Soggy Smog's Soggy Blog

Yum, Yum, Fun

2012-01-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Hey hi!

Here is some randomness from my life the last week or so:

~WARNING~ A lot of it is food pics... if you hate food, DO NOT look at these pictures!!!

The Moon, way back when it was full:

It was Taco Night!!!! YUMMY, and we deep fried them in the little fryer and made chips too. SO GOOD!

Then it was Snack N Craft night! AND WE HAD NACHOS OMFG IT WAS INTENSE!!!!!

Typical Smog, some sky shots! We had clouds!

Then we had waffles in my new waffle iron (yes I got a lot of new kitchen stuff!)

Then we played Samurai Warriors for like 36 hours

I do love me some stickers!!!!!

Then we had another awesome Snack N Craft night, it was waffles (because they turned out so well the first time, and they turned out fucking fantastically for Snack N Craft!!!!!)

The only thing is, I will never have bananas again. Something about them, no one ate them so I will NEVER have them again!!!!!!!! Everything else was awesome. Inside the crock pot, you can't see but there's scrambled eggs with jack cheese, potatoes and onions and sausages!

I picked the goofy photo instead of the gag~romantic one

Just a whole bunch of cool stuff!!!! For some reason the quality of this photo looks terrible... :(

Last Night was Chili Cheese Fry Night!!!! But, we had cornbread too and inside the pots are chili (no meat) and nacho cheese.... it was really good :)

Obligatory cats cuddling, and stuff in the car

Just me and Nancy Drew hanging out... I got this amazing Nancy Drew Fanzine that I should totally do a review about...

Ookay that took me a long time to do...

Love,

Smog

p.s. somehow the formatting for this got seriously screwed up. SO, it makes no sense what is what. SORRY

Ahhh! New Stuff!!!

2012-01-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

Hey people,

So I totally haven't been on my computer since the last time I blogged which was like two and a half months ago!!!!! It was a pretty good run and I'm gonna put this old piece of junk away again after I finish writing this! I've been trying to sync my phone up with blogger for like a week but it's being a little problematic... hopefully I can get it to work so that I can continue to interface here at Le Smog Blog without getting the heat rash associated with using a laptop computer (okay that only happened once in Florida).

The last few months since I wrote, have been pretty killer. Filled with consistent consentual content, riddled with awesomeness and surprises and packed to the brim with relaxing good happiness times. Thanksgiving was stressful but really fun and memorable. Christmas was fantastic, New Years was super fun. Visitors and houseguests and friends and stuff to do. I got tons of awesome stuff and gave tons of awesome stuff, baked some awesome stuff and ate a ton of awesome stuff. Hopefully now that the holidays are over, Snack N Craft will be a little more consistent. One of the most awesome things: I got a super duper freaking amazing gift from my Aunt Diane~ a framed illustration she had commissioned for me, based on my life and it totally drew inspiration from The Smog Blog!!!!!!!!!!! Yes it is AMAZING, a freaking fantastic gift. Not only is it awesome to receive artwork as a gift (for so, so many reasons) but it's super personalized and just totally freaking rad. It is 7 panels and features me, Julie, my dad and my Aunt Diane and it's chock full of humor and jokes and stuff from my life. I totally have to give it up to the artist, a colleague of my Aunts and a totally fantastic artist. It's not always easy to do commissioned work and he did a really super fucking fantastic job with it. I love it so so much. Seriously, getting a nice ass framed comic panel ... about YOURSELF... who wouldn't love that???? It was really really nice to receive and I totally love and appreciate it. Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!

Now here are some totally random pics that do not really illustrate the holiday season very well but nonetheless, they are pics... so, enjoy some randomness ;)

Okay! Now I have to go. Hopefully I can get the mobile blogging going pretty soon :)

Cheers and I hope you're all well,

Love,

Smog

Lately... (With Pics)

2011-10-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a terrible job of documenting this year. I wish I had done a better job because it's fun to go back and read old stuff... lots of stuff I forget about and I wish I had more posts from this year. It's unlikely/unrealistic to think I will just magically start doing a better job blogging... but whatever. I'm still here and living my happy little life. Here's some pics to further illustrate:

This pic isn't from Snack N Craft... but Snack N Craft is AWESOME. I'm totally loving it. Tuesday nights, if you're ever interested. Snacks... Crafts... Funness....

Umm... glow in the dark puzzle called "Dragon Isle" with a dragon wearing lion armor and a wizard(ess perhaps) riding a flying unicorn (I'm hesitant to use the word Pegasus for fear of misuse)... YES PLEASE. It was a fantastic five-hundred pieces.

I freaking love the sky and the clouds and the moon. Fantastic.

Triple Double Oreos. SO GOOD YOU GUYS.

Yes that is a chunk of white fur from Little Tom in LT's paw! SO CUTE YOU GUYS!!!!!!

I love my velveteen couches... ^The impression my hair makes when I sit on them^

UH OH... CAT TIME!

GIVE TWO TABBYS A CLEAN TOWEL AND WATCH EM BFF THE HOURS AWAY!

Seriously I have like 25 from that day over the course of 10+ hours. They love clean towels so dang much!

I love this little cactus with all my heart. I can't believe Mels gave it to me all those years ago. LOOK HOW MANY BUDS IT HAS!!!!!! Best. Living. Gift. Ever.

So umm yeah. That's my stash of photos from the last week or three. Now I must dash, I have to get some stuff for tonights Snack N Craft. Did I tell you it's super fun? You should totally come by! 8/9ish pm to 1/2ish am... tonight... see you later!

Love,

Smog

2 Book Reviews (One Was Great, One Sucked)

2011-10-05T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hey there! It's been pretty quiet around here but today I have something special for all y'alls. Book Review Wednesday! (It is Wednesday, right?)

Yesterday I read The Help in the morning and Paying For It in the evening and I used my homemade Nancy Drew art card book mark in both ;) So... Conceptually, the two books next to each other would most likely prompt you to think that I would go for The Help (Black American 60s Female Voice) and have no interest in Paying For It (Privileged White Guy Pays For Sex)... Well, let me break it down for you. The Help is absolutely awful. It is a garbagey piece of garbage. Paying For It is both insightful and hilarious. It is fantastic. WANNA KNOW WHY?????????

Okay so I'm not going to bother doing any internet research on these books because even though I have the capabilities, a book should really stand on it's own and not need a bunch of internet research to raise it's credibility. And from my judgment of The Help, it's bound to have hundreds of thousands of pages of crap online to justify it, romanticize it, praise it, validate it... it fucking needs it. This is the worst pile of crap I've read since Twilight Eclipse and that's pretty much spelling it out for you right there: Kathryn Stockett totally Stephanie-Meyer-ed this book. She absolutely did. I feel like if you haven't read the book this makes no sense and if you have read the book, I'm stating the frantically obvious. I have a lot of questions about this book. At the top of the list, is HOW THE HELL DID THIS GET PUBLISHED. In the afterword of the book, she says and I will type it out for you right now:
"I don't presume to think that I konw what it really felt like to be a black woman in Mississippi, especially in the 1960's. I don't think it is something any white woman on the other end of a black woman's paycheck could ever truly understand"
So this sentence--while followed with other flowery sentences and preceded by hundreds of pages of flowery sentences--basically negates every single thing she has written. The plot of The Help is that a white woman (Skeeter, Kathryn Stockett, Stephanie Meyer, whatever you prefer) gets a dozen black maids to help her tell the story of the help in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963ish. Two of those black maids have significant voices in the book. The voice rotates between Skeeter (White), Aibileen (Black) and Minny (Black). All written by Kathryn Stockett. In The Help the book they write is called Help and it has a blue cover with a white dove. If there was truly a book published in 1964 called Help with a blue cover, comprised of authentic narratives transcribed by and edited together by a white author who published anonymously, and this was the follow up to the story where it explains the townspeople's reactions then I could accept that. But it's not. ...At this point my screen is filled up with words and I still haven't even really started ragging on this shitty book. If there was ever a freaking book for white women to feel really good about themselves and their part in history, it's this book. It's total crap. Everything about it. It's the most un-authentic thing I've ever read, in large part not just because a white woman is writing black voices but because the protagonist of the story is making choices in regards to the fictional Help that Kathryn Stockett did NOT make with her book The Help. Ugh this is really unarticulated but I feel really frustrated with this book! It's terrible. You should read it so you can decide for yourself if you think it's authentic or if you think it's just another white guilt counter productive piece of crap.

Now, Paying For It on the other hand, is so honest, funny, earnest and the fact that Chester Brown comes off a little clinicy, a little preachy, a little white, cis, privileged, hetero-- he's so upfront about it that it's really unoffensive, it's actually really endearing. Now, I already have my own views about both topics of both books, and I already pretty much agreed with Chester Brown already (possessive monogamy bad, sex worker rights good) and there are some things he says that I was not in total agreement with because they are from a white-cis-privileged-hetero~COMIC GEEK~ point of view that I don't think is applicable for every single human. But most of what he says is absolutely spot on and well written and extremely thoughtful and thought out. Unlike that damn Kathryn Stockett. It doesn't hurt that Paying For It is filled with hilarious anecdotes featuring some of the great comic writers of today. It doesn't hurt that there is an appendix with Seth's notes on Chester Brown's storytelling of something with him in it, and also notes by Chester Brown on Seth's notes on his work... Yeah, it's pretty great. The last chunk of Paying For It has a bunch of appendixes (appendici?) that are really valuable whether you agree with him or not. I wish The Help had a bunch of appendixes that made it a more valuable read. The only thing is has in the back besides the afterword (which is entitled Too Little Too Late) is a freaking Readers Guide which is a total waste of time... it's written by Kathryn Stockett and the first questions is "Who is your favorite character?" and the 6th question is the worst, "Do you think Minny was justified in her distrust of white people?" The Paying For It appendixes feature tons of excellent stuff, every complaint you could have about his view, he backs up with concise arguments. You don't have to agree with it. But the argument is there and it's honest and it's not trying to be something that it's not. Bonus great thing about Paying For It: It has a great argument for decriminalization of prostitution that I think is excellent that everyone should be aware of.

So it's taken me almost 2 hours to write this and it's not even very long. I highly recommend both of these books to everyone but be prepared, The Help is gonna suck. ~~Even~~ Especially the senimental white sappy crappy romantic interest sucked. Everything about it sucked. Paying For It might bring up some stuff you might not want to feel but I think it's pretty important. So, there ;P

Love ya,
Smog

p.s. I have pics and other stuff but imma wait and show you later :)

I'm Better!!! With Menstration Frustration!

2011-09-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

OMG I can't believe it's been TWO WEEKS since the last post, which marked the beginning of a veryyyy strrrange journey for me. Two words: Allergic Reaction. My last post was kind of prophetic or incredibly naive... I really am not quite sure at this point. I can tell you that my spirit has not been broken, if anything, it has been revived to a new level in which I am incredibly happy and content with life. I feel like I have traversed the depths of endless time and pain only to find no time at all has passed and the scars I am left with are changing every day. Is that What Dreams May Come enough for you?????????????????? Basically, what I thought was a pretty mild scratch from some stupid plant or something turned out to be some sort of unknown debilitating Smog Thrasher and I guess also some kind of spider bite or something... and I got really sick and then had to take a shitload of medication (which obviously I feel very strongly about [read:against] but it fuckin worked) and now all of the fucked up skin is just like peeling off leaving normal skin underneath... I have a bunch of pictures that I feel really weird about sharing because they are really freaking gross and all that. So I'm not gonna share them. But it's been very bizarre and crazy. A little unbelievable actually. Hey, if you don't believe me, I can show you some really disgusting photos!!!!! My whole mantra for the last 3 weeks of life has been "I'm really fucking happy and nothing is going to bring me down" and it's worked pretty well. I haven't been this happy in a while, despite living life in the quarantine zone all dosed up on a bunch of scripts. I think it's actually a pretty significant sign of some amount of inner peace for me to have not been more miserable during this whole ordeal. It was miserable but I am not so... whatever. Growth and all that.

Echoing my last post, the only thing I really regret is that I have now lost the last 3 Tuesdays... 3 Snack N Crafts that will never happen... but don't worry all you charming lady people! Next Tuesday night starting around 7pm, TUESDAY SNACK N CRAFT is on... I'm hoping I can use the time to spend more time with my lady friends that are often social or romantic or internet butterflies that flit around all beautiful and far away, also to work on arts and crafts projects that get left in the dust, and experiment with tasty homemade snack platters!!! I will have snacks and drinks but you could bring something if you wanted. Also I will have lots of artsy and crafty stuff for people to do, but you could bring your own project over too, or if you have a skill or technique, I would love to learn it! You could also bring a friend if you wanted :) Everyone welcome, and it's at my house, Casa de Smog and it's every Tuesday night so you don't even have to ask. Except tonight. Don't come tonight. I only have greek yogurt and kashi and not even enough to share. *SAD FACE*

I do have one mini rant to go on tonight though before I go. So while I was sick the last two weeks, I of course got my period. But since I didn't know (and still don't really know) what caused the allergic reaction-- for those of you at home that aren't following along at home, my allergic reaction wasn't really as cute and romantic as Bill's in Freaks and Geeks... it was just like really gross horrible painfully painful itchy blisters and pain-- I was terrified of touching anything (yes I'm still living in fear actually even though it's basically gone). Because some plant got me and then I was like possibly getting this plant oil on my skin and contamination and continued allergic reaction contact dermatitis etc etc etc... have to be careful touching anything so you don't pass the oil onto anything else... SO this month I didn't use my DivaCup (out of fear... nay, TERROR) for the first time in a long time. Years and years and years and years. But I was like, well there's no way in hell I'm using a freaking GD maxi pad for 5-7 days. So begins my rant. Now, I remember tampons. I remember being 16, 17, 18, 19 using tampons. Tampax. Cardboard applicator. Big cigar cotton looking thing. Got all battered in your bag. Yeah, I know the things. Well I haven't bought a fucking tampon since probably 2003. Let me tell you. These fuckers are damn expensive. $7 for 18... that's $7 I literally flushed down the toilet. And if you're supposed to be plugging yourself up 3-4 times a day for a week... you're gonna need a bigger box. Also, I guess they still make tampax with the cardboard but I was already jacked up on medications and as I stumbled down that aisle in CVS, feeling like Rachel McAdams in The Hot Chick getting tampons.... I can honestly say I was a little overwhelmed. The stupid boxes tampons come in.The incredibly stupid marketing techniques. The product itself... What the hell is wrong with the people that make this crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU TAMPON MANUFACTURERS!!!!!!! YOU NEED TO CEASE AND DESIST!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay so the one I end up buying is this shitty kotex one (I couldn't buy tampax, I just couldn't shell out the money and I wasn't gonna even think about risking getting caught lifting TAMPAX... that's even worse that getting arrested for playing frisbee) which I realize is just as evil as tampax but yet it seemed somewhat safer than the bottom shelf cotton-poly blend I'm sure CVS was offering... like I said, I was overwhelmed. Well I couldn't have made a worse decision. It was a nightmare right from the beginning... I'm gonna google image this crap so I can show you exactly what I mean...

