Eye Twitch Ponderance

It started my senior year in high school. This eye-twitch. This particular response to stress. And dandruff. Yes that too. Oh and excema. Little water blisters on the sides of my fingers. Itchy. So uncool. I was commenting to Penelope that in particular states I feel normal people might respond by crying, screaming, wearing black, breaking things, but I am miss-mendacious-undisturbed. My friend asked why I don't ever cry and I said, you might as well ask me to break into purple spots. It's just not in my nature to deal with sadness in that way. And of course I blame my mother. Naturally.

I internalize everything so much so that my body shows evidence of a shockwave even though I continue unperturbed. It's a useful albeit annoying coping mechanism. And in order to lessen the little epic fissures of stress I work out, get copious amounts of sleep, talk talk talk to friends and start creating art and watching silly movies like Mamma Mia... These are good things. Things that minimize the internal ruptures-- and the things that tell you that emotional, psychological impacts have physical ramifications.

And that even the things that aren't happening to you, as a being who has a spirit and a heart are effected by the things all around you and a better way to deal with loss and pain is not to despair but tend to your internal garden lest it break ; ).

SpareTime

What I've been doing with my spareworktime. And it's all because I brought my artwork in and hung it on my walls and a writer sat next to me who asked me to draw a storyboard for him so that now I draw them all. They all seem to be convinced they look like something- and with varying degrees they do- sort of. Though I sit with shame at my poor illustration skills. They take forever- and usually I don't pay enough attention to the image and it turns out all gobbly-guk but sometimes I hone my concentration skills enough and they end up having some character. And it's an interesting study in how text translates to image- what needs to be expressed verses said...etc. all for the love of the CGI recreations.

Animal Facts Wednesday

I haven't learned anything new and magical yet. ( I will consult my notes to see what I've been working on since last wednesday).

Ok, I've reviewed my notes and there is something interesting. Crocodiles really freak me out. I've mentioned before I used to have these anxiety dreams about being trapped in enclosures that were dark, muddied water, high-walled, and i knew there were alligators/crocs- i just couldn't see them... So whenever I see these reptiles I think anxiety dream. Though lately everytime I turn left over a bridge and stop under an over pass I always imagine it giving way-- but usually its in a survival note capacity. So that's a plus. Sort of.

Well anyway, crocodiles have these things called "sensory pits" which dot their entire head and it alerts them to prey with a mere impulse it sends a signal to the brain to chomp-- apparently crazy peeps all over the world who like to play with large man eating lizards can desensitize these nerve/impulses by teaching it that the signals are wrong- so prodding it with a stick for instance all over causes a short circuit in the signal thereby allowing a person to stick their head in the alligators mouth or arm... of course unless they don't do it enough then well-- you end up on our show...

So basically in the water they'll just hang out with their mouths open waiting for something to touch them and set off their impulse. Fairly cool. And I thought I didn't have anything to talk about!

ps. will get to more impt things like friends, drug addictions, storyboards, forthwith. i'm percolating.

Underwheres

I’m pretty surprised at the results of our sidebar poll! Who knew there were so many shovers-in-the-drawers. I myself am a semi-reformed folder and stacker—I fold out of habit, but then shove it in the drawer. Because what’s the point, really. Although, folding will allow more space in the drawer. My drawer’s so small, it doesn’t really matter what I do with my drawers. Ha ha, get it??

There is one day left to vote, people! Or maybe just half a day. Inquiring minds want to know.

Night Showers, by Pen

I'm a recent convert to this phenomenon. It happened by fluke, really, when I cut *shower* out of the usually obligatory routine one day for the sake of getting the hell out of the house in a somewhat timely fashion. I'll do it later, I thought, and do it later, I did. After the children go to bed, it's like totally fantastic. Washing that day right out of your hair. It's alone time, for one, which doesn't seem to happen really with a daytime shower, because you've got to be in tune to house events all the while, as best you can, making sure no child is screaming or coloring the walls, or dying in some imaginative fashion. And it gets the grime of the day off one's shoulders, all the battles, the strategery, the soap bubbles and the crumbs. And then I can change into my comfy clothes, snuggle up with the J.Lo, the TV, and the Internets, and not think about being parent to the children for awhile.

Until one of them screams, and I must clock on duty again.

But whatevs, the benefits are substantial, and night showers it is.

