GiShWhEs 2015 – With A Vengeance

If my first experience with GishWhes (the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen) was Die Hard, and last year was Die Harder, then that would make this installation Die Hard With A Vengeance, right? Not a fantastic metaphor, but still somehow fitting, since this was definitely a scavenger hunt that my team, Team HowWeDo, tackled WITH A VENGEANCE.

August 1st began a whirlwind week of daring stunts, crazy acts, and trying to edit any video footage successfully down to less than 14 seconds. Sleep was scarce and adventures abundant! Now, I could share all 130-or-so items that my teammates and I wound up officially submitting, but that might be overkill in the sharing department. Instead, here are all of the items I was personally involved with making (with their descriptions), interspersed with a handful of my favorites from my AWESOME teammates across the world:

  • Kick back in a hammock that’s suspended from trees on opposite banks of a river. (Make sure it’s a safe section of a river to be suspended over.)

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  • Get 10 of your friends to stand on a field or lawn. Strap inflated balloons to 5 of your friends’ stomachs. The other 5 friends must pop these balloons using only the impact and weight of their bellies or their bums (they can’t use hands, feet, mouths, or anything sharp).

  • Do a dramatic reading of your grade-school report card.

  •  A drawing, painting or digital image (no photoshopping of existing images) of Misha and the Queen as 1950 pin-up BFF girls.

Misha & the Queen

  • Show us what Supernatural will look like at the start of Season 50.

  • Find someone you love and butter them up; literally, cover them in butter and then give them a big hug.

  • The 2015 gishwhes mascot Dinomite asks you to pick a number between 1 and 1000, asks you 10 questions with yes/no answers, and then guesses the number. What were the 10 questions?

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  • Have at least 3 people in a domestic or office setting, completely camouflaged to match their background.

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  • Have a tea party with a special needs child or pediatric cancer patient dressed as a character from “Alice in Wonderland.”

Tea-partay

  • Schools, hospitals, and prisons are notoriously dismal places that are in desperate need of art to brighten them up. Get permission from one of these places to create a giant Gishwhes-themed (mascots, items from the past, kindness, etc.) wall mural.

mural1

  • Blow us away with your amazing cosplay as a famous inanimate object.

cosplay famous inanimate

  • Show us your idea of love. Caption the image if you wish.

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  • At the time I’m writing this, the price of crude oil is $48 per barrel. A barrel of oil is 42 gallons. So presumably for about $1.14, you should be able to get a gallon of crude oil. Let’s see you handing $1.14 (or your country’s currency equivalent) to an employee of an oil refinery, oil transportation or oil extraction company while they hand you one gallon of crude oil.

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  • Write a thank you letter to a teacher or mentor from your past that you never sufficiently thanked. Mail it. You may submit an image of the letter, or if you wish it to remain private, submit an image of you mailing it. But you must mail it or bad karma will be rained down upon your toothbrush.

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  • Make a nest and nest in it, dressed as a Russian Nesting Doll. Submit as two images side-by-side: 1) the image of your nesting-nesting doll, 2) and a fully functional, hand-made QR code, that links to the image of your nesting doll.

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  • How do you do it? Everyone on your team has such beautiful mustaches? Do you have some sort of hair growth cream you slather on or pills you all take? Let’s see a grid photo of everyone on your team that features your mustaches prominently.

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  • Create a cocktail dress or tux out of flowers (you can use foliage, but at least 50% needs to be flowers). Photograph yourself in a contrasting “greenless” urban setting. – Olivia Desianti

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  • They say, “A dog is a man’s best friend,” but they are sexist. Dogs can be women’s best friends too. To prove it, make one entirely out of feminine hygiene products. The dog must be at least 40 centimeters tall. (See how international we are? Look at these units!)

