Just

It’s Not a Tutorial

I wish that Tumblr had a better way of sharing posts from Tumblr outside of Tumblr. The whole thing is just incestuous, which is why I had to screen-grab this from ANIMALS TALKING IN ALL CAPS on, you guessed it, tumblr.

Ha!

From http://graphswin.tumblr.com/

Evolving Emoticons

From “Emoticons we need in these troubled times”

I can get behind several of these. More at the link.

Planning

See more of these (they are nice and creepy) at Sad and Useless

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

- Louise Erdrich (The Painted Drum)

Precis

Go Do This

It’s awesome and fun http://safe.tumblr.com/safe/video/2509512839/500 (click the squares)

Privilege Denying Dude

Ah, my sweet, sweet sons of white male privilege. (And to all the women you’ve conned into supporting you against their own interests, because they feel more powerful when they associate with men against other women.)

Now there is a meme ridiculing all the dumbass stuff you say and do! Feel free to get all butthurt, because, you know,  how dare someone make fun of a group you belong to! Why are people being so mean and not understanding YOU as an individual, and all the lovely, logical POINTS you are trying to make? Don’t they know you’re to be listened to for your wisdom, and not mocked? And also, you have feelings?! And just because lots of people in your group act that way and sometimes YOU act that way, it’s still not OK to make fun!? These jerks.

I probably should not have laughed.

Cool Things That Came in the Mail Today

So I splurged and ordered some new soaps this week. I’ve been trying to save money, in a peculiar-to-me sort of fashion that’s entailed spending way more money. :-/ I am not sure I get it yet. But anyway, I have been trying to use up things I have around the house, rather than buying new things. I buy things and don’t use them, and that seems ridiculous—so I have been trying to use up all this dang soap I have around here. But there’s a reason I have not been using this soap – this soap sucks. And I was totally sick of the smell of it all, and I wanted NEW soap or something to wash with that was at least not so monotonous-scented, and yet I have disallowed myself to buy new bath/shower gel because it’s a waste because I have all this soap and then it became too much and I BROKE. I BROKE UTTERLY and ordered some fantastic soap off of these here internets and it came today and it certainly looks awesome and made me feel very happy! And I am supporting small businesses and women-owned enterprises and they’re all vegan and friendly to the earth so… so – that’s good!

I ordered two soaps from One Hand Washes the Other. I got Coven (SO PRETTY) and Black Tea soaps.

From Bella Luna Crafts (a St. Louis area vendor – I must have picked up her card at a local craft show and saved her to my Etsy favorites.) I ordered Seduction, which is a blend of sandalwood and patchouli.

Everything smells fantastic. The coven soap, in particular, has a really interesting and distinct scent, which is partially foody? Spicy? Something? It’s not like any soap I’ve ever smelled before – in a good way.

Also, another bonus of buying handmade stuff from small sellers – everything was packaged so beautifully & I also got free samples! Observe:

Check out all my fun stuff, packed with Halloween goodness and happiness.

Anyway, I am happy as pie with all my good stuff, and glad I splurged. It’s nice to save money, but not at the expense of sad, dour shower time. Seriously.

Endangered Wolf Center

Went to the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Missouri today. Had no idea they were even there until some friends posted online a few weeks ago that they were going.

They have other things than Mexican Gray Wolves, some African Wild Dogs, Swift Foxes and some other kind of adorable “fox on stilts” wolf (South American Maned Wolf) that was gangly and awesome. I didn’t bother taking many pictures because even though you could see the animals (frequently in motion and in some cases quite close up) the double-fence enclosure just did not lend itself to photography and I would have rather experienced it while I was there than spend all my time trying to get a decent picture and not focusing on what was in front of me.

The center has been there for quite a while. Founded in the year of my birth, actually, 1971. I had no idea it was out there, nor do most St. Louisans, it turns out. They seem like they’re experimenting with some different marketing/PR tactics, including an enhanced online presence, that seem to be working.

There were about 10 people in our tour group (Including kids. Ugh. Why do people take their kids out of the house again?) and our tour guide was really informative. She’d been there nine years and so had a lot of great history about the wolves and the center itself. The tour lasted an hour and cost $8, with a short pitch for becoming a member at the end, which was extremely low pressure.

Anyway, it was an absolutely perfect day for it and the surrounding area is just gorgeous. If left on my own I would have wandered around taking pictures of the ground most of the day, I think. They had the best moss growing everywhere on their stone paths. And while I was fearful I was going to totally wipe out on the loose gravel, the moss growth it encouraged was really cool. Awesome textures wherever you looked. So, no great pictures, but go look at it yourself! October is a great month for it.

Cool Thing That Came in the Mail Today

Got my prints from A Softer World. Very excited, the quality seems nice. Once I find frames, I think these will go in my living room.

I got two prints, the one in the picture there is this one.

I get confused by stickers like this on packages though:

as they seem to imply there is some other, crushable class of packages out there. I feel that in an ideal world, non-crushing of packages would not be a thing that one had to specify.

I think that if the package is cool with being crushed, that is the one that needs the sticker, as it’s an outlier. #ifIRanTheZoo

Awesome Things That Came in the Mail This Week

Ordered some books from half.com, and they came this week. This Neil Gaimain has been on my wishlist forever:

Creatures of the Night

I cannot wait to read it, the graphics look amazing.

And I also got next month’s book club book. For 99¢!

The Ladies of Grace Adieu

And just because I had forgotten this was on my camera, here’s an evil rainbow face the sun was making on my desk a few weeks ago:

Pretty much the best insult I’ve read all week

From the indomitable Sady Fucking Doyle, no less:

The funny thing is, I don’t even need to be a human to be out of your league. There are full-length body pillows that would check out your situation and be like, “whoa, bad idea.”

via Our Post-Sexist Society, or: Feminists Always Make A Big Deal Out Of Nothing, Part 134,450,009