Monthly Archives: September 2011

What Do I Want To Do Today? Learn the difference between Whiskey, Bourbon, and Scotch

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I like to drink.  Anyone who knows me knows that.  But I’ve found that being capable of/willing to drink most anything with alcohol in it is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing: I can go to any bar, frat party, wine tasting, little league game, car wash, whatever, and probably be able to find something to drink.  The curse: I’ve never taken the time to learn what the hell it is I’m drinking.

Which can get weird.

That’s what served out of what again?*

So I figured I should “adult up” (similar to “man up” but more gender friendly and indicative of some level of responsibility and age) and learn at least a little bit about alcohol. Since I have never really considered the difference between Scotch, Bourbon, and Whiskey and honestly, I may have thought they were all the same, I decided to explore the topic. Here’s what I found:

- Whiskey/Whisky, Bourbon, and Scotch are all… Whiskey.  So… you’re saying I was right, eh Wikipedia?

- Whiskey is produced around the world with each country essentially creating their own version of Whiskey.

-What makes Whiskey…well… Whiskey? According to Wiki, ‘The typical unifying characteristics of the different classes and types are the fermentation of grains, distillation, and aging in wood.’  Also, most whiskies use some variations of these grains: barley, malted barley, rye, corn, and/or wheat. And sometimes charcoal.  Mmm, charcoal.

Here’s an informative article about it from BlueKitchen.net.

If you don’t like reading things, here’s a somewhat racist diagram I made about it:

clickety click click.

 

*To find out go to: Oddee.com

 

What Do I Want To Do Today? Learn about tattoos

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To be perfectly honest, I’m not the biggest fan of tattoos.  Don’t get me wrong, they are a totally badass and relevant way to show how totally badass and relevant you are.  However, I know that if I were to get a tattoo I probably would end up with something like this:

Either that or I’d get talked into something like this:

Isn’t this what you imagine when you think of Patrick Swayze?

Then again, I could end up with something pretty awesome, I mean awsome like this:

Who doesn’t want to be a tiger lady?

Or even better, this:

See, this is brilliant because chairs never go out of style.

Man, I could do this all day.  But that’s not the point, so if you’re interested in looking at more incredibly horrible and potentially NSFW tattoos, then check out Documenting Reality’s Worst Tattoos Ever, Part 1 and Part 2 and the All Things Mundane blog. It’s like the cakewrecks of tattoos. (The pics from above came from these sites.)

Whether good or bad, all tattoos go on in the same painful, torturous way and we all know that it has to do with some scary needleage and inkage.  I never really thought about the actual process and I definitely had never considered that there are categorized styles of tattoos. It’s really quite interesting.  Here’s a cool infographic about it:

Click me.

This infographic is from Petrus01 Flickr account (thanks, you!) which is a compilation of this Washington Post article that describes the basic details of tattooing (its interesting and interactive!) and this other Washington Post article that delves into the history and transformation of tattoo artistry.

So, what tattoo would you get?

What Do I Want To Do Today? Feel Better.

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A couple of things happened recently that caused my self esteem to take a bit of a tumble.  I’m not going to go into it, because seriously, I complain enough about my first world problems (check that out, it’s funny).  But needless to say, I’m left doubting myself more than ever. Also, I’m a girl, so you know I already have to ask if those jeans, my handbag, your car, that tree, whatever… make my ass look fat at least 5 times a day or my girl card will be revoked. True story.

Does this double rainbow make my ass look fat?

I’m tired of being down and out and kind of a shitface to myself.  Also, I’ve heard, no one likes a Negative Nancy.  Bonus, I’m starting to piss myself off.  So here’s how I’m going to get better.*

- Get some sleep.  Lack of sleep makes people cranky. Usually I get 5 hours of sleep a night (when I sleep).  I’ve done this for years, but perchance this skews my viewpoint?  Yes, I’m going to admit that.  Aren’t you proud of me? Solution: laze around in bed for the recommended 6 – 8 hours.  Wow, who knew that laziness had its upsides?

