Just a quick update...

Nothing special.

I didn't do much today- I just hung around the house and went over to a client's house to do her hair for her.

But when I got home, I saw an envelope with my name on it, and...

I finally got my stupid Florida cosmetology license. FINALLY. After only THREE DAMN MONTHS.

I should have more to say tomorrow. Later!

I think I'm going to dye my hair gray.

Hear me out. I know I can't bleach my hair to platinum just yet (well, except for maybe a third of it) but I'm so sick of looking at my washed-out black hair with an inch of dirty dishwater blonde grown back in. Besides... Gray is really in right now. I've seen a lot of it in the more alternative fashion magazines, and in a lot of new collections being showcased on the Behind the Chair website. And it's unexpected.

And I just ordered some eyeshadow from Sugarpill and I feel SO GUILTY even though it was just one! That was $13.60 including shipping that I just didn't need to spend. Now I only have about $30 in my bank account but I should have that replenished... next week? I'm not sure when my first check comes in. I think that'll be two weeks employed, so yeah, next week or the week after. I can make it until then.

Also, I'm wanting to draw some more. I felt pretty blah tonight and I, honest to God, just now got over a sinus headache I developed around noon, so I didn't. But, especially if I don't work tomorrow, I'll be drawing some. I have some really amazing pictures I found on Google and various other websites. I'm not sure if I have to go in or not- I have a feeling I won't- because unless they made $23000 in sales they don't have the payroll for me. So I have to call in by noon and ask. Which is fine, I'll get up, shower, and give them a ring and if I work, great, if not, I have other shit I can do.

So I have whatever Netflix is sending me coming in the mail tomorrow. I may not have a lot of money but damn if THAT subscription hasn't been worth it. I certainly don't have tons of cash to spend on DVDs so between Netflix and the Red Box I've just been rolling in it. I'm particularly excited about a couple of Javier Bardem movies I found on the website:

1. Second Skin, which is about a man who cheats on his wife with another man (Javier) and hates himself because he did it.

2. Mouth to Mouth, and from what I can tell it sounds pretty funny. I mean, Javier Bardem as a wannabe-actor-turned-phone-sex-operator. How could it NOT be?

Anyway... Later, dudes. I may post tomorrow, if not the next day.

I'm so pissed.

I rented Waking Life thinking it would be a great, weird movie to watch, having heard things about it for years and years, about how it muses on reality versus the dream world. I got ten minutes, maybe fifteen, into that fucking movie and gave up. If I'd heard one more Goddamn comment on existentialism and evolution I was going to puke or smash my TV or both. And that live-action-painted-over look was making me queasy anyway. It was like watching a moving Van Gogh painting. Here's hoping that A Scanner Darkly is better. But you're on notice, Linklater.

I got $25 for that shitty drawing I did. I was expecting... well... $0 so that went better than originally planned, I guess. So I'm trying to figure out what to do with it and I think I've come up with a solution.

I know, I know, I don't need anything and Christmas is coming up. I was thinking about buying more eyeshadow and lipstick to hoard, but I already have pretty much every color a sane person would want, I just have a thing for sparkly things that have different-colored sparkles in them. So I'm going with some stuff from One Hand Washes the Other- they have pretty tinted lip balms that are different from the drugstore brands in that they don't all seem to lean too brown in their base shades. One is red with green sparkles, another is silver that flashes pink, and one is coral, which I normally stay away from but this doesn't seem too orange. And it's blood orange flavored! My favorite (sort of)! At least those would be useful- color and conditioning for my easily-chapped lips.

I haven't got much else to say. I've done fuck all in the last couple of days. Maybe I'll have more to say tomorrow, I'm not sure. Later.

Insomnia? Or the end result of over-sleeping?

I can't sleep. Not sure why. Well, that's untrue. I woke up at 9 AM and then proceeded to fall asleep and wake up again several times until 1 PM. I didn't even eat anything until almost 2:30 this afternoon because I always seem to wake up nauseous.

I'm also on a bit of a high because I got to see Florence and the Machine on Saturday Night Live. I know it's not exactly cool to like that show, but A) I don't care about being cool and B) I've been watching for years and I love it. Also, Florence was ON tonight. She was so beautiful, with her shiny red curls and her red lips and her black dresses (that beaded one she wore for the "Dog Days Are Over" performance was gorgeous but SO SHORT- at least she has the legs for it!) and I was so happy that she got to show everyone how amazing she is. Seriously, if I hear one more Goddamn person my age talk about how Katy Motherfucking Perry is a great role model because she "speaks her mind" and she's "original" I'll scream. Flo not only writes amazing songs but she also is a natural performer, one of those people you can't take your eyes off, like their work or not. She was born to do what she does. And I'll watch her as long as she does it- she's only two years older than me so I think it'll be a while before it's all over.

