I'll Make the Movie

Frustrations

2011-08-29T16:18:00.000-04:00

I made this while dealing with some Adobe Illustrator frustrations. You'll note that no part of this wallpaper was made in Adobe Illustrator.

Because I Can

2011-01-27T09:14:00.002-05:00

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

2010-12-10T17:51:00.000-05:00

Even when I was a kid, people - sometimes strangers - would tell me that I ought to draw children's book illustrations. And I wholeheartedly agreed.

When I was 8 I wrote and illustrated a book for my youngest sister. My mom helped me make a hard cover for it out of cardboard and cloth and she stitched in the binding.
Encouraged, I illustrated a bunch more, but those had less impressive staple binding and copy-paper covers.

At the age of 12 I wrote and illustrated another book and submitted it as a 4-H art project at the county fair. I got a blue ribbon and went to the state fair where the judges looked at me as if I had gotten lost.

It's been a long time coming, but I'm proud to present my first ever, full color children's book. It's not technically mine - it's the Amish couple's who published it. I'm just sort of the in-house illustrator. But it's all public domain nursery rhymes and my illustrations, so it feels like mine.

It's 43 pages long, hardcover and is printed on glossy paper with gorgeous, full-bleed color.

You can pick it up in Amish shops in Northern Indiana and you want to order it drop me a line on etsy or facebook or twitter and I'll get you the contact info for ordering your own copy.

I've got little previews of the illustrations inside here, here and here.

Silent Songbird

2010-11-15T10:29:00.000-05:00

I have a condition called Fibyomyalgia. Or Myofascial Pain Syndrome. Or both. My doctors didn't agree and now I don't have health insurance so it's a little unclear.

The main thing is, my muscles hurt.

I'm not a person that this is a big deal for.
Some people have such severe pain that they can't work, it's hard to sleep, and even small household chores can wipe them out for the day. I hold down a full time job, keep my apartment respectable, sell my personal art on the side, volunteer weekly, and have a decent social life.

But every now and again it becomes problematic.

It isn't the biggest problem I've had, but this past week I've had a bit of a pain in my jaw. At first I thought my teeth hurt and I had cavities again and, I won't lie, I was pretty upset. But as I considered it more I realized that my teeth were not bothered by crunching up hard foods, drinking ice-water, or eating sweets - all cavity related issues that popped up last time.

I came to realize that actually my jaw didn't hurt at all in the early morning (like it might if I were grinding my teeth at night) or in the late evening (when, this week, I've been home alone).

Kids, my mouth has been hurting whenever I've been singing! I tend to sing when I'm in the car or the tv is off in my apartment (though I try to not, because I figure my neighbors have never done anything to deserve that)
So I decided to quit. It's not like I sing well, so what's the big deal?

Oh. Apparently I love to sing. I catch myself trying to sing all the time. I hear the chorus of a song I love and I just want to belt it out. It's been all of two days since I had this revelation and I'm going nuts!

Butterfly Princess

2010-10-19T13:20:00.000-04:00

Apparently I've never listed this to my shop before, even though it's a print I designed quite some time ago and presented at other venues. I have several friends who get excited about princesses and formal wear so I drew this especially for them.

Because

2010-05-06T14:32:00.000-04:00

Because this site sometimes still gets views, I thought I'd let it be known that I'm shutting it down and starting a new blog over at www.everybodyillustrated.blogspot.com with cartoons and random snippets.

.

2009-05-28T22:51:00.002-04:00

I know no one reads this any more. I'm ok with that. I just need to write.

It seems like a lot of death is happening lately.

A kid I used to know killed himself this week. It's been years since his family moved away. In my head he's six. His family never even saw it coming.

When I was in high school my friends talked a lot about killing themselves, but most of them never even attempted it. This kid, just out of the blue is gone. No warning signs. No note. Just gone.

I don't usually cry when people die. Maybe because no one I know well died young. Maybe because I don't cry over much anyway. Suicides always make me cry though. Even if I don't know the person at all. It's not so much for them, but the people left behind, trying to figure out why their love wasn't enough.

You know when someone dies of disease or in an accident, even if it's a kid people always say to remember the good times. And you know that at least you had that and that at least you loved each other. But suicide's so cruel, all you can do is wonder what went wrong. When did things start going bad? Last month? Last year? Were they ever good?

I get why people contemplate suicide. Life's hard. Death's easy. I get it.
I always wonder though about suicides. Did they imagine how it would be for their family? For their friends? Could they see how it would play out? Did they care? Do they think about the hole they're leaving?

Whenever I hear teenagers talking about doing something unhealthy. Suicide. Illegal activities. Running away. I always want to ask them if they love their family. I know they'll say yes. They'd stop a bullet for their family. Maybe they would. I don't know. I just think if you love people you do what's best for them. Sometimes what's best for people is for you to live a good life. Graduate. Get a job. Pay your bills. Visit at Christmas. Be polite. Stay alive.
It doesn't take a whole lot to love the people who love you back.

DZ Fantasy Feature

2008-12-31T16:18:00.006-05:00

I just got featured on DZ Fantasy's blog. Check it out!

In other good news, my boss gave me an extra day off! That's exciting because I get to spend some more time at my parent's and with some friends.

Today's favorites from Etsy!

Jupita makes some awesome bracelets out of beads and recycled Starbucks gift cards.

I really like Coffee Talk and I adore Star(bucks) in Her Eyes.

Maybe it's mostly because I adore the artwork on most Starbucks brochures, pamphlets, & gift cards, but I'm also a fan of the way Jupita cuts them up and there certainly is an art to how she strings them together with other beads.

And while I have never held one in my hand the quality looks stellar.

Lily Queen also has some lovely jewelry. I don't know if it's the most unique stuff I've seen around, but I just think it's put together beautifully.

I adore the clasp on the Berry Bracelet. And these Toffee Drop Earrings manage to be orginal and elegant at the same time. My absolute favorite, the one I would buy if I actually had extra money (oh how I wish I had extra money!) is this beautiful Flying Across the Lawn Bracelet.

She has TWO in stock which I find immensely comforting.

That Silly Girl is somewhat limited in her selection, but I love the Amy Butler Lotus Pouch. A little bit Retro, a little bit Modern. A lot orange. Just great all together really. So many things that look 70s also look tacky, but this looks 70s to me and it looks really, really class as well.

Vaca!

2008-12-29T00:11:00.004-05:00

Mostly I'm not doing anything interesting on my vacation. I draw, watch movies and put up with my sibling's Fable obsession.

Last night Holly, Bethy & I went to see Valkyrie. We were out so late that I nearly suggested Bethy and I skip Sunday School because I was so tired. I wish we had, the whole thing was more than usually frustrating.

Tommorow, Bethy and I are going shopping because a beloved aunt sent us gift cards to Barne's & Noble. Bliss.

I've also been spending a fair amount of time promoting my etsy store because...well I'd like to sell things. But promoting it has also made me realizing how HARD it is to get exposure, so in the interest of helping others, here are a few of my current favorites:

The Pair A Birds makes lovely (and pricey) prints that I adore. The style is just amazing. I might be a little bit jealous - actually.
My favorites are Orson and Melba in the Field of Marshmallows, Ruby, and Poison Ivy.

I love the Whirl Ring by Rafya. I love the color and it just seems unique. The beauty of handmade. The "whirl" is made of cold clay (I have no idea what that is) but the base is adjustable. And $12 is a pretty sweet price.

The only reason I'm mentioning Faeried Treasures in this post is that I feel confident that the impressive lady who makes them will make more should the items I adore be bought up. If I did not believe this I would hide it from you all.
I think these little owl earrings are the cutest ever. Forget that owls are a fad - I would love them no matter what (and so should you!). These are actually made of vintage beads and come in a variety of colors.
I also love these In the Tall Trees earrings. They're so elegant!

That's it for today. I don't want to be overwhelming, but I do think I'll keep posting my favorites. Not many people read my blog, but some exposure is better than none - I think.

Merry Christmas and all that jazz

2008-12-26T13:07:00.003-05:00

Christmas came and went, everyone loved their gifts, hurray and fun times.

It was a dvd Christmas at our house. My brother got The Empirers New Groove, the tenth season of Stargate, and I, Robot. My dad got the 3rd season of Star Trek, the first of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Get Smart.

We enjoy our sci-fi here.

Bethy gave Daniel a binary clock just to solidfy his nerd status.

I've mostly just been relaxing. I took a quiz on teen slang (I'm the coolest mom ever! Now if I only had kids!) and I've been posting on the etsy boards to try and increase my page views (and sales). I'm going to be featured on http://dzfantasy.blogspot.com next week, so that's a plus!

Bethy and Holly both have to work so it's kinda slow around here, but on the up side, I got 10 1/2 hours of sleep last night!

Wave Jumping

2008-12-16T21:18:00.003-05:00

My latest drawing. I did the actual line work while I was on the cruise, but I've only just now finished it up. The girl's swimsuit was inspired by one of the little girls on the boat, but sadly there was no wave jumping during the cruise. That was my one let down about the cruise...no beach. I love to swim in the ocean.

Also, I've posted a new card on Etsy, so check it out!

Greeting Cards and Fun Stuff like that

2008-12-05T22:06:00.004-05:00

My new Etsy shop is up at EverybodyElse.etsy.com - I'm excited about it. Tell your family and friends. And, any feedback you have would be appreciated because I'm new at this and I don't know what the heck I'm doing!

Etsy Shop Name?

2008-12-03T22:15:00.002-05:00

I'm getting ready to set up my online card shop. I'm having trouble deciding what to name it though. I'm thinking that my current log on name of "littlecynicism" (which under etsy would also be my shop name) is not such a good pick. For one thing, my drawings aren't cynical at all. People usually coo things like "sweet", "dear" or "precious". For another, I've found that most people can't type the word cynicism correctly more than 5 times out of ten.

So, I know I should have my own ideas, but I'm kinda unsure.

Just to be clear, anything along the lines of "Melody's Art & Cards" or "Designs by Melody" is not going to happen. The trouble is coming up with something unique...but not so unique that people can't remember it.

Christmas Shopping

2008-11-25T18:47:00.009-05:00

It's that time of year when everyone expects you to get them stuff, so it's time for another shopping post by me. Last year's posst continue to get the most hits out of anything I write. Not all that surprising.

I'll start off by plugging the Etsy shop of my friend Crystal aka indiglow84.

Crystal makes her own felted beads, the necklace and earring set pictured also feature some nice antique beads. I also especially like this necklace with green felted beads with tiny sea shells, but of course the butterfly necklace is lovely too, so I'd really recommend any of them.

Of course if you like the felted style there is plenty out there for the clinically insane...

I've not linked to them because the likelihood of anyone wanting to purchase them...

She's not selling them on Etsy right now, but Crystal also makes some cute magnets. I can only assume that she'll be selling them at the craft fair (December 6th!).

Pretend for a second that felt is the theme for this post, because I think that these felt trivets I saw on delight.com are awesome. They come as a set of four (in one color).

I'm also a fan of the Bow Lovely Wristlet Clutch from Fred Flare. I'm always a fan of wrislets because my friends seem to boycott purses. Since my purse is huge I end up holding their keys, ids & whatnot. If only they owned one of these (or any) wristlets they could carry it all themselves without feeling so weighed down! I love all things Hello Kitty and so do both of my sisters, so I consider these vinyl Hello Kitties from Urban Outfitters would make an adorable addition to any gift. And at $8 each - so affordable! My one complaint is that you can't choose which one you get, which almost ensures that I will get the one that is least adorable.

Still obsessed with trees, so I think this 100% post consumer recycled material journal with unlined paper - is amazing. The cover's made out of cherry wood!

