Thursday Thirteen #26: Doodling Essentials

Thursday Thirteen: 13 things I have used for blog doodles:

A pink breast cancer floaty pen (it has a great fine point).

A pack of pencil crayons.

A pack of felt tipped markers.

A Lotus pen I found in a backpack I bought at the thrift store.

My HP Photo Scanner, my treat to myself after getting divorced.

Microsoft Image Composer (It came with FrontPage).

Plain, blank, unlined white paper bought at Zellers.

Napkins from the coffee shops and fast food places around Ontario.

My Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 digital camera.

A black fine tip marker which I bought at Walmart, it ended up leaking all over me each time I used it so it was soon retired.

A set of colourful gel pens which are a bit too much on the light side to be used often.

An official doodle pad with coloured paper which is fun to draw on but scans on the dark and dreary side.

Post It note pads, yellow and blue.

Zack is here, just after I posted my list. He says he should be on my list cause he gives me ideas.

Thursday 13 #25: Things I Like

A day late for Thursday Thirteen...

This idea comes from XKCD I was drawing mini frames for each one but ended up finding time to finish it while out having coffee with my nephew Zack, waiting for my Mom who was at the doctor. I combined a few of the things into the same drawing.

Thursday 13 #24: Fired and Rising Up

Thirteen things I can do now that I'm unemployed (fired yesterday).

Set the alarm clock and ignore it. Just let it go on beep-beep-beeping, getting all upset and flustered. You know how those little yappy alarm clocks sound.

Miss the bus. At the time I would have left for work today I stood at the window and watched the bus leave, without me on it!

Catch up on important things like the book I've been reading, my web domain that has been sadly neglected for ages (thatgrrl.ca), fix up the new domain for this blog and figure out why it doesn't always load up the first time.

Get out for more abandoned farm house photos. Find the locations I have saved in notes, on Flickr and in my email from others.

Check into the idea of making Word Grrls a blog with ads, a money making blog. I know it's not what I had planned or thought I would do. But, maybe I can run a bit of this and that and not have it feel like a spam pit or ad farm.

Call some other poor fool working as tech support for a company and just shoot the breeze awhile. Funny how often people did that. I don't think they knew we were rated on how quickly we handled calls. My rating was pretty good, not the best but it wasn't something they complained about.

Colour my hair again. It's about time for it to get done. I can see the difference in colour in the new hair. Also need to do laundry, including the bedsheets. All those things I've usually left for the weekends when I had more time.

Start that Best of the Web work or get going with it at least. They say it pays after the first thousand sites. I'm not near to that but could be, now that I'm not getting sucked dry at work and coming home wtih massive headaches.

More drawing and doodling and cartooning. Doodle Week Summer is coming up for July.

Have lunch and dinner during rather than skipping them and coming home after 10:00 to eat dinner late. I can even do some cooking. I miss making lasagna and such things. Not as much fun to just crack open a can of soup.

Eventually I will look for some other work. Not yet. I'm giving myself this weekend off. Seems my sister is even going to be dropping by on Saturday. If I were still working I would have missed seeing her at all.

Watching the soaps, catching up on them. Have them on today and don't know what they are talking about. Seems someone died but so far I haven't noticed anyone missing.

Writing. Really, actually getting something finished. I made plans to write a guest post this month but have not even started anything. I have an article as a draft about rural exploration but it's in need of work. Lots of other writing which is half done to not started beyond the idea stage.

Thursday 13: Homemade Traditional Smiley Faces

Thirteen smiley faces for Thursday Thirteen

Thursday Thirteen #22: Things I'd Rather Be Doing

I can think of a lot of things I'd rather be doing than going to work today. Here are just 13 in no particular order...

1. Being kidnapped for a romantic evening with someone I like even though he has awful bad breath and an oozing sore on his back.

2. Finding a winning lottery ticket even though it expired last week.

3. Shopping in my favourite bookstore, even after realizing I forgot my wallet at home and can't buy anything.

4. Eating chocolate on chocolate cheesecake even if it means I will gain 20 pounds.

5. Backpacking through Europe even though I get chased by wild dogs halfway through the trip and never do get past Venice.

6. On a fancy, luxurious woodland retreat, all expenses paid... even though the blackflies try to eat me alive each time I step outside.

7. Being given a free year of Second Cup lattes even though I have to sit through several hours of a telemarketing time share scam first.

