deviantART: by:slinkydink

My new project

*slinkydink — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:38:37 PDT

[link]

Check it out and submit if you'd like.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

About me...

*slinkydink — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:08:51 PDT

I work too much. Waaaay too much.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

So, um...stuff.

*slinkydink — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:59:39 PST

1. I haven't picked up my digital SLR in ages. I have, however, been shooting pretty regularly with vintage rangefinders. Now I have a pile of film that I need to get developed.

2. We have a new president woot.

3. Vladimir Nabokov is an amazing writer. I am finishing up Pale Fire and am about to start Lolita and holy fuck this man has a gift for words.

4. Lost is back woot.

5. I work way too much.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Diana

*slinkydink — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 07:02:03 PST

1. Diana 154 up, 93 down
A girl with big boobs and an ass, usually blonde, great in bed, and although may seem stupid at times, is very intelligent, although she herself may not realize it.
"Hey, wutcha doing tonight?"
"haha, i got myself a Diana!"
"Niiice!!"

2. Diana 108 up, 81 down
somebody who extremly good looking and usually goes to a weird type of school (eg. a private school with boys and girls). a diana ALWAYS has loads of friends and bestie who knows her exreeeemly well. also has beautiful blonde hair which looks great in any other colour because it always shines, too. likes rock, metal, and many other......stuff and is occasionally obsessed with making earrings... unlike her earlier days when she was ALWAYS obsessed with making earrings. PLUS dianas most commonly have purple rooms and are way more awesome than ALL of you!
Guy 1: hey you see that girl over there?
Guy 2: the hot one with the awesomly shiney hair listening to her iPod? with the black top??
Guy 1: yeh her, thats Diana
Guy 2: damn shes beautiful!!
Bestie: back off you perverted freaks why dont you go look at eachother instead of staring at people who are WAAAY out of your league, JEEZ!
Guy 1&2: aaarrrrghh help scary hot chick!! run away!!

3. diana 16 up, 2 down
The most gorgeous girl you have ever seen.

She has big beautiful eyes and she is small but so cute that you want to pick her up

She smiles all the time and when she smiles it makes you want to smile

She's gorgeous shes is so Diana
Look at those beautiful eyes she is so Diana

4. Diana 123 up, 120 down
Completely strung out on caffiene so that words are unintelligible and rodent-like, muscle spasms are frequent, and random fascinations dominate speech and action, e.g. shiny objects, scarfs, capes, and magic tricks.
"I am so tired. I need to get diana so I can study for this exam."
OR
-"Hey, you want to go to the bars?"
-"I'mtoodianatogetdrunk!"

5. Diana 33 up, 90 down
1) A person who traps puppies under chairlegs, breaks windows with bowling pins, gets freaky monster-rashes on her wrist, is able to tan while wearing jeans, is worshipped by bugs (but not flies), eats mashed potatoes with peanut butter, and is more awesome than you.

2) The act of texting from 193820 different phone numbers.
"Hey dude, did you see Diana?"
"You mean that weird girl laying in the grass over there even though it's not sunny? Yeah, she's still there."
"Yo, did she text you?"
"She's totally Diana-ing me.. but i don't care, 'cause they make me happy."

6. diana 78 up, 205 down
Diana camera is a classic toy camera. A collectible item. It produces weird and dreamy pictures. Dianas have been manifactured somewhere around the 1960's in China.
A Holga is the contemporary Diana of toy cameras.

7. diana 107 up, 326 down
1) someone who adores goats
2) someone who owns a shoehorn
3) someone who doesn't listen to music
4) someone who can't dance well
1) She really likes goats, she's so diana.
2) Wow, that girl is so diana, she needs a shoehorn to take off her clothes.
3) I hate this song, i must be diana.
4) You can't dance for beans! You are soooo diana!!

[link]

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Sometimes hipsters piss me off.

*slinkydink — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:27:37 PST

The other night I braved Urban Outfitters in Filthydelphia so that I could get a $9 rug that matched my futon tapestry cover from the same store. I succeeded in my mission, but not without leaving the store in a significantly less cheerful mood than I had when I entered.
My problem wasn't the salespeople. They were helpful and friendly. It wasn't the music; it was better than the crap that gets played in most stores. The problem was basically the other customers.
Walking through that store, I was hard pressed to find a single female who wasn't clad in ugg boots, skinny jeans, and a keffiyeh, strutting around with some ridiculous chip on her shoulder like she was better than the rest of the world.
And although I really wanted to get my $9 rug, there were several moments when I almost walked out of the store because of the sheer magnitude of hipster bullshit surrounding me.
I was so tempted to storm up to one of the little punks, bitchslap her across the face, and tell her to grow up and chill the fuck out, because she wasn't half as damn special as she thought just she was just because she was listening to Vampire Weekend on her 16GB iPod touch that her Main Line Philly Snob parents bought her for Christmas.
God I hate hipsters sometimes.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

*slinkydink — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 10:51:53 PST

Or Happy Hanukkah. Or Happy Kwanzaa. Or Winter Solstice. Or December 25th. Or whatever it is you celebrate.

Today is a good day. I got heaps of Polaroid film.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Glasses are the new cool.

*slinkydink — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:57:23 PST

It's true.
From Benjamin Franklin to Buddy Holly to Harry Potter and everyone in between, glasses have been a long-standing statement of coolness. They signify intelligence and superiority, and have been worn by some of the hippest people around.
As a result, I'm challenging everyone who reads this to change their deviantID to a photo of them with glasses painted/edited/Photoshopped onto them, kind of like mine. It'll be a new trend.
So why not give it a try? All the cool kids are doing it.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

My mom is awesome.

*slinkydink — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:39:53 PST

She just called to tell me that she found a ton of Polaroid film at a store in Georgia and is getting it for me.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Jenny Lewis's voice is like a drug.

*slinkydink — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:15:52 PST

I'm dead serious. She is crack for your ears.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Black Friday Success

*slinkydink — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:24:17 PST

I woke up at 4am on the morning of Black Friday and stood in line outside the soon-to-be bankrupt Circuit City, but the deals I got were completely worth it. I got a kickass HDTV for a hundred dollars less than it was being sold anywhere else, along with some dirt-cheap SD cards and Flash drives, but my crowning achievement by far was my Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot camera that I got for a hundred bucks and that came with a complementary Epson Ultra-High-Def Photo Printer.
Needless to say, I'm excited to start saving photo printing costs by doing them myself with my new kickass machine. And the camera is quite nice as well, especially given the fact that my old point-and-shoot digital camera died a few months back.
So yeah. Envy me.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

I can has Twitter?

