Tag Archives: makeup

Pardon Me, Miss, But Your Disorder Is Showing

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And I know it.  And I am not only letting it, I am encouraging it.

I am getting way obsessive-compulsive and hyper-focusing on a project I started.  No need to go in to the finer points, it’s just something that I’m doing to organize my life, supplement my memory, and get better acquainted with some blogs and bloggers, both recently discovered, and long a part of my online writing sphere.

Really, the whole thing is absolute madness.  Oh well.  The only thing that will actually make me crazy is if I don’t get it done.

In other news. . .

Beginning (I suspect not coincidentally) around the first of the year, many of my blogger friends took on various projects and challenges.  The most frequent I have seen is the 30 Days of Truth, but there are a whole truckload out there, with subjects literary, photographic, and strictly introspective.

I didn’t initially think anything about these challenges as far as them having pertinence to or appeal for myself.  I don’t believe I was even blogging at the time.  But recently I have been pondering not the actual challenges presented, but the idea of doing something myself that requires a certain amount of commitment and creativity.  I came up with the following two ideas, tailored to my specific talents and interests.

The first is the Fairy Tale A Day project.  Ever since I can remember, I have been passionately in love with The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (Jack Zipes translation).  In this volume there are 250 tales, and much as I love this book, I know I have not read them all.  So I thought I would start with the first (“The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich”), and read at least one piece a day until I make it to the last (“The Short Tale”).  Sounds interesting and fun to me!

The second project is utterly different and also more challenging.  I have the most ridiculous, versatile, and wonderful collection of makeup I have ever seen (you can get a sense of it by visiting my page Beauty Snob), and I am constantly adding to it.  But I don’t use it nearly as often as I would like to, since I seldom do up my face when I’m not going anywhere.  Consequently, there are shadows and glosses and palettes and sets I have never even tried out, which to me is a damned shame.  So the goal is to try out a new look at least three times a week, even if I am just planning on sitting at home and writing.

If I get ambitious enough, I’m going to post a list of my products so that I can make a notation when I use each of them.  Because while I will be taking photographs of myself every time I fancy up my face. . .  Well, I’m not going to be posting them here.  I did seriously consider doing so, but I really am just far too private with that aspect of myself.  I will give you the blow-by-blow of the most personal and emotional experiences and thoughts in my life, but you are definitely barred from ever actually seeing me.  Go figure.  ;)

I guess that’s it for tonight (this morning).  Back to the organizational OCD mines!

Moral of the story:  Sometimes mental illness taking over is neither a trauma nor a catastrophe.

© Ruby Tuesday and I Was Just Thinking. . . 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ruby Tuesday and I Was Just Thinking. . . with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. This work is protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

My Very Favorite Weapon

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You don’t have to be frightened and call the cops to report me for felony menacing.  Not even a misdemeanor.  In all my vast arsenal of trusted means of contention against any enemy combatant, it’s my capacity continual propensity to have said enemy underestimate me that I like best of all.  So I do what a girl can, under the particular circumstances, to distract and misdirect and generally confuse to the best of my ability.  The best of my ability – as you might guess – is pretty damned good, after all of these years.

Speaking of weaponry and misdirection, I made a page a few days ago, Beauty Snob.  I’ve had these pictures of my beauty products and my makeup collection for some time, and have been trying to figure out where to put them.  But I think I had a sixth sense when I made that page that I was going to have to marshal the troops for battle on Friday.  And I did.

Incidentally, if you are brave and look through all of those pictures, you can see that the possibilities are endless.  Depending upon my mood and the situation, I can be an ingenue, a sexpot, a firecracker, I can look completely natural, like your best friend or your guiltiest fantasy.  And that’s just going from the neck up.

When people who don’t know me (especially men, but women are guilty of it too) see me, they see a beautiful face, lovely clothing, and drop-dead shoes.  Unless I’m running out for a Starbucks in my pjs.  And so most of them are caught off guard – or more frequently floored - by what comes out of my mouth when I open it.  The insightful, probing questions, the extremely intelligent, specialty-focused terminology, the constant demand to know the method behind things – not the dumbed-down layman’s method, but the ‘You might confuse me with another specialist in your field (except I dress much better)’ method.  I wrote about the psychiatrist who acted as though I had to be hiding an advanced degree from some prestigious university in my back pocket, as opposed to me having fled dropped out of high school.  Yeah.  It’s like that.

Even my primary still treats me this way on occasion, to a lesser degree.  Facts in this world are, unfortunately, facts.  People are intellectual snobs and they are taken in by looks.  I don’t happen to consider this unfortunate, though, because it means things are “Advantage, Ruby” from the get-go.  And by the time folks realize their error in judgment (if they do), I have usually left with that for which I came.

I know we’re all hating on the neurologist who wrote my assessment right now, and grateful though I am for that support, I may not have painted the clearest picture of him.

He is a genuinely nice guy, a slightly shy guy, a very easily led and distracted guy.  I think it’s a combination of a genuine fascination with the brain – such that he was happy to just let mine do its thing and not redirect it, because he wanted to know where it would go (and I truly appreciate that novelty of perspective) – combined with the above factors.  Advantage, Ruby.

I had my follow-up consult with him Friday.  I know I said next week, but I realized with enough time to spare that I had the date wrong.  I wore my Gunmetal Primer Shadow, a dash of Venus eye color, and a Dark.  Black.  Eyeliner.  Many people reading this (especially the men) may be confused by that.  After all, black eyeliner is black eyeliner, right?  Ha!  It is to laugh!  There is black eyeliner and then there is BE Black Diamond.  That one has the most incredible effect on men, I don’t know why.  The last time I wore it was Whoring Myself For Charity - and “If you have to ask, you’ll never know.”  If you are a man and I am wearing Black Diamond, it’s because I’m there either to slaughter or seduce you.  In either case, be very afraid.

My poor neurologist never saw it coming, he never had a chance.  I was running him ’round in circles before we even made it to the consult room.  At one point during the appointment, and only one, he did actually stop me to say, “Wait, you’re throwing out all of my ideