Goodbye Michael Jackson

I am so shocked right now. Michael Jackson had a heart attack and is now dead.

I used to listen to his music and dance to his music videos and everything, when everyone else would be listening to the spice girls or whatever.

Me and my sister would do the Thriller dance. And I totally wanted to go to a concert of his.

Come to think of it, he was pretty the only pop artist I really listened to until the endish of middle school

A brilliant performer and musician.


About 10% of my iPod has his music. I Think I want to go watch the WIZ now or our DVDs of his videos or something.

Can you say great?


I'm not going to deny, I'm sure the guy had some intense psychological issues, seeing as his father made the Jackson 5 perform at strip clubs when he was like 5, so he could get them out of Gary, Indiana and once they made a hit record, they never stopped. He wanted to be talked about all the time, no matter what it was for because I think he was obsessed with his fame and couldn't bear to fade from it gracefully. I wouldn't be surprised if this death thing was all fake and he popped out of some house somewhere and went "SIKE" because, check iTunes. ALL of his albums are back at the tops of the charts. I think he would have been thrilled to pieces about that. But yeah, I think now that he's at the pearly gates or the spirit world or wherever he will get a reality check from someone up there. I mean Michael, you're great and I love your stuff, I like the twinkly gloves and socks and the cool outfits, and your music and all that, But THIS


is taking it a little far. Crazy crap like this was all in his house. I think he needed to get a reality check, and he is sure to get one, now that he's dead.

Hopefully some of his dancing talent will fall upon me. Heaven knows I need better dancing skills.

New haircut

So a couple days ago I got an impulse haircut.

Before

After


I like it. My sister said it looked motherly... not the look I was going for thats for sure.

I need to move more. My job keeps me pretty sedentary and when I get home all I want to do is sleep. not good.

UP up and away

(Spoilerific Post. You have been warned)
So I finally saw UP in theaters today, and I honestly can't decide what I think of it.
Was it a good movie?
Absolutely.
Would I want to buy it on DVD?
Not sure.

My reasoning behind it, is that It hat me totally weepy right at the end of that first montage. That is not to say I hate movies with sadness in them. I REALLY like Bambi, and to me that is one of the most touching death scenes ever. Also I really like Titanic and Moulin Rouge which both end very tragically. but UP had me tearing up more than once. The reason I think for it I think was because. Carl's life was very real. As much as I hate to admit it, Most likely, one spouse or the other is going to go before the other one (Unless you're like those fools in the Notebook) It was even more sad, because Carl's love for Ellie was still as strong as it was at the beginning, and when she died he totally was missing part of himself.
Also when he got the court summons that was really sad for me too, just because of his facial expression.
And when Russell was confessing about how his dad sort of ditched him and when he didn't show up to the wilderness explorer thing, It was SO sad to me.

Kevin was cute though.

Also Dug was adorable.

The colors were fantastic, and the nuances in the changes in saturation were excellent.

I loved their attention to detail. Making Carl's beard kind of grow, and Dug's paw's dirty and everything.

Bravo Pixar for making a great movie. Even if it's not my kind of tear-jerker.

Sweeping Mines

At work, I have taken to playing a lot of mine sweeper. I think I will be a pro at it by the end of the summer. The next time there is a huge war, they should let me, and JK Rowling go out and find mines (Apparently she plays it a lot and is really good at it. Who knew?). Today I was extremely tired when I went to work on account of me not being able to sleep for some reason or another last night, so I went down to the basement, flipped on the TV to Disney Channel, and went to sleep.
I awoke to my mom being annoying about how I had spilled packing peanuts on the floor and needed to clean them up, and also she was mad at me for getting makeup on her towel.