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  • The cats are coming! Prepare your dog for battle. Outfit him or her with armory, weaponry, cutting edge laser gear – whatever it takes to create a canine of mass destruction.

dDyDImI

  • You’ve just received an invitation to the annual Color Me Pretty Construction Paper Gala. Design and wear an elegant gown consisting of only construction paper. You must be posed with a antique or hotrod car/motorcycle (that will take you to the Gala, of course) or in front of the Gala itself which takes place in the most stunning public building of your city.

myfave

  • Let’s see a portrait of Robert Downey, Jr. or Ironman made entirely of salt and pepper. Tweet it to him (@robertdowneyjr) with @gishwhes in the tweet. SUBMIT a link to the image to us, NOT a link to an image of the tweet – but you must tweet it to him for your image to count.

RDJ

  • Stop hiding your true talent. The world deserves to see it. Without using special effects or trick editing, make a person disappear.

  • Take your mom, dad or other family member that you don’t give enough attention to (based on what they’ve done for you over the years, or perhaps, what you’ve done to them) to lunch or dinner. Both of you must be cosplaying established or newly invented comic book heroes. If you’ve created new heroes, caption the image with their names.

al2PlOz

  • Your friend loves cake, so being a good friend, you offer to take them out for cake at a nice restaurant. Alas, you discover when you arrive at the restaurant, that your friend has recently undergone medical treatments that prevents them from moving their arms, so you will have to feed them. Unfortunately, light is harmful to your eyes so you must be blindfolded. While blindfolded, stand behind your seated friend in a fancy restaurant and put your arms under their armpits and feed them cake with your hands. Trust us. This is going to work out beautifully.

  • Death’s funeral.

Death's Funeral

  • You’ve been hired to design the cover of National Geographic’s next issue, “Discovering The Padalecki.” Do a drawing, painting or digitally created image (you may photoshop existing images for this item) of the new tropical species that has been discovered, much by accident, by workers building an inland dam.

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  • You may not know this but William Shatner is a big My Little Pony Brony (a male fan of the My Little Pony series.) He wants to share this interest with other actors. Create an image however you wish of one of your favorite actors as a My Little Pony and tweet it to them. Get the actor to retweet your image and hashtag #Shatnermademedoit @gishwhes. Submit a screencap of the actor tweet.

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  • (Time lapse this down to 10 seconds.) Dressed in something celebratory, hug someone you love, motionless, in a very crowded location. You must hug them for 20 minutes without moving and time lapse it. Add your favorite score to the video.39 POINTS

  • You know how sometimes you look at your child’s weird behavior and think, “Where did you come from? You certainly didn’t come from me.” Well, after extensive DNA analysis (thanks for sending that in) we just discovered they did not, in fact, come from you. They came from the new planet that was just discovered: Earth2.0 (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/23/nasa-closest-twin-to-earth-kepler-452b). They’ll behave better if you stop trying to make them human. Dress them up or convert them back into keplerians and take them to a park, playground, ice cream shop (or similar).

alien children

  • Order a sandwich at a deli consisting entirely of condiments. There can be no bread, no meat, and no veggies. Eat it at the counter.

  • Depending on which self-proclaimed expert you speak to, the universe is likely heading towards a Big Freeze, Big Rip, Big Crunch or a Big Bounce. Act out what that looks like in your own interpretation using whatever props or moves you need.

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  • The Department of Consumer Kale Residency has decided 2015 is the year to find its favorite hotel lobby in the world. They’ve asked us to help. Put on your most beautifully designed hat (hat must be made of kale) and evening gown or tux and get a picture of you in your town’s finest and most elegant hotel lobby with a maid or bellman.

CUYVAP8

  • Perform this EXACT choreography wearing similar wardrobe as the man depicted here but with one of your pant-legs tucked into your sock:http://shortyawards.com/mishacollins – Do your dance while a dog watches you.

  • VIDEO. You know those people that stand around with signs offering to give away “free hugs?” Add balance to the universe (and bolster capitalism) by asking for something in exchange: hold up a sign on a busy sidewalk that reads, “Hugs $5” (or whatever you think you should charge). Donate anything you make to your favorite charity. Don’t pocket it. Bad karma will be rained down on your butter knife.

