I am the office weird. /deadpanned

I’m totally kidding.  I’m not the office weird…all the time.

 

…

 

I share the position with five other people–none of which actually work in an office. <–This includes me.

 

See, the office weird.

 

*tra la la lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala*

 

I seriously am just from the Land of Warped today.  True story.

 

So, point.  Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere point.

 

I’ve been trying out Springpad for the last week.  Basically, it’s a web-based virtual notebooking app that allows you to create notebooks of information and interconnect them via tags.

 

Like Evernote, really.

 

Or any other millions of other apps.

 

I admit, I’m partial to Evernote because of the offline usage and smartphone apps.  Springpad does have an offline mode (that I haven’t tried yet), but because I have a Blackberry, there isn’t an app, per se; there’s a mobile site.  *hands*  It’s not that big of a deal (I have to do the same issue with Google+, the bastards.).

 

Springpad’s okay.  In the last week, Springpad has become my online collection app for quixotism and curiosity while Evernote is my go-to for long-term collection and storage.  <–It’s also the program I wrote my NaNoWriMo novel, Hood, in since I could have all the research and reference photos at the ready and cataloged appropriately.  Also, I could work on the novel anywhere I wanted to through the mobile app.

 

OCD=me.  What can I say?  I’m an organization crazy.

 

As I use it more, I’ll let y’all know more about using it–or, you could try it yourself.  It’s free after all.

 

So, for some reason, I almost always have Attack of the Show or X-Play on while I’m sitting here fiddling with the thinky-thoughts.  Today, Craftzine was mentioned on Attack of the Show for a how-to they did on using conductive thread so that you don’t have to take off your gloves to use your touch-screen phones.  Easy version here:  Touch Screen Gloves; more complicated version here:  Knit Conductive Thread Into Your Gloves.

 

Geeks and crafters/artists are merging into one mega-being:  The Creek.  Or is is The Gafters?  Best of both worlds.

 

It’s the Age of the Geek. *is totally Hardison from Leverage*

 

So, questions and oooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo for today:

 

Enrique Gomez De Molina makes these really interesting chimeric taxidermy sculptures.  He’s being tried for illegal importation of endangered critter bits.  Which, honestly, he should know better than to illegally import anything and using bits of endangered critters is severally hinky, but that’s not even really the point.

 

Does his artwork constitute animal cruelty?  What do y’all think of his work in general (and conceptual framework)?  What do y’all think of the usage of endangered critter bits?

 

And, in a less controversial oooOOOoooo, is Whimseybox.  There are Wine/Cheese/Beer/Hooker of the Month sites (Okay, not Hooker of the Month.  That I know of.); here is a Craft Supply of the Month option.  Craftzine did an entire thing on it, and I kinda want a subscription.  *rubs tentacles together all Mr. Burns-esque*

 

And, since Yule, Saturnalia, Hanukkah, Christmas, Squidmas, and any number of other holiday festivities, how about celebrating with “A Very Zombie Holiday” video from the lovely ladies at Team Unicorn FTW:

 

 

I totally realize that I owe y’all fairytale meta, but it’s not happening today.  Holiday zombies and Team Unicorn are kinda over-ruling it today.  Eventually, I swear.

 

Courage and Happy Holidays.

So, it’s November–

—and around here, that means it’s time to NaNo!

That’s National Novel Writing Month for those of you that don’t know.

Every year, we each try to write a 50,000 word novel over the course of November:  bad grammar, incomprehensible plot, Old Ones turned into plushie cephlapods (that’s one of my previous NaNos), it’s all good in the hood. <—Don’t mind me, I’m a little sleep depped; I don’t normally say or write things like that.  It’s the orgiastic abandon of NaNoWriMo, I swear!  I’m not in complete control of my senses!

*whistles*

So, the question is:  Who else is NaNo-ing, and what is going by the wayside so that you can make your 50,000 word goal?

Me?  I’m behind in my art-making, but NaNo is also keeping me from completely freaking out distracting me from the hurry-up-and-wait-ness of an application that I have floating out in the universe.

We each have our coping strategies, yeah?

Courage.

…vindication at last

Yesterday, I went to the bi-monthly meeting of A Ream of Writers, which is basically the NaNoWriMo kids on the off-season, and came away feeling like a vindicated artist.

 

Which is shiny.

 

I took one of my scrump with me to use as a writing prompt for the group, and it went so well.

 

I don’t know how many times I’ve explained to people that the scrump series, for me, is about body horror and the grotesque and how children are more accepting of those sorts of aesthetics than adults.

 

The name of the series comes from Lilo and Stitch:  How can it not be about children and the grotesque?

 

But!  When the vinnettes were finished, ever single one of them was in some way related to the grotesque whether it was an abominative creature that purred while it burned you alive, a queen’s mishappen daughter, a murderous granny with a propensity towards satin ballet slippers, tribble-like creatures trying to take over a ship, aliens who harvested minds, or a conjoined twin.

 

Ever.  Single.  ONE! \o/

 

I feel vindicated as an artist by my audiences reception.  They wrote these vinnettes before they knew anything about the piece other than how it looked and got it so, so, so right!

 

*SQUEE*

 

And so y’all, lovely readers, can have a point of reference, here’s the piece I took to Crit Group.

 

…back from the abyss

So, I have finally emerged from the craziness that is NaNoWriMo.

 

And, I won!

 

 

So, it is completed, and now, I’ll be editing it forever ’cause it’s severely cracked.  My novel is titled “Fairytales and Snails on Leaves:  A Great Big, Depressing Morass of Potentially Connected (But, More-Than-Likely Not) Thoughts, Sub-Thoughts, and Rants (And Semi-Cracked Out Academic Exposition)  Or, a Satirical Expose of a Squid’s Life in a Not-Remotely Funny Form” and is an interconnected short story novel ala Byatt and structured like L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E poetry.

 

Yeah, it’s in fact that fucking weird.  Yay for me!

 

So that this is actually connected to the theme of this blog and not completely off-topic.  Here is a picture of an installation that I did earlier this semester.

 

 

 

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

 

 

untitled, or kinetic thought

2008

 

Kinetic installation in the NIU Writing Center made of specialty hand-made paper, tape, and strategic use of a heating vent.

 

 

Toss in some graaaaaaaaaaading, and you have my last couple of months, which is totally cutting into my arting time.  *SIGH*

NaNoWriMo \o?

So, I have crazily decided to play NaNoWriMo this year. o.O

 

First. Time. Ever. \o/

 

Is anyone else participating? ‘Cause, ya know, I don’t wanna be alone in my crazy.

 

I’m trie_squid over there if ya want a buddy.

 

So far, my idea is kinda non-existent, but seems to want to be a short story novel ala Byatt. I even have names for some of the stories in it:  “Squid in a Jar”, “Cherubim Have Six Wings”, “Quixotism and Curiosity, or I Want to be Anthony Bourdain When I Grow Up”, “Snarktastic”, “Birthday Wishes and Burlesque Elephants”, and “Ruminations”.

 

What they’re about I haven’t the foggiest.

 

…it’s kinda cool though.