Who's to Blame?

So through some weird process or another, I was alerted to the fact that someone I know (and is possibly/absolutely related to me) was "tagged" in some recent prom photos. What I found while perusing said pictures was kind of disturbing. I'm no fashion plate, admittedly quite the opposite (as evidenced by my ever-slouching dress socks). But Christ on a Cracker are these some hideous prom dresses. Every single one of them!

How? Why? Huh?

Spied these exciting diaramas while waiting for my breakfast ciabatta melt.





I think they should step up their drug screening. Seems like they're having too much fun on the night shift.

Creepy

It might be hard to see here; but I snapped this picture on my way back from lunch. The green Lincoln Towne Car in front of me had a super-creepy clown head in it's back window, haunting me.

Well, here's what the cats are doing.

Rufus blissfully suns while Pancakes ponders ruining it.

And he does.

Then he retreats to his fortress of solitude, AKA the inside of Uma's food stand.

Lil loves the smell of my mom's head. Here, she savors it.

Norfolk

I was futzing around on the internet today, and got to perusing the LIFE Magazine images hosted on Google. I marvelled at the pictures of Atlantic City, what it looked like before the garish & imposing casinos showed up. As a six year-old, My mom would ride a train with her grandmother from Philadelphia to spend the day in this version of Atlantic City. It's hard not to get totally consumed by nostalgia.

When I'd gone through all of Atlantic City, and any boardwalk they had on film, and anything in New Jersey, I turned my attention to a place I lived in and explored for some 6 years; Norfolk. Some of these made me laugh, some made me cringe, and some were just shocking. I'll refrain from commentary so as not to unwittingly offend anyone or myself (with naivete').

The ferry to Portsmouth, 1944.

Emergency wartime housing, 1944.

The slums, 1944.

Granby Street, 1944.

Airman wearing light suit on the deck of an aircraft carrier, 1953.

Sailors cleaning up after a fancy party, 1957.

Cheerleading practice, 1958.

Queen of the Azalea Festival & her father, 1958.

Creativity, 1958.

Lewis Cousins' first day at a desegregated Maury High, 1959.

Bettie Jean Reed completes her first day of school at newly desegregated Granby High, 1959.

Is it just me?

Or is this the goofiest/creepiest looking MF you've seen all day? Possibly year? Even dumber; his name is CHIP SALTSMAN. I think he's in the wrong line of work, frankly.

I am not a photographer.

I got to thinking yesterday about those holiday photo "cards" you get in the mail of people's kids; and for some reason decided it would be fun to make something like those but with my pets (since I have no kids). When I got home from work, I constructed a "studio" in my kitchen consisting of a red fuzzy blanket & some Christmas-y colored embellishments. It was pretty much a total failure. My sister, who promised to be my pet-wrangler, mostly just laid on the floor (inexplicably). Pancakes refused to go anywhere near the "set"...Lil had to be bribed with catnip, and Rufus refused to come out of his dressing room. So here's some results for early holiday enjoyment:

Pathetic.

The only way to get Lil anywhere near the set was to spray concentrated catnip all over it.

Pancakes wouldn't sit nice on the blanket, but he would lounge everywhere AROUND it.

She actually looks like she's smiling here, huh? That's my layabout sister under the smiley face.

I like this picture of Lil.

This would have been a really nice picture of Pancakes; but again, I am not a photographer.

The only halfway decent picture of the whole session.

My .15 Seconds of Internet Fame

I've been a fan of Cake Wrecks for a few months...and my Monday was instantly awesome when I discovered that a wreck I submitted---this lil wonder here from my local ACME supermarket, was actually featured today.

I agree with some commenters that it's not a total executional wreck, aside from the smudged eyes & bleeding smile---but it's the subject matter that's baffling. Who's looking for an ear of corn cake?

This guy doesn't look particularly harvesty...it might have made sense in say, July, when Jersey is bursting with this type of corn.

Hench ate a pickle once

I was once again cruising the popular stuff on delicious and came across this site, which is basically a portal to run filters on your pictures. Yes, I can totally do this stuff in Photoshop without the help of a website, but as I was trying it out, I chose this photo of Hench from our January summit (the NYC leg) and I just like it. It looks like she should live in that Waking Life movie.

