we feel fine book giveaway!

ok real quick cuz i gots to go make dinner -

the folks at we feel fine were kind enough to bestow on me a second free copy of the "we feel fine: an almanac of human emotion" book so that i might do a giveaway for all the rest of y'alls - and giveaway time is here! my second copy came in the mail today. whut whut!!!

SO! here's the rules:

1) i got in the book after the folks at we feel fine found a lovely blog post i had written featuring my middle finger. so to enter the contest, leave a comment here telling us something middle-finger related. it could be about the time you accidentally flipped off your aunt mildred, it could be about the time you did it on purpose. but in celebration of my middle finger picture, your comment MUST share something about middle fingers! maybe you know of a cool piece of middle finger art on the internets? share it and automatically be entered to win!

2) comment as many times as you wish, but one entry per person will be counted.

3) contest closes at midnight on sunday, december 13, at which point i'll use the website random.org to pick the winner!

the winner gets a free hardbound copy of "we feel fine: an almanac of human emotion", and if you like i'll autograph my middle finger on page 82 for ya!

get commenting people, i can't wait to read your middle finger stories!

we feel fine book update!

OMG guys! so in case you didn't know, a photo i posted on this very blog is getting published in the upcoming book "we feel fine: an almanac of human emotion".



you can read the whole story about how this happened by clicking here!

and you can read the original blog post they found my photo in here.

you can check out the preview of the book by clicking here, and can preorder a copy here.

i'm just a chock full of superexcited links! hooray!!!

we feel fine about getting published!!!

a while back (a LONG while back!) i had gotten an email from the website www.wefeelfine.org. their website is all about exploring emotions on the internets, and they had decided to create a book.

and they had discovered this blog post on the livejournal version of my blog, and could they use my middle finger picture in their book?

what's that you say? make my middle finger famous? YES PLEASE!!!

months and months and months went by, enough that i totally forgot about their exciting email. then yesterday i got another one from them, saying "hey sorry it's been so long since you've heard from us, your section of the book got cut but we liked it so much we found a way to put it back in - so you'll be in it!"

and there you have it! my middle finger will be in the book we feel fine, in stores december 1. you should probably go get a pre-order copy from amazon!

hearts and laserbeams book report: derby girl

i got this book for valentines day from the huzzzzz - what can i say the boy knows me!

for those of you that don't know, josh and i manned a hearts and laserbeams booth in the vendor area of a couple of l.a. derby dolls matches last year. then we went with some friends to see a multi-game roller derby extravaganza put on by the oc rollergirls last march, and when we actully saw a match we were hooked. hooked may not be the word. but full-on obessessed may be a little strong... anyways, moral of the story is we had to stop getting booths at the derby dolls games because all we want to do is watch. and drink beer. roller derby is the fucking bomb!

derby girl is a novel written by shauna cross, who used to skate for the l.a. derby dolls under the name maggie mayhem. according to the inside cover of this book, she "is obsessed with flea markets, the art of the perfect cd mix (even though cds are so over), and pretending she still lives in her hometown of austin texas."

i would also like to add to this that she likes long romantic walks on the beach and candlelit dinners from mcdonalds but i don't actually know her so i'm not for reals adding that at all.

according to my extensive research (i.e. josh mentioned he thought this might be the case and then i double checked imdb which never lies), this book is where the story for the upcoming roller derby movie whip it came from, with the screenplay also written by shauna cross!

hearts and laserbeams book report: derby girl by shauna cross

ok i got through this book in one day because i couldn't stop reading it - which is a stark contrast to the ambrose bierce travesty (check out yesterday's book report)! if you're looking for a superfun read this is it - it's kinda a bit like reading a teen girl's diary, and no chapter is longer than like 3 or 4 pages.

love love LOVE the cover. i know that's got zero pull in the merits of reading a book, but dammit i'm an artist so that shit matters. the cover's got a cool pulp art kind of feel and i totally dig it.

don't read this book trying to learn the rules of roller derby cuz it's not that kind of book. i can't quite put my finger on what it reminds me of - maybe juno a tiny bit but not really... ghost worldy maybe! just very much a book about a misfit teen who's rebelling against a mom who's trying to make her a beauty pagaent winner and all the madcap mayhem that results.

i can't wait for the movie of this book to come out dammit!

and no i'm not giving away this book cuz number one it's about roller derby and number two it was a gift from the huzzz! but the next book i will, i swear! i think i'm gonna start passing on the books i report on so someone else can have a read...

ratings

hearts: 4 hearts - i totally had a blast reading this book! it's really fun to do more lighthearted books in between the high school reading list type stuff i've been getting into lately, and this was a much-needed break! i will probably read this again sometime!

farts: 1 fart - as a roller derby fan it was kinda confusing to see l.a. teams and players referenced in this book set in texas mixed in with other teams from other places and it kinda left me scratching my head at times. but really, that's the only complaint! pow!

super fun, super fluffy, no cliff notes needed, read 40 pages of it in the morning and came back to finish the job later that day!

hearts and laserbeams book report: the sun also rises

ok so my new thing is i'm trying to get back to reading, and i thought maybe i should share with you the viewing public what i've been reading and what i think about each book, and it's gonna be awesome, with a rating system and everything! and away we go!

the sun also rises by ernest hemingway

ok now here's what i learned early on about classic american literature. buy the cliff notes right off the bat because 71 pages into this book i had no idea what the hell i had just read. so i got the cliff notes (actually they're called "spark notes" if you buy em at barnes and noble these days) and read the chapter summaries of everything i had just read, and turns out the main character's weener doesn't work cuz it was shot up in world war 1.

ok maybe it wasn't shot off. but it doesn't work anymore. that's the main thing you need to know about main character jake barnes. then when the author subtley says "his ding don't dong no more", you'll know "oh, see his weener got hurt in the war, probably from carrying heavy artillery." (yuk yuk yuk)

so basically, this book is about jake barnes and his slutty girl friend brett. not girlfriend, mind you. she doesn't wanna get with him because he can't sleep with her, so she just sleeps around and then when she gets her heart broken she hangs out with him and picks up the pieces. and she's constantly talking about this other broke dude mike that she's going to marry because he's rich, and it's really hard to tell if she's making an ironic joke or is just delusional... in either case she talks about it so much i think she's kind of just an ass.

so the main message of this book - effed up releationships are timeless.

the other main character of the book, robert cohn, in a word, is a douchebag.

basically everyone in the book gets with lady brett ashley (don't get confused by the lady title, she's a ho)because she's the village bicycle, and it's all drunken one night stands, and then she goes away for a weekend with robert cohn and he falls for her hard and thinks it's true love and starts following her all stalkerlike even when she's hanging out with her main man mike...

there's a big fight scene where robert punches out mike and jake and then he wants to shake hands and make nice after... same thing happens with a bullfighter brett's sleeping with, except after he goes to shake that guy's hand he punches him in the face. which is totally effing rad.

also, there's lots and lots of boozing it up in this book. everyone and i mean everyone's getting drunk. except back in olden times they called it getting "tight". which sounds pretty dope.

uhhhhh what else. there's bullfighting, but it's kinda sad and gross cuz they talk about cutting the bull's ear off and things like that.

aaaaaaaaaand that's my book report of the sun also rises. if you like books about booze and sluts this one's for you! i tip my hat to you hemingway, only you could make something like this sound so damn classy.

ratings:
4 hearts - loved the boozin it up, was a fun read, once i found out the guy hurt his ween in the war i had a good time watching for subtle references about it. lots of great descriptions of the spanish countryside.

1 fart - hemingway could've been a lot more direct in telling people about this dude's weener malfunctions.