This Might Be A Horrible Idea

Hey, Friends.

So, I've gotten a little feedback on our time here together recently...more like suggestions, really. They can actually work together pretty well, so I thought it would be fun to combine them here.  This could be a stroke of genius, or a truly horrible idea.

First, a new reader suggested that it might be a good idea if I did a Getting To Know You type post.  I was less than enthusiastic about it.  I mean, what do you want to know?  A lot of them are the same old questions that have already been done to death on Facebook, or they might be just too damn nosy and I have no intention of answering them online.  There are probably some I wouldn't feel comfortable answering in person either unless I felt really comfortable with you.  Or was drunk.

Around the same time this was suggested, I got a random message on Twitter asking if I wanted to receive a written interview about myself.  It wasn't the first time I've gotten it from various accounts. I assume most people have, as I highly doubt I am cool enough to be on the cutting edge.  My first thought was, "Why in the world would anyone want to interview me?" Maybe it's just me, but I assume when someone is being interviewed it is because they have done a heroic feat, or made some major discovery or innovation, or created art of some description -- something noteworthy has happened that deserves to have attention called to it.  I write a freaking blog in my spare time. Real talk, Friends: we are like the teeniest, tiniest little speck on the internet.  I mean, I think we're pretty awesome, but I'm sure all of the shit-tons of other people who have blogs think they are just as special.

Curiosity being what it is, I clicked on the link to check it out.  Turns out, it's a service.  For $5 they will conduct a written interview of 4-6 questions.  And then I guess you own the interview, or for a bit more money they will post it to their social media websites for you. I assume the allure is in the possibility of expanding your audience on social media. It seems to have gotten pretty good reviews, and has a fast turn around time. I'm not trying to down the service by any means.

Yeah, I didn't do it...well, at least not yet.  I still might.  It is only $5, and I am a little curious as to how the whole process works.  If nothing else it might make for an interesting and/or amusing story to share here.  I'm always thinking of you, Friends!

Here's my major hang up with the idea:

It's a written interview.  Presumably they are going to email me 4-6 questions.  I answer them and email them back.  I assume some sort of editing or revision process happens after that, and then it is done. I have a blog.  I ask myself questions and answer them all of the time.  That seems more like a FAQ then an interview.  I could do essentially the same thing by myself and save the $5.  Beyond that, some of the examples shown have very clear spelling and grammatical errors. I'm not saying that I'm perfect when I write here.  I'm sure there are grammatical errors that I miss, spelling mistakes, typos and the like. If I fuck it up on my blog then I can only blame myself.  If you are selling this as a service? I shouldn't notice the mistakes when I am just quickly scrolling through examples of your work.

The point of all of that was to say that maybe the idea of a Getting To Know You thing wouldn't be such a terrible idea.  It might be pretty boring for you to just read a list of things about me.  I do try not to bore you, although I'm never sure if I am entirely successful with it.

Which brings us to suggestion #2, Friends.  A good friend of mine, whom I'm sure has nothing but my best interests at heart, told me I should start a vlog.  Clearly she either did not see my attempts at making one short video (discover the many ways I failed at that here) or she has repressed her memory of said event.  She was really jazzed about the idea, and her enthusiasm was kind of contagious.

I kicked the idea around for a while.  Do I really want to try another video?  What the hell do I even have to say?  At least with the last one there was a purpose to fulfill.

But wait...what if I took the idea of the Getting To Know You thing, and combined it with the vlog idea?  At least then I wouldn't have to worry about what to say.  It would just be answering questions.

Oh yeah.  We're going there, Friends.

Consider this fair warning.  Stop scrolling now and make a hasty exit if you find the idea of sitting through another video unpleasant and/or possibly painful.  Maybe you are excited about seeing how badly this goes and what kind of an idiot I can make of myself this time.  Grab some popcorn and pull up a chair!  I'm sure it's bound to happen at some point.  Perhaps you just want to learn more about me, or find me amusing and want to see what I am going to say, or just want to be supportive.  Love you for that. 💗 Hell, maybe you're just bored and are looking to kill some time.  Whatever floats your boat.

Hours, people.  It took so many hours to make this.

Did you get to know me better, Friends?  Was it worth all of the time and effort I put into it?  I really hope so. I don't know that it was as deep and insightful as you might have been hoping, but it is what it is. I know I learned several things about myself while watching and editing the footage.