  • CNN has a video that they created that will play if the world ends. What would your end-of-the-world broadcast be if gishwhes caused it? Create it and then tweet it to @cnn #endoftheworld @gishwhes. (SUBMIT the video link to us, not the tweet, but you must tweet it for the points to count.) – Jane Lowther

  • Tweet a photo of two men or women kissing each other (clothed) to @Ricksantorum. We need to see the Tweet with #facerealityRick @gishwhes.

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  • Last year saw the epic battle for mascot supremacy. Document this action packed tale in a fitting comic book strip that includes this year’s mascot (Dinomite) as well. Be sure to include all of gishwhes’ heroes, heroines, and super villains! – Roxy Fox

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  • You know how when you draw lines to connect the stars in a constellation you see the image of the thing it’s supposed to be? You connect the stars in the Big Dipper and you see a giant ladle. The Stars of “Supernatural” deserve their own constellations. Connect the dots of stars to create a constellation in the likeness of a Supernatural actor. Your constellation must be crafted from an actual high-resolution telescope photo of stars in the night sky. You may not overlay an image over the night sky. You must connect stars to form the shape. You may use an existing image (or images) of the night sky.

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  • Make and wear a “Save The Unicorns” t-shirt and stand in a crowded public place asking people to sign a petition to “Save The Endangered Unicorns.”

  •  Throw a conspiracy theorist party complete with tin foil hats and suspicious guests. – Joe Diaz

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  • The Tooth Fairy is on strike. Invent another fairy that provides a service in your home for your children, or your dorm room/apartment for your roommates. Dress up as the fairy providing the service, and then caption the image with what you are.

XAioVtY

  • The problem with growing kale is that hipsters are always trying to sneak into my garden to steal it! Show what a trap would look like to catch these pests. Extra points if you capture (alive) a real life hipster.

Hipster1

  • Many school music and art programs are underfunded. Find a local school art program that needs instruments, art supplies, etc. and donate a needed item to it (as well as try to find others to donate to it). The image should be of you presenting the item(s) to the teacher/administrator at the school.

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  • Turn your living room into a giant snow globe with fun props and falling “snow.”

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  • Read “Call of the Wild” to a dog in a public place. They must be within 10 feet of you.

  • Let’s see a refined game of croquet on a public lawn of a historic site. All participants must be zombies.

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  • IMAGE. Create the Impala or any iconic object from “Supernatural” out of compost scraps.

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  • Stand in front of your garden holding up a sign with your best unorthodox or hard to believe gardening tip for the First Lady of the United States. Tweet it to @MichelleObama and include “@gishwhes” and “#gardeninghack”

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  • The setting is a candle-lit romantic dinner for two. Let’s see the “spaghetti” scene from “Lady and the Tramp.” Both of you must be dressed for the hot date. Super bonus points if it’s in an actual nice restaurant.

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  • Locker Love. Post messages of love or support on or in lockers of students that you think might need it.

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  • Use recycled computer or cell phone parts to create a video-game inspired diorama.

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  • Do your best 1950’s June Cleaver impression and vacuum the lawn.

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  • A stunning origami floral centerpiece.

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  • Random Acts’ August #GetKind theme is Literacy. Hold a book drive and then turn your automobile or bus into a mobile free book give-away. Each book must be bookmarked with a positive or kindness message. The image you submit must be you in front of your mobile book-give-away-vehicle with the books and with a recipient.

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  • Let’s see the Leaning Tower of Gishwhes.

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  • Let’s see a conquistador riding a giant tortoise or a man throwing a frisbee to an iguana which catches it in its mouth. Only because I think you deserve an easy item or two here and there, this should be done as a zoetrope versus doing it with actual tortoises and iguanas. You’re welcome.

  • Tweet a picture of you holding up your most inspiring book or book title with the hashtag #booksnotbullets and @gishwhes.

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  • Commit a random act of kindness and have someone take a picture of what you’re doing and caption it. Here are some examples: http://boredomtherapy.com/random-acts-of-kindness/. Tweet it to @RandomActsOrg if you wish but submit to us the image only.

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  • Carrie Fisher is known for her portrayal of Princess Leia in Star Wars. Her memorable hairstyle was often called the Princess Leia Bun. Bake a portrait of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in bread.

