....Sigh....

I don't know why I check my blog every day to see if anyone commented.  It's kind of uber pathetic... like Roberta Sparrow in Donnie Darko who just kept hanging out next to her mail box waiting for a letter from the future (or was it the past... I'm still a little fuzzy on that.)

I guess I just have these lingering dreams of grandeur that someone somewhere will read this stupid blog and say: "Oh my stars and garters!  This person is delightful!  A breath of fresh air in this blog heavy world!"  (Hey!  I'll write the review for them!  Although, I think if someone said 'stars and garters' they aren't really my target audience in the first place.... sigh sigh.)  Anything to help me continue to make my "living" in the arts.  I've even started submitting original LEGO designs to the LEGO gallery as my new obsession... in the vain hope of being discovered as an unknown LEGO savant.


Help me LEGO wan Kenobi... you're my only hope. 

I've always wanted to write a children's book... write and illustrate.  I've seen some of the people out there who get published and it's a real head shaker sometimes... like, it can't be that hard if our local crazy-church-arsonist-bag-person-scary-psycho-dude can get books published... can it?  And I don't just mean do-it-yourself publishing... I want real royalties, and a real agent, real money... I'll even let it go the e-book route.

Speaking of e-books... I'm not sold on them yet.  The e-book readers are cool gadgets (see previous "Whore" blog) but there is nothing like holding a real book, smelling the book, feeling the pages, tucking the book away in a pocket, opening a book and finding a pressed leaf as a bookmark, treasuring the book... somehow, that mystique is lost when you e-read.   Also, what about book sharing?  With licensing you can't just send the file to a friend and you can't give them your e-reader cause then you'd have nothing to read or it may get broken.  Vicious circle of solitude there.

I have comfort books.  Books I could read over and over a million times (and probably have).  Books that are like a soft blanket.  I have books that I like to smell at times - just smell... the smell makes me feel better, makes a day seem ok, reminds me of the first time I ever found that book and the joy of reading it.  Some books can do that by just sight...  G.C. Murphy's in town used to have books downstairs in the basement.  Every time we'd go to town, I'd make mom take me there... records were upstairs, books and toys down.  My ultimate goal was to see if the latest Trixie Belden paperback had made it to Murphy's.  The first one I ever bought was number 14 - The Mystery of the Emeralds.  I was hooked.  My OCD kicked in and I managed to purchase all 34 books of the original series at Murphy's before they disappeared - all the same cream colored goodness with the oval picture on the front page... sigh  :)

Murphy's only carried a couple different titles of Trixie at a time so I had to keep going back - although this did give me a chance to earn more money.  A paperback, Trixie Belden book was... wait for it... waaaaiiiiitttt for it...

$0.95

Yep.... NINETY-FIVE CENTS!  BRAND NEW!!!!!!  Even with the price increase, they never got to be more than $1.50.  You can't even get a can of pop for that amount of money now!  And that was a lot of money to me.  I can't say that I bought every book myself, but my parents saw how much I loved to read and how much these books meant to me, so I can safely say they helped me get my fix in the '80's.

A lot of years later, my very first ebay experience would be Trixie Belden.  I had just quit my job and was depressed and low... very very loooooooooooowwwwwwwwwww.  I saw, on ebay, a set of the original hardback Trixie Belden Books... like the ones I used to check out of the library until Murphy's had the paperbacks in stock... the ones with the smell, the feel, the weight, the pictures... the Deluxe editions.  A complete set - books 1 to 15 (all that were published in that hardback edition).  I had to have them.  I had to feel better.  I had to hold them and smell them.  So, I bid... I won!  I spent money that I had saved and when those books came to my house I was ecstatic.  The world was ok, I was ok, I had Trixie.

I'm pretty sure an e-reader will never ever give me that sensation... and I don't think I want it to, either.

There Is Nothing Wrong With Snow

People living in Northwestern PA should realize by now, that we will have snow in the winter.  I am so tired of everyone complaining and getting all pussy about it!

When I was growing up, we went everywhere in the snow, we had school in the snow, we played outside in the snow, we liked the snow.  Now, it's getting ridiculous.  Everyone panics if a flake falls.  Everyone freaks out if there's even a prediction of snow.  I can remember sitting in a classroom in elementary school waiting for buses to get there and we could hardly see out the windows because the snow was so high!  I remember pushing snow with my car to get to a practice in town only to find out that it was cancelled.  It didn't bother me at all, I just drove back home and enjoyed the ride.

Walking outside in the snow is like being in your own world.  Everything is hushed and still.  The large flakes falling around you make you feel as though you are living in a snow globe.  The chill makes every sound crisp and clear.  It is peaceful, beautiful, magical.  I love the snow.

Where Have All The Jingle Balls Gone

So the cats have like 12 jingle balls, 3 felt mice, and one chirpy thing.  Plus two things on sticks and a springy tether ball.... so you'd think that I could find a jingle ball to play with the cats.

No.  Nada.  Nope.  Uh-uh.

I have looked under every piece of furniture, behind every appliance, and even in the chair cushions.... I can find no jingle balls!!!  I know they can't possibly be eating them (well, I'm reasonably sure they aren't eating them....hmmmmmm....)

There's probably some secret stash that only the cats know about:

Mya: Mew!  Mrroup, meow meow meow!!!  (HA!  The large one is looking for our jingle balls!!)
Wally: Rrrrrrrp?  Mew mew mew meow... Mrrrroop!  (Really?  She'll never find them...Mwah ha ha!!)
Mya:  Meow mew mew mew!  (Let's get one out and make it jingle then put it back!!)
Wally: MEW!  Rrrrpppp mew meow mrrroup!!  (YES!  That will drive the large one crazy!!)

I love my animals!!

I Am A Technology Whore!

The title says it all.  I love technology - all those useless gadgets that whir and beep and are sooooo darned expensive!  I just spent 15 minutes playing with a 12 year old's iPad.  sigh  I wish I had an iPad.  I'm a bit like the ADHD kid: "Jeez, I really think I should.... SHINY!!"  When I was 12, I played with Barbie and thought the Little House On The Prairie books were Nobel Prize winners.  Now 12 year olds (and younger) have iPads, iTouches, iPhones, iMacs, iPods, iEverythings!

I had the Atari 2600 as a kid which eventually led to the NES and the Sega.... then a dry spell until the PS1.  Of course, every upgrade was a bit of a shock to the system - all those buttons.  When I started gaming, we had a button and a stick.... that was it.... and we LIKED it that way!  I was in my 30's before I had my first GameBoy, and had I not won my XBOX 360 in an online contest, I probably still wouldn't have one.  Something about gaming is soothing to me and I'm proud to be a girl gamer.

A few years ago, I finally caved and bought an iPod.  I had resisted because I thought it was unnecessary when we had perfectly good CDs around.... how wrong I was.  I'm a fickle music listener.  I never know what I'm in the mood for and when the craving hits.  The iPod is genius!  Of course I had to keep buying bigger ones so I could hold all of my music, but now.... everything I own is at the touch of a button!

Other than the iPad, my new jones is the Nintendo 3DS.   slobber  And not because of the 3D (which is soooooo overdone these days!) but because the games coming out for that game system look so damn cool!  So, I've already decided that will be my birthday present.  :)

Well, the 12 year old has handed me his iPad to "protect."  And by protect I mean play!!!!