1) I mess with my hair. A LOT.

2) I make a lot of silly faces while thinking and reading.

3) I never realized I bit my lip quite that much.

I also know that you are probably waiting to see the parts where I really screwed up, the failures that did not make the final product.  (There's actually a ton of stuff that didn't make the final product.) For your viewing pleasure, allow me to share some of my mistakes.

Trying to get things set up.  This will not be the location chosen!

Technical difficulties

This one is actually kind of okay.  

Wondering how well this may or may not be going

Hair problems

This was taking too long, and I was getting a bit cranky

That moment when I thought I had accidentally deleted a bunch of stuff

That's all there is, Friends.  Quite frankly, I'm really tired of looking at myself.  Did you like this? Was it even worth the effort?  Let me know if I should bother attempting this again in the future.

Saturday By The River

Hey, Friends.

Ah, Saturday.  A lovely day for being a little lazy and sleeping late...well, on the weeks when I am not scheduled to work, that is.  I happened to have today off, but I'm a dumb ass and scheduled a hair appointment for this morning so I had to get up early anyway.  Okay, so it wasn't really early, but much earlier than I would have liked.

What to do with myself after, all fresh and beautified?  It was only about 10:30 in the morning after all.  I should do something, show off my hair that is all blown out and straight at the moment -- a rarity indeed.

First step: get more coffee, obviously.  I do have my priorities, Friends.

And then I decided it would be a good idea to go take a little wander about and take some pictures.  I had the rest of the day free, and the weather wasn't horrible so why not?  

I headed to Longview Park.  It was only about 25 degrees out after all, and I wasn't exactly dressed to go out on a hike.  A reminder, Friends: it's always a good idea to bring gloves with you when it is cold outside.  I didn't, since I hadn't originally been planning on going anywhere else.  Don't be like me -- plan ahead.  My fingers were not happy during my little spur of the moment jaunt.

Turns out there aren't many other people out frolicking in public parks when it is 25 degrees outside. Surprising, I know.  Nice time for some quiet contemplation, listening to the birds and the crunching of the ice as it breaks up on the Hudson River.

You can hear the ice breaking on the Hudson. pic.twitter.com/MfTbC4oaSG

— Tammy (@tammyshampoo) January 14, 2017

Without further ado, let me show you how I spent part of my Saturday.  I've even selected some fine music for your listening pleasure.

Give it a try.  You might like it.

It might look like late afternoon, but it was about 11:30 in the morning.

Why yes, my feet were a tad chilly. I refer you to the poor planning mentioned above.

Looking down the river toward the Walkway Over the Hudson.

Geese doing a polar plunge

Just chilling

That was the sky at noon.  

Black & white.  Thought I'd switch it up a bit.

That was my Saturday, Friends: drinking coffee and taking pictures.  I consider it a day well spent.  I hope all of you found a way to make your day just as enjoyable.

What's In a Name?

Hey, Friends.

We're going to ruminate on a rather strange subject today.  I'm talking about names -- more specifically about the use of nicknames.  I know it seems like a random topic to be thinking about. You see, I was recently told that I was "old fashioned" in my handling of nicknames, and I'd like to get some other opinions on the subject.

I have no problem with nicknames.  As someone who was blessed with a first name that 99% of people mispronounce?  I very much appreciate having an easier nickname.  It's not a deep, dark secret or anything.  It's not even all that unusual a name -- it's the pronunciation that throws people. My first name is Tamara. Can we get somewhat phonetic for a moment? You pronounce it like camera, only with a "T" instead of a "C", obviously.  It's not Tah-MARE-ah, or Tah-MAR-ah. That's why I tell everyone to just call me Tammy.  Nobody screws that one up.

Having a name that people have trouble pronouncing makes for fun times.  For example, it's super easy to tell when the person calling you is a telemarketer or the like.  They massacre that shit every single time.  You learn to get over people screwing up your name really quickly, too.  Take my first day of kindergarten as a prime example.  I came home from school that day all upset and told my mother that the teacher had called me Tomato all day long.  Obviously she wasn't really teasing me and calling me names, she was just mispronouncing it. I didn't dare to correct her or tell her to call me Tammy because you are supposed to listen to your teacher.

Why are we discussing this in the first place?  Fair question.