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  • Present an artistic depiction of a famous Italian landmark – on a pizza.

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  • Ich bin ein Berliner! Und ich bin Berlin! Dress accordingly in front of a Berlin national monument.

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  • Register to vote, then take photographic proof of this event (i.e. you at the post office getting it done, you all holding your registration cards, etc.). In the photo hold up a sign that reads, “If Richard Speight Jr. can’t be King, I’ll settle for democracy.” (Or something else that indicates that democracy is your tolerable second choice of political systems.)

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  • Make a portrait of a CW actor using only naturally shed hair/fur of your pets.

Tim Omundson - WOof

  • “Your room looks like a Pigsty.” Make this common parental figurative phrase a literal reality.

piggy1

  • Work opportunities are scarce since the Death Star blew up. Let’s see a stormtrooper working at their job as a waiter, fast food line prep, car mechanic, postal worker, deli sandwich maker, road-repair worker, etc).

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  • At least four people doing a harmonized round of tongue-twisters.

  • Sign up to your country’s organ donor register.

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  • Matthew 14:22, “Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.” and so did the best of you gishwhes.com/ghof_item_view.php. Don’t submit unless you solve the puzzle or you will be docked points.  IMAGE. Impress a clergyman or woman with one of the following: John 2:1-11, John 9:1-12, Matthew 14:15-21

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  • Writer Elizabeth Meriwether describes a game called “Frolic” she and friends played while driving through Scotland. Anyone could yell out “Frolic!” at any time and they’d pull over the car and run up and down the hills. Inspired by her, host your own “Medieval Booty-Shake!” road trip in Scotland. Film a video of you and your friends, pulling over at any castle in the country, jumping out of the car, yelling that phrase, and doing just that. We must see the castle in the background. You can time-lapse if you wish but we must hear the phrase.

  • Paint a stately, magnificent portrait of world or state leader after they’ve turned into a Clicker zombie.

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  • Contribute the recipe for ‘Dinomite’s Fluffy Bites’ to Allrecipes.com and get at least 20, 5-star reviews from people who enjoyed the recipe.

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  •  Show us something you find beautiful that most others would deem ugly.

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  • On Friday, August 7th at 12:00PM in your local time, go to the most prominent location in your city dressed in a nun’s habit. You must provide an image of you in the nun’s habit in front of the landmark doing a “power pose.”

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  • Back to school! Pack a backpack (or more!) full of school supplies and deliver them to a local school or school collection sight.

backpack

  • All Random Acts staffers volunteer long hours. They get no pay and often get too little praise. Do something nice for a Random Acts volunteer (or for the staff of another all-volunteer organization).

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  • Help Misha and Gishwhes get an Erdös number for real this time. Go to http://ubee.enseeiht.fr:8080/Shapes/home.html  and complete the tasks, per the directions you find there. Submit a screenshot of your certificate of completion.

certificate

  • (Slide-show). Using only pictures of actual tattoos, relay a memorable moment in history or a fairy tale.

Although it still feels like we barely scratched the surface of the 215-item-long-list, I am so proud of myself and my teammates for doing all that we did! As always, the week left me exhausted (physically and emotionally), sunburnt, sporting extra bugbites and some unusual bruises, in need of a shower, desperately in need of doing laundry, and inhabiting an unusually filthy house. . . and I wouldn’t change a thing. Another year of zany fun in what I hope will continue to be a long line of years and a life-long tradition!

The Trouble with Blogging (& Also Life)

The trouble with blogging is that sometimes you have everything to write about, and so you put it off. Then, before you know it, you have been on a hiatus for months and you don’t know where to go back. 

It is in moments like these that I must remind myself of the true purpose of this blog. . . to document and share the worth-while endeavors I undertake (rather than keeping shoeboxes full of pictures in my attic), with full knowledge that organization and timeline are not the emphasis. BOOM. Reminder administered. 

Me and My Momma, living the Reminder. . .
Me and My Momma, living the Reminder. . .