8. Getting up close to the wild cats in the zoo, really getting to pet them and feel all that fur... though at some point one of the cougars gets a bit too friendly and I almost lose an eye.

9. Finding a bag full of cash even though when I take it home to count (over $100,000!) there's a deadly poisonous lizard at the bottom of the bag and I have to drag myself to the hospital for the anti venom or die in agony.

10. Riding a real, live dragon which I get to be friends with and travel around the world, free.... as long as I can hang on... it's a really, really long way down.

11. Decorating a house of my own, my dream house and yard, even though it's on right beside a really busy subway station in downtown Toronto where all kinds of litter blows into my precious yard.

12. Having my first book published and get a lot of great media attention but still flop mightily cause Oprah said she didn't care for it all that much.

13. A free visit to the dentist, have all the work I need done free, for as long as I can sit in the chair while he drills into my head.

I think work is starting to sound better after that dentist thing... Hi Ho.. Hi Ho... It's off to work I go....

Happy Thursday Thirteen!

Thursday Thirteen: Places I'd Like to Be

Thursday Thirteen: Places I'd Like to Be

The mega bookstore, Chapters, with a latte and a credit card I don't have to pay off.

A beach on a sunny but not hot day. Walking along the waterline looking at shells, polished stones and enjoying the water washing my bare feet.

In bed, with a really good book, all snuggled up and warm, on a cold winter night.

Waiting for a bus, luggage already loaded, talking to other people waiting to re-board for the trip out to Vancouver, BC.

Outside our old house in Scarborough, all my sisters and my brother, making one of our great forts in the ditch after the snowplough has just gone by.

Again outside our old house, in the Spring, just after a huge, heavy rain storm. That tree with the big leaves has shed most of them again. We are all getting leaves, sticks, and walnut shells from inside the house so we can make them all float down the overflowing waterlogged ditch. Racing along to see which ones make it through the tunnel under the driveway.

At the site of a great old, abandoned farmhouse with all the elaborate trimmings of gingerbread, stone work and iron fence and so on. A stone house with one wall caving in a little and the roof sloping down, sliding off it's foundation as erosion takes hold.

Driving in the car after getting tons of photos of the abandoned farmhouse, my shoes are muddy and I'm trying not to touch my skin with my fingers cause I'm sure I touched some weed that's making me itchy. Ahead a few minutes down the road is the Tim Horton's I will stop at to clean up and get coffee for the rest of the trip home.

Playing euchre with all the family just as we used to for family dinners with the Grandparents, Uncle and Aunts when all the Grandparents were still alive.

Going out to a movie and the second hand bookstore with my nephew. Spending most of a day laughing with him and doing not much of anything.

Listening to the little nieces laughing and not just sitting in front of computers or televisions and babysitting themselves.

Having a romantic week away with someone special. Someone who will still be around for another romantic week away a year from then.

At the Morningside Mall with Angela, a friend I have not seen since high school, having coffee and conversation.

Thursday Thirteen: Your Ad Here

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen things you should do to peeve off readers of your blog. Because readers aren't everything...

1. Make sure you have a bunch of ads appearing on top of the screen, before they even see a first post. Make them EARN the right to see your greatness.

2. Don't add a link back to your home/ front page. Really, once they've clicked away what do you need them back for?

3. Make sure you show them how much you value them as paying customers. Write "Your Ad Here" all over your blog.

4. Use pop up ads. That will really get their attention, they won't forget you any time soon. Might even tell a few friends.

5. Make them register to see your site. Think of all the email addresses you can snag that way.

6. Use word verification for any comments they try to make. Make sure it's in some kind of really tiny (or script) font so it won't be too easy to read. As an added bonus choose colours like blue on black, or something people who are colour blind or otherwise disabled can't see. That will spare you from all that reader feedback.

7. Put your Google and Alexa rank in prominent places on your blog. Show off your best achievements. Make lots of posts about your blog traffic, your blog stats and how much money your blog is going to make. People just can't read enough of that.

8. Run at least one long ad down your sidebar with a graphic that flashes and spins and possibly causes seizures in some people. Just plain motion sickness in others.

9. Add videos and music files that will take at least 15 minutes to load for anyone with a less than great Internet connection.

10. Forget all that spelling and grammar and punctuation from school. It's much more fun to make your own rules and let them figure it out.

