The Interview!

My buddy Sonja, from the blog Quantum Leaps (a wonderful blog by the way, you should totally check it out if you haven't already!), sent me these great questions to answer. I will do my best!

1. You mentioned in one of your posts that you were born in Belgium. What sequence of events brought you to the US?

It's true, I was born in Belgium (giant sob). After that, my family moved to Germany, then Puerto Rico, and then Indianapolis. We did more moving after that too... even lived in Japan. The reason is simple, everyone in my family is a dinosaurologist. And as dinasaurologists, our goal was to find and catch the mythical dinosaur, Stegasaurus Rapsalot. Unfortunately, catching the creature proved impossible, so we all decided to move to Phoenix and become ghost story writers and UFO experts.

2. In the art world, isn't the School of Impressionism really just a club for painters with bad eyesight?

Hmmm, it's very true that Monet lost a lot of vision later in his career... but I must admit, there are some great impressionist painters who could really 'see,' and Monet, in spite of all the hype surrounding his work, was truly amazing and very consistent in his excellence... and Van Gogh is one of my favorites, he's one of the best drawers in the history of art, in my opinion...

3. Before your illness, in what ways did you use your artistic talents to make a living?

I haven't posted any of my older artwork from before I got sick, it makes me too sad... I still can't draw very often, and when I can, all's I can do is simple cartoony stuff (but that's better than nothing, that's for sure!), I can't do anything that takes a great deal of concentration and detail... Previously, my work was usually based on observation and extreme detail...

The main reason I had moved back home was so I could have more time to devote to working on my art, and also finally have some time to seriously focus on selling my art. Unfortunately, I fell sick a couple months after returning home!!! I avoided galleries for the longest time, the commissions they take, especially from young artists, are ridiculous, but nonetheless, I figure, whenever I'm better, and I can get a good series of paintings done, I will go out to LA and find a gallery. Also, I will set up a website to sell work from there. I also do commission work when healthy.

4. How have you evolved personally through having this illness?

I'm not sure how I've evolved, I think I'm a stronger person mentally because of this illness. And I think I've come to appreciate life a lot more, all the little things and all the big things too. I feel lucky to be alive. I'm grateful, grateful for life, for family, for friends, for my dog... and I hope that over the course of my illness, I can become a better person to others, more considerate, helpful, compassionate...

5. Koala bears-cuddly forest denizens, or mad, hissing nocturnal beasts?

These creatures are sweet during the day, but at night, they have what I'd call were-wolf syndrome. They turn into vicious creatures and they grow wings and fly into peoples' houses and they tear apart the furniture and they eat the drapes. It's all very sad really, and there's so much housework to be done the morning after a nightime koala bear invasion.

So, I 'd love to interview people, so here's what you do if you want me to interview you...

• Leave a comment at my blog saying, “Interview me.” Include your blog URL.

• I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

• You will update your weblog with the answers to the questions.

• You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

• When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

• Have fun!

A Drawing. 1985. Spaceship Adventure.

The drawing pictured above depicts a spaceship adventure I went on. It all happened back in 1985. Let me tell you about it...

I was 3 years old at the time. I had saved up some money, and luckily enough, I was able to buy the spaceship that you see in this picture for only $1,257. It was a great deal. The ship even came with cupholders and 60 kilos of tequila. I even think the tequila was Jose Cuervo Gold. My favorite.

I was excited, I was the proud new owner of a wonderful spacecraft, but I had a problem. I didn't know how to fly my new spaceship.

Later that night, I was drinking at my local bar when I started talking to the polar bear sitting next to me (to be more accurate, he was slumped over the table, his eyes half-closed, with his snout lazily resting in his beer mug). Turns out, he was a pilot, and he was looking for work. What a coincidence! I hired the polar bear on the spot, he would now be in charge of flying my spacecraft.

The polar bear and I left the bar in high spirits. Although, once outside, the polar bear momentarily panicked, and frantically ran back into the bar. Two minutes later he emerged from the bar with a massive grin of relief and joy eating up his face, and his huge furry paw now clasped a small ziploc bag full of white powder.

The polar bear and I settled down on a nearby park bench. While he was fumbling around with the powder, doing god knows what, I proceeded to call all my friends and invite them for a spaceship adventure. Most agreed to come along for the ride.