Continuing the tree obsession - this Little Birch Jewelry Stand (also from Urban Outfitters) is all natural looking (except not, because it's metal).

l

Trauma

2008-11-22T17:01:00.002-05:00

I've had a bad week. In four days I've been in two car wrecks.

The first one was decidedly not my fault. The second was a slide off.

Most of the backroads were ok, so I decided to go the short way. I don't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have risked it in any case. But I did. And I was fine...until I wasn't.

That last road was a sheet of ice and I was only going about 20 mph, but all of a sudden I was also going through a barbed wire fence. Normally when things like that happen you see it in slow-mo. Like the in the movies. This time all I remember is that one second I was on the road in complete control of the truck and the next I was plowing through a fence. There's no in between. It happened that fast.

It's always a weird feeling to me when disaster hits. Because it feels as if my world should be ending. I should be miserable. I should be hysterical. But I'm usually, almost always, quite calm.

I had to work myself up to cry, because I knew I should cry. Because I knew it was awful.

The Amish guy, whose fence was bobbing around in the air, was really nice about the whole thing. Really nice. Like, unfathomably. I just want you to understand how nice he was. There was nothing strained about it. He wasn't angry. The niceness wasn't out of obligation. It wasn't strained. And when he told me not to worry about replacing it, he meant it. It was weird, kids, but oh-so welcome.

I called the office and told them what had happened. It was so completely surreal. People do not have lives like this. Not unless they're me.

One of my co-workers sent her husband out to check out me. He let me know that I should call the cops, since there was property damage. Then my boss came out and sat with me while I waited for police and the actual dismay over what had happened sunk in.

It was a pretty depressing day. I'm not normally sad a lot. I know I don't strike people as being uber happy, but normally I am happy. The lack of happy was almost as bad as anything else that happened. I was so worn out by it that I went to bed around 8 pm and slept for 12 hours!

Today was much better. For some reason walking around in the hidious cold for a couple hours today felt really good and the movie Twilight was not nearly as awful as I thought it would be. I...actually enjoyed it.

I hate what happened, it makes me feel like a terrible person. I hate the amount of money involved and I hate that I broke something. But I can't change it now.

Night Time Snow

2008-11-19T20:00:00.002-05:00

My latest card design. At first I didn't think I was going to like this one as well, but now I think it might be my favorite of the three.

Ech

2008-11-18T21:09:00.002-05:00

Today was sort of non-descript. I designed ads, I fixed photos.

Then I left work and slammed into an old lady running a light.

At first I thought that she just drove off, but it turns out that she slammed into a barbed wire fence. Another lady and two cars of teenagers pulled over to see if I was ok. They'd all seen the lady pull out in front of me and been afraid they were going to hit too. They all agreed to stay and tell the police what they'd seen and they were good company while we waited for the police to arrive.

The policeman was very nice, but he wouldn't let me drive my car away. Might have been something to do with the panel hanging off of it. I'm really hoping it isn't totaled, but I won't know that for a day or two.

My arm hurts, but I think it's just jarred a bit. We'll see how well I feel tommorrow.

Sad Day

2008-11-17T18:13:00.005-05:00

I've been lusting after the Nikon D40 ever since I heard it was coming on the market. I had decided to buy one on Black Friday if I could find a good price. I was browsing online to see what a D40 would go for right now and I came across one that cost $333 on broadwayphoto.com.
I saw good reviews for them on another site so I decided to go for it. I bought a warranty for another $60 and received a confirmation e-mail.

The next afternoon I was woken up from a much needed nap by one of their sales reps confirming my order. He confirmed my address and then tried to tell me that the battery that comes with the Nikon D40 only lasts for 10 minutes. I would need to buy a 1 hour battery for $59 or a 4 hour battery for $89.

Kids, what battery costs $89? Why would Nikon make such a battery? Even being only semi-conscious, this seemed outrageous. I told the fellow so and he insisted that if I found a lower price they would match it and that he could put my order on hold for me until I was sure I wanted to order.

I browsed online and found many replacement batteries for the Nikon to be as low as $13.99, but the clincher for me was when I asked on a Nikon D40/D60 Flickr Group and I got 25 variations on this reply,
"[Broadway Photo is] a scam. The D40 battery is the best in all the camera lines. You can get a D40 battery for cheap on ebay.

Their scam is well reknown, offer a camera cheap, then require a confirmation call. That is where they either say the camera comes without battery and charger, or hard sell you into expensive add ons that you don't want or need. If you refuse to buy, then your camera is put on back order forever. If you cancel they charge you a "restock fee"."

They also pointed me to resellerratings where I discovered that 9 out of 10 people had terrible experiences with Broadway Photo and at least one person had their credit card number used fraudulently soon after their order was placed.

A few people got camera's in good condition after being firm with the salesperson. But most people who went through with their order from Broadway Photo got immitations or their camera was "back ordered" (one person called in pretending to be someone else and discovered that they had 36 of that camera in stock!).

After my innitial findings of cheap, long lasting batteries for the Nikon D40, around every corner - I called Broadway Photo. I hung up after being on hold for about two millenia (or ten minutes, but still kids).

Then I e-mailed Broadway Photo and let them know that I was not impressed with their company and was considering canceling my order. That $333 was just soooo tempting though that I idn't want to cancel just yet (I did not mention that, I told them I could get it almost as cheap elsewhere...and I can, just they're probably a scam too).

But after seeing resellerratings.com and hearing from my new Flickr friends I knew I had to give up on the wildly cheap price and resign myself to paying whatever moderately cheap price comes along on Black Friday.

I called a few minutes ago and told the Broadway Rep I wanted to cancel my order.
"Ok!" he yelled cheerfully over the insane amount of noise in the background, "Would you mind telling me why you want to cancel?"

I explained the discrepencey between their battery prices and every one else's battery prices.

The smug Indian (supposedly this company exists in New York, but I heard no evidence of this) wanted to know where I had gotten my information. He thought he had me, I could hear in his voice that he thought I didn't know anything about anything (after all, if I did why would I be buying from them?). I told him I talked to other Nikon D40 users and that they said the battery that came with their D40 lasted for hours and hours. They didn't have to buy theirs seperately and when they did it didn't cost any old $59 either!

"Hahaha," he cackled, "But they paid $499 for theirs didn't they! Even with the battery you'll save $70!"

"But the batteries don't cost that much. I checked. I can buy the same thing for $20."

I couldn't understand the next bit, so finally I just interuppted and said, "Sir, I know it is a scam. You're trying to sell me some cheap piece of crap. I want to cancel my order."

Then he was an angry Indian. He told me that they weren't a scam and that I needed to check all my facts before I started accussing anyone of anything. I was about to reply that he needed to improve his customer service, but he snapped, "Your order is canceled. Goodbye!" You'll just have to imagine the tone. It wasn't friendly.

So, now I'm feeling a little depressed. I thought I could buy a camera and buy some boots to comabt the snow in, but now it seems I will have to choose...and I know boots should win, but kids I SO want that camera.

My new Flickr friends suggested I buy my camera from B&H, Adorama, or Amazon - but those would be refurbished. On reseller ratings www.beachcamera.com got mostly good reviews and they're selling for $419 brandnew, plus they'll throw in a free 4 gig card. Maybe I'll buy from them.

Holdays are delicious

2008-11-15T21:54:00.004-05:00

Actually, I'm not all that big a fan of gingerbread. I like my sweets sweet. But, while I'm more of a sugar cookie girl, I like the idea of gingerbread.

I think I usually draw my people by themselves lately. It used to be I drew a lot of people together. One of my favorite things to draw was a whole crowd of people at a fair or the mall or skating rink. But lately they've been on their own. It's sort of understood that the person they're smiling at is just off the page, but even so...maybe I'll try putting a bunch of people together in my next card piece. Family togetherness and all that.

I'm going to try and print at least these two designs this next week. I'll be selling stuff at a little holiday craft fair on December 6 (get in touch if you want details, there should be a lot of good vendors) and hopefully getting up on etsy.com in the next week or so.

Good morning, to you

2008-11-13T08:41:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was in such a pathetic mood. I just didn't care at all about my work. I think I was just too tired to care. I was trying to get through my day without an energy drink, which I did, but it was not a good day to give that a go. So this morning I've had two full nights of sleep in a row and I had an energy drink and thankfully I'm actually excited about designing ads today. Good thing too because we're doing a special section for a local sale and the ads are all full color and different sizes than we normally do so they're pretty much adorable and it would just be such a shame to be apathetoc about that.

Winter Wonder Girl

2008-11-11T20:13:00.003-05:00

I'm designing my own Christmas cards. This is number one. I know it has nothing to do with Christmas actually...but honestly I can't do justice to angels or the nativity scene and the idea of drawing a bunch of children around a Christmas tree is a little nauseating, though maybe I'll give it a go one of these days.

Ironically, I love presents and happen to think that the nativity would be the main point of Christmas, but I hate snow. Still, the snow is pretty and while I'm not so puritanical that I believe religious imagery to be putting up idols I'm not sure that I care for the idea of a cartoon Jesus. So snow it is. Besides, when you have snow you can have cute coats and hats and gloves! And this way if I miss Christmas (as I am all too likely to do) they can just be nice wintery cards. Wintery cards are good too.

DuVal St.

2008-11-04T10:42:00.002-05:00

My however many greats uncle was Daniel DuVal. He was the first governor of Florida. Hence DuVal County at the top of Florida and DuVal St. at the bottom (in Key West).

I'm sitting in the Bad Ass Coffee shop on DuVal St. enjoying the palm trees and the pleasant weather. I'm moving down here some day kids. Maybe not to Key West, but to Florida.

I love the architecture & the plant life it makes me homesick for plaes I've never lived. I don't remember my family's homes in Cocoa or Melbourne. I remember the beach and my absolute fear of the waves. I remember cutting my foot on shards of broken pottery, burning my hands on our electric stove, and my terror of the Pirates of the Carribean ride in Disney world.

My happy memories of Florida come later on our two week vacations to visit Indialantic (The Blueberry Muffin has the absolute best breakfast of anywhere), Melbourne (good antiquing if you know where to go), and Miami (scary, scary, scary - we were never allowed outdoors alone!).

It's nice to have this break. It may be warm in Indiana, but this is bliss.

Musical Motels

2008-11-02T19:57:00.004-05:00

I'm sitting in a hotel room finishing up the movie "Titanic" - probably not appropriate viewing the night before you're supposed to be boarding a large boat. On the other hand, I somehow doubt we'll encounter many ice-burgs in the Caribbean.

Robin and I are spending tonight in Miami and tomorrow we board our cruise. We are not at Ocean Surf, the hotel we had reservations at. We are almost positive that hotels.com told us there would be a shuttle from the airport to the Ocean Surf hotel. As a point of fact - there is no shuttle. Not to that hotel.

Instead we hopped a shuttle to a surprisingly nice Days Inn. I was sad at first because I couldn't see my relatives in Miami, but as my aunt was stuck in an early voting line all day I suppose I wouldn't have seen her anyhow. My mother also informed me that she read an online review of the Ocean Surf hotel which proclaimed it to be like sleeping in a dorm room with rough sheets, a hair on every pillow and surly staff.

So maybe it's all for the best.

Greeting Cards by Melody

2008-10-28T22:52:00.006-04:00

My cards finally got printed today. They turned out really well so I think I might draw up some Christmas cards for myself too. Eventually I'd like to sell these on Etsy, but before I can do that I need to get my printer to commit to a faster turn around time...and I need to figure out how to best ship them.

Maybe I'll think about that after the cruise.

Ooh Expo!

2008-10-27T20:37:00.007-04:00

After hiking through the woods a couple dozen times this weekend I was a bit worried about how I would hold up at the Graph Expo today. I shouldn't have worried. By the time we got to the McCormick Center I was already giddy.