11. Run paid ads as regular posts make it sound like you sincerely use the product and fully love it, don't let on that you've been paid for your opinion and your post. Why spoil it for them?

12. Every now and then, just to shake things up, get an ad that takes over your blog. The kind that loads your blog partly and then changes to another page over your blog which is, of course, just a huge ad. This works really well if it's an adult ad.

13. Run groupings of text link ads between your blog posts. Just like flossing your teeth, it gives your blog readers that little something extra.

14. (An added bonus) Put up an ad for one of those contests they have already won that sends them off to a second site which collects their email and cell phone number. By the time they actually win a free gift card for $5 they've given away enough information about themselves to have their identity stolen. All thanks to you, I'm sure that $5 will come in handy.

15. (Another addition) Run something that causes every fifth word in your post to become a hyper link which sends readers to some spam search engine or other junk or sales stuff they don't want. This is great camouflage for your real links, no one needed to find those anyway.

Finally, good luck. Get more ideas by looking at other blogs. They're out there!

Thursday Thirteen #19: EntreCard Blog Ideas

For Thursday Thirteen - Thirteen things I could write about personal blogging and blogs for the EntreCard blog. Kind of nice to make a list even if I never remember to check it.

1. Clutter and decluttering a blog. Three columns blog or 3 column footer.

2. Keeping true to your own voice. Writing for yourself instead of putting on a show.

3. Online journaling. Release your passions, upsets and strange ideas.

4. Making a site on MySpace, Vox and other offbeat or lesser known blog-type places.

5. Simple HTML and CSS tricks.

6. Personal blog security, passwords, backing up your blog and so on.

7. Writing when no one is listening. How to keep writing when you feel like you're just talking to yourself.

8. How to add illustrations to your blog even if you can't draw. Photo hosting services links included.

9. Should you use word verification or just comment moderation.

10. Elements of a good layout and design.

11. Joining groups to match your interests.

12. Using the background file to change the look of your whole blog, easily.

13. Spelling counts. Spellcheck, free and easy to use online.

Thursday Thirteen #18 : Book Cooties and Mysterious Stains

Thursday Thirteen: Mysterious Stained Books.

I got this idea from reading Mimzie's Musings, the post "The Public Library Gave me Ebola". Here are thirteen things that could be staining, polluting and possibly infecting the pages of a borrowed or second hand book. Not meant to discourage anyone from getting library books or shopping at the thrift and second hand stores. I shop second hand myself. Cooties or not, it's the best way to find older books from writers you like.

1. Ketchup. If you make real ketchup it is not that bright red like a clown nose. I can see someone munching away while reading and having a french fry try to escape into the book.

2. Hair colour. Mine was hair colour. I took a photo of it cause Mimzie has photos of her infected books in her blog post.

3. Lipstick. Not sure I'd like a book quite enough to kiss it but you never know.

4. Insects. They know they are going to outlast us and now they want to make sure they can read too.

5. Blood. Most likely from a paper cut. You know, when good books attack.

6. Blood. Nosebleed. Reading too fast.

7. The remains of a really good latte or some other coffee type of drink. I've had it happen. You just put your cup down in the wrong spot and suddenly there's a dash of the good stuff spilled or dribbled out over the side of your cup and onto something else.

8. Spaghetti sauce flicks. You know what it's like when you start sucking up those long noodles. Just like tiny alien spaceships setting out to explore the world. They seem to get all over the place.

9. Glue. Someone was working on a cut and paste or other kind of art project and used the book to weigh something down. Left a smudge of glue squished out and onto the book itself.

10. Paint. Just a trick to fool people into thinking the book is diseased.

11. Strands of hair. Its' not just in your soup any more.

12. Dust, it's everywhere else did you really think your book could escape? They can't even run very fast.

13. Ink. Plenty of times I have seen pen ink accidentally or purposely written in a book. Not just those Canadians writing notes about desperately trying to get away from the snow either.

Thursday Thirteen #17: Avatar Making Sites

Just wrote a post for the EntreCard blog about avatars. Here are thirteen of the sites I found for making avatars. Handy for adding a face to your site if you can't draw a circle or get far using graphic software. (I'm still working on that myself).