I was talking to a patron at work the other day, and it turns out we had a few mutual acquaintances. The patron said, "Oh, so you must know Chuck then."  (I'm changing the name to keep this a little more anonymous, although the chances of anyone involved stumbling across this post are slim to none.) Nope.  Pretty sure I don't know anyone named Chuck.  She goes on to describe him, and eventually I realize I do know him as Charles. She finds that hilarious because "no one ever calls him Charles".  I explained that I was introduced to him that way, and he didn't offer an alternative. She was of the opinion that I should somehow just know that he would prefer to  be called Chuck and shorten it to the nickname immediately.  I believe the exact quote was, "Well, if you meet someone named Timothy, you just know he goes by Tim so that's what you call him."  I told her that I didn't use nicknames for anyone unless they told me they preferred to be called by one, and she laughed. She found the idea amusing, and told me that it was quaint and old-fashioned.

Am I wrong here?  I don't think I am, Friends.

Why would you automatically assume that someone wants to be called a name other than the way they are introduced?  When I get introduced to someone as Tamara, I immediately tell them they can call me Tammy.  Most people who chose to go by a nickname generally offer it right up front.  If I meet you as Charles and you offer no alternative, then I am going to assume you want to be called Charles. I don't think that is quaint or old fashioned.  I kind of assumed it was the norm to call someone by their name.

Someone might hate having their name shortened, or has such a short name to begin with that they never had the need to use a nickname.  Take the name James for example.  It's not a long name.  Yes, a lot of people choose to go by Jamie, or Jimmy, or Jim, but other people stick with James.

And what about the names where there are multiple commonly used nicknames? We'll go back to Charles, again.  Why I would I automatically assume he wanted to be called Chuck?  It could just as easily be Charlie.  I have an Uncle Will and a coworker named Bill, both from William. I'm not psychic, so I would never assume which variation someone wanted to be called without them expressly telling me.

Personal preferences change as people get older as well.  I knew someone in elementary school who we always called Joey.  Now he's older, and he prefers to go by Joe or Joseph.

Maybe they prefer to use their given name for professional reasons, and have a nickname that they use with family and friends.  They might be Robert at work, Bob to other people, and with family and long time friends they might be Bobby.  You never know.  Why make the automatic leap to a name that might mean a different level of relationship or intimacy with that person?  Hell, maybe their parents always call them Junior because they have the same name as their father.  Parents get to do that.

That's without considering the nicknames you would never expect.  When I was in college my roommate was dating (and is now married to) a guy who went to R.I.T.  We used to spend a lot of time hanging out and partying with the guys in the engineering house there.  There were so many guys named Matthew that they all had nicknames: one guy was Matt, one guy was known as "Matt from Oregon from Arizona" (he moved a lot), and one guy went by his last name.  I dated a guy whose real name was Michael, but everyone called him Flip because he was on the soccer team and did bicycle kicks a lot.  And then there was Bob, whose real name was Dave, but he wanted a nickname like all the other guys so he chose Bob.  You just never know.

I was in a sorority in college.  My pledge name was Zia.  For the most part, we all called each other by our pledge names for years.  There are still people that I think of first by their pledge name, and then I have to think for a minute to remember their actual name.  I'm sure they do the same thing.  It makes complete sense to refer to each other that way, but it would be freaking weird if someone else randomly decided to bust out my pledge name and start using it now.

What are your feelings on the topic of nicknames, Friends?  Am I odd for not assuming people want to be addressed by a nickname or diminutive?  If you meet someone named Gertrude, let's say, do you assume she wants to be called Trudy or Gertie without her saying so?  I always thought it was a tad presumptuous to call someone by a name other than they way they were introduced unless they said otherwise.

Humor me, Friends.  I'm curious.

A Pumpkin Story

Hey, Friends.

I hope your 2017 is off to a good start!  We're only a few days into the year, so hopefully it hasn't totally gone to shit on you already. Lots of time to make a comeback and turn it around if it isn't going so well.

As you may recall, back in October I went apple and pumpkin picking with some of my friends.  It's pretty much what everyone does at least once in the Fall when you live in this area.  Need a refresher? You can click on this handy-dandy link right here.  We picked apples and I got to be the Official Tree Climber. It was a fun day.

I kind of fell in love with one pumpkin because I thought it was just adorable -- particularly it's sort of droopy-looking stem.  I had to get it even though I was going to be in Texas for Halloween.  It was too perfect to leave behind!