*slinkydink — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:23:49 PST

I now have a Twitter, after much urging from multiple friends. If you want to add me or whatever, go to twitter.com/slinkydink13.
So yeah, that's all.
Also: My new Macbook came in, so hopefully my work will be getting more streamlined in the near future, as I will no longer be borrowing a friend's computer and cursing my old machine as it gets progressively slower.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Decemberists Concert #4

*slinkydink — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:35:40 PST

Every time I get to see the Decemberists, I totally remember why they are my favorite band. First, they put on a great show. They're quirky, spontaneous, and solid musicians. Second, they never play the same show twice. Every time I've seen them their setlist and overall show have been different and unique. And third, they are the nicest people ever. I met them again after the show on Friday (pictures coming soon) and although it was almost 1am and I could tell that they were exhausted, they were still gracious and stuck around to sign every autograph, pose for every photo, and Colin Meloy even left a message on our one friend's phone who couldn't make it out to the show.
Having worked in radio for a bit, I quickly learned that a lot of bands can be total dickasses to their fans, but I've never gotten that from the Decemberists.
And that is why I love them so much.
I'm going to post my photos as soon as I get my film developed on lunch break.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Less penis plz

*slinkydink — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:58:33 PST

Let me begin by saying that I love when people add my work to their favourites. It makes me happy to know that they enjoy my photography, and gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside and encourages me to continue shooting despite my perpetually busy schedule.
As a result, when I get a favorite from someone, I usually check out his/her page to see what else has been faved and what that person's personal artistic style is, plus I generally leave a friendly "thanks for the fave!" message before leaving, just to show that I appreciate the love.
What disturbs and slightly discourages me, though, is that I tend to get a lot of faves from dudes who post nothing but closeup snapshots of their dicks. I don't know what attracts these dudes to my gallery. Maybe it's the pinup/fetish shots that I do from time to time, or maybe they take my username the wrong way and think it means something dirty.
(sidebar: Slinky was my college nickname, and I loved Shrinky Dinks as a child, thus the combination that resulted in my username. It's not dirty.)
But no matter why they do it, it's annoying as crap. Penis pictures are not art. I don't care how much some dude thinks his junk is amazing; taking shitty snapshots of it and posting them on an art website is NOT art. Sorry.
And for some reason, I don't give a flying fuck if some dick-shooter faves my work. It doesn't encourage me. It doesn't give me a warm, fuzzy feeling. It just annoys me that people are looking at my photography as free porn and are objectifying my model, *plunderbunny, who happens to be a dear old friend and not some cheap skank who deserves that kind of treatment.
My photography is art. Or at least that's my goal. My photography is not free jerk-off material.
So please, if you're a penis photographer, please don't fave my work. It just pisses me off.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Moar Polaroids to come...

*slinkydink — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:13:51 PDT

So I have like 15 Polaroids of *plunderbunny that I still have to post from the series we did on Sunday. But, I just finished working a 14-hour day, and tomorrow is going to be an even longer day, so I'm probably not going to get to post anything until sometime Thursday evening.
But keep your eyes peeled because I do intend on posting many moar pictures.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Open Letter to Plunderbunny...

*slinkydink — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 06:45:34 PDT

Dear Essex Machina,
Last night, during a particularly vigorous bout of thrift store shopping, I purchased a vintage white rabbit fur coat, tags still on, in absolutely perfect condition for only twenty five dollars. Several hours later, it dawned on me that I NEED to photograph you in this coat, complete with excessive amounts of bling-y costume jewelry (which are also currently in my possession as leftovers from my days on the pageant circuit).
I still have a Sheetz gas card with your name on it sitting on my kitchen table, so my question to you is this:
What are you doing next Sunday afternoon? If you don't have plans, will you please come over and let me photograph you in this amazing coat? It's totally screaming your name in every conceivable way.
I anxiously await your response.
Yours in friendship and vintage pinup classiness,
Diana

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Clothing that annoys me...

*slinkydink — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:25:51 PDT

The following are fashion faux pas that I have seen around the office and that have been irking me excessively:

1. Square-toe shoes, particularly boots.
2. Fake patent leather.
3. Excessive buckles.
4. Pants that are too tight and make your ass look huge.
5. Visible panty lines.
6. Mixing various shades of black and brown simultaneously.
7. Polyester.
8. Acrylic sweaters that pill easily.
9. Wearing skirts well-above the knee when you're in your 40's.
10. Incorrect shades of foundation.

Feel free to add to this list if you've seen anything awful at your place of work.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Fuck Sarah Palin

*slinkydink — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:13:33 PDT

That woman needs to be cunt punted.

In other news, I'm still making stamps.

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

UPDATE: Applicants Wanted.

*slinkydink — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:16:57 PDT

UPDATE:
I've made seven stamps so far. And I have horrid cramps.

So I'd like to try my hand at making some Deviant Stamps. I made one a long time ago for the now-defunct Youth Crew, but I'd love to do nicer ones, maybe for individual artists, or clubs or whatnot. They might suck, they might be great, I can't make any guarantees.
What I can say, though, is that I'll try my best to make them look half-decent.
Now, with that in mind, who wants me to make them a stamp?

______________________________________________
[link]
My Stamp Collection
______________________________________________

Election 2008

*slinkydink — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:41:04 PDT

[link]

This is pretty hilarious.

Election 2008

*slinkydink — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:53:30 PDT

Are Michael and Sarah Palin related? God I hope not.

Fuck

*slinkydink — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 07:52:31 PDT

I suck at photography. Everything I do just seems hopelessly bland and unoriginal, and I'm ready to give up.
I look at some of the artists on this site and they're AMAZING and everything I do just seems to pale in comparison.
I've tried searching for inspiration and such, but nothing seems to pan out for me; I just get frustrated with all of my work and generally despise it.
I'm thisclose to giving up.

And in other news, I still need a new job because my current one is sucking all of the life out of me and making me depressed and angry. Whatever. I'm seeing an employment lawyer on Wednesday to work shit out.

The cure to on-the-job boredom, as stolen from Max

*slinkydink — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:05:36 PDT

1. How old will you be in five years? 28

2. Who did you spend at least two hours with today? My cat, if you count the time I spent sleeping

3. How tall are you? 5'4"

4. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks? Finding a new job

5. What's the last movie you saw? Clone Wars. It was horrid.

6. Who was the last person you called? Lawyer

7. Who was the last person to call you? My boyfriend

8. What was the last text message you received? Ashley, about weekend plans.

9. Who was the last person to leave you a voicemail? Marta

10. Do you prefer to call or text? Depends on who it is.

11. What were you doing at 12am last night? Careerbuilder.com

12. Are your parents married/divorced? Married

13. When did you last see your mom? Sometime at the beginning of June.

14. What color are your eyes? Hazel

15. What time did you wake up today? 6:45 am, though it turns out I didn't actually have to be at work til nine.

16. What are you wearing right now? A gray sweater that keeps shedding all over my pants.

17. Do you like Christmas songs? I used to.

18. Where is your favorite place to be? Conewago Coffeehouse

19. Where is your least favorite place to be? Work

20. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? Probably Rome.

21. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years? I'd like to be a lawyer

22. Do you tan or burn? Burn and peel.

23. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? I don't know, actually.

24. What was the last thing that really made you laugh? I don't think I've really laughed in weeks, actually.

25. Do you have an e-crush on anyone on DA? No.

26. How big is your bed? Full.

27. Do you have a laptop or desktop computer? Laptop.

28. Do you sleep with or without clothes on? Depends on the season. In the summer, naked, in the winter, like 15 layers of clothes on.