The next day we took off, and the first few days were marvelous, the polar bear was a great pilot, and we had great fun exploring the universe. Everything was going well, but bad luck would strike. It happened in the blink of an eye, and before we knew what was going on the drunk polar bear had lost control of the spaceship and crashed us into a wheat field full of crows.

My friends and I slowly crawled out from the wreckage. Fortunately no one was hurt. We examined the craft, and realized it was now in serious need of repairs. The crows, who had seen this crash take place, slowly approached us... they seemed pretty nice, and even offered to help us, telling us they'd fix the mangled spacecraft.

We agreed to let the crows fix our ship. So, the crows took the ship, and dragged it out beyond a field of sunflowers where they had told us their repair shop was located. They said they'd be back in a day or so with the spaceship fully repaired. Unfortunately, we never saw the crows, nor my spaceship, ever again. Nor the tequila, for that matter...

Drawing.

This is a drawing I recently did. You can click on the pic for better resolution.

This drawing represents a fond childhood memory of mine. I used to go on adventures with my donkey and my two friends, Barkley the Bear and Marvin the Squirrel. On our adventures, Barkley the Bear would sit behind me. He was a pretty mellow fellow. And he usually held my bloody scythe for me... Poor guy, we always made fun of Barkley because he looked like an anteater. Marvin the Squirrel usually stood on Barkley's head... Marvin was ok, but kinda uptight, always reminding us what time it was, which was pretty annoying...

NBA Playoffs. Victor Hugo. Romanticism. Caspar David Friedrich.

The NBA Playoffs start today. This is very very important. I think. If you don't already have a team to root for, or you just don't care about basketball, well, I still think you should cheer for a team. I recommend you cheer for the Phoenix Suns. You will thank me in the end.

In other news... I finished Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, such an amazing book. Unfortunately, since I liked it so much, I'm going to have to read more of this writer's works, and, uh, his novels seem to be very long (some writers have too much time on their hands, if this guy had kept a more active lifestyle, maybe his books would've been a little more concise?)... well, maybe I will read some of his poetry instead, read his other novels later. But this book I just finished, it was great, really well-written, and the story itself is good (although a little silly and predictable at times). I'd tell you about the story, but I'd probably give it away or more likely than not you already know the story.

Well, I'll tell you a bit about the story, for those of you who don't know... there's a 'magical' goat in the story who's able to do lots of stuff, like, impersonate people and do all sorts of other hilarious stuff which I wish I could teach my dog how to do... and then there's a hunchback character, and he's basically a fighting machine and he's exactly like Stallone in the movie Rambo, blowing bad guys away, except he doesn't use rocket launchers and sniper rifles, he uses beams and rocks and super-strength... another character is a beautiful girl who goes by the name of Esmerelda. Everybody in the story loves her except for one person, but this one person happens to be the person she loves! And this guy, whom she loves, is a total bozo, which is totally sad, but hey, this is a tragedy, so that kinda stuff happens in tragedies. And people die in tragedies, which I don't like. I like happily ever after stories, well, most of the time, although we all know happily ever after is an illusion, people grow old and fat and hog the television remote and don't help clean the dishes, not to mention the kids they have, who more likely than not are spoiled brats, always whining and trying to strongarm their parents into buying them stuff, and whining about wanting to go see a Britney Spears' concert...

Anyways.

Victor Hugo was part of the romantic movement, I'm not too familiar with writers from that movement, except for Chateaubriand. I'm mostly familiar with romanticism in the realm of 19th century painting... specially German romantic painters, there were a bunch of great ones, one of my favorites is Caspar David Friedrich... Some of Friedrich's paintings are very well known, but he also did some unbelievable drawings. His work tends to be sad and spiritual, and the colors tend to be low-key... I included some pictures of his work down below. And if there is one thing we can all probably agree on, it's that Caspar David Friedrich was a great tree painter. I'm guessing he really liked trees. And owls. Although, I'm not sure how he felt about gophers, but I'm willing to bet that if I study his paintings a little more I will be able find that out, and I will promptly get back to you on that (I must admit it would be a huge disappointment if I were to find out that Friedrich was a fan of gophers, we all know they are terrible, terrible creatures who are always cooking up nefarious plots).

