Happy New Year's Eve's Eve!

      Today is the day before the day before the first day of the next year! Oh my gosh, that's just so incredible.
     Lessee, we have some news . . . Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous now has an official facebook page! Next maybe we'll add a Twitter, a google +, a pinterest, a myspace, a sina weibo, a . . . never mind. Just facebook for now.
    
     I think that's about all I have to say right now. Goodbye! Oh wait, what did you say? Oh? You were wondering how I survived the rest of the end of the world? I guess I did sort of stop explaining it. Where was I? Ah yes, I was buying cheese from the Wisconsin cheese man.
     He was an interesting fellow. A green hoodie with the hood up, big sunglasses with round lenses, and a heavy southern accent (southern as in south of Canada, obviously). He did seem a little shady, but he was actually really friendly and the cheese was good.
     Oh, I was farther than that? So sorry? Was I on the beach? Nope? Ohhhh, the volcano! Sorry, okay, so I was surrounded on all sides and about to be dumped into the lava, when suddenly, it erupted. Which would have been a problem, but I carried an emergency lava proof umbrella  in my pocket, so I just opened it up and everything was fine. Well, not for the punk squid squadron, or the  spat! onomatopoeia society, or the living rocks of personification, just for me and my umbrella.
      When the eruption was over I took out my cell phone and called the angry flying pigs, and they came over with their giant cannons and shot themselves at the volcano until they broke everyone out of the lava, and we took them to the hospital. I hear there were no casualties, except one worm, which was given a very touching funeral. We all wore our best brown clothes for it and wept threw mud around. He would have been proud to see it.
     Finally I got back to ohio, and since it was getting so late I decided to go straight home and meet my mom there. When I got home, our house was in quite a disarray, twenty two and a half hares were having a tea party, or so the flamingotunaman explained when I asked him what was going on.
     "Twenty two and a half hares? Did you kill one?" I began to panic.
     "Of course not, idiotic human, I'm pescetarian, I would never kill a hare! Besides, everyone knows a rabbit is half a hare," he rolled his eyes and glamorously spun around on his heels and took a proffered cup of tea from a crying hare. I looked around and realized all the hares were weeping and everyone was wearing a tuxedo, even flamingotunaman, but he didn't look even a tad upset.
     I went up to the first hare and ask him what was wrong. He just shook his head and sobbed harder. I went to the hare that was lounging sleepily on the couch and crying softer than the rest of them an ask him what the problem was.
     "Mister hare, whatever is the problem?" I asked. He jumped to his feet at the sound of my voice.
     "Well, don't be asking me miss, I'm just crying because they are, I never know what's going on so I just do what they do mostly," he explained then plopped back down on the couch. I found another hare and asked him, hoping the third time would be the charm. It wasn't, it took seven tries, for various reasons, then one pulled himself together and explained.
     "Today's my birthday. So it's not my unbirthday, and we were all born on the same day, so it's nobody's unbirthday, so we can't have an unbirthday celebration! It's the first day in hundreds of days that this has happened, we just don't know what to do!" he sobbed and sobbed.
     "Well, today is my unbirthday," I said and patted him soothingly. He immediately stopped crying and shouted with joy and announced it to all the others. They served me cake, sang the unbirthday song and gave me presents, but then the last one came up to me in the gift presentation line.
     "I don't have any gifts suitable for a girl," he said, "I ran out . . . I'm so very sorry," he began to cry.
     "Oh don't be sorry, it's fine! If you want to give me a marvelous present, you could pick up some of the mess in here, that would be amazing," I said, hoping he could maybe wipe the mud off the floor or something. He brightened up at the suggestion, and cleaned my house totally and completely and repaired everything, then all of a sudden, everybody disappeared. Then my mom came home.
     "How was your day?" she asked me.
     "Interesting," I replied. Nothing else unusual happened that day.

Okey dokes, there you go! Hope you enjoyed reading it, have a happy New Year's Eve tomorrow!

Repentance or Regret?

     I regret not posting in so long, I repent my negligence.

     Those terms, they seem like synonyms at first, but I don't think they are. Hmm. Repentance and regret.
     I saw a movie a week or so ago. There was a man who gambled, and lost, a lot. His wife obviously wasn't happy about it. She was complaining about it to this older wiser man, telling him how awful her husband was for gambling. She expected him to agree and sympathize with her. His reply was a short question.
     "Is it the gambling you mind, or the losing?"
     I thought that was a really cool thought. When we sin, and face the consequences of it, what exactly are we upset about? Are we repenting our sin, wishing we didn't do it because it was wrong, or only regretting it because we had to pay for it?
      Would we regret it if we got away with it scotch-free?
      What does scotch-free mean anyways? Is it a term referring to scotch tape being residue free? Or is it Scott-free? Or did I just make up the term just now? What are the answers to these deep philosophical questions? The answer is . . . 42.
      BAHHHH. How many roads must a man walk down?
     Seven. It must be seven. I like seven. Have I told you that seven is my favorite number? I like it a lot. You know why I like sevens? Because I can cross them like a backwards F! I told a friend that one time, and she wasn't really listening and just knew I was talking about sevens, and she said, "I hate people who cross their sevens." I didn't repeat my reasons for loving seven.
      How in Tobago did I get talking about sevens? Who could that be at this hour?

     Oh, by the way, did you enjoy the end of the world? I've been hearing some incredible tales of triumph from the survivors. Did you survive? If you did, there's this comment box thingy below. Feel free to post your survival story, it will be put in our archives and you will be named in our hallowed list of survivors of the horrific apocalypse.