Anyway, end fangirl rant...

I have another semi-unofficial shift tomorrow. I'm helping put up displays for Black Friday or something, and I don't have to be at Bath and Body Works until 6 PM. In workout clothes. So... I'll be dressed how I normally am around the house, but I'll be getting paid. And missing The Simpsons. But getting paid.

I watched another somewhat depressing movie on Netflix last night- The Sea Inside. If you don't mind subtitles I would recommend it. Basically it's about a man, Ramon Sampedro, who, after suffering a spinal injury as a young man, becomes a quadriplegic and is lobbying the Spanish government to allow assisted suicide so that he can die with a little dignity. The government (surprise, surprise) never relents and his friends, in secret, dose him with cyanide and grant him that one last wish of his. I'm not sure how I feel about the subject matter. My immediate response is, no, he should value his life, but upon further reflection, I realized that I would probably want the same thing. And he was trapped like that for nearly THIRTY YEARS. What kind of life is that? He chased away his fiancee so that she would have a chance to live unburdened by his condition, instead placing most of the weight on his brother and sister-in-law, and, later on, his nephew. But what I didn't understand was, Ramon accomplished so much despite his disability. Why didn't he see that? He invented a writing tablet that allowed him to write using his mouth (I'm not entirely sure how it worked, I only saw him writing). He wrote poetry that his sister-in-law saved in a box and was later published. And Julia, the lawyer working on his case pro bono, tried to understand him and his reasoning as well as she could while dealing with her own disability (she has two strokes over the course of the film, the last taking a good chunk of her memory). I sympathized with her the most.

There was one line in particular that got to me. Ramon's father, speaking to Julia; "There's only one thing worse than having your son die on you... him wanting to."

Overall I felt like it was a good story about a person's right to control what happens to their body, and what life is about, and all that. I just can't imagine why I keep finding all this depressing shit to watch. It always sounds good and then I get through it and, surprise, I cry buckets through half the movie. Maybe I'm just over-emotional right now and this is what I need. I've felt wildly out of control the last few months to the point where maybe I need therapy. But if I do start seeing a shrink, it won't be one of those woo-woo, touchy-feely weirdos like the last guy my mom took me to. I was angrier when I left than when I'd gone in. I talk about how I don't like it when people openly judge me, he makes me look around the room and says there's nobody here to judge me. DAMN! NO WAY! I had no idea there wasn't anyone else in this tiny room! I tend to feel emotions in extremes, I'm either really good or really bad. Then there's the days where I literally feel NOTHING. I have to make myself feel something. No, I'm not talking about self-harm or anything like that. I just have to read a book that really affects me or listen to music or something, but it's still a little weird to think, "Did I really have a feeling today? I can't remember." But then, sometimes I can't remember whether or not I put on deodorant five minutes after I would've put it on.

Aagghhh... I'd better get some sleep. Later, dudes.

Ever had one of those 50/50 days?

I did. Wanna know why?

I found naked pictures of Javier Bardem! Full-frontal, baby!

Sorry. Just had to let someone know. It made me REALLY happy.

Anyway... Not much happened today. I didn't even get out of the house until almost 1:30, and then it was only to put gas in the car and wander aimlessly around Wal-Mart. When I got home, I sat down to work on the drawing I'd promised a friend for her and her husband's anniversary- a picture of his dark blue Corvette C6.

That is the worst art failure I think I've ever had. I HATE that picture. I want to set fire to it.

I used a pencil for the skeleton and dry pastels because they're easier to smudge. Not only did I make a HUGE mess, I ruined the drawing. I feel so bad- I was supposed to take it to her this weekend, and I have to call her and tell her I can't do it. I have no idea why I thought I could draw a fucking CAR. I'm so bad with clean lines. I can draw the human figure but I can't do objects. I guess I just wanted to do something nice for her because not many people commission me but the thought was always in the back of my head; "I can't draw cars." And clearly I can't, because that picture looks like it was drawn by someone who's never seen a car in person before.

Oh, well, at least I tried... Won't get paid, but I tried.

