happy weekend

Have a jumpin' weekend!

fabien souche

Funny mixed trophy series by Fabien Strain. I also like his Sausage Battle work.  

A few more trophies after the jump. 

need to want less

The urge to buy is strong in this one. I have the full virtual shopping carts and dog-eared catalog pages to prove it. Usually these rituals are enough to squelch my desire to spend, and I stop there. I've tried to be wise with what money I have, although after rebounding from a long stretch of unemployment I did buy myself a few small treats.

So while I'm proud of my initial resolve to refrain from shopping, it's when I give in that things tend to go off track quickly. I (for better or worse) have no credit cards so when it comes to spending I am thankfully bound to a limited budget. But damnit if I'm not completely transfixed and drawn in to the latest and greatest, therefore am terrible at waiting for a deal and also lack the patience to hunt for a bargain. What's so wrong with last year's model of this, or the clothes that my eyes have seen on the rack for months, or the generic brand of that? What is it about New that gives me tunnel vision? And why does being lazy come with such a high price tag? Seems like I should completely stay away until I can figure out how to pay the right way.

obsessions

While I haven't had time to get much done I've somehow carved out enough space in my brain to obsess over a few things. Part of me knows I've got to move on, while another part of me can't let go until I completely wear out my love for this stuff.

Broken Social Scene's "Sweetest Kill". The artwork (above) is pretty great too.

Trailer Park Boys on Netflix. I'm not sure how we stumbled upon this, but it's been a favorite since. We're even going to their live performance next month. What that will consist of I have no idea. I'm pretty sure I can count on thick Canadian accents, kitty talk, and cocktails in hand.

Search of the Day. My new job has me diving into the world wide web deeper than I've gone before. As my new mission carries on I discovered this site by a co-worker. It highlights some of the dumbest things that people search the internet for.

This guy's posters on Ebay. Don't buy them. When I win the lottery they will all be mine.

Making a wall like this in the bedroom.

This picture.

512 Cascabel Cream Stout

these shapes will (kill) you

Here we go again. In a part 2 to this, I am bringing you the dastardly shapes that will kill you. The options were sort of limitless... yet I settled upon these. I almost wish I had kept going and made it extra long, but I wanted to stick with 20 as with the other poster. But come on.... French FRY would have been a great follow to the "french foe". I'm not going to strain my brain about it though; I just knock these weird things out try not to look back. I sometimes feel like I have an inner voice after making this stuff that says, "ok do you feel better now" and then I answer "meh, sure I guess". And that's that. P.S. My brain is sort of like a generic brand of tapioca today... lots of work, no sleep, many power outages, and dull flat-lining thoughts. Apologies if it turns out I accidentally posted a grocery list or cute photos of dachshunds doing cute things that only I would care about. Oh and while I'm dolling out apologies... sorry Australia. You're great, and I'm not scared. 

deep bullshit

It's weird how that works. It is nightmare inducing to find yourself alone in the shower with a hair that is not your own. Oddly enough, I probably wouldn't freak out if the same thing happened in my food. Yes I know, doesn't make sense. Priorities Erin, priorities.

1 minute photoshop: mood swing

Mood swings are generally not fun for anyone, participants or innocent bystanders. Displaying a wide range of emotion in a short span of time is best left to actors. I'm going to have to think of a new recreational sport.  

new horoscope

Remember last week when for about 24 hours a bunch of people freaked out because our astrological signs supposedly were all wrong? I do... I thought, crap, it's bad enough that I have a crab tattoo, but now I have absolutely no reason for it. Well, in the end it was a bunch of hooey and we could all breath a sigh of relief that we can remain the screwy/unbalanced/sensitive/headstrong/loving/(fill in the blank) signs we thought we've been all along. I did however get my hopes up that a brave new horoscope was on the horizon. How I wished I could have been half a taco. And had that become the case I would have also thanked my parents for allowing me to be born a little late and not be the balls. For now I thank Anna for the giving me a glimpse of the possibilities, even if it was short-lived.

forever lazy

There's no way I could avoid posting this. It is the uniform for the lazy. You don't even have to take it off to go to the bathroom, and it comes with accessories. They really thought of everything. Well, almost. If it could also bathe you now that would be something.

chicken little had it right

I don't know about you but I find the recent rash of birds falling from the sky pretty dang creepy and unsettling. It's like something out of a sci-fi movie and fodder for tons of conspiracy theorists. Definitely not normal, that's for sure. I guess Chicken Little wasn't overreacting after all. 

