Ok, so I wanted to do an actual, "real" post today, but it's just been so gosh darn busy I haven't had time. What is it about the nice weather that makes all the crazy people come out of the woodwork? I mean, seriously, people: The weather is nice, school's almost out, it's very nearly SUMMER people, don't you have something better to do than threaten each other, crash your cars into unsuspecting people, punch out your brother and call me all drunk and harass me because no one else will talk to you and the County says I have to? Oh, you don't. Well, carry on then.
To amuse my self and help maintain what little sanity I have left, I have resorted to watching silly, mindless television the last couple nights. My favorite thing so far is that SciFi has run the entire 2.75 seasons of Land of the Lost from 1974-1975. I recorded them all and have been watching them a couple at a time. It was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I loved the whole cheesy craptasticness of it. And it has made me smile again, so - bonus! I hope that the remake (re-imagining, re-telling, re-working, re-whatever) is half as fun. I imagine it will be, what with Will Ferrell and all.
In the meantime... stop calling me! I have blogging to do!
So it was kind of fun to see who responded to my UFO story and what people had to tell.
Thanks for playing along!
Okay, here's the thing, though...I suck at this.
I don't want to pick just any ONE!
Secret Agent Man and I talked about it and I decided all of you who responded are winners in my book!
Yea!
So if you played, email me your address if you want a Space Girl, tell me which one you want and I'll send her along.
'Cause again, it's my blog. And I can do this any way I want! (Boy won't everybody else be jealous!?)
Cue the bells and whistles and applause! Fireworks? Woo hoo!
Okay, so maybe it's not really all that exciting. Bear with me - I haven't had a giveaway and I'm thinking it might be fun!
I was talking to a co-worker today about a recent UFO call we got. (We do get them from time to time but they tend to be pretty tame.) Mostly we just give out the number for the UFO Hotline, because it's really not all that interesting. I suspect they are mostly jets from the local airport that are seen at a weird angle or something.
However, we both had interesting UFO stories of our own to share. I will share mine, because, well, it's really cool and it's my blog! (I think we've been over this before...) Plus I just read that they have declared May to be National UFO month in Canada. (Any Canadians know if this is true? Or is it just some UFO nut hopeful?)
But wait! you cry. Where's the giveaway part?! Well, it's this: I'm going to share with you all my UFO story. Then I would like for anyone interested to share their UFO story in the comments section. In a couple of days, (oh, how about Wednesday night?) I will select the one that I think is the best for whatever reason I see fit (again: My. Blog.) and then whoever the winner is will get to choose one of my Space Girl prints!
That's right, any one of my lovely Space Girls in all her 8x10 glory. I'll even sign it for you if you like.
So if you want to participate, tell your story (Reader's Digest version, please) in the comments section. I will then pick a winner and ask for you to email me with an address where to mail your Girl.
And here's my story:
It was late summer 1989. I was living in Colville, WA and working at a mom and pop grocery store until fairly late at night. Usually I walked home from work (unless it was raining because, you know, I melt in the rain). Anyway, my roommate came down one night to walk home with me. As we were walking up the hill we were commenting about how nice it was, a few clouds in the sky, the moon shining behind one cloud to the east looked really cool, yadda yadda. All of a sudden he stops dead in his tracks and looks over to the west. I say, hey what's up? He just stands there so I turn around and look. And there, to the west is THE MOON! I know, right?!
So we look back to the east at the really bright light behind the cloud. We stand there watching it for about 30 seconds and all of a sudden it just drops from the sky. Super fast. It goes down behind the tree line and we can't see it anymore but just then all these...beams -for lack of a better word, shoot up. They start moving back and forth like search lights.
My friend and I, at that point, start running for the house. He gets on the phone and calls a friend of his to come get us in his truck ('cause we were in college and p-o-o-r then, so of course we had no car). Friend #2 shows up and we start driving in approximately the direction of the lights. By this time we figure whatever it was went down across the Canadian border (I'm sensing a possible theme here...). We got to a clearing where we had a pretty good sight line and stopped. It was late, we never would have made the border crossing before closing at that point.
At this time the lights were getting dimmer and dimmer until there was just a glow on the horizon. Then about the time we decide to go we hear "whup whup whup whup whup" and look to the east in time to see a couple of these and one of these hauling ass for the border.