Being the sole representative of my company at the expo might have made me feel really grown up...except for my "business casual" attire of a hoody & jeans...and the fact that my objective for the expo was to grab as many freebies as possible.

So mostly it was like college, except that being with people from our split off company I sometimes had to actually listen to what vendors were saying. But that was fun too because I got to play pretend and act like maybe I actually knew what was going on. Even more amusing was when I actually did!

The only sad moment in my day was when we were driving up to the center and I thought about how funny it would be if I ran into Prof. Davis with a new group of graphic design majors going to their first expo. Oh yeah. That can't happen.

The rest of the day was, literally, a bunch of giggles. Leslie and I laughed. All. Day. Long.
I don't know the last time was that I've laughed so much. All the other attendees looked serious and bored the whole time. We laughed about ev-er-y-thing. Vendors, freebies, other attendees, demonstrations. All funny.

And I did get a ton of cool freebies. Mostly posters, but I got a nice pen, a usb-multi-port, a bag & some spiffy die-cuts too. A lot of the posters I had no interest in because mostly they were just pictures of pretty, often scantily clad, women. Could it be because most expo attendees are men? But towards the end we visited the HP booth and, whatever HP lacks in service (it's a lot) they make up in posters.

right now

2008-10-22T21:00:00.001-04:00

Just a random office doodle. I colored it a bit. Just for kicks.

Today was a good day. I think doodles help my mood.

Ft. Wayne is Not My Friend

2008-10-18T14:29:00.003-04:00

After I graduated college my parents moved from the house I grew up in out into the middle of nowhere. For a long time it was simply impossible for me to visit without first getting lost somewhere in the middle of Indiana.

Since my youngest sister, Bethy, goes to school in Ft. Wayne I usually pick her up the way and she usually had to endure a couple hours of, "No wait, maybe this road is the one that...oh, is Muncie on our way there?" No. Muncie is not.

I've been pretty good about it this past year though. We usually make it back in record time.
This weekend was not one of those times. When I got to her school we talked for...too long...about the school's looming demise. Then my sister announced that she had library books to return. "Ok we'll stop by the campus li- oh, the Ft. Wayne library. Oh it's close and easy to find well o-" No children. Close may describe the library, but easy to find. No.

It seemed easy on map quest. But in reality Map Quest doesn't seem to understand that a one way street...well it only goes one way. Makes it hard to turn onto if you need to go the opposite way. Then there was the fact that the roads did not actually intersect where Map Quest said they did.

Eventually we got out of Ft. Wayne, but not before I took the wrong road trying to leave.

Is your boyfriend a soldier

2008-10-15T21:20:00.006-04:00

Ok, way back I posted about my roommate's boyfriend being a soldier and the shirt I designed. Well, that shirt hasn't been printed, but at cafepress I now have available a whole host of shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, buttons, pins & so forth. There are two designs,"My boyfriend is a Soldier" & "My Boyfriend is in the Army".

Because of the way that cafepress is set up I have to set up different shops for each design - so this should be, well interesting. But, given the excessive number of people who are dating boys in the armed forces I think that at least some people will be interested in buying my stuff. My actual art work might be a bit harder to sell.

In today's news

2008-10-10T08:38:00.002-04:00

A while back I posted about a lady sentenced to public humiliation for stealing from Wal-mart.
She had to hold up a sign proclaiming her theft.

It's happened again. Except this guy rammed his car into a close gate while drunk. He has to hold up a sign saying, "I was stupid."

This is not my life

2008-10-09T12:34:00.001-04:00

Currently trying to come up with a logo for column in the mag. You know, I think unpaid writers may be the most pretentious people in the world?

Now, I don't use this word lightly as I think that it is mainly abused by pretentious unpaid writers (it's right up there with misanthropic, which is fun to say but shouldn't pop up nearly as often as it does), but it fits.

Note that this is not about paid writers. These people have to actually work to come up with something that pleases their client or boss, just like the rest of us. Because when the paid writer receives their work back with red ink all over it they can ramble all they want about compromising the integrity of their work, but to receive payment they will make those changes.

The unpaid writer has no reason to not ramble. And ramble they will. Frequently about inane topics such as who they handed a safety pin to twenty years ago or, in fits of absurd superciliousness, quoting themselves.

But it doesn't end there. One ill fated day they will send you an e-mail suggesting that they need their own logo and a column header three inches high.

Since all we pay our writers is the ego boost of seeing their name in print I suppose this is something akin to a raise in pay.So perhaps this could all be solved by handing our writers a couple of dollars every month. Just as long as we never pay them by the word.

Today

2008-10-03T10:19:00.002-04:00

Star light, star bright

2008-10-01T22:07:00.003-04:00

I don't exactly get bored in meetings, but my hands need something to do. And, somehow when I'm thinking about something other than drawing, I draw better. I do some of my best sketching in work meetings or church (while I'm also taking notes).

I also like to sketch while I'm watching tv, but that doesn't take much thought and it also involves looking at the screen so the quality level varies.

Of course sometimes I do delightful drawings when nothing much is going on, so maybe the difference is all in my head. It probably has nothing to do with my setting and everything to do with something silly like what I ate the night before.

At work I draw illustrations for a collection of stories we're printing. Those can be quite hard. The office is great for designing advertisements, but not so conducive to illustrating. Lately I've been having a hard time doing quality work on those illustrations.

A Summer Glow and Corporate Greed

2008-09-30T21:08:00.003-04:00

I went tanning for the second time today. Each time I was told completely different things about what I should try as a new tanner, but I took today's advice because...how do I know which one is right?

The whole thing with Malibu Tanning, I'll tell you why Malibu Tanning is evil:

In January I signed up for the Malibu Tanning VIP membership. I was told that you sign up for three months of unlimited tanning, $20 each month. It was a wedding expo and my friend was getting married, so I thought it would be nice to be tan for her wedding. The nice, tan girl at the Malibu Tanning booth told me they would need my credit card number then in order to get the deal, but that I could come in to any Malibu Tanning and activate my account any time in February.

I never came in and figured that since it was not activated I wasn't being charged. Now, I should check my bank statements closer, I should. But I didn't notice until much later that I had been charged every month for a service I'd never activated.

When I called I went through a lot of rigmarole with unfriendly people...only to find out that Malibu Tanning has a policy against refunding people for services that they haven't used.

Because kids, because I could have come into Malibu Tanning and used the service I did not know I had at any time. It's not Malibu Tanning's Fault

I can't find the contract I signed. Legally Malibu Tanning may be in the clear - and certainly the amount isn't worth hiring a lawyer over. But, if Malibu Tanning had even the ethics of Wal-mart, they would have refunded the money they took...for a service I was never provided.

Malibu Tanning would not lose out by refunding my money, because they never provided any service. Not once. But evidently getting something for nothing appeals to the owner of Malibu Tanning.

I begrudgingly offered two months of unlimited tanning "free". Two months when I paid for seven. I pressed farther and got three.

When I complained that lady on the phone kept saying, "I'm sorry you feel that way." I told her it was unethical, "I'm sorry you feel that way." I told her I'd be informing all my friends that Malibu Tanning enjoys cheating people out of their hard earned money, "I'm sorry you feel that way." I told her that she knew perfectly well it was unethical and that if it were her she wouldn't be taking any lousy three months when she'd paid for seven, she paused, "I'm sorry you feel that way."

In the end I took the three. I don't suggest that anyone do business with Malibu Tanning. I will be writing to the owner and describing my experience. I'll post the contact info when I find it, in case anyone reading this has also had a bad experience with Malibu Tanning.

When I went in to Malibu Tanning a couple weeks ago my roommate came with me. She had also bought the VIP plan, but they'd stopped charging her after a couple of months so she stopped going in.

When she went to buy a package (I didn't think she should, but she wanted to keep me company) she was old that Malibu Tanning had been charging her card for the past several months and it was about to be sent to collections. Malibu Tanning hadn't been able to actually charge the card because it had been reported lost or stolen. But they kept charging a lost or stolen card.

Her case is stronger than mine. She wasn't paid up so she never would have been able to use the service those months that they've charged her for. Malibu Tanning's argument with me was that I technically could have - even if I was hindered by knowledge. They wouldn't have let her use their service - so she shouldn't be charged.

And that kids, is why - if you're going to tan - you shouldn't choose Malibu Tanning.

Freedom of Speech?

2008-09-29T19:18:00.003-04:00

We all know that Freedom of Speech has come to include pole dancing and porn, evidently it doesn't include misinformation or even divisive information - not if it's about Senator Barrack Obama.

I'm researching as I write, but I think it would be hard to fake a video like this one - I'm pretty sure that actually is a clip of the St. Louis evening news.

This blog has the same video, but with quotes and statistics.

If you're concerned you can easily find contact info for St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce & St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch.

I believe my roommate is putting together a somewhat more balanced and thoughtful article on her blog. Trying to include both sides and what-not. Personally, I think that the news clip itself sounds menacing - forget what the commentators have to add.

Over at ABC News, Jake Tapper thinks Republicans are over-reacting.
He says,

Gov. Matt Blunt, on official state stationery, said, “What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment."

None of the prosecutors or sheriffs on the "Truth Squad" have said they'd use their law enforcement powers as part of their task as "Truth Squad" members.

But on the news it sure sounded like they'd be using their law enforcement powers. He goes on to quote Bob McCulloch,

"I don't know what charge anybody could be talking about there is no such thing; libel is a civil matter entirely," McCulloch said. "What I said was if it is a lie I'll call somebody on it and say that's a lie; tell us the truth. That gets morphed by those with these very sinister motives," the prosecutor said. He added, "It's morphed into 'they are trying to intimidate people into not talking.'"

It didn't take a lot of morphing. It's what it sounds like.

Mr. Tapper quotes reporter John Mills as saying,

"in the retelling of the story, it got out of control. If they think a group has put out a misleading ad, they’re basically going to call a press conference and say the ad is misleading," Mills told the News-Leader yesterday. "I’m sure the Republicans would do the same thing."

Press conferences are lovely and I'm all for Obama having as many press conferences as he needs. But I agree with the Governor that it sounds like these people would be using their power to tell people what they can & cannot say.

Well, The Sarah Conner Chronicles is coming on, so I'll just let you kids make up your minds on your own. If you want more info you can easily just google "Truth Squad" & "Obama".

This Day

2008-09-27T22:26:00.002-04:00

I used to do a lot of journaling. It's very good for figuring out what's going on in my head.

Debatable Debates

2008-09-26T21:32:00.004-04:00

I'm watching the candidate debate right now.

I'm pretty pleased with what McCain has to say, but I think it would be more interesting if I had someone to watch it with. I'm recording it, so maybe I'll turn down the volume and read a book!

Doodle, doodles everywhere

2008-09-13T09:33:00.004-04:00

My weekend projects.

The colored lights brightly shine

2008-09-09T10:47:00.005-04:00

I got pulled over this morning for going 17 over the speed limit. I explained to the officer that it was actually only 10 (well it was) and that's all he wrote me up for. Then he gave me a number I could call and if I say I want to "work something out" evidently the ticket will not get put on my record. I kinda envisioned picking up trash on the side of the road and that sounded wretched, but if it got me out of paying for a ticket I'd go for it. When I told the story at work I found out that actually they want MORE money for it to not go on my record. Extortion?

2008-08-29T18:41:00.001-04:00

"So you're insane"
"That's what being young and single is for, right?"
"Mmm."

My roommate and I are about to do something absurd.

No specifics, but let me say that it will involve approximately 36 hours of driving and we're not really stopping anywhere.

Suitable Suitors?

2008-08-28T10:02:00.005-04:00

That guy called again last night.

