INKSTAND

Someone left this bag at our store. It’s from a company in Portland, OR, Patty Reed Designs. It’s one of their line of bags called an “insta-tote” because it is collapsable, yet durable. As far as the design on it goes, well, the new girl and I were talking to two different people at the same time about this bag someone left and we each ended our sentence, almost in unison, “It’s hideous.”

I like the combination of black white and red, but it can’t save this design. I’ve never been a fan of the tiny polka dots and they really strain the image here, making my eyes hurt and my brain work too hard. Also, the type says “…girlfriends…” The women pictured hardly seem like friends and I would expect one to tear the other’s eyes out if she wore the same dress as her.

While this is as deep as my critique went, Rachel, the girl at work, developed a great hatred for the bag. She dearly wanted to rip it apart and destroy it. I prevented this, not wanting to have to explain it to a customer who might come to claim the bag. “Sorry, miss, our checker went ferral on it.”

I was just going through my clothes, picking out the ones I’m going to give away, when I came across this shirt. I got it in high school, like a lot of my clothes i should toss, and while I seem to have worn it a lot back then I don’t find myself donning it at all anymore. Is it because it’s out of date? That didn’t stop me in school when it was only 20 years out of date. Now it’s 30 years old, at least. I think the main reason I don;t wear it anymore is because it’s polyester. I used to wear a LOT of polyester. But now I’m an adult and I work and I do actual physical activities and sweat and stuff, and with it’s lack of breathing quality, polyseter just isn’t practical. Plus this, like my drawings, is another relic from my past that I DO NOT NEED! So, while it served it’s purpose when I was trying to be all non-conformy and stuff in my youth, it’s time to let some bum wear it.

For the last five years, since I moved out of my parent’s house, I’ve been dragging so much stuff with me and I keep collecting more. One collection of things is pretty much every drawing of mine that I can find as far back as I can remember. Why do I keep them? Maybe because I think I’ll use them someday or that when I’m dead they’ll be treasured or maybe it’s just that I don’t draw as much as I did when I was younger so I need them around to feel some sort of accomplishment.
Now,after moving this winter, I decided I was sick of all the crap that follows me around. I’m going to get rid of all my clothes I don’t wear, sell as many of my books as I can and, of course, get rid of all this worthless paper I hold onto like its worth it’s weight in gold.
I started buy sifting through the piles, not going through them carefully because if i did that I’d save too much. So I just scanned and pulled out all the bigger paintings or drawings ar things that were actually good or meaningfull. Thje rest I just tossed. There were some things that I thought I’d never get rid of, I remembered almost every drawing on every page of homework I ever did. But common sense rang through and it just wasn’t worth it to me to have these things lying around.

As you can see, there was quite a lot. I wish I had taken a before picture so you all could see how it was just crammed in there, it’s mass of rectangular shapes being the only thing saving it from amorphism. But alas… What I did was save the few works of art and handfull of nearly empty blank books I decided to keep and put them in the bottom drawer. I put my art supplies in the other drawers, all of wich had been chilling in the hall closet.

Getting rid of this stuff feels great. Really, it’s one less thing to think about and weigh me down. Sure I’m going to miss some of the fun, cool drawings I did in my youth but I’ve lost so many other things from that time. I dwell in the past too much and it hasn’t been working for me. So I’m going to start getting rid of a lot of stuuf from here on out.
Now if I could jsut deal with that storage unit I have in California.

It’s perfect. I got it back in high school when it seemed a lot easier to find cool cheap clothes at thrift stores. I haven’t worn it in over 2 years because I left it in this van I was living in and it got some mold growing on it. Loving it so much, I kept it in a plastic bag away from everything else knowing that one day I would take care of it. I’m sure most of it is polyester. Today was that day. I put on some rubber gloves, sprayed it with Simple Green and scrubbed it im my bathroom sink. I then threw it in the wash.
It’s good as new, or at least as good as I left it. This sweater fits me perfectly and has a couple of characteristics I can’t find in most. First of all there are two small pockets in the front. Most sweaters I can find in thrift stores have no pockest at all. The other thing is the cuffs. Other “golf sweaters” have these really long cuffs that are meant to be folded back in half. They are ugly. These cuffs just have a simple ribbing that hugs the wrist.
I have no idea who made it and I will probably never see one like it again.

A long time ago Seth found a hoodie at the bowling alley. He later said I could have it because he didn’t want it and it didn’t fit. We both forgot about it. It snowed in Seattle the last couple of days and Seth gave me a ride home. While looking in the trunk for a brush to clear the windshield, he found the hoodie and tossed it to me. He then proceeded to clear off the windsheild with my umbrella, breaking it. This did not anger me, however, because the hoodie is really fucking sweet.
It’s like an indie rock accessory that I never really had. not a ZIP UP hoodie anyway. And now that I’m too old to be an indie rock kid, I can still rock it. In fact I think it’s given me magical powers. I just need to figure out what they are.

Holy Shit, God does exist!!! I know this because I can play scrabble online! I made a friend online, as I’m prone to doing once in a while, who mentioned Scrabble. I bought a new Scrabble set a few months ago and have yet to use it. I can’t seem to get any friends to play with me, most likley because I rush home to get on the computer. This is the perfect solution!
If anyone wants to play, download this program and hunt me down. I’m usually on late at night. The program can be found here. My username is (duh) Inkstand.

I found this at a thrift store for $4. I’m certainly not planning a trip or anything, but I don’t have a real suitcase. This thing is so cool I couldn’t pass it up. Plaid is one of my favorite colors.
Today I had the brilliant Idea to look inside any pockets to see if there were any left over treasures. I found a couple of things. First, a clothespin and some safety pins:

Then a bar of soap from Travelodge, circa god knows when.

The best thing was this: The original key to the lock on the zipper! it says “presto” on it.

Man, I’m glad I bought this.

So today at work a customer gave my buddy Nate a bit of pot as a gift of some sort. Nate is straight-edge, the coolest straight edge kid I know, but since he’s the only one I can geek out about comics with, that’s not saying much. Since he knows I like to smoke the marijuana, he gave it to me. I told him I loved him.
I don’t go looking for pot. I never buy it. But when it comes my way I don’t turn it down. And unless I’m at a party and have been drinking, I can only get high by myself. Some social paranoia thing, I don’t know. So now, hopefully PBS will air Red Dwarf and not try to raise any money for their free programming like they did last week*, and I will get to eat my fat steak, stoned and with beer. As to how good the pot is, I probably won’t report on that because it all kind of feels the same to me.
*Red Dwarf was NOT on again!!! It was a fucking Cream concert. Thanks, you old fossils.

Note from Inkstand: I promise that after this post I will stop using this forum to talk about myself, but start reviewing actual things again…in addition to talking about myself.

I’m assuming Stephanie bought a motorcycle today. There’s a junky little thing in the parking lot and this helmet was on the couch when I got home from work tonight. She’s not here so I can’t ask her. It might not be hers.
I like the sleek blue color, but her head’s a lot smaller than mine, so it doesn’t really fit. I squishes my cheeks. As far as protection goes, I’m sure as hell not going to be the one who finds out if it will keep someone’s brain inside their skull.

Note: Steph came home and , yeah, it’s hers. She loves it. She says its 90 ccs so it can get up to 50 mph. And I guess it’s not “junky”. I have no idea…

I played this on an emulator, and it was not translated. I have no idea what it’s about. I once heard that mushrooms were legal in Japan. I’ve always seen evidence to support that fact and this game is no exception. Its a side-scroller, and it seems easy enough. I just haven’t played very many video games (compared to “gamers”) so I get all frustrated and quit.

The room is supposed to look like that