Oh Shit, It's Almost November

November is Novel Writing Month. 

This year I will jump out of my comfort zone. Instead of writing about characters that are roughly based on the people in my life, I will fabricate new dark and disturbed ones for this serial killer love story. Even serial killers need love, right?

I have three and a half days to prepare. 

How am I preparing, you ask? By watching movies about serial killers, of course. 

Watch this movie. Seriously. It was the perfect kick-start to generating ideas. I had already entertained the thought of a female main character. It seems that men have flooded the serial-killing market. 

Men always get the best jobs...

Side-note: Where the f*ck did October go?!

Oh right...

Time really does fly when you are having fun. 

Reasons Why I Love Comic Shops

Comics! Well technically these are graphic novels, but you get the point.

Obviously the main reason to love comic shops is for the products that are sold, but there is one other thing that never fails to fill me with joy each time I spend time in one: conversations between employees and patrons. 

In a previous post, I have mentioned such a conversation when Yano and I went into Comics Ink. It involved a very heated discussion about the loss of the macho man hero in Hollywood. Ah, yes. Don't we all miss the days of men who used violence to solve their problems and never talked about their feelings? I know I do. (sidenote: check out my favorite webcomic)

A couple days ago we went to Dreamworld Comics, which is pretty amazing for two reasons:

• There are a ton of comics to go through (new and old)
• There is an entire area devoted to Batman relics.

While we were there, we overheard a few amazing conversations between the sole employee and various patrons. Here is a snip-it from my favorite one:

"The way to make big bucks is to sell yourself to fat chicks. You can make like $1000 a night."

Previous to this statement, he had been talking about selling old DVDs to make money. I can see how selling your body to lonely fat chicks is a much more lucrative venture. Now, when we heard this Yano and I both cocked our heads in confusion and disbelief. Surely he didn't actually think that this was something one could do to make money.

People really amaze me. 

This week is my birthday and I am heading back to my home town to celebrate. One day I will have friends in Los Angeles. One day. Anyway, I am sure there will be many (mis)adventures to share when I get back. 

In the meantime, here is a peak at my villain costume. 

Every villain needs a mask. 

October is...

National Dinosaur Month

I love this. 

(Artist: Aaron Horkey)

Badass dinosaur mask I found at the art store. 

Dinosaur fruit snacks!

My Birthday

This year I am turning 25.

What better way to celebrate my adulthood than have a Superhero vs Supervillain themed party?

I will not be going as Batman (unfortunately)

I haven't had a themed birthday since I turned twenty one, when I had a masquerade. Hopefully everyone dresses up again like last time. Also, I hope there is at least one scuffle between a hero and villain. I might have to orchastrate it.

I have been sick for the past week or so. Hopefully I will be better by my birthday. In the meantime I have to just suck it up, drown my symptoms in cold medicine and hope for the best. On the bright side, I am working three days in a row.

Money is always a good thing.

Some Days I Deserve A Cape

It has been a busy week. 

I went back home to help various family members move and clean out their old houses, which is not very exciting to talk about. So instead I am going to show off the various projects I accomplished before I left (but then didn't have time to blog about). 

As promised from my last post, perler bead 8-bit sprites! I know, I know...I have way too much time on my hands. Hazards of having on-call employment. 

Anyway, I decided to stick to Mario Bros for the first round. 

It all started when I got an early birthday present in the mail...

They turned out adorable! I love the little spiky one. I think I will do Zelda sprites next.

Last week I made Welcome Home Cupcakes for my brother. I figured he didn't get too many while on his African Adventure and we would have something to snack on as he recounted his journey. To read about his travels click here.

Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

I decided to brave making the frosting from scratch. 

I only have pirate cupcake papers. Pirates ate cupcakes, right?

I added raspberries and lemon zest for garnish. 

They were delectable. The raspberries added a nice mellow flavor to the frosting and the lemon cupcake was a perfect paring. I think next time I will experiment with the frosting recipe. 

In other news, I started a Tumblr (which is a mini blog type thing...I am still learning). It is called Dinosaurs? Anyway, you can follow it! 

Non Sequitur

I have been eating a lot of jello lately. 

The sun ran off to Northern California. It has been overcast for the past week or so. It is my last week of living alone and I am soo ready to have my apartment inhabited by another creature (other than my cats).

In other news, I am officially free from suspicion of stealing toys from children. Remember that guy who thought I made off with his son's 3DS after babysitting for them? Well the hotel found it. I hope he feels silly for accusing me.

I spent another weekend doing what I love most: wandering around a place I've never been to and taking pictures. This time I was in San Clemente, a little beach town right next to the military base. It is so interesting where friends end up settling.

Here were some of my favorite things:

This was outside a Christian Elementary School. 

I hope they teach the kids how to vanquish demons with swords. 

Preview for next weeks post: 

Perler bead 8-bit sprites!

Touristy Stuff

I've never been very good at being a tourist for two reasons:

1. I don't like spending money.
2. Most popular tourist places are not very interesting.

Last weekend I went to Hollywood Boulevard. You know, where all the famous people have their names in stars for people to walk all over. I had never been, despite having lived in Los Angeles for a year and visiting countless times before that. It was just one of those things that I had intended to do, but never got around to it.

Most people go there to take pictures of famous names and people dressed up as pop culture icons. This is what I took pictures of:

I love how the Scientology building is so dramatic, but then they try to trick you into going inside by offering ''free stress tests''. They aren't fooling anyone.

There are so many amazing buildings in Los Angeles. Every time I go exploring, I come back with my camera full of new places that I've fallen in love with. 

So, I guess I am a bad tourist because I don't care about stores filled with fake Oscar Awards and I Heart LA shirts, creepers dressed up like Shrek or names cemented into the sidewalk. I do, however, love the parts that people forget about. 

Day 5

It hasn't even been a week since I dropped my brother off at the airport for his month-long vacation and rules are already flying out the window. I have started eating straight out of containers and as you can see, Tiger Lily has decided that the table is a perfectly acceptable place to nap. In my defense, it saves me from washing so many dishes. Tiger Lily has no excuse.

This first weekend alone was...interesting.

Saturday started with a broken fan in my oven of an apartment and ended with me rushing out to cover for a no-show from the sitting agency I work for. By Sunday, after possibly being accused of stealing a 3DS from the child I babysat, I was ready to stay in my pajamas and watch Futurama all day.

Yup. It was definitely one of those weekends.

To cheer myself up, I decided to buy some legos  and make a pizza. Can I tell you how much I love the pizza dough from Trader Joe's? Homemade pizza it the BEST.

Ice Dragon!

Oh right, back to making pizza. It definitely was an experiment. Especially since I just used whatever ingredients I had in the fridge. 

Pesto

Cheese

Red Onions and Yellow Bell Peppers

It turned out quite delicious. 

Today was my one year anniversary of moving to Los Angeles. Homemade pizza and Futurama was the perfect way to celebrate. And of course, I had excellent company.

Goose is so handsome.