Just as a guide for men everywhere, here are some topics you should NOT bring up when calling a girl for the first or, indeed, the second time.

1. Your sex life, or lack there of. At some point this becomes important, but not the first time I talk to you.

2. The sex life of anyone you know. Or anyone you don't know. Really, sex just isn't a good "getting to know you" topic.

3. Lack of money, lack of job, lack of education.
If it comes up, it comes up, but for heaven's sake don't go out of your way to tell a girl that you have nothing to offer.

4. Do not have a conversation about how you don't know how to have a conversation. You may think you're excusing that reacurring awkward lull, but you're really just confirming my suspicions that your thoughts are not worth voicing, much less listening to.

5. Please do not ask the girl if you're annoying her. If she's polite in any sense of the word she cannot tell you the truth.

Tonight

2008-08-26T22:13:00.006-04:00

I'm always jealous of people who have these beautiful friends who are willing to pose for photos, seemingly, all the time. My friends mostly refuse point blank.

That's why I spend two & a half hours photographing one of the highschool students tonight. She loves to pose and I'm desperate for people to let me take their photo, so it's pretty much perfect. She brought along extra outfits to change into and everything! So much fun.

------------------
On another note,

I'm much too tired to explain fully why Malibu Tanning is a bad company. But since Malibu Tanning is all too happy to take my money and provide nothing in return - I am compelled to mention that Malibu Tanning is in want of a conscience, as often as possible.

More on this and why even Wal-mart loves you more than Malibu Tanning, at a later time.

Goodnight kids.

Oh, no.

2008-08-22T21:34:00.004-04:00

Every once in a while one of my friends decides that I need to date somebody. They know this guy and they think we'd be great together.

The worst example ever is courtesy of my friend Mary. She called me up and told me about this guy, noting that her fiance had adviced against trying to set me up with the person and that if she just couldn't help herself she should at least warn me. Justin, thank-you. I knew then that Mary was with a very smart man.

Having successfully avoided every summer get together that Mary invited me to (Yes Mary, I avoided them), I wasn't about to skip Mary's wedding, but was unafraid because Mary would have much more important things to be thinking about.

My problem is that I'm too optimistic.

I was introduced to a young man comprised entirely of limbs and a foolish grin. Two sentences were sufficient to tell me that a "great personality" was not going to redeem him. I was traumatized, but Justin got to say, "I told you so" before they'd been married a full hour.

So tonight I get a call from a number I don't recognize. I thought it was from a friend whose number changed - but a guy's voice answered. Then I remembered.

One of my friends knows this guy. She gave him my number and evidently everyone he knows has been telling him to call.

I don't know what he looks like. I don't have to. One conversation. One.
I already know that this fellow would drive me up a wall.

Friends, family, boys & girls of all ages - don't set me up with anyone.

I know, I know. I should be giving people more of a chance.
I never know what could happen. Yada, yada, yada.

Kids, I do know what could happen - and homocide is not in my life plan.

My (Roommate's) Boyfriend

2008-08-22T17:54:00.003-04:00

I designed this for my roomy. We saw a shirt proclaiming the same message, but it was ugly. Why should having a boyfriend in the army mean she's going to wear an ugly shirt?

Yeah, we couldn't think of a reason either.

It's also available like this:

2008-08-18T22:07:00.003-04:00

Driving home I passed a buggy...pulled by a teenage boy.

I really wish I'd had the courage to pull the car over and ask if I could take his picture, because it would have been awesome. But I didn't...so no picture. I keep telling myself that next time I will stop...but it hasn't happened yet.

Mini Road Trip

2008-08-17T16:41:00.003-04:00

Yesterday afternoon I took off for the midde parts of Indiana.

For a while I drove between cornfields thinking how pretty Indiana farm land is. Those thoughts stopped abruptly when the road turned the gravel and began to lack proper signage. When I got close to my destination my googled directions stopped making sense any left over admiration for the landscape was swept away with a phonecall in which even the people I was trying to get to weren't quite sure of their location. It turns out that they live on a corner of their county - and it connect with another three - which confuses google...and me.

When I arrived my friend, 'Chel, apologized and reminded me that she hasn't lived in Indiana for three years. Her roommate, Sonya, pointed out that in Deleware the roads so as to avoid this sort of confusion.

We went antiquing, which mostly consisted of browsing in one shop that was already closed and another in which the old man kept us an extra half hour talking about nothing and how much we would probably like to escape him.

Dinner was comprised mainly of food that I hate. Fish and sauerkraut. And a layered salad, but I like salad. It was all delicious. The fish was Alaskan Pollock - I have no idea if it was the type or the flavoring or the fact that it was grilled over the fire, but it was so good. The 'kraut was ok because we put slivered almonds on top to kill the bite.

Afterwards we watched 'Chel's brother turn buckets into shrapnel with homemade fireworks while the rest of us gathered around a campfire with a "chimney". A campfire chimney is a hollowed out log that is placed on top of a fire. The suction makes the flames shoot out the top. It's spiffier than it sounds.

Then we burnt a huge pile of tree trimmings and that was pretty much amazing.

It was a good time. Plus, I'm pretty pleased that I was able to talk to everyone easily enough. Normally I do badly with new people, but it was fun.

Ooh, sparkly

2008-08-10T22:19:00.003-04:00

I just like to mess around with my drawings on the computer. Some day I hope to sell some of my stuff on a site like Etsy or...something...but I'm not really sure what to put on there or what to sell or...anything really. I'm thinking about starting with some cards or something. I think people might be more likely to buy cute notecards than just a cute print. Notecards have a purpose, prints are an indulgance.

research

2008-08-07T13:30:00.006-04:00

I was just taking a quick break from my current illustration and scanning the Relevant news slices when I saw this story about a stamp depicting the American flag with one white stripe too many. I'm not sure how the artist managed to paint her flag this way. As a kid growing up in America I remember painstakingly counting stars and stripes in a futile attempt to depict our nation's flag accurately. How is it possible that Laura Stutzman, a professional artist, didn't take the time?

Since I'm in the middle of illustrating a book full of short stories that are largely from another time and culture than I live in I've been spending a lot of time in online research. My current project (the one I'm taking a break from) is a picture of a tramp eating dinner with a family in the 1930s.

I had no idea what tramps or farming families were wearing at the time, so I googled tramps, 1930, the Great Depression, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Films are great for getting details about another era if there aren't many pictures of the actual period. I like to assume that the costume department at Universal did its homework.

Before that I was working on a story with three women careening down the road in a car in the 1950s, but most of the stories involve Amish, which are easier and harder to depict. Easier, because they haven't changed much in the last 50-70 years, so a photo from last week is often just as good as one from the actual year the story took place. Harder, because I've only been around Amish people for a couple of years and I don't really know the culture.

For example, Amish have different wedding traditions that we do, so if I drew an Amish wedding I'd have some issues (we've already had this problem in advertising).

Half the time I can't figure out if the story is about an Amish family or not so I end up quizzing my boss on Amish customs, traditions, and names to figure out what I should be drawing.

Some of the stories I simply can't draw. Most of them take place on farms, which I have less experience with than I do with either the Amish or the 1930s!

RedisWhite

2008-08-06T18:51:00.004-04:00

I'm a regular reader of the Relevant website. I'm also a graphic designer who has a love/hate relationship with threadless. Love, because there are some awesome designs submitted...hate because almost none of them get printed.

So, when I saw RedisWhite advertised on Relevant my first thought was, "Oh good. Another Christian product rip off." And, to be fair, it is just a less awesome, Christianized threadless.

On the other hand, I was impressed with some (some) of the artwork on RedisWhite.

And I have to be all in favor of more opportunities to submit designs and get printed (since nothing good is printed on threadless lately).

Watercolor Seashore

2008-08-04T21:56:00.002-04:00

My mom and I did some painting while I was home . It was probably the first time I've painted since I graduated college. Clearly watercolor is not what I'm best at, but I thought I'd post it anyhow.

I want to believe

2008-07-29T10:00:00.005-04:00

Probably no one reading this blog was an x-files fanatic. I wasn't a fanatic exactly, but I loved that show. Hard to say why since I never believed in aliens or paranormal activity, but my sister and I used to watch it every night.

My best friend love it too. Her mother had recently gone conservative when we found our love for x-files, so there was no watching them on tv, but we rented them from the library on a regular basis. Don't ask me why that was different, I still don't know.

When the first movie came out we didn't see it in theaters. It was 1998 and none of us could drive. Our parents weren't inclined to take us. But afterwards when it came out on video we watched it over and over and over.

It picked up after the show had ended. Scully and Mulder were both with the FBI, but had been separated and assigned to other projects. But of course the X-Files find them.

And Mulder's assertion that, "If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced," rang true.

But the unexpected was what we expected. There were aliens, government conspiracy, abductions, cover-ups and a frantic search for the truth, which would ultimately be covered up again at the end of the movie, so the X-Files could live on.

The movie I went to see last night picked up eight years later with Scully doing unfullfilling work at a religious hospital, where mean clerics thwart her attempts to save a young boy's life. Mulder, mean while is hiding out in his home office with newspaper clippings about the old days.

Not that there's any reason for you to care, but there are spoilers ahead.

The FBI is missing a young agent and declares that they need Mulder to help find her. Well, they're clearly at the end of their rope because they've enlisted the help of a pedophile priest turned psychic and mainly what they want Mulder to do is tell them if the fellow is faking or not. Scully pushes Mulder into doing it and then gets angry when Mulder gets involved.

Somewhere in the movie we find out that Scully and Mulder are living together and had a child who died and, like the dying child in the hospital, is completely irrelevant to the story.

Long story short, the agent was abducted by some Russians who have been kidnapping people and using them for stemcell research.

That's the whole story. Russians and stemcell research. No conspiracy. No aliens. No unknown. No X-Files. Just Russians.

This summer's movie selection gets more depressing all the time.

Oh Ohio

2008-07-28T15:09:00.002-04:00

This afternoon my mom sent Bethy and I down to the meet processor's to pick up some beef.
While we waited on our change, Bethy pointed out a sign, "Notice: We no longer accept or process roadkill"

Bummer.

V is for Vacation

2008-07-28T12:00:00.002-04:00

I'm home visiting the family. Friday night was traditional crazy story night. Everyone tells everything absurd that has happened to them since the last time I was home.

After that Bethy and I stayed up till two making up crazy stories. Not like we sit around saying, "Ok, once upon a time..." but all of us have the habit of just making up stories when we talk, about what "really" happened or what might happen.

I don't even remember Saturday, we goofed off a bunch I guess. More stories. Daniel always likes to hear stories about when I was little or when he was little. It seems impossible to him that our parents were ever obsessed with computer games or the latest Indiana Jones movie. This time they were more about the trauma he gave me when I was baby-sitting. He doesn't remember, but he's positive his actions were justified.

Sunday... the parent's church. No one ever remembers that I'm out of college there, but then again...no one remembers that I'm out of college in Indiana either.

Our old youth pastor now teaches the college/post college class. He and his wife weren't good youth leaders, but it's hard not to like them as people. The pastor's daughter is easy not to like. She must be nice to some people, because lots of people like her, but whenever I'm there she's incredibly sour.

Mary HAD a little lamb

2008-07-25T13:00:00.003-04:00

It's time to bid farewell to Mary and her...well I guess the lamb was already gone. The point is, that the person who was hosting the image let their photobucket account expire or deleted it or some silliness of that sort.

Now we have the butterflies...I'm not sure how long they're staying. They are more cheerful than Mary & Co., but for me the most cheerful thing would be if this blasted thing fit the screen right. Sadly I don't know enough about code to make that happen.

So. We'll probably be seeing another change soon.