My pumpkin, happily living on my front steps

Now, I've had issues before with people messing with my decorations on my front steps.  When I am going to be home during Halloween, I usually have a ton of pumpkins on the front steps.  One or two are real, and the rest are the foam ones that you can buy at the craft store.  A few of the foam ones are carved, and then I can use them every year and just put flameless candles in the them.  The rest are solid foam, and they stay out on the steps right through Thanksgiving.

A couple years ago when I was home for Halloween, I had a party.  It had been pretty warm out still, and we had been in the house and on the front porch, lots of windows open.  Everyone had gone home, and I was trying to do a quick clean up before passing out for the night. It was probably about 1-1:30 in the morning. 

I noticed this weird thumping noise coming from the street in front of my house. There's a guy out there, and he had one of my pumpkins in his hands.  He lifted it over his head, and threw it at the ground while saying, "Stupid pumpkin!"  It didn't smash, as he had clearly been hoping, but simply bounced off the pavement. Luckily for me, and much to his apparent frustration, he had picked one of my foam pumpkins to try to smash.

He picked the pumpkin back up again and threw it at the ground with a little more force, getting a little louder with his "Stupid pumpkin!" mantra.  I was pretty sure the guy was less than sober, judging from his slightly uncoordinated movements. I had my phone ready in case he decided to up his attempted vandalism, or tried to come in my house. 

Friends, that dude was persistent!  He must have been out there for a good 10 minutes trying to smash that foam pumpkin.  I have no idea how long he had been there before I heard the thumping noise. He didn't touch anything else, but he kept picking up that one pumpkin and trying to smash it over and over again.  Finally, he made this kind of a "Mrah" growling noise, waved his hands at the pumpkin, and stumbled off down the street.

I waited until I was sure he had wandered off out of sight, and went out to recover my pumpkin from the street.  Not even a dent!  No wonder the dude was getting so frustrated.  I would guess that he probably had zero recollection of his little pumpkin-smashing adventure the next day.  If he did, he was probably a bit confused at his spectacular failure.  I found it hilarious!  Drunk people can be highly amusing.

Back to my point....and I swear I do have one.

So, this year I left my adorable pumpkin on the front steps when I went to Texas. Poor thing was all on its own, and I hoped I wouldn't return to find it a pumpkin-colored splotch on the street in front of my house.

I'm happy to report it was just fine on my return, so I left it on the front steps to act as Thanksgiving / Harvest decor.  Maybe it was because I hadn't carved it, maybe I had found it the perfect little habitat sitting on bricks and spending the day in the sun.  All I know is my little pumpkin showed no signs of being anything less than as perfect as when I had picked him.

Thanksgiving came and went, and my pumpkin was still on my front steps.  People had their Christmas decorations out (including me -- my lights were on the house), and my pumpkin was still sitting on my front steps.  It was still perfectly fine, and I did have a coworker who said he wanted it to make into pies -- he just didn't want it yet as he was maxed out on pumpkins at the moment. So I left it there.

I left my adorable pumpkin on the front steps until I started to get a world of comments from my parents and my neighbors about it.

Christmas lights up, 🎃 still on steps. Either 🎃 has to go or I need more holidays represented and become "that house" on the street.

— Tammy (@tammyshampoo) December 9, 2016

Yeah. It was time.  Either my adorable pumpkin needed to move on, or I needed to put up decorations from all different holidays and be that one crazy house that seems to exist on every street.

By this point I was pretty sure my coworker had forgotten about my pumpkin.  The thing was still perfectly fine!  Not sure what to do with it, I moved it to the back of the house to sit next to my garage.

People had lots of suggestions on what I should do with my pumpkin.  One person said they painted theirs red and green and left them on their front lawn to act as Christmas ornaments.  Someone else told me about kits you could buy to decorate them and make them look like elves.  Most people told me to take it to the woods somewhere and leave it for the deer.

Wait....deer eat pumpkins?  I don't know why I found that so strange, but it gave me ideas.

I have more wildlife friends that visit my back yard than I ever could have imagined survived in this area.  There are: deer, squirrels, birds, skunks, bunnies, cats, raccoons, groundhogs, possums, and apparently a bear (at least once).  Exactly how long could my pumpkin sit in the yard before something decided it looked like a tasty treat?

I don't know what exactly I thought was going to happen during my little wildlife experiment, Friends. I expected to see some tooth marks after the first few days -- some sort of evidence that something had found it and started to chomp its way into the yummy pumpkin seeds at the center.