     My experience was more mild than I anticipated. The day started out with a tuna fish knocking on my door. Apparently he'd read this blog and gathered that I'm vegetarian and came to me for shelter.
      "I'm being chased," he said, "I may bring you grave danger, but if you protect me, and we survive, there will be great rewards for you." I ushered him inside from the rain and took his bowler cap and scarf and purple leather trench coat and hung them up. They were so heavy with water that they tore the coat rack off the wall and hit the ground with a great splat. I shrugged and turned back to him.
     "I'll get you a towel to dry off. I'd let you sit on the coach soaked like that, but my mom would kill us both. Or worse, just kill you and cook you for dinner and make me eat you," I explained. He gasped in horror.
     "No! No! Please no!" He yelled, backing towards the door.
     "Don't worry, dear sir, I will not let her cook you," I insisted, trying to comfort him.
     "Anything but the couch! I'm fearfully afraid of couches!" Tears streamed down his face. There was an awkward pause. Then I thought of the perfect thing to say.
      "Oh." Then another pause and another moment of inspiration and enlightenment. "There's the bathtub.. Or the pond."
    "Ah a pond, perfect! Do you have any salt? I'm dreadfully craving some salt."
      I considered whether allowing him to take salt into the pond would kill the other fish or not. I debated inwardly for an hour with he stood there twiddling his fins. However, five minutes before I reached my decision, a blue bus crashed through our house, it crashed through one wall and out the other without slowing down, while the people aboard screamed,
     "The yellow jackets are coming, the yellow jackets are coming!" Soon after they left, a swarm of flying jackets burst through the hole the bus had made. The jackets' sleeves were tied around curved swords which they flung about with deadly abandon. They each had shining gold buttons and were made out of the finest of the finest green polyester.
     My head itched I scratched it and discovered the itch was caused by a miniature sized live chimpanzee. Thankfully I didn't kill it. I went to the kitchen and peeled a banana and set the chimpanzee next to the banana on the counter. Then I made a list of what I needed, packed the knives and packed the bread and prayed for holy things. I was careful what I wished for, and I was sure to crawl through the open door.
     I didn't crawl because I was too tall for the opening, absolutely not. The bus expanded the door to record heights. No, I thought it would sound more epic to tell people that I crawled out of the rubble of my home. Then I started walking.
      I made it half way down our half mile long driveway, when I half remembered I had needed to do something. But since I only half remembered, I half mindedly continued walking, though now at only half speed. I made it half way down the second half of our half mile drive ways, when I remembered the second half of how to remembered what I'd needed to do.
     "The fish!" I exclaimed. I ran back to the house and looked for the fish. I saw some squishy goop under the door that was smacked down on our floor by the bus.
     "Oh Mr. Fish! I'm so sorry," tears streamed down my face. "I promise, I cry because you died, not because I won't get my reward now. I wouldn't have accepted the reward anyways, I would have gotten my reward in heaven for my good deeds. But now you're gone!" I sobbed.
     "Oh good," I heard a voice say. I looked up. There was Mr. Fish, slurping salt up a straw and looking increasingly like a flamingo, "I was lying about the reward and such anyways." He crossed his legs and leaned on the balcony railing. I could tell he thought this position made him look cute. It made me want to throw a pineapple at his feathery scaly flamingotunaman face. "Oh, I accidentally dropped this weird iridescent triangle collection and some eggs and red paint. I mopped it all under the door. I don't think your parents will notice it now."
     "Gahhhhhh youuuuu!!" I raged and bounded up the stairs to attack him when I heard the far off tune of an ice cream truck approaching. I made a run for it, to the ice cream, not the tuna fish.
     Unfortunately the ice cream truck did not surface from its underground path to sell ice cream at our house. But since I was already at the end of the driveway, I decided to walk to my mothers workplace and ask her for the number to call the insurance company to have them come inspect the damage done to our floors from the stupid flamingotunaman's mess. Idiotic fish. If anything could make me want to eat fish, it was him. I was seriously considering stopping by McDonalds to get a fish fillet just to spite him, but decided it was unfair to eat a fish for the sins of the flamingotunaman. So I kept walking.
     Unfortunately I lost track of time and walked too far and ended up in Wisconsin instead and had to back track, which was annoying but I stopped and bought some cheese so it was alright. The journey back was a bit harder because all bodies of water simultaneously turned into volcanos. (Millions of fish died, proving the theory of evolution wrong as they failed to adapt enough to survive in lava instead of water)
     And just as I reached the peak of the tallest volcano and was walking precariously around the edge of the hike that cascaded down into a lava pit, the punk squid squadron of inconveniently inconsistently emphatically employed alliteration burst down from the sky and pointed their noodle guns at me.
      "This is the tuned tuna we are looking for!" They exclaimed exponentially in unison.
Then the spat! onomatopoeia society boomed through the surface of the lava and with a click, each member shot their grappling hooks with clanged against the rock and with grunts and groans, they climbed towards me with hungry growls coming from their stomachs.
     Then the living rocks of personification grew legs and the stones knew it was their time. They took sips of their brave water and clambered towards the volcano where they must go into the angry lava and melt with their happy ancestors. The crowds of living rocks threatened to push me off the sad edge into the furious lava myself.

This is getting long and it's rather late so I'll tell you more about it later. Vale!

Books Are Dusty and Muddy Things

To put it nicely.

See, as you may know, I work at the local library here as an assistant to the teen librarian. Today I was working on picking out books for next month's book display. I'm doing books with red and/or green covers to kind of go with the Christmas season coming up. It seemed like it'd be super easy. I could just pick out a few books from the teen section that sounded interesting and had covers with red or green on them.
Well it wasn't that simple. I'd grab a book that looked interesting and look up some reviews on it, only to discover it was full of rather disgusting content. Since that wasn't going so well, I compiled a list of all the books in the teen section with red or green covers (that took a while, there were many more than I'd expected) then proceeded to go down the list looking up reviews. Book after book I discovered to have horrible content. This was the TEEN section. My younger brother is supposed to be old enough for this stuff, and I, four years older than him, was horrified just reading reviews of these books.
Look, this blog is directed mainly at 15-18 year olds, though I try to keep it rated PG for any younger friends or siblings of friends or just plain any younger kids who read some of it. I don't even feel I could uphold my obligation to appropriateness for my audience if I even alluded to what these books graphically describe. Wow. And guess what, only a year or so ago, the library didn't allow anyone under 18 to check out any movies that weren't rated G, seventeen year-olds couldn't get Tangled, but 12 year old kid could check out a book that makes me want to throw up just reading reviews of on the Common Sense Media site. Why is it that books are so different?
I think parents often think that if a kid is reading a book, any book, its a good thing. Because it's educational and all that. It isn't so quick and easy to read a book first before giving it to their kids, so they don't. Sure, they could search through reviews, but it's a lot easier to pre-watch a movie. So they don't check as much as they should. And maybe it doesn't occur to them. Books don't come with ratings like movies and video games do. I think they probably should. That would hurt the YA book industry though.
See, that kind of trashy book sells, doesn't it? Sad to say, but it does. And the YA book industry knows that. It's not some crazy accident that there's all these horrible things in books written for teens. It's not even a decision that the author made by themselves. Books go through agents, then are read and marked up all over by and editor. Then the author gets it back and makes changes. Then the editor reads through again and makes some more suggestions, then the author, then the editor, then the author... It might even be a number of different editors. They know this is going to be marketed to teens, and I bet they know it's wrong too.
Sure, make the excuses. They're just writing realistically. They're writing what the world is really like and what teens really do today. WELL GUESS WHAT GUYS??!! Where do these teens get their ideas to do these things? From your flippin dirty novels!
And that stuff is totally unnecessary. Unless you're writing a historical fiction novel about the holocaust. And even then you don't have to swim in the details. And if you're going to do that, you have every right to, but market it to adults, please.
You can write a romance novel without getting super physical, and you can write a great adventure without dumping blood and gore on us. Tanith Lee for example. She's a adult horror novelist. And that's fine. But when she wrote the Claidi Journals for young adults (one of my favorite series ever, I might add, I can't get over how amazing the books are), there was no extreme violence, the worst language was a few occurances of D*** and the physical romance reached its height at.. like five extremely brief kisses over four books.  Let me repeat that. She's a adult horror novelist.
Write horrible graphic stuff to your heart's content if you want but please, market it to adults!
 I hate how I can't just pick whatever sounds interesting from teen sections in libraries and book stores. I hate being afraid to read because of unnecessary bad content in books. I love reading, but I read a lot less because of that.
I think I'll be praying for the YA book publishing industry. Join me?