If only Batman had known that all The Joker needed was a lullaby and some warm milk, a whole lotta mayhem could have been avoided.

- Fake it till I make it or whatever that stupid phrase is.  I’ve gotten myself into some really bad mental patterns. In fact, I’m so used to being negative about myself, that any other mentality seems conceited or egotistical. I’ve thought about this a lot, though, and I’ve come to realize that just because I admit to thinking I did something well or really liking something that I make, doesn’t mean I’m admitting I’m the best or that there aren’t people out there who can run circles around me. It just means that I’m enjoying what I’m doing and it’s ok to be proud of my effort. It still seems a bit conceited to me, but the goal is to break the pattern of negative thinking so that I’m less likely to automatically hate on myself. It might take a while for this one to really set in because I hear it takes about 28 days to break a pattern and form a new habit. However, it only takes one second to remind me of shitty Sandra Bullock movies.

Wait, where are the zombies?

- Fuck the naysayers.  Since that’s a quote from 311, I’m not going to count it as one of my daily F-bomb drops. Sweet! I should quote things more often. Actually, read the lyrics on this one if you don’t know the song – it’s got a great message. Ultimately, I’ve learned that there will always be someone who wants to poo on my ideas or make me feel bad about myself. Those people do me no service. When I think about it objectively, I do think I have a lot to offer. I have a really random knowledge base, I have tons of fun ideas, I always try to do my best, I have a decent sense of humor, I like to hula hoop, I can drink like a fish, I’m good at planning parties, I’m loyal, I think I’d do ok if I had to survive in the wild, and most of all, I’d do anything for the people I love. So boo on anyone who doesn’t appreciate those qualities.

Why do we hate stoners again? Is it the all the positive messages or those pants?

- Stop with the pity party.  Don’t get me wrong, I friggin love parties, but I’ve come to learn that a pity party isn’t really a party, it’s more of a one man band.  And seriously, that shit is annoying. I mean, at first it’s kinda novel and will catch your attention for about 10 seconds but then you just want to push them down the stairs or into oncoming traffic or wherever pity parties and one man band’s congregate.

The one man band: douching it up since the 13th century

- Just take the damn compliment.  If there is one thing I love about my mister, it is his frankness. It is hard for me to gracefully accept compliments. It has always felt odd to me to receive them and I usually have no idea how to react when someone says something nice. So the mister has this great method for getting me to shut up when I start hemming and hawing over something nice he says.  He tells me to “just take the damn compliment.”  Until now, I’ve laughed and brushed it off, but he’s right. STFU, and take the damn compliment, Erin.  It’s that simple and that hard.

So, don’t do that? Right?

 

There you have it. A couple of things I’m going to try to help myself feel better about who I am.  Because life is too short to for me to be unhappy with who I am.

 

 

* I am in no way, shape, or form a medical professional.  Don’t do this shit at home.  Or go ahead and do this shit at home. I don’t care what you do, kids.

What Do I Want To Do Today? Recap My Weekend (And Be Lazy N’ Stuff)

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So this lucky gal spent the last three days at this festival. It was a cornucopia of music, booze, music, booze, more music, more booze, and sweat with some rain thrown in and a whole mess of biking.  In short, it was AWESOME.

Here’s a pic to prove it:

Gettin the party started. My mister is on the left and I’m the second from the left. Giganto sunglasses, cleavage, and beer ftw!

It was so awesome in fact, that I spent today recuperating, i.e. sitting on my ass watching Spaceballs and Big Bang Theory.  Yeah, I know – I live a pretty charmed life.

I’ve gone to ACL for several years now and each time I learn something new.  Here’s what I learned this year:

- I can bike in a dress.  Don’t know why I was worried about it, but it totally works. Go me!

- Where there’s a will, there’s a flask.  And it’s filled with a whole lotta gin.

- I really haven’t found anything that doesn’t go with gin.

- Arcade Fire rocks my socks. I had heard they put on a good show, but I really didn’t know how great it would be.  In addition to the awesome show, their stage and lights were amazeballs. It’s exactly what I would have designed had I been given the opportunity.