The Kotex U.... the tampon where U do all the work... Do you see up there in really inconspicuous, easily over-looked lettering where it says "CLICK"... well it says that because you literally have to assemble the applicator (I.E. LAUNCHING DEVICE HOLY CRAP) yes that's right after wasting 3 of them sitting there in an anti-histamine induced stupor I finally stopped and read the instructions (My inner dialogue was something along the lines of 'this isn't working like it is supposed to what am i doing wrong holy crap where am i')... you have to pull that plastic thing all the way out, until it clicks (is that supposed to be clever merchandising?) and then, just when you thought it couldn't creep you out any more than that... check out the claw head on this mother!!!!! WHO THE FUCK INVENTED THIS APPLICATOR AND WHY ARE THEY ALLOWED TO SELL THIS ... I guess the name Kotex Claw just couldn't sell the way the Kotex U CLICK has sold... a few minutes later and I still cannot find a good picture of it on google image, so I took a really crappy photo right now of one... check out this horrible claw business!!!

You can't really tell that well, but the chances are high you've already experienced the evil claw tip applicator, so you know for yourself.... this thing has got some scary fucking sharp pointy fingernails on it!!!! It blossoms like a painfully sharp evil claw, releasing a fat little dry wad of cotton that, used or not, resembles a dead mouse... why do they have to give it a tail. Why do they have to give it a claw. Why does it have to be so freaking absorbant. Why is it so clinically phallic. Why does it say on the box, "IS PMS A MYTH??? Turn box over to find out!!!!!" to which the answer is, of course not, PMS is not a myth it is real but in a real typical display of American headline-mentality, it reads like this: "PMS IS A MYTH!!!!! THIS COSTS $7 AND ITS ONLY HALF ASSEMBLED AND A BIG WASTE OF TIME, MONEY, AND BODILY FLUIDS!!!!!" At some point in that last paragraph, I lost control of my use of sarcasm. Since I'm not quite sure how to remedy that, I will just leave you with a picture of the Diva Cup. Hopefully this makes you feel better, as it makes me feel better. :)

So it's been a real pleasure ranting at you for the last hour or so... I hope you have all enjoyed this time together as much as I have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously though, I hope to see you (even if you happen to live really far away and there's no way in hell you could make it) next Tuesday at Snack N Craft!!!!!

Be well, stay cool, all that jazz.
Love,
Smog a.k.a. It's Not Contagious I Swear I Think No Not Really But Seriously

Uh Oh !!!!!!! (With Travel Pics)

2011-08-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me say this: WAHHH!!!!

Okay. I am feeling really sorry for myself right now because:

Like the over-achiever I am, I helped do yardwork three consecutive days in a row, in three different states;

combined with stratospheric air travel and chlorine submersion, and itching/scratching;

overnight on my feet and legs, I developed a terribly terribly itchy ictchyyy bumpy itchy rash type thing...

Don't You Feel Sorry For MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Actually I don't need you to feel sorry for me, I feel sorry enough for myself for the both of us.

But I am sad because tonight I was going to have the first Tuesday Snack N Craft Girls Night ... but then I did all that yardwork... and then I got all itchy and took some benedryl, crashed really hard and then woke up and hadn't told anyone (maybe even you) to come over and do crafts and eat snacks.... and then right now I just finished eating the majority of the hummus and pita chips that I made for Girls Night.... UMMMMMMMMMMMMMM........ :( :( :( :( :( :( x∞∞∞∞∞

So now, you should feel sorry for yourself that I fucked it up.....

1) DoN't dO YaRdwWOrK iN fLiP-fLoPz

a) EsP nOt w/ LaNtAnA !!!!!! (It is a truly evil plant)

2) StOp ScRaTcHInG !

Okay! Enough of that...

I went to New Jersey for a few days (as animated above) and it was pretty fun, good to get away and like always, good to get home. I definitely needed some change!!! [I'm constantly riding parallel waves of over-excitement and disappointment, both extremes of which are often too much to handle...] I had a good time. I have been *HAPPY* for many days in a row now, and even this rash and dealing with that shitty ass Saturn (which I just found out is a 2002... you're telling me they didn't have automatically-installed automatic door locks and windows... SERIOUSSSSS... Blink.... Blink....) (The Saturn, my evil-ex-stepmothers car that made the voyage out here from NJ is now my responsibility, which threw a total hissy that I got to go back east and it didn't and totally flipped it's wig while I was gone) .... basically ain't nothin' gonna bring me down right now. Oh, no, I've Got To Keep On Moving...

Pictures Ahoy!

(Okay I don't really have that many)

I hung out with J Rod in NY for a day, it was a very fun time. I had delicious drinks and food and got to see his apartment with a really pretty view:

I love that triangle house.

It was super fun. Here's a picture of me after doing some yardwork at my dads:

Julie and I watched all firsts for her: Be Kind Rewind, Gentlemen Broncos, Royal Tenenbaums, Ghost World and WIZARD OF OZ... yes that's right that girl hadn't seen it yet... of course I was stoked to watch it, I love me them old classic pics... It was fun to see her but I am still bummed she didn't come out here this summer...

So then I came home and it's been great since I've been back, very happy times and I love my little family and even though some random weird shit has happened to me since I've been back, like I said, I'm alright with it. As illustrated below:

Pretty Skies and Nail Bites:

As Always,

Yours,

Smog

P.S. One More For The Road:

Just Playin' Around (With Pics)

2011-08-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Just a few more shots for you guys to enjoy:

Cheers,

Smog :)

Summers Almost Spent

2011-08-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

Summer's Almost Spent

Summers Almost Spent

Both are super relevant.

I leave for the east coast for a short trip on Tuesday.

Ugh

2011-07-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

You make me so sick with your shitty shit shit

Just, everything about you, is so fuckered and so gross and so lame

Way to ruin my Xanax trip

July Food Month (With Recipe!)

2011-07-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

So for this month we did another Eating Challenge, to only eat homemade (or at least the very least, prepared at home) food. It went pretty well!!!! Since it's been so hot, we've had a refreshing salads with every meal... I got a salad spinner a while back and I love it! Not only for the obvious, being able to get the water off the greens, but because I can store the salad in it and it's super air tight so it stays way fresh for days. A miracle.

I can definitely say though, that it was a challenge. Last time I think we did it in November and it was a little easier because there were more HOT meals to get excited about. This time around it there have been more days of me being like "wahhhhh it's too hot" halfway through cooking. Needless to say we've had quite a variety of cooler foods this month. I could definitely use some more good cool food ideas.

The thing that I was probably most proud of, was mini eggrolls. MMMM!!!!! So good. We stuffed em full of all kinds of veggies, rice and tofu... that was a super fantastic meal, looking back on it. We made curry broccoli with tofu, egg rolls and fresh wasabi.... it was awesome!!! Here's a pic of the eggrolls... we fried em up (they fry soooo fast it's awesome) and ate the crap out of them!!! We used a lot of different stuff for the eggrolls and they were all awesome except for the ones stuffed with sundried tomato soft cheese and cucumbers.... those were disgusting. Actually, Mels ate quite a few of those but they were not good.

Yum, greasy food!

Okay, so now, onto the recipe... It's for Smog's Awesome Spicy Rice!!!!! I usually have it with black beans :) This is good for two cups, you can adjust it of course, super easily just remember the Rice Equation!

What you need:

~They say a dutch oven works best but I don't have one (I know, I suck) so I just use a big pot with a lid... the lid is crucial of course! It needs to be pretty tight fitting but don't freak out about not having the right tools. It's all good.

~White Rice

~ One can diced tomatoes (you can use fresh if you have an aversion to canned for some reason)

~One can El Pato (The little can with the duck, any of the varieties work)

~Fresh Garlic (I put a ton... if you don't like garlic you don't have to put as much)

~One large white onion (Same as garlic... I like a lot !!!! )

~One (or more) Jalapenos, fresh of course... It is called Smogs Awesome Spicy Rice after all...

~Broth (I use vegetable bullion cubes but any will do, whatever you like)

~A little bit of oil

So, here is the equation for rice,

EQUAL PARTS OF: (1 cup of each, 2 cups of each, 3 cups of each... 3 cups is a shitload for a family meal)

~ White Rice

~ Tomato Puree (You will make this in a minute)

~ Broth (I just heat water and use bullion... if you have a kitchen helper, they can pick the flavor :) Broth is too expensive and I don't boil enough shit down to have stock on hand )

Here's what you're gonna do:

1) Preheat your oven to 350°F ... If you don't have an oven, you can let it simmer on the stove top but the bottom will probably get a little scorched... still good though, I have made it that way camping.

2) Rinse your rice under cool water... this prevents it from sticking together and getting mushy and gross. Rinse it in a mesh strainer and let it drip the water out while you do the next few steps. You don't want it to be watery when you cook it in a few minutes, so try to get it pretty water-free.

3) Bring to a boil your broth (It's a good idea to make more than you need just in case)

4) In a food processor (I have a cool Quisinart thing that makes it super easy), puree half of the white onion, the can of tomatoes and the El Pato.

5) Dice the garlic, onions and jalapenos

6) Now that you have your broth, puree, rice and veggies all prepped, you can start to cook the rice. In your pot (or dutch oven if you're a fancy bastard), pour a little bit of oil, enough to coat the pot at least but not too much!!!*** You're gonna want to have it on a medium high flame. You will know the oil is hot enough when you throw a grain of rice in and it starts to jump around. Dump the rice into the pot, be careful if the rice has water it will not mix kindly with the oil, don't get burned!!!!!! You can use the pot lid as a shield if you're really worried about it. As soon as you put all the rice in, it's all good. I like to use a flat wooden spatula tool, so if you have one, use that. I personally wouldn't trust a plastic tool. Cook the rice until it starts to get really nice and golden and a little transparent... maybe around 5 minutes, maybe longer. You will have to use your eyes to tell when it's done. Don't let it burn but also let it cook... in other words, don't stand there over it messing with it every second. Let it cook, occasionally stirring.

7) After it looks nice and golden, add the diced veggies and let them cook for a few minutes until they start to smell really fragrant and good... don't let the garlic get all brown and burned. You can turn the heat down if it's cooking them too fast.

8) Add the Tomato Puree, it will be noisy and steamy but it's all good. You want it to come to a simmer, it shouldn't take too long (Like 30 seconds maybe) and then right away,

9) Add the broth (which, since you're already simmering/boiling it, is nice and hot) and bring the whole thing to a simmer on the stove top... stir it up nice and good so all the ingredients are all gettin steamy with each other... at this point, your eyes are gonna be burning from looking into the pot and gettin all that good stuff up in your eyes, so put the lid on the pot and take a step back from your oven, let it come to a boil and regain your dignity. Sometimes this step requires a kitchen helper :)

10) After a few minutes on the stovetop, the pot is ready to go into the oven for 30-35 minutes. VERY IMPORTANT: you put that lid on the rice and you need to KEEP that lid on the rice. DO NOT take the lid off. You will totally ruin all of the work you just did. Just put it in the oven, set the timer, and walk away to do something else for a while.

11) After 30-35 minutes, take the rice out of the oven but let it sit with the lid on for at least 5-10 minutes. Now you can finally take the lid off and see how awesome it looks!!!!! Fluff it with a fork and Ta-Da!!!! You now have a bunch of awesome, amazing, spicy rice!!! Hey, and it's vegan even!!!! I like to serve this with black beans, salad with tons of awesome stuff and tacos or tostadas.

Okay, go make it and tell me what you think.

Love ya!
Smog

***It's good to have a bit of extra oil in the pot because it makes the rice all good at the bottom... I made this for Giselle and some of her friends, one of whom is Iranian and she was so totally stoked on the crunchy rice at the bottom of the pan!!! She was all "MMMM!!! CRUNCHY RICE!!!!!!!!" She told me that's how they make rice in Iran and she gave me major props for that... I was so proud :) :) :)

A Short Story Review

2011-07-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

HI!

What a lovely day it is outside! I'm hoping to go swimming in a little while and then while I'm swimming hopefully it will rain :) :) :) :)

So I read this amazing short story in this awesome book Mels got me, The Vintage Book of American Women Writers. The story is by Mary Rowlandson and it's from 1682. It's obviously an early American story and the intro says it was the precursor of the American novel. The title of the short is pretty self-explanatory, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson-- it dramatizes her experience of being taken captive by the Narragansett tribe in Massachusetts in 1676. (It's possible there is more to the story than what I read but I don't think so, I think what I read is complete) The intro to the story says Mary was captive for 6 weeks but the narrative in the story is longer I think (Wiki says she was captive for 11 weeks). ..... It is definitely the most interesting thing I've read from that time or any pre- or early- American stuff. It's probably one of the most interesting things I've read, ever. It's so freaking good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's got a lot of good stuff and a lot to think about. A few things that I like about it and that made it such a good read: You'd think that it would be super bigoted: a white female colonist being taken captive by Indians.... but it's actually really insightful and a frank and unusual commentary on the different Europeans and different tribes occupying the northeastern North America. Perhaps it was unintentional, I don't know. But it's a damn sparkly gem of a short story. It is straightforward about quite a bit of things, once you get around the language, and kind of solidified a lot of Early American life stuff for me. Throughout the course of the story, Mary is dealt a few bad hands but you really don't feel sorry for her. I don't know about you guys (like anyone is even reading this ha ha) but I don't like to feel sorry for the protagonist, I mean obviously you want to make a connection with the character but I don't like to pity them. I kind of assumed I would feel sorry for her, and don't get me wrong, she definitely has some shitty stuff happen to her, but mostly... I just wanted to know what was going to happen!!!! Early-Colonist-Versus-Natives stuff has been done a million times, movies etc, but with this story I was immediately taken into that world, forgot about this modern existence and while I was reading, it seemed totally possible that the Natives were so powerful and awesome that they sent the Europeans all back to the motherland. I mean, how often does that happen to you? For me it was like this totally irrational feeling like maybe all of history could be changed if I just make it through this story to find out I'm really reading this back in Italy and that the tribes got to keep their land and all of our modern American Indian history just never happened and everything was alright. It was a super compelling and interesting read. I have always been hugely curious into every aspect of daily early American life and I think that this story and this author do an amazing job of delivering that. It's quite possible that it's such a successful short because it was written by a woman. It's got all of this depth and details and just really interesting snippets of Culture Clash. She admits more than once in the story that the Narragansett are superior to the Europeans in several ways. That is really good to read. It's like, Wow! She's actually saying it! Everything she wrote was like just... REAL. I think Americans look back to Early American life as this mythical, impossible-to-touch thing. For example... sometimes you hear someone say "Oh Thomas Jefferson grew hemp" with this weird bias like it was "alleged" that he grew hemp and it's just what stoners tell people to make smoking weed more like acceptable or whatever. In this she states extremely plainly that the Narragansett used all of the hemp from her barn to set her house on fire. It's literally "...[Started the fire] which they did with Flax and Hemp which they brought out of the barn"... it's just an accurate minute detail of early American life, that if portrayed now would be like this huge thing or blown out of proportion or misused... everything in the story is like that. Just straight up, no sugar on top, just boom, everyone gets killed, her house gets burned down, she's been shot, she's taken on this insane journey with these amazing Narragansetts, she's gotta survive this insane thing and at the same time you really feel compassion for the tribe and PLUS it's like totally funny at parts, probably parts that aren't exactly meant to be funny but they are. Like tobacco addiction. Fucking funny stuff. So great. In this review I just barely skimmed the surface of what this short story is all about, so if this sounds at all interesting or intriguing to you, you should totally give it a read!!!!!!!!!!!! The only off-putting thing about it is the use of biblical text but it fits in really well because she has this bible that someone from the tribe and she kind of makes these connections with the versuses that she hadn't made before in her safe life... it's really interesting. My favorite thing about it is the language, it's totally fucking awesome!!!!!! Like, "Pease" (peas) and "Harty-Chokes" (artichokes) Fryday (Friday) etc... SO CLASSIC!!!! SO GOOD!!!!! I guess my last word of advice to encourage people to read this story is this: some stuff like say Little House stuff (which I love, don't get me wrong) was written by an adult for children so naturally a lot of stuff is all messed up. Like, umm every single thing about the Indians. It was written at least 40 years after it had all happened. It's riddled with flaws and inconsistencies. But this short story is just about the opposite of that. It's really up front (I assume because at that time it was acceptable to write and speak in this manner, there was no "political correctness" and obviously no one could predict the horrible and awful future of the American Indian tribes. No one would DARE have the guts to write something like this as historical fiction) and it was not written for children but (quoted from the intro) "Written by her own hand for her private use, and now made public at the earnest desire of some friends, and for the benefit of the afflicted". It is full of violence but our protagonist is not really in danger, in fact it really speaks to human compassion and empathy, which is such a nice change from the misogynist story-telling that basically grips the entertainment industry in it's fist. All in all, the best story I've read yet in this anthology. But I still have a lot more stories to go :) :) :)

Tell me, does it sound interesting to you????
Love ya,
Smog
P.s. here's her pic from Wiki... I think it's linked if you wanna check the wiki out :)

Mid July

2011-07-16T11:04:00.001-07:00

Hello People :)

I have to keep it short today. I shouldn't even really be wasting time online right now. But it's not a waste, right???