29. What color are your sheets? striped.

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? Anywhere from 2-4

31. What is your favorite season? Spring

32. What is the best way to waste time on DA? Music Forum

33. What do you like about winter? Hurling snowballs at unsuspecting passersby.

34. What do you like about the summer? I think I'd like it more if I actually got to appreciate it this year instead of being cooped up in an office throughout the daylight hours.

35. What do you like about spring? Not too hot, not too cold, and a really nice smell in the air.

36. How many states/provinces have you lived in? Just Pennsylvania.

37. What cities/towns have you lived in? A few.

38. Do you prefer shoes, socks, or bare feet? Bare Feet.

39. Are you a social person? I actually generally hate people.

40. What was the last thing you ate? Chinese.

41. What is your favorite restaurant? Dunno.

42. What is your favorite kind of ice cream? Cookie Dough

43. What is your favorite dessert? I don't like dessert.

44. What is your favorite kind of soup? French Onion.

45. What kind of jelly do you like on your PB & J sandwich? Strawberry, probably.

46. Do you like Chinese food? Hells yeah.

47. Do you like coffee? Hells yeah.

48. How many glasses of water, a day, do you drink on average? Enough to make me pee all the time.

49. What do you drink in the morning? Coffee.

50. What is your favorite gallery on DA? Dunno.

51. Do you sleep on a certain side of the bed? Generally the left side.

52. Do you know how to play poker? Not well.

53. Do you like to cuddle? Only when it's not too hot outside.

54. Have you ever been to Canada? Yeah.

55. Do you have an addictive personality? No.

56. Do you eat out or at home more often? I generally eat at my boyfriend's apartment.

57. Do you believe in ghosts? Yeah.

58. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? This girl I went to high school with.

59. Do you want kids? Yeah, but not for about 10 years.

60. Do you speak any other languages? A bit of German and Sanskrit

61. Have you ever gotten stitches? Nope.

62. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? Nope.

63. Do you prefer an ocean or a pool? Ocean, I think.

64. Do you prefer a window seat or an aisle seats? Window, so I can look at the clouds.

65. Do you know how to drive a stick? Kind of.

66. What is your favorite thing to spend money on? I'm generally stingy, but probably camera equipment or vintage shoes.

67. Do you wear any jewelry? My Tiffany's cross and O...

Cats, Costumes, and the Captian.

*slinkydink — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:18:57 PDT

Yesterday I shot with and the results, quite frankly, are rather amazing. We had an incredible amount of creative fun, since Essex herself is an artist and had plenty of great ideas, and ended the night by getting drunk at the local tavern and complaining about creepy male photographers who make porn shots and try to pass them off as art.
Good times, and I can't wait for moar!

Moar.

*slinkydink — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:03:02 PDT

Tomorrow I plan on shooting with the beautiful . The results will be posted here afterwards.

In other news, I'm currently job hunting. I'm sick of working in television and I'd like to find something in the legal field so that I can build up a bit of experience and go to law school in a few years.
Becoming a lawyer is something that's been in the back of my mind for years, in fact, for most of my life, but it's only been recently after a series of travesties at my current job that the idea of working in a field where I get paid a lucrative salary to argue with people has become incredibly appealing.
Diana Robinson, Attorney at Law
I like that.

In the meantime, I've been staging an act of personal rebellion at the office to protest the way I've been treated by refusing to smile at anyone and walking around with a perpetual stern poker face for the past week that has thoroughly freaked everyone out and made them afraid to come near me, given the fact that I'm generally one of the most amicable people in our company.
Fucking with people is really fun sometimes.

omgkawaiinarutoftwlolzomg!!!!111

*slinkydink — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:33:26 PDT

I'm more likely to get responses to something with this title than I am to something with any sort of intelligent title around these parts.
deviantArt fucking sucks.
And I hate fourteen year old fangirls.

Idea...

*slinkydink — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:48:18 PDT

I'd like to make a spoof anime cartoon.
It would be done in the artistic style of a fourteen year old fangirl, which is to say, Microsoft paint and/or dying markers on lined notebook paper.
The dialogue would be awful and would most likely involve some pink-haired, purple-eyed anime chick hooking up with Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance.
The characters' names would all end in -chan, and they would only say things like "kawaii" and "omg naruto!!!!!!!!!!!!111" and make odd Asian-sounding noises like "ai" and "eo," or perhaps "aieo."
The characters would be drawn horribly out-of-proportion, with oversized Bratz-doll-styled eyes, spiky-ended hair, and FFF-sized cups, and there would probably be a little anime kitty or fox somewhere in the comic that would show up from time to time and make "maeo" or "aiooeeo" type anime animal noises.
Who thinks this would be an awesome idea?

My amazing flea market luck...

*slinkydink — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:45:07 PDT

Yesterday I went to a flea market and found this great old Olympus OM-10. It came with 3 lenses-- a 28mm, a 50mm, and a 135mm, plus ND and skylight filters, a hotshoe flash, a remote shutter control, and several rolls of expired film. Plus a camera bag, but that smelled like cat piss, so I'm getting rid of it.
The whole package cost me $50, but I got a $10 gas card rebate, so in the end I guess I was only out 40 bucks for all that stuff.
The only problem, and I knew this when I purchased it, is that the film advance lever is jammed on the camera body. I tried taking it apart to fix it, but I ended up breaking three of my boyfriend's cheap-ass screwdrivers in the process, so I gave up until I can get to a store and buy a decent eyeglass-size Phillips head.
However, the more I read about it online, the more I think it would be more effective in the end to simply buy a new camera body. They only cost a few bucks on ebay. Then I can take apart the one I have and tinker with it/ use it for parts/possibly lend it to one of my good friends who will re-rig it to do something incredibly odd and wonderful.
And as if all of that business wasn't cool enough, my boyfriend surprised me yesterday by presenting me with this amazing old 90-230mm Vivitar lens that he saved from an old camera that his dad stupidly traded in for some piece of shit Canon with a busted light meter and broken flash simply because it looked newer and sleeker.
Sometimes I don't understand Asians. But that's another story.
So the bottom line of this story is that now I need to purchase some screw mount adapters so that I can interchange all of my lenses between my different camera systems.
And oh God, I held that 28mm up to my Nikon D70 and took a few shots and the results are gorgeous.
Envy me.

The state of modern music

*slinkydink — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:28:21 PDT

I'm slowly starting to hate everything that I hear these days. Not just on the radio, but also the stuff that people recommend to me that never makes the airwaves. It all just sounds so generic. I want to hear something unique, something riveting, something that isn't just quiet strummy guitars and breathy vocals. I want something epic, something with staying power that's not just going to bore me after I listen to it for the third time.
Nothing seems to fit the bill these days.
Someone please help. I need to hear something that inspires me.

I stole this from p-u-r-i-n 's journal...

*slinkydink — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:18:24 PDT

Rules of the game:

- Choose a singer/band/group
- Answer using ONLY titles of songs by that singer/band/group
- Tag 6 more people (let them know they've been tagged)

I'm going to make this super easy on myself and pick the Beatles.