- Dubstep, live looping beatbox, and cumbia electronica make me wanna shake it.

- We all have our own random attachments.  Clearly, I like my gin.  Which is about as clear as the love my mister has for the DSLR camera he sneaks into the festival… every year.  Good job, dude, cause that shit ain’t small.  (that’s what she said!)

Now some pics of Arcade Fire:

Their stage had a giant double marquee they projected images onto.

 

What Do I Want To Do Today? Pay It Forward Project, Two Of Five

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I’m going to try to keep this short (yeah, I know – good luck with that) because this Pay It Forward (PIF) project will activate the snooze button on anyone not interested in weddings, wedding related paraphernalia, or stereotypically estrogen-fueled events like that.

Click here for info on PIF and the first project.

For the second PIF project I made petal cones for a friend’s wedding.  You may be wondering WTF a petal cone is.  I respect you for that.  Just know it has to do with enabling people to throw things at other people in a more efficient manner.  It sounds really cool, but I promise I’m really talking it up. Google it if you don’t believe me. (*sigh* FINE, lazy.  It’s paper folded into a cone and filled with rose petals.  There I saved you 30 seconds.)

Here is the PDF I created for the cones. I made a custom monogram to be printed on the petal cone, which was made out of green vellum paper.  It’s simple, but that’s what best fit the couple.

Print, cut, tape, mail off x 100.  Hoorays and beer afterward for hard work not done.

Here are some photos of the process:

 

What Do I Want To Do Today? Find out who Flo Jo is

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This probably seems pretty random and like something I should know but I don’t. Fine, you’re smarter than me. There, I said it.

Here’s what brought this on: I’ve heard ‘Flo Jo’ mentioned in several songs and every time I wondered who this person was and why they had such a ridiculous name (sorry Flo Jo enthusiasts and all pets named Flo Jo).  I have a sense that this person might be someone who was relevant in the mid-80s, but apparently my mental lexicon of The Relevance of Times Past was thrown out during spring cleaning. What I do know is that the name ‘Flo Jo’ rhymes with a lot of shit otherwise “rappers” wouldn’t be using such a potentially outdated reference in their “music.”

Little known fact: grillz are actually “chomp activated” interactive rhyming dictionaries.

Before I query the internets for this one, let’s explore two popular song references mentioning Flo Jo (I can site more than two, but that would just be mean).

Sir Mixalot’s Baby Got Back:

‘Knock-kneeded bimbos walkin’ like hoes
You can have them bimbos
I’ll keep my women like Flo Jo’

Despite what you might think, he is not pointing to the Grand Tetons.

Oh, poor Flo Jo, why does your name have to rhyme with ‘ho’ and ‘ho’ derivatives?

Black Eyed Peas Just Can’t Get Enough:

Honey got me runnin like I’m Flo Jo
Signed her name on my heart with an XO
Love so sweet got me vexed though
I wanna wish it right back like Presto, yes

Like the Village People, but less talented.

Damn you BEP and your catchy tunes! I heard this song three days ago and it’s still stuck in my head.

Looking at these two sets of lyrics, here’s what I can gather: Flo Jo is probably a lady.  She is not a bimbo, knock-kneed or otherwise.  She may have run away from something or maybe to something, it’s unclear, but running was involved.  So, what can I conclude?  If I were smart, I’d probably say she was a runner.  But I’m not (see above) so I’m going to guess immigrant or model.

How does my guess stand up to reality?  Not well.  Good thing I’m not a scientist. Flo Jo was actually a champion runner and was the fastest women EVER. (thus making the Black Eyed Peas lyrics even more confusing.  Why does their honey have them running? Is it to the store?  Did she send them out for wine and tampons?  I don’t know!)

Sadly, Flo Jo died in 1998 from an epileptic seizure in her sleep.  Which makes me even more upset that Black Eyed Peas used her name for their stupid, nonsensical song lyric.

Also, Flo Jo’s real name was Florence Griffith-Joyner. Use that in a song lyric, rappers!

This is what a badass looks like.