Since everything happened with Midnite, I have been feeling really bad and weird about a lot of stuff, stuff that isn't even connected to the situation or feelings about it. Just a lot of bad thoughts and feelings towards ~stuff~. The situation on the block has been pretty uncomfortable. Yesterday though I reached out to some of my neighbors to try to make some peace or at least clear the air. It went pretty well and I am feeling a lot better about things. Like, able to go outside. And able to close my eyes. Not feeling a lot better about other things but it's like everyone took a deep breath and finally let it out. It's been a really hard situation. Harder than anything else yet. Being caught up in not only emotional stakes but being put in a position of imposing legal and financial ramifications is like way too much fucking pressure. I do not like being put in a judgment-passing position. I know a lot of people like having that kind of power but it is not for me. Especially because all of it lies in supporting the System and it's got all these onioney-layers of animal welfare/rights/support/etc. Blergh.

Anywayzzz... here is your single photo for the day:

Ummm yeah it's dead food. Actually though, Mels ate all the remaining cookie pieces after I licked them all of their creme.... So, they were lucky. Those chips were not so lucky.... I can't stand eating store-bought tortilla chips anymore. Everything else was good though!!! Whateverz!!!

Now, I must go get ready for the art show and here is a glimpse into these drawings that were giving me so much grief!!!!!!!!!!!

I felt so much better after dropping these off and getting them off my hands. But I must say that my spirit was most greatly improved by marathoning season 2 of Rupauls Drag Race followed by XD viewing of new Harry Potter. *at peace* .... just want to add, on the note of XD... okay the seats are a lot nicer, the screen is super huge (still I think smaller than the big one at the Loft...) but who the hell was the interior designer???? Holy shit!!!!! It's like sooooooo 90s in there. Not in a good way. They like scavenged some shitty Planet Hollywood for the doors or some shit and just everything about it was cheezy and stupid. But comfortable, loud, big and crisp. Sigh. Plus we were somehow sitting in some weird family section with an adult-ish HP geek with her two seperated parents sitting on either side of her with a cooler and about $75 worth of Trader Joes snacks (the Mom was drunk)... and a bunch of littler-kids with their uncle who were strangely quiet and respectful during the movie... so funny... I would type more but I gotta go!!!! Crikey!!!!

Okay, Love you,
Smog

Some Thoughts (Briefly)

2011-07-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Hi,

...

So I'm really struggling with this project I'm working on right now. These stupid illustrations. I'm feeling really angry and resentful about my use of the female form in like a million different crazy ways right now. I'm feeling really grossed out by the over use of women's bodies in general. (insert disclaimer about how this isn't about some naked-chicks, is-it-art, open-mind blah blah) BUT ummm...

1) Why am I using these female forms to begin with? I am holding my pencil with my hand. I am controlling it. Why am I choosing these forms to draw? Well because originally I thought they were fashion illustrations but I was kind of confused or maybe not confused, (isn't that a shitty thing about being confused) and now I feel like maybe I could have done something different and I feel really insecure because fashion illustrations are NOT my art, I mean if you asked me, "Hey Smog, what kind of art do you do?" I would tell you maybe oh I do a zine or did a zine or I like to paint but I most likely would NOT say I do fashion illustrations. I mean maybe I CAN do them but I don't just do them in my free time.
2) So what if they are fashion illustrations? They are not for a publication so I am free to take liberties with the sizes. They don't have to be unreasonably and unhealthily shaped, they don't have to be stick thin and un-humanly in proportion. I can make them bigger, smaller, rounder, happier. I could make them chibi if I wanted. Think of all the fucking illustrators that push reality in style. Peruse any art blog. Pick up a fucking issue of Juxtapose... EXACTLY. Sure there are some great artists that use human form in cool and admirable ways. BUT there are also a million fucking shitty fucking dudes out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They draw their stupid shit and milk those tits and beef up that ass and I feel really really really fucking pissed off that this is like some stupid learned shit that I'm letting control me!!! Why Am I LETTING IT CONTROL ME??????????? And just like the rest of everything terrible about humanity, it's some evil learned shit that is near-impossible to break out of/break someone else out of. I'm thinking specifically about a situation like: man and woman in illustration house or something. I'm picturing an old tymey newspaper. a woman is in her own body day in and out. She has the same exact capacity for talent and style that anyone else has male or female. Yet that man is more inclined to be successful at illustrations and the woman will be told that she needs to make her style more like the mans which is much less realistic because of it's idealized state. So not only is her natural style being suppressed but this falsified idealism is being pushed on her and most definitely fucking with her!!!! And yes I am the woman in the situation.
3)If there are billions of humans in this world and all are different and beautiful and unique and everyone is special... then why the FUCKKKKK AM I being so GD critical of these drawings????? So what if they don't look like some fucking crappy stupid airbrushed shit????? THAT is NOT REAL ANYWAY!!! Who gives a shit!!!!! I have completely lost touch with what "realistic" is and completely lost touch with what I think is appropriate and inappropriate. All I can think about is all the times in the past (which have been many) that I allowed myself to be manipulated by what someone else (male or female with patriarchal values) thought or did. And I'm really mad about that and I'm really mad about people and this topic obviously could go on and on and on and there are a lot of things I missed (don't forget the disclaimer) and I have to go fucking finish these illustrations now.

Love,
Smog

P.S. Here's a pic for your troubles... it's my art after all

RIP Midnite (My Big Baby Cat)

2011-07-01T09:06:00.001-07:00

I have some horrible news to share with you today. On Wednesday morning, my neighbors dogs got into my yard and attacked my beautiful, amazing cat Midnite. We rushed him to the vet but they were unable to save his life and he died yesterday morning in the ICU. He was a strong and brave soul but I guess there was too much internal damage.

This is the worst blow yet. We are completely devastated and our little family was so hurt by this. It's unclear at this point if "justice" will be served but nothing can make the situation better. I don't know if we could have done anything differently to save him but I cannot stop replaying things in my head and heart.

He was absolutely the best cat. My beautiful ginormous brave peaceful baby. He is buried in the yard next to B.J. It gave me some peace to put him in the ground, to tuck him into a bed of clean towels and cashmere, his favorite. To know that he is at peace now, and perfectly still is better than seeing him in pain. But I would give anything to go back and change things. He didn't deserve this. He never did anything wrong. He NEVER did ANYTHING wrong. He was the perfect cat. He was the perfect friend. He was an amazing being with a kind heart and he was just beautiful in every way.

All of this has been just so fucked up. I want my baby back. My kittens 4th birthday is coming up in August. He should have lived 20 years.

Midnite, baby, I am so so so so so so so sorry. I will never ever ever forgive myself. But I hope you can forgive me sweetheart because I love you so much. I love you so so so much with all of my heart and I will never ever ever forget you. I know I let you down and I'm sorry we couldn't or didn't do more. You are at peace now and with your friend B.J. I love you, I love you. You were the best part of our family and the best friend. Everyone misses you so much and we don't know what to do without you. I love you and I'm so sorry.

Love Always,

Mom

Oh Yeah

2011-06-27T18:09:00.000-07:00

Love,

Smog

(Twas A) Happy Weekend

2011-06-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

I had every intention of posting here earlier before the weekend started. But you know how it is. Life gets ahead of you and all of a sudden it's almost 3 on a Sunday afternoon... So I change my greeting from 'Have a Good Weekend" to "I HOPE YOU HAD A Good Weekend"... Anyone else notice I only have 11 posts from this year? Wow that's really sad... the year is already half gone and I have done a terrible job documenting! It doesn't help that my phone camera is somehow shittier than the camera on my old (identical) phone. Really unencouraging!!!!!!!!! (I disagree with spell check about unencouraging. Spell check wants me to use discouraging. But, it's not discouraging, it's just NOT encouraging. So, I stick with unencouraging. Now the word looks so stupid I am contemplating deleting this whole bit!!!!!) Isn't it funny/stupid how easy it is to forget what you've been doing if you don't have pictures to remind you???

Onto the pics...

Summer clouds in a dirty sky:

My car broke again but I got it towed and fixed for free (I guess that's what insurance does, it's not just a waste of money after all)... doesn't it look cute with those bunny ears???

I like clean towels and cats... you can tell Ronald is Wiggle-Worming his way over to the clean stack!

I still like this:

And I'm still kinda scared of this:

But it's alright, he's a good guy...

Umm and as you all probably (or perhaps, don't) know, the longstanding party pad that was Will and Chris' is dead now and that made us all very sad:

It should make anyone who ever tagged in Krev's room very happy: the contractor said it would take 20 coats of Kilz to make it livable... take that you stupid old bastards! Also hilarious, I didn't quite get a great pic of it, but that bomb that Mike did up there like 2 pics up... it's got the funniest crew line up... You can't really see BOZ but it's up there and so is DILLA.... don't worry guys. You may not live here anymore but you're still rolling with the crew fuckin hard...

Anyway, the moon is still the same no matter where you are:

I got some awesome stuff from Will though, I should do some kind of round up but the only thing I have a pic of right now is this amazingly cute Stuffy (Yes, STUFFY) baby seal with an eye out... omg he's sooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then Mels found this big toad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He doesn't look that big in the picture. But trust me. He was like 5 inches across!!!!

But by far the most exciting and crazy thing...

Yes that crazy crazy guy made me cut his hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at that long luscious pony!!!!! I have already held it against my head oooooooooooiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Boy can grow some fuckin nice hair!!!!!! It's like... so freaking long. I know a lot of guys have long hair. But holy hell. Never cut one off like that before!!!!! I think he's gonna donate it. But he might keep it for something and if he doesn't wanna donate or keep it, I will be forced to keep it for some kind of weird mystical ritual of some sort...

Have a good rest of your weekend everyone!!!!
Love,
Smog

Summer Plans

2011-05-18T12:15:00.001-07:00

Don't you hate it when you read on a blog "Oh I have super awesome stuff in store for my future" but no details and then never any follow up? Well I have some super awesome summer projects coming up for this summer but this is the GD internet and there's no way in hell I'm describing my insanely good ideas here. But I do promise Follow Up. Oh yes. Well here's my checklist:

~30x30 secret project

~Soggy Stuff secret project

~Soggy Stuff secret project 2

~Soggy Show secret project

I guess I should also add,

~Swimming

~Hand Holding Etc

~Pinning Braids Upon Head

And I guess last on my list

~This Smog Blog

I am really lucky right now because I have a lot of free time and nothing to feel guilty or bad about (Capitalist Guilt, not like actual moral guilt or anything like that). So, I should embrace this time and do a lot with it, because when I don't have time I am constantly wishing I could just like organize a million buttons all day or just reading and reading and reading book after book...

Right now I'm watching Princess Mononoke on tape and remembering driving to Scottsdale to see it back in the day, I love this movie... ahhhhhhh..... I wish I could go back in time to that movie theater to bust up some skulls in the bathroom, of some confused moms who didn't make it through the movie, not anticipating content from a fucking animated movie... AHHHHHHH...

Well this is going absolutely no where. But that's okay. It's summer. Here's your dose of some terrible google images!!!!!!

Love,

Smog

p.s. I kind of wish I was going to Summer Camp even though I HATED it as a kid... something about really bad clip art that just speaks to me...

Good Times Round Up

2011-05-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires, Birthdayness, Yum Pretty, Yucca Sunset, Oops My Tree Broke Thxx Water+Wind, Student Work (Metaphysical Club Clothes plus a feather is missing...frenzied crowds...), Double Flowers, Lets Go Swimming !!!

Double Images, Two Varieties

2011-04-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

yes

I like my life.

Drag Sunday

2011-03-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Hot Springs

2011-02-27T18:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went (fake) camping at some hot springs to the south. It was pretty cool. I have an underwater disposable camera that I'm going to get developed soon. But until then, I have some phone photos of some cool stuff I saw. It was pretty fun. I wanna float the Gila River down there, it is really pleasant!!!! There are tons of hot springs that I want to go to and I think another trip is planned for another location in March. It should be really fun :)

Cute Puppy Huh!!!
Smog

Happy Weather Day

2011-02-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Yee Haw Pardners!!!! Hey there from Hicksville USA (Tucson) where we don't celebrate Presidents Day because we celebrate RODEO WEEK instead!!! Yee Haw!!! Okay, so I don't really know that much about how hicks talk but I still want to say ... Rodeo is silly. What ever. However, I really don't care for Presidents Day either. Why do I give a crap about Presidents Day? Why the crap do I give a crap about anything????? I don't. Oh, but I love Weather. SO, the basis for this post. I just saw a really lovely sunset outside, the view obscured of course by the jumble and jangle of electric lines and poles... BOO!!!! Anyway enough babble. Here's pics:

6:11 PM

6:27 PM

Shitty Cell Phone Pic Close Up:

Whatever, it looked insane.

The last few weeks/months/????? I have really not been looking at the sky too much, which is a real G.D. shame. So since it's been kinda rainy here lately, I started looking at the clouds and the sky more. I went up on the roof to hang out for a while and take some photos (These are from the other day):

So perfect

While I was up there, Midnite came up the ladder to hang out with me. I've never seen anyone as good at using a ladder as that cat.

YEP!!!!!! That's just goin up on the roof.

