Begging for Candy Really Should Only Happen One Day A Year

Oh, West Virginia, why are you so silly sometimes?

The thing is, I love my state. I might not have appreciated it fully until I left it, but I do in fact love that I am a West Virginian. I doubt you'll find people as kind, as generous, or as hardworking as those I've grown up with.

Not that we don't have our problems: meth, trailers on stilts, and Halloween trick-or-treating not happening on Halloween.

The last one I find the most concerning. Why are we celebrating a holiday not on that holiday? Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Isn't the day itself important? And, I've heard all the reasons. It is way too dangerous for kids when adults are out celebrating, people are up to sneaky rituals, blah blah, blah. There are no facts to support this and, more, Baltimore tricks or treats on Halloween. Big Bad City versus tiny, tiny town in rural WV. Which one is the more dangerous? Has the higher crime rates? And, yet, kids survive trick or treating in Baltimore every single year.

I'm sayin', WV, stop the insanity.


Cheers,
LV

P.S. We do have wineries. Kirkwood being one. We also have college, wear shoes, and marry our cousins only as frequently as any other state.

I Made This:

Time to Adam and Eve*.

Would you want to play some poetry mad libs? I think yes. Would you be even more excited if much of this poetry were in cockney rhyming slang? I thought so!

(Now that I've tested my Dora the Explorer method of writing, I'll move along.)

I've been a little obsessed with cockney for the last year or so. There are a few books that I have been just looking for an excuse to buy. I think I may have found it. The excuse. For the final project I'm thinking a Mad Libs-esque poetry page. It is basically a hypertext narrative, only there isn't necessarily a narrative. I ought to have discussed this, most likely, with the teachers. Instead, I'm moving ahead like I've got a plan and a goal and a keen desire to make a complicated page and complicate it with complicated language. I hope they like it. I hope I like it. I hope I can write more cockney poems. If it was just a one time fluke, this project will be a fail.

Also, if this doesn't work out I'm not sure what I'll do. In my soon-to-be-a-crotchety-hermit way I hate being filmed/having pictures taken, am repulsed by Twitter, and especially hate when people get on my lawn. What does this possibly leave me for alternative projects?

Cheers,
LV

*Adam and Eve being rhyming slang for believe.

A Hitch in the Homework

None of the video will save. I don't know what I'm doing differently on the PC, but I can't get any video to save. To even offer me the option of saving. I will have to go to class early in order to have everything ready to go when class actually begins. I find this frustrating.

As was the struggle to find a topic that would in any way be relevant to life. I think I've decided on using Dreamweaver for my final project but what I want to do is a little bit scary. At least for a novice web page-er. (Yes, I make up words daily. So should you.) Also, it is in no way relevant to iMovie making.

What helps? This video about personal hygiene. One of the many I have come across as I have been looking for video for my project. Oh, wacky military. You are so silly.

What else would help? Having my very own iMovie expert residing in a shirt pocket. But if wishes were horses, we'd all be walkin' in poo.

Cheers,
LV

The All Seeing Eye of Akbar

I've been obsessing about this video for class all week. I haven't been posting because I've been harassing everyone I come into contact with about what I can video. On my phone I have some seriously classic footage of the Preakness Parade. (Shockingly awful. I saw boobs.) But, it is on m'phone. My apartment--well, that'd be as boring as it gets. I have no furniture, three animals, and a boyfriend who would not appreciate being filmed.

I actually thought about interviewing his band and taking some video of band practice. Alas! Fail! As they just got back from tour they took this week off. Wednesday I am more than welcome to come and tape. Useful, that.

I could video my dogs. Mostly, they lie around and do gassy, old man things. Not enticing. (Yes. They are very old. )

Which actually leads me to the conclusion: I think it is going to have to be random. Yes, I'll do a video for my family: Top 10 Reasons To Visit Me In Baltimore. One of them will definitely be the threat of The All Seeing Eye of Akbar. I do not have video of this--video, I believe, would break the camera--but I do have a picture I can splice in. Oooh. And the mating peacocks. Tomorrow, I'll get some footage of the dragons (that will come in the night and kill you) and, you know, a few other Baltimore fun things. Nothin' like a deadline to inspire.

Cheers,
LV

Just Read the No Kill Nation Post. Seriously.

Sick week extended. Even less to report. Weevils still in the flour.

Ach and grr! That is what I have to say about one illness starting after another. It oughta be outlawed. I'll have a fast-draw gun fight and then no other illnesses will dare to double up. Put on my low slung holsters and quick-draw like no one in the west ain't never quick drawed before.

....I may be watching too many westerns. But, when one is ill, how much is too much? Reading makes my head ache right now (though I have readin' and writin' to do for school) and lying about in bed is all I've got the energy for. And while lying about in bed I'm enjoying watching cowboys. John Wayne or Josh Brolin, I don't care. Horses and hats and women who can shoot.

Which brings me to my other predicament (the first being my inability to be well for more than a day): I don't shoot. I want to shoot. M'dad offered me a gun when I moved to the city but I felt this was problematic on many a level. First, they say that you should be prepared to have any weapon you wield turned against you. Oh. And I can't shoot! He did offer to teach me. And maybe the next time I'm at his house we'll have target practice with the pistol. (Providing I get glasses. If I can't see the target I don't imagine I'll be doin' great shooting.)

I don't want to use it for self-defense. I just want to know how. It will add to my useful skill set which feels, today, empty. So, shooting would bring up to 1 on practical skills. I sort-of sew, but the sort-of really defeats the practical bit. OH! I make awesome western costumes out of sheets and bed skirts. (I'm sensing a theme.) I also do a pretty good twangy accent---coming from a land of twang I've actually had to work to keep it out of my voice.

Well, now that I've made you the victim of my crazy head, all I have left to say is

Cheers,
LV

No Kill Nation

Okay, just this once, nothing ironic or funny. Just a really good movement that I believe in. Go to the site. Look around.

My pets haven't come from shelters, but only one of them came from a pet store. I take in strays.

Right now, I have a cat named Davey. We found him in a Wal-Mart parking lot. When I took him to the regular shelter, thinking this tiny kitten would surely find a home fast (I was just starting college and had three dogs at the time), I was told that a biting cat couldn't be adopted. I tried to explain he had only bitten my mom after we had trapped him once then had to switch boxes because there was a hole in the one he was in. He was, at the time, about the size of my hand. Eyes open but so, so tiny. Fiercely afraid of everything. The explanation did not move the woman behind the desk so I asked for the cat back. He's four now and is the most affectionate cat I've ever been around. He likes to "give kisses" by rubbing his face against mine or my boyfriend's. He often sleeps curled in the crook of one of our arms while we sleep. He comes when called. Likes showers. And meows loudly when we leave the apartment. Yeah, some biting cat. Left up to the county shelter, he wouldn't have had any life.

He is not the first animal I've taken in, won't be the last. But I hate knowing that there are a lot of animals not finding homes or a chance. Particularly ones that have all ready been mistreated or neglected and need a little extra care and attention.

Cheers,
LV