The more you know:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Griffith-Joyner

What do I want to do today? Find ways to unwind

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It’s been a bit of a week here where I live.  Basically the the whole state caught on fire. And I live in a pretty big state so that’s pretty much saying in some literal fashion that all hell broke loose.  I also got my britches in a bunch over this. And this.  And just to put a couple of cherries, whipped cream, and some sprinkles on top, two friends had to be evacuated from their homes due to the fires.

One friend found his home safe and sound, but only after two days of intense worrying because he was not allowed to rescue his pets when the evacuation was declared (he was on his way home when the barricades were put up). When he was allowed back in, the fires were only 40% contained so I took his pets in for a couple of days just in case the fires sparked back up.

My other friend was not so fortunate.  She and her husband lost their home. Since finding out, a friend and I have been trying to organize donations to help them.

So here it is, Friday night and I just don’t feel like going out.  Here’s what I have been up to (don’t worry it’s not anything I’d be embarrassed to tell your mom.  Or my mom, for that matter).

I’ve been making these and watching this.

I’ve also been sucked into the wormhole that is Pinterest.  It’s actually a really amazing concept.  Request an invite and once you’re in, you can “pin” pictures (from websites, your computer, other pinterest accounts, etc..) to “boards” that you create.  You can tag the photos, make notes, label them, and what’s brilliant is that if you “pin” a picture from a website it will always link back to that site so you never have to remember where you found stuff. There is also an application that allows you to create a tab on your computer so that that if you’re randomly browsing a site and love a pic, you can “pin it” without having to go to the pinterest site. Just click the tab and it “pins” the pic for you.  Anyway, it seems that it might be geared a bit more towards women, but I think it’s cool enough that everyone should check it out. It would be especially helpful for photographers looking to create inspiration boards.  If you want to find me, my profile is under ErinAmanda

I hope everyone has a good and uneventful week, but if you haven’t, I can definitely say I feel ya.

What Do I Want To Do Today? Consider Education.

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Nothing gets my blood a’boilin’ faster than teacher bashing.  I know many wonderful teachers, my mother included (who, by the way, has her Master’s Degree and used to teach college, but moved to high school education because that’s where she felt she was most needed), and I know how difficult it is for them.  I recently read this article, shared by my friend, Ravi.  The article is wonderful and Ron Clark makes some excellent observations.  Then I read the comments. Well that certainly vexed me to no end – which is pretty much all I can come up with right now that isn’t filthy sailor curses or F-bombs.  It makes me so angry when parents… no, people… have no clue about what it takes to be a teacher. Because it’s not just the parents who have no idea what it means to be a teacher, most people in our society have no idea.

So when I read misguided and toxic misconceptions about educators it makes my heart ache for teachers. For so many people to think that teachers are idiots who are hired from the lowest echelons of graduating classes and that they only “work part-time for full-time pay along with amazing benefits and pension” makes me want to beat them senseless with my mother’s Master’s Degree and the lesson plans she worked on over her “summer vacation.”  For anyone to think this way only hinders the process of our educational system and creates friction and tension where there should be collaboration and support.

But good teachers are still out there.  Still working.  Still trying to make a difference even with so much stacked against them.  So I have to keep hoping. I truly believe that there are positive movements happening right now that will shape our educational system for the better and that our educators will help to see those movements to fruition.

One example is this Ted Talk given by Salman Khan of Khan Academy.  Truly amazing.  If you’ve never heard of it, Khan Academy started as a series of educational You Tube videos created by Khan for his cousins to help them with their studies.  The videos became so popular that Khan Academy is now its own website and a not-for-profit organization teaching millions of people each day.  But, you have to watch the video to see how this organization is poised to become the future of education.

Another is this Ted Talk presented by Ken Robinson.  It’s a funny and poignant look at how educational systems across the globe can stifle and “stigmatize” creativity while forcing a certain, and not necessarily correct, method of learning.  He posits that everyone is gifted with creativity, but that most lose it along the way due to deprivation of that creativity and the low priority of the arts in education.