Here's more cats:

Cats B Buggin ;)

I found these amazing knitting patterns that I almost don't want to share but never ever want to forget!!!! There were these and more!!!! They were crazy good:

And by not eating, I unintentionally grew this and was proud:

Which led me to the thought that we condemn meat eaters for taking life but yet this was literally growing and I potentially would have eaten it and thus ended it's far more profitable (more profitable to me than a cow, I mean) life ... well I felt too terribly about that and could not possibly have eaten it, and put it back to keep growing. Keep it up little buddy!!!!

Lets see. Anything else????

I'm bummed no one said anything about those cupcakes! Did they really look *that bad* ???? Geez!!!!!

I watched all of Daria and wish there was more. So bad. So bummed.

Also the Sylvia Plath journals is really. freaking. good. There's so many passages I want to share with you guys. Argh. Maybe I'll take some shitty cell phone pics of some and put them on here.

Well, I hope everyone is ... well, alive and kicking. Hopefully you're all doing good. Monumental things or just straight mental. Whatever the case, I hope you're well.

Love ya,

Smog

Srsly

2011-02-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

First some things happened, then other things happened. Actually a lot of things happened but I guess I didn't take picture of them. So, here's some pictures of some stuff but not others.

Ronald:

Food:

Two Funny Brothers:

Odometer:

Ben Came Over For Dinner He Missed A Different Time Everyone Came Over:

Laptop Luv:

Then It Was Love And I Got A Card:

And I Also Got An AmAzInG New Book:

And Watched This:

This Girl:

And This Girl:

Luv,

Smog

Happy New Year!!!! (With Pics)

2011-02-06T15:55:00.001-07:00

Hellllo! Family, Friends and Foes!!!!!!
Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit!!!!

My deepest, most sincere apologies for my absence!!!! In my mind, I blog every day. If you asked me, "Smog, do you consider yourself to be a daily blogger?", my reply would be "Yes of course!!!!! My blog is my sole excuse for existence!!!!!" Alas, these are but thoughts of someone who runs not on the day being defined by 24 hours but by something else that justifies me posting but twice or thrice a month. So now I have a super mega ultra special super duper post that features some pics but not nearly enough.... don't you hate when you don't take pics of something and then you're like "damn I wish I had a pic of that".... Whatever! Without any further ado, here is what you all obsessively check your Google Reader / Blogger Dashboard for!!!!!!! (I must note now that I am terrified *TERRIFIED* of running out of photo space!!!! I can think of three people off the top of my head that I know blogs are dead now because they ran out of pic space... SAD!!!! BOO!!!!! At that point I suppose I will make it official with smog.com or something like that...abandon blogspot forever...)

Sun Dazed:

So obviously if you're alive anywhere in the freaking world, you're aware that there was a very brutal cold snap (probably not actually called that but it's definitely called something) that hit us pretty hard here in the 520 (not going to bother putting pics of all my prickly pears snapped off and blackened purple cactus everywhere in the yard... whatever, that shit'll grow back...) but before that and now continuing on after that, it has been so lovely and sunny here!!!! I lay on my grass and take in the sun rays (Don't care how bad it is for you/me/humans. Sitting inside all day while the sun and lawn beckons to me is just a waste of life.) Sarai walks by in the afternoon on her way home from the little-girls early bus and greets me on the way, "You're having a picnic!"

For those of you who have met Johnny in real life, you know she is the sweetest and most loving, pet-me, bite-you cat of mine. She looooves to hang out and since Susan got her hooked on being pet she really likes humans. (Well I mean she was hooked before what with the kibble-feeding and cat-cave-building and rabies/distemper-shot-giving) Anyway she loves to hang out on the lawn too and I really wanted to capture her sweet little nose, she has really cute features and is very petite. By far my most petite cat. Unlike this one who is WAY TOO BIG for the pot she is sitting on, she is literally laying on top of the cactus:

Yeah, I know... cats, right? This leads me perfectly into my next segment:

Cats B Buggin:

This has been my mantra (maybe mantra isn't the right word... maybe DEATH CHANT would be a better adjective...) for the last few weeks. Cats B Buggin. They are hungry. All the time. They like to be on the fatten-up diet, not the slim-down diet. They SERIOUSLY need a cat door. I'm seriously considering moving to the shed, out back in the servents quarters where I belong because I am their slave all day and all night. If I have kids, I will not raise them this way. They will have chores. And learn to open doors. Anyway, I do love them with all my heart and here they are in all of their obnoxiously annoyingly cute glory:

They freaking love these catnip puffs. You can see two on the lawn. They play with them. Non stop. LT is so obnoxiously chirruppy with them at night. It is literally Too Cute. Like, absolutely too cute. She loves having the house to herself with all the boys outside. She tosses the puff to herself like a soccer player. She simultaneously plays offense and defense. And Goalie.

And here's Ronald. Give a cat a fleece blanket, he'll sleep for a lifetime. You literally will never give him the chance to learn to make a fleece blanket for himself. He's managed to keep his honey-bee collar for quite some time now. He hasn't yet been reduced to wearing an old girls-collar.

Now here are all three adult cats. All sitting on top of the cat tree. Of course they are. It's at perfect height to talk to me from. See, they are just waiting for kibs. That is all they care about. Ronald is being really cute, he's like trying to put his face on LT for comfort but she is like going totally Older Sister on him right now and like "Give Me My God DAMN FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Midnite is inside the tree under them, you can see he's like "MOM! I'm DYING !!! FEED ME!!!!!" Don't worry everyone. They ate soon after this. They are not nutritionally starved. They just got a little too used to a Hobbit style food plan. Elevensies and such...

Ron and LT during the cold times... Ron again playing the part of younger brother, cuddling up with LT for warmth after spending some time outside. Cats B Buggin. Kitty Kat Style.

Here's that little scoundrel Tom:

So that's Cats! Any questions?????

We have now arrived at the food portion of our programming! I have cooked food and here is proof:

I realize now that this is only proof that I acquired foodstuffs to cook food. However, if it's proof you need, then check out the following segment:

Cup Cake Mania:

So, as you all no-doubtedly remember, last year around this time I was commissioned by a local high school to do some actual paid work. Well, guess what. This year I got some more commissioned work. Different high school. Different work. Same results. Got paid. Dolla Dolla Bills Y'all.

What do you think????? 30 dozen cupcakes! The theme was Black and White... so yeah. I didn't pick it. But I did take creative liberty with decorating them!!!! Half were chocolate, half vanilla :)

So there you have it!!! I think the girls were impressed with them and I hope the school dance that these were for go well. Now I'm ready for next year when I get some kind of random commissioned high school work again. Go Smog.

And Etcetera:

Messin around in the studio

I'm trying to stop biting my nails. It makes me sad to see all the pieces all dead and bitten off. I wish I was into doing spells, I would totally use my nails against people.

I like going to bed time. It's very peaceful with this pretty light:

Of course Barbie is there, all sultry in the dim light:

And lastly, this awesome Christmas Cactus at my moms that bloomed last week. So pretty!!!! The colors are nuts. Sorry it's not a better pic :)

So I think that's that. Hopefully. I don't know what I missed. A lot I think. I got no screen shots of my scores in a recently revived RE4 high score battle between me and Mels. 115K in the village with Krauser. Siccccck.

Okay. That's it.

I love you. I miss you. Comment !!!!!!!!

Cheers,

Smog

Snow !

2011-01-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

Besides having a constant social tummy ache, this is what I've been up to:

Love ya,

Smog

Terrible

2011-01-08T22:04:00.001-07:00

So, I have a travel post for you that I will do after this but this needs to come first.

Firstly, I want to add a disclaimer:

Please don't roll your eyes.

This is not a political blog and this is not a political post.

My skin is crawling from hearing "Tragedy in Tucson" and people (both directly around me in this house, and also online and on tv and radio, which I just cannot deal with) trying to make comments about how much they know about everything. Stuff like "It was only a matter of time" and "Oh well I saw this coming" (that was all I heard before I had to leave the room) and other really disrespectful, shitty, voyeuristic shitty shitty shitty stuff and just acting shitty in general.

However, I absolutely am not going to let this pass by and not say anything about it.

As you all know by now (unless you are, say a superficial space cadet [fashion blogger]), this morning in Tucson at a grocery store, 18 (maybe more?) people were shot. By a 22 year old white male. With a glock bought at the Sportsmans Warehouse in Tucson. The target was 40 year old, Female, Democrat Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. 6 people have died, including US District Judge John Roll, but most importantly and I would say, tragically, a 9 year old girl, whose identity has not been released.

Gabby Giffords was shot in the head, through the brain.

The gunman then opened fire on the crowd who were "trapped by a table and a concrete post".

At this point, I think everyone is aware that Gabby Giffords has received criticism, slander and threats for the duration of her political career, including the now infamous Sarah Palin crosshairs map on her website yesterday (? last week? I'm not sure when).

The thing I want to say about this is not to say I know everything, that I know why the shooter did it, or why this happened in our city, state or country.

I just want to say that things like this makes me really concerned to tell my little sisters to stand up for themselves. Beyond any amount of political connotation (which we all disagree about anyway), from a female (not feminist, just female) perspective, this is the most fucking terrifying thing that could have happened. I can actually name the names of people that read this blog that don't give a shit about this topic (and I don't blame you for either not caring about our political state or just not understanding it at all) but regardless of how much you belittle a situation, it doesn't change the fact that women are totally shit upon and gaining power doesn't guarantee you any safety.

Two really important people were hurt today, one is dead and one will never be the same if she survives the night. Those people are at opposite ends of the spectrum: a strong, bold (for the political world) brave adult woman who fought for the people she represents and fought against extremists on both ends; and an innocent 9 year old girl who was never given a chance.

This is just another absolutely miserable experience, disturbing and awful and horrible and shitty.

And it's totally fucking unacceptable.

I want to look back on this post and take away one thing from it. I would do anything for my sisters, I would take a bullet for them. I refuse to let anyone rob them of their futures, I refuse to let anything interfere with their lives. I absolutely refuse to let a fucking "lone white male" fucking fuck with their lives. I would literally do anything to prevent that and I hope nothing ever changes the way I feel about that. Be it at age 9, 14, 17, 40, 79 or beyond. I refuse to allow a white male scare them into not standing up for themselves, or for standing up for what they believe in, or for speaking their minds or having opinions or feelings. I refuse to let anyone scare ME. I will NOT be scared of you. You can shoot up a crowd, you can shoot someone in the brain, you can kill a little girl. But you cannot stop me. You cannot stop us.

Just like I can name the people that will read this that don't give a shit and might talk shit about me for this, I can name the people that might read this that I love and cherish and adore with all my heart. My heart is with all women tonight, all mothers, daughters, sisters and friends.

I love you,

Smog

Edited to add this info:

John M. Roll, 63, Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, Dorwin Stoddard, 76, Christina Greene, 9, Dorthy Murray, 76, Phyllis Scheck, 79.

1/1/11

2011-01-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay SO I know today is totally the 2nd of January but I was really stoked yesterdays date! I promised myself I would totally do a post... and then... got too sucked into having an awesome night and never got around to it. But I sat up in bed this morning and announced "Hey it's Sunday morning! I love to blog on Sunday mornings!!!! I'm getting up to do that right now!!!!" So, I migrated to the couch so I could bring all of you lovely people a fresh new year post!!!!!

So far, 2011 has been pretty great! The worst things that have happened to me so far are waking up with a tummy ache every morning this year.... yikes! Too much over indulging in restricted foods, drinks and other ingestables (ingest-ables)!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomato sauce and fireworks amongst other unmentionables. I'm so glad they legalized fireworks here in Arizona. I have been reading on other blogs about how fireworks are legal in states that they hadn't been in before, leading me to the belief that OF COURSE although Arizona is the biggest grossest hick state in these united states: ALL STATES are gross hick states! Ha ha take that! Still wish we could pump a little bit more money into that education system.... and I would actually be in favor of the city subsidizing baseball but.... whatever this isn't a political blog at all, just wanted to point out that all of the states are. so. fucked. Moving on...

I probably say this every year (not actually going to go back and check so I could be wrong) but I never make New Years resolutions. They are total bullshit excuses for people with no self control or will of their own. (Sorry to all of you that make resolutions.) But there are some things in this new year that I am hoping for. I hope that everyone, their loved ones, and families enjoys good health and the careless freedom that brings. Being sick, injured or in poor health at all in any way totally SUCKS. When someone in your family or that is close to you is sick or doing poorly, it is the WORST. Way worse than being sick yourself because you are really worried about that other person. So, I hope nothing like that happens. I heard a horrible story yesterday about someone whose Gramp died then his Gran fell down and bashed her face on a rock and lost her eye. So, yeah. I really hope that thing never happens to anyone ever again. Or anything like that. To anyone. After sitting here for like 5 minutes staring at my hand where I somehow hurt it fake-firing off a gun, I've decided to type what must be one of the most obvious statements ever but I want to say it: I really hate how life can change in a second. In a split-second. Just like that. That's actually really uncool. Someone should start offering Time Insurance. You know when something really bad happens and you are like "FUCK I wish I could go back and change that!!! AHHH!!!!!!" Well I would pay a lot of money to have that NEVER happen to me again. And for all of you snarky bitches out there thinking "Well maybe you should just make better decisions" I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about when you witness something terrible happen to a stranger and can't get there in time to help them. When you see someone making a bad decision and can't do anything to stop it. You know. Mortal shit.

And on that note, here's some pics of us being totally unsafe:
(These were last night to celebrate a great first day of the new year???)
note the cig:

He loves to live on the edge. Probably might be a good investor in Time Insurance.
Okay let the show begin:

Yes, yes yes yes yes yes. Fun times. We had a really good time setting them off at Wills too, he had a NYE party that was pretty fun, I got my drink on, there was an excellent snack table and of course, lots and lots and lots of fireworks. So, that was awesome. I maybe perhaps set a few off a little too close to the house? (YES I DID but no one saw so whatevs) So basically I like this new year. I don't know if this holds any truth, but I think if your birth year is even then you enjoy even years more and if your birth month is odd, you enjoy the odd years more? It's working out pretty well for me so far ;)

So hopefully I will post before I go to NJ but I leave on Wednesday (?!?!?!?!!!!) and will try to do a travel post segment. :) It's always fun for me and makes me love you nice commenting friends even more ;PPPP

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!!!!! Stay safe!
Love ya,
Smog

Dead Food

2010-12-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

I fuckin killed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, Mels helped too especially with that Mr. Goodbar!!!!!
Don't worry, no food was hurt in the making of this blog post.

Love,
Smog

Good Times

2010-12-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well if it wasn't completely obvious, I had an awesome Holiday Season with the big NYE coming up pretty fast... as in... tomorrow... fuuuuuckkk.....

So, I figured I would come and make a 3rd December post for my own memories. Unfortunately I took no pictures. Of anything. Well, I took a picture of the sky:

Its been like totally cold and gloomy here in Tucson lately. I hate to complain because we don't get that much rain but... it has been sucking. There's no indication of date or time. It's like the damn Long Winter out here!!!!!