1. Are you male or female?
Girl

2. Describe yourself.
I Am the Walrus

3. What do people feel when they're around you?
Good Day Sunshine

4. How would you describe your previous relationship?
I Should Have Known Better

5. Describe your current relationship.
Dig It

6. Where would you want to be now?
Strawberry Fields

7. How do you feel about love?
It's Only Love

8. What's your life like?
The Long and Winding Road

9. What would you ask for if you had only one wish?
Piggies (!)

10. Say something wise.
Think For Yourself.

I tag anyone who wants to be tagged. Simply let me know that you've done this.

Wow, what happened?

*slinkydink — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:06:56 PDT

1. I still take pictures, I just don't have time to post them here.
2. My roommate killed herself and I've been all confused/searching for the past few months, so I haven't been on here at all.
3. I just moved to a new apartment this week in an attempt to make a fresh clean start for myself.
4. I'm starting an experimental photography collective with one of my good friends. Perhaps some of my more successful attempts will get posted here.
5. I've been blogging at [link]
6. I have to pee right now.

God Bless You, Ric Flair.

*slinkydink — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:21:13 PDT

That's all I have to say. I just watched his retirement on Monday Night Raw and I was touched.
Call me a dork for dedicating a journal entry to a professional wrestler, but this man was a legend and is more than worthy of space in my journal.

Wooooooooooooooooooo!

My weird dream

*slinkydink — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:06:13 PDT

I often have odd, vivid dreams, usually involving friends, family, coworkers, and the occasional antichrist zombie or celebrity appearance. But one dream I had the other night stood out to me as particularly odd. Of course it seemed perfectly normal while I was dreaming, but the next day when I thought about it, I found the whole thing rather unusual. Tell me what you think.

The dream began with me walking around a normal suburban neighborhood. Suddenly, I turned and noticed that there were some kids playing guns in the street. One pointed his tree branch at me, so I put my hands up and said, "Enough is enough, if you walk away I'll walk away.
And he shot me dead.
And then I had to go to prison for protesting the war in public.
While I was in jail, the guards kept spitting on me and yelling at me and calling me unpatriotic, and I kept trying to fight back, but for some reason the only arguments I could make came in the form of Bright Eyes lyrics. I tried to form my own original thoughts, but no matter what I tried to say, everything just came out of my mouth all Conor Oberst-ified.

What does this mean?

Songs I hate.

*slinkydink — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:25:40 PST

For those of you who don't already know, I work at a modern rock radio station on weekends. As a result, I am overexposed to a plethora of really shitty music. Right now there are three songs in particular that keep getting in my head, and I hate them all. Here goes:

Empty Walls by Serj Tankian
Let me open by saying that I have always hated Serj Tankian's wailing vocals. Every time I hear System of a Down I have to cover my ears because his voice sounds worse than nails on a chalkboard. So the fact that he made a solo album and has a hit single that showcases his obnoxious voice is not something that makes me happy. The fact that said hit single is played nonstop on my radio station and consequently gets stuck in my head for days at a time makes me downright angry.

crushcrushcrush by Paramore
For starters, I hate Paramore. They have some of the stupidest, weakest lyrics of any band I've heard, they do nothing unique musically, and that Hayley chick's voice annoys the living shit out of me. This song annoys me more than most because it's way overplayed and I have to hear it all the time. And to make it worse, every time I see one of those teenypunker girls at the mall wearing a Paramore shirt, the song pops in my head again.

Maybe I'm the one who is a schizophrenic psycho, yeah, or whatever it's called, by Puddle of Mudd
I don't like Puddle of Mudd to begin with, but this song particularly annoys me because the lyrics are especially lame and don't flow at all. The chorus is such cliched modern rock bullshit, and the combination of these flaws is a perfect recipe for disaster. I hope this song falls off the face of the earth tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and the new Killers song sucks monkey butt too.

"Why My Life is Insane" (an essay by Di

*slinkydink — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:22:55 PST

It's funny how just when you think your life is going to settle down and you can start relaxing and getting your affairs in order so that you can move onto the next stage of the big adventure known as life, someone always manages to throw a curveball that seriously fucks shit up.

Due to unforseen circumstances surrounding the sudden sale of my parents' house and my subsequent newfound adult responsibilities (ie getting a real job, financial independence, fighting the ever-rising gas prices, etc) I moved twice in two months, eventually settling on an apartment that was close to both my friends and my job. Just as I started to get settled in and gave myself a false sense of security that everything was going to be smooth sailing from that moment forward, it all came back to bite me in the ass.

I came home one night to find that my roommate had tried to kill herself by taking like a hundred pills and chasing them with 4 shots of Southern Comfort. Needless to say, life hasn't been the same since. Now I'm in over my head dealing with an overly dependent young woman who isn't getting the treatment she so desperately needs and is relying on me instead of seeking the help of professionals, and quite frankly, I can't deal with this anymore.

I don't know what the answer to my dilemma is going to be, but I'm thinking that the safest bet is for me to just move again. Not that I have the time or the energy to move again, but I really don't see any other way of dealing with shit.

2008 has been quite the eventful year thus far. Pretty much from the moment the ball dropped, my life has been in transition. I'd love to get back into my photography and music, but with so much other shit going on, I don't know when all of that is going to happen.

It's funny, because I always told myself that life would settle down after college. Ironically, it's only seemed to get crazier.

On the bright side, I have really been blessed with some amazing people in my life. My friends have been there for me, calling to check in on me, taking me out for coffee to get my mind off of things, listening to me vent, and (in the case of my boyfriend), letting me move in with him for two weeks when I was afraid to go back to my apartment and live with her because she was acting psychotic.

I don't know when life will finally settle down. Some of the older and wiser people I know tell me it probably won't happen for years. But in the meantime, I'm just going to keep chugging along, hoping that one day soon things will calm down enough for me to have time to once again do the things that I love.

I have returned.

*slinkydink — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:27:30 PST

So after like a two-month hiatus from dA for a variety of personal reasons, mostly because I've been waay too busy running in entirely too many directions, I am finally back to deviantART.
Wow. It's been a long time. I need to get myself a new subscription, because it seems mine ran out, and I need to start uploading some of my more recent artworks, something which probably won't be done until probably after the new year given all this holiday craziness and the like.
I'm going to start hanging out in the music forum again, too. I miss all those crazy former Youth Crew kids.
So yeah. Hi again. I'll write more later.

Cell phone update

*slinkydink — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:23:47 PDT

So after calling my cell phone for about the tenth time, someone finally picked up. Turns out that I dropped my cell phone at a gas station and an older couple found it. Instead of turning it in inside, where I would have found it because I went back looking for it, they decided to take the phone back with them to Virginia, which is two states/several hours away. They are both old and hard of hearing, so they never heard the millions of desperate calls I made to it until they got back home and their daughter found out what had happened, took the phone, and held on to it until I called.
Now she's mailing me the phone and hopefully I'll have it back soon.

I lost my cell phone

*slinkydink — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:55:33 PDT

And I'm like totally flipping out. I'm anxious and jumpy because I know I've prolly missed like 25 million phone calls, and I feel completely disconnected from society right now. Gah!

I moved...

