Category Archives: General
thoughts on a rock concert
I saw Journey, Foreigner, and Night Ranger last night. It was a pretty good concert. Felt kind of odd, though, because it’s the first arena show I’ve been to in years. Sitting down the entire time was weird, but kind of nice.
Here are some random thoughts I had during the show last night:
- If none of the original members are in the band, is it really that band? Or it is basically a cover band?
- Is it common for deaf people to attend rock concerts? I was really surprised to see a sign language interpreter down on the floor.
- Does anyone actually like it when bands play stuff from their new (usually unreleased) albums? It takes me a couple listens of a song or an album to really appreciate it, so I really don’t enjoy hearing new stuff at concerts.
- Is it really necessary to shriek like a banshee? It sounded like the girl behind me was getting attacked. And she about did, by my fist.
weekend in ohio
This weekend we drove up to the Cincinnati area for a wedding. While we were there, we visited two special places: Ikea and the Creation Museum.
Going to Ikea is always a treat for us, being that we live in Nashville and the closest store is located in Atlanta four hours away. Fortunately this trip wasn’t as stressful as the last one, where we pretty much bought every single piece of furniture for our house. On this trip, we mostly bought decor and smaller items, though we did somehow manage to fit a small futon and two dressers into my Tracker. Gotta love getting everything dissembled and squeezed into boxes!
While in the area, we just had to visit the Creation Museum. I would go into a detailed “review” of the place, but I don’t really have the time, and quite frankly, I don’t know that it would be worth my time if I had any to talk about it. So, I’ll just share some photos.
After paying a whopping $25 a person and having our pictures taken à la an amusement park, the first exhibition we come to features two children chilling with a couple of raptors:
As if this isn’t funny enough, check out the creepy-as-fuck look on the animatronic girl:
Jesus Christ, she’s terrifying.
The museum had some nice little displays of Noah’s Ark (and there will be a theme park in 2014!), such as this one where all the heathens die a lovely watery death:
In another display you can see some little dinosaurs hanging out in their room on the Ark:
Apparently two of every dinosaur was taken onto the Ark.
I’d like to know how they got all the Sauropods on there.
At the end of the museum, there’s a Triceratops that kids can climb up on. I couldn’t resist. Unfortunately in my attempt to be stealthy, we didn’t get a very good picture.
My thoughts on the museum? I really don’t know. It was interesting, but also mildly depressing. Some of the arguments are pretty legit, but others are just laughable. I feel like it was worth a visit, but at the same time, my $25 probably could’ve been put towards something more worthwhile.
blargh!
I am so horrible at this blogging thing. But I think the bigger problem is that I’m even worse at doing creative things. Or maybe that’s because I have absolutely no time to do those creative things…
I had really hoped I could stick with the 30 Days of Creativity, but unfortunately I just haven’t been able to. I really hate that I couldn’t commit to this. I want so badly to be more creative, to make things and feel proud of them, but the hours I work really don’t allow me to. It’s one of the most frustrating things in the world.
Anyway, here’s the rest of what I did manage to do…
A pixel maneki neko!
This is my very first attempt at pixel art. I think it turned out pretty well. Only took me like three hours, haha.
A drawing of Tom Kitten:
And a Cylon:
Day 10′s theme was “Toaster,” so I couldn’t resist! I didn’t know until pretty late, so I cracked this out in about an hour.
I also made another mini maneki neko:
I’ve sold a few of these, and they’re fairly quick to make, so I really ought to make some more of them. I’m just so damn busy!
On the upside, part of why I’ve been so busy is that I’m working on getting our costumes together for Dragon*Con. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on the Battlestar costumes, especially the dress blues which I’m making from scratch for Chris. Considering I don’t really know how to sew, this is going to be quite an undertaking. I’m very nervous about it and not too confident that I’ll be able to do it. I’m trying to be optimistic, but it’s quite intimidating.
The other thing that’s been taking up a lot of my time is research for opening up an online store. I am super excited about this, but it’s going to be pretty expensive to start up. Buying everything wholesale is pricey…
And speaking of expensive, I am craving some new ink so bad. I have several ideas but need to figure out exactly what I want and who I want to do them. I’ve got plenty of money saved up, which definitely doesn’t help curb the cravings.