We never did find out what the dealie-o was, and we tried! We called the local Air Force Base, we called radio stations and weather services and nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. I'm sure it was probably some military test plane or something.
Or was it...?
Your turn.
Ok. I don't normally link to other people's post, but this had me laughing out loud! Seriously, I almost pee'd my pants. (Well, okay, that could have partly been because of the giant latte I just drank.) Then I cried, because I remembered that I used to think a lot of these girls guys were really cool.
Anyway, check out some major hair at Now That's Nifty, which I found at The Popcorn Trick. I've seen a lot of these before, and Lord knows there are lots and lots (and lots and lots) of other hair bands that were not mentioned on this list. But what makes it so fun are all the snarky comments.
And I'm all about the snarky comments.
Last night I saw a commercial on tv for some beauty product whose tag line is " Your youth is in your jeans." I searched every single pocket in every single pair I own and I didn't find jack!
Oh. "Genes..."
Well, damn.
So Friday is Monkey Face's birthday. Monkey Face, of course, being my neice, Evelyn. As previously posted here, her mama is having a fairy tea party for her, tutu's and all. Mama Bear apparently has all the stuff done already (I know because I called to volunteer with last minute decorating, fingernail painting, whatever, today, like a good Auntie, but she said it's all taken care of. Is it wrong of me to think "phew!"?) Anyway, I bought Monkey Face (what!? She looks like a little monkey! Seriously, think MonChiChi in pigtails...plus she climbs like a chimpanzee!) a couple dollys to have tea parties with, but my main present, which will probably be more for her mama for a while, is a drawing of Evelyn in a fairy dress.
Just in case you're interested in my process (sometimes I like to see how other people work, but I realize you may not, so it's not long...) I took this:
which is one of my favorite pix of her little (monkey) face and used it with inspiration from this:
which I now can't remember where I stole it from found it on the interwebs (so if anyone recognizes it please let me know so I can give proper props for such a lovely dress!)...
...and voila! (Well, ok, it was more like "can't you people leave me alone, I'm working here! Oh, what? I'm at work and drawing is not my job? Damn..." for the last couple days [I know, I know, I'm the world's best procrastinator but in my defense...well, I have no defense. sigh.])
Anyway, what I have come up with is this:
Ta Da!I think I'm relatively safe posting this ahead of time since I think the only family members who read this are my dad, and my mom, on occasion. (Hi, Mom and Dad!)
PS. This, like all my other stuff, was done in Adobe Illustrator with a Wacom tablet, just in case you're interested!
Whew! What a long week! I was so exhausted every day I (seriously) never even opened my laptop at night to check my email, let alone check and see what you all have been up to. For the next couple days I guess I'm going to be doing some serious catch up!
"So," you ask, all a quiver with anticipation, "what have you been doing all week?"
(Yah, I know, no one really cares, but I'm going to tell you anyway...See, it's my blog. It works like that.)
I was doing interviews.
No, I'm not looking for a new job. Our department is one of the few in our County, in fact, probably one of the few in the State, that is actually hiring right now. (I feel very fortunate most days, no matter how much I sometimes bitch about my job... Seriously, I would have to kill someone really screw up to get fired and I do appreciate that.)
Anyway, one of my newer co-workers and I, along with one of our supervisors, comprised an interview panel for potential new-hires this past week. Five 10-hour days of interviews, 9 people a day. We thought it was going to be "fun." A "nice change of pace." Ha!
It was, I guess, but holy cow! It was really tiring asking the same questions over and over and over and over again and basically getting the same answers from a really wide variety of people.
We met some really neat people, some really smart people, some funny people and some that just made us shake our heads. It seems strange that such a variety would answer almost almost every question exactly the same way.
So I have come away from the experience with some tips for all of you who may be in the market for a new job, or who maybe are forced to be looking for a new job (I am so sorry) after having been away from the application process for a while.
*the story you are about to read is true; only the names have been deleted to protect the innocent.
* Do not come to your interview right after you have eaten lunch in your car. Or fed your child lunch in the car. Or whatever caused you to have what appear to be fresh ketchup and mustard stains on your shirt.
* You don't have to wear a tie, but it is a good idea NOT to have said ketchup and mustard shirt be a rock band souvenir from 1987.