Life has been busy and full! Since last writing I’ve thrown a prom, traveled to places I’d never been, tackled strange new projects, and tasted hitherto unknown delicacies (such as chocolate cheese, which: Yes, is a real thing).

Prepare for more consistent, yet still just as random, updates!

 

Putting the Ab[by] into Absentee

Has it really been months since I posted?

The date-stamp on my last blogpost seems to show February, but for the LIFE of me, it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. What have I been doing these past few months? It is April, for Pete’s sake.

I shall have to write for real sometime in the very near future.

Heart-y Chicken Soup

Last week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I decided that warm chicken soup was just what I needed to fend off the grumpiness-inducinge snowstorm that was de-railing my evening plans. AND, I decided to put a heart-shaped spin on it, something I’ve done once before!snowhearts

Ingredients:

  • 1 rotisserie chicken
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • celery, washed and cut into small pieces
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • Chicken Broth (at least 3 of those square cardboard containers)
  • Lasagna noodles, pre-cooked (al dente!)
  • fresh rosemary
  • green beans, cut in two

Kitchen Implements:

  • small heart-shaped cookie cutters/fondant cutters

Step 1 – Gather Ingredients!

soup

Step 2 – The Chicken Part

Prep the chicken by taking all of the meat off of the bones and setting it aside.

chicken and rosemary

Once you’ve picked it clean, put the carcass, the fresh rosemary, and at least one container of chicken stock in a pot and boil it. This makes an amazing, aromatic, and delicious broth-base that will amp up the awesome-factor of your soup!

Step 3 – Heartify!

hearts!

Pre-cook the noodles (not fully, or they will be mushy when they go into the soup!) and peel and slice the carrots.20150214_143924

Use the heart-shaped cookie/fondant cutters to cut hearts out of both!20150214_141014

Step 4- Assemble!

Sautée onions in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add celery and simmer. Add peppers and cover with remaining non-rosemary broth. Add remaining ingredients (carrots, chicken, beans).Assembling the Soup

Step 5: Final Steps!

20150214_154021Strain your rosemary broth and add the richer broth to the soup and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally. About 10 minutes before serving, add in the heart pasta!

Step 6: ENJOY!

Voila!

 

 

 

 

Unpopular Opinion: Valentine’s Day is Awesome.

I love Valentine’s Day. I don’t love conflict. There are some opinions that I keep to myself in order to avoid conflict. This is not one of them. If you don’t love Valentine’s Day, I am writing this to you, and you are wrong.

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“But it’s so commercial.”

One common theme in the Hate-On-Love-Day Parade is the claim that Valentine’s Day is overly commercialized; exploited by corporations, both large and small, to make moola. I have several things to say in response to this…

  1. Every holiday is commercialized; we live in a highly consumerist/sales society. Shoot, Christmas is probably the most commercialized of all, but I don’t see people refusing to celebrate that!
  2. Feeding into the over-commercialization of holidays is a choice. Helen Fisher, a sociologist from Rutgers University, said it pretty well: “This isn’t a command performance. If people didn’t want to buy Hallmark cards, they would not be bought, and Hallmark would go out of business.” Helen is on point here, folks. If it bothers you that everybody is out to make money off of Valentine’s Day, then don’t buy anything. Refuse to feed the commercialist beast! Stick it to the man – just don’t stick it to Valentine’s Day! It’s a holiday to celebrate love and the people in your life who you care about – call up a friend and tell them you appreciate them! Is that commercial? No, it’s just nice.

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 “I’d rather do something when it’s NOT expected.”

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Oh really? How often does that actually happen? Sorry for my skepticism, maybe you are the king/queen of doing nice random things for people and I have misjudged you. If that is the case, then huzzah! But I still urge you to look at it from another perspective!