Anyway, on a happier note, OHMYGOD DID I TELL YOU ABOUT THE NAKED JAVIER BARDEM PICTURES!? Oh, I did? Okay.

I can't really post them here, for obvious reasons. But I've saved them and I've printed (and hidden, I DO live in the same house as my mother) the pictures for my own... amusement.

That's pretty much it. I'm working on an essay (actually, two) sort of post that I'll finish up tomorrow. Later!

I don't have much interesting to say. Except...

I GOT A JOB!!!


Finally, after months and months of looking, I got hired for the holidays at Bath and Body Works! I start tomorrow, with an orientation at 3 P.M. I'm not sure how many hours I'll be getting, but I don't care, I'm just happy to finally have something.


Life has kinda sucked for a while now and I'm really glad it's finally starting to, you know... not suck. It'll be nice to have some money in my pockets, even if it's just a little. Maybe I can find something else, too. I'll have to see what my schedule is like.


Anyway, that was all. I'll probably have more to talk about tomorrow.

Cool Stuff and Things!

I went to this annual Christmas shopping festival thing with my mom and her friend's daughter today and I got the COOLEST NECKLACE EVER!

Let me back up and set this up a little better. I found lots of cool stuff- there were vendors from all over the country. I found a makeup bag that I came really close to buying that had an old comic book-style woman drawn on it that said, "God, I'm just so BLOODY BLONDE sometimes!" As a natural blonde, I found it hilarious. My mom bought me some things for Christmas that I was expressly told to forget about, which I probably will- three really pretty bobby pins with dichroic glass on them, and a handmade rainbow-colored bag crocheted from silk. But I passed by a booth with some jewelry that I HAD to inspect closer.

The girl that made them asked me if I knew what steampunk was, and I was like, "Hell YES and I LOVE it!" Some of the pieces were made from watch fobs that still worked, and there was a necklace that had a brass pendant shaped like an alarm clock. Headbands with brass filigree and watch faces. Rings with tiny watch fobs on them. Earrings. But the one I really fell in love with was on a slinky, dark silver chain, a small globe with a functioning, jewel-movement watch inside it. If you wind the little sapphire-tipped winder on the bottom, it runs. You can hear it ticking. I HAD to have it. But I don't even currently have $49 to my name, and that's how much it cost, so that became an early Christmas present. I was that in love with it. But I also wanted to give the girl some business, just as a fellow jewelry maker who knows that there's little to no steampunk market in Panama City.

I'll have to post pictures later.

On an unrelated note, I watched Traffic start to finish for the first time last night. It was a good movie, but not my favorite thing I've ever seen. I mostly enjoyed seeing Benicio Del Toro in tight pants. He's decidedly bootylicious (I SO went there). And shirtless in a pool. Also, he eats at a stand in one scene, and he kind of eats like a little kid, which I found oddly adorable. Normally I hate watching and hearing people eat (it's one of those weird pet peeves you can't quite explain) but I was like, "... Aww." And that scene in the gay bar, where he picks up that drug dealer? Brilliant.

I'll probably watch it again tomorrow night. The mail won't go out until Monday anyway.

I haven't got anything else to talk about right now. Maybe on Monday I'll get good news from Bath and Body Works. It's not like I didn't show interest in that job, I only went back in seven times to ask about it.

Later, dudes.

Boring post ahead. Maybe. I don't know.

So I got a bit of a surprise this morning. My mom handed me two packages, and I had NO recollection of ordering anything that I hadn't already gotten. But, my name was on both labels, so it definitely was for me. I tore the boxes open and...

Free hairspray! I'd totally forgotten, but I entered a contest a few months ago on behindthechair.com to win two cans of TIGI Catwalk "Sleek Mystique" hairspray from their straightening collection of the same name. I'll keep one and give the other to Pinkie as part of her Christmabirthday (or is it Birthmas?) present (don't judge me, her birthday is December 8th so why should I send two packages?) next month.

On a less happier note, I found out some rather nasty things about a makeup company that I bought from less than a year ago, just before all this stuff came out. For those of you unfamiliar with Lime Crime, it isn't worth the time, energy, or money. I was so excited- the color I ordered was called Dragon Scales (great name) and it looked like a brownish-red with tons of blue and green sparkles. It turned out to be just a very finely-ground mica glitter, not even a proper eyeshadow, and I paid $12 for the shit. And OF COURSE I'm nearly a year late to jump on the bandwagon here.