Well, the birds seem to like visiting the pumpkin

My poor pumpkin had lived such a sheltered little life before it got moved to the back yard.  Now it had been rained on repeatedly.  It had snowed a few times.  Other than signs that the birds liked to visit, it still seemed to be completely intact.

Sunday night I was contemplating my pumpkin.  Maybe all those people were wrong and deer really didn't eat pumpkins. Maybe I had finicky wildlife that lived in my neighborhood, as they clearly preferred to eat all of my bird food from the feeder rather than touch the pumpkin.  Was it the placement of the pumpkin?  It was near the bird feeder, but maybe if I moved it over to the other side of the yard and put it in the garden that would make a difference.  It was farther from the house. If nothing ever touched it and it slowly rotted away, it would probably be good fertilizer.

I completely spaced on moving the pumpkin before work Monday morning.  It was cold and rainy, and I just didn't want to be outside any longer than necessary.  I figured the pumpkin would be fine just chilling by the garage for another day or two.

I was wrong, Friends.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this upon leaving for work Tuesday morning:

Flat pumpkin

Can pumpkins explode?  That was my first thought.  Like maybe it had frozen and thawed enough that it just burst somehow.  A closer examination, however, proved that one side was completely gone, most of the pulpy goop inside was gone, and the seeds were scattered about in front of the garage door. Clearly something had decided that it was hungry enough to go after the pumpkin.

Experiment on, Friends!  I left my pile of pumpkin right where it was, curious to see what would happen next.  Maybe the thrill was now gone and I would end up moving the pumpkin mush to the garden.  Maybe this was just step one, and now other neighborhood wildlife would get in on the action.  

Wednesday morning brought yet another stage in the experiment.

The pumpkin has vanished!

My pumpkin was totally and completely gone!  Literally nothing there except the cracked shells from some of the seeds. What could possibly have done this?  I wish I had a camera out there, because I would really love to know if it was like one animal, or a joint effort -- did one thing eat the pumpkin itself, and then the squirrels and birds took all of the seeds?

It wasn't until I was heading off to work this afternoon (I work the late shift on Thursdays) that I noticed something in my yard that looked odd.  There was a beige-colored lump on the other side of my yard in between the garden and the raspberry bush.  I decided to go investigate as it would not be the first time one of the feral cats had made a kill in the yard and left a random pile of bird feathers in its wake.  Thankfully, it was not a pile of feathers or a mangled little bird body -- it was the stem from my pumpkin!

Pumpkin stem photo shoot on the back steps

The thing has been picked clean.  There is not the slightest trace of pumpkin attached to it any more. Whatever critter had gotten the stem was either ambitious or desperate enough to remove every edible scrap from that stem.  I don't know if the stem was actively being dragged across the lawn to another destination, or if the trip was made accidentally while the attached pumpkin bits were being eaten.  Hell, for all I know one of the feral cats discovered it and decided it would be a great toy to bat around the yard.

So, what conclusions can we draw from the experiment, Friends?

-- If you leave a pumpkin outside long enough, something(s) will eat it.

-- The wildlife in my neighborhood is not nearly as finicky as I believed, and just like to fuck with my bird feeder out of convenience.

-- I might have recycled my pumpkin in the best possible way.

Will my yard now be the new popular spot for all the wildlife to hang out looking to score a treat? We'll just have to wait and see.

Year In Review (sorta, kinda)

Hey there, Friends.

Well, 2016 is rapidly winding to a close.  I feel like I should give some kind of a little wrap-up thing on our time here this past year.

So, for those just burning with curiosity, the most popular post this year?  When I asked if I was a narcissistic asshole.  I'm happy to report that those who replied didn't think I was.  Warms the cockles of my heart.  I'm sure there are people who disagree, but they didn't bother to respond.

Second most popular?  That time a bear was spotted in my neighborhood...and then we had a power outage that night, and I kind of forgot about the potential of having a meeting with said bear face-to-face while I was out wandering the neighborhood in my pajamas.

Coming in a close third? Trying to interpret my weird-ass avocado dream.

That's an eclectic assortment of posts, Friends.  I don't quite know what to make of it, beyond the fact that I share my strange problems here and you all seem to enjoy reading about them.  I wish I could say the popularity of the bear post surprised me, but since the most popular posts last year were about the thug squirrels taking over my garage and my repeated battles with the Giant Ninja Spiders that kept invading my shower?  I'm actually shocked something else beat it out for number one.