To add more to my plate, I’m seriously considering moving this blog to Blogger. I’d considered Tumblr, but it’s down so much and customizing the layout kind of confuses me. Though I love WordPress, the social aspect of Blogger really appeals to me. Sometimes I feel like WordPress is just too much for this little ol’ blog.
30 days of creativity
I’ve decided to participate in 30 Days of Creativity. Or at least try my best, anyway. 30 Days of Creativity is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days. I am a creative person but I’m also a busy person and a lazy person, so I don’t do creative stuff nearly as often as I should. I say that I’m going to try to do this, because I work a 12-hour shift and two 10-hour shifts every week, which may make it a bit difficult. I’ve already missed the first day, but considering that I only found out about it today, I think I’ve got a good excuse. I’ll just have to do two creative things in one day to make up for it.
I think this will be good for me, because I need motivation to draw, to learn how to use my sewing machine, and to do more crocheting (it’s been weeks!). It will also be good for this blog, because I’ll actually have stuff to post about!
the ever-exciting life of megan heikkinen
So much for posting regularly, hahaha. Between modcatlove and two Tumblrs, I guess I just never feel too motivated to post here. Not to mention that my life hasn’t been too interesting as of late, though I can’t say that it ever really has been. This month has been pretty eventful, though. Or rather, will be.
Next week I’m going to see The Flaming Lips, which will be the first concert I’ve been to in months. Hopefully my new friend Jackie, who I met playing Ultimate, will be able to go with me. I’m excited to the see the Lips, as they are one of my favorite bands and their performances are amazing. They’re playing at the Ryman, though, so I have a feeling it won’t be as crazy as usual.
On Thursday I’ll be heading to Knoxville for the weekend for my sister Sean’s high school graduation. It’s hard to believe that she’ll be in college in a few months. I mean, in my mind, she’s still 12, and she probably always will be.
The following week Nashville Ultimate Summer League is going to begin. I have mixed feelings about this, as I’m very out of shape and haven’t played in years, aside from the two scrimmages I made it to last month. I’ve been telling myself, “Oh, you have x weeks before league begins, so get in shape!” but it’s just not happening. Too lazy, and I like bad foods. It never ends, I tell ya. Anyway, I am very excited about the possibility of making new friends, because not having many friends around here really gets to me sometimes.
Speaking of friends, two weekends from now two of my very good college friends are getting married. I am very excited for them, and this is probably the first wedding I’ll have ever gone to that I’m actually looking forward to.
Aside from the above, nothing much has been going on. As usual, I’ve been going through a lot of that “what the hell am I going to do with my life?” bullshit, and I think I’m finally ready to make some decisions. I’ve decided to start working full-time again, which means less free time but more money. As I tend to waste my free time, this is okay. I still have three days off, as I’m working some longer shifts, so I do have time to work on side projects.
I’m actually getting pretty tired of crocheting, as it is incredibly time-consuming and the money I make from it isn’t really worth it. I’m not going to outright quit, but I’ve raised the prices of my cat toys so I’ll probably have less sales. I’m thinking about trying out some other crafts, like sewing. Chris bought me a sewing machine for my birthday, and I’ve yet to play around with it. I’m planning on making some costumes for Dragon*Con, which is in September, so I need to start getting my butt into gear and figure out how to use the thing.
I have a few ideas when it comes to what I want to do with my life, only one of which is achievable in the near future—the other two entail starting up businesses, which will require lots of research and money. I’ve decided to go ahead and pursue this one idea, which is web development. You might be thinking, “Haven’t you wanted to do that for a while now?” Well, yes and no. I originally wanted to start freelancing, but I kind of like the idea of working for a firm for a few years first. Unfortunately, most web designer/developer jobs require knowledge of Javascript/jQuery and PHP. As such, I told myself I would learn these things, and finally last week I managed to sit down and finally start delving into Javascript. Also, I definitely want to focus more on development than design. I like design, but I feel like I need a lot more practice with it. Case in point: I’ve yet to come up with a design for pixelcatcreative.com because I never feel motivated and haven’t been happy with anything I’ve produced so far. I really need to get on this, because deerieme.com is expiring soon and I don’t want to purchase another year-long hosting plan.
Anyway, TL;DR: May is a busy month, I’m playing Ultimate again and maybe making friends, I’m going back to full-time, and I’m figuring things out. Oh, and I’m also planning on a new tattoo, but more about that later.