It's not Thnot

     Thnot: something kind of like a squid disco ball, but . . . not.

     That had nothing to do with anything. But, you'll remember, yesterday, I said that China would crash, Turkey would fall, and Greece would be overthrown. Oh, and America would be attacked. Well, something unprecedentedly preposterous has happened. I have, not only prevented any huge disasters of that sort from happening, but my predictions have also come true!
     You see, even though I myself am a vegetarian, my family is not, so my dad made a turkey. He dropped a wing when it came out of the over, so you see Turkey fell, in the process he also threw grease all over the kitchen, Grease was over-thrown. I would say that a teacup, or piece of "China" crashed, while it probably did somewhere today, I didn't wish to kill any cups for the sake of my prediction, so I just tossed one onto my bed where it "crashed" but was unharmed. So China crashed. I didn't have to do anything to America myself, for America was attacked with a huge number of belly aches from eating too much.
     If the difference in spelling of "Greece" verses "Grease" bothers you, and you think it doesn't qualify to prove my predictions true, I can throw a map of Greece over my laptop.

     I hope you're having a great thanksgiving! Remember the pilgrims, they were grim because they had no Thnot!
 Good bye :)

Conspiracy Wednesday

     Thursday: Thanksgiving. Friday: Black Friday. Saturday: Small business Saturday. Monday: Cyber Monday. But what about today, Wednesday? I know you've been wondering. Today in CONSPIRACY WEDNESDAY. MWAH HA HA HA!
     My conspiracy theory is that tomorrow, China will Crash. Turkey will fall. Greece will be overthrown.
     And of course, everybody wants to rule the world. So while America is lying helpless, immobile from their over filled stomachs, we shall be attacked.
     But don't worry, I'm here to protect you and since I know of these impending disasters, I will do my best to stop them. So if my predictions do not come true, know that I succeeded in saving the world. If they do come true, I failed to save you, but at least my predictions would be right.

     That is all. I must go save the world now.

Blablabla

     I like to say that quite a bit, "blablabla," I also write laughter like "bahaha," and write "bleh," as my term of slight disapproval. I guess I have a thing for Bs. Bees are cool too though.
     Anyways. What's happened since my last post? Don't be ridiculous, that was a rhetorical question! Yah, so . . . the very next day I decided to do NaNoWriMo. Even though I skipped the first eight days. Do you know what NaNoWriMo is? Just in case you don't, its national novel writin month, so you write a novel at least 50,000 words long in the month of november. Exciting stuff.
     To finish on time you have to write an average of 1666 words a day, I b'lieve. I started 13,000 ish words behind, but now I've about halved that. Which is cool, but obviously still way behind. It's a lot of fun doing NaNoWriMo, but it's fun too, just like its name, annoying to type because of the capital letters, but sounds pretty sweet to say. Bahaha.
     I started another art project and finished the previous one . . . unless I had already finished it by the last post, don't think I did. I'll post it when it comes out of the display case. The new project is an acrylic painting on canvas. It's supposed to be photo realism, but we have to choose one of four color schemes: complimentary, split complimentary, analogous, or monochromatic. (I won't explain these color schemes here, but if you don't know and want to, this page explains it) None of which will produce extremely realistic results, and the point of photo realism is extreme realism . .  I don't quite get what my art teacher was thinking, but okay.
     I finished my drivers ed classes, they wouldn't let me keep my beautiful doodled-on written-on-in five-languages folder. :( I was going to show you that, but oh well. Now I just have my driving sessions with my instructor still to do.
     Another exciting thing: I got hired by my local library! Which is totally awesome. It happened after a fairly complicated series of events that I won't explain, (bwah ha ha ;P ) but I had my first day of work today. I was only there an hour but I got the grand tour and got introduced to everyone that was there, they all seemed really nice and everything, but I don't know if I'll ever know all their names D: Apparently there are five people working there named Debbie. I'm not sure I even met all of them. So that's a little overwhelming. But I have my own little desk and laptop to use, which is.. pink.. Oh my goodness. Honestly not sure whether I like or dislike the color yet. On the one hand, at least it's not boring, but on the other hand, it looks more girly than I really am. Coincidentally, I do happen to be wearing a pink shirt. Epic fail. Actually, just fail, it's not even epic. What does epic even really mean except when we're talking about Beowulf or the Aeneid? Bother.
     Well hey, that's all I feel like saying today. Thanks for reading! Ali bye bye Alibaba!

Nothing Impertinent or Important

  Before you read any further, know that nothing below is significant. Feel free to leave.
Okay, you kept reading, now share my blog on facebook to prove you did, because 99% of people didn't! If you don't share it you will be kidnapped by purple kangaroos, taken to mars in a Grip (that's what they call their spaceships which look like bunches of grapes) then they will take you to their local neptunian representative and decide which of your pets to murder, then they'll kill it in a horrible way and make you watch, helpless to save your fluffy darling.
Tweet this blog if you love humanity and hate bad things.

     Just kidding. I'll still love you if you keep my blog your most guarded secret. I hate people who say stuff like that to get a million facebook likes and such. Or make up stories about Justin Bieber either being murdered or doing something amazingly nice. AND PEOPLE BELIEVE IT. Talk about Beliebers. Actually, people can be generally downright naive sometimes. Myself included. That said, I wasn't even planning to talk about any of that. Or anything at all. Just winging it people! I should join an improv group someday. There is something really fishy about zebra print bananas that I just can't get over . . .

      So what's been going on in my artsy life lately? Well, I doodled in drivers ed class again today. Made some dude with swirly tree like hands and a perfectly round head with no facial features at all. He was holding a bunch of helium filled balloons. And fish were flying in the sky. Exciting stuff, right?

     Parent-teacher conferences was tonight and continues tomorrow so I get the day off from school, yay! My father went and talked to my art teacher, and she told him how wonderful I am. Just kidding. But she did basically say that. So not really kidding. But it's not hard to be wonderful compared to the majority of my highschool, especially when I've been taking art classes my whole life. Baha. Then he talked to my latin teacher, and I think she once again talked very little about me, and more about everything else. Last year she did this sheep demonstration for my parents. Yahh. Um. She's interesting, but awesome.

     My current art obsession is body paint. It has been for a while but I don't if I've talked about it much. I mostly paint my face and take some self portraits, for lack of other people who will let me paint them :P But there's some really sweet body paint artists out there in the world. One I really like is Liu Bolin. He's a chinese artist who (with the help of some assistants who are obviously amazing artists themselves) paints himself to blend in with what's behind him and takes a picture. The picture at the top of this post is one of his. I particularly like this one because the composition is so interesting. It's not just him blending in, there's more to it with the policeman grabbing him and stuff. I think it's really awesome :)  I've come across a few other great ones recently as well but I can't remember their names. So if you think of another crazy body painting artist, let me know!

