Whoa What Went Wear Why

Snowy Night

I’m not claiming to be the next Van Gogh but I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.  I love the idea of creating a blog post this way, although I have to admit, it’s very time consuming and limited as to how many words I can fit into the canvas.  It was so fun to experiment with the different types of brushes available in Corel; Thick Wet Impasto was definitely a favourite of mine as it allowed me to cover a lot of the canvas with just a few quick strokes.  I spent a few happy hours playing around with the different effects I could achieve with just a swipe of my stylus or a click of a button.  This is like drawing in a Moleskine but for free!  Maybe I’ll print this out at work (so I won’t use up my own ink lol) and glue it into my Moleskine as the inaugural post. 

Speaking of Moleskine, I dug up my old pastels from high school but was really disappointed that I couldn’t find my conté.  If this current obsession continues, I may have to hit up an art store and pick some up.

And if you’re wondering, yes, this picture is the same one as Let It Snow (below).  I wasn’t happy with how stark it looked, especially with the small text just floating around in the middle of nowhere.  Even though my handwriting is awful, it added a real personal touch that the other picture was lacking.  It took an obscene amount of time to decide on the text and how it should look but I got the hang of how to write on the tablet soon enough. 

*happy, but sleepy, sigh*

Moleskines.

I don’t know why but over the past couple of days (okay, really, just a day and a half) I’ve been obsessed with Moleskines.  They’re really nothing more than just glorified notebooks but better because the pages are acid-free and thick so you can do artsy things in it like sketch, paint or just write your little heart out.  There’s an expandable inside pocket to keep found treasures in until I find the time to glue them all into said acid-free pages.  Then there’s also the elastic band that holds everything in place for when the ‘skine can’t contain all of my artistic masterpieces.  All the big-name artistes used them to jot down their ideas, from Monet to Hemmingway so the natural conclusion is for me to get one - or two - as well. 

I mean, with sites like http://www.skineart.com/, it’s impossible not to join the Moleskine bandwagon.  Never mind the fact that my drawing ability is mediocre and painting skills are meh at best.  I blame the sub-par materials I used in my short-lived artistic phase back in my high school days.  No wonder my pastel drawings looked like something drawn by an epileptic kid mid-seizure!  My drawing pencils probably shrank back into themselves every time their faces were dragged across the page of some inferior, with-acid paper.  Paints didn’t blend - or at times blended too much - because they weren’t applied to Moleskine paper.  I could go on and on about my artistic faux pas - and there were many - but the shame of confessing my sins is too much for me to bear. 

I find myself glancing at the clock and tapping my foot impatiently (for-real truth), waiting for an appropriate time to take my lunch.  It’s 12:26 pm and I normally take my lunch about an hour from now but Moleskine fever has taken over - I must get one now!  Screw it, this girl’s taking an early (and probably extended) lunch. 

My dad’s cooking

Makes me seriously ask the question: “Which is better, hunger or this tough, garlic-y flavoured teriyaki porkchop?” 

I caved and had half of another porkchop.  I should’ve gone with A. 

Note to self: when faced with an unholy menage a trois of garlic, teriyaki and porkchop, the best course to take would be the one that leads to the exit. 

Teen Moms

I just read this article (http://to.ly/9eHi) about MTV’s hit show called Teen Moms and let’s just say it left me feeling the unfairness of life to the power of infinity.  Now, I haven’t seen the show for myself but what else could a show called Teen Mom be about other than the highs (and I’m sure there were lots of them in order to dream this concept up) and the lows of real-life teen pregnancy. 

Without even having watched a single episode I can confidently say that this show does nothing but glorify teen pregnancy, unprotected sex and sends teens (and some like-minded adults) completely the wrong message about taking responsibility and facing the consequences of their stupid actions. 

I can’t believe that a 16-year old single mom, who is facing charges of assaulting the father of her child and has lost custody of said child as a result, is making more money than most university-educated adults who work in white-collar jobs.  If you didn’t read the article above, let me save you the trouble and say that this teenager maked $280,000 US for being on this show for one season, I believe.  Let’s not forget those awful Jersey Shore idiots with ridiculous nicknames like Snooki, JWowww and The Situation (although I have to admit it’s kind of catchy, in a douchy, self-aggrandizing sort of way).  They probably make more money per episode than I will ever see in my lifetime unless I win Lotto Max or marry a kadjillionaire and bear his child within the first nine months of wedded bliss. 

I wish shows like Teen Moms were around during my teenage years.  My high school alone could have provided enough cast members to fill in an entire season.  Let’s see, there’s the girl who got pregnant in grade 9 at 14-years old and was forced to enter a live-in facility for expecting teenagers.  She delivered at 15, got pregnant again by 16.  Now that we’re both 29 or 30 years old, her oldest child is now a teenager herself.  If she followed in mom’s footsteps, she should be filling in her Teen Moms application now as I type. 

I can just imagine if this show ever started looking for Canadian moms like my former classmate.  Combined with the money they rake in from the ridiculous Socialist programs of the Canadian government, these teen moms could make serious bank.  Which would add more insult to injury for us working schmucks who didn’t do enough forward-thinking as teenagers to see how lucrative the baby-making industry actually is.