Back to Hugo... Hugo was famous for his writing, but I found out he did lots of drawings and paintings, I guess he was multi-talented like William Blake... Although, I've searched the internet for Hugo's drawings, and I've only been able to find a couple, but they look pretty cool. Nothing mind-blowing, but cool enough...

Here is one of the few Hugo drawings I found on the internet...


And here are a couple of Caspar David Friedrich's paintings and drawings...

Virginia Tech.

Let me just write a couple words on the Virginia Tech tragedy, since it's been on my mind. What that killer did was terrible, tragic, pointless, sad, evil, cruel, and utterly selfish. He took away so many lives and hurt so many families... It really sickened me, plus I wish they hadn't released all his tape recordings, at least not right now, but that's another matter... What I'd like to say is this: don't lose faith in humanity or human nature because of this event. In fact, some people risked their lives to try and save others while this tragedy was taking place! So, we should remember to focus on the heroic, selfless actions that took place, and not focus too much on the evilness of this one character. And remember, good things are happening all the time, bad things too, but the thing is, we tend to forget the good things. Stuff that seems small and insignificant, like a stranger saying hello and giving a kindly smile. Or major stuff, like love shared between people, families, and friends. And things like devotion, actions of selflessness, of kindness, of compassion, it's all around us. All sorts of good stuff is always happening, I can't list everything because it would be impossible, and it would be an endless list, which is a good thing!

I'm an optimist...

Some Pictures I've Recently Taken

Here are some random pictures I've taken of late.... feel free to click on the pictures for a larger version.

This first one is of Rambo, I think it's my favorite picture of him. He's such a sweet dog.


In this next picture, Rambo contemplates the fleeting nature of beauty...


Hmmm, I'ver never really taken pictures of flowers before, but I suppose there's a time for everything... Here's some desert botany for you...


I really like this next picture, the thorns are crisp but there's a shallow depth of field and things quickly get out of focus... Cooooolll.... hard to get these sorts of effects with my digital camera...


Next pictures are of a cactus... Do you know why there're all those holes in it? Of course you do, but let me mention it anyways: the monsters (in this particular case, carniverous machete wielding rabbits) carved those holes so that they could easily climb in and out of the cactus. They sleep inside the cactus at night.


I promised you this wheelbarrow picture. Here it is. In my book, anything that looks beat-up and dirty has character. Well, not really, but no matter...


Ohhhh, this next photo is really dramatic... one of those light from heaven sort of photos, haha...


Next picture is of myself. I'm looking quite haggard, but you know, that's how it goes sometimes. I think I have a sort of serial killer look going here. Nice. I really need to post some pictures where I'm smiling!


Next picture... If you read my previous entry, you'll remember I mentioned that I talked to monsters the other night. In fact, one of the monsters took this picture. He was quite tall.

An Adventure

It's night time. I just took some pictures outside, I'll post them later. Let me tell you about my adventure outside...

Obviously, it was dangerous taking all these pictures at night, since night time is when all the monsters come out of their tree hollows and underground warrens. Sometimes even Paris Hilton comes out at night (she lives with the monsters). Sure enough, tonight I ran into Paris. Before I could run away she grabbed my arm and started talking about all sorts of boring things. For some reason she started talking about a lady that went by the name of Hildegard of Bingen.

So, Paris is talking about Hildegard like I'm supposed to know who this is and I nod and throw in lots of non-committal phrases to act like I follow but really I have no clue who Hildegard of Bingen is and I feel a little guilty acting like I know who Hildegard is but you know what? Lying is always good fun... lying is like a ballet, and I, in my attempt to achieve masterful lying, I shoot for greatness, and try to emulate and duplicate the mastery and artistry of the greatest of all the ballet dancers, the most bedazzling, nimble-footed, eye-blindingly great dancer the world has ever seen, Nikita Khrushchev. What a beautiful man.

Anyways. Even though I'm enjoying lying my ass off, I really want to cut this boring conversation short. I tell Paris that I have a searing, grappling hooks in the back of my brain kinda headache. Paris is insulted, but I couldn't care less.

