A Muse.

artful and awkward acrobatics of keyboard and camera

[paperbackgirl]

You simply keep putting down one damn word after the other, as they come to you. You can either set brick as a laborer or as an artist. You can make the work a chore, or you can have a good time. You can do it the way you used to clear the dinner dishes when you were thirteen, or you can do it as a Japanese person would perform a tea ceremony, with a level of concentration and care in which you can lose yourself, and so in which you can find yourself.

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird. (via paperbackgirl)

[archiemcphee]

Vader and Unicorn by Hillary White, acrylic on canvas, 2012

(Based on Domenico Zampieri’s Virgin and Unicorn)

Star Wars and Unicorns combined… Could our day get any more awesome?

[cariosus]

sylvia plath (by hexiaa)

[sosuperawesome]

[viralvirginia]

bookspaperscissors:

Scott Naismith

With Pink Floyd as a backdrop, I go for a second cup of coffee.

[viralvirginia]

Equal and Opposite Reactions

I'd like to sigh my sublime relief. In the past 24 hours, three unrelated, unhappy, and uncomfortable incidents occurred involving people who are each of them very near and dear to our lives. The ramifications in each circumstance could create a ripple effect lasting years. But for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And in the last hour or so, in each of these spheres, something unseen shifted, and what was painfully shattered and scattering is now reversing, changing direction, and moving toward restoration again. Three breakings, three mendings. Pieces and peaces.

And then, wonderful news in yet another quarter that likely heralds a new era of restoration in lives of people we care about very much, an era that may sooth and begin to reroute years of damage. 

Vague posts. Sometimes that's all we can do. But things that went wrong are going right.

Thank you to One who is intervening.

[archiemcphee]

[viralvirginia]

Today has been a weird day. More uncomfortable than this sweater, and far less amusing. 

[archiemcphee]

[viralvirginia]

archiemcphee:

Artist Andrew Salomone created this portrait of one of our favourite nerds, Tina Fey/Liz Lemon, using Nerds candies.

[via Randommization]

It’s Nerd day on Geyser of Awesome!

[archiemcphee]

[viralvirginia]

archiemcphee:

Redditor dayna-mite gave herself this impressively nerdy Marvel Comics pedicure.

[via Geekologie]

[viralvirginia]

Two Tents

A patient walks into a psychiatrist office and says, "I'm a teepee. I'm a wigwam. I'm a teepee. I'm a wigwam."

Doctor says, "I don't get it."

Patient says, "I'm two tents."

That was one I thought over and over in my head a lot in junior high. It didn't make me laugh, but it kinda made me feel better.

Some days, weird, uncomfortable sensations come out of nowhere. Subconscious nowhere, probably.

I'm a teepee. I'm a wigwam. 

Humor is a lifesaver.

[viralvirginia]

I decided to postpone taking the driver's permit test.

I had a deadline yesterday, but made an active decision that I wouldn't take the test. I told my husband, and he accepted it. Then I took a big ol' nap. But I'm not giving up. I'll take it when I've studied properly. Of course I'll still have all the butterflies, and of course it'll still be quite the accomplishment when I pass it.

[strangers-have-the-best-candy]

[viralvirginia]

Because they're the best.

[viralvirginia]

One Great Big Thing I Love About Parenting

When you're the one in charge, you get to extend grace when you want to. You can tell the child what she or he did that was not so great and explain why you don't want her to do it again, and then, when she cries and feels ashamed, you can say, "Know what? I love you so much, though, and I know you feel bad about all of this. Can I just hold you for a while? Wanna read together? Want some candy?" 

And it feels so warm and good and satisfying.

[an-editors-eye]

[viralvirginia]

an-editors-eye:

Grammar glamour from Mental Floss.

[archiemcphee]

[viralvirginia]

archiemcphee:

Heidi Klum has a history of donning awesome costumes for her annual Halloween party. This year she decided dress as skinned body and wore an impressive costume designed by Martin Izquierdo. To add to the fun she made her grand entrance lying under a sheet on a hospital gurney that was wheeled in by two bloody ‘medical professionals’. She’s a real live ‘Visible Woman’ in heels!

Check out more images, including a few of her makeup application process, over at our friends Laughing Squid!

This is just so cool and weird, I had to share.

[viralvirginia]

Studying for Driver's Permit

Something I'm not going to post where most people who know me in person can see, because the whole idea makes me nervous and snippy. I had my permit once upon a time, but never passed in car training in order to apply for my license.

One reason I have such difficulty studying for the driver's permit exam in the first place is that the driver manual is written under the assumption that you're a complete dolt. Instills no confidence in me toward other drivers and inspires no impetus for succeeding at passing an exam that operates at the lowest possible denominator yet has potentially fatal consequences. 

Also, the manual, written at 14- or 15-year-olds with apparent sewage water for brains, is simultaneously filled with boring either-or and whichever-is-greater-than numbers as consequences for obviously dangerous and stupid actions such as driving drunk or unlikely yet stupid scenarios such shooting a bow and arrow across the freeway in rush hour traffic. 

And then they have to throw in reassuring little tidbits like "Never assume everything will be alright."

Considering that driving is, in the first place, an act that requires you to strap yourself to a tank of flammable liquid and sharp parts and hurl yourself forward at 40-70 miles an hour at people doing the same exact thing three feet away but sometimes in the opposite direction AT YOU, and the only thing keeping you from veering and crashing directly into them is your own fingertips and eyeballs and feet and the successful function of thousands of parts, I NEVER assume that everything will be alright.

[viralvirginia]

Some Togetherness-Type Conversation

If I were to write a reality-based conversation between me and Husband right this moment, here's what it some of it would look like: 

Husband: Did you make any cookies? 

Virginia (looking guilty): Um, sorry. No.

Husband: Did you get the mail today? Did you call Joe and leave him a message?

Virginia: Um, no. I forgot. But I made a stockpile of ugly ties!

Husband (looking around): Where are the chocolate chips you bought? I thought you said you had some dough already made. 

Virginia: (looking pained): Umm...

Husband: You ate them?!? ALL of them? I suppose you ate the dough, too? You ate all the dough. Let me get this straight: you bought twelve dollars worth of cookie supplies, didn't make cookies, and ate all of it in one sitting without saving me any of it because why?

Virginia: Because you never understand the things I do.

[viralvirginia]

Will trick-or-treat for this stuff.