If 2015 had a theme, it was my adventures with wildlife.

2016?  That's a little harder to determine, but the thing that seemed to pop up repeatedly was my lack of familiarity with astrology and the zodiac.  Like, I seriously cannot believe how many times people brought that shit up this year.

For starters: there was that embarrassing mortifying time a patron felt the need to go way too in-depth about what my zodiac sign meant.  (I'm a Taurus.  Read the delightful made-me-want-to-crawl-under-a-rock experience here!)

It's come up in conversations with people so many times this year, and every time I end up feeling like a dumb ass because I honestly just have no clue. Or maybe I'm just noticing it more, like the number of times I seemed to hear people talking about chipmunks after I  helped someone with a fan-fiction website.

So, as a step toward growth for the New Year I decided to start following a zodiac thing on Twitter.

Baby steps, Friends, baby steps.

I'm well aware that it is kind of a lame attempt at not being ignorant on the subject. I mention this because today the posts for 2017 started rolling out,

As a #Taurus Expect Great Things To Happen In 2017 With A Scorpio by your side.

— ZodiacFact (@ZodiacFacts) December 31, 2016

I'm all kinds of cool with this.  My brother is a Scorpio.  I already know he's got my back come hell or high water.  He might be down in the great state of Texas, but he's still got my back.

So I looked up Scorpio, assuming that it would say he should stick with a Taurus, right?  I mean that seems like it would logically make sense.  Apparently not.  He's supposed to be chilling with a Virgo, which is just all kinds of amusing to me.  (It's more amusing if you clicked on that link above about me wanting to crawl under a rock.)

This is why this shit confuses me to no end, Friends.  I had to go back and read them all.

As a #Cancer Expect Great Things To Happen In 2017 With A Taurus by your side.

— ZodiacFact (@ZodiacFacts) December 31, 2016

And then, because I still know jack shit about any of this, I had to go and look up Cancer to figure out what part of the year that even fell in.  Your birthday would be in June or July, which I now know. See, Friends? I'm already learning things.

On that note --

Happy New Year to all of you, Friends!  Thanks for continuing to read my ramblings here.  It gives me the warm fuzzies to know I'm not talking to myself.  I hope your 2017 is filled with good helth, happiness, and love.

**And if you happen to be a Cancer, we should totally hang out!  I appear to be a good luck charm for you this year or something.**

I Might Be a "Depressing Little Snowflake"

Hey, Friends.

It's that time of year where everyone everyone starts reflecting on the year: did they learn anything, any major life accomplishments that occurred, plans for the future, etc.  This is a little bit of that, but also a story, and it includes a request for feedback.  Oh, and it all centers around Instagram. Intrigued yet?  I sure hope so, because I kind of need you to read until the end and give me some feedback, if you have some time to spare.

Let's start with the story first.

I was at a soiree recently, and was chatting with a guy I had been introduced to at said event.  I've seen him at other things before as we share a mutual friend.  So we're chatting, and it becomes very clear that he knows more about me than I know about him (especially since I didn't even know his name until we were introduced.)

He brings up Instagram, of all things, and tells me that I take really good pictures. It's always nice to get compliments, and I didn't think much of it as my Instagram is public and meant for anyone to see. It was where he went from there that started to get a bit strange, at least in my opinion.

He told me that I was a "depressing little snowflake" because so many of my pictures were dark, or taken in the evening or at night. Then he declared that I must be "one of those Emo people" because I was wearing black during the holidays. Yeah.

Suffice it to say that we did not chat long, and I'm proud of myself for not telling him that he must be one of those assholes who likes to draw conclusions about people based solely on an Instagram account and an outfit.  I tried very hard to be polite and keep it civil since we do have a mutual friend and I will most likely end up seeing him again in the future.

And yes, I was wearing black during the holidays.  I like black.  I wear it all year long.  This is not new and is not going to change.

Moving right along to Part II of our journey here today, Friends...

As we are near the end of the year, and we are talking about Instagram already, I decided to go back through and find the post from each month of the year that got the most "likes".  They might not be my favorites, or even the ones I think were my best, but they were the most popular.  There are 14 in total, since a couple of months had a tie score.  I'm going to share them with you below, and hopefully they don't make you think I am a "depressing little snowflake."