You see, yesterday I went to the singles ward, and I don't normally wear makeup at all but I have been watching Mad Men a lot lately. Its a show about men in the business of advertising all during 1960. All of them cheat on their wives. All of them smoke, and drink constantly. Even the pregnant ladies. Th women get no respect, and they see Jewish people as a completely different people. Its very interesting to watch, in that less-cheesy-than-a-soap-opera-but-just-as-addicting kind of way. Anyway, Don Draper, can be summed up in this video, and actually the whole vibe of the show as well:


He has/had this assistant named Peggy, and she, compared to the other girls looks awful with her lank hair and nasty bangs,and her pale, colorless face. I did not want to look like Peggy on my first visit to the singles ward. Since first impressions are really important, and lately I want to make everyone think I'm really chic and classy. I did not realize this when I was in middle school , or indeed most of high school, so I walked around wearing too-big shirts, and had my hair out of control. (at my hair in a ponytail used to be as big as my head. Looking back at photos from that time makes me cringe) As a result I think everyone thought of me as this huge dork/nerdy person. So now its time to throw away that image, and start anew. So, to do that I needed to cover up my nasty acne scars. and I spilled that dumb Bare Minerals makeup everywhere, and got it on my mom's white covers. and like an idiot, when I couldn't dust everything off I rubbed it in with a wet towel which naturally just made it worse. I am 19. You'd think I'd know better by now. Anyway, when I decided that I did enough damage I wiped my palms, which by this point were unnaturally brown from trying to do damage control, on my moms towel, and had to high tail it out of there. And thats the story of why my mom was mad at me this morning....

Anyway I went to work wearing black pants, a white shirt and penny loafers a la Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face


I feel like I can only wear penny loafers if I have recently seen Funny Face because, I feel like they are kind of old person shoes. At least mine are patent leather so it youths them down a little.

At work I sad and played minesweeper, and did nothing until the owner was like "are you keeping busy?"
I was like "Oh ya" which is a lie, but the work folder she has me do makes me want to shoot myself. Figuratively of course. The spreadsheets and shortening the word "Lane" to "Ln" or "Avenue" to "Ave" in the addresses so they can spend less money on ink.

its so boring,

Speeding away.

So, I was driving home from my babysitting gig today and on this one road there is a Speeding Camera I always always always slow far down so as not to get busted by that thing. Well today, I think I was the only one on the road, I don't know, but I saw the camera flash right in my shocked face. I had just come down this hill so I was going a little faster than I wanted to be going, but I wasn't THAT much over the speed limit. Less than 5 miles over I am sure. I just googled speeding cameras in the area, apparently they only bust you if you are going 11 mph over the limit. I am sure I wasn't going 41 in the 30 zone. I have a lot of anxiety about this. Oh jeez. At least the ticket is only $40

Art!



Random stuff. say a prince gets turned into a robot by a wicked witch. and his true love finally found him. And Rapunzel or someone a poor girl trapped in a tower. Sorry they aren't separate. I didn't feel like going up to the PC and scanning it and emailing it to myself. Too much of a hassle.

don't know how I feel about these. I liked them in concept, but not so much anymore. did in Gouache. Its like what would happen if watercolor and acrylic had a baby. I kind of like it. we aren't quite friends yet, but I'll keep working at it.

Art History.

Well I don't have any good recent art, so now its time to look at art history through the ages. Ages of about 13-18 to be specific.



This is something I did when I was 13 I think. My Dad's office had this art competition for the kids of the people that worked there. I submitted this. I worked SO hard on it. I pretty much thought I was going to get first place for my age group. Well I got 3rd place after these two girls. The Huong Sisters. One was younger than me, and it made me super angry that I was bested by someone that was my junior. At the time I really liked drawing cats. Apparently I didn't know what cats looked like. Also the perspective is messed up. Lets just say its my fancy artists way of making sure you can see the fish on the table. Also the cat's cushion is way too far in the foreground to actually be right next to the table. C'est la vie. Its art.


I drew this when I was in 10th grade. We were reading the Odyssey. There is this part where Athena turns into a little boy to tell somebody something. The book always talked about her sparkling eyes, so we put glitter in them. We meaning my group. We had to present a scene from it and we had this thing where we moved my drawings around on the chalkboard. We also had hills and treasure. Anyway, Athena has bad posture. I dunno she's not all that original looking. I'm still not great at making people look unique. Well girls. I'm ok at making men look individual. Its hard to make a girl look pretty and individual at the same time for me.

Florals!


This is my second entry in that art contest the next year. I think my skills improved. I drew some fake orchids my mom had. They were actually white, but a yellow light was shining on that and I couldn't capture it well. I am bad at doing things subtilely. So I just turned it into a yellow orchid. Its supposed to be in front of a window, but it sort of turned out looking more like a cross or something. I almost ruined this by trying to make it look more like a window, since people get touchy about religion around here. Anyway it was alright enough to make it to third place. Thwarted again by the Huong Sisters.


