Photos, part II

listening: Billy Joel, Big Shot

These are from Sarah's birthday party. She and I have birthdays within two weeks of each other, so that's neato.

Sarah (of course):

Ivy, in the Batman dress that she made herself (*is so very jealous*):

And Jyan and David:

Everything was great, until the aliens came:
Group(ish) shot. We all wound up in front of the computer for a little Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog... and then some 30-second bunny movies:

And some wildly inappropriate cartoons:
We also watched some great movies. Apparently The Dark Crystal is a classic? I would not have been able to tell just from sitting through it. We also saw Deathproof (great right up until the ending), and I got to meet Sarah's neighbor.

Photos, part I

listening: Billy Joel, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

Here are some of the photos from my 22nd birthday. 22's not exactly a hugely exciting number; I think I have another 8 years before my birthday is a big deal again. On the other hand, I did have a great time, and I got some neat gifts :-)

We had the party downstairs in the clubhouse, because there's nothing nicer than not having to clean much before and after a schindig.

Believe it or not, these two photos were taken at different times and locations:
The theme was "not acting my age," so we had N64 and Sega Genesis games set up on the television (no one wanted to watch Ice Age in Spanish with me instead...):
Assorted action shots:

The cake-cutting:


And so a Good Time Was Had By All.

A bag!

There's a new item in my etsy shop!

"How very dare you?!"

I read a theory the other day, which stated that there are only 50 actors in the UK.

The corollary is that these actors have all been in Doctor Who.

I think I believe this theory, considering that every time I find a new actor I love in Doctor Who, I can trace their work history back and find other shows that I also enjoy. John Simm gave me Life on Mars, and now I've started watching the Catherine Tate Show.

Actually, we've only seen the first episode so far, but I thought it was great (we would have watched more, but it was 2am and I had to work at 7am). I can't decide whether her Aga Saga woman or Screams-at-every-sound-lady (according to the wikipedia page, "Frightened Woman") is my favorite.

Sadly leaving the realm of Things From the BBC, we have actual news. I turned a skirt into a bag, so that'll be up on etsy tonight or tomorrow. Yes, this is news.

My family is going on some sort of vacation starting possibly sometime tomorrow. While we're apparently not very good at preplanning, I was promised parasailing, which sounds like fun. Oh, and we'll be attending the advance screening of The Longshots, since my dad's in it.

I had to ask off Sunday from my childcare job in order to join the vacation. My boss went me one better and gave me every Sunday off for the rest of forever. Yep, I have been fired from a Baptist church, which surely comes as no surprise to anyone at all.

Honestly, though, they were "restructuring", and they're a small place, so I'm not too hurt. The $30 weekly paycheck loss is offset by the fact that I don't have to get up at 8am every Sunday from now on. I will miss the kids, though -- freakin' adorable.

I do keep promising photos, don't I? I will resize them all while on vacation (probably) and upload them, say, next Tuesday? Sure.

Addition to Etsy

I added some coasters to my etsy shop just now. You should go see said coasters.

As an added bonus, I found picnik, which let me edit my photos a little bit for sharpness and contrast. I hope they look nicer than some of the others I have up.

. . . aaaaaaaaand I'm off to go see The Dark Knight!

The BBC: My Anti-Drug

Well, okay, the title of my post's not funny unless you've seen all the "__________: My Anti-Drug" icons on Livejournal (fill in the blank with favorite fictional character, or an emotion such as "apathy").

Thanks to the power of the internet, I've been able to watch some great BBC shows lately. As I a) pimp said shows to everyone within shouting distance, b) buy the DVDs eventually, and c) am horribly impatient, I feel no guilt over not waiting for them to air on an American channel.

• Season 4 of Doctor Who? Fantastic! Donna Noble is officially my favorite companion ever. It was really nice to see a female sidekick who was smart, brassy, and emphatically not pining over the male lead. Oh, and she's good at math, and funny, and types 100 words a minute. You go, Super Temp! Other than one throwaway episode (Midnight was double plus ungood), this was a nicely put-together season. The season finale was, literally, EPIC. Oh, and alternately hilariously funny and awfully sad.