Impromptu and spontaneous acts of love are fantastic – but so is a holiday whose sole purpose is to perpetuate and promulgate planful and thoughtful acts of love! So, if you’re all about unexpected surprises, then this Valentine’s Day show your love and appreciation for someone who is NOT expecting it. Don’t want to be predictable with your sweetie? That’s fine. What about your cousins who you see once a year? What about your nice neighbor who helped you snow-blow your walkway that one time? Or the barista who knows your name? Or your old friend that you call up when you’ve had a crappy day? Those are the people who probably don’t expect anything from you this Valentine’s Day, but who would be delighted by an act of caring!

“I’m single so I’m boycotting Valentine’s Day.”

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ARGH! THAT MAKES NO SENSE!!! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you had to be in a relationship to be capable of loving someone. DO YOU HAVE A MOTHER?! WHAT ABOUT A MOTHER FIGURE?! DO YOU LOVE THEM??? SO MAKE A POINT OF TELLING THEM THIS VALENTINE’S DAY.

*Deep Breath*

Clearly, this line of thinking turns me into a gigantic, Valentine-defending rage-monster. I shall calm down and try to respond with less of a knee-jerk-emphasis-on-the-jerk reaction.

Ahem. Oh, you’re single? Me too. In fact, I’ve never been in a relationship on Valentine’s Day. Unlike you, however, I don’t think your relationship status should dictate your ability to celebrate a holiday or not. Shockingly enough, there are still a lot of people in my life that I love and appreciate, despite not being in love with someone.

I remember the year that my brother, Nathaniel, and his college friends decided to boycott Valentine’s Day. They wore black all day, didn’t talk to any girls, and hung out and watched The Godfather that night. Funnily enough, they had it kind of wrong. By spending time with friends, they were sort of celebrating the purpose of Valentine’s Day anyways. Still, I can sort of understand, I’ve had those moments of single-blues on Love-day, but then I remembered that having a chip on your shoulder and taking it out on everyone else is an ugly character trait.

If you boycott Valentine’s Day because you’re single, then you are ultimately just being selfish. It’s not all about you, my friend. You’re glum because you’re single? Boo-hoo. Go show love to somebody else rather than wishing that somebody would show it to you or whining because nobody does. Valentine’s Day isn’t just about romantic relationships! It’s about love of all kinds. I challenge single-folk to make Valentine’s Day theirs just as much as it belongs to couples. You have to be the change you wish to see in the holiday.

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“It’s too expensive.”

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  1. Please go back and re-read the whole commercialism line of thinking.
  2. The Internet can give you all sorts of ideas for Valentine-y goodness, ranging from inexpensive to free.
  3. Money might talk, but Actions speak louder than words. Rather than buying something or taking someone out for a WAY overpriced meal, do an act of service for someone!
  4. Lots of wonderful caring activities don’t involve $$$. Make dinner, snuggle, read aloud to somebody, play a board game, have an indoor picnic, watch a movie, write a letter, shovel a walkway, take out the trash, fold the laundry, give a neck-rub, do one of the ickier household jobs that everybody avoids . . . you get the idea.

“Isn’t that a Christian Holiday? I’m not Christian.”

First of all, most of the holidays that are celebrated today have some sort of religious origin (again, Christmas comes to mind). I’m willing to bet that many, or even most people who celebrate those holidays aren’t practitioners. I doubt everybody who drinks a beer on St. Pattie’s is a devout Catholic. Similarly, people who eat Cadbury eggs are probably not all attending Good Friday services and celebrating the resurrection of Christ. People who celebrate holidays through the lens of their belief system may return to the roots of the holiday, but it is hardly the norm. You clearly do not need to be a Christian to celebrate a holiday of Christian origins.

Second, while there are some different accounts of St. Valentine and his execution being on February 14th,  the roots of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to Lupercalia, a Pagan fertility festival held in the ides of February in ancient Rome. As a non-believer, I think you can safely celebrate the day. I just wouldn’t encourage you to do it the way they did in ancient Rome, because sacrificing a goat and a dog, well. That’s just sad. And touching their hides (once removed) in hopes of fertility in the oncoming year? I think Science has brought us farther than that.

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Side-note, Valentine’s Day’s association with the idea of Love also has been linked with early belief in France and England that February 14th was the beginning of a bird’s mating season. If all else fails, I guess you can celebrate it for the birds.

twitterpated

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“I actually hate everyone, including myself.”