Not a good way to start on the whole "not a depressing little snowflake" front, I realize.

Do they really strike people as sad or depressing?  Sunsets are beautiful, as is the way light causes reflections on water.  

Moving on to Part III of our purpose here today...

I need some feedback from you, Friends.  I was talked into participating in a staff art display at work. I would like your assistance in choosing which pictures I should use. If you have time, I could really use suggestions on which ones you like the best -- not just from the group above, but from anything found on my Instagram account here:  https://www.instagram.com/tmyers526/

I've already chosen one, as I was asked to provide one for the newsletter at work.  I decided on this one, as it was taken at the library.

Peonies in the rain

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, Friends.  Obviously, I'm biased and like all of them as I took them and shared them with the world.  I have more that I didn't post and can choose from as well, but I'd like to get as wide a variety of opinions as possible.  You can comment here, or on Facebook or Instagram, or even hit me up on Twitter at @tammyshampoo.  Even if you only have time to pick one, that would be tremendously helpful in narrowing it down.  Hell, tell me you think they all suck monkey balls if you feel like being painfully honest.

Thanks for reading, Friends.  And thanks so much in advance if you have a moment to help me out!  

In Which We Discover Why I Will Never Be A Vlogger

Hey, Friends.

For the last couple of months I have been writing little blurbs for the Turn Up the Volume Newsletter, a fan-run newsletter for the band Heffron Drive.  This shouldn't be all that surprising since I have written about seeing them in concert twice.  (Don't remember?  New reader and missed it?  You can find those posts here and here.)

For the last issue of the newsletter, I wanted to buy some of the new merchandise to give away to our readers as a way of saying thanks for all of their support. We could run a contest in the newsletter, and I would get the prizes. Everyone was cool with the idea, so we did it.  Huzzah!

Today it was time to pick the winners.  Friends, I'm not really sure what possessed me to make the next decision.  I'm choosing to blame it on an early morning staff meeting and a lack of coffee.

I got the idea in my head that I should make a video of choosing the winner.  No one could argue about the legitimacy of the drawing then.  Everyone will see that the beanies truly exist, they would see the random drawing.  Besides, I figured it couldn't be too hard to make a simple video, right?

Ha!

I rarely even take selfies, so shooting video of myself just doesn't happen.  I should probably also mention that this was, in fact, the first time I have ever attempted to use the webcam on my laptop. How hard can it be?

Pretty damn hard, as it turns out.

Come, Friends!  Let's explore all my failed attempts before finally managing to get a video recorded that would not be a total train wreck.

Trying to figure out where I'm even supposed to be looking

Attempt #1 -- still haven't got the hang of this yet

Attempt #2 -- Still surprised by when the countdown ends and the recording actually begins

Attempt #3 -- Third time's the charm, right?  No.

Attempt #4 -- in which I realize I have no idea what the hell I am going to say

Attempt #6 -- foiled by my own coffee cup

Attempt #7 -- still not sure where I'm going with what I want to say

At this point, Friends, you'll notice a small wardrobe change.  Why?  Because I was getting incredibly frustrated with myself and needed to step away.  Also, my sweater was too hot.

Attempt #8 -- Now I can't even get through a coherent sentence.  Progress in the wrong direction!

Attempt #9 -- Why yes, the beanies contest would be giving away beanies.  Let's try that again without sounding quite so redundant

You would think, after all of the many ways in which I failed, that the finished product would be flawless, right?

Nope.

Apparently I can't even make a video -- less than 2 minutes in length -- with cursing.  Yeah.  Just kind of slipped out.  No way was I starting over again at that point.  

Seriously, pretty much my entire evening had been spent trying to make this damn thing.  I just finished it up and posted it.  I left it up to Melly to decide whether she wanted to post the video or just announce the winners.

Being awesome, she decided to post it!  Want to see the finished product?  I know you do.  

Things I probably should have considered ahead of time:

--Did I think about the lighting before hand? 

Nope. Just decided to do it while sitting on my couch.

--Did I even stop to fix my hair, or gussy myself up ahead of time?

Nope.  I call this look "I've been at work since 8 am, and 12 hours later I'm trying to make a video. Hair and makeup from this morning are going to be good enough."

There you have it, Friends.  I don't think vlogging is something I am going to take up right away.  So much harder than you would think.