Except instead of wearing awesome Winter clothes and getting flushed while having a snowball thrown at me, I'm like dragging my feet through puddles, wearing a short jacket over a tank top, and gazing at the sky in confusion. That's okay though. I'm going to visit my East Coast family for a few days next week and hopefully after facing a Real Winter, I will be more excited to come back to Easy Old Tucson. Whatever I'm just typing nonsense right now while I sit in a small crack of sunlight that comes through my window for like 2 hours a day (Tucson is supposed to have a 14 hour sun window! What the hell!!!!)

So I got awesome stuff for Christmas, which I am very happy about. I have been happily drooling over this amazing Wicked Witch Barbie: (of which there are apparently no good pics of online! What the hell, internet??? Mels was kind enough to get her for me so I could take her photo [I can't be bothered to get out of this patch of sunlight until it disappears and I have to go stand under the heat lamp in my bathroom])

You can really see the flush in her cheeks below:

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE HER LITTLE WICKED WITCH CAMEO?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Her skin is green, and her thighs are super sexy green!!!! She's super awesome :)

Mels also got me this awesome tablet!!!!!!! (I better be able to find a pic of this online... grumble...)

It's a 7 inch 4 gig tablet... it's fuckin' awesome :)

I also got this from my little sister Giselle (OMG RIGHT?!@?!?!!!!!!):

I got an awesome humidifier and this wacky Cuisinart from my mom.... oh yessssss...

I got a fuckin SLEW of books that I have been having an awesome time reading!!!!

Well, you get the picture!!!!!!!! OH yeah I got Graffiti Planet from my mom haha :)

For my family gift exchange, I got this amazing dress form: (which of COURSE I cannot find a pic of online!!!!!!! Dammit!!!!!!!!!!! It's okay everyone, Mels is gonna go take a pic of it right now.... he is humming the Poirot theme, I can hear him! Hehe... Okay here we go... it's kinda dark but oh well...)

She is soooooooooooooooooooooo pretty!!!! I'm really really looking forward to using her for many things!!!!

Okay, so now I am being summoned to go do something more interesting than this! Yikes!

Hope you all had an awesome holiday season, some of you I can see you did, others I would like some visual confirmation you are doing well. Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love ya,
Smog

Late Night Early Morning Christmas Chrafting

2010-12-20T05:19:00.000-07:00

I'm on my tenth episode of Veronica Mars and just made six ornaments for my (more traditional) Christmas Tree!!!!! Since it's now 5 am and I've been up all night, I figured I might as well just give in to ultimate craft geekiness, come here and put these pics up!!!!!!!!

So here without any excuses about how poorly made they are, because indeed they were my first foray, without any further ado, my animal ornaments!!!!

This was the first one I made, a size/shape experiment!!!

I didn't really like the denim so I used this cotton instead to make little badges:

Here's the animals! A beaver I guess!

A Christmas Kitten:

It was supposed to be a cardinal but looks more like a chicken I guess? A Christmas Chicken!!!!

A Little Turtle (Looks like ??? )

And this one is for Mels, it's his puppy dog Diesel:

Also, as a the tree topper on my little silver fiber optics tree I put this awesome figure:

So there you go!!!! Hope you're having a good morning!
Love ya,
Smog

Should I start the 11th episode of Veronica Mars season 3? No, I think I'll go to bed!!!! LoL ;P

Well, It's December!!!

2010-12-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap! I haven't posted at all in December. Things have been happening and yet at the same time not to much has been going on. Sometimes growth isn't measured in distance. Whatevs, right? I'm happy 2010 is coming to a close and looking forward to 2011. There are 30 months before my 30th birthday and I've started working on a pretty serious, official 30-Before-30 list. I've seen some of these floating around the internet (like at Delightfully Tacky, you know that blogger that just got done driving her Winnebago around the country?) and at first was like "That is so moronic" but in all reality I'm having somewhat of an Ageist reality crisis. Thinking about the human life ending at 45 or 50 like in Ye Olden Times, 30 seems fucking old. But now that humans live to be way too fucking old, 30 seems just fine. I'm totally making the best of it and I really like my list. It's too private to share here but when I cross stuff off, I'll let you know.

So I have taken 43 photos since the last time I blogged! SMOG! WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?!!!!!

Right then, let's get to it!!!!

I really enjoy laying on my lawn. I usually get stalked by cats the whole time:

Toms up there/\ Johnny's down there \/

You can tell these pics were taken awhile ago because the patchy grass is gone and it's all nice and green and perfect now!!!! Anyway so I always lay on this little (pretty stupid) blanket and as soon as I get up for one second, I immediately get seat jacked!

Tom the cat is a huge baby:

And another huge baby (panther maybe) Mister Midnite:

Some of the Fam came out from the Eastern Seaboard and:

They really wanted to buy this house:

Also, we went to Tucson Mall and my dad had his first ever Jamba Juice!

And we all got our body mass index on that funny GNC machine. And our pics in the photo booth. I don't have pics of that stuff though. Sorry ;P

Then they left and my life returned to:

Sky Gazing:

And Taco Night:

(I actually really want to have a taco party before school starts back up. I just need to pic a day and force you all to RSVP...)

I also finally set up my Christmas tree... I have two artificial trees and set them both up to see which one I liked best... so yeah, after seeing them both together there was no way I could only pick one, so they are both up, just in opposite corners of the room so the holiday festiveness is spread about. Also one is really traditional and one is really silver-fiber-optical so yeah. I'm happy!!!

I know I have like a ton of other random stuff to say but right now it's a beautiful peaceful Sunday in the neighborhood and I happen to be sitting in a particularly sought-after sunny patch on the couch. So I'm gonna put this computer away (and let me state for the record, the reason I haven't been blogging or archiving my radio show is because I just can't stand using the computer for more than like 5 seconds... I much prefer a handheld device...) and enjoy life.

Love you guys, and I hope you're all well. Thinking of everyone a lot during this silly holiday season :)

Love ya!
Smog

HoliDaze

2010-11-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Hi hi :)

DINNER TIME!!!

If you didn't know, I LOVE TACO NIGHT!!!!! Potato tacos are amazing. I like to make them!!!!!

SNACK TIME!!!!

Yes a mountain of little sandwiches and tots!!!!!!! Every sandwich had a tot. Awww!!!!

MMM delishious vegetable soup ultra-dosed with extra delishiousness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We like it spicy... MMMM!!!!

I didn't get a picture of all of the chips I made to go in this soup! Uh oh!!! Smog, you bad! I wanna do a spicy clear green soup. Hmmm... any suggestions?!?!!!!

Obvz it was Thanksgiving and I am not thankful for shit (not true) but anyway I didn't get any pics of the awesome food I endulged in or any holiday outfit photos or anything like that! Smog, you bad!!!! Guess what? I'm maybe going to NJ to see Julie (and all the rest of the Fam of course!) for week 50!!!!!!! I am so stoked. For two years, week 50 was the greatest week of my life. It blew my mind. Florida is awesome. So amazing. I wish we were going back there. But anyway what's done is done (yeah right like I could ever mean that!) and I'm think I'm going to NJ to visit instead :) I am stoked on that! For I still am unemployed and have no commitments except "Well... you BETTER be back for Christmas" death threat from Mels. ;P

Wellll... here's cats!!! They are sleeping in color order!

Tom is sad because the big cats won't let him sleep with them... :( Poor Tom! Little Google Eyes...

Fortunately the big cats allow him to eat with them. They are very funny about eating. They INSIST on eating in a certain order. Midnite is always first!!! He gets quite vicious about it. He is quite a large cat.

Mostly, cats are hungry. Other times, cats are nice. Like this!

Yes, there is a reason I call her Big Paw! On her leg that got messed up, she still has kind of a swollen looking foot, I try to massage it for her to keep the circulation going. She's pretty good about it but kind of hates getting it touched. Well, there's your L.T. TMI for the day!!!

Hmm what else?

I have no more pics for you!!!!

I have been super productive at home. I like to make a To Do list in the morning and then be able to check a lot of stuff off during the day. So I've been doing a lot of random shit, basically!!! Like organizing my CDs (I know, I didn't think I had enough CDs to organize!!! But, I did it. I even threw some jewel cases away. I hate jewel cases!!!! I hate CDs. They are such a waste of time. I almost chucked the whole stack but didn't on account of the sentimental value of some crappy crap. They're in the shed now where I don't have to deal with them. Oh, also organize my comix! I officially need another comic box. There is no more room in the ones I have. Buffy season 8 is coming to an end, and it's really cool to see all the covers and stories together. Pretty freaking satisfying. When the last one is out, I'm going to read them all in a row. Will was telling me about Buffy season 9 comic and it sounds pretty cool. Also, of course, extremely sad and offended about the new Buffy movie. Basically want to rip my eyes out. If you're into BTVS then you know what I'm talking about.

Hmm so I think that's about it. I am hungry now!!!! I hope everyone is well! The start of the Holiday Season is upon us in full effect. I ate a mini pumpkin pie yesterday by myself !!!! It was delishious, I made it and it's graham cracker pecan crust.

Love ya,

Smog

Soggy Show #31 Tonight Wow That's Crazy !

2010-11-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello People! I am here to bloggy blog!

I have been feeling really shitty lately about being a horrible commenter lately! I mean, usually commenting a lot gets me into trouble but there have been some seriously awesome blog entries lately, like in the last three weeks. I'm really sorry I haven't been commenting you guys!!!! Some of you read this, some of you don't but either way I'm sorry. It's the thought that counts. Actually, I don't really agree with that. Whatevs. Moving on!

Ahh! Dark Hermione!!!!!

So obviously last night was Harry Potter! I had a lot of fun and saw it in a pretty small unfilled theater which was awesome. Then I came home and described the entire movie to Mels for like 2 hours. I can't wait to see it again! I liked it pretty much the most out of all the movies so far. I've been literally restraining myself from rereading the last book. You know how it is with too much time on your hands, sometimes you don't want to get sucked into what could be potentially days and days and days worth of hours wasted on something that you actually already wasted quite a bit of hours on already? Yeah okay.

Here is, something? Or, nothing:

Dinner Time!

♫♫♫♫♫♫MmmMmmmMmmmMmm Dinnnerrr Tttiimmmeeeeeee ♫♫♫♫♫♫

♫♫Followed up by Naaaappp Tiiimmmeeee ♫♫♫♫♫♫

One day I saw this:

I was all what the hell??? I honked the tail and then I was attacked:

Ahhh, LT! Good spot!!!

Ahh, I love that girl. What a cool cat!!! She's just this little furry creature! Love em!!!

So, anyway I don't have any more pics and I don't want to just rant on and on about Harry Potter! So, I'll go. Soggy Show tonight, I'm pretty pumped. Gonna play some new stuff? Yep!

Hope you're doing well!!!! Update your blogs!

Love ya!

Smog

Caturday (Literally WIth Pics)

2010-11-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

CAT FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom lost some fur ;) (He's cool, don't worry.)

Then I saw LT chewing on this Texas Ranger:

She's pretty cute! I wish I had a video for ya!

Today I had the most awesome pizza sandwiches for lunch today. So good. I should have been keeping a list of all the stuff I've made but I just didn't !!! Maybe I will do a recipe zine after this!!! I'm going to make a stuffed crust pizza. Maybe tomorrow??? We will see!!!

Love ya!
Smog

UN EMP

2010-11-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well I think Boz said it best somewhere on his blog, but it's deleted now so I can't link to it. To generally paraphrase something he said: If this is what retirement is like, sign me the fuck up. I absolutely love being unemployed. No wait, I don't just love it, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!!

I am Gordon Crisp in this clip.

Okay so I really should be blogging like everyday but honestly all the days are running together. It's so nice to have this break from everything. I can tell you that I am not prepared to go back to work. This morning I woke up at 5 and thought "I can never get up at this time again. I just can't do it. It's impossible." which is of course absurd and false but when you're cuddled up in bed and happy as a clam, it's really depressing to think about work. Anyway, you know what I mean. I hope I never have to get another job ever for as long as I live. *cross fingers and pray to baby jesus*

So haha I only have four photos from like the last two weeks. Lame! I know! But here they are:
Been hanging out a lot with these guys:

We have made every meal at home every day in November. It's been really really really really super rewarding and gratifying. I get stressed out cooking but since I have all the time in the world to do whatever I want, I've really really been enjoying it. I thought about doing recipes but... eh. We've had lots of TACOS (my favorite thing to make at home) and last night the most awesome soup (soup seems so... lame. It was very good, not lame.) but this pic is from making stuffed shells (which I'm going to make for my mom and Giselle on Thursday night). I LOVE KITCHEN TOOLS!!! Finally able to put all this stuff to use. However, our kitchen is thrashed and I really wish we had a dishwasher! My stove is really dirty too!!!!

Anyone wanna come over and watch FROG??? Just kidding, I didn't get it. Look how horrible it looks!!!!

We walked Archer on the westside and I saw this super duper crested barrel cactus... okay okay this picture is pretty weak but it crested stuff is really cool!!!!!! Someone put a board behind it to sturdy it and it looks really good. Of course I didn't take a picture of Archer... :(

Other than this, I've been up to a lot a lot of stuff!!!! It's been really great. I don't know what else to say besides that. I get my last check on Friday and have to start looking for a job after that. Bummer, huh? Yep.

I'm going to work on taking more pics, of what, I don't know. But it will be something.
Update your blog? For me?

Love ya,
Smog

The Definitive Dollhouse Post (With Pics)

2010-11-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well maybe this is only gonna be Part One because my obsession with this show could still grow exponentially!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so has anyone seen Dollhouse? Short lived series on Fox for two 13-episode seasons? Maybe it would refresh your memory if I referred to it as JOSS WHEDON'S DOLLHOUSE????
Yes, that is what this post is about so if you're only on this blog to selfishly look for mention of your stupid name then you better just get out! Because this is all about DOLLHOUSE. Which is an amazing show. And one of the very best things about it is that a lot of people didn't like it (*cough cough* didn't get)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That makes anything better :) Here's your official SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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************************I SAID SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!***************************
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Okay, now that my Spoiler Alert has probably killed your PC, Laptop or Smart Phone, lemme get into what will surely be a picture heavy post.

Here's the short list of why Dollhouse is awesome: (Relevant to my life)
1) It's a Joss Whedon project
2) It's got an amazing *AMAZING* Cast & Crew
3) The subject matter is both a huge mindfuck and yet SO REAL
4) A bunch of it is set in Tucson and it shows Tucson in Post-Apocalyptic PhotoShopped Goodness

So Where Should I Start??? Where CAN I Start?!?!?!?!?!!!!!
I don't want to sound like a broken record but... well, there is just NO DENYING that if you're a Joss fan then you're going to seriously scorch your shorts!!! No at the end of season one I seriously went into Fan Girl Shell Shock. It was borderline dangerous how in love I was. Well if the end of season one was borderline then season two was downright UNSAFE. It has now roamed into Obsessed Fan Girl territory. I was waiting forever and ever for season 2 to come out (even though Josh and Erika told me just to download it, I really like getting DVDs and watching them) so it finally came out, and we waited until SpookFest was over to start it. It was really hard but we rationed it out over a few days so I didn't blow my load all at once. Instead, I blew my load over and over and over and over and over and over and over again!!!!!!!! So many times!!!! Okay, so you've either seen the show and seen all of this for yourself or you haven't seen the show, you didn't heed my spoiler warning and now you have no idea what's going on. But seriously... the cast speaks for itself.

