Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Sharpies

I love them.

There are many reasons for this love.

I'm pretty sure it began the summer I was going into 9th grade. I was at camp, and it was the weekend. I was with all the kids that lived to far away to go home on the weekends, because I was lucky enough to stay at camp for two weeks (!!!). We went to Kmart to buy hair dye to highlight our hair, and while we were there, we picked up a fuzzy poster. We liked the air conditioning in Kmart so much that we decided to go to a movie. It was mid afternoon, so we had to wait about an hour and a half for the movie to start, so we sat on the floor in the lobby of the movie theater and colored our fuzzy poster. And so began my love affair with the sharpie marker.


First of all, seriously? Have you ever seen so many colors (besides in the crayon box)?

Second of all, they are permanent. There's something to be said about creating something, and knowing that it's going to stick around. It's more than you can say about some people.
Thirdly, meetings are more fun with sharpies. The fine pointed version are excellent for note taking. And, when you are bored, having several colors on hand make it possible to make your doodles much more interesting.

ok, enough with the numbering, this could go on for a while...

It's time to move on to varieties, and the pros and cons (if applicable) of each variety. It is important to remain as unbiased as possible.

Fine pointed:
-Pros: as mentioned above, the fine pointed Sharpies are excellent for writing things. Cute boys phone numbers on your hand at the bar, for example. In this scenario you can be assured that after sleeping on your hand, you will not have the boy's number written backwards on your face, and you'll still have the number on your hand after multiple bathroom excursions throughout the night.
-Cons: it is hard to fill in large amounts of space when drawing pictures.

Original:
-Pros:They last forever, the most colors come in original, and you can fill in large amounts of spaces, like in bubble letters and fuzy posters.
-Cons: sometimes the line that is drawn is too thick. not good for taking notes or anything like that

Metallic:
-Pros: they are so cool! also the write on any color of paper. or object. i wrote my name on my silver cd case with my silver sharpie, and it had a very neat effect.
-Cons: I used them so much they ran out really fast. They are more expensive than the rest of the sharpies.
(side note: I bought Roseart brand metallic permanent markers, and they are NOT as good as Sharpies. The only reason I bought them was because Roseart had more colors. It was a mistake.)

Retractable:
-Pros: no lids.
-Cons: maybe they run out faster? I don't know, I've never used them.

Highlighters:
-Pros: They have tons of colors, and they last a long time! My coworker had some generic highlighters that she bought a few months ago, they ran out after about a month, mine are still going strong from fall of 2006. And I use them a lot.
-Cons: The lids seem to break with heavy use. Two of my highlighters I have to be very careful with in order to prevent them from drying out.

If you have any questions about this, let me know. I can go on more about Sharpies, but I need specific direction. I'm also very tired right now so I'm going to bed.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Deranged Aardvark

So there was this lady, she canceled her trip today because of another lady going on the same trip who acted like a "deranged aardvark in heat" during a trip meeting. Apparently, this means that the woman was obtuse and abrasive and incredibly rude.

Which leads me to the question: What is the visual image that comes to mind when the words Deranged, Aardvark, and In Heat are put together? which also makes me wonder... what exactly does an aardvark look like? Most of the day I was picturing an armadillo, which I realize now is completely wrong.

so I include this photo to clear up any visual roadblocks one may encounter:
Now, to picture this animal running around in a deranged manner is, honestly, rather comical. In fact, the more I think about it, the bigger the chuckle that emerges. The dog is raising his eyebrow at me.

And we haven't even touched on the "in heat" part. I'm not going there. Sick.

To wrap this up, I've come to the conclusion that a deranged aardvark in heat would probably not be intolerably rude and completely unbearable to spend time with. In reality, if I came across something like this (from a safe distance) I think I would want to hang around and watch, because I'm certain that it would be hilarious.


Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Pancakes

A couple days ago when I was at work, I mentioned that I thought it would be fun to start a blog, but wanted to make sure I had topics to cover in my blog. My coworker said that she had lots of ideas for blog topics, and she would help me any time I needed it. She said my first topic should be Pancakes. So that's what it is.

I'm not a cook by any means. In fact, I pretty much suck at cooking, mostly because I'm too lazy and broke to cook on any sort of a regular basis. So instead of talking about cooking pancakes, I'm going to recount my best pancake experiences of my life... that I remember at the moment.


Last time I went to Target, they had a free sample person in one of the food aisles, and she was making pancakes! She handed me a little cup with a pancake the size of a sand dollar, with a fresh raspberry and a small amount of real syrup on it. Real syrup you ask? Yes, my Target is THAT cool. Not only that, but the pancake was chocolate chip, which is definitely something I'm not a fan of, but was amazing paired with fresh raspberries.


My favorite time to eat pancakes is when camping. I think it's one of the best things to wake up in the morning and whip up some pancakes over the fire. Also, the challenge of cooking anything over a blazing fire with no grill makes any cooking experience more fun.


One of my favorite camping pancake memories is from when I was probably in middle school camping with some friends in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We were responsible for picking the Blueberries for our pancakes, and then my friend's dad made them over the fire. Amazing!


Pancakes are pretty much the best thing for breakfast in bed. My ex-boyfriend used to get up with his daughter in the morning and make me pancakes while I was still sleeping, and then wake me up to a plate full of pancakes and syrup. I would eat as much as I could, and then fall back to sleep for another hour or so...


Pancake wars are also awesome. At summer camp when they used to freeze the pancakes and then give them to us in about the least fresh form possible... these discs of barely edible rock hard dough became Frisbees, or any other form of plaything you could think of. If you can't eat it, you better be able to have fun with it!

Well. I'm having a hard time thinking of more pancake stories. Sad because I know they exist somewhere in my mind. Maybe I'll have a Pancakes II entry someday.