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That’s just awful! If all else fails and there’s nobody that you love, you should at least love yourself and give yourself a day of pampering. Try. Be good to yourselves, you are the only you this world has got. That makes you a very limited natural resource and a rare commodity. Appreciate that about yourself.

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“My entire family died in a freak pinecone incident on Valentine’s Day.”

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Okay. You’ve got me there. I probably wouldn’t feel very festive either. But, I mean, you could always make it a day to commemorate your love for your family, right? That’s what I would want people to do after I’m gone – not just sit around being sad on the day I went out, you know?

Have some other reason why you don’t like Valentine’s Day?

So, if you aren’t convinced yet, please feel free to go back and look at my older Valentine posts to hear some more of my strong opinions or get ideas for how to celebrate.

If you want to argue with me about it some more, please post comments. You are wrong, and I will fight you. For the sake of Love.

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Golden Nuggets From The Internet

There have been a few beautiful moments in my lifetime that my normal forays into the online world have yielded treasures greater than I could have ever imagined. I have thus compiled my very first master-post of things I found on the internet that I didn’t even know I wanted, but are absolute perfection.

British Men Reading Literature

Beautiful Men Reading Beautiful Words with their Beautiful Voices

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Thanks to a benevolent soul on 8tracks, there is a gorgeous playlist of beautifully-accented English readings. . . swoon away.

The Best Musical Mash-up I have ever heard:

I first heard this song through a tumblr post, and I have been obsessed ever since!

The ability to listen to rain ALL THE TIME:

rainy moodI love rain. I love the sound of rain on rooftops and the serene quality of a rainy day. Warm summer rain and the low rumble of thunder? It just doesn’t get better than that. It is, without a doubt, my favorite weather. So, when it’s been a good long time since the last thunder heralded the arrival of a well-rounded storm, I go to this website that lets you listen to rainy music any time!

The Best Foreign Language Resource of All:

Foreign Languages

wordreference.com is a magical resource. This is not an exaggeration. It provides nuanced translations (defined from a multitude of  different dictionaries), synonyms, information on how a word is used in context, variations of words in phrases, examples, linguistic expressions, forums where you can ask questions/clarify word-use, and ALL verb conjugations!!! It has everything.

wordreference

Mindless JELLO TIME:

Sometimes you just want to do something dumb. Mindless. If this is you, I would like to introduce you the red jello mold.

Jello TIME

When you go to jellotime.com, you will see just how mindless and ridiculous this is. Mouse-over the jello and watch it wiggle. . . with sound effects. It either gets old immediately or is mesmerizing.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Son of Citation

Citationmachine.net is a GIFT to students the world over. If you don’t use it already, then allow me to welcome you to the 100% painless ability to correctly site every single one of your sources in ALL of the formats!!! It actually got updated recently, so if you’re having trouble navigating the new formatted website, you can always click here to go to the old version, which does both MLA and APA!

 Do you like old radio shows?

old-radio

via

Have you ever even heard one? Think: pod-casts/mp3 books from back in the day of entertainment before there was a TV in every home, before the internet, or the existence of newsfeeds; when people were known to gather around the family radio to listen to dramatized adventure stories. Listening to them now can be both entertaining and riveting. . . not to mention a wonderful background to activities that require your visual attention. I love being able to do work while I listen to a story without feeling like I’m missing whatever is going on by not watching a screen. Anyhow, I recently stumbled upon a website that has dozens upon dozens of free radio shows to listen to! Check it out by clicking on or copying the URL: http://www.oldradioworld.com/

Okay, I need to stop somewhere, so I suppose this is as good a place as any.Looking back, I am noticing that I sound weirdly like an infomercial or like I’m some sort of weird paid promotional person. Please believe (and I’m sure it’s not much of a stretch) that NOBODY paid me for any of this rambling post. Enjoy my internet finds, and if you have any of your own to share, please let me know!!!