FAITH!!!!!!!! BOOM. Star of the show, her name in the show is ECHO and ECHO is a FUCKING BADASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This internet wallpaper makes Echo seem like the Ghost Whisperer but really Echo is a really super awesome totally raging bad ass powerhouse genius! I think Faith must be one of Echos many "identities". By the end of the show, Echo absolutely has grown into one of the best and strongest characters on TV. That's important to note, because the reason we humans like stuff is to see it grow! We don't want to watch a show about Faith being prostituted out to men for money, we want to see her fucking flip everything on it's shit, become the most powerful thing ever!!!! Which happens! So yeah! Happy!

But no matter what sect of Jossness you are a fan of, there is a character for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RIVER TAM, NERUO GENIUS!!!! (Her Dollhouse name is Bennett Halverson) Although Summer Glau doesn't really get to do any fancy choreography or super crazy fighting, her character is amazing and the geeky chemistry between her and Topher is freaking fantastic. Summer's smile kills me!!!

Need a checkup???? I'd definitely go to see Dr. Saunders!!!!!!!! Everyone needs a little Fred in their life!!!

Need a little excitement in your life??? I'd DEFINTELY GO SEE WHISKEY!!!! Everyone needs a little Fred in their life!!!!!

Watcher-Slayer relationship anyone?????

Okay I can't find a picture of it but they tooooootally hook up!!!!!!!!!! Yeah sure it's Echo playing him and he's all drugged but they TOTALLLLYYYYY hook up!!!!! I loved seeing Wesley and Faith back together, they had great chemistry!!!!!!!!! Alexis Denisof was an excellent addition to the cast, even though his character on Buffy/Angel was a little stuffy! He flips shit!

So do you wanna know when I really really really really really seriously seriously had a serious boner???
This guy:

So of course we all LOVED Wash and we all cry when he dies in Serenity and I NEVER want to disrespect the memory of our beloved Hoban Washburne ... but ALPHA...fdairjr834 iridakaoifjafddddaljldjkalkjflkdj ummmmmm YEAH yes please I mean, please please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is SO FUCKING GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First he plays it cool with his "Carrots":

Then he hooks up with Fred and Faith, which I am very mad that I cannot find a picture of!!!! Here's one of just Echo and Whiskey:

Then he gets all Beau Brummel (actually references him)!!!!!!!!

Alpha is a great character. Totally crazy, totally well written and beautifully acted by Alan Tudyk, I love this character: first you absolutely LOVE to hate him and then by the end you just totally love him. So great. Again, an excellent, well rounded character, just like Echo!!!

That, and a bunch of weird shit happens!!!! Here's another great internet mashup!!!!

Wait, I'm not done!!!! More recurring Joss peeps got work from this project!!!!!
Like, Felicia Day!!!!
I like Mag so much more than Penny!!!!

So there's some other people in the cast too, some folks from Battlestar, Olivia Williams and some unknowns like Fran Kranz... even Nick the IT Guy! He plays a Rossum IT Guy.

So beyond the awesome casting, I want to say that I really like this project. I obviously always like to support the "Underdog" and as most Joss projects are on the verge of being cancelled (due to low audience intelligence), I'm usually into them. I didn't watch Dollhouse on TV and if I had, I can tell you I probably wouldn't have been as into it as I was on DVD. Because the content of the show is really really super interesting, relevant and real. The content, without getting too too into it, is that these Dollhouses exist around the world and they are run by the Rossum Corporation and Rossum is, of course, evil. The Dollhouses exist as, as their name implies, the home (homebase) for all of these mind-control slaves that go to see different clients (usually a "Romantic" or sometimes a CSI-type excursion). I think the topic really turned a lot of people (especially women) off from the show, because as I said before, none of us really want to see Eliza Dushku literally and figuratively and metaphorically getting fucked for 26 episodes. Well I have a two part response to that:
A) To have character growth, they must grow from somewhere. Echo needed motivation to grow. Simple storytelling. Yes, it's a fine line to walk, bordering on the Misogyny Crisis (reference to Comics Journal article very dear to my heart) but... well that leads us to the second part:
B) Unlike Space Prostitutes (source of much controversy in the Firefly 'Verse)... MIND CONTROL SLAVES ARE ABSOLUTELY REAL and it's fucking scary and horrible and not fake and futuristic but something that has actually been happening and I think it took a lot of courage for Joss Whedon and his coworkers, cast, crew, writers, etc, to tackle this subject. I don't even understand how they got the show on the air at all, it's so creepy and horrible! I mean, I guess a lot of people don't believe in stuff that they hear about but I believe that Mind Control is a real thing and that it's being used as a tool against people around the world. So yeah. I'm pretty happy that there's a show about it and that what happens at the end of the show is that they fucking destroy the horrible companies and I guess the government, everything is all fucked up and they return everyone to their original state of mind and everything is awesome. So yeah. Happy ending. Also, lots of room for more episodes and comics and spin offs!!!!!

As you can imagine, writing this has taken up a good portion of my afternoon (absolutely NOT complaining!!! I'm loving this life!!!!) and I'm gonna go soon but I can't end this without saying something about Tucson and how scary, awesome and bizarre and cool it is that Tucson becomes NERUOPOLIS (The City of Minds, formerly TUCSON ARIZONA the HQ of Rossum Corp) !!!!
Seriously. This is from the show:

I know, right?!?!?!!!!!!!!!
They talk about Tucson ALL THE TIME!!!! IN fact, that's where Faith and River meet!!! Ooops, I mean Echo and Bennett!!!! They both attend... get this... Tucson Institute of Technology!!!! I wanna go to T.I.T.!!!!!! So awesome and creepy. You gotta see it. I gotta go eat lunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya!
Cheers,
Smog

P.S. Thank you Joss :)

**Note: None of these pics are mine, I did no work to get these screen caps, I used all google image results and so thank you to all of you random picture loaders and collage makers, you guys are awesome. I think a lot of them came from fanpop. :) **

November Has Arrived, In Full Glory!!!!

2010-11-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

So you guys know that feeling when you're soooo excited about something that all you want to do is just jump around and hop up and down and kick your legs and shout and violently tickle whoever you're around and just yell and whoop and holler and all of that? Well, that's how I feel right now. Where do I even begin? Let me just tell you guys, I am soooo happy! I feel great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. What an awesome day.

Well the rest of October was obviously a blast! Halloween Weekend was fantastically fabulous. I didn't really do much dressing up, sorry no "Sexy Time" Halloween photos (anyone else feel pretty done with Sexy Time Halloween photos online? Haha....) but I did dress up a little bit on Friday, I volunteered with my sister at a school carnival, we worked in the haunted house and it was soooooooooOOOOOOOOOO fun scaring little kids, making kids cry, making them scream and run.... Oh my. So great. I dressed as the ghost of the first teacher in Tucson. I loved haunting kids. Seriously. Then on Halloween I wore a Halloweeny outfit and we went for a haunted drive and it was so awesome and fun :) Then a bunch of other stuff happened but I don't even know why I'm talking about this because it was not my intention at all!!! The thing I wanted to talk about it that.... NOW it's NOVEMBER and guess what happened this morning!?!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!! I went into work and found out that my boss had terminated my employment yesterday!!!! Normally I think this wouldn't be something that someone would be too happy about, being "Terminated" I mean, but I was halfway through my two-weeks notice anyway and I guess my boss got confused... let me tell you, we stayed up until 3:30 this morning, then finally forced myself to get into bed and woke up at 5, I thought "WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING???" and was imagining all of the beautiful possibilities of going home early... then when I got to work, my boss was like kind of freaking out, I realized my cart was all emptied of the trinkets I'd been collecting and then she broke the news to me!!!! I could go home early!!! Not only that, but I never have to go back!!!!!! Well I guess to collect my last check but I never have to fucking go there and work again. SO FUCKING OVERJOYED!!!! There is NOTHING like being unemployed!!!! It feels really great. I also believe that since she jumped the gun and "Terminated" me, I can file for unemployment!!!! OMFFFGGGGG Yeah I know right??? I'm so happy and I feel pretty lucky. But more than anything else, I'm so relieved that I never have to fucking go back there!!!! I'm really looking forward to having some serious slacking off time! It's been so long since I gamed, read comix, hung out without being super tired or worn out, spent time on creative projects... holy crap. I'm so thrilled. I cannot express to you how happy I am. I feel like giving the whole world a hug, even the shitty douchey part of the world that I hate!!! So happy!!!!

So yeah. I have to go now but I hope you're all doing well!!! If you were here right now, you would be getting whooped and hollered at and perhaps violently tickled!!!! So, have a great day and hopefully I'll be blogging a lot more in the coming weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So happy!!!
Love ya,
Smog

p.s. here's my last work pic EVER:
It's a baby cactus!

also this awesome license plate:

OBVS a potter fan!

True-ly Spooky Times Are Upon Us

2010-10-26T20:25:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone;

I have only two pics for you:

A bee doing un-pronounceable acts to another bee; and some math:

Now I'm off to enjoy a delishious dinner, dessert and two of my ahhhbbbsoLUTE favorite Spooky Movies...

Both are so good. Amazing. Love them. It's really hard to say which one I love more. Both are great. Tales From the Hood. Night of the Comet. TFTH. NOTC. Hmmm... I've been saving them ALL MONTH. Here's to a fabulous Tuesday night!

Love ya,
Smoggé

Super Duper-y

2010-10-25T19:42:00.001-07:00

Okay okay, here's a real post in addition to those two fake posts earlier :)

So, true story, not half an hour ago: , get to school, both of us "I reeeeally don't want to go to class [with Tom the evil instructor]" ... Turn around, come home and Hit The Shit...

So now I'm here when I'm not supposed to be and it feels oh so so good. :)

I have pics, a list of movies and other random chatter... Which ever shall be first???????????? (Can you tell I'm in a super excite-able mood today???)

Here's one I call

FUCK YOU TARGET DON'T PUSH ME IN YOUR STUPID BOX:

OBVIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm a girl and I wanna eat baked lays and write in a fucking lame ass wide-ruled (the bane of my existance??????!!!!!!!) composition book?!?!?!!!! And well of course boys eat doritos and an Xbox 360 ??!!!! Fuck you!!!!

Okay sorry. I'm done.

Actually look at this, (Thanks to Dilla)

And then look at this, (Topic by Mels, Internet Nancy Drew Smog)

Now I'm done :)

So yeah. I have more pics:

Here's some cute cats :) (Mostly LT)

Here's a really good one Mels took of her:

FANGS OF THE BEAST

Umm here's one of Midnite on the lawn (Like my little lemon tree???)

Oh yeah!!! I went to Elf Power!!!!

Jorge took this pic of me:

Ahhhhh I have the BIGGEST crush on Laura Carter.... she is so fucking COOL!!!! I love her ACCENT!!!! I love TALKING to her!!!! I loved hanging OUT with her!!!!! She is sooo cute and funny and cool! She is awesome! It made me so happy to see them play :) She is really cute onstage. Not just cute. Beautiful. Sparkly. Super Shiny. It was great. Of course Andrew too is awesome and I really liked hanging out with them. ALL of the band members asked me if I had brought any more Soggy Stuffs for them (Which I hadn't, Boo Smog) so that was pretty rewarding!!!! Not often your favorite band asks you for new issues of your zine!!! It was great to see Will and Jorge & Amanda and Mels & Ben. Afterwards these kids asked me if I was "That girl who yelled Ceremony at Xiu Xiu" and I was like "Uhhh yeah I yell Ceremony at every show it's kind of a joke" and they were like "something something that's really cool" and then I was all "uhhhh yeah sure whatevs". It was really weird. I told Julie on the phone, "I'm afraid of being that weird older lady in the front by herself being a weirdo dancing too much" but she was stoked because the drummer for Elf Power told me to say whats up to her, because he helped get her into drumming (Julie quote: "Whoa that drummer was realllllyyy gooooodddd", that was a few shows ago) Anyway she's a cool girl and Elf Power are all awesome people and they told me some deets about the Orange Twin tour they are planning... whhhhoooaaaa... super cool......

Okay moving on:

Those two pics up there remind me of .... HALLOOOWEEEEN!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAHHH!!!!!!! IT'S COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO stoked! That's an excellent segway to my next topic... the movie list!!!!

SPOOK FEST 2010 LIST PART THREE (i think):
Right now we are watching Poltergeist and I have to say that it looks really good on DVD! It's not dark at all, it's really clear!!!! Seriously. You guys. It looks great on DVD. I'm really stoked on it !!!!

Okay, other movies:
~Well, we attempted Scary Movie 4 (I have no idea why) with Ben and Allyson (I have no idea why we watched such a stupid movie, seriously it was after Elf Power, I couldn't hear shit and the movie was strangely sobering)
~And we went to see Machete at the movies!!!!!! It's not a horror movie or whatever but I really enjoyed seeing it in the theater.
~Queen of the Damned (OMFG AALIYAH)
~The Haunting In Connecticut (Good I thought!)
~Little Monsters (Now own this one !!!)
~Village of the Damned (Original... SO FUCKING GOOD!!!! Really enjoyed this)

So... now that Halloween is almost here, we have to make Nightfall happen this week hahaha... Has anyone gone this year? Standard issue? Sub-par? Amazingly spooky gunfighting???

Okay what else???

This rose was on it's way out but I really liked the colors!!! So pretty!!!

I'll leave you with two pics of this lovely preying mantis. She is so sinister:

I hope everyone is doing well and having fun, I hope you're in good health and with people you love!!!!
Today was a really really great productive day (except for ditching class but it's actually more productive because it's given me time to blog and watch the end of Poltergeist!!! Hhaha...
Love ya!!!
Smog

The Soggy Show

2010-10-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hey so I did a two-part show on the book Girls To The Front, here's part one and part two, they are filled with lots of great music and it's not up yet but Soggy Show #28 is an Ari Up tribute show so I'll post the link as soon as that is up. Also filled with great music. Obviously.

28 Shows Later...

And I haven't gotten bored with listen to Lady Music. In fact, it's only helped to solidify my hate for Dude Music. (Okay okay I have to admite, there's at least 3 bands with male members I like)

Cheerio,

Smog

Bloggy Blogs

2010-10-25T16:33:00.002-07:00

Hi guys! I'm procrastinating online instead of working on a stupid chair drawing.

So did this piss anyone else off? And then followed up by a R.I.P. Ari Up post???? Gimme a fuckin' break. Normally I like her blog (Except for the overuse of the term Mag Hag, which belongs to Kitty. Original Mag Hag. Oh, and her Undying Love for SVH... that belongs to ME.) but that is still kind of eating at me. Also, who the fuck was a teenager in 2004?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whhhaaaa??? Okay I'm done now. Lots of blog reading catching up on! I'm especially loving Ya'Shur and Teenage Rampage right now :)

Cheers,
Smog

P.S. I'm really not sure why I'm on the fence about this but for the last, what year and half? I haven't "Followed" Tavi's blog. It's not like I don't read it, and it's on my blogroll, I just don't "Follow" it. Hmm... It's one of those things where since I haven't followed it yet, I don't want to start!!!

