Belated Answer-to-Suggestions post

Well, Daniel answered my call for suggestions! Here are his questions, and my answers:

What music are you listening to right now?

Okay, I'd like to say I'm listening to something artsy like classical or some obscure indie artist, but I've gotta be honest. Coldplay. Pretty much solidly Coldplay. I love their sound, it just "clicks" with me like you were describing in one of your posts. Aside from them, I also really enjoy Bubbly by Colbie Calliat, Daughters by John Mayer, and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

If you had to eat only one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? And why?

Realistic answer: Tofu, I think. Lots of protein and I like the taste.
Unrealistic answer: Chocolate, maybe with some coffee added or something. xD


Thanks so much for your reply, Daniel! I really appriciate it. :D

EDIT: I have another reply!

"Antonia" (LOL, K, I love it!) asks:

What will your life look like in 10 years?

Good question. I can't be sure, really. What I think I'd like to happen, though:
I'd like to be married, maybe with a kid already. I'd like to work with the disabled, specifically children, and ideally teaching them the arts. I don't know where I'd be, possibly where I am currently, or maybe somewhere else in Canada.

How I remember stuff

This is a random post. If you don't like random posts, well, then skip down to the journal one, that's not especially random.


So anyway, most sane people write their to-do lists on paper, right? Problem. I always lose them and they end up getting written on again and then thrown away.

Solution:

See? I remembered to blog about my notebook thanks to a sharpie and my arm!

One problem with this way to remember things is if you're going somewhere fancy...Then long sleeves are important.

Hand bound journal!

Today, thanks to a book binding class run by Josh and Arlene I bound my very own journal!

Spine and front

Who could resist such awesome purple polka-dot paper?

I added some beads to the woven binding for an extra touch.

I was super, super thrilled with how it turned out and it seems they and Dawn (who's running an art class out of the same place) are getting some artistic talent out of me I never knew was there!

And best of all, I seem to be over my blogger's block!

Until next time,
Dorothy

So sorry

I just wanted to apologize for my horrible lack of posting. I realize it's been like 2 weeks and yeah, I really need to blog.
So why can't I think of anything to blog about? Maybe you can help.
I'm inspired by Daniel's question idea, so please comment and give suggestions about what to blog about. It can be anything. I shall try to do them.

I don't think this apology made much sense. It's 1AM and I'm half-asleep. Hmmm.

Halloween Costumes- A Rant

Yesterday I was browsing around a local halloween store for costume ideas. I was sickened, however by how skimpy a lot of them were, and the worst ones were marketed toward teens!
Any other day of the year they would be considered borderline-pornographic, and yet this is what we're encouraging our youth to wear?
I tried on a Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz) costume and it didn't even make it half way down my thigh! If I had bent over I would have flashed everyone.
Dorothy is portrayed as a child! She's not a prostitute, so why are they selling costumes that head that direction? L. Frank Baum would be rolling in his grave if he saw that.
Gah! It just grinds my gears. Is this what halloween is about now? Looking as "sexy" as possible?

Anyway, it really really bothers me. But speaking of halloween, what are you guys going as, if anything? Any ideas for my costume?
Comment! Discuss my incoherent ranting. You know you want to.

NaNoWriMo 2009!

With NaNoWriMo 37 days away from starting I figured it deserved a blog post!
If you haven't checked out the website yet, do yourself a favour and look at it. Even if you're not into writing, it's a really neat challenge to watch others do.

Last year I did some sort of fantasy novel, about (don't laugh at me here) this girl who's family is abnormally...normal. I know, it sounds really dumb, and I think it did sort of end up that way. But hey, I wrote it in a month. I hit the 50K mark with it, but never actually finished it, primarily because my most recent chapter was basically this guy running back and forth and I'd have to have revised it dramatically to actually get anywhere with the next chapter.

This year I hope to win with a completely different sort of novel, a murder mystery set in a ballet company. It's a bit of a long shot for me since I haven't even read all that many mysteries, nevermind written them, but the idea is stuck in my head now, and it's the only one I've got.

NaNo is perfect for me because I love writing but don't tend to write unless I have either a specific assignment or a strict deadline. Last year I wrote about 5 times more than I ever have before, and in a month! I learnt an incredible amount, about writing, deadlines, and how much coffee helps those two things along.

So, my blogging buddies, my challenge to you is to join me in my writing quest! Comment or make a reply to my post on your blog about what you're doing for NaNo this year!

Make music out of a shoe box!

So recently on this ukulele forum I go on, people were talking about DIY ukuleles. A more traditional version of this being the famed cigar box uke which is a ukulele that uses a cigar box as its body.

Photo of CBU (cigar box ukes) from Wikipedia

Others have made ukuleles out of cookie tins, shoe boxes, and tin cans, and surprisingly, they all sound pretty good.

It's neat that you can make music out of everyday objects, things others would throw away. I think with pollution getting worse and landfills getting full, people are going to have to start looking at things differently.
Do you really need to throw that shoe box in the trash? Even if you can't make a uke out of it (goodness knows I couldn't) you could make it into a drum, or use it for organizing a closet or storing small items.

It makes me think about what I'm throwing away. I don't want to be a pack rat, but I don't want to waste good stuff.
Or how about, if you can't use something, like a shirt that doesn't fit or that cell phone that's still in good condition, donate it to a second hand shop. There's probably someone looking for something just like that.

This of course, makes me want to grab a shoe box and some strings and try. But I think for the time being I'll learn how to re-string my Mahalo. :)

What are your thoughts on this? What things have you made out of scrap materials? Comment!

~Dot