Blogvember Challenge; or, I Got Tagged by The Curious Professor Z

Well, I was tagged by Professor Z for Little Corp Goth Girl's "Blogvember Challenge", but not until December, so perhaps I should rename my post the "Blogcember Challenge"???  Naahh...  ;-)

Oh, and I'm proud to say that Professor Z successfully defended her dissertation, and will soon be officially called Doctor Z!!  woo-HOOOO!!!

So, back to the Challenge: 

1.  What is the best thing about blogging?

For me, and I think for many others, the best part of blogging is 'meeting' all sorts of wonderful people, and knowing that they read what I write because they like what I have to say.  Sharing myself with others and having them respond with acceptance, understanding, and empathy is awesome!  And when I'm able to help someone else with my words, that's even better. 

2.  What makes my blog so special?

I'm sure this answer is different for each of my readers, but for me, it's special because it's all about ME!  Well, not just me, of course, but it's unique because it's done from my perspective, which is different from everyone else's; no one else will ever look at things in exactly the same way that I do.

3.  How will my blog look in a year?

I really have NO idea.  I'm a somewhat different person from who I was last year, and I'm sure I'll do more changing in the coming year, so it will be exciting to see what happens to my blog in the process!  :-)

4.  Which was my best post?

Errgggg... I'm not sure which is my absolute BEST post, but I've got two that I think are pretty much tied for first place.  One is "When I'm 64: Thoughts about Dressing Goth after 60".  The other one is "The 50+ Face: Skincare for Women and Men".  Both of these have so many hits that I figure they must be the "best" ones, at least to my readers!  Although my personal favorite is"The Goth Closet (as Opposed to the Closet Goth)".

5.  What other blogs or bloggers inspire me?

This one is easy!  Here's my "short list", in no particular order:

~Goth Gardening

~The Curious Professor Z

~Vampire Rose, the Aging Goth

~The Gothic Embrace

~Breaking the Angel

~Thoughts from an eclectic goth mind

~Little Corp Goth Girl

~Insomniac's Attic

~The Gods Are Bored

~GIY: Goth It Yourself

NOTE: If I read your blog but it's not on this list, please don't be offended!  I still love yours, or I wouldn't be reading it.  :-)  But these are blogs that have helped me through some difficult, sad or frustrating times, and I wanted to give them a small boost in return.

 Now, I'm supposed to tag three more bloggers, but I know many people don't like doing these, so I will just say that IF anyone whose blog I read decided to accept the challenge, I would love to read their posts.  :-)

Happy Holidays, everyone!! 

Have a Very Batty Christmas!

Yes, I'm greedy...  GothGardening is having another contest, and I want to win!!  But really, that's just an excuse to write about one of my favorite things... BATS!

Even before I discovered the goth subculture, I've loved bats.  When I took my son, who was four at the time, to a Cub Scout weekend camp, there was a bat under the door flap of our tent, and when I opened the flap I accidentally flipped it inside.  Instead of screaming and/or running, I called to him, "Hey, Stuart, come quick, we've got a BAT in our tent!"  But it flew out before he could get there, so all he saw was this little black streak zipping away through the air.  Bummer, dude...  All the other kids around us thought it was cool, though.  :-)

Bats are not only CUTE, they're also ecologically awesome!  Did you know that:

~A single brown bat can catch around 1,200 mosquito-size insects in one hour; a small colony can eat over 6 million bugs in a year.

~An anticoagulant found in vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human cardiac patients. 

~Some seeds will not sprout unless they have passed through the digestive tracts of a bat. Additionally, bats spread millions of seeds every year from the ripe fruit they eat. Approximately 95% of the reforestation of the tropical rainforest is a result of seed dispersal from bats. 

~Bat dropping is called guano and is an important fertilizer in many tropical regions because of its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen.  During the Civil War, U.S. soldiers used bat guano to make gunpowder.   

~In China and Japan, bats are symbols of happiness. In Chinese, the words for “bat” and “good fortune” are both pronounced “fu.” 

 

~Bats make up a quarter of all mammals; there are over 1,100 species of bats in the world. 

BUT...

~More than 50 percent of bat species in the United States are either in severe decline or are listed as endangered.  

So you see, it's important to keep our bats happy and healthy!  We don't realize how much we need them.

Finally, here is a pic of the holiday cards I sent out to all my goth friends this year.  I actually bought them LAST year on Christmas Day, just to make sure I had them!

 

This card is currently available at Elipsis Design on Etsy.  Check it out, along with all the other awesome small businesses on Etsy!

And although it's a bit early yet, have a Very Batty Christmas, everyone!