   Well, that's all I got for now. Thanks for reading! An remember, if you share this blog, your true love will confess his undying love for you. Actually, He did, and His name is Jesus an His love is so undying, he died for you. Seriously crazy stuff. :)  Now you yet again have no motivation to share this. BAHH. Okay, SHARE THS OR U WIL BE MERDERD BAI EVIL BLUDTHSTLY MERMEN NXT TIME U GO IN TEH OSHAN.
Have a good night :) Pass auf dich auf.

PS: I own no rights to the image at the top :P Blablabla. Nobody sue me. If you're thinking about it, let me know and I'll take it off :P

Driver's Ed Ambling Doodling

     As we all know, driver's ed is about as fun as Cedar Point. I mean, as fun as the waiting lines for the biggest coasters at Cedar Point. Bahaha, before the second sentence you were thinking I was either nuts or had an amazingly unusually exciting class. Or you've never heard of Cedar Point so you assumed it was something boring. Which it might be to some people, but it's been the #1 amusement park for a while I believe so it can't be too bad. Or maybe you get a ticket discount if you vote for them. That's probably not legal. And definitely off topic.
     Anyhow, drivers ed is boring. So I amuse myself by doodling. No wholly unproductive doodling, it relates to what the teacher is talking about, so it helps me remember stuff. For your amusement, since this isn't an amusement park, just an amusement blog, but not even really that.. check out my doodles.

      We were on a chapter about driving in cities. The first thing our teacher talked about was how there are more hazards per mile in the city, and he said we should remember that cuz it'd be on our end of class quiz. So I doodles about various hazards.

      During our fifteen minute break halfway through each session we get lollipops from this huge basket full of them. And the snake's heads are bell shaped because of a string of bells in the room. I'm aware that I missed an L in the word "lollipop" Hey, I was listening to the teacher instead of paying attention to my spelling, okay?

      We have two different instructors. One's an older lady and the other is a younger guy. This time we had the guy. He's fun, makes the class a bit less boring, and he likes to make Judge Judy references, I have no idea why. But yah. Then we were talking about signs. And that made me think of the song "Polar Bears and Shark Fins" by my favorite band, The Myriad. Thus, the hammerhead shark. Wham. Have a nice day!

Happy Birthday to Me, I Live By the See . . .

 

I look like a human, and I talk like... me.

     That was rather impressive, don't you agree? Yah, something like that. Anyhow, it's my birthday! And what would happen on the birthday of Storm Marie White? A hurricane would pound on in to my very inland home. That's not ironic. 
     This isn't the first time my birthday has seemed to attract a strange natural phenomenon. There was one year where we had northern lights on my birthday in Virginia. And that's pretty stinking rare. Virginia's a little far south for that.
     Which means, my birthday is much more special than yours :) Wait wait, don't kill me! I was just kidding! Gosh you have quite the temper sometimes. But artistic souls always were more emotional. Comes from locking yourself up in your room for hours and pretending productivity.
    So I'm sure you're all wondering what I'm doing on this most glorious day. First and foremost, thanking the dear Lord that we haven't lost electricity. My new heated blanket I got for my birthday wouldn't be much use without electricity.
       We actually did the whole cake/ice cream/presents thing on sunday because I have drivers ed this evening (three hours of joy!). I gots candles and the blankie, an itunes card, glitter hair spray, and new hair stylin tools :) I had chocolate cake with caramel frosting and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. STOP DROOLING THAT'S NASTY!!! My sister's cat drools.
      I just used my iTunes card and got the totally sweet cd, Sweet England by Jim Moray. He makes some really sweet folk song remakes. Anaphora a little bit? I think so. Oh, and I'll attach a video of him performing one of the songs below.
     Thanks for reading as always, and don't forget to wish me a happy birthday. It's very important to me that you do ;)

Books Are Funny Things . . .

The following contains spoilers for a few books. The Hunger Games and Extras mostly. I think that's it.

There is something about some novels that is unexplainably influential sometimes. Maybe being a writer myself I get into a novel a lot more than is prudent. Maybe because I tend to be an emotional person with a massive imagination that I recreate things to become strangely realer than real to myself in a way other people don't. But this is getting too hypothetical.
I dunno. I don't understand it. Most people read the Hunger Games and seem to emerge emotionally unscathed. It kinda mystifies me. I mean, tons of wonderful innocent people died in that book, Katniss is left a depressed half crazy shell of a person. If I had bought the book instead of having borrowed it from the library, I would have torn it to shreds. I was angry, I was sad. I couldn't reconcile what happened in that book. It wasn't okay, it was deeply painful to me. That book made me cry. Call me a sissy or whatever but I'm not sure that's something I ought to be ashamed of. When I read fictional books about bad things happening to good people, sure I know it's not real, but I also know that things like that have happened to real people... Are still happening to real people all the time. Kinda makes me have grief panic over people I've never even heard of sometimes. I know, crazy right? I'm not sure if I, being so lucky with my lot in life, in respect for those people who are so vastly unfortunate, if I ought to be happy all the time in thankfulness for all I have, and it'd be obnoxious of me to be sad when I have so little to be sad about compared to them, or if I ought to be sad, because it's idiotically selfish of me to be happy when they're suffering. Or is it a mixture if both? Neither? Bah, first world problems, haha.
Do other people think like this? Some of you have thought something along these lines probably. But I feel like a lot of Americans are so used to the violence and drugs and such in the Hunger Games that it doesn't even penetrate anymore. That's kinda a disturbing thought by itself. Mm.
Any hen yi hao. My second books are weird example... I'm reading Extras right now. Eh, only a bit more than halfway through. I don't know if you've read it, but the people are fame obsessed. Freaking heck, they're in a position where they could save or end the world and they're thinking about how best to post video footage on their feeds (similar to Facebook walls) to gain popularity! Really people? I know they aren't really real people but I've met people who might act like that on that situation. It's kinda sickening.
But once again, am I taking a book way too seriously? I dunno. Now I feel guilty every time I look at who liked my Facebook status, who commented something nice on my new profile picture, when I check out how many views my blog has and from how many countries. I feel like a fame obsessed idiot myself when I think about how I've posted stuff at the hours I know the most people are on instead of just.. whenever. Honestly, why do I have a Facebook, twitter, blogger, google +, and Pinterest? Why do I share my blog on three social media sites to bring in viewers? To some degree I feel a responsibility to my interviewees to make sure their stuff is read. But do they bring my blog more fame than my blog gives them? Probably. Was I thinking about that when I planned interviews? The fame they might get me? I didn't think of it that way at the time, but could it have been my underlying reason that I didn't even admit to myself? Even now I have to fight to keep my mind from wandering to thoughts of who might read this.
It shouldn't matter if no one reads this, should it? Does it lose significance if I write it in a journal than burn it before a human eye other than my own rests on it? Is it better that way? Or do written words need readers to have purpose?
Now it's self-response time. Gunna answer my own questions, whee!
I think anything anyone ever writes matters. Whether or not other humans read it. I think all our thoughts are precious. Right or wrong, it's an incredible thing you do constantly, thinking. Rocks can't do it, planes can't do it, pillows can't, plants can't, nor balloons, or paint or stairs or mushroom. And guess what? No other person thinks the way you do either. You are uniquely and wonderfully made. So what you think matters.
And some thoughts are better kept between you and God. I won't go into specifics of what. You fill in the blank.
But some thoughts should be released into the world. Maybe someone out there can benefit from them. Words can change things for the better if used with caution. Just think of the declaration of independance and the Bible. How about how Dickens brought notice to suffering in his world? i bet some real life sufferers got some compassion and aid because of the influence if his work And that's really awesome. So write on me mateys! Sorry for the immense seriousness and rambling ambling. Hope you're having a good.. Morning. It's morning now technically. Gosh I can rant a good long time. Guten morgen!