I did this for the ward directory. The Relief Society President heard I had art skills, and asked me to draw it without ever seeing my drawings. Talk about a leap of faith. I think I did this when I was 17 or so. She was impressed because I think she was expecting a lame bouquet with traditional flowers like daisies or roses, but I added all of these bright big flowers and put them in a shiny rainboot. I had a thing for shiny red rainboots. And rain in general at this time. I sort of felt there was something romantic about rain or something.


Did this when I was 18. I was running out of time for my AP portfolio so I was just doing anything. I did this with color pencil. My mom got these tulips from her visiting teacher so I took them and drew them. I didn't finish the first night and the next day they looked kind of different. and they continued to do so until they opened up super wide and started dropping petals. Again its in front of a window since I'm stupid and unoriginal. At least it kind of looks more window like. Sort of. I really failed at the jewelry box I think. Big surprise. I got a 1 on my AP portfolio. I was really relieved when I heard BYU didn't take AP art scores.


This is the one that finally gave my success in the art contest. Tai Shan the baby panda was born that year and D.C. was CRAZY about pandas. So I drew one. a not half bad one if I say so myself. I got first place. My life is full of this kind of thing, Almost making it a couple times and then succeeding in the end after I work hard. I was 15 I think. Maybe 16 tops.


nother stupid AP artwork. I was really crunched for time so I was doing anything. Its a boring bear on a boring couch, the end.


Did this when after I was a BYU for a while. Its crazy. I like it. The girl is still sort of boring and generic. I don't know how to fix that.

Compared to This Which I did less than a year before, I think I've improved.




I like Tutus and giraffes, and this Michael Jackson song called carousel. That inspired this. unfortunately I did that psychedelic one on the back of this page in my sketchbook, and my copic markers bled through.I lightened up her face i=digitally because I used chalk pastel on this and it sort of made her face look dirty by the end. It looks sort of funky, but I think It would make a cool painting. I kinda want to do more circus pictures. I was 17 when I did this maybe 18

Carousel - Michael Jackson


I like vintage-y looking people. So I drew this chick. She's boring. 18.

Inspiration of the wrong variety

Sorry, no fantastic art from me tonight guys. Why? because I have a problem. Actually, several problems.

1. I have a job that takes up a good portion of the day.

2. I suspect I am an insomniac or else I am nocturnal at heart because I nearly never go to sleep before 2 AM.

3. When I come home from work, all I want to do is sit around looking at blogs, checking my facebook for non-existent notifications, or take dumb personality quizzes, eating ice cream, and reading really stupid fanfics for twilight which I am realizing is kind of a stupid book. A fact that I am reluctant to admit, because when I was 16 and first started reading them, I had a frienemy totally slam the thing. I don't like the fact that she was probably right.

4. That laziness is coupled with the fact that I have terrible seasonal allergies preventing me from wanting to venture outside, and my allergy meds don't seem to have the same kick they used to. Also those allergies seem to have turned into a horrible cold. Or else I have the swine flu. I have gone through far too many tissues, and not being able to breathe well is a hinderance towards my desire to be energetic.

5. Its been raining for days. Also hindering that desire to go outside.

6. The blogs I have been reading are mostly about fashion. Vintage Fashion. AKA my second love. I'm inspired to go shopping and be stylish every day. I also want to get a retro haircut. I have been researching that kind of thing so I can come back in the fall looking really stylish all the time.

What's so bad about all that? Well, besides my starting to get extraordinarily lazy, I also have no desire to go out and draw. I had my sketchbook when I went with my mom and sister to KFC and drew two horrible sketches of people eating their chicken, and waiting for their order before my mom came and was all "Whatcha drawing? Why are you drawing in pen?" I am self conscious about drawing around people that don't draw on account of their not understanding the process very well, and their being disappointed or something when my drawings turn out to be really sketchy or whatever.

I need sleep so I have energy to go somewhere and find a hotspot for people sitting around for semi-long periods of time.

But I don't wanna go to bed.

Yesterday, from the inspirational fashion blogs I've read, I had a sudden desire to photograph all my jewelry. I covered the flash and it gave everything a red tint, which I played with a little with the photo editing junk on iPhoto.



See the Claratin on the table?

I took at least 20 variations of this photo.

I am so dumb.