Night Showers, by M

let me just say first: night showers = amazing. they are my preferred method of showering. for one afterward, when you go to bed and get btw the sheets you're all silky and smooth and luxuriant and clean feeling and you don't just slip into that ordinary going thru my day like i always do. it's a conscious, mmm i feel lovelygood. i also find, sometimes, going to bed with damp hair increases their curl (no gravity) which lets me wake up feeling even cooler and more awesome then when i went to bed. i love waking up with tousled wavvy hair- no blowdryer needed. i can't help it. plus its just a good way to decompress after the day, a little recap, a little core warming/cooling depending. i cannot say enough about night showers.

i was a little stressed on wednesday and my initial instinct was just to just go home but i pushed through and found myself at the gym and then in the glorious water- which despite its chlorinated form and its increasing need for filtering and vacuuming, it felt so good to dive down and hit that mirrored ceiling before you break the surface with the bubbles trailing behind you in the blue. it still makes showering unfortunately necessary despite itself. but water definitely must have healing properties. we are composed of it.

but too often showering is seen as a chore, like brushing teeth and is too often associated with our obsessive need to be odorless, clean and have dry skin, brittle hair- which is all symptomatic of over showering and yes, the weather. but when i'm in my right line of thinking showering becomes a glorious way to honor all of me. down to my delicious oil-tangerine-sugar scrub from TraderJoes to my pomegranate body wash. shuffling off dead skin, moisturizing, meditating and giving my body that whole tingly alive but calm feeling.

and there's something about doing it at the end of the day, that gives you pause to everything you've just been through or done. and helps sometimes to evaporate it, dispel it, or nurture whatever it is our psyche is churning over.

mmm. awesomeness.

Animal Facts Wednesday

Sure sure I'm late. Yesterday was actually a hectic work day, that and another incident or two like a friends drug addiction and some heavy scrabble playing I was fairly mentally in frazzle mode. (to be updated forthwith)


My facts are these:

M@rlin: aka. swordfish (black, stripped, atlantic blue)

- They can reach speeds of up to 80 miles an hour.
- They can sustain speeds of 20-50 miles an hour.
-The Old Man and the Sea: he battled a blue marlin.
-They can get up to 14ft but are typically 11ft!? and can weigh up to 400lbs.

Storyboard drawn: Young man in harness, with fishing pole. Marlin leaps out of water. Spears him in the mouth, narrowly missing piercing him through the neck and only gashes the inside of his cheek and breaking some sinus walls.

this just makes me happy, by pen

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

In Dreams, by M

So I was all, kudzu, I love DREAMS! And then last night i had some whacked series of dreams...(idiot you!) ok, i guess I still wouldn't trade them in but still. WTF...

Series:
1. With mom and dad in a big tent atmosphere, consumed with trying to make sure the generator is charging the batteries to the light supply... lots of debate.
2. With a friend. We're in an apartment complex, or a series of apartments. Very clear I need to move or that where ever i was was not where i should be... vague sense of danger.
3. At a school that is more like a business complex. Something is wrong with my eyes, and I feel mentally disabled though I'm in an academy for smart people. There is a vague feeling that the clock is ticking down or that something is about to happen.
4. This is where things take an absolute turn for the worse and is the most vivid part I remember: puppies-- little black and white spotted ones all around this outdoor complex and some of them have dumb rabies- sitting there listless- and some are playing with venomous snakes and are inevitably going to get bitten by them. Remembered that as the puppies were being infected (resident evil style) I had to avoid them, and also had to avoid the slithering snakes. I seemed small and contained.

Woo. Good times. Whatev!

Congregation of Vapors, by M

My saturday was consumed with painting the universe on the theatre floor and for Hamlet no less. Since it is one of my favorite all time plays, for a friend, for my old theatre company, I had a hard time saying no. So I said yes. In my old life , from about 14-24 I was heavily involved in the theatre and then I ran away to Chicago to find the writer and artist in me- I've never been able to find my way back and it does in fact represent a lonely gaping hole in my life- but theatre is demanding - an all consuming mistress- so I suppose I'm looking for a perfect alignment of stars in order to get back there. All this to say it was weird to go back to a place where I'd spent so much time. Probably what made me so agitated and restless being there- though at the end of the day, I did have a vague sense of being watched or haunted. It would not surprise me. Anyway when I finished I hated it. Or was rather very dissatisfied as my body was crying and my back aching and my head blurring... It was a little overzealous and INSANE of me to try and do it all in one day-- but I did, whatever, it's done. And I'm going to get back to loving it a little bit more and will probably be sad to know it was painted over. But hey, 1st large scale work, first universe. Not a bad days work.