The Sun & the Sea

2008-07-25T00:04:00.002-04:00

I stayed up much too late finishing this, but I'm going on vacation tommorow and I won't be near photoshop for over a week. I just needed to finish.

Forever 1990

2008-07-23T20:08:00.010-04:00

Last weekend Robin and I went shopping. I took a lot of photos in Forever 21, which has some of the best and worst clothing in the mall.

We weren't sure about these little green shoes. They're almost cute, but I'm not sure how they would look with an actual outfit.

You know you owned a shirt like this in the early 90's.

Robin tends to like tops like these...all frilly and lacy. I'm not a lace person.

I hate this type of pattern. The fashion mags are calling it "Painterly", but to me it looks more like someone attacked this dress with a permanent marker.

I love the pattern on this dress. It's amazing.

This looks like the type of bag I would have been embarrassed for my mom to carry when I was a kid. Seriously, I knew people who owned this in the 90's. Why is it back - and why at Forever 21?

These shoes remind me of my first hideous pair of high heels. They belonged to my cousin in the '80s and I used to wear them around the house for dress up.

3-on-3

2008-07-23T10:17:00.002-04:00

Our company sponsors this every year. You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

The photos are from www.makemeaprint.com.

I've been angry and sad about the things that you do

2008-07-18T21:47:00.003-04:00

Tonight I wasted $7.50 watching Amanda Seyfried (Plastic Karen in Mean Girls) try to determine which of several men is her father in time for him to walk her down the isle.

Don't get me wrong, Seyfried is really enjoyable on screen. Mostly what the movie suffers from is an extreme excess of songs. After each song there is approximately ten seconds of dialogue which nudges the plot along, then it's time for another song.

Of course the excessive (and weird) songs are not the only issue. Meryl Streep and Co. take up much, much, much more of the movie than I would have anticipated. Mostly this flick is about their former exploits. Occasionally we flick back to Amanda (aka Sophie) and once in a while there are these three men.

In the end Sophie doesn't find out who her father is, but the men agree to share Sophie, while Pierce Brosnan takes Donna (Streep) all for himself, Stellan Skarsgard get's chased after by one of Donna's friends, and Collin Firth confesses that he is actually gay. If that isn't enough to ruin the movie for you, I don't know what is.

Save your money and call Mamma Mia! a miss.

How Can I Breath Without You?

2008-07-12T20:32:00.002-04:00

Trigger Happy

2008-07-08T22:21:00.005-04:00

When I'm home Holly always has new places she thinks Bethy and I ought to go. Frequently these are restaurants. This time it was Dewey's Pizza - one of many fine dining experiences only available in the greater Cincinnati area.

While we were there I commented that all the good restaurants are responsible for making Cincinnati the fattest city in the world, but evidently our title was stolen by a city in Oklahoma somewhere.

Dewey's is pretty amazing. They have a lot of options, but what we went for was pepperoni with double bacon.

Long Weekend. Long Day.

2008-07-05T20:24:00.002-04:00

I got Monday off because of my birthday (yes, kids, my boss is still the best). I got Friday off because it was July Fourth. Three day work weeks are the best, ever. I may not go back to the regular sort.

Friday was a weird sort of day, but I spent a lot of it asleep, so I'll count it as a good one.

Today I got up super early (or 6:50 am) to buy stuff I needed & clean out my car. The latter action being completely unnecessary for today, but probably beneficial in the long term. I have to have deadlines to get anything done. If I don't have a reason to do something (aside from an arbitrary rule like "cars should be clean") it doesn't happen.

It was a perfect day for the canoeing & the river was beautiful. Jon thinks I didn't enjoy myself and Emily thinks she ran us into too many tree branches, but they're both wrong. I had a great time and the only real problem we had with trees was when I unwittingly left my oar in one.

Afterwards we had a fastfood picnic and then we all went home to sleep...except that it's my weekend to mow the lawn...so I did that instead.

All that and I still have the joy of knowing that tommorow is not Monday!

Happy Birthday

2008-06-25T22:50:00.005-04:00

Celi turned 25 this week. Sunday we celebrated with lunch. We narrowly missed having to explain to management why Robin had killed our waitress. It's just possible that the lack of rasberry syrup in her tea might not have seemed like a good enough reason for homocide.

We kept losing party goers, so Robin and I decided to continue the birthdaying on Tuesday with some cake, awesome presents and Taco Bell.

Angel Ressurected

2008-06-23T18:45:00.003-04:00

This is the colorized version of the "dear" angel drawing. Since I had to photograph, rather than scan this sketch, the colors ended up being a lot more muted and gained some interesting variations. I like it a lot.

absent-minded

2008-06-20T00:01:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I made the mistake of taking a three mile walk in a pare of high heels.
Well, I couldn't find my other shoes.

My feet are mostly healed, but I've been having problems with my right knee and ankle lately so I haven't done much walking this week. Which is why I decided to drive to the coffee shop rather than walk tonight.

Coffee was lovely and so was the weather. Indiana can be dreary but today was gorgeous. I decided I could go for a little walk around town and take some photos. The weather really was beautiful and the sun was giving everything this great lighting...I couldn't resist.

So I walked around a bit, much longer than I meant to actually but I felt alright. Then I headed back to my car. Except that around the time I got to my car I wasn't thinking about my car at all. I walked right past it and was almost all the way to my house when I realized I'd driven to the coffee shop.

plastic

2008-06-14T17:52:00.003-04:00

I was reading some random person's blog today and they were talking about how they're always being so lovely to people and inviting them to open up their beautiful wounded souls to them so that they could love them.

I stopped after that.
I really hate it when people tell you how nice they are. I really hate it when people tell you how much they care and how they're always there for their friends.

It might be real, but it always feels fake. In highschool if I wanted to know about someone I would tell them that I'm just nosey. Even if it wasn't true true. Fake noseyness seemed more real than actual concern.

Dear

2008-06-14T09:02:00.004-04:00

I was sitting in a coffee shop doodling and finding myself completely unable to put what I wanted on the paper.

Usually I tuck myself away at at a corner table. That night I was on a couch, annoying all the large groups of people who wanted to sit and talk loudly there and leaving myself open to comments on my artwork.

One girl leaned over and cooed, "I love it, it's so dear!"

I flinched visibly, but I can't really argue with her choice of adjective. It's exactly what the drawing is...but so not what I was going for.

It's a Party!

2008-06-10T10:44:00.002-04:00

I don't normally write about graphic design sites on here, but PhotoShopStar is having a sweet give away to celebrate it's second birthday. Posting a comment gives you a chance at winning some minor goodies, but linking back to the site and the sponsors lets you win some much cooler stuff.

The prize I'm drooling over most is the free 1 page design by psd2html. Basically I would design my web page and they would make it work. For someone, like me, who consistantly fails to understand web coding, this would be amazing.

Ok, so that's the only prize I want.

The Blubs Wordpress theme liscence might be amazing - but I don't Wordpress.

And I don't have actually have anything I want to advertise on PhotoShopStar (though freelancers are probably getting giddy at the very thought).

Even so, it's pretty cool.

Field Trip

2008-06-06T18:12:00.002-04:00

Today the office went on a field trip to the printers. My boss thought it would be cool for us to see how our publications get put together. So we spent most of our morning on a tour.

I've been on a lot of newspaper field trips, but watching the web-press never gets old. Even so, the best part of the field trip was seeing the offices. They were dingy and cramped and their computers were old enough to remind you why Macs took such a long time to gain popularity.
The workers looked like sad little gerbils.

We came away loving our jobs, thinking our office wasn't so squished after all, and being incredibly greatful for our office's frequent equipment updates.

Repent!

2008-06-04T20:30:00.006-04:00

It fascinates me to live in a country where the most hated sub groups are non-environmentalists, the Bush family, and street preachers. Seriously, ethnic minorities can complain all they want, but the only racist remarks I have ever heard, were said on television...by the bad character. But just try admitting that the only reason you want to "go green" - is because the merchandise is cute...or that you don't actually think Bush committed as many atrocities as Hitler, Stalin or Kim Jong-il.

Now, there are probably some conservatives who would rally behind me on those last two, but everyone loves to hate street preachers...they're loud, angry and usually carry a sign encouraging the viewer to "Turn or burn!" or some such variation...what's not to hate?

Plus, there's the added bonus that no one will ever think you are bad for hating a street preacher. Most likely you'll be hailed as some kind of Gandhi-like figure, because you love people so much you just can't stand to see someone hold a sign at them.

In the town where I work we have our very own street preacher. I've never had the pleasure of seeing him work, but office gossip has me informed that he shows up at public events with the usual signage and catchy slogans.

Well, a few days ago I was helping a nice lady figure out how to design her ad.

I hate helping people design their ads. What I always, always, always want for my customers to do is to tell me what they want, leave the verbage, and come back when it's done. Always. I can't be creative with some nervous Nelly peering over my shoulder and whispering, "Wha-what if you moved it a little to the left? No, not there, not there, yes, no, no, no-" It can't be done.

But, like I said, this lady was nice. I was feeling pretty good about the episode when my boss walked in and said, "I see Random-Name's wife was here." This elicited a, "Oh my goodness, that was his wife?" from everyone else, but mere raised eyebrows from myself.

Turns out she's the wife of the fellow who harasses people about eternity in his spare time. So I joined in the gaping - because how could this lovely person be married to someone who makes people wish stoning had never been outlawed?

"Yeah," my boss continued, "didn't you see the big 'REPENT!' painting on the side of the van?"

No, I had not. So then I just had to wonder how this lady felt about it all. Does she wish she had a normal van or maybe even a smart looking four door? Is she embarrassed when her husband starts every conversation with, "You're going to hell," ?

They left their name off the advertisement. My coworkers suggested that it was so potentially buyers wouldn't be scared off at the thought of buying the street preacher's house. I think it's so people won't see where they live and decide to egg it - or worse. I have to wonder if it bothers her that either possibility is even something they have to consider.

On the other hand, is it possible that she's proud of what her husband does? It seems mildly unfathomable, but what if she really thinks he's...what, winning souls? Does it hurt her that other people don't see him the same way?

I know, these are random things to be thinking about, I guess I'd just never thought about street preachers having wives and children and the whole thing set me wondering.

On my way to the dentist yesterday I passed a house that said, "Adulters will be judged!" My first thought was, "That would make them different from...?" my second was, "Could that be the street preacher's house?"

-

2008-06-03T22:30:00.002-04:00

Very little is less exciting than having a short work day. Even the fact that I was leaving to go to the dentist, really didn't bother me.

Even better was going down to see Kiran. It was muggy out, but we walked one of the trails and then we ran through the sprinklers at Grace.

Pretty good for a Tuesday.

Backstory

2008-06-01T21:32:00.006-04:00

For the past two Saturdays I've gone shopping at the mall. The selection was pretty sad, especially in the shoe department.

I've never understood why anyone would want a Coach purse, but I understand these boots even less. To me they just seem like large, rubber mistakes.

Last Saturday after shopping Robin showed me Ox Bow park. The park gives me the feeling that I'm walking through a King's Quest game. It seemed as if it were divided up into screens that should be accompanied by descriptions like, "You have entered a sunny meadow, a rabbit watches youm," or "You have stumbled upon a picnic area, a group of Mexicans are singing in the distance." And then of course you would have to try different actions like, "Feed rabbit" or "Sing with Mexicans" until they produced something good or killed you.

Some parts of the park reminded me of the 1985 Alice in Wonderland. When I saw this lane, I felt as if I would see Alice arguing with Carol Channing over yesterday and today at any second.

Probably this lane is not so very like the movie, but it felt that way.

Mostly the park is very, very large. I can't wait to have a day when I can just go and get lost there.

