outages

there have been scheduled outages all day today and so i've been taking advantage of the time and actually working. you may think i'm a squirm for blogging while on work time but i've done it since the beginning and no one here has a problem with it. is it ethical? well. if everyone is doing it than the rules are changing right? and if i'm getting my work done, i mean really getting it done, not lying here. or fudging the facts than who is it hurting?

this past weekend was insane at the creative discovery museum and sunday i spent the day with my aunt at gateway. we walked through the entire place, taking three hours to catch up with the merch. i did find a few little things which i will try and share in the next couple of days. i also received a sweet swap package from nina with all kinds of fun goodies, can't wait to show you all!

show & tell:vote

**very special goebel birds**

the most important thing that i have to mention...in a very sheepish sort of way, is that it is again time for bloggies 2007.

every year i love seeing who has {won} in the varied catagories. it is an exciting way to find new writers, new artists, humor, and the daily life of someone else like me across the globe.
i have been blogging for quite a long long time and have very few readers, that i know of. with some definite pride i think i've got a very nice thing going on here. i feel comfortable in this niche'. i have often thought about writing less and posting more photos. i've wondered about the art i post or the lack thereof. i have wondered about how our society seems to create cliques even on the great www. i feel i fit in some sort of clique here, even though i am not sure how or when or why. at times it has boggled my mind at how people have come across phantomcrimes. and certainly sitemeter has changed my views on blogging. i have found that people search for the most outrageous and sometimes rather hilarious things, and so haphazardly find phantomcrimes.

someone actually was searching for "artist sh*t paint", which led them here. someone else must've been actually feeling the terrible weather we were having yesterday, their depressing search "glummy Sunday music", led them here. oh brother, i really do love this, this process we have going on, throwing out our thoughts, like target shooting almost. looking back i have found blogging to be one of the most rewarding things, aside from actually painting and making art, i've ever pursued. fellow bloggers feel the same exact way, i read about the community and unity almost everyday! i have met and followed several for so long it is second nature. i continue blogging for the sake of family and friends but also to share with the anonymous, and give something, even it is really little, back. i have done so many different swaps i remember my very first with hilary from weewonderfuls. it was so thrilling to get mae in the mail!!!

well i say all this to get you all to vote if you'd like for phantomcrimes or maybe you'd rather vote for one of my dear blogging friends>see my teansy blog role to the right. it isn't really about winning for me, it's about knowing and being involved in this great community.

and look at the crap i posted last year...unga bunga!!! how embarassing:)

weigh of the evening

i felt like crawling into a cup of hot coffee last night when i returned home from the pharmacy, but instead found the stale nestle cocoa in my cramped cabinet. an incredible pile of wrinkled but dry clothes lay in the middle of the apartment living space...

listening in

now i am falling behind to listen more closely. to give myself a little bit more time to catch up and gain lost momentum. i started painting again, every night since the new year began. the brush caught up with a little hint of transparent yellow{christmas gift via matt}, the excuse is a cover-up.

i will ready myself, to tarnish my own name for the sake of my friends, throw the first wave of attack and bank myself on the shore of fantastic {may i be bold and say superior} art making-anti gallery-anit fest participating in chattanooga. there should be a call for boycott, a call to the fringe, a better competent exclaimation of why and how. you may ask, where is my respect? my sincerity? awh but it is a blur. there are no official rejections!!! there are holy causes, mysteries pursuits, talent beyond reason, let your hearts not be broken let them rise up and rejoice! for we are, united we stand rejected. it is not all asham but a creepy pasture of questions that shouldn't be asked until you aren't painting anymore. yes and more yes. there is room enough for us all to grow and learn and i don't doubt the meaning of it all, but i for one will not stand to let my friends be discouraged in a city where there isn't any urban, "where's the graffiti?", and no sight of pushing the envelope and the lack of respect for collage as fine art. the end. the answer is in us not in the monopoly, the who's who in art in chattanooga. my goodness she's gotten funding:winner! doesn't that count for something? in my book it does so very much.

i will stop. besides kate and jen are probably already sick of my rantings...

bsides: i finished my first book of the year. even though i started it in 2006, i'm going to count it and eventually put it up on my sidebar, so that i might be reminded of my reading accomplishments and commitment to more. now it's on to this one> book number two for 2007. here i come.

i didn't break down and have a cigarette until 5pm yesterday.

fight to hold

while the intensity of revival, blossom, rebirth and red are on the tip of my tongue. i'd bargain a chance meeting with rest, comfort, thankfulness and peace. the little greenthumb i have has never cared for an orchid before. it is indeed a new subject line inwhich to write. an out of focus rehearsal of capture the flag of fight. fight for holding on to the spirit. fight for growth. fight for the lights attention, for dry winter warmth. to live with ambition and rest contented with the fight. as the very new year with very new days approach i think i've got to raise the white flag and surrender to resolution. there is a common bitter feeling making it's presense known and the eager wishes to succeed. a few things to work toward, goals to score, maps to quest, and trips to travel.

i will fail to mention: i must quit. smoking. when is it my time? does it have to be january? i will be losing. twenty. i will have digital images of all my works on slides made. i will have books made to sell and buttons too. i will have a laptop by the summer of 2007:before the a annual uoha beachtrip. i will help my friends get jobs, move, and celebrate. i will spend more time with my mom, i will read more and review more and share more. i will paint more and sew more paint chips together...there will be more correspondence, more diligent work and more meaningful vacation. there will be new nephews=a total of three! there will be more love and more endurance. and i will ask for help. i will need your help to fight.

the very best candle from thymes. and life as experimentation. i was at my friends house the night before last watching blue planet. i couldn't help but think how huge our world is and how we are so blessed to be surrounded by the smallest bits of beauty. my mother and i concluded that if we happened to be exposed to too much beauty, we'd die. i think it hurts sometimes...so beautiful it hurts. isn't that what two thousand seven should be about?

presently reading: sheldon vanauken's little lost marion.