Vice President Mommy

To your left: a photo I snapped outside the White House last weekend of a paper-mache'd protester. To your right: a photo I snapped of my mom a few months a go.

Creepy similarity, no?

Mobblogging in a Vacuum is W-H-A-C-K

Since I got my iPhone/new reason for existing, I've been experimenting with "Mobblogging"; which I'm pretty sure means "Mobile Blogging", and using such a term makes me want to punch myself in the face, but whatever. I've been emailing pictures that I take in my daily journey through life to this blog. Usually with a marginally-descriptive title, and no text. Therefore no context. Just a picture of my cat, or of an ice-sculpture, or of a stupid sign I saw somewhere. While in the moment, as I'm snapping that photo & sending it out into the ether for my electronic friends to behold, it's fun and amusing, when I get back on an old-timey brick & mortar type computer, I'm left cold.

It makes me think of this little scrap of lyrics from a song by The Format that I like to yell in the car:

When we would take trips
We swore we'd never take pictures
Pictures only
prove you can't convince
Now I wish those photographs
Could convince you
that what we had
Would only turn out a negative

For some reason, I can't figure out how to post pictures and text (apart from the title) with iPhone. So I don't think I'm going to blog explanationless pictures anymore. Instead, here's a handful of pics I've snapped with the old iPhone in the last few weeks, with a little bit of literature attached.

This is a picture that my 3-year old friend and budding iPhone expert took of herself. It was at a funeral luncheon for her great-grandfather. Her mommy smartly didn't have Julia at the actual funeral, but she came to the lunch. I kind of snuck in a few minutes later than everyone else, and sat at a table with some friends. At some point the heads parted and Julia saw me across the room. She screamed "KAAAAARRREEEENNNNN!" (my name to her) and ran towards me, diving into my arms. It made a somber day kind of warm. I imagine how crappy it was for her, with all of these people she doesn't know talking about her, in front of her; pinching her cheeks and asking her ridiculous questions about Santa Claus or whatever.

Mostly, she just kept telling me that she wanted to "hear a noise" from my phone. So we watched some AFV clips on YouTube. iPhone is a great babysitter.

This is Uma, very seriously just sitting there with a ball in her mouth. That's it. She does it all the time, and it always makes me laugh.

My niece Emily and her brother, my nephew Andrew. I did actually get to take a "normal" picture of the two of them smiling nicely, but directly after that, as my mom was still trying to get a shot off, Emily decided that she wanted to bite Andrew. A lot. It was 90-bajillion times cute.

This is the wallpaper in my friend Dena's parents guest bathroom. I snapped this pic some time around 3am on New Year's Day. It is very metallicky and fabulous. And it's not retro, either. They didn't move into that house until like 1985 or something, so this was a concious choice.

This past Saturday, I set out on a mission. A mission to find my Bill Clinton action figure some age-appropriate winter garb. Note: I didn't actually purchase the talking Bill Clinton doll, it was one of many random perks of working in a radio station, though this makes me cherish it no less. Double Note: I actually own 2 Bill Clinton dolls, as I worked at two separate radio stations that got the same freebies, with no other Bill-fanatics. So, I have a backup.

Anyway, Bill #1 lives on my entertainment center, greeting all citizens that pass. I've got a summertime outfit/lawn chair combo, and a decent fall jeans & flannelish shirt ensemble, and you all saw the ill-fitting Christmas outfit.

What I've found, though, is that Ken dolls get the shaft when it comes to fashion options. Toys R' Us had NO Ken outfits. Target had NONE. Walmart had two---one basketball warmup suit type thing with a silver stripe down the leg (not at all presidential) and a variation on his existing fall outfit, but with a psychadelic looking t-shirt and a messenger bag. So, that's that. I may have to resort to making my own clothes for Bill, because even if they did have more cloths available, they'd all be for like Skateboarding Ken or Multiple Color Highlighted Hair Ken, and that's just not right. Bill is an elder statesmen.

As for this picture, I snapped it at Toys R' Us, while wandering bewildered in the doll section. It kind of looks like a little gangster (Italian-American Gangster, not GangstA) trying to explain something. Most likely having to do with balls. Heh.

So there you have it. The boring, rambly background for my boring cameraphone pics. I feel better, though.