Analytically Anatomically Surrealistic

     Hello again! I finally have my beautiful amazing masterpieces for you! Drum roll, please!. . . No? Okay, bongo roll? Maracas roll? A couple of anticipating claps? . . .  Alright, never mind. Aha! I hear a clap! Yes, I hear you, amazing gorgeous beautiful person way back in the corner! Thank you! Thank you very much!
      Anyways, here's the first picture. We were required to draw noses. I added to it for my own enjoyment.
The caption on the top right says "Nosy people flying around."

     The second picture, the penultimate of the three, reads: "Having an aura of menace is like having a pet weasel.... You rarely find someone who has one, and when you do, it makes you want to hide under the coffee table." Which is a quote from Horseradish by Lemony Snicket/Brett Helquist.

     And last but hopefully not least, my final project. Based on my lovely phrase, "If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what do you look like when all eyes are turned away?"

     Respect it at least for the amount of time I spent on it. I don't claim it's perfect. I hope you enjoyed looking anyways :) I hope you're having a good weekend and have treated yourself to a weekend getaway somewhere with a boardwalk in close proximity to you. Listen to this lovely song before you go andddddd semper ubi sub ubi!

    

Gusty Guest Wednesday #4

     Cheers! Another Gusty Guest Wednesday at last! Please, give a warm welcome to our special guest this week, the super famous band, ShiSho! We have two beautiful people with us today so I'm forced to use names for their responses. I'll be unnamed in italics. Because of the excessive length, some answers/parts of answer have been omitted. I wasn't sure you wanted to read a whole book about them and they gave me permission to shorten it.


     Could you give us a brief summary of who you are and what you do?

Vivian: My name is Vivian Ramone.  I’m 15-years-old, but I’m pretty much already an old lady.  I’m in the band ShiSho with my younger sister, Midge.  I play the guitar and sometimes the ukulele.  Oh, and I sing.  I’m also an avid lover of music and counter culture.

Midge: Well, my name is Midge Ramone and my sisters name is Vivian Ramone and we are in the Band Shisho and basically we just write silly songs about crazy things and we play at a variety of venues from bars to Girl Scout troop conventions.


     What got you started making this type of music?

Vivian: As a young kid (we started the band when I was seven-years-old) my parents always took my sister and I out to see shows.  We saw all sorts of bands play, and our parents were constantly introducing us to weird and eclectic bands. Had I been listening to Britney Spears or whatever was popular at that time, I feel ShiSho’s music would be a lot different.

Midge: Our Family has always listened to fun bands like They Might Be Giants and Weird Ale.We also started at such a young age, what else were we going to write songs about other then puking unicorns?


     What's the story behind your artist name?

Vivian: Well, as a kid (and even now, technically, I suppose), I wasn’t allowed to say “shut up.”  It was a really strictly enforced rule!  So, my parents would tell me, “Don’t say shut up, say, ‘shut your pie hole.’”  I guess they were joking, but I took it super literally, and one day, I got real bold and told my grandmother to Shut Your Pie Hole and as you can guess, it was the debacle of the century.  My parents came back a few days later and said, “Ok, you can’t say ‘shut your pie hole,’ say ‘shush your shisho.’”
A couple years later and we were looking for a band name.  ShiSho rose to the top of the list.


     Who inspires you?

Vivian: Musically, I would have to say my biggest inspirations are; Ghost Mice, They Might Be Giants, SUPERCUTE!, Wesley Willis, Harry and the Potters, Kimya Dawson, Devo, Daniel Johnston, and, The Shaggs.
In a very personal way, though, my day-to-day inspirations are:
Amanda Palmer:  A true nonconformist.  She’s so utterly true to herself, regardless of whether or not she offends anyone.  She’s so raw.  She admits to being imperfect and having struggles.  She doesn’t try to be some plastic model of perfection or the model of not being hypocritical.  Plus she’s this totally rad person, and has all these amazing, innovative ideas.
Kimya Dawson:  One of the seemingly kindest and down-to-earth artists out there.  She genuinely loves people and has such strong emotions towards them.  She’s truly a natural born mother, and you can’t help but feel like she loves you, just by listening to her music or reading her blog.  And Kimya, like Amanda, is very openly multi-faceted and beautifully imperfect.
Mister Rogers:  He’s a man who is indescribable.  His lust for life and love of people is so amazing.  It’s so hard to talk about how much this man inspires me without writing my fingers to nubs.  So here, read this article.  It basically sums my feelings up;
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/5943
Ray Bradbury:  A completely beautiful human being.  He put so much of his own quirky personality into all of his books.  Bradbury talks about how he loves libraries—how he loves authors and how they become your best friends as soon as you step into a library.  He educated himself instead of going on to college, just by reading books in libraries!  He had such a love of life and a love of learning that he’s truly the kind of person I want to be.
Tavi Gevinson:  She’s my age, runs a fashion blog and a feminist website.  She proves that you’re never too young to realize what you love, and to do just that.  I just think she’s really neat (plus, she taught me everything I know about ~*~style~*~).

Midge: I have a lot of people who inspires me from Bethany Hamilton to Michelle Obama.

     Do you have a favorite Bible verse?

Vivian: I have to admit, I did not really have a favourite Bible verse, but I went searching, and came up with this;
"Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." Proverbs 31:9
I think that’s something that will withstand all time, and is kind of getting washed over in today’s culture.  Defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Midge: Yes, my favorite bible verse is probably Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.


     Who are some of your favorite musicians and why?

Vivian: Kimya Dawson and Amanda Palmer, yo.  See my inspirations for explanations on that. :P
But to that, I would definitely have to add the Shaggs, Mum, Sufjan Stevens, Sleigh Bells, Best Coast, Atom & His Package, Dubb Nubb, and Leslie Hall.
I love bands and musicians that are unique and put their own spin or twist on music.  Bands that when you first hear them, you’re like, “Holy Moses, what is this beautiful creation, and how can I hug the creator?!”

Midge: I have a lot of different favorite bands including Kimbra, They Might Be Giants, Fun., and Devo.


     Of the songs you've made, do you have a favorite?

Vivian: I’d have to say Rocks and Penalties.  It’s about puking unicorns, poisonous rainbows, and a Smiths reunion.  What’s not to love?!

Midge: I personally like Articles of Confederation and Rocks and Penalties.