The other night, I was bumming around on Lipsticks and Lightsabers, Anastasia's blog, and looking back several months led to not just one but SEVERAL unfavorable posts regarding Lime Crime. Her lipstick review made me VERY glad I didn't bother with them- they're too thick, chalky, and they stain. Plus, the bright purple tube with the sparkly unicorn, while cute, is also enormous for a lipstick tube and kinda resembles a bullet vibrator. For $16, too. I'd rather spend my money on MAC and save two bucks.

The main issue is that several people have caught on to the fact that Doe Deere, the founder of Lime Crime, has been buying mica from a wholesaler and repackaging it... in containers that the wholesaler carries, no less. Just with her own stickers slapped on them and marked up 4000%. She has also been found to have had many shady business practices in the past (selling children's fake sunglasses as couture on eBay, copying other designer's work on Etsy, making videos of herself mixing eyeshadows in VERY unsanitary conditions, etc.) and has a history of threatening legal action against bloggers that posted negative reviews and sending her sock puppets out after them.

So... I feel really stupid. And I don't know what to do with this fucking repackaged glitter stuff that I have to cake on wet just for it to show up. I'm debating whether or not I should mix it with something else, just to get decent wearability out of it.

Anyway.

I've been commissioned to do a drawing for a friend so I'll be doing that tomorrow. Cars aren't exactly my favorite thing in the world to draw, but hey, it's money.

Later!

Can someone PLEASE tell me...

... What the FUCK is up with Robert Downey Jr.'s hair!?

Robert, baby, you know I love you but this is NOT sexy. Just like this "Simon Le Bon impersonator" look here:

Blonde is NOT your color. And do I see lipstick? Or is your mouth normally that pink?


Or this... I'm not even sure what this is. I'm without words. Except maybe, "HOLY CRAP."

A prismatic gold lame shirt? And a white suit? What was he doing, attending the Futuristic Pimp Awards or something!?

Gives me a headache. Allow me to collect my wits for a moment.

Okay... I realize that this is a rare slip-up. He's normally so handsome, so put-together. But really, I can't believe Susan let him walk out of the house like that.

Anyway. Let's just put this ugly mess behind us, shall we?

Ah, there we go!


(DISCLAIMER! This was written by an extremely bored person with WAY too much time on her hands!)

UPDATE! I went to see Due Date and it was HILARIOUS! You should all go check it out!

The Most Depressing Movie Ever

I got The Road from Netflix today, excited because I've wanted to see it forever- I love Viggo Mortensen, I knew the soundtrack would be amazing because Nick Cave and Warren Ellis did it, and John Hillcoat is a brilliant director and if you don't know that familiarize yourself with his work.

The story is about a father and son, trying to get to the east coast after the Apocalypse. They spend the entire movie covered in a thick layer of dirt and grime, and Viggo's teeth develop a lovely greenish-brown film. Charlize Theron is in very little of the movie- she leaves when Viggo refuses to kill her and their son and then commit suicide to avoid the surely-terrible future. The rest of her scenes are flashbacks.

There are roaming tribes of cannibals, bomb shelters, and near-misses with said cannibals. There is one particularly horrifying scene where the father and son (they don't have names) go into a house to find food and shelter and end up finding a cellar with a dozen or so half-naked malnourished people, some with missing limbs. There are bloody meathooks EVERYWHERE. They escape, but just barely, when the cellar people try to make a run for it and the cannibals have to make sure their food supply (ugh...) doesn't run off.

I found myself, though fascinated, wondering when the movie would end. It's just under two hours, but it felt like a lifetime watching all that suffering. Cormac McCarthy wrote some scary shit into that novel. And it's scary because it's entirely possible. We may see it in our lifetimes. I don't want to think about having to run away from people that want to fucking EAT ME, but the thought stays with me.

Don't get me wrong. The Road is a GREAT movie. But it's one of those films that you can only watch when you're in a depression and you need to have a good cry. Or when you're into something scary that isn't all about blood and guts the way horror movies are (which, by the way, I don't find scary, they're just gross). I'll never be able to watch that last scene without crying buckets- hearing that sweet boy say "Papa" over and over again when he realized his father was gone put me over the edge. I felt on the verge of tears through the whole thing but that did it for me.

I'm not one for the so-called "classic" novels, either, but I would read Cormac McCarthy before I EVER touched anything by Faulkner or one of the other supposedly great American writers. I can see how Nick Cave's first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, garnered comparisons. It was probably intentional, but still.

So... Anyway... Check it out. But be forewarned, it's a tough watch.