Today Jon had a open house of sorts, to raise money for the VBS Sara Frantz is helping out with. I saw a lot of people that I haven't seen in quite a while, which was nice. I wish I'd been able to talk to some of them more, but I'm bad at dealing with big groups like that. It seems silly to say, because when you're talking to one person it shouldn't make a difference than there are twenty other people around doing something else...but it does.

Tommorow, back to work - my first day to start handing out assignments to my intern! Also exciting is that with our re-organization of the office everyone seems to have less space - except me. Somehow I came out of this with more. I get giddy just thinking about it!

Long Weekend!

2008-05-25T00:01:00.003-04:00

You remember in high school when a weekend meant that you spent Friday night eating out and watching movies till all hours? I miss that. Lately the weekend has meant that I sit on my couch numb the exhaustion from the nothing that I've been doing all week.

But last night Robin, Laura, and I went out to Chili's and rented more movies than it was feasible for us to watch in a single evening. And even though I slept through most of the first movie (which had the benefit of making me awake enough to watch the second) it was a lot of fun.

Today, I woke up at nine. And ten. And eleven.
At that point Robin was already up and outside watching her boyfriend's father put together our lawn mower. We tried to do it ourselves, but the pieces didn't seem to be fitting together.

Our lawn has been pretty bad. We had a visit from some official looking lawn inspector person. He informed my roommate that most people keep their lawns under two feet and that we should too. She mentioned that we were working towards that goal.

We're fairly certain that the wicked witch of the west is living next door to us. She watched us from her window and complains about everything from where we park to the fact that we let the puppy play outside. We're pretty sure she called the lawn inquisitor. If our lawn was not so very terrible we would have let it keep growing a while, just to spite her. As it is she's going to think her call made a difference. We find that upsetting.

The upside is that now we can use the fire pit in our backyard. We're planning on having a bonfire tomorrow night. So, if you're our friend, you should come on up and roast a hot dog and marshmallows. If you're a stalker, we'd just as soon you didn't.

Being the boss

2008-05-22T17:41:00.003-04:00

All job applications have a section where they ask if you've ever managed or trained anyone. After this summer I'll be able to say yes. That's right kids, I'm getting my very own summer intern!

At first it was just going to be the summer help taking a few of my non-design tasks, butI started talking about some things I could show them how to do and some of the things I'd like to have time to do better...all of a sudden I had an intern.

I'm excited!

Spring Concert

2008-05-13T20:30:00.002-04:00

I designed this, well clearly for a spring concert. I spent most of the morning with my head in my hands because I couldn't think of anything and I kept getting interrupted. Then I browsed around some of my favorite design websites for ideas for a while and eventually this happened. I think my boss would have preferred that eventually come a little quicker, but spiffiness takes time.

And to give credit, the flowers and some of the brushes came from BittBox, which may be my most favorite graphic design site.

Random Reunions

2008-05-11T22:32:00.002-04:00

There are usually a few people I know I'll see when I visit my parent's church, but this Sunday there were several extras. Most notably Brad, a friend who joined the Marines after highschool, was in town. I haven't seen him in several years so it was good to talk a bit.

After church we went to lunch at Bravos where we were squished in between two crowded tables. I have a phobia of being too close to people I don't know. My hair was brushing the back of the man seated behind me. It was awkward. I made it more awkward by being really whiney about it, but management took the problem seriously and reseated us.

Towards the end of the meal a girl came up to our table and said, "Oh my gosh, hi!" and for a second I had no idea who it was. I quickly realized it was one of my good friends from, gradeschool-highschool. Holly and I used to hang out with Tiffany and her sister, Tasha, all the time. Holly's been trying to get in touch with them for over a year with absolutely no success. She heard from a cousin that the whole family is moving too Texas soon, so she was even more frustrated.

They don't even live in the area anymore, but they happened to be meeting family there for mothers day. My friend said, "We were talking about you guys and how much we missed you and I was staring at you and all of a sudden I said, 'Wait, that is Melody!"

It was really good to see them again. Tasha and Holly were best friends in highschool and Holly couldn't stop grinning the rest of the afternoon. She's getting together with Tasha tommorow and hopefully we'll all be getting together before Tasha moves this summer.

So, that was our excitement for today.

Daniel

2008-05-10T17:34:00.005-04:00

My little brother is nine years younger than me and five inches taller. Last summer he decided he wanted to get a job, but for a year he has been told by everyone that he needs to be at least 16. That's how he got a job at the cow farm.

Our mom thinks it's good because he'll learn responsibility. I think it's good because it will toughen him up. He thinks it's good because of the money and with his new wealth he has purchased what no game store can keep stocked: the Nintendo Wii.

Since I'm visiting for mother's day, I got to enjoy the newness of the game with everyone else. We played Wii Bowling and Mario Karts. I kind of expected it to be cooler, but it's still a good time. I'm a better bowler on the Nintendo than in real life.

This morning I convinced my brother that he wanted to go clothes shopping with me and Mom. The last time he wanted to go shopping with me he was eight and I promised him that we would stop at the candy store and KB Toys.

He'd given up a concert to have some more time with me, so I wanted him to come along rather than just waste the extra time. Originally he looked at me as if I'd asked him to accompany me to hell. But I explained that having me in the store was better than a frantic phone call about what he should buy, so he agreed to come. I think he reconsidered the wisdom of that once he was in the car, but with help from the sales guy we managed to purchase two pairs of jeans that are indelibly cool.

Our mother still has no idea why those jeans were cooler than the others. I took photos and I'm making her a chart.

All That Stuff

2008-05-04T20:42:00.010-04:00

Saturday was fun. I took a lot of photos, had a subpar pork burger, and a massive headache from being out in the sun too long.

The best pictures are of the kids playing field games. They're adorable.

If you tell a teenage girl that you'd like to take her photograph to put in a magazine, her reaction is invariably, "Noooo! I look awful!" If you ask to photograph a teenage boy he says, "Cool!"

Yes. These girls are Amish. Yes. The girl in peach does have a cell phone.

After that I went shopping. I love to shop, but there are three things it's almost impossible for me to find: dress clothes, jeans, and purses. I'm super picky about all three. I've been shopping for dress clothes for two years without finding any that I like. Yeah. Sad. So I found a nice shirt and two purses and I felt pretty good about that.

Today I went to Prof Davis' funeral. There was a display in the hall of photographs and of his art projects. It was really weird to see pieces that used to hang in his office and know that Prof Davis wouldn't be popping around the corner to tell the stories behind them.

I never cry at funerals, the closest I've ever come before was at a stranger's funeral. I don't know why that made me want to cry more than my grandparents' funerals. But I definately teared up when Prof Nieter spoke. After that I half listened and half thought about other things. The screen saver playing on the projector, the stained glass in the windows, people's clothes. I've seriously never even come close to crying at a funeral before.

I think some of the best sermons are at funerals. Maybe it's just because it's easier to care about God when we need assurance that someone we care about is with Him, but even so. The sermon was about how God is with us. I don't know, I guess at CCC sometimes we talk so much about God's glory...it feels like God is far away being great and being glorious, but not being here. I know that isn't the intention at all, but it's still how it comes out for me. Anyhow, Psalm 23 might be over used...but it's nice to remember that in all His glory...God is still the God who led David besides still waters and comforted him in the shadow of death.

True Love & Invitations

2008-05-02T18:28:00.004-04:00

One of my good friends (and maybe yours too, depending on who you are) got married this January at the courthouse. Last week she decided she was going to have formal wedding to celebrate with extended family and friends. She also decided I should design her invitations, which she hopes to send out the first week in May.

I don't recommend waiting till the last minute to do this sort of thing. It could turn out really bad. You might be miserable and hate yourself forever. But my friend won't, because her invitations are beautiful anyway. And that makes me happy.

False Start

2008-04-30T18:00:00.002-04:00

For the past week my car has been a little quiffy with me about starting up. My first thought was that it had to be the starter, but my second thought was, "Corrosion, it could totally be corrosion," and I didn't check the problem until this morning, when my car refused to even pretend to start.

There was a lot of corrosion and that buoyed my spirits considerably...until I cleaned it off and my car behaved in the exact same way. A call to my father was less than encouraging and prompted more calls to every garage in town.

Garage #1 was not home. No recorded message of when the hours are. No answering machine.

Garage #2 Quoted me a price that seemed astronomical, given what my father told me the part cost. But, they did promise a nice waiting area (I hate garage waiting areas, they're so uncomfortable).

Calls to garages #3-6 made me realize that Garage #2 was actually a steal, but I had one more call to make.

Whenever my dad can't fix the car himself (which is not that often) he goes to Sears. It's not loyalty, it's just that Sears is cheap without being detrimental (like Wal-mart). And since my least favorite way of spending money is on my car, cheap seemed like a good idea.

As it happens labor is really, really cheap at Sears, but the part wasn't all that cheap. Even if they'd only taken the one hour quoted to me by every other shop around, they would have come in $20 more than Garage #2. But they didn't quote me 1 hour, they told me it would take 3-4 hours and made foreboding suggestions that the other shops didn't know what they were talking about (all 6 of them?). The conversation went like this:

"Year? Make? Model? Air-Conditioning?"
I answered yes to that last and could hear the air disappearing inside the Sears auto center.
"That'll be a long job"
Asking what "long" meant, I wondered if Sears was simply so efficient than an hour seemed like a lifetime. Unfortunately long was, indeed, long.

The mechanic explained that when his Geo was fixed -
"It's a Chevy."
- when his Geo was fixed -
"It isn't a Geo I own a Chevy."
- when his Geo was fixed it took a fearful long time because of the a/c and the oil pan (???).
"But I own a Chevy. They're different cars."

Geos are pathetic cars. Cute. But pathetic. Once a little old lady backed her Geo Metro into my dad's Cadillac, going about 10-15 mph. The hood of the Caddy was imperceptibly bent. The entire back of the Metro was smashed in and as she pulled away there was a trail of Geo chunks left behind.

A mechanic who would drive a Geo is repulsive enough. If he doesn't know enough about cars to pick out a good one, how can he know enough to fix mine? But the fact that he thought we owned the same wimpy car (the makes sound alike) is just ridiculous. I do not own anything associated with Geo, my car's a frickin' Corolla on the inside! A Geo?! No.

This clinched it for Garage #2. They fixed my car. It took an hour and it cost what they said it would, almost down to the dollar. My one complaint is that my dad just fixed my radio the last time I was home...and now it doesn't work again. Bummer.

Odds & Ends

2008-04-28T22:20:00.013-04:00

Robin, Laura and I grabbed breakfast at the bakery this Saturday. We had a little trouble finding a parking space. After taking a trip down to Desi's so Laura could have her dress altered, Robin and I went for a walk up in Elkhart. It was really cold.

I have no idea why they would have this written on a manhole cover. Do you?

At some point we went for a walk by the dam. The weekend's kinda blurry, so I don't know when, but we did.

It's really pretty back there.

We just thought the face in this tree was pretty funny.

Today I ate at The Garden Gate. It's pretty much amazing. I had the Turkey Garlic Herb Barbeque wrap and the owner brought us all a bunch of goodies to try. I'm telling you, if you don't have something going on this weekend you should come up to Shipshe and have breakfast with me. I love this place.

Your market is who now?

2008-04-23T22:47:00.005-04:00

My roommate and I were enjoying a food court dinner, a few nights ago. Adorning our table was this advertisement announcing the arrival of a new store.

If you've been in a mall during the past five years you've probably seen an Aerie store and know that it's an American Eagle niche store selling undies and bras to the 12-18 set.

The catch phrase on this ad did what it was supposed to do and caught my attention.
"Turn some heads..." it demands of Jr. - Sr. High girls everywhere. Turn some heads? Plural? More than one individual is going to be seeing them prancing around in their underwear? Where do they think their target market is going to be, a brothel?