     If you could play any other instrument, what would you play and why?

Vivian: The banjo for sure.  It’s such a fun-looking instrument.  I feel like it would definitely up my attractiveness to boys tenfold.

Midge: Keytar, Harmonica, and the kazoo.


     What's your favorite method of killing alien lizards with purple spots?

Vivian: Sick a Dalek on ‘em!

     EXTERMINATE!

Midge: Choke em until they hack up the magenta ham.


      You've played at a lot of local shows, how's that experience been? Do you have any awesome or weird stories?

Vivian: Local shows are always a blast.  It’s been really cool for us getting to know a lot of the local bands, and it’s amazing how open they are to letting two little girls come in and be a part of the scene.
There was one time when we were playing a show in Canton at Buzzbin, which is still pretty local—it falls into the NE Ohio region—and we were playing with this out-of-town folk punk band called Everymen from Florida.  All the guys had crazy tattoos and were wearing really cool/crazy outfits.  Lots of black, lots of white.  They were very obvious punk rockers.  I could tell that when we introduced ourselves before the show, they were a little skeptical of what we were doing, and of the quality of our music.
However, as we started playing, the guys started cracking up!  Which is good, because we’re an intentionally funny band.  They could barely contain themselves.  I could tell that they especially liked our song “The Articles of Confederation.”
After the show, one of the guys from Everymen came up to me, said, “You are seriously the most punk rock person I know,” he told me how much he loved “The Articles of Confederation” and proceeded to show me his tattoos, which all pertained to historical events.

Midge: Well, we have played many venues from bars to comic cons and book stores but one of my favorites was we were going to play at this bookstore and we thought this bookstore was the one so we get up there and we play and right after we realized we've just played the wrong venue... Fun times...


      So you both always have awesome outfits, how'd you form your great and unique sense of style? What was the best outfit you ever had?

Vivian: Well first of all, we use the art of thrifting to get us the base pieces we need for our outfits.  I don’t know exactly how we craft our outfits, but it kind of… happens.  Haha.
I don’t believe I have a favorite outfit, but my favorite article of clothing is FOR SURE this pair of legwarmers that I cut from a sweater.  They’re giant and are big blocky stripes of different colors.  They’re simply adorkable.

Midge: Really all I do is think of the craziest patterns I could possibly think of and usually they come out all right


     Do either of you do any other forms of art?

Vivian: I love to draw, and I’ve dabbled in story writing since I was eight.  In middle school, I was even on a competitive writing team for my school.  I currently am working on a collage for an anti-bullying project for school… so I’ll keep you updated on how that turns out.

Midge: Yes, I do I make comics and draw and write poems I have been in the Kent State wick poetry club for 3 years now


     What advice would you give any amblers starting to make their own music?

Vivian: JUST DO IT.  Don’t care about what other people are going to think of your ideas, or what other people will think of your music.  Just write songs.  No one has to hear them, no matter how much they beg and plead.  And I won’t even pretend to stand here and tell you that it’s so easy writing songs, and I never care about what people think, because I do!  And I think that’s a huge obstacle to overcome.
I would also say, don’t care about how it sounds.  Can’t sing?  Doesn’t matter.  Can’t play an instrument?  Find someone who can.  Learn.  Or don’t.
And listen to bands that you want to sound like.  Immerse yourself in the kind of music you want to write.  And you will write some songs that will be complete rip-offs of your favorite band, and that’s so totally okay.  It’s all part of the process.
As long as you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you’re gonna be a-okay.
And lastly, BE COURAGEOUS.  KNOW THAT YOU CAN WRITE SONGS AND YOU CAN MAKE MUSIC, AND THAT WHAT YOU DO IS PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL AND GREAT BECAUSE YOU CREATED IT AND NO ONE ELSE DID!   And the same goes for any art form.  You created it, and therefore it is how you intended, and NO ONE can tell you any differently.  You are beautiful and you are perfect and you can do it.

     Anything else you'd like to say before you go?

Vivian: Well, I hope I haven’t rambled anyone into a state of mind-numbed boredom.  If you want to learn more about ShiSho, you can totally click here and learn all about us: http://www.sonicbids.com/2/EPK/?epk_id=370444
Thanks so much for reading, and thanks so much for having me on your blog!

Midge: I like cheese :D

     Me gusta tortuga con queso.


I hope you all made it through that, cuz it was totally worth it! :) Thanks for reading, bye bye!
    

Finally? Finally.

     Darling Amblers, I haven't abandoned you. Well, actually I did but just temporarily. Long enough that if you relied on me for water instead of extremely interesting babbling, you would resemble the cardboard like texture of the cheez-its you discovered hidden under a loose board in a cabin you stayed in when you were a kid. Yes, you remember that time. You ate them anyways. I was watching until I had to escape deep into the forest to release my scream of disgust. I mean, the box was falling apart and dead bugs surrounded it! It killed the freaking bugs and you still ate them!

Oh, that wasn't you? Sure, sure.

Back to the Latin. Or ambling. Or whatever it is I'm doing.

So the reason I stopped posting was because my last guest bailed on me last minute and after missing a gusty guest Wednesday, I lost motivation to prevent another day from being missed. So I was waiting to post till I finished my anatomical surrealism art project. Which I did a week or so ago. But now it's in the display case at my school and who knows when I'll get it back. So I can't post it for you yet. So I didn't know what else to do. So I didn't post.

Until now. ;D creepy smiles don't work in emoticons. Hey, I just met you, and you have problems, DIGRESSION MAYBE?

Pop culture reference. I'll give you a moment to recover from the pain.

...

...

...

Ok. So yesterday I randomly decided to paint my face and take photos. I'll spare you the photos of me to preserve the "Anonymous" part of our good society's name. But I took this amazing photo of a chair and stuff. Cuz I'm awesome and humble like that. And so I thought I'd talk about that.

I've had a few people ask me what the little phrase "And? And." Means. Well, it was inspired by a two word story T-shirt a friend of mine has, which I believe said "Rescued? Rescued." Or perhaps it belonged to her friend not her. I don't know, this was a long time ago. But it inspired me to make my own two word story and that's what I came up with.

"And? And." has this feeling of being complete and incomplete at the same time. Don't think about that too long.

But for me, that makes me think about the nature of a Christian's sanctification. Yes, I'm getting into that apologetics stuff. And I'm apologizing if it bothers you.

But as a saved Christian myself, God considers me holy, because Jesus lived a holy life for me. But I still sin, so in practice, I'm really dirty and unholy, and I won't be able to stop sinning completely until I go to heaven. So my sanctification is complete and incomplete at the same time.

Did you survive? .... Hm. Well I hope you did. I think that was a lengthy post but it's hard to be sure because I'm writing on my iPod and everything seems longer when you write it on an iPod keyboard. So long or not, kudos to you for making it through. I wouldn't have. And you have a lot of Facebook stuff to answer so you should go. Yah I hacked your account. Just kidding. I noticed how you always have tons of notifications when you post screen shots. Bye bye!