• Season 2 of Torchwood turned out to be somewhat different in tone from season 1, but I'm not complaining. Sure, okay, there were spots where the story got bogged down in sappy lovefests (when you watch, keep an eye out for Group Therapy: Torchwood Style, Complete With Windows-Media Guided Meditation. It's loltastic). On the other hand, this season had everything I was expecting from the "adult version" of Doctor Who. Character development and backstory that's not boring? Check. Alien insemination? Check. People and Things blowing up/getting shot/trying to take over the world? Check. Fun bits of alien technology? Oh yes. Multiple instances of hot guys kissing? Hells yeah. TWIST ENDING? Also a huge check. I think the last episode marked the first time in a long while that I was actually totally wrong about a major plot point. So, good job guys!

I was a little put off by Entertainment Weekly's review, though:

As with P.G. Wodehouse novels and Robbie Williams songs, you have to be either British or adolescent to commit to this stuff; for the rest of us, it's a head-scratching lark.

Um, I like P.G. Wodehouse?

And, finally, we get to:

• Life on Mars. I honestly only looked up the show because the lead is played by John Simm, who was the Master in last season's Doctor Who. Oh, and because he's a-dork-able. [Even though I may lose my soon-to-be Rhetoric major cred for using that particular portmanteau]. I am only two episodes into the first season, mainly due to the fact that each episode is nearly a full hour long and chock full of drama (and awesome). I'm enjoying the show very much so far: the plot is interesting, and it's brought along by some very good actors. Granted, there are a few characters I'd like to smack upside the head, but that's clearly intentional. Even the requisite cliched we're-two-men-who-aren't-getting-along-until-we-punch-each-other-in-the-faces-a-lot scene was handled well.
  

More on Life on Mars later, when I've watched the rest of it. I also owe everyone photos of my birthday party and Sarah's, which I'll post once all the pictures are resized.

Bloggy Giveaways Winner

Sorry it's taken so long to pick a winner -- I actually put names in a hat which, with 102 comments (and some people earning multiple entries), took forever!

All the names went in an "Authenic Greek Sailor's hat" my grandmother sent me for my birthday, and then Justin picked one just now.


Congrats to Storm of Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife!!

Please email me with what you'd like from my Etsy shop (greenyak [at] yahoo [dot] com), and I'll get it out to you.

Many people mentioned in their comments that I need to take better photos for the Green Yak Store, which I will work on. Also, there was the mention that I don't have many items up at the moment.

In the next few weeks, look for the following to be added: cloth coasters, more jewelry (with different beads and charms) and recycled paper pendants.

Bloggy Giveaways: CLOSED NOW

This post is now closed. No new entries will be accepted; winner will be announced Saturday morning.


Welcome, Bloggy Giveaway participants!

Fun stuff first: I am giving away one item from my etsy store! That's right, one of whatever-you-like from my shop. Keep in mind what you'd like; if it sells before the contest is over, I'll make a new one, just for you!

Now, then: Rules.

You can earn two entries for this contest if you have a blog/website, and one if you don't (sorry!).

If you have a website, you can earn one entry by blogging about either my store or this contest, and a second entry by putting up a link or button to my store (code for the button at the bottom of this post) on the main page of your blog or website. Just leave a comment here showing me where to find your post and/or link!

If you don't have a website, you can earn an entry by leaving some feedback here -- what do you like/dislike/love/hate about my shop?

Winner will be chosen on Saturday!

Happy blogging :-D

Buttons should look like so:

Etsy shop update

I'm excited about the new shop!

I made a handful of bracelets, which are now listed, and I'll be making more bows today.

It will also be awesome when these:



come in from ebay (Hong Kong, even), and when I hopefully have some of these made.

Buahaha. There will be necklaces.

Grand Opening!

That's right, I have a store now. Hopefully Ivy won't consider me too much competition [:-P], although she makes completely different things, such as cloud earrings.

The Green Yak is now open for business! At the moment you can only buy bows that used to be the Sunday comics and magazines (isn't recycling cool?), but I have grand plans for beaded jewelry and cloth items, as well. Necklaces, bracelets, coasters, stuffed animals... it'll be awesome.