The opposite side of the advertisement relies on a girl in a bra to make up for their vague assertion they Aerie is "more than just sexy..."
Oh yes? There's more? Like what, pedophilia?

I can envision how it went down. The design firm saying, "That doesn't actually make sense" and "That's a little weird for your target market, what if we said..."
Sadly they were cut off by the owner who said, "No! That's our catch phrase, that's our idenity! We need people to think of that when they think of Aerie!"

Never fear Mr. Aerie CEO. In my mind, Aerie is now forever linked with child prostution. Never fear.

Mayfest...you should be there

2008-04-22T22:48:00.005-04:00

If you're in Indiana, Michigan, or Ohio you should make your way to Shipshewana, May 2 or 3 and enjoy the excitement of a Fest that isn't named after food.

The 2nd is not quite as exciting. There are story tellers and a jazz band and a pizza eating contest. I'll probably pop over to take some photos of school children field tripping there, but that'll be about it.

Saturday kicks off with a pancake breakfast, but I recomend giving that the slip and heading over to The Garden Gate or Only By Grace for breakfast. Only By Grace has coffee and some awesome Amish-made cinnimon rolls. Everything at the Garden Gate is delicious, but I recommend the Mango-Breakfast/Dessert-Pannini.

For those who like their mornings early the 4 Mile Road Race, 1 Mile Walk, & 1 Mile Fun-Run start at 8:00. There's also three-on-three basketball, but it's too late to sign up for that.

Shopping starts at nine, the parade starts at ten. Other random activities are sprinkled throughout the day: face painting, tractor pulls, kids games, clogging, pie-eating, a bake off and other things that aren't as interesting.

I'll be wandering around taking photos of everthing...and shopping. There's a list of activities and store specials at http://www.shipshewana.com/, but mostly it's just fun to wander around.

Snapshots of a Weekend

2008-04-21T21:33:00.005-04:00

"This place is a tomb! I'm going to the nut shop where it's fun!"
- George, You've Got Mail

My sisters and I used to watch You've Got Mail [whisper]every day[/whisper]. This is one of Holly's favorite quotes. Encountered with a store actually called "The Nut Shop" I had to take a photo.

Robin and I ate at Pizza Hut. We were asked if we'd like lemon with our water. This is what we got.

We also went out to buy gardening supplies. We bought a lot of seeds and a couple rose bushes and a grape vine. And then it rained...so nothing got planted except for the trellis.

It only takes three muscles

2008-04-18T22:55:00.003-04:00

Evidently smiling is not as simple as the optimists have been telling us. Look at that girl struggle to smile without her smile trainer!

Oh Indiana

2008-04-14T00:08:00.002-04:00

I put off writing about the taxi meeting because I haven't had time to do it justice.

When I got to the meeting the parking lot was full. Inside were about a million (or thirty) state troopers in the hall. First thought, "Are they expecting a riot?"

Given Senator Meek's opener of, "Some people said there'd be shouting, yelling and throwing stuff at this meeting. So before we start I just want to say, this is Northern Indiana! We don't do things like that here!"

Yeah. The naivety was just that adorable. And in a sea of men wearing flannel shirts and trucker hats, adorable was in short supply. It wasn't upped much by the smattering of soccer moms and Amish men. That's ok though, there was plenty of hilarious.

The first fellow to talk started off by joking about the crowd's "Hello" being about as responsive as Sunday morning. He then explained that he leads worship at his church. I can only assume that this was to let us know he's a good Christian man and that when the chair throwing started he should not be considered a valid target.

They asked everyone to keep their questions till the end, so for the purposes of my blog post almost nothing interesting happens again until then.

People were generally frustrated because most of the presentations had wildly missed the point. They kept talking about the required insurance the companies need to have and how the DOT has to be on each vehicle and they need to test all their drivers. The "companies" in question are almost exclusively middle-aged couples who have one mini-van. They probably don't make more than $30,000 a year. Aside from hundreds of dollars in one time fees for licensing, their vehicles must be insured for $1.5 million dollars.

The lady from the Department of Revenue told them, "We want to put you in business, not out of business," but by the end of the meeting, no one believed her.

There was scattered clapping when it was announced that a moratorium had been placed on tracking down drivers who are in violation. There had been a lot of confusion before and a lot of people had believed they were in compliance when they really weren't. They have 51 days to get legal, but for a lot of them it won't even be an option.

To start the questioning, Senator Meeks announced that he was retired from the state police and even he found the session confusing - so none of us should feel silly if we didn't understand.
They understood. With the exception of the moratorium the rules were just as unforgiving as they'd originally thought them to be.

He asked a question about the insurance and was told it was a federal requirement.
"Federal requirement? We've got too much government haven't we?"

Lots of applause from the crowd. Awkward looks from all the other government officials. Meek's laughed and said he'd said it before and wasn't afraid to say it here or anywhere else.

A lot of the questions were technical clarifications or concerns. That audience was enthralled, but I doubt you would be. Others were more accusations that questions.

George of Goshen wanted it to be known that he frequents the toll road and that, while he has seen many semi's tipped over, he has never seen a van in a ditch.
No one knew why this was relevant.

Another man urged people to contact their congressman to get the federal insurance regulations changed. One couldn't hold in his anger and declared, "That [insurance is] where this is raping us!" Limited applause. This is Northern Indiana, we don't just toss around words like "rape".

Finally one lady asked if the rumors of the Amish being stopped by the state police for a horse being lathered up, was true.

The government officials were adamant that this was only a rumor and that the state police did not and would not do such a thing. So...would the regular police? I didn't ask. It seemed touchy.

Some one else was angry because they're cracking down on the Amish but there are hundreds of illegal immigrants right down the road. Judging from the earlier cheers when a rule that, "A driver must be able to read/speak English" I'd say this view was shared by many people in the room. To me the Amish and illegal immigrants are the same. Neither one claims any responsibility to this country. At least the immigrants don't ruin the roads.

A person who I have labeled in my notes as "Angry Man" got up for the second or third time and declared that the new rules were going to put the drivers out of business and that then there would be 600 buggies on the road, which would create far more safety problems than un-insured drivers would.

I was glad he brought it up, because that's one of my main concerns. I don't know if it was just because of the weather or if the Amish were all out in protest, but when I drove home that evening there were more buggies on the road than I've seen in a long time.

Indifference

2008-04-11T21:33:00.003-04:00

There are a lot of police out on the streets of the city I live in. They've been all over the place lately and they're completely worthless.

Robin and I were walking home from downtown. We started to cross a four way stop at the same time as a white car was slowing down to stop. We were almost across when the white car sped up and swerved to hit us! We ran out of the way, but Robin got the license plate number and we thought to note the street names and time.

When we got home we called the police. I told the woman that we'd got the license number. She asked where it had happened and the type of car. I told her the intersection and that the car was white but that I didn't catch the make and model.

She said, "Ok, well we'll put out patrol cars," and then she hung up.

Robin and I saw no less than four patrol cars on our walk. I don't see how they could put out more or what good it could possibly do. I wanted to give her the plate number, but she didn't take it. I wanted to call back and say, "HEY, we got the license number! Take it and run her plates!" but I feel a little weird about that.

Why do we have so many police out if they're not going to do anything?

Idol Gives Back?

2008-04-10T21:05:00.006-04:00

I haven't been that excited about American Idol this year and Idol Gives Back turned out to be an extra bummer because Michael Johns got kicked off.

I didn't really watch Idol Gives Back, last night. As a matter of fact, I made plans for the evening specifically because one year of watching Paula, Randy, Simon, and Ryan pretend to care was enough. But, last minute changes in plan found me at home when the last half of the show was airing after all.

This year American Idol execs planned better. Most of the songs actually had to do with caring for people rather than reveling in our apathetic tendencies. The people who were sent to Africa either actually cared...or they have better acting experience. The point is, as a viewer at home I felt like they care - and that's what keeps people phoning in their pocket change, yes?

There are only two bits of the show I really payed close attention to.

One was when the Idol contestants sang Seasons of Love. I like that song. Yes, I know. RENT is an evil movie created for the sole purpose of corrupting good Americans like you and me. The song is still pretty.

Ironically a, somewhat anti-Christian, idol-blogger, Rickey Yaneza, and I were upset about the same part of the show. The finale. Idol contestants came back together with a gospel-type choir to sing Shout to the Lord.

Rickey is angry because,
"Shout to the Lord...is one of the anthems of the born-again movement in the world — a movement which does not support contraception and is intolerant towards gays and people with HIV/AIDS...Saving children in Africa and New Orleans has nothing to do with the Christian god. What were they thinking? Bah!"

My roommate and I were horrified because...it's a worship song. And it wasn't even one of those songs about God's love for the earth or how God takes care of His children or how we're His hands and feet. That could have been appropriate. The whole song is about how glorious God is and about how the whole world recognizes it. The point is to worship God for His greatness...and they used it as a display case for pretty voices. It wasn't about God at all.

I don't expect the majority of the Christian viewers to be bothered. I rather imagine that they will be tickled that a song they sing Sunday mornings was on American Idol. That their importance as viewers has been noticed. I imagine the same people will have been offended by Carrie Underwood's rendition of Praying For Time (which I loved and thought was incredibly appropriate). That's not to take a swing at anyone who feels that way. I'm imagining having this conversation with my parents and how perplexed they would be at my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I've always said that Idol execs need to get their act together and realize that a majority of their viewers (and probably contestants) are church-goers. I was thinking more that they should just refrain from offending the living daylights out of us - not that they should hold us a service.

In the end though, I don't think it would matter what they sang. I'm never going to help people through American Idol. Ever. I much prefer to know where my money is going and what it is doing. I can't help thinking that the money Idol Gives Back has gathered will primarily go towards paying for "promotional materials" or to pay for celebrity appearances.

Snap Judgements

2008-04-09T22:36:00.007-04:00

My roommate's boyfriend is not the flower buying kind. He had to be yelled at (not by her) before he consented to buy her flowers for valentine's day. My roommate is such a clever person. She bought herself flowers one day. Then she left them out on our kitchen table in a pretty vase. Boyfriend arrives. First question on his mind, where are these flowers from? Who are these flowers from? When he voices his concerns she tells him that she had to go out and buy herself flowers. The pictures above are of the flowers he brought her the next day.

My roommate has an adorable and evil dog. She refused to look straight at the camera. The instant I have a camera in hand she runs away.

The shoe section at Target has always been bad, but this may be a new low. My sister demonstrates the pain and sadness that Target is causing.

Actually, I don't like most of the clothing at Target at all. I love their housewares and office supplies, but their clothes all seem strategically designed to flatter no-one.

Crisis in Amishland

2008-04-06T16:17:00.004-04:00

The community I work in has three types of people. Amish people, English people who like Amish people and English people who don't.

(note: despite the fact that we aren't English, that's what Amish people call us. Maybe because we speak English instead of PA-Dutch?)

On Friday a Pro-Amish guy was by the office. He was ranting and raving about government oppression of the Amish.

Amish people drive in horse-drawn buggies (or pony drawn carts, or on horses, or on bike or they walk - but mostly the buggies). The obvious disadvantage to buggies is that it takes a lot longer to get places so a lot of times Amish people hire drivers to take them to Wal-mart or anywhere that's a couple towns away. There are a lot of people who make side money "Hauling Amish" - or they used to.

Sometime last year the government started threatening fines on all the Amish Haulers who weren't properly licensed and insured as commercial drivers. The thing is, the licensing and insuring would cost more than these people make off driving. A few people went through the proper channels and started hauling again (I guess they had enough business), most stopped hauling, and others kept hauling illegally.