*slinkydink — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:14:45 PDT

And it's kinda surreal. I mean, I've lived in the same house since I was five years old, and now suddenly I'm in completely new surroundings.
But hey, I'll get used to it.

AWESOME show last night...

*slinkydink — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:23:20 PDT

So last night I saw the Shins with Spoon.
The show was fucking awesome, and you all know you're jealous of me.

In other news, I'm moving this week.

Dear J.K. Rowling,

*slinkydink — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 07:04:29 PDT

So Dumbledore is gay.
I have nothing against homosexuality, but doesn't this turn of events sound like something out of a really bad fan fiction?
Just a thought.
Also, since you've made this revelation post-HP7 does this mean that you have more secrets up your sleeve that you're going to reveal over the years?
And if you do, are they going to be as lame as this one? I mean, now that we know Dumbledore is gay, does it give a whole new meaning to his secret meetings with Harry?
Please get back to me on this.

Love,
Diana

ps- I have a friend who looks like Harry Potter. When I'm not wearing my glasses I look like Ginny Weasley. My other friend has a mustache. So for Halloween we are dressing up as Harry, Ginny and Lupin.

I have a ton of pictures to upload

*slinkydink — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:34:22 PDT

But my computer sucks monkey butt so it's going to take me a while to get them all posted.

As of tonight, I'm going to start making a conscious effort to spend more time in the music forum, because I've been neglecting it as of late and that's not cool. So look for me, cause I'll be around.

In other news, I have a pounding sinus headache right now.

Piano songs

*slinkydink — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 05:10:55 PDT

I've been on a major piano kick recently. Meaning that I am actively searching out tunes with hauntingly beautiful and introspective piano parts in them. Anyone gots suggestions?

In other news, the song I'll Catch You by the Get Up Kids has officially been in my head for a week and a half. I like the song, but this is getting ridiculous.

Hey Hey Oh Man Music

*slinkydink — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:40:23 PDT

So I haven't been on dA much recently and I haven't been on the Youth Crew forum recently and I really haven't been spending much time in the presence of a computer at all these days, but I have a really good reason for it.

I have a band again.

This is probably the best thing that's happened to me since graduation, because although I can't say that I miss my old band in particular, I will definitely say that I miss the experience of being in a band, so it's great to be back in that mode again. I've been jamming with two guys from work and it's absolutely fabtabulous. We gel really well as a group and we have at least two gigs coming up in October and I just can't put into words how happy all of this is making me.

Eventually I think we'll record some stuff and put it on a MySpace, but for now we're just playing really fun covers and having a good time. And with my last band, for the last six months or so that I was with them the whole "having a good time" element was completely absent, so it's incredibly nice to have that back again.

In other news, I'm currently reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower and it makes me want to do something really badass, but I'm not quite sure what. Seriously, for some reason this book is really speaking to me and I don't know why but I've had this dumb grin on my face pretty much the entire time I've been reading it and I really don't ever want it to end.

In more news, last night I listened to the Get Up Kids for the first time ever and I really don't know why I never listened to them earlier. Actually, I take that back. I do know why I never listened to them earlier. It's because in high school all the emo brats listened to them so I purposely avoided them. But now that I've heard them, I wish I hadn't waited this long to do so, because I really liked them. Last night I drove all over Central Pennsylvania with one of my bandmates and we listened to music and I locked myself out of the house and it was really fun, but a bit embarrassing because I had to go wake up my neighbor so that he could lend me the spare key that he has. Stupid me. I need to do something nice for him.

Seriously though, I love sharing music with people. Last week I got one of my dear friends into Jimmy Eat World and it totally made my day when she called to tell me that she couldn't stop listening to them.

If anyone ever wants me to share music with them, or has music to share with me, send me a note. I love hearing new stuff and love bringing new stuff to other people. Like a few weeks ago when I IMed all kinds of Decemberists awesomeness to ~seigi. That was fun too, and I hope he liked it.

On a completely different note, I've been doing all kinds of photography recently and I'm going to post some of it here in the near future.

It's been almost two years since I went through my last creative spurt, but I think that one is starting to come back to me, because I've been feeling very artsy recently. This is a good thing.

I need to start writing again. I think maybe I'll write some lyrics this weekend because I have a bit of free time. If I like them maybe I'll post them here for feedback.

The end.

Diana Robins...
</article>
<article>
<h1>All kinds of internet goodness, heading your way.</h1>
<p>*slinkydink — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 07:09:11 PDT</p>
Two items of interest.<br />
<br />
1) I've decided to start seriously blogging again. You can track me down at <a href=

[link]
Go leave some comments and make me feel loved!

2) ~ivebeentired has relaunched the Youth Crew! Check out the new and improved forum at [link]

That's all for today.

The Everything Journal!

*slinkydink — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 07:10:17 PDT

A) So yesterday I was at the thrift store and I found a Canonet GIII QL17 rangefinder camera for $3.99, with a hotshoe flash included. I'm really excited about this because I've been wanting a rangefinder camera for a while, and this one is 1972 oldschool and full of awesomeness. I can't wait to shoot with it and I think I'm going to do a roll tomorrow.

B) I always love it when I hear awesome music playing in unexpected public places. I heard Interpol at the art supply store, The Flaming Lips at Wendy's, and Arcade Fire at the Gap outlet store. Things like this make me very happy.

C) I've been tagged again, this time by ~hybri5. I have to do that 8 facts about yourself thingy, so here goes:

1. I almost died when I was born because my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck five times and I was purple. But thanks to a quick-thinking doctor, I'm here today.

2. I am a coffee and tea addict. Some people like one or the other, but I am completely obsessed with both and consume waaay too much on a daily basis.

3. I have this weird thing called synesthesia, which makes me see/hear letters, numbers, people, voices, and music notes as colors.

4. Chai tea pretty much fuels my existence.

5. I have a tendency to obsess over one band at a time and I go through stages, usually lasting about a week or two, where I listen to nothing but that artist.

6. When I was younger I always knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up, but now that I'm out of school I have no idea what I want to do with my life.

7. As a musician, artist, and photographer, I am rarely satisfied with my work and I almost always find it mediocre in comparison to the things done by other people.

8. I collect quotes. Not famous quotes by poets and stuff like that, but everyday hilarious quotes that come out of my friends' mouths. Then I post them on my website.

Okay, there you go. I tag anyone who wants to be tagged.

Someone please save the music.