* You don't have to tell me you are nervous. Chances are good I've picked up on that already.
* And while I get that you may be nervous, when the interviewer tells you that they will be taking notes for every applicant so we can keep you separated, it's not a good idea to start singing this under your breath.
* When we're asking you questions, don't start every single answer with "Um. Yah..."
* I realize that you can't be prepared for every question we are going to ask. But don't pause for two minutes while you figure out your answer. Seriously... Two. Full. Minutes.
* Don't try to figure out what it is you think we want to hear. You will be wrong.
* When asked why you want this job, don't say, "Because I want to help people." It's really okay, and more honest, for you to say you like the wages and the benefits. Point of fact: I will respect you more.
* If you are not in the first day of interviews, don't say, "Because I want to help people". I probably will tune out for the rest of your interview. Seriously.
* If I've already asked you why you want this job, and then I ask you what aspects of the job are most appealing to you, do not repeat yourself and say you like that you will be "helping people."
* If we've covered why you want the job and what aspects of the job are appealing to you, and I ask you to list what you think some pros and cons of the job will be, for God's sake do NOT answer "helping people"! Especially if it is Friday. My head will explode and it will be messy.
Not that you'll notice it in with the ketchup and mustard.
* Sometimes I roll my eyes and I am not aware of it. I am sorry.
* Be funny. Especially if you are not in the first day.
* Don't tell me that you are a multi-tasker, and that multi-tasking is part of your job if it isn't. I type while I talk on the phone while I listen to my co-workers to see if anyone else has an accident call while looking up the address in a map book. All at the same time.
So I know that answering the phone, then helping a customer, then finding a product on a shelf, then answering the phone again is not multi-tasking, even if you do it all in the space of five minutes. It's serial mono-tasking, and that's fine. Just be honest.
* If you don't know what multi-tasking is, ask.
* If I ask you what your least promising job is, and you've had more than 2 jobs, but you can't think of something, make one up. (You were a floor scrubber at Arby's or anything.) Otherwise I will think you are lying. Real people hate their jobs. Every friggin' day.
* If I ask you who the most difficult person you ever worked with is and why- if you tell me you get along with everyone, I will think you are lying. Real people hate their co-workers. Every friggin' day. (Especially if they were a floor scrubber at Arby's.)
* Don't fart. Even if you can do it without making a sound. Ever.
* We want people who will most likely stick around for a while. If we ask you what your career goals are, it's probably not a good idea to answer, "Finish my Bachelor's Degree, write a book, travel to Europe, get into foreign politics and start an orphanage." Even if you intend to do just that.
* I can probably tell in the first 2 minutes how you are going to answer the drug and criminal history part of the questions. While it is important to be honest on those questions, my advice is this: if you have an extensive drug and/or criminal history, don't apply for a job in law enforcement.
* And last, but not least, if you know that a polygraph is going to be the next part of the deal, don't lie on the hard questions. I do this for a living, I will probably know.
The polygraph guy will definitely know.
And to all you out there looking for work in these hard times, I wish you the best of luck.
Just make sure you're wearing a clean shirt.
...for all my thousands hundreds dozens er, few readers out there, I am on a temporary schedule change for the week so I don't know exactly when or what I'm going to be posting for a bit. But hopefully by the end of the week I will have some new artwork, or maybe (hey Janie!) some pendants made up to post.
In the meantime -
- another neat-o beach picture from my dad!
Cape Disappointment, actually.
These are some pictures my dad took when they were recently at Fort Columbia State Park at sunset. This is a beautiful park, and if you're ever on the Long Beach Peninsula or even in Astoria, OR, it is well worth taking the time to stop.
Or so I've been told.
I'm a terrible tourist. I so rarely do things I should. But I have talked to my dad and next time we are visiting the folks we are definitely going to go by there.
Really!
(I am not making this stuff up...)Caller: I don't have to give my name, do I? I need to be incognito.
Me: ...you mean "anonymous"?
Caller: Whatever.
Me: 911 what is your emergency?
Caller: I'd like to report an erotic driver.
Me: ...
...at least this is what I have so far. I keep tweaking her. But I think I like this one.
Evelyn is having a fairy tea party for her birthday at the end of the month. I think she's ready.
Not sure about Finn...
I'm thinking he'll have some words for his mama when he's about, oh, 15 or so.
