Author: Shelly

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Instant Review: Survivor Finale

Shelly

I stayed up way past my bedtime on Sunday, watching the Survivor finale. I was really hoping Yau-man would win, but Earl was my second pick, so I wasn’t too disappointed.

Howsomever! I was thoroughly squicked out by Alex. I found him just about intolerable on the show, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was just as gross in the finale. O ick. I don’t know which grossed me out more, the seductive looks into the camera or the way he attacked Cassandra. The whole thing was foul. I had to laugh, though, when he accused Cassandra of befriending Stacy, then turning on her and voting her out. Hello?! Cassandra never voted for Stacy. Not one single time. And where does he get off complaining about people using others and being manipulative? Did he forget what show he was on?

Crankypantsing, Pets

Mystery Solved

Shelly

Do you ever have one of those days that should be skipped? When you know you should just go back to bed and try again tomorrow? Well, it’s early yet, but today seems to be heading down that path.

I got up this morning–after being kept awake half the night by Mr. Upstairs stomping around his apartment–to find that some jerk had parked a U-Haul behind my car. What the hell?! So I had to wander around the apartment complex, looking for a likely suspect. Knocking on strangers’ doors is not on my to-do list, and having to do so at 6am is enough to make my head implodiate. I did finally find our neighborhood asschapeau, though, by knocking on doors of apartments without curtains.

Speaking of Mr. Upstairs, I had to call and complain about him again. The office person said that the complaints do go in his file, and that after so many (she didn’t quantify “so many”) they will take action. She didn’t say if action meant fines or eviction or what, and I didn’t ask, because I was too cranky. It was good to find out that he really is being given written notification of each complaint, and that they are anonymous. Not that he couldn’t figure out that I’m the irritated party, but still.

In better news, Miss Brown received another compliment on her deportment. I believe the exact words were “What a good dog!” Ha! She is charming, for sure, but believe me, it is all a carefully calculated act. Also, while outside on her tie-out, she played peek-a-boo with my across-the-hall neighbor, who said it was very cute. Neighbor said she went out on her patio, and Harriet had her head craned around the end of the privacy fence partition, watching her. She called to Harriet, who ducked back around to our side of the partition. I was watching Harriet from inside my apartment, and it was pretty darned cute.

And speaking of my across-the-hall neighbor, she solved the Mr. Raccoon mystery! She puts out food for the stray cats, and Mr. Raccoon has been thieving it for years. He’s apparently quite brazen, and will hang around her patio and even peer into her window at dinner time.

Also, three more two-page spreads in the Equations art journal. If I keep this up, I may finish it before next Giftmas!

Art, Crankypantsing, Photography

Plaster and Paper

Shelly

Still no computer. Still cranky as hell.

Other than that, it was a (mostly) lovely weekend. I got a lot of arting done. I can’t play show-and-tell, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. I’ve been mostly playing around with re-creating the patina on crumbling old plaster walls. It’s actually pretty easy, and involves gesso, Caran d’Ache Neocolors II (other water soluble crayons may work just as well, but I haven’t tried them), and baby wipes. It takes a little practice to blend, then partially remove the color, but it’s not difficult. It helps to periodically refold the baby wipe, because unused portions will remove more crayon than those that are have been clogged with pigment.

I’ve also found that paper grocery bags are excellent foundations for this technique, because of the way they are folded and, after use, slightly crumpled. Even after ironing, the crumples show through the layers of gesso and crayon. The only drawback to using them is that they are not archival. There may be similar papers available that are, but I suspect that it would be difficult to find one that had the same weight and fibrous quality as used grocery bags.

Teach Hiúdí Néill 11

Teach Hiúdí Néill 4
Teach Hiúdí Néill by Seán Ó Domhnaill, published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license

Frustration is: Six two-page spreads in an art journal and no way to share them. So, for now, you’ll just have to make do with beautiful photos of real crumbling walls.

Happy damned Monday, everyone!

[ETA: This originally was illustrated with different photos, which of course have disappeared from Flickr.]

Photography

Flickr Find

Shelly

Derelict Ireland, Scattery Island, County Clare
Derelict Ireland, Scattery Island, County Clare by Mark Waters, shared under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

In my Flickr trollings, I stumbled across this lovely image of two old, abandoned cottages in County Clare, Ireland.

Did you know that you can do an advanced search in Flickr, and constrain your results to images that are Creative Commons licensed?

You can also blog some images directly from Flickr (depending on how the owner has configured permissions), though the result is less than perfect. The default image dimensions are small, and the attribution leaves a little to be desired. So, if that drives you nuts, and if the license allows you to make derivatives, you can save and upload the image to your own space and make it whatever size you want. Just make sure to attribute it properly, and to provide a courtesy link to the photographer’s Flickr profile.

Meta

Text Color

Shelly

Y’all will’ve noticed that the text color has changed. I got some complaints about the grey being difficult to read, so I darkened it up. It’s not quite black, but it’s very close. Hopefully, that will help. I could also increase the text size, but that’s easy to do on the viewer’s end (usually under your web browser’s View menu, plus there are keyboard and mouse shortcuts), so I’d rather not mess with it if I don’t have to.

Crankypantsing, Meta, Pets

Wake-up Calls

Shelly

I suddenly woke up at 2am and remembered that I had to renew my domain name. Oops! It expired yesterday. All is well, though. Those 2am reminders are a pain in the ass, but they usually make enough of an impression that they stick with me.

Still haven’t decided what to do about my computer. Also, still cranky as hell about it!

A cute Harriet story:

I’ve been letting her hang out on the patio, on a tie-out, while I’m in the living/dining room and can keep an eye/ear on her. This allows her to have time to mooch around, eat grass, lie in the sun, and watch the wee woodland critters, all of which she enjoys tremendously.

There are usually other dogs outside, most of them hanging out on upper balconies. Harriet knows she’s not supposed to bark (I bring her in as soon as she does), so when the other dogs bark at her, she’s taken to MOOOing back at them. She sounds *exactly* like a very small cow. It is crazy cute. You can actually see when she is getting ready to moo, because she stretches out her neck–just like a cow!–, lowers her head, and takes a deep breath. Then, she purses up her lips and MOOOOOOOs.

Crankypantsing, Meta

Mah Motherboard, She Go ‘Splodey!

Shelly

On the list of things you do not want to wake up to on a Saturday morning, I think I’d add “Dead Motherboard” somewhere near the top.

What that means is that I now have no computer at home, so any updating I do will have to be done before work. Hrmf! I had no idea just how much I used my computer, but lemme tell ya’, I nearly tore my hair out this weekend.

I think I’ve found a decent bare-bones kit, but “some assembly required” is an understatement. I’ve installed hardware before, but never a motherboard. Eeep!