*slinkydink — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 07:15:38 PDT

Is it just me, or has the music forum really gone downhill recently? For a while it was really fun, but it seems like everyone just keeps posting the same old boring threads and there is nothing on there that is worth commenting on.
Quite frankly, I'm getting disappointed. Not just with the music forum, but with people's musical tastes in general. Last night my radio station sponsored an acoustic Aaron Lewis concert and I was there to hand out stickers and promote the station. (For those of you who don't know, Aaron Lewis is the lead singer of the band Staind.)
I've meet Aaron Lewis before and he's a really nice guy. His stage banter is excellent, and he can actually play the guitar decently. But man, I was disappointed. For someone who can break into a blues improv in the middle of a show (which he did) and do 45 minutes of audience cover requests, it's a tragedy that the music he sings on his records is so bland. The way I see it, if you have talent, you should actually use it, not write cookie-cutter modern rock crap.
What pissed me off even more was the crappy opening band that he signed to his label and kept promoting and saying how great they were.
The opening band fucking sucked monkey balls. They had two guitarists who played simple power chords and a singer who had the reverb turned up so high on his mic that everything he sang had a 3-second-long echo on it. The crowd went wild and talked about how incredible they thought the opening band was, and when I told my coworker that I thought they sucked he was incredulous. He was going to buy their fucking CD until I explained their ridiculous lack of talent to him and talked him out of it.
I guess the bottom line of my rant is this: the general music listening public's standards have been so severely lowered after years of being spoonfed shiteous music that they are now starting to not only accept the first piece of crap presented to them, but to actually enjoy it. And therein lies the tragedy that plagues the music forum these days. It's full of threads like "who lieks mcr?", "OMG NICKELBACK!!!", and "taking back sunday rox!!!!"
Honestly, I look at the music forum these days and I just shake my head. Anyone else with me on this?

Do not go gentle into that good night

*slinkydink — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:44:02 PDT

So I've decided to do something crazy. I'm going back to school for an associate's degree in photography/visual arts. I figure that having that certification on top of my bachelor's in communications will make me more marketable in the future if I choose to go into photography, which is something I'd really like to do. I mean, I love working in TV and radio, but the hours are impossible sometimes, which makes it difficult to have any semblance of a social life.
I'd like to keep DJing on weekends no matter what, but I think I have more of a passion for photography than I do for television, even though I have a ton and a half of room for improvement in photography.
But here's the bottom line: After only my first week of classes, everything I'm doing feels right. It seems like this is where I'm supposed to be in my life, and I'm feeling more inspired all ready. I just got my Canon Rebel and I'm totally loving it. I'm also taking design and drawing classes and things are starting to click. In college, everything was so incredibly theory-based that there was little room to actually apply things to the practical world. Now the tables are turned and everything I've learned this week has a practical application. Quite frankly, it's refreshing.
So the bottom line is: From now on, you'll probably start seeing a lot more stuff posted by me, and hopefully it will be of a much better quality than usual, because I'm starting to feel inspired again.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm watching Dangerous Minds right now. I forgot how much I liked that movie until just now.

Inspiration and stuff like that...

*slinkydink — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:14:59 PDT

So here's what I'm doing, I think:
1. I'm getting a Leica V-Lux. Forgoing my love of Nikons, at least temporarily, for an awesome name brand. I've been reading the reviews for a while now and it seems like a good purchase, especially since I'm in the market for an under-$1000 Digital SLR.
2. I'm getting a Canon Rebel 35mm SLR and I'm going to start shooting more stuff in black and white. It's helping that I'm taking a black and white photography course on Saturday mornings at a local community college this fall.
3. I'm getting a Holga and doing photographic experiments whenever possible.
4. I'm ridding myself of my dependence on Photoshop, because I really need to improve my raw photography skills.
5. I'm hoping to start freelancing for a photography magazine in my area. I was talking to the editor of the magazine last night at a radio station event and he gave me his cards and told me to call him because he's looking for photographers. If this works out, I'll have a chance to be published and get paid for my hobby, which would be awesome.
6. I'm looking around dA for inspirational photography and am trying to shoot as much as possible until my own style starts to emerge.
7. I'm beating myself up waaaay too much over my hatred of my work.

Here are some interesting things I've found recently:

Fuck I love colors so much. This is going to be interesting.
Any suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated and seriously taken into consideration, because these days I'm feeling totally uninspired.

bisento, I'm supposed to list eight interesting facts about myself, then tag some people and have them do so as well. So here goes. I hope I'm interesting enough.

1. I live in a pink house. Seriously. It's made of stucco and is the color of Pepto-Bismol.

2. I have a talent for being able to stop on exact dollar amounts when pumping gas.

3. At one point in time, I actually had nine pet cats, and they all lived inside my pink stucco house, along with rabbits, fish, and a turtle. We had a virtual menagerie.

4. I had salmonella when I was four.

5. When I was little, I lived in a haunted house that was part of the Underground Railroad.

6. I used to do beauty pageants.

7. In real life, I have a tendency to come off as a total airhead, and people are always surprised when they find out that I'm actually half-intelligent.

8. I still sleep with two stuffed animals, a Care Bear named Care Bear and a cat named Eddie.

And now it's time for the tagging:
I tag:

As well as anyone else who hasn't been tagged. It looks like most of the forum regulars who watch me have already fallen victim to this.

Rethinking and a plea for help

*slinkydink — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 06:17:57 PDT

So I've come to the conclusion that my photography sucks. I look at some of the photographers on this site and then I look at my own work and it just seems horribly inadequate in comparison. I try to do new and creative things with my pictures, but they never seem to be quite as new and creative as the things that other people manage to come up with.
With that in mind, I think I need to reevaluate what I'm doing. I need to find a signature style, stick with it, and create something truly extraordinary that I will be proud of showing off. Because right now it seems like everything I do is just a cheap imitation of the things that other people have already done. I think I'm going to do some serious browsing around the interwebz, both on and off dA, in search of something that will inspire me.
I have some ideas for reinspiring my work. The first is to start utilizing my film cameras a little more. I got a fisheye camera [link] as a graduation gift, and I recently purchased an Oktomat camera [link] as well. I think I need to use these more. Perhaps they'll inspire me.
I also have to stop using Photoshop as a crutch to make my pictures more interesting. It seems like I spend way too much adjusting colors and playing with curves and filters to make my crappy photos seem more worthwhile when the real problem is that my technique itself needs to improve.
I'm toying with the idea of incorporating some traditional art into my gallery as well. A few days ago I uploaded some ridiculous sketches that I did with a friend. They had virtually no artistic merit, but in actuality I can sometimes draw interesting things when I'm so inspired, and I've been working on putting together a traditional art exhibit for a local coffee shop/arts organization. Perhaps I should post some of those things here, I'm not sure.
So there you have it. Once I get my act together, I hope to start posting some actual worthwhile material here.
Any suggestions for improvement would be much appreciated and seriously considered, no matter how harsh or critical they sound. So if you've got any ideas for me, PLEASE share them. I'm all ears.

ps- Tomorrow ~tinyturk returns from her summer in Chile. Head over to her page for some truly awesome and inspired photography. Someday I hope to be as awesome as her. WELCOME BACK MEL!

Call me a horrible person but...