That Awkward Phone Moment…

The phone rings and your caller i.d. flashes the name of a dear one you’ve been particularly bad at keeping in touch with over the past year or so. You stare at the screen and in the course of a few seconds, you must decide whether to answer or not.

phone debate.png

One one hand, OF COURSE you want to talk to that person! It’s not like you guys have been out-of-touch on purpose. . . life has just been busy and your two schedules have made you ships in the night. It would be so wonderful to hear their voice again!

On the other hand, it’s been so long since you’ve last spoken voice-to-voice that you’re pretty far behind. Who knows whats been happening in each-others’ lives and how much time (not to mention emotional energy) you may have to dedicate to getting up to speed?

This is also the dilemma of the mind behind this blog. Amid the beautiful chaos of life, there’s been barely a minute or two consecutively to sit with my computer over the past month-and-a-half, and now I find myself with a newsworthy snow day and too much to say.

Life has been full to bursting these past weeks, and true to my scattered form, I shall now undertake the telling of the highlights via list, in no particular order.

1. Yesterday my two nephews were officially adopted!!!

ben and caleb

Words cannot describe how thankful I am to have them formally in my family (where they have been informally for years!).

2. Home Base is Movinghome

After 25 years, my parents have sold the home where I grew up and are moving to Michigan. I can’t lie and say that I am not sad, because I loved growing up on Iradell Road, and it will always hold a place in my heart. BUT, I can say that I am very excited to see where this major shift takes my parents and I know that God will bless the next 25 years as fully has he has the last.

3. I love my church!

4. Teaching remains delightful!

teaching supplies?

I took this picture of my desk, because it was one of those moments where I couldn’t quite believe the randomness of the things appearing on my desk!

5. Planning School Events is, as always, Underway

favor

Winter Ball is almost upon us (if the storm doesn’t require a postponement!) and there will be more to come on the Fairy-Tale Forest theme soon . . .

favors

Suffice it to say, I am staying busy with the details this year!

6. I got another Tattoo

tattwo. . . which prompted one of my students to write this letter to my father, haha!

letters to dad Did I mention that I love my students?

 

7. I’m still obsessed with my cat Winky

winkyface

. . . but can you blame me?

8. I have a new fnephew! (foster-nephew)

fnephew

So you see, a lot has happened . . .

I have a lot to be thankful for!

theboys

What’s new with you in 2015?

 

Supernaturally Good

WINCHESTER LOVE AND SPNIf you, like me, tuned in to watch the 200th episode of Supernatural last night, well. You know. You know that there are no words to describe what ridiculous rip-roaring supernaturally high school musicalish CHUCK-ness that we witnessed. If you didn’t watch it (or you did and understood nothing) . . . well I’m sorry. BUT GOSH. For those of you that cohabitate the fandom with me, sit back, tune into some Dean-Inspired Music Mixes (x) while you wait for last nights songs to hit iTunes, and check out my mini Supernatural Theme Party pictures!

First I made a centerpiece befitting the boys. centerpiece

Then I decorated like the Unabashed Fan that I am.

Remember this?  [x]

My Tribute:
jerkbitchbackdrop

 

How about this? [x]

My little hommage:

flashlight

Then there’s this little nugget: [x]

Which I figured deserved some inclusion…

bigger cups

Then of course, I could never forget Kevin. (RIP)

kevin

 

And since that made me sad, I had to include something involving Crazy!Cas… Remember his obsession with Bees and Honey? [x]

Well . . .

castiel's honeyAnd you know, there’s also that whole question of Fading Grace…

fading graceBasically, I had a little too much fun, and there were a bajillion other little things I wanted to do before I wound up running out of time!

candy

Then I decided it was high time I whip up some fandom-themed foods!

references

Some of these were a little subtle, but others were pretty obvious, right?

spnfood

In the end it wound up being a delicious spread of snacks . . . even if I was too emotionally wrapped up in the show to eat much!

the full spread

So, if you don’t watch Supernatural, you can appreciate approximately 2% of all of this, and you should probably go watch the past 200 episodes ASAP.

MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR TIME??!?!

And that’s all I have to say about that. [x]