     Edit: I spelled Cheez-its wrong! I'M SO SORRY!!! But it is fixed now and I have hired a quality control manager. Hopefully nothing this tragic will happen again.

Gusty Guest Wednesday #3

     Welcome one and all to Gusty Guest Wednesday, the third edition! I'm sorry there haven't been regular posts lately, but there shall be soon. Until then, let me introduce you to our new guest, the amazing ambling musician, Joe Byers!

(Once again, I'm the italics)

Can you give us a short summary of who you are and what you do?
      Joe Byers- singer/songwriter I play music of the acoustic folk genere

How did you get started playing guitar and writing music?

     I broke a guitar string when I was six, and won a guitar at Cedar Point. I thought, "Wow, maybe since I have one now, I should play it." 

(Trivia question: How many musicians say that they play because of  Cedar Point? Answer: 3847! Just kidding . . .)

You've told me about the band you used to be in, could you tell all the Amblers about it and why it broke up?

     It was a talent show band... they all went to college xD and I am kinda in another band, but we're just starting to kick it off.
I was actually hoping for the whole story about some other band stealing your totally sweet band name and your band members getting so upset about it, that everyone left but you. Oh well.

If you could play any instrument besides guitar, what would it be?

      piano, because it's a very beautiful instrument
It is a capital mistake to . . . not capitalize the first letter in your sentence. You disappoint me. But yes, pianos are very nice.

Who's your favorite musician?

      Bob Dylan
So let's listen to Bob Dylan, watch the walls come falling down, now . . . Lo siento, Queens Club reference. Speaking of which, Joe, I've always had the feeling you'd like that band, you should look them up.

Who inspires you? What bands have impacted your musical style?

      Everything I hear impacts my music style, positively and negatively. For example, if I listen to Simon and Garfunkel record, it's positive. Now, if I listen to LMFAO, which I absolutely hate, I try to not sound like that. I have lots of influences, the major ones are Bob Dylan, Harry Chapin, Simon and Garfunkel, Colin Hay, Decemberists, Coldplay, Tenth Avenue North, White Stripes, Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, the list is endless.
     (A couple days later he messaged me on facebook and insisted I add Jack White to this list. I'm not sure who that is, but he's important to our dear ambling musician!) 
The other day I saw at least one of those bands on the worst indie bands ever list, which means, they must be really good!

How many songs have you written? Which one is your favorite?

       I'd say that I'm nearing 50. I've written two full albums. And as far as favorites go, I really like T.E.E.N, Vincent Valentine, and Complications

What is your favorite line you've written?

      "Vincent, school should be what matters most, not how much butter's on your toast," and/or the Impromptu Song, which is completely off the top of my head and is new every time I play it.

What has been your biggest failure and your greatest success in your musical career?

      Last year's talent show. I totally messed up the solo in Icky Thump. It was kinda nasty. Greatest success was playing Fine Arts Night and getting a single standing ovation. Hahaha.
That awkward laugh after bragging about yourself . . . But don't worry, I made you do it, no need to be embarrassed. I brag about myself all the time without being asked! I'm very humble though.

You've played at coffee shops and such, how's that experience been? Any funny stories?

        Fantastic. It's radiating soul, which I love more than anything. Soul is what drives music forward. My favorite story from a coffee shop is that I apparently made a girl wet herself by laughing so hard. And once, during the Impromptu song, I played guitar, ate a Ritz cracker, and recited Shakespeare.
I <3 Shakespeare :3

What advice would you give beginning musicians?

     Don't let people get you down, your heart speaks louder than their voices. Also, be the change that you wanna see in the world. 

Anything else you'd like to say before you go?

      If anyone thinks I'm good enough, hopefully I can land a record deal! xD
Haven't had anyone get a record deal because of my blog yet, but there's always a first! Good luck Joe and thanks for stopping by!


Thank you all for reading and be sure to check out Joe's facebook page and there are a few videos of him on this youtube channel. 

Gusty Guest Wednesday #2

So your darling blogger was very proactive and found two musicians to interview for this week. However, that same darling blogger failed to follow through with those said interviews. I know what you're thinking: "COME ON! You're distracted, and I expected something crazy!" Mind reader. Yep.
Anyways, I'm very sorry and shall try to make up for it. Thus, today, I'm interviewing myself! Woot!
     Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Storm Marie White. I'm an artist, writer, musician and nonconformist.
     What got you started on art, music, and writing?
My mother majored in art history and interior design, she started teaching art, so I grew up taking art classes constantly. She also became a guitar teacher. So I was in guitar classes. My father has been writing a book since college (a long time ago) so I got started writing too. However, you failed to ask how I became a nonconformist. When I was growing up, everyone said I was just like my mom. I decided I MUST BE DIFFERENT. So I am. And it has expanded into being different than EVERYONE ELSE TOO. I'm not even like the blue ballerina zebras! I AM LIKE NO OTHER. AND I'M VERY HUMBLE.
     Calm yourself, darling! You're getting QUITE carried away!
AND I'M MORE PURPLE THAN THE ANGRY DODO BIRDS WHO ATTACKED THE GREEDY SPANISH PIGS BY CA- Oh. Yah. Sorry. Next question? :)
     What's your favorite flavor of upside down cheesecake and what generic soda and what meat goes best with it?
BLAH. CHEESECAKE. I hate cheese cake. And you know I'm vegetarian, you carnivore!
     It'd be an omnivore, poppet, but I'm a vegetarian too.
Bleh. You annoying ambler, you. Anyhow. Generic sodas don't cut it. It has to be the name brand Coke. None of that Meijer cola or that Pepsi stuff. It has to be that coca-cola, and it has to be vanilla coke. It's the best.
     Who are your favorite inspirations?
God. :) for music, The Myriad is the greatest. The mystery.. The beauty.. The ingenious lyrics.. His voice.. :3
     Our readers get the point, thank you. They are amazing though.
I love so many musicians, can't name them all here, but I will post some more songs soon! As for writers, Tanith Lee has had an impact on my writing with her series, The Claidi Journals (Not sure that's spelled right, will check). Wayne Thomas Batson inspired me with his powerful allegorical fantasy, especially in The Dark Sea Annals. I'm also totally crazy about the classics, love them, they have altered my writing style immensely, particularly Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as books by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis. I'm stopping here.
     What's it with you and Plutonians?
Plutonians are awesome. So much more intelligent than humans. But the only way you can tell humans and Plutonians apart is by licking them. Humans taste salty, Plutonians taste sweet.
     What type of art do you create? What type of music do you write? What sort of writing do you do?
 That's a very tall answer order. My art is multi-media, layered collage type work with a little bit of everything, and usually a few (hopefully) powerful words and a heavy dose of surrealism. My music.. Some of the dark drama of Evanescence, the playful randomness of Owl City, some folksiness, some harsher sounds... Usually stories. One song is about a raven that doesn't understand its beauty. One about a little girl trying to convince a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly. I like to mix in some non-English languages into it too. Each language has its own uniquely beautiful sound. My writing is mostly fantasy. My current project is about a different world which suddenly has a way to view all of earth's history and the people discover Christianity which sends political and religious tremors through their ancient religion-ruled world.
     Any advice to up and coming creative sorts?
Anyone can be a great artist or musician or writer. Talent helps, but really it just takes TONS of practice.
     Anything else you'd like to say before you go?
Every single day, he picked up a rock, and put it in his sock, and drove away. When he got home, he took his stones, and put them on his white flamingo bones.
And listen to this song :)

Gusty Guest Wednesday: Tim James

     Welcome one and all the first Gusty Guest Wednesday! Today we have an interview with Tim James, a webcomic artist and a very unique Boardwalk Ambler. To prevent confusion, I shall switch to italics and Tim shall remain normal. (Well, not really, but his font will)


Could you give us a brief summary of who you are and what you do? 
      I'm Timothy James. I pretend to be be cooler then I am. Also arts. 
(Also known as T.J. Franklin, Sir Wickerheart, and InsanelyZanter, if he's who I think he is) 

How did you get started making comics?