I escape from Paris and in a flash I'm back inside the house and jump on the computer and google Hildegard of Bingen, because who knows, maybe she is single and I sure would love having a girlfriend by the name of Hildegard, that's for sure. Fortunately there's a Wikipedia entry and I find out that Hildegard is descended from T-rexes, is a very good tennis player, enjoys men who drive Ford Tauruses and benchpress 13 pounds. I also learn that she aided the duckbill platypuses in their attempt to take over the world (this is the first attempt I'm talking about, back in 1146 CE). It also turns out Hildegard is very famous for having visions.

When I find out about the visions, I decide I don't want to date Hildegard anymore. My heart is crushed, I had such dreams for us: a little house in the country, surrounded by a white picket fence, talking moose in the backyard, 2 ton elephants who would stay in the upstairs bedroom and hopefully they would indulge me and play Monopoly with me but always let me win... and we would have had rules in the house, honest good rules, like no chainsaws inside the living room, no circular saws inside the bedrooms, and most importantly, everyone would have to be armed with machetes at all times. It was going to be perfect. And then Hildegard ruined it all by turning out to be a psycho. It's going to take me a while to get over this, talk about a huge blow. Speaking of blow, let me just pull out a credit card here so I can straighten out a morale boosting fix me up...

Flash forward a couple minutes. At this point, I've recovered from my shocking discovery of Hildegard's visions and I'm feeling good again. I step back outside and am relieved to see that Paris has disappeared. Out of the corner of my eye I notice several monsters standing a ways off, and they seem to be conversing in Mandarin, very loudly. I silently approach and listen in (yes, I understand Mandarin!). Turns out they are talking about Gilles de Rais. Gilles is a man famous for his reality show... he also runs a very successful pastry business, his most popular pastry is fashioned in the form of a severed head. It's grisly but the public loves it and keeps him in business because of it. Gilles de Rais also enjoys duck hunting and breaking thousands upon thousands of sunglasses in his spare time.

I try and interject and join the monsters' conversation, mostly because I want to show off my huge knowledge. I mentioned a couple facts about Gilles earlier, but I also know that he is connected to Joan of Arc (or, as the French affectionately call her, J-dog), they both fought battles together... so I pipe up and say how awesome it was that Joan of Arc, a woman warrior, along with Gilles de Rais defeated the evil Spongebob Squarepants at the battle of Chop Everyone's Head Off (of course, it goes without saying that this historical battle happened back when Spongebob Squarepants was a real person and not a figment of the tv's imagination).

As I finish speaking about Joan of Arc and her great victory, all the monsters start laughing hysterically. One monster, a fellow with red horns and a big fangy smile, takes a pause from his laughter to tell me, "Joan of Arc!? She wasn't a woman! She wasn't even a human being! Joan of Arc was the name of a flying schoolbus that crashed into a cloud and came crashing down to earth and somehow in the process magically transformed into an anteater. Hence, your mentioning Joan of Arc has nothing to do with anything, and proves you have no knowledge, and that's why we are all laughing so hard!"

Shocked and utterly embarrassed by this revelation, I decide I must redeem myself. I boast, "I'm totally knowledgeable. I got lots of knowledge. In fact, I'm super knowledgeable. Let me prove it to you." To their amazement I recite the multiplication table up to 3X3, and then I also explain the history and origin of coffee mugs. All my knowledge sure shut them up. And I knew, from that moment forward, I would always get the respect I deserved for being super knowledgeable like I always knew I was.

By the way, here's a picture of Joan of Arc in her most current form...

Kurt Vonnegut.

It's very sad, the novelist Kurt Vonnegut passed away the other night. When I was growing up, he was one of the first writers whose work I fell in love with.

May he rest in peace.

Do you guys have a favorite Vonnegut book? It's been so long since I read any of his work, but I always loved his craziness and the interesting ideas in his books. I remember really liking Cat's Cradle, but I can't remember the first thing about it. I need to dig that book up and reread it.

Rambo Time.

Been a while since I posted doggy pictures. Meet Rambo, the dog who always wants to play. He's very fond of his blue rubber ball. Unfortunately those balls have a super bounce and they always end up in the neighbor's yard or back behind the house where I know there are millions of snakes and scorpions... well, I only found a snake once, it was black with yellow and red stripes, I almost stepped on it. Fortunately it wasn't a diamondback or anything of that nature (it was a harmless king snake), but still, I'm not a total fan of snakes, I mean, sure, they are beautiful looking creatures but come on, you wouldn't want to pet a snake, right? And there's a bunch of cinder blocks out back and plywood and all sorts of construction junk which make a perfect nesting ground for scorpions. There's a couple of wheelbarrows too, I need to get some pictures, they are very cool looking wheelbarrows. Seriously.