1 minute photoshop: copycant

Sorry in advance if this offends anyone. As always my motives are really just to spill out my brains in a way that sort of makes sense to me, nothing else, nothing more. Last night in the wee hours of restlessness this is what I made. It's basically an extension of an on-going thought about how creative types should strive to make something different, not duplicate what's already out there... you'll only end up in failure, or if anything bad karma. Whether or not I succeed in that effort I have no idea, but I try, or at least try to avoid that trap. I also do not claim to love either cats or dogs more than the other.

if we don't, remember me

I haven't had a new favorite website in quite some time, but behold, here it is. If We Don't, Remember Me is full of animated gifs from classic (in my opinion) films, matched with quotes from their respective movie. I feel like it's something I tried to do long ago with screen shots but way better.

[ via Human Resources ]

1 minute photoshop: domination

Even in these modern times tragedy can still strike and you find yourself with a very pink wardrobe. How can one piece of fabric yield so much power. Thanks a lot for the sneak attack.

wiener time

Hey, one of my favorite blogs, Bad Postcards, wants your help. I finally made good use of my Tumblr account, after months of doing nothing on it, to recommend BP for the humor directory. You can do it too here.

deep bullshit

I pride myself on being an independent person (comes in handy on bad hair days and severe weather alerts). But on many occasions this independence has come across more like self-imposed solitary confinement, a behavior that has been misunderstood and sometimes hurtful. So to all of those folks, this is for you. And as Edith Ann would say, that's the truth.

these shapes will (cure) you

I continue to have some unfinished business from childhood, or have some yet unidentified condition that urges me to obsess over shapes and draw any parallel I can to objects across the world. The project is pure nonsense, and again it may be an exercise that only makes sense in my head, but in this instance I'm making a series that essentially categorizes the shapes in our life. It's called "These Shapes Will (________) You".

I started with "Cure". Prescription ads on TV seem to be burned into my mind. You have an ailment, they make a pill for that. You think you have an ailment, there's a pill for that. You want to prevent an ailment, there's a pill for that. In other words, there are a bunch of pills out there. I'm not downplaying the merits of modern medicine... someday I will probably need 1 or 10 to keep me going, but when you look at the options all together or lose the ability to filter out the number of possibilities, well it's a lot. A lot of big business, a lot of questionable science, a lot of money.

But I can't pretend that I had some grand statement to make in coming up this, that I'm trying to simplify what has grown into an overwhelming jigsaw of remedies ... I just like shapes.

nature boy

By posting this I'm ruining the surprise for my boyfriend. This is the must-have shirt to give your guy this holiday season. It's festive right? Ok, I kid, but this whole series of "Zero Footprint Shirt: Leaf Series" are maybe not practical however are obviously a project that was a labor of love. Some of them are pretty gorgeous in fact. They look like a craft project all grown up. Check out artist David Rittinger's site for more.

deep bullshit

I have recently determined that the reason my jeans have become too baggy is not because I have become more svelte but because gravity has decided to hit the deflate button on my butt. Thanks age. I guess you leave me no choice but to research this word "squat" I've heard so much about. Apparently it can mean more than doing your business in the woods.

new in the shop - holiday symbolisms

So it's that time of year and I couldn't resist making some holiday cards. A while back I made a series of cards called Symbolims (that section on my website is temporarily defunct but you can see a few on Flickr), which were mini cards intended to simply state a sentiment to someone you love or hate. Well in the same vein I created a companion set. There are less images this go 'round however, with 12 unique cards. Each set will  come with 24, so two of each, but if anyone happens to want individual cards or a few of one style I'm of course A-OK with that. In case you didn't know this already, I will sell you ANYTHING if you want it. 

Many of the cards, just like last time, are a little obscure or a far fetched connection (Ben Affleck anyone?), but they are a representation of how my brain connects images to words. I don't get it, and I have stopped trying to. Hopefully some of them resonate with you though and will make a great companion to those gifts you will be (or not be) giving out.

You can buy them here for $25.

the loser's handbook

I'm digging into my childhood archives again... here we have one of my favorite "books". It's something that American Greetings manufactured and was given to my mom by a friend sometime in the late 60's (I think... mom?). It's also one of the items that I seemed to have permanently borrowed... "ooh I really like this, therefore it automatically becomes mine". I blame/thank this little guy for some of my bizarre humor. Weirder still I remember actually using this handbook on some lonely summer days. I was a 10 year old loser apparently.