Well, according the the Pro-Amish, man the government has been staking out Wal-mart and stopping vans of Amish people as if they were checking the border. If the driver isn't legal all the Amish people have to get out and the driver has to leave them there. The Amish people asked what they're supposed to do the government officials have said they don't know and don't care.

Here's the thing. Yes, the driver is breaking the law, but the law in there to protect the people he is driving. If I went to a nail salon and it turned out the manicurist wasn't licensed (yes, you need a license to slap on some nail polish) they wouldn't be hauling me away (or ripping off my acrylic nails!). It isn't my job to check that the person is running legally, when a person hangs out their shingle the customer assumes that they are legal unless they're selling crack or something. So why are they punishing the people who the lack of insurance leaves at risk?

I'm not pro-Amish en-mass (though there are Amish individuals that I like), but this just seems absurd. Pro-Amish man went on for quite some time and told us another story about family's who'd gotten in trouble because their horse was foaming. People sweat, horses foam. Evidently this is abuse. Another time a horse had icycles hanging off its nose because it was cold out and the foam had frozen. Again, abuse.

So - no drivers for the Amish, but they can't use horses either.

The Amish people asked what they were supposed to do and the police officer told them they should change their ways. Probably this is not a government attitude and the police officer had simply had to dodge one too many buggies. Everyone has those days - even so.

Drivers, Amish, and businesses are upset about this. Wal-mart probably doesn't care, but Aldi and other stores have seen their profits fall. So there's going to be some sort of meeting with government officials to discuss the situation.

We were telling out boss about all the drama (and petitioning him to let us report on the meeting) when another guy came in. He was not pro-Amish. He doesn't see a problem. After all, why should the state change the rules for just our county? We should we have special priviledges?

My boss mentioned that the drivers are being charged more than drivers in the city (who make more and have a higher accident risk). I just think there should be rules for this situation. Other counties don't have Amish so of course they wouldn't have rules providing for them (though many Indiana counties do have Amish communities).

I'll you know how the meeting goes.

Weekend? Where are you?

2008-04-05T09:08:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a day of madness.

I took Monday off this week. Not a biggy because nothing comes in on Monday. I probably would scrounge up work to do. I was really sick two of the four days I did work. I don't remember anything about those days and it seems unlikely that I lived up to my full potential.

We had a ton of extra advertisers. This is more of a big deal.

There are a lot of people out there who believe that just because I have a computer and a degree in graphic design I can take some hacked up photograph, with bad color and coffee stains, and turn it into a professional ad. They're right of course, but it takes time and I didn't have much of that.

There are even more people who don't understand what the word, "deadline" means. People call us up and cry pitiously into the phone about how their sale will be over by the time we publish another issue, it will be too late and all will be lost. These were things to consider two days ago. Before the deadline.

It was 7:00 before I finally got out the door and I expect Monday will be much the same.
There's something to look forward to.

cold & flu

2008-04-02T07:13:00.001-04:00

I made it all winter wihtout getting sick, but now that it's spring (technically) I've got a nasty cold. Of course.

Happy Birthday

2008-03-30T15:16:00.003-04:00

So Holly and I drove down to see our friend in rehab. From what we'd been told we expected the congregation to be so black that we would glow, but there were a lot of hispanic and white people. Everyone was really friendly so, even with all the dancing and speaking in tongues, I didn't feel awkward at all. Perhaps I that was an oversight on my part.

The service was two & a half hours long. The only song I knew was Stomp and that's only because Micah loves that song. The Sermon didn't seem to have a topic and the pastor didn't have notes. He preached against alcoholism, drugs, prostitutes, gluttony, and narcicissm...he preached love, forgiveness, the importance of scripture and reliance on God, all as he thought of them. He told a lot of jokes and stories. He quoted scripture, but he didn't have a bible so I think he memorized it all (!) and inserted it as needed.

We didn't get to sit with our friend though and in the end we spent four hours total time just to spend 15 minutes with her over lunch. We thought we'd have at least an hour, so that was hugely dissapointing. Even so, I haven't seen in her in five years and it was great to see how good she was doing. Besides, she was really thrilled that we came, so you know...that makes it worth it.

all over

2008-03-23T22:27:00.008-04:00

Well, the biggest bummer of this weekend is that Holly and I did not get to throw our friend a birthday party. We'd thought her parents would be taking her out next weekend, but it was this one. So I'll be making this trip all over again next weekend so we can do this thing. Hopefully my boss will let me have Monday off so the trip won't be awful.
Here's some photos of our Friday adventures.

My sisters picking up measuring tapes as we enter the great land of Ikea. If we had actually been buying something they would have been very handy.

Bethany shows off a finger puppet.

Holly loves this game, but is her first ever Jumpin' Jackpot win.

Bethy pretends to beat me at air hockey (she really did beat me, but Holly didn't think to take a photo until after we were done).

Good Friday

2008-03-22T11:26:00.002-04:00

Got to my parent's on Thursday, where my family refused to greet me until Lost finished.

Friday afternoon - Holly, Bethy, and I went to the brand new Ikea store. It was pretty much amazing. The second floor is pretty well entirely a showroom where all sorts of rooms are set up to be walk through. We mentally redecorated our homes in Ikea and Bethany declared that she was going to teach her children about their Ikean heritage and tell them stories of how her family immigrated from Ikea (and started pronouncing it Ike-y-a rather than I-kia).

It's probably a good thing that I've predetermined that no money can be spent on this trip. I woud have bought a lamp and curtains (such cute curtains!) and a desk. I will probably buy all these things anyway, but the point is that I shouldn't do that now.

After our delightful Ikea excursion we went to Dave & Busters. For those who haven't gone, Dave & Busters is a restaurant with massive gameroom. Like Tokens-n-Tickets, but huge, expensive, and so much cooler.

When we were ready to leave, Holly thought she'd lost her keys and we spent an extra half hour looking for them and alerting all the staff to look for them. But Holly had a spare, so finally we just went out to the car to drive home...and Holly discovered that she'd really had the keys all the time.

At Random

2008-03-19T22:00:00.002-04:00

I'm really happy right now. I don't know why. Kristi Leigh Cook deserved to get kicked off American Idol, but Amanda Overmeyer was ditched instead. Maybe it's because at this time tomorrow I'll be home visiting my family. It could also be because I finally got an issue of World Magazine in the mail (I ordered it in January).

One of the regular columns I always enjoy in World is Adree Seu's. It's a lot too touchy-feeling for me, but I like it inspite of myself. This issue's column was confusing. It's titled The Green Dust and I couldn't figure out what she was talking about until I got to the quote from The Silver Chair. The Silver Chair is one of my favorite Narnia books (the other is The Horse and His Boy) and she quoted my favorite passage:

"Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all these things - trees and grass and sun and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a very poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies playing a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make up a play-world which licks your real world hollow."
- The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis

Mmm, now I really want to read that book and what I ought to be doing is packing.

more..

2008-03-18T21:42:00.004-04:00

Another ten hour day and then after work I had to go shopping to find something dressy and a birthday present for my sister.

I was rather unsuccessful finding skirts at the mall. Girls, if you're shopping for skirts you'll want to run straight to Kohl's. They had a wide variety of springy skirts, plus some that were more basic (brown, black) but still fun. Everywhere else seems to be catering to our grandmothers.

My shopping was made even longer because my sister called and talked until my cell died. But what am I going to say? "Sis, I can't talk, I have to find you a present that I should have bought, oh, weeks ago."

Anyway, that was my evening and my arms are aching from carrying all those clothes!

8-6

2008-03-17T19:16:00.004-04:00

I don't get Good Friday off as an automatic thing so I have to work eight extra hours so I can visit my family this weekend. You'd think working a ten hour day would be wretched, but it was actually not so bad. Now if it can just be not so bad for the next three days, I'm golden. Actually, even just noting that it's only the next three days makes me feel better.

What I'm not feeling good about is the snow accumulating outside my window.

My name is Melody & I'm a shopoholic

2008-03-15T23:56:00.004-04:00

They say that excessive spending is one of the signs of bipolar disorder...but it makes me really happy.

I had to go shopping though. Because I have presents to buy for three people. Plus, I need nice clothes so that when I visit my friend at her conservative church (guys & girls sit on seperate sides) I look appropriate (plus I just need clothes).

I only managed to get a present for my dad (thank-you, South Bend Chocolate Company). Holly is harder to shop for and I haven't seen my friend in...years. I'm at a loss for what to buy her.

For myself I got half an easter outfit, another shirt a bag, eight classical music cds (it was a set!), a haircut, and some hair product to go with it.

The part of me that loves new things is v-ery happy. The part of me that remembers how much money I have in my bank account is screaming, "Melody! What do you think you're doing?"

But I neeeeded those things.

Yukon Ho!

2008-03-14T23:33:00.007-04:00

The Yukon Song

By Bill Watterson

My tiger friend has got the sled,
And I have packed a snack.
We're all set for the trip ahead.
We're never coming back!

We're abandoing this life we've led!
So long, Mom and Pop!
We're sick of doing what you've said,
And now it's going to stop!

We're going where it snows all year,
Where life can have real meaning.
A place where we wont have to hear,
"Your room could stand some cleaning."

The Yukon is the place for us!
That's where we want to live.
Up there we'll ge to yell and cuss
And act real primitive.

We'll never have to go to school,
Forced into submission,
By monstrous, crabby teachers who'll
Make us learn addition.

We'll never have to clean a plate,
Of veggie glops and goos.
Messily we'll masticate,

Using any fork we choose!

The timber wolves will be our friends.
Well stay up late and howl,
At the moon, till nightmare ends,
Before going on the prowl.

Oh, what a life! we cannot wait,
To be in that arctic land,
Where we'll be masters of our fate,
And lead a life that's grand!

No more of parental rules!
We're heading for some snow!
Good riddance to those grown-up-ghouls!
We're leaving! Yukon Ho!

I've been really happy with the past few days of comparative warmth, so when I went over to Kiran's today I was completely ready to agree to a walk. Ours was really a treck through fields of bog and ice. Rubber boots may be the most brilliant invention ever, with them I managed to make it through our walk without getting soaked at all. Kiran had a hole in one boot and is singularly gifted at finding the deepest spots of the bog. She did not make it through the walk dry.

I really wish I'd brought my camera. I mean, I would have feared for it's safety at every second, but there was amazing light out there and some spectacular pictures just waiting to be taken.

We came back and watched August Rush. I enjoyed it while I was watching it, but you walk away feeling it's rather odd.

But, the little boy (Freddie Highmore - Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is cute and if nothing else Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who you will remember from...well, nothing, has the most amazing accent ever.

Daylight!

2008-03-11T19:49:00.001-04:00

It's almost eight and there's still a smidgelet left of sunshine. So happy.

productivity

2008-03-07T20:44:00.006-05:00

Last week was a long bummer of a week. The kind of week where even when good things happen, you only barely recognize them as that. And good things did happen, I got to hang out with some of the girls from the Link. I saw my sister, got lost in Ft. Wayne, drew some killer drawings, and got to hang out with several other friends besides. It just didn't register.

All day today I've had a hidious migraine and the feeling that perhaps one of my organs has ruptured. I still feel better than the seven days leading up to today.

This week is going to be different, though. I can feel it. Despite the feeling of impending death, I'm being shockingly productive. I mean, aside from this blog post. I'm helping to plan a friend's birthday, registering my plates, doing my taxes, buying health insurance...and I think I'll even get some work done on my greeting-card venture.

It's a good day, made even better by the fact that I didn't have to wait in line to renew my plates and when you renew your plates online the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles takes $5 off your bill. Most places charge you extra for doing things online, as if automation is costing them extra, but the Indiana BMV is being my friend and that makes me happy.