Bless This Chick

The Weather Pixie

Horoscope Avatar Maker

TizMe

StorTroopers

Wee World

Doppel Me

Create My Picture

Lego Avatar

South Park Avatar

Simpsons Movie Avatar

PowerPuff Girls Avatar

Doll Palace

Thursday Thirteen

Thursday Thirteen

For the Thursday Thirteen: 13 Things I Like

1. Reading science fiction and the odd paranormal romance. Also reading fiction about web publishing and related topics.

2. Taking photos of abandoned farm houses or old buildings in general, the more fancy stone, iron and wood work the more I like them.

3. The way my hair looks when I brush it after a shampoo. It doesn't look all that great if I get lazy and don't brush it. Sadly, I get hair lazy quite often.

4. Having someone (preferably male) even sort of ask me out. Even sort of being asked out is nicer than the usual day of not being noticed and feeling like a big nobody.

5. Finding something really interesting and new (to me) in an area of arts. Especially if it is something I can do myself or find a way to adapt and do myself. DIY is great.

6. Being a grrl. Even if I am not into all the fashion and beauty which is like a female law (look at all those guys who want to be grrls, they seem to OD on it or is that really just a stereotype?) I am still a woman and I wouldn't want to be a guy.

7. Rocks. I'm not sure what causes my fascination with stone, rocks, polished pebbles, etc but I can not see a photo of rocks and not stop and look. I have rocks collected which are somewhere around here in all the clutter.

8. I like not having a routine. Or, as little routine as I can get away with not having. I don't like words like duty. My Grandmother loved words like that. She thought I was crazy, literally, not as a joke in any way.

9. Coffee when it's lovely and smooth and not sweet. French vanilla and caramel lattes are really good. Gingerbread used to be good but was kind of yucky over the holidays this year. I think they tried to make it fit what they thought people wanted instead of just sticking with a good thing when they had it.

10. My eyes. Or would that be my eyeballs since you can't really have one without the other. But I like my eyelids too, they fit nicely around my eyeballs and keep them from falling out. My eyes are blue. But not literally, I'm not a space alien.

11. I like holidays when we get paid to not go to work. But I like them for the spirit of being something special we can look forward to each year. It is kind of weird to think that the holidays will still be there, every year, even long after I'm not still here. Not that I'm making plans to not be here. I just didn't get any guarantee otherwise.

12. I like blogging. Real personal blogging where it is just here for me to experiment with. I like that people read it and give opinions and feedback and ideas. Thank you to everyone who does read this and extra thanks for comments. I read them all and I do make some effort to visit in return and leave a comment so you know I was there. I'm not always successful at returning visits and I feel crushing (well not crushing entirely) guilt over it.

13. Dragons. I'm a wood dragon by Chinese astrology. It is the only "fantasy" (meaning fantastic and likely overly blown ego) creature in the zodiac. Kind of nice to be unique (among the masses of dragons) in some way. I don't let it go to my head. Sure I don't.

Thursday Thirteen: Urban and Rural Exploration Links

Live Journal Urban Decay

Rural Ruin's Live Journal

Urban Exploration Webring

Stumble Upon Urban Explorers

Infiltration

Urban Exploration group on Ning

Rural Exploration group on Ning

Bumpzee Urban and Rural Exploration group

Rural Exploration on Flickr

Urban Explorers Network

Ontario Rural Ruins on Flickr

Beautifully Ruined on Flickr

UrbEx Barrie

For the Thursday Thirteen

Thursday Thirteen: ASCII Art Dragons

For Thursday Thirteen, I love dragons. Some of these are ASCII art dragons I made awhile ago and the others are from other ASCII artists.

Thursday Thirteen #13: Valentines

My own hand drawn Valentines for Thursday Thirteen.

Thursday Thirteen #12: Flowers I Have Drawn

Thursday Thirteen

Thursday 13 #11:Long Hair is a Good Thing

The Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen reasons to have long hair...

1. It keeps the back of your neck warm.

2. You can always do a Rapunzel if you're stuck in a tower or something.

3. It gives you something to do with your hands when you're stuck waiting for a bus, trying to quit smoking or just want to twirl your hair for no good reason.

4. You'll seldom be mistaken for a boy/ man.

5. If you get stranded on a deserted island you can always pull out a strand of hair and go fishing.

6. It works to drive your ex-husband crazy (or at least annoyed) long after you have moved on your hair still keeps clogging up his vacuum cleaner.