Dad was nice enough to make my logo and banner, and mom gave me some good business advice (namely, that my original prices were way too low).

As always, feel free to shamelessly plug me and my shop :-D

Professor Nasty's Dancing-Doomery

Wait, no, I mean Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.



You can find the details (as un-detailed as they are) here at the Dr. Horrible Master Plan Page. Basically, what we have here is Joss Whedon + Nathan Fillion + Neil Patrick Harris + songs + comic books -- in case you're having trouble carrying the "i's" that equals a supervillain musical.

Act I went up just a little while ago (why no, I did not stay up late waiting for it, that would be silly), and I think it's hilarious. Acts II and III will be appearing over the course of the week, and then vanishing into the ether come the weekend. At this point, of course, we will be expected to shell out large amounts of cash for a copy of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Which we will gladly do.

[After you've watched Act I, come back here so we can talk about how fantastically dickish the "super hero" is. I want his shirt! As in, the actual shirt that he is currently wearing, because he's hot, and .... um, I'll just leave now. Go watch the clip.]

FTW!

Today has been (mostly) fantastic! [Other than the time spent at the DPS offices, of course.]

Mom and Grandpa picked me up for an extremely brief lunch, interrupted by dad coming to pick me up for the 4:40 showing of Hellboy II. From there, dad dropped me off at the Long Center to meet my friend Alex, who had invited me to see the Video Games Live concert with him.

All in all, a good time all around. The bean and cheese nachos at El Arroyo were delicious, although I wish I could have spent more time talking to mom and grandpa. Hellboy II was a little too long and had a little too much romance (but at least no gross kissing scenes, amirite?), but was otherwise very enjoyable. The bad guy wasn't really a "bad" (or a "guy", I suppose, technically), which is always interesting, and the special effects and costumes were beautiful. Most importantly, I now have solid confirmation that old ladies eat cats.

And the Video Games Live concert? Um, amazing. Photos time!

The event was held at the lovely new Long Center:
And started with a costume contest:


The first event was an audience member playing Space Invaders:

The tension was upped by the fact that he had to run back and forth across the stage to move the ship:

The second event was a challenge to hit 160,000 points in the new Aerosmith Guitar Hero game, with the guy who won the Guitar Hero contest before the concert (I was actually sitting next to him):


Btw, look at his score. This was close to the end of the game. He won a $2500 laptop:

If you don't know this kid, then this probably doesn't mean anything to you, but Martin Leung (sp?) was there as well. Great piano playing!:
The end!:

Happy 4th of July!

Seeing as how it's only noon here, I'll be blogging about the actual holiday tomorrow or later.

At the moment, I have to share two emails I received this morning:

Email 1 had me excited just at the subject line, "Crazy Loop - O-Zone's Dan Balan mit neuem Ego und Single." I'm sure I would have been even more excited if I actually spoke the language, although "Der Frontmann Von O-Zone Mit Seinem Neuen Ego Crazy Loop Und Der Hitsingle Mm Ma Ma -- Out Now" wasn't too difficult to parse.

Basically, the guy I geeked out over back when he was doing this with O-Zone is now doing this.

Yes. I can tell you're all very excited for me. Uh-huh. Let's just say I know what to buy myself off iTunes once it's available. Until then, everyone gets to listen to me playing the music video over and over (and over) again.

Email 2 just made me jealous. The one non working-in-an-office job I've had recently, and I almost wish I were in one of their cubicles.

Happy First of July!

I've decided that July 1st is official Post Something Hilarious From the Internets Day.

Here's my contribution:
http://view.break.com/527579 - Watch more free videos

In all my years of studying douchebaggery, never have i encountered anything like this. It’s such pure and unadulterated douche that I wish I could bottle it and use just a drop of it at a time.

The back story on this is that a girl named Olga was out with her friends in the Marina district of San Francisco (known for being a popular hang out for douches), and she talked to this guy named Dmitri for all of two minutes. Then she gave him her card and said “give me a call.” The above is the messages he left. Listen to the whole thing, it just keeps getting better and better. I won’t even tell you my favorite parts because i don’t want to ruin anything. Just listen.