google can be blamed for a lot of scandalous information distribution.  Let's all blame Google!

Oh, wait.  Shit.  Google owns Blogger, doesn't it?




Google, please if you could please not take down my blog, pretty please, that would be awesome.  Thanks.

Also, I love you.

And you are really smart.

And you make me smarter every day.

Because how else would I learn the best way to rip out the throat of a person/animal in such a way that he/she/it will most certainly die but not right away and thus have time for some extremely painful last moments/parting words to the world?  Nowhere else could I learn this but from you, Google.  So, again, thank you.

And also, again, I love you.