7. If you're kind of kinky... you can swat flies with it, just like a horse.

8. If you're out somewhere fancy and lose a button you only need a needle to sew it back on.

9. You're saving all that hair from just being stuck in some landfill or other.

10. When you really want to be alone you come equipped with your own curtain to close off the world.

11. It gives school children (those little sweethearts) a place to put their gum.

12. Pile it up on top of your head and you can always claim to have something on your mind.

13. The all you can eat buffet, a few napkins and well placed bobby pins and you've got enough for lunch the rest of the week.

Thursday Thirteen #10: Beat the Creative Blahs

Writer's block isn't phony. You can get in the way of your own creativeness. Whether you are a writer, photographer, illustrator, fashion designer or some other creative and art type everyone can get to a point where they feel out of ideas or lacking in a way to bring the ideas in their head out into the world.

1. Give yourself a break, know you are a little burned out right now and stop forcing yourself to come up with something brilliant and original. Get some physical, real distance from the burned out area.

2. Pick something else to do, creatively. Set the table for dinner, take the time to be fancy, glamorous or kitschy. Google a few favourite foods and see what interesting recipes come up, try one of them.

3. Do something practical, think of an errand or household task you have been putting off cause you were just too busy. Finally sew on that button. Take that stack of books to the second hand bookstore.

4. Pamper yourself. Try a new hair colour or style. Spend time in the tub with a good book. Sleep in with the radio on low and don't rush starting your day.

5. Retail therapy. What's your store of choice? I like the bookstore, coffee shop and the thrift store. Or window shopping and online catalogues for those who don't want to be tempted into spending.

6. Enjoy your day. Do something you really want to do, only you know what that is. I'd go on a road trip and take more photos of abandoned farm houses.

7. Exercise. Go for a walk. Try yoga, pilates or something else new, different or more extreme.

8. Stop being so perfect. Let a few mistakes happen. The world won't spin out of orbit if you burn the toast. But you might feel less pressured to perform up to some unrealistic standards you set for yourself.

9. Unclutter. We have so much stuff and only so many drawers, closets and floor space. Tidy up, throw it out or give it away. Once you can see the surface of your desk/ work space again you might find what you were looking for.

10. Be an angel for the day. Kids love getting something in the mail just for them and Grandparents love to feel they are still included in your life. Make a batch of cookies or muffins for a single parent you know.

12. Laugh along with life. Watch a movie that made you laugh before. Call a friend who can look at things with fresh perspective and laugh about what seemed so important before.

13. Spend time with people. Take the kids to a movie. Meet a friend for coffee. Join a new group involved in some kind of hobby or interest you haven't had much time for lately.

Thursday Thirteen #9: Kingdom of Loathing

Thirteen things I like about playing Kingdom of Loathing- KoL.

1. The stick figure drawings.

2. Every now and then you find something Canadian.

3. The weird humour. You have to play to read it.

4. It's free, right in my price range. Though I'm looking into making a donation.

5. It's an RPG. I always did like the choose your own adventure type of games. Still play a few of them on the computer, city building mainly but an RPG as well.

6. Who wouldn't like having a colossal closet, even if it's fictional?

7. My friend ADeadHeart is there. Don't say the c-word when you listen to her DJ at KoL Radio.

8. KoL Radio. If you have not experienced live radio alongside live chat you should try it, soon.

9. There are all kinds of really odd bits of equipment and some of them are edible.

10. It's not a game for those Grammar Queen types or those easily scared off by typos. No perfectionists could survive long in this game.

11. The currency of the game is meat!

12. It's always nice to find a group of fellow flakes to belong to.

13. I get my own character.

Thursday Thirteen #8 - Queen of the Cookies

Today for the Thursday Thirteen...

Thirteen things I put in the cookies I made today:

red and green candied cherries
vanilla
light brown sugar
cinnamon
freshly ground black pepper
ginger
4 eggs
white sugar
unsalted peanuts
flour
salt
canola oil
baking soda

I don't count the hair that tried to make it's way in there too. I pulled it out while it was still on the side of the mixing bowl.

Thursday Thirteen #7: Ontario Abandoned Farm Houses

Not sure how this will work out as I have not done a lot between my photos on Flickr and this blog, but for the Thursday Thirteen here are 13 of my photos of abandoned farm houses taken in various locations in Ontario, Canada.