*slinkydink — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:44:40 PDT

I'm damn sick of getting hit on by weird guys.
I mean, I work in radio and it's bad enough when the miscreants who listen to our station try to flirt with me and shower me in really tacky pickup lines, but at least in those situations things are a bit controlled because there are other DJs and station people around most of the time to tell the especially weird dudes to get lost if they don't leave me alone. In short, I don't mind it as much when it happens at work because I know that other people have my back.
What worries me is when I'm on my own, going about my day-to-day business and creepy men start bothering me.
At college this was a non-issue because a) I had enough guy friends that no one creepy would stand a chance getting near me and b) I was a Resident Assistant who was bff with Campus Security so no one would touch me with a 39 and a half foot pole.
Now that I'm out of school, though, things are different.
Take this evening, for example. I was at the laundromat, reading a book and minding my own business, when a really creepy man came over and started talking to me, trying to find out where I lived and trying to get me to come hang out with him at his house because he lives by himself. The man was a bit awkward so I felt bad for him, but I told him that I couldn't do that and he spent the rest of the time I was there shooting me death glares, thoroughly freaking me out and making me worry whether or not he was going to follow me home.
Hopefully I'll never see that guy again, but my encounter with him tonight was only the tip of the iceberg.
I guess what's really getting under my skin is this:
The other week, I went to a high school friend's wedding. Overall the whole thing was a lot of fun, and I thought nothing of it when I danced with a really awkward former classmate who has a bad habit of discussing his multitudinous health problems in public situations. I figured I was just doing something nice, giving him a chance to dance with a girl and ignoring the fact that he kept staring at my breasts.
Unfortunately, my momentary kindness came back to bite me in the ass while I was in a dressing room trying on bikinis on vacation in Florida.
There I was, engrossed in the grueling task of finding the perfect suit, when my phone rang. It was an unknown number, but I thought it might be someone important, like the realtor or someone from work, so I picked up the phone.
What a bad choice. It turned out to be this classmate I had danced with, calling to tell me he had heard me on the radio and asking if I wanted to get together with him.
I told him I was on vacation, so he said he would call me when I got back. I absentmindedly said "okay," and of course my manners fucked me over not once, not twice, but three times now.
This kid has now proceeded to call me three times in the past 24 hours. I've ignored all three calls from him, and I hope he gets the message and stops bothering me.
Because here's the really creepy part:
I NEVER GAVE HIM MY CELL PHONE NUMBER. I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE HOW HE GOT MY CELL PHONE NUMBER AND WHEN I FIND OUT WHO GAVE IT TO HIM I'M GOING TO BITCH SLAP THE PERSON ACROSS THE FACE.
Maybe I'm overreacting a bit, but it just kind of creeps me out that someone thinks they have the right to call me out of the blue and start trying to date me just because I was nice to them at a wedding.
Am I a horrible, cold-hearted person? Probably.
But here's the thing. I enjoy being single. And if someone is going to break me of my love of the single life, it's definitely not going to be any one of these creeps.

NovemberDusk and I came up with this afternoon, provided I can get my scanner to work again.

Awesome Music Survey!

*slinkydink — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 05:57:36 PDT

So I stole this from =Diamontaetha's journal. Usually I'm not big on random chain quizzes, but this one deals with music, not crap like "do you like to kiss in the rain" and "have you ever stolen food from the cafeteria?"
Here goes awesomeness. Feel free to comment and steal this quiz for your own journal, because I'd love to see everyone's answers.

Music Survey

What is your favorite genre of music? Indie, oldies, post-rock, and classical
Name your favorite band(s): Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and a bunch of other bands that change by the day and/or hour.
Name your favorite solo artist(s): Ben Folds.
What is your favorite album?: Oh man, that's a hard question.
What is your favorite album cover?: Sergeant Pepper.
Name your favorite song(s): Nightswimming by REM, The Luckiest by Ben Folds, Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles, The Tain by the Decemberists, and a ton of other songs. That question is simply too hard.
Favorite song on your computer:Most of my music is on my computer.
Favorite vocalist: Aretha Franklin
Favorite guitarist: I think I have to say Jimi Hendrix.
Favorite bassist: Jaco Pastorius. Old family friend, what can I say.
Favorite drummer: Prolly Keith Moon.
Favorite classical / jazz composer: Antonio Vivaldi.
Favorite rapper: I don't really get into rap.

The bad stuff
What's your least favorite genre of music? Emo crap.
Who's your least favorite band? My Chemical Romance. Though their fans are even more annoying than the band itself.
Who's your least favorite solo artist? Michael Bolton.
WhoÂs the most annoying musician? Probably Davey Havok from AFI.
If you could shoot any "artist" or "band", who would it be? Probably Hinder. They just really annoy me.
Who do you think is the least talented? Pussycat Dolls. Weren't they a Vegas act or something?
Last song to be stuck in your head? Jesus Freak by dc talk.
Did this survey just get that song stuck in your head again? Not really. Right now I'm at work and Muse is playing in the background.
Worst band that used to be good? Against Me! That's a tragedy.
A good band that used to suck? Oh I'm not sure.

Your musical background?
What was the first music you remember listening to? When I was very little, I used to fall asleep to nursery rhyme music tapes. That was probably when I was about 2 or 3. The youngest age I can remember.
What type of music do your parents listen to? Oldies and classic rock. My mom also likes classical music.
Do you play any musical instruments, or sing? I play piano and violin, and I like to sing in the shower and the car.
Do you take lessons for instruments or voice? If so, for how long? Piano since I was five and violin since I was eight. I also took voice lessons for a bit when I was younger, but I quit because my teacher was psychotic. Literally.
Do you plan to / have you gone to college for music? Didn't go to college for music, but I was the concertmistress of my college orchestra anyway.
Who is your most recent favorite band or artist? I've been listening to them for several years, but right now I'm kind of on a major New Pornographers kick.
What styles of music are you interested in learning about?I spend a lot of my free time listening to and reading up on different music styles for fun because I'm a huge dork like that, but I really need to get into more jazz, I think.
What style of music do you already know a lot about? I know quite a bit about classical music, and for someone from my generation I have a pretty extensive knowledge of oldies and classic rock.
Do you know much about musical theory? If not, would you like to? I went to a high school with a notoriously intense music theory program. So yes, I know quite a bit about theory.
If you take lessons, do you like your teacher(s)? Because of a nasty bout with cancer my piano teacher no longer teaches, but my piano teacher is an absolute doll and I love her to death. I really don't think that anyone else could have possibly had the patience to teach me the piano. Violin I haven't had as much luck with teacher-wise. I've had a lot of bad apples, but one excellent mentor in high school who kept me interested, as well as an incredible orchestra conductor in college.
How many different music teachers do you have, or have you had? One for piano, six for violin.

This or that
Classical or jazz? Classical.
Classic rock or modern rock? Classic...

Why I love my job...

*slinkydink — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 14:38:27 PDT

I got to see The Police last night. FO' FREE.
'Twas awesome, to say the least.

On a negative note, Spin magazine is trying to call Against Me's latest release "The year's best album." What the fuck? Any band who does this loses my respect pretty quickly.