Hey Smog Blog: Happy 400th!!!!!!!!!

2010-10-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

HEY HEY HEY!!!!!

ITS MY 400TH POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my, how I've neglected my poor blog. I'm so sorry. Really, I am. I can't believe it's my 400th post! That's so many!!! I think about blogging all the time. Probably every day. But I have so little free time to construct anything... sentences, even...

Well anyway I'm here now and I'm quite happy about that. I've been doing my fair share of stressing out, worrying, subsequently breaking out, pouting and grilling lately. You cut it, you burn it. So yeah good thing I trim trees. Hopefully not for too much longer. I'm soooo anticipating quitting. You have no idea how much. More than any other job ~~probably~~ definitely.

My biggest Drama lately is Tom the Cat. See, he either saw a ghost and was haunted by said spirit for 5 days and nights; was possessed by the devil for said 5 days and nights; (and this is why you should never pet.webmd your cats in the wee morning hours...) had a seizure that resulted in temporary brain damage and complete loss of nervous system for said 5 days and nights. Or something else that the internet hasn't revealed to me. Oh and plus I mentioned it at work and then all these ladies got involved and one gave me some holy water and today they were trying to convince me to let a priest come to my house to bless it... ?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!!!!! ARE YOU fucking KIDDING me!!??!!!!!! Do you understand why I want to quit?!??!!!!! More on Tom: I Nancy Drewed the case and figured he possibly could have jumped from the cat tree onto the ceiling fan during like a 2 hour stretch of time it happened to be on one day (randomness; i.e. Nancy Drew) and then got like freaked oh because I should have mentioned this, that one of his many symptoms was staring at the ceiling and growling. He was basically scared. Like almost scared to death, that is, many of those 5 nights I didn't think he was going to make it through to dawn. Oh, or maybe all the other cats ganged up on him at the same time but if that was the case, it was some serious cat gang shit and they probably wouldn't all be allowed at the mall at the same time. ;PPPPPPPPPP Well anyway Tom's basically all right execpt that I'm terrified it's going to happen again, but he got the last of his shots (like 6 months late) and is allowed to go outside in the daytime so he can run around and that seems to have helped him. I don't know.

So yeah.

GOT PIX????????

In absolute random order:

He got me this ghost doughnut. I LOVED IT!!!!

DEAD

ALIVE

We've been watching a lot of spooky movies obvs for Spook Fest and it's been prreeeettttty great! We even went to the Fox Theater to see Return of the Living Dead ! Whooooooo it was fuN! It was pretty great seeing it on the big(ger) screen and of course the Fox is super nice inside and it wasn't crowded at all (I think it was at like 7:30pm??? So early! Haha) I even wore a special date outfit that I really wish we had taken photos of because it was pretty great. I hope to recreate the outfit again sometime soon? Yes. Anyway I want to share another list of spooky movies but it's gonna get too out of control to give deets so I'll just name some:

Return of the Living Dead (@ Fox Theater)

The Haunting (Old)

The Haunting (Remake)

House on Haunted Hill (Old)

House on Haunted Hill (Remake)

Thirteen Ghosts (Rah Digga Wha Wha)

Scary Movie (So bad)

Skulls (AHhh!!!! Hhahahahaa!)

Simpsons Treehouse of Horror (Like 5 of them)

MISERY (Best movie yet???????)

BeetleJuice

UnDead (Right now, actually)

The Omen (original)

The Birds

Is that it?????? Smaug! You suck!!! There must be more... well we finished Young Frankenstein and Ninth Gate? No actually not Ninth Gate. Well we watched Terminator 3 but that's not a spooky movie. I honestly cannot remember/see the boxes of any other movies. So that is kind of a pathetic list. Okay, I will step it up in the next two weeks. I seriously promise you that. Also, obviously: Nightfall. And possibly more movies at the Fox.

Right now I'm eating the most delish grilled food that Mels made for me after a stupid day of work and school. So lame. But this food is amazing. And I am so happy for that!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to stop blogging now so I can go eat more grilled corn. But it tastes soooo gooood! !!!!!! Yum!

Love ya! Update yr blogs!
Smog

OCTOBER IS THE BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-10-08T19:02:00.001-07:00

HHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay. First of all, let me just say. I had made a promise to myself that I was going to post every single day in October. And all of a sudden it's the EIGHTH of October and I haven't been here in soooo long! Let me say, secondly, that I absolutely LOVE October! It's been such a great month already. (Except for work, which is a whole nother story... that I will talk about later perhaps?) It's really been lovely. I have never really been that big a fan of Fall because too many things change during that time, and as time and change are my natural enemies, obviously you can see my aversion to the season! Of course, things that do change are often good or at least healthy but still. ANYWAY this year is different. I'm super stoked on life and FALL and especially OCTOBER!!!! Obviously, you all know because you read my blog obsessively all the time every day of your life (not, obviously) that in October we watch SPOOOOOKY MOVIES (A trend officially started last year by dead blogger WerePony, abandoned soon after and thus adopted by me and an OFFICIAL month-long holiday !!!! ) in a month long marathon called SPOOKFEST !!!! And yes, it is SpookFest2010 up in herrreeeee and so far I've really really enjoyed the movies that we've watched. But, I have to say, we're being too slow because we have so many movies to get through and not nearly enough time, especially if we're 8 days into the month already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, some of the movies we've watched:

~Last Man On Earth (the old one, with Vincent Price, you know, what I Am Legend starring Will Smith was based on? Yes, LMOE is really really good. I Am Legend, I cannot and will not vouch for.)

~Pet Sematary (AHhh!!!!! I had the best time watching this!!!!!!! I love this movie. Totally. Such fun!!!)

~28 Days Later (Okay, this movie is obviously awesome and really great, I haven't seen the sequel but I want to get it for SpookFest10 !!! Anyway I love the Pepsi and Valium)

~Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burtons, and I really really really enjoyed watching this too, I gave it my full attention but somehow fell asleep the last 3 minutes of the movie and missed part of the end ??? What the hell, Smog?)

~The Crow 4: Wicked Prayer (We watched this last night with company and I think [hope] it was a hit. Obviously, with my ever-lasting crush on Edward Furlong and of course Angel, and the Crow franchise, it's really really really really really easy to like. Love, actually. With all my heart. But I still say all the Crows are way hot. Except for The Crow 2: City Of Angels, I refuse to watch that based on a bad trading card experience from Kitchen Sink)

~Hocus Pocus (We watched this also with company and it was really funny. I also determined that the people who made the movie had to "funny up" the witches with overexaggerated features and makeup BECAUSE: without the "funny", Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker would all be fucking terrifyingly scary witches!!!!! AHhhh!!!!!!)

~Idle Hands (Okay so we watch this movie a lot year round but it is especially fitting during this holiday season. With it's acting that ranges from decent (Sawa) to fucking awful (Alba) and funny (and, in a really 90s way, realistic) gore/effects... A winner! I bought this VHS in NJ by the way at the Video MD )

~Freaks & Geeks, "Tricks And Treats" (Of course!!!!)

~The Office "Halloween" (Season 2 episode, I think there is another Halloween episode but it's on a disc that Margaret from next door commandeered and then apparently moved out with ? Actually maybe there's only one...)

~Tales From The Crypt "Forever Ambergris" (Epsiode from '93 I think, starring Steve Buscemi, this epsidoe is pretty weird and funny, classic Crypt pretty much!)

~Also started but didn't finish Young Frankenstein and Ninth Gate, and I think plan on finishing them at some point!!!

So I seem to recall there being one more movie but now I can't really remember what it was! !!!!! So, anyway that's my list so far, I know it's really short but I've been really busy and working every stupid day (Except one day I felt majorly ill and didn't go and subsequently slept through/forgot about my class later that night) Anyway we have a LOT more movies to watch, we seriously need to get cracking!!!!!!!!!!

I think some pics are in order????? YA??!@!!!!!!

So, in Tucson I know this is like a mortal sin but... well, I don't care. It really doesn't use that much water. Like, for realsyzys!!! Natures Toungue, Here I Come!!!!!! Watch It Transform!!!

From This:

To THIS!!!!

Okay okay, so it's a little patchy... I was pretty lazy with the top dressing this year!!!! But, I'll get some sand sometime and make it better. It's still growing in, by the way!!!!

I think I never put a bunch of pictures !!! Shit!!!! I have a lot. (Unfortunately Blogger is still acting as stupid as it was 2 weeks ago or whenever I last posted... I do NOT like this new pic uploading thing...)

DAY ONE:

So, I picked em all... :

With some Hibi-cibbies, yum yum!

THE NEXT DAY:

THEY'REEEE BBBAAACCCCCCKKK!!!!

Wait, do you guys remember this guy ? (Actually probably a lady):

Total bruiser, huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well I couldn't find him/her yesterday or today. So, that's pretty sad. But I'm hopefully perhaps she laid her eggs or whatever. I have no idea what kind of spider this is, I haven't tried to Google it, but she looks way preggers. Mels and Mando have encouraged me to do a "Creepy Spider Calender" because of the strangely high detailed pictures my cell phone takes of spiders! Here's another one!!! You should totally zoom in on it if you can:

Well, here's some more creature photos for you!!

Prettty Laddy:

I have no idea if my pampering made it do this, but a girl can dream!!!

Oh No Wait!!!!! Here's another pic of the spider!!!!

Okay and here's some totally 100% mandatory sky shots, cuz I really love it!!!!

RED DAWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

This picture is a little bland and looks way 80s in color but I FUCKING LOVE THIS CLOUD!!!!!!! I WANT TO GET ON THIS CLOUD SO FREAKING BAD!!!!!!!!!!!

That HUGE cloud up there is totally Smog's Cloud. Yes. Very much so. AHH!!!!! Staring at it makes me want to jump around in it, Mario 64 style! I love it.

Okay and of course these lovable creatures!!!!!!!!!

This ones for my girl Krank, it is a French Fry Vegan Nugs Bagel Bites French Fry combo. Ever since she commented about it here, I try to take a picture of it !!!! Especially this Vegetarian Delight:

YES PLUS TOM THE CAT!!!! HE IS HUGE!!!! NO LONGER A KITTEN!!!!

And this cute girl:

She just loves to Snuggle ! Ahh!!!!

Here's me:

NICE EATING SHOT!!!! JEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ !!!!!!!!!!!

Here's another great shot:

And a really funny CD we found in Da Booth:

And ummmm.... anything else??? This was the preliminary stack complied in like ten seconds so don't think this is all the movies!!!!!!!! There are several crucial ones we need to get as well as some that we have gotten... Anyway, if you have any suggestions, Let 'Er Rip!!!!!

Okay then!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There ya go!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry I haven't been around. Believe me, I'm still reading all of your blogs on my super awesome internet phone that allows me the freedom of ducking down in a bush to check Google Reader to get any kind of communique from the ~~Underground~~ Internet. Some of whom restore my faith in Le Peeps and some that enrage me (Acchhheeekkkk, Cali Retail Anyone??? Barf.) but anyway I really love everyone whose blog I read, and whether you know I read your blog or not I have no idea but I really love ya!!!! So, keep bloggin people!!!!!! And if you have somewhat abandoned your blog due to no time, boredom, better things to do or listless mopeyness, well, shame on you. SHAME ON ME TOO!!!!! (Writing this paragraph made me really want to redo my blog roll over there cuz there are so many good ones that I read that arn't on that list and sooooo many shitty ones that none of you should ever disgrace your good sense by visiting (style, ahem) Also this paragraph is for Miss Teenage Rampage.)

MY NEXT POST IS GOING TO BE MY 400TH POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shame on me for only having 400. Gosh, Smog. Well, it's like I always (okay, never) say: you can't bullshit a bullshitter.

Okay so right now I'm totally lagging on doing my Soggy Show. Last week I did the part one of the Girls To The Front review/musical inspiration and tonight I'm doing the second part. So, if you're into Riot Grrl history (Okay okay, herstory) then you should listen tonight!!!! Also of course any requests, send them my way. Totally love you guys. Update your blog please now thanks.

Love as always and looking forward to the 400th post!!!!

Love ya,

Smog

p.s. I realize now after writing this whole post and coaxing Blogger into putting all those pics up, that I really didn't take any pictures of the most awesome parts of October. Well, hopefully I will make somewhat of an effort to take some photos. But things have been really good. Execpt for work. [Which, sidenote: has been the shittiest thing ever lately. But that's successfully cancelled out at home. Which is a good thing. Except that someone totally keyed Giselle's Acura and she's totally gonna kill me if she sees it so now instead of fixing it I just want to know who it was (actually don't care, I would totally settle for some random asswipe) and bash their car up and face in with a shovel and then make them face the Wrath of My Sister (who is way intense) ... Okay, enough. I just had this shovel with me for a while this week. See????]

Short List (With Pic)

2010-09-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

1) Da Boys Got Da Skilllllzzzzzzz (omFg) (@(#@)#@$@))$@)@@@@
2) Blogger is pissing me off!!!!
3) Work sucks but this cheered me up :) :

4) Approaching my 400th post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya,
Smog

Autumn Equinox Party Tomorrow Night

2010-09-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

Autumnal Equinox Party

At My (Smog) House

Tomorrow (Thursday) Night

Come Celebrate The New Season With Me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There Will Be:

Drinks

Food

Magic Dessert

Fun-Ness

I really want you to come!!!!!!!!!! So, please do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so sorry for not coming to all of your parties!!!!

Come to my house tomorrow night so I can apologize in person!!!!!

Love ya!!!!!

Smoggé

This may or may not be an indication of what you can expect:

See you tomorrow!!!!

I've Been Away Too Long (With Pics)

2010-09-19T12:13:00.001-07:00

Holy shit it's been a long time since I've updated my blog!!!!!!!! Boo, Smog!!!!!! I started to do a post last week sometime and it literally was all "blah blah blah weathers been nice" and then I just backed slowly away and haven't even opened my laptop since then. So, HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I missed you guys. I missed this blog. I really hate having zero free time. This is probably the busiest I've ever been. It's not even fun-busy, it's stupid-busy. No time to even breathe. I have lots of ten second moments to check my Google Reader on my phone though, so don't worry, I've been keeping up to date with everything all of you guys have going on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today is Sunday and I called into work (the first time I've ever called in on a Sunday at my current job) and let me tell you... it's soooo lovely..... I haven't been able to sit and just chill out and fuck around on the computer in weeks and weeks. I haven't blogged on a Sunday since I worked at the baseball field!!!!! That was like at least 6 months ago! Damn, Smog. You stupid traitor.