What was I saying? Oh yeah, here's Rambo.

Flower on a Cactus.

I took this picture a little while ago, the flowers are blooming on the cacti. The flower in this picture kinda looks like a fireball, but really, these flowers look much more sentimental and sweet when you see them in person, or maybe they look more evil, really all depends on your perspective. Just don't stick your face near them, for some reason dogs always do that. Dogs tend to stick their faces near things they shouldn't, like jumping cholla for example. I don't know what it is about the thousands and thousands of frightening needles all condensed together in one terrifying bunch that so attracts dogs, and I suppose I'll never know, because I'm not a dog whisperer. So, often enough dogs get jumping cholla all over themselves and believe you me, pulling jumping cholla needles out of a dog is no fun. For that matter, pulling jumping cholla needles out of oneself is no fun either.

Jumping cholla is malicious, malevolent, and malignant, so please, if you decide to go hiking around Arizona, make sure to bring high caliber weaponry, one can never be too careful. And ground squirrels can be dangerous too, so keeping a gun on you at all times is imperative. I even suggest keeping your gun under your pillow while you sleep, and most importantly, keep your gun on you when drinking large amounts of tequila at a bar. I've always found that whenever my judgement is impaired, I can always rely on my gun to immediately remedy any confusing conflict that arises.

Movie Review: Grindhouse

I went to the theater yesterday to see the movie Grindhouse. Honestly, I had zero expectations... believe it or not, I don't like all of Tarantino's movies, I mean, sure, I love Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, but I never really got into the Kill Bill movies. I don't know why, I would've thought they were right up my alley, but instead they just kinda bored me.

Anyways, Grindhouse was amazing! It was thrilling, exciting, just a blast to watch, I don't think I've ever been as entertained by a movie as I was by this one.

Basically it's two movies in one, the first part is a film directed by Robert Rodriguez, it's called Planet Terror. The opening scene takes place at a dance club and showcases the lovely Rose McGowan go-go dancing, certainly an auspicious beginning! So, the film is pretty much just a crazy zombie movie... the action is great, tons of crazy stuff happening... super extreme violence, which really didn't bother me because it's so overdone that the violence loses most of its usual meaning. And the film is really crisp, seamless, suspenseful, atmospheric, the dialogue is fun and great, the characters are wonderfully crazy and stylized... Weird stuff happens, like Rose McGowan's character loses a leg and gets a super-gun screwed in to take the place of her leg... did I mention that there are lots of needles in this movie, one attractive lady doctor has a reserve of needles which she wields like a carnival knife thrower. Cool. The film is just superb, the violence, visuals, humor, execution of the scenes, dialogue, it just doesn't get more perfect and fun than this.

The second film is directed by Quentin Tarantino and it's called Death Proof. After Rodriguez's film, I was doubtful this second part would be as good. Death Proof was different in style and content, but it was every bit as good! This movie involves young attractive women, a pyscho serial killer who kills young attractive women with his car, and car chases with said young attractive women and psycho serial killer, and constant references to the movie Vanishing Point, which I've never heard of... Anyways, Tarantino's film is less cartoony and less stylized than Rodriguez's film, and it's a little more focused on dialogue and not as visually stunning or violent in comparison to the Rodriguez flick, but it's just as cool and exciting... although, if forced to choose, I have to say Planet Terror was my favorite of the two films.

These films spoof tons of older films and are very silly but the spoofing and silliness never manage to overshadow the action, story, and atmosphere of the films. It's hard to be original and stick with your story when you are constantly spoofing crazy shit, sometimes a story loses all sense of meaning when that happens, but that never happens with these films, they are just too fresh, crazy, and fun!

And the craziest thing is that these films are so damn funny! I wish I could tell you about the end of Death Proof, I laughed so hard...

These movies have everything going for them, they are funny, filled with beautiful action, great dialogue (which would seem weird because it's very B movieish), awesome suspense and atmosphere, I mean, it's all good, all around! and to see these flicks back to back, how awesome is that, they work so well together.