Self-perception

*slinkydink — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:18:47 PDT

I stole this from $Moonbeam13's concept. It seemed cool, so I'm trying it myself. Thirteen is my lucky number, so I'm going to write 13 bullet points about how I perceive myself.
According to psychology, self-perception is based mostly upon the way others related to you. For example, if everyone tells you that you are funny, or are a great singer, or something like that, you will believe it. Hence the reason we are able to get all those laughs from the early weeks of American Idol's bad auditions. Or Pop Idol. Or Australian Idol. Or Whateveryourcountryis Idol. Idol is taking over the world, I fear.
But I digress. Here is my journal listing 13 points of self-perception. Granted, as I previously mentioned, these will probably be based largely upon how others perceive me, but what the fuck. I'm just having fun.
Here goes:
1. I am a music snob. I listen to music all day, I talk about music all day, and I drive everyone up a wall with my incredible snobbishness about all things music. This comes from my upbringing, I think, as both of my parents are music snobs. In addition, I have been playing music (piano and violin) since I was five, have played in a band, have been concertmistress of multiple orchestras, and am a weekend DJ at the largest rock station in my area.
2. I am a bookworm. I spend a good portion of my free time reading, especially now that I'm done with school. To me, there is nothing more comforting than being able to wrap myself up in my blankets and read for an hour or so before bed. Or at any time of the day or night, really.
3. I have an overwhelming obsession with all things related to religion, no matter what belief system or denomination it is. I minored in Asian religions just for fun in college, and enjoy reading about different faiths and am the token Catholic in a multifaith discussion group that includes people of all religious backgrounds at college, and even though I've graduated I have a feeling that I'll be coming back for that next year on whatever night it meets, just because I enjoyed it so much.
4. I am eccentric. My good friend once told me that if I dyed my hair blonde I would pretty much be Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. He may have been exaggerating a little bit there to make a point, but the idea behind it still stands. I do and say a lot of really strange things, and I'm proud of that. I play the electric violin. I studied Sanskrit in college. I take pictures of absolutely everything. I describe my clothing style as thrift-store-awesome. I'm kind of in space most of the time.
5. I am a natural redhead. And I spend waaay too much time being proud of it. I'm never dying my hair until I go gray, at which point I shall dye it back to the color it is now.
6. I am a grammar whore. I have a disgustingly complete knowledge of the mechanics of the English language and like to force my grammatical snobbery on everyone around me. I use "shall" and "whom" in my everyday speech. I had a job editing papers in college. I once read the MLA stylebook for fun. I figure if I'm going to know and speak and language every day of my life, I might as well do it the right way. Thus, I surround myself with people who are equally snobbish about their native tongue. This is a trait I inherited from my father.
5. I'm kind of an elitist in general. I'm very concerned with appearances, and I WILL judge you by the way you look. I have snobbish tastes in cultural matters, and I feel that nothing is worth doing unless it's done correctly and completely. I like to say that so many people settle for crap in this world, and I refuse to be one of them.
6. I am very random. I have a magazine/website called Random Thoughts. If I think that no one will expect me to do something, I will do it just for shock value.
7. Despite all of my elitist tendencies, I like to keep an open mind about important things. I get caught up in the frivolties of nonessential items, but at my very core I like to give every viewpoint and individual person a fair chance.
8. I am obsessed with comedy. I'm not funny myself, but I enjoy dark, quirky humor and I surround myself by some of the funniest people out there, Basically, I'm a comedy elitist. I won't laugh at something unless I actually think it's amusing, and there is nothing that gets on my nerves more than a weak joke or someone trying to get laughs from something that's blatantly not funny. I also get frustrated by people who laugh at crappy jokes, and can't stand weak dialogue in movies.
9. I hold my friends in extraordinarily high esteem, and my family as well. I will do anything for them, and if you do something to hurt one of them, I will flip the fuck out on you.
10. I enjoy being single. Many people don't understand this, but I have never been one of those people who needs a relationship in order to feel important. I am...

Maybe I'm just sentimental...

*slinkydink — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 05:33:22 PDT

For those of you who don't know, I have a six year old brother. I'm 22. There are almost 16 years between us and half the people who see him think that I'm his mother.
This is James --->
I love James to death; he's my little shining star and I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world, even when he's breaking my senior prom souvenier glass, terrorizing the toy section of the local Wal-Mart and throwing a temper tantrum over wanting to purchase a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle as a Christmas gift for my boyfriend, or stealing random office supplies from me to make bizarre works of modern art.
Unfortunately, James, like the rest of my family, lives sixteen hours away from me in Georgia. (I live in Pennsylvania. Check a map if you don't know the distance.) I haven't seen him since May and I won't get to see him again until four days in August.
My baby brother is growing up and I'm not there to see it, and it makes me kind of sad. Recently, (now that he's able to write) he has taken to writing me notes on adorably homemade cards telling me how much he misses me and loves me. They break my heart when I read them because I feel like I'm somehow absent from his life, even though I talk to him on the phone and dote over him obsessively whenever I do see him.
(I bought him a camera .)
I feel like I'm in Pennsylvania, living my own little life, while he's in Georgia wondering why I'm not a part of his life. My mom says that he misses me a lot, and I feel horrible. I mean, on one hand I suppose it's not my fault that there's such a huge age gap between the two of us, but on the other hand I'm kind of afraid of losing him. I don't want James to get to a point where he doesn't consider me to be a part of his life. Because I want more than anything else in the world to be there for me, it's just a geographic difference that keeps me from that goal.
When he gets a little older, I would love for James to be able to visit me during the summers when he's not in school. He could stay at my place and we could have adventures and do all the stuff that I don't get to do with him as much as I'd like.
James eating soup --->
I have no idea how my life will unfold. I don't know where I'll be living or what I'll be doing ten years from now. But I want to make sure that no matter what, I'll keep James as an integral part of my life. I lived with my other two siblings long enough to create lasting (mostly)positive relationships with them. I don't want my darling baby brother to be any different.
(Playing in the puddles at age two.)

Franz Ferdinand was superb, and as an added surprise we saw none other than Wayne Coyne in the special VIP section watching them perform and had to laugh when the lead singer of Franz Ferdinand got up and announced, "Everyone go see the Flaming Lips tonight." Of course I did. But we'll get to that in a minute.
The Police were the headliners for the entire festival, and rightly so. They played for 2.5 hours and performed virtually every song I could have possibly asked for. The highlight of that show was when Sting took his shirt off. Let me tell you, he is incredibly hot for an older man and...

I'M BAAAAACK!!!

*slinkydink — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:52:51 PDT

So, after an excessively long Bonnaroo and work-induced hiatus, I am back. Links to excessive amounts of photography will follow, as well as a full review of the festival.

Oh yeah, and I'm going to this: [link]

This girl should be on dA.

*slinkydink — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 03:51:42 PDT

As a model, or as a photographer. She does both.

Fuck racism.

*slinkydink — Thu, 31 May 2007 22:12:31 PDT

I would just like to state in a public forum that I hate racism and prejudice in any and all forms. Why can't everyone just accept everyone else for who and what they are? The world would be a much better place then.

ps- if you notice my Facebook banner at the bottom of this entry, you'll see that I have a rather hilarious new profile photo. It was taken by none other than *tinyturk, my absolute favorite photographer ever. Wish her luck and a safe bon voyage as she flies off to Chile for the summer, and check out her awesome gallery while you're at it. She's not even gone yet and I miss her already.

pps- I think there's another bat in my house because I hear weird clicking and flapping noises. It's after 1am right now, so I'll have to find him in the morning and take him outside. This will be the second one this week. The first one had character and made quite a production out of the whole catching process. Hopefully this one will be a bit more easygoing.