Anyway so despite the fact that I've been super super busy, I really don't have that much to share with you guys. I really don't want to geek out here about math, equasions or science labs. Drawing has been super fun because I'm taking it with Mels. Work sucks big time. It's so miserable, I can't stand it. It's horrible. I am so unhappy with the way things are but it's kind of getting better. I really miss doing the work at the baseball field. I miss setting up Batting Practice and I miss the total zen feeling of cleaning the fields at the end of the day. That was a seriously satisfying job. Now I'm just some stupid tool. Whatevs. So, my point was... I'm not there right now, I'm sitting on my nice cold couch under the vent with cold conditioned air pouring down onto me (it's still really fucking hot here, especially this week... it really shouldn't be in the 100s anymore... not while I have to listen to stupid lame ass fashion bloggers talk about their stupid lame ass fall wardrobe pics) and Mels got me another Shirley Temple video, one that has been colorized... so great! We devoured Office Season 6 and Tim and Eric season 4 in a day. So great. Since I got out of work on Thursday afternoon, I have been having the best most awesome weekend. Even though I had to go to class twice during the "weekend". At least I didn't have to go to work. Now I'm mentally dragging my feet dreading tomorrow having to go back. Isn't it stupid/funny how when you really don't want to do something, time is so much more evil? But when there's something you actually want to do, it just flies by? I hate time. Seriously. In a big way. It's the DEVIL. It's making me old and crotchety. Oh well. I'm over it.

Okay so I have a few pics for you guys. Some are a few weeks old. But at least I'm putting them up. Better late than never (okay that is very rarely good advice). Here they are, randomly:

(Those jeans up there were in the MENS section at ROSS)

Gummies from Passhion at Soggy Show #24 (? I think 24)

(The cutest, smallest pair of old lady shoes ever in the locker room at work)

Pretty and homemade!

(Chillin with Chaps and Mels at Soggy Show #25)

Okay, so I'm generally not scared of bugs, spiders, etc. But this fucking spider is really really scary. You can't really see in the pics but he's got these scary spines on his legs, and he's getting bigger every day. He is so scary. I can't deadhead this plant because he's very territorial about the flowers. Scary, possessive spider. Great. He's actually eating something in this picture!!!!! Another bug he caught. So scary. I have taken like at least 30 pics of this spider but he never turns out quite visible... very deceptive. Scary, deceptive, possessive spider. Double Great. !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway I'm working on putting Soggy Show #25 up, you can find it in the Soggy Show Archives !!!! I hope you're all well. I miss everyone like crazy. I'm quite resentful I can't spend all my time online being friends with all my online friends. SO, if it seems like I've been away too much, don't worry, it's not because I've gotten "Better Than The Internet" (as is so often the case) or anything like that. I miss you all. I hope everyone is well. I have been loving all of your blogs, when you post that is!!!!!!!

Love you,

Smog

It's Club Sub Day!!!!

2010-09-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

Yes today has been exciting. I got off of work at 10:30 because today was only a HALF DAY ! Then on my way home I picked up a lot of nice things to eat and now I can smell things being cooked and prepared which I am super thrilled about. September, already, has become Food Month! I should put a recipe!!!!! Maybe I will try to put many recipes! (I think Mels is cooking bacon, I can smell it and LT's nose is goin' crazy !!! )

I just spent the last oh, say, HOUR watching Tom the Cat try to catch a fly. Literal hours of amusement. He is just a really high jumper, what can I say? Plus it's really cool when cats eat bugs. It's Food Month for cats too I guess!

I have some pictures of natureishness:

(THESE FIRST TWO ARE OF A MANTIS, CAN YOU SEE HER?!?!?!!!!!)

(^grass-water, not anti-freeze!!!!^)

And here's one of Mister Midnite, calling to me "Moooooommmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (PET ME!!!!!)

LOOK AT THOSE TEETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay gotta go eat !
Love, Smog

Soggy Saturday (With Awesome Pics)

2010-09-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

I am happy.

If being awoken by ones loveliest bestest friend bearing fantastic breakfastness isn't enough, I would recommend this to accompany said delishioush breakfast:

I absolutely love Liz Taylor. There are so many amazing screen shots that it's impossible to even attempt to capture any to due justice to her charming acting. Here are some of my favorites:

Cleopatra (1963):

SO ICONIC!!!!

Little Women (1949)

*NOTE I did NOT make this collage! But it is amazing!*

National Velvet, 1944

Probably my favorite one, because her character is so fun, charming, lovable and it's about her riding a beautiful horse!!!! I spent a lot of years repressing my love of stuff like this because of being scared of what other people thought; now I embrace it whole-heartedly and I hope you do the same!!!!

But if all of those things are not enough to please you, I have some most amazing last pictures to win you over! Because I know that all of my readers are animal lovers:

Okay everyone. Happy Saturday. I hope yours is as lovely as mine has started out!!! I have a few things upcoming in my immediate future: Sunshine Cake (Perhaps will post a recipe for that? Maybe I already have?) and Tiramisu for birthday party later today! Also received a text from my mom yesterday: "I WANT 2 BUY U A HAT" ... So that I perhaps won't be so miserable in the work-issued hat I have to wear! Haha, I don't know... I'm going to what would be considered a "serious hat shop"... so if I get a hat... I'm sure I'll share pics!!!

Oh, Also, I did my Soggy Show last night and it was tons of fun per ushual!!!! I was missing every single guest DJ I've ever had. It has been the most fun experience! Okay, let me know if you guys listened or anything like that! Here's the download and here's a pic from the booth:

Have a great weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya,

Smog

p.s. update your blog... for me... pllleeasssseeee???????????????

p.p.s. thanks to google images for all those great liz taylor shots!!!! please don't hate me collage guy for stealing your collage!!!!!

My Day Yesterday In Food (With Pics)

2010-09-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing awesome and feeling awesome and healthy and in good spirits and in good fortune right now and always! It is the middle of the afternoon (okay well kind of the start of the afternoon) and I'm indoors blogging !!! Whhhaaaa!!?!?!?!?!! Crazyness!!!!! I'm really happy today, I'm feeling so great about it being the weekend and I've already had quite a productive morning. I actually spent money today, something I rarely do these days, and let me tell you, retail therapy WORKS!!!! Especially if you're getting great DEALS!!!! And it feels even better if you get stuff for other people do, which I did and it was quite successful. I am especially happy about the thing I got for my sister Julie, I am sending a package to her. She just started high school and I want to think of some more stuff that will help her through these years.... Ahh, living semi-vicariously through sisters... So great... Especially for a pop-culture/media super-fan like myself, all the things she's getting to see and hear and watch and learn about for the first time... so great. I cannot wait for her to come visit me and watch stuff and do stuff and *segway* be a guest on the Soggy Show! Of which #23 happens to be tonight! So, listen on FreeRadioChukson.org !!! Okay, anyway I know the title promised you the good stuff... which I will now deliver!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was freaking crazyness in food!!! Okay, I do not eat like this every single day. Usually I eat the same thing at work (peanut butter and jelly and also a salad sandwich and muffins maybe and limes) and eat random things for dinner, but yesterday was nuts. Lunch at work was not in the caf like it usually was, it was in one of the ballrooms at the resort, so I sat at a table for 9 by myself wearing my sunshades and mens work uniform and ate a ridiculuousssh meal:

Regular and chocolate rice krispys ... ?!?! Onion rings and a huge pickle bar and a huge condiment stand and giant vats of chili and queso and canned sodas (there is a soda dispenser, juice and milk in the caf, but not canned soda)... I realize now I should have taken a picture of the buffet tables but I didn't. So, deal. (Today was "A Taste Of Philadelphia" but I didn't go to work, so too bad for me, huh? LOL NOT!!!! But I do love buffets. Especially free ones. Which is the reason I like lunchtime.) Anyway then I got home and Mels assembled this meal for me:

And it was really really really really really tasty. I can't believe this was only last night, it seems like a week ago. I loved yesterday.

BONUS SECTION:
More pictures for all you picture-looker-text-haters:

ENCHANTED ROSE MAGIC WAND:

AWESOME SHRROOM:

Okay, that is all. I had a semi-evil semi-encounter (If it had been a real encounter, it would have been evil but since it wasn't confrontational, it wasn't that evil) experience that I will talk about tonight on the Soggy Show. Gotta make sure my mic is up tonight :)
Love you guys,
Smog

Last Day Of AUGUST THANXXXXX (With Pics)

2010-08-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hellllllooooooo Peopllllllleeeee!!!!!!

Well, it's ~~Wednesday~~ Tuesday night currently 8:17 pm, and I am all time-turned around. I felt terrible at work today and ended up leaving early (at like 9 !!!!) and went to my moms, hung out with Jacks The Corgi, watched The Price Is Right (and some other cable stuffs) on TiVo, and ate a bunch of weird random small pastries and some frozen food and a bunch of Giselle's stash of small cans of tea. (wtf?) . Then I came home laid down and Mels rubbed my back until I fell asleep and I napped until it was time to wake up and go to stupid class and now I'm back here with the puffiest eyes EVER. As you all know, I'm not a good napper (a real cranky waker) and always think it's morning when I wake up, but it was very very peaceful (Thank youuuu Mels) and so I actually have had a most pleasant afternoon/evening. We are watching Fistful of Dollars. I just put up Soggy Show #22 and I can't tell you how happy I am that I had a chance to put it up finally!!! I haven't had any time at all since whatever day that was that I posted last.... Friday???? Could that be right???? Boooo!!!!!! I wish I had some dedicated computer time (let me spell it out for you: UNINTERRUPTED) but that's okay.

Okay, so the thing that's been bothering me lately about bloggers is that everyone keeps talking about how "Oooh, Fall is here!!!" and "First Day Of Fall".... Don't get me wrong. Tomorrow IS the first day of September. But it is not the first day of Fall, we are still an entire menstrual cycle from Fall!!!!!!!!!!!! Helllooo, Ladies????????? Maybe I will try to have an Equinox party. I have been wanting a reason to have a party lately!!!! We got some new furniture and it looks pretttttttttttyyyyyyyyyy. I need something to look forward to. I hope we have a really rainy winter again. Randomness. Sorry. Here's pics:

Sunrise to Sunset (Not On The Same Day, Sorry)

(/\This is at the house, \/ These are at work)

(/\ Pollen on my arm!!!!!!!!!!! Thatsa Lotta Pollen!!!!!!!!!!)

So there you have it. Random outdoor pics.

Other Stuff:

~So Carlee started a new blog that I am in love with and it is iamawomannow.blogspot.com which is an amazing name and I both can't believe no one had it already and am not surprised that Carlee picked that because it is amazing. Anyway, her new Lifestyle Blog is freaking awesome. Go now to it and enjoy.

~ Have you all taken my Soggy Show Listeners Poll? It's gotten some really interesting results. After I compile more data I will share the results !!!!!!!!!!! I want to do a poll for this here blog! Maybe if I get some more free time (not freaking likely) I'll work on that!

~I already said this but I want to have an Autumn Equinox party; there will be baked goods; you're all invited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone is doing well. Email me?

Love you,

Smog

The End Of August 2010 Draws Near

2010-08-27T09:25:00.001-07:00

I'm kind of in a nasty mood today so I'll try to keep this light hearted. Right now I could really go for a bitchy "I'm really disappointed in all of you ladies or else I'm slightly impressed with you to the point of disguestingedness (It should go without saying that all dudes can just fuck right off)". But I won't go there. I'll just stay right here, where I don't alienate any readers I have left (Because if you're reading this, you can't be that bad, unless you're reading this spitefully in which case I would like to take this time to formally invite you to step to my fucking face)

My life is stupid busy, I hate stupid busy, I like fun busy, I don't like stupid busy, it isn't nearly as much fun.

But, today is Friday and it is my only day off and I have lots and lots and lots (too many, actually) things to do today. Many people to go and visit with and if those visitations are fruitful, I will tell you about them later.

I had two shitty gender-related things happen to me in the last few days, and I will talk about them tonight on the Soggy Show. So if you give a shit about that, you can listen tonight.

I have only updated my blog three times since I went out of town. I can't even remember when that trip was!!!! So, sorry about that. Like I said: Stupid Busy.

Here are some pics for you. Just nature. Compositionally, they sum up how I'm feeling:

Update your blogs perhaps?
SS#22 Tonight. I have been drawing "SS22" a lot, because I love drawing mirrored stuff! So great. Best combo ever. Maybe fun stuff after. Maybe pouting. Hard to tell at this point ;PPPPPPPPPPP

I wish people would stop watching movies that I watch and I wish people would stop doing stuff that I do. I'm really fucking tired of it.

Love ya,
Smog

P.S. I don't care how beautiful or well dressed they are, fuck style bloggers for LIFE. I'm soooo tired of all of them. They're all asswipes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I continue to read through my rage because I'm morbidly fascinated by their ability to seemingly-blindly copy each other, resulting in everyone looking the same and making me sick ... I don't even know how to type coherently right now, but I have never been so unimpressed with women lately. It's literally "I CAN DRESS MYSELF I'M A BIG GIRL". I'm so fucking tired of the little girl act. It's so fucking gross. But it's not just that. It's all about women being slaves. CAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU'RE A WAGE SLAVE TO FASHION CORPORATIONS???????????? YOU WORK ALL DAY TO SPEND ALL OF YOUR MONEY ON CLOTHES AND SHOES THAT ARE WAY OVERPRICED! YOU EXIST SOLEY AS A SLAVE TO A CORPORATION! YOU ARE SLAVE THAT WAS BOUGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! SURE YOU HAVE SO MANY "PRETTY THINGS" NOW BUT YOU ARE WORTHLESS AS A HUMAN BEING. YOU ARE NOW CENSORED FROM THINKING OR TYPING ANYTHING REAL. YOU WERE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR AND MARKED OFF ON A LIST AND NOW THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE AND YOU CAN NEVER REGAIN YOUR REAL IDENTITY. Pathetic.

p.p.s. Hannah left a funny comment and now I am going to put another pic of that tarantula up so you can see him from the top :)

In this pic, I had spritzed him with some water to try to rejuvenate him. Like I said, no luck. After I was positive his spirit had moved on from his body, I touched him a lot. He is very very very soft and his teeth are really hard. Tarantulas are cool. :) They are not poisonous (unverified, that's just street knowledge) but it would be painful to get bitten!!!!

Random Daily Life (With Pics)

2010-08-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

Hello Girls!

Oh my gosh. Every single day I think "Oh, I want to blog today!" And every single day I don't do it. I have been terribly negligent about taking pictures as well. I continue to read blogs like 100 times a day and add more at a similar rate. But still fail to update mine. Like I said: been failing miserably at photo documentation. Here is a taste of daily life:

It's half this:

And the rest this:

Other than random daily life (but delishiously happy moments in there too) I have only one thing to share with you, but it is an amazing thing. I have a pretty good collection of communist memorabilia/propaganda/collectibles but this has to be one of the best. I received this as a gift from The Fam:

A deck of Chairman Mao playing cards:

And they are not just any random mass-produced shitty crap. These are extremely nice and they have a different picture of him on every card. Not just that, but I believe they can be arranged to make larger images!!!!!@ WHOA OMGFFF MIND OFFICIALLY BLOWN THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's just a taste of what they look like. If you want to see all of them, you have to come play cards with me!

Well that's that. Boring, I know. A whole bunch of other stuff happened in there but I don't have any pictures of that stuff. SORRY.

Love you,
Smog

P.S. Okay, I almost forgot the very best thing that has happened to me lately:
Mels is amazing, because he got me this:

Since it made me so happy, he's promised me this:

I am happy.
Lurv,
Smrg