I guess all I can say is that the film was masterful, absolutely positively masterful. Definitely one of my favorite films ever!

Blood Test. Ground Squirrel. Science of Sleep.

I went to get a blood test today. In the room where I had my blood drawn, there were huge glass windows and beyond those windows was a golf course. It's quite a nice looking course, weeping willows hanging over ponds and all that sort of stuff... and the sky looks so beautiful from this room, I don't know what it is about that view but it always amazes me. Maybe 'they' planned it that way, so I'd be distracted from the fact that someone was sadistically sticking needles in my arm while they laugh a laugh that sounds like it's coming from the depths of hell.

Anyhow. Guess what creatures I saw popping out of the ground at this golf course? Ground squirrels! They would pop out of their holes and calmly watch people play golf. They were quite funny, I wonder what those squirrels think of when they watch humans play golf. Maybe they think of nothing, or maybe they think the weather is hot and they hope the sprinklers will start up soon... Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to talk to the squirrels, I was in such a rush, I would've certainly asked them what they were thinking about.

In other news, I saw this amazing movie, Science of Sleep, I loved it! Definitely recommend it, although it isn't for everyone, it's not, well, I guess it's not very linear, within the movie things are always jumping back and forth from reality to dreams. One really cool thing about the movie is that it features Charlotte Gainsbourg, Serge Gainsbourg's daughter! Anyways, the film is really creative, beautiful, charming, and just plain fascinating. I like it just for the visuals, but it's also very lyrical and the acting is great, so check it out if you get a chance.

Here's a vid of Charlotte singing, never heard her stuff before, she's good...

Why?

Why is there always a fly in my glass of water?

No, seriously. Why?

At least the flies aren't crawling up inside my eyeballs. That exact situation happened a while back, and it was a most unpleasant experience. Let me tell you about it.

First of all, I have no clue as to how the flies ended up behind my eyeballs. They just did, ok?

So these flies behind my eyeballs were a problem. My dog and I brainstormed for solutions. We decided that he needed to crawl into my ear with a waterbottle and flashlight and attempt to flush out the flies from my eyeballs. Granted, it was a risky idea, considering the fact that neither my dog nor me are familiar with human anatomy, but we said what the hey, let's quickly check out the Artist's Guide to Anatomy and give this thing a shot.

Before starting this endeavor, I turned on the radio and set it to NPR. It was my dog who wanted to listen to NPR, he said it helps him concentrate.

So my dog crawled and squished himself up into my ear and into my head. How did he find the courage? I don't know, he's a eff'n hero and he eats his frosty flakes, that's all I know. Then, with unparalleled agility and surgical precision he managed to find the flies behind my eyeballs and he washed them out with water from his bottle. I was happy to be rid of those symbols of death.

Thankfully, due to my dog's extreme dexterity, I survived this episode without any serious damage to my eyeballs. And I was back to my carefree self again! I felt free, free like a bird, and with this sense of regained freedom I resumed my favorite hobbies: frolicking and rolling around in mud; breaking dinner plates and porcelain wares with my favorite hammer; nailing thousands upon thousands of nails in beautiful arabesque patterns all over my neighbor's bedroom (sometimes I house-sit on weekends); putting on African masks and reading The Odyssey in the original Dutch while the rabbits from my yard eat chocolate bunny rabbits and dance around me chanting about the end of the world (the rabbits tell me the act of eating the chocolate bunnies is symbolic, of what, I still don't know). I also resumed my habit of burying my friends' Ipods and other expensive electronic equipment in my backyard. I don't know why I have that habit, but it helps me relax, and you know what, who cares about the why so long as something is enjoyable and relaxing.

In real news... Someone told me about this commercial they saw, something about a talking squirrel and Abraham Lincoln. I felt like telling them that I too talked to squirrels, I've never spoken to Abraham Lincoln though, but definitely had serious intellectual debates with these squirrels in my yard. A subject we particularly enjoy discussing is the history of land ownership and its socio-economic impacts. The squirrels say property rights are the foundation of capitalism. I think it's chocolate. Anyways, those squirrels have amazing analytical skills, I think they made a pact with the devil, in exchange for their souls they were given reasoning skills and 20 kilos of heroin. Good deal.