     I had stories I wanted to tell, and comics were the way I decided to tell them.
(Because campfires are so yesterday, right?)

Who inspires you?

     That overlaps with artists I like quite a lot.Tim Schaffer and the penny arcade crew are pretty inspiring.
(Hey, you're revealing that you already know all the questions and I didn't actually ask you in person!)

You've done some work redesigning your local library. How did you get into that and what all did you do?

     I had participated in the library's advisory group, and had contributed to the website with a few graphics before applying for a job. Shortly after I started, we made an effort to redesign the teen area and bim bam bippity bop.

How do you plan to further pursue art?

     I will be attending COTC for graphic design this year, which will give me some experience, and I plan to Launch a long-form web comic series sometime soon. 

What's your favorite character in anything ever and why?

     That's a tough one. Characters that come to mind are Hellboy (Hellboy), Naked Snake (Metal Gear), Chie Satonaka (Persona), John Locke (LOST),  Lucius Down (BONE), AUGH INDECISION.
(Way to fail the first question and ignore the "And why?" altogether. :P )

What's your favorite character you've created?

     Gotta be Asker Haddock. 
(Pictured above)

What was your biggest art failure and greatest success?

     I normally give up on projects before they get too far into the downward spiral of horror. But my second version of Temporary Insanity was pretty atrocious. (I didn't think so, but it didn't last very long) My plot outline for HADDOCK is pretty good. I think it's pretty good.

Do you have a favorite art related personal story?

(He skipped this one. Intentional? You never know with Amblers like him.) 

How has art effected your life?

     It's my passion, obsession, lifestyle, primary money sink and future career goal. Quite a bit I'd say.

What's your art goal?

     Short term, finish a complete story. Long term, several stories.

Who are your favorite artists?

     Aaron Diaz, Jamie Hewlett, Mike Magnolia, Jeff Smith, and Rob Guillory are some faves.

What advice would you give someone starting to make comics?

     Draw till your hand falls off then draw till the other hand falls off. Never be satisfied. Draw from life then simplify to cartoon.  Pay no attention to my advice.

Anything else you'd like to say?

     GAL'NAGH. cth'ol o'dhan. Kh'ool Ah'ad. 
(All I got out of that was the Kool-aid part.) 

And that concludes our interview, thanks dear readers for reading, and thanks, Tim James, for cooperating!
Check out Tim's DeviantArt page! :)

Purposely Purposeful

     There is something about drinking a frappe that makes one feel like blogging. Somehow making you feel sophisticated, smart, unique, and creative. Ah, that fateful day Mcdonald's made an extra frappe by accident and gave it to me . . . They've made good money off of that.
     I don't digress. That one of my greatest qualities, I stay on topic marvelously well. And I'm humble, but I don't need to tell you that because it's obvious.
     You're probably wondering what the purpose of this blog is. It's reason of being is to bring together writers, artists, musicians, creative people of all sorts, Plutonians, and anyone slightly interested in these things or who enjoys laughing at me.
     I will be posting about my life as a creativity enthusiast, artist, musician, and writer, and I hope to have some co-authors and guest bloggers in the near future to spread your creative horizons further than my own on topic ramblings can spread them alone. I may also do some interviews in such. Let me know if you're interested in writing a post or being interviewed. If you don't volunteer, I have alternative methods, so never fear. Or do fear. Your choice.
     My recent artistic kick has been editing photos. I made a small collection of pictures relating to Boardwalk Amblers, one such is above. I had them as my blog background and discovered, to my despair that is was rather busy and made reading some things on the blog rather difficult. The problems of the world. Sigh. That's a picture from Mackinac Island, Michigan, by the way. Ironically, I'm wearing my tshirt from there. Funny how that happens.
     One thing you'll very quickly learn about me is that I love music, especially unique music. I think I shall probably add a song at the end of each post I write, please listen to at least part of each song I post, as I do listen to a decent variety and you may hate some songs and adore others. Today I include and conclude with my favorite song; Stuck in a Glass Elevator by The Myriad.

Welcome Without Parsimony

     Good morning one and all!

     Welcome to the new official blog of the revered and hugely famous society, Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous! Oh. You haven't heard of us? My, that's rather shocking. Let me guess, you're from Trinidad. No? Don't lie to me. I know you are. How else could you have not heard of us? It is true that our popularity plummeted after a quite unusually intelligent coyote hacked our previous blog. Or rather, when the previous official blogger gave his position over to the coyote he trained. He was one of those creative types that become eccentric when aged. That will not happen to this official blogger, I assure you. But I must not speak badly of my elders, and that's a Boardwalk Amblers secret, so don't tell a sole of a shoe! Don't look at me like that, I'm perfectly sane. Soles of shoes are great places to hide recorders if you're trying to hear secrets. 

      Anyways, since you haven't heard of us (unless you're lying and you have heard of us, but that would be very impolite of you.) I suppose I should tell you a little about us. 

    Our History

     Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous was founded in 1962, with the opening of the first Boardwalk Amblers meeting in Rogers, Ark. The society became national on Oct. 31, 1969 when every state in America as well as Botswana had an official branch of Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous.  The society's plush platypi began being sold in craft sales in 1970 and were listed on the New Jerkinstan's Best Selling Plush list two years later.

     The Boardwalk Amblers grew to 276 branches in 11 countries by the end of the decade. In 1983, the Boardwalk Amblers opened its first world wide Boardwalk Amblers annual conference in a warehouse and in 1988 began the first snail mail "meeting" -- never the Boardwalk Amblers meeting's dominant format -- featuring a letter sent from ambler to ambler with each adding a page of notes in addition, leaving some amblers with heavy postage costs.  The Boardwalk Amblers began their first Internet branch in 1991 when it opened its first blog. Which was quite successful until the official blogger became a touch too crazy and is now deleted to hide the coyote incident. Which brings us to this blog, now, which shall be much better. 

Thank you for reading, please come by again. And welcome to Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous. 

Also, you should read walmart's history. It's quite interesting. I highly recommend it.