The Birthday Massacre Show

Hi, there...  I haven't been posting much lately, mainly because I've been too exhausted both mentally and physically.  Spending half my weekends this year at my mom's house taking care of things was NOT easy.  Even though she's back home now, I've discovered that I apparently went into "Mom Mode" during the year, and because her mother never acted much like a mom, I think she is enjoying the feeling, even though I doubt she is actually conscious of it.  So now it's time to turn off the "Mom" button and get back to my normal "my child is now an adult and therefore I don't need to mother anyone" space.

So... Monday night I finally got to see a goth band live!  One of my favorites, The Birthday Massacre, was playing at Slim's in San Francisco.  I bought the tickets before Halloween, just to make sure I didn't back out due to anxiety, which has been a bad habit of mine that I've discussed in previous posts.  

The opening band was The Red Paintings, a group from Australia.  They were pretty good, we enjoyed them, and the lead singer was pretty funny between songs, although he dropped a slight overabundance of F-bombs.  They actually have local artists on stage with them, creating original artwork while they are playing; it was interesting to watch the art "grow" on stage!

The next band was called New Year's Day.  My mother always said that if you can't say anything nice, you shouldn't say anything at all, so I won't.  Except that the lead singer dropped even MORE F-bombs than the other guy, only she wasn't funny at all.

Then The Birthday Massacre came on.  Awesome show!!  They are just as good live as they are on their studio CDs.  And Chibi, the lead singer, is funny, lovely and gracious.  An added plus: NOT ONE F-bomb from her the entire time they were onstage.  The whole set was upbeat, and people were finally dancing, whereas most had not done so during the first two sets.  I wish they didn't live in Canada; apparently they last toured the U.S. a few years ago.  We need them here more often!!!  (Certainly more often than we need Justin Bieber...)

  The Birthday Massacre

I had a fantastic time!!  I danced through most of the first set, ALL of Birthday Massacre's set, and through a fair amount of the recorded music they played before and in between sets.  I was probably the most trad goth there, wearing a DIY-altered skeleton t-shirt, a floor-length black studded skirt, my 4-inch Demonia platforms, fishnets, and a long black velvet coat.  And as far as I could tell, I was the ONLY one there wearing a spiked collar!  Errrr, where did all the trad goths go???  We saw one or two people we've seen at Death Guild, but a LOT of the patrons didn't even look particularly goth, although many were wearing black.  And I couldn't see any platform boots, except for mine.  Oh, well, I didn't care, I was dressing for myself, anyway.  And no one could question my right to carry a Goth Card, heheh...  ;-)

Just writing this has improved my sucky mood immensely.  Now to get back to work; they expect me to do that here once in a while.  

Have a great week/weekend, and I plan on posting more of my regular stuff in the very near future.  Oh, and I was totally serious several posts back about learning to play the bass.  I finally found some music books for bass online and ordered them!  So very soon you may be hearing some truly odd noises on this blog...  ;-)

December: "I'm SO Goth..."

Time for a wonderfully Dark and Creepy Holiday season!  Well, this says "Merry and Bright", but we know what we all REALLY want for Christmas...  ;-)



                                                              (Source)

Happy Goth Turkey Day!

This is TOO awesomely funny not to share!






And Happy Turkey Day from Lucretia's Reflection, as well!

An Early Thanksgiving

Well, as of today, it's official!  My mom will FINALLY be going home from the nursing facility on Friday the 14th.  At long last, this situation that has dragged on since January will be OVER.

At first, I just felt numb.  I couldn't even feel excited, all I could think of was that I just got back from Clearlake yesterday and now I'll be going up again in five days and spending up to nine days there, getting my mom reorganized and adapting to some new living conditions.  And my mom calling me three times today to tell me about more things I needed to do didn't help.

But now I'm starting to feel happy about it.  This IS the outcome we've been hoping for for so long!!  Not like Grandma, who just went downhill and never recovered. So I'm going to try to shake off the exhausted stupor I've been walking around in for so long, and do my best to make this an enjoyable trip.  Of course, my mom and I may end up killing each other anyway, as we haven't lived together in decades, and always did have different ideas about how things should be done!  

You don't think I'm kidding, do you??   Good.

And now, for a little pre-Thanksgiving cheer...  my favorite part of "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving"!

                        

Wow, I'm a Scary Goth!!!

Well, I never thought THIS would happen, and I just had to share.

On Monday at work I wore my Misfits sweater from Hot Topic:



As I was opening the restroom door to leave, a coworker was walking up to the door to go in.  She looked at me, shrieked, and hopped backward!  Then she said my sweater startled her, and we both burst out laughing. 

I've worn this sweater to work several times, but never had a reaction like that!  Have you ever actually scared someone with what you were wearing (and it wasn't Halloween)???