So while it’s easy for me to become angry with people who propagate a false concept of the educators of our nation, I realize that they are just one voice in one conversation in a multitude of conversations with a myriad of voices (of which I have barely even touched the surface). All of those voices are just trying to assert what they think is right to help better the system because, to paraphrase Ken Robinson, we are all invested in education. For me, when I consider education, I realize that must also remember to consider the possible merit in all opinions and options for how to best administer education.  After all, the importance of an open mind was the first education I received.

What Do I Want To Do Today? Post Ice Cream Social Pics

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My last post was about some of the planning I had done and most of the decorations I had made for a friend’s Ice Cream Social Birthday Party.  I know the post was long, but trust me, I only subjected you to a very small bit of the planning/decorating process.  Lucky you!

Imma keep this short – here are some pics from the actual party.

This is what the set up looked like

Details, details, details:

 

The whipped cream is invisible. Just kidding. I was waiting till right before the party to put it in the serving bowl.

   

Notice the tape nest. I don’t think she can hold much longer, Captain!
She couldn’t so we had to hang her around the table
After the banner relocation
It’s ok, though. We all still got ice cream.

 

What Do I Want To Do Today? Plan an Ice Cream Social

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When one of my most darling friends told me that she wanted to have an ice cream social for her birthday, I squeed.  Not in my pants or anything, but you know that happy high-pitched flipper sound that people make when they’re giddy. I just had to insist she let me help with (and by ‘help with’, I mean ‘take complete control of’) the decorations and most of the planning.  Did I mention she’s a real gem for being so cool about that?  Because she is.

Her favorite color is purple and I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the color scheme along with cream and black as accents. I felt that cream and black would help keep the decorations from looking too childish and would help make the party a little more sophisticated. Of course, all of this sounds like I’m talking out of my ass, so take it with a grain of salt.  Or an enema.  Whatever floats your boat.

Here’s an initial sketch of what I wanted the set up to be (yes, I’m a nerd and I can’t draw.  Sue me):

I wanted to make three banners to hang in the window – a large pennant banner, a small pennant banner, and a string of origami flowers. On the table I wanted a white table cloth, pretty ice cream cups, a galvanized tub for the ice cream, and a lay out of toppings in pretty dishes. Of course there would be labels handmade to match the theme because I am an overachiever n’ shit.  Fairly simple, but inviting at the same time. Bonus! I already have most of the serving pieces.  Boo – yah.

Now on to the fun stuff – how I made the decorations:

Pennant Banners

It was fairly simple to make the large and small pennant banners.  I found cardstock in four different shades of purple that rocked my socks. I hand drew the pennant shapes on the cardstock and cut them out with my nifty paper slicer thingy (yeah, it’s kinda janky but it works).  No, I did not go online and download a pennant banner template because I’m dumb.  I thought about it after the fact. Ah, sweet mystery of life, now I have learned the lesson of never creating something from scratch when I can steal it… I mean borrow it… from the nice folks on the internet.

Once the pennants were cut out I just glued them onto white twine and there I had it: two banners.

Here are some bloggy-type pics of the process.

 

Origami Flowers

I wanted something dynamic and interesting to juxtapose the plain pennant banners.  I had an idea of something flower-like, but I was tired of making the same old tissue paper poms (don’t get me wrong, all hail Martha Stewart and whatever but just not this time).  I had toyed with the idea of origami flowers because I thought it would be easy.  Wow, I’m a total noob. While it wasn’t super hard, it was time consuming.

I got white cardstock and paint splattered cheap black paint onto it.  That was fun.  And messy.  I think I like getting into things that are fun and messy.

Once the paper was dry I made the flowers. I used this site to figure out how to do the folding.

Here are some pics of that jazz.

 

 Ice Cream Cups

Since I wanted everything to fit with the color scheme, there was no way I was going to use this for the ice cream cups. Not this overachieving nerdface. I mean, I’ve got a reputation to uphold.  So I covered them.

Here’s a montage (aww, yeah) of the process.

 

Next post: what the actual party looked like.