Five Things I'm Obsessed With...

I was tagged by Moonbeam Baby and Babybull.

So, five things I can admit to being obsessed with:

1. Art
2. Bicycles
3. Literature and Paris Hilton
4. Fearing sharks/duckbill platypuses/monsters/gophers
5. Basketball

I now tag the following people to follow suit:

Manuel
Ak-Man
Mariana
Taarzaan
Fringes
WAT

What to do with a Meme: Copy the questions into a new post and answer them. Tag some different bloggers. Go back and let the person who tagged you know that you did it.

Quotes about Monsters.

Here are some quotes about monsters that I found. After each quote I include my thoughts. I'm very perceptive and have lots of insight, so read this post, you will learn soooo much!

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Frederich Nietzsche

Oh, gotta love that Nietzsche quote, I'm sure he's being serious but it makes me laugh. Woohoo, lets fight monsters and become monsters ourselves, what a kickass deal! I'm gonna go find some zombies and vampires right now. And that part about the abyss, that sounded pretty deep and mind blowing but ultimately the abyss is my bitch so it doesn't scare me.

"Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters." Victor Hugo

I think Hugo is trying to say that prosperity makes you fat and lazy, and evil too (although I do think being evil is pretty super). Wait a sec, I may have misinterpreted the quote... maybe Hugo means that prosperity turns you into a crazy cool monster, maybe like Cerberus or something hilariously frightening of that nature... Either way, I can't wait to be prosperous.

"There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them." Andre Gide

Bullshit. All monsters warrant the fear we have of them. Gide obviously never came across a duckbill platypus, he would certainly have had a change of heart (a heart that would have been gleefully ripped out by the duckbill platypus, hence the necessity for a change of heart, ie heart transplant).

"Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels." Francisco Goya

Uh, I disagree. Impossible monsters are the coolest and most marvelous of the marvelous. Goya, you overestimate reason and underestimate the coolness of craziness my friend...

"Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge." Horace Mann

You, Horace Mann, are knowledge's bitch. We all know knowledge can be good but it is not the ultimate good. The ultimate good is, well, can you guess it? Why, crazy monsters of course! Hooray for ignorance and monsters!

"Everyone carries around his own monsters." Richard Pryor

I enjoy carrying my monsters around in a Prada handbag. I loooove the stitching...

"I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters." Anthony Hopkins

I don't like playing with monsters. They steal my lunch then beat me up. I think the animosity between the monsters and me is due to a lack of communication. We need to polish off a couple of tequila bottles and really bond, then we'll be cool.

Paris Hilton. College Basketball. Victor Hugo.

Paris Hilton might be going to jail. This is terrible, shocking, malicious news. What are we going to do for all those days she's in jail? How will I find joy in my life without the colorful shenanigans of this celebrity? We need to band together and create a support group, because I have a feeling we are going to be very depressed and the coolness factor of life will get knocked down a couple notches if she ends up in jail. True story.

In other news... anyone watching the college basketball tournament? I'm torn, I don't know who to cheer for in the final, Ohio State or Florida? See, I like Ohio State's Greg Oden, but I really like Florida's Joakim Noah (because he's French? and he's the son of Yannick Noah? maybe). I was pretty sad in the first place, my school didn't make it into the tournament (I don't know if they ever have... well at least we were good in football), and Georgetown didn't make it to the final either which was sad... And the thing is, I can't watch a sports game without cheering for someone, and if I really don't care for either team I usually cheer for the underdog or whatever team has a cooler logo. Florida does have a cool logo, can't go wrong cheering for alligators, those are dangerous creatures you know, and buckeyes don't strike me as very dangerous, but who knows, maybe they are but I've never heard of a buckeye attacking a human being.

In other news... I started reading Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris. Just started so I have nothing informative to say, I'm slightly worried it might be extremely boring, but I'm taking a chance on it. I've never read any of Hugo's works, and frankly, I'm staying away from Les Miserables, not only because it's a crazy long book, but also because I've had my fill of socially conscious novels, I feel like every 2 out of 3 books I've read is all about social struggle, which is fine, but I like the occasional story about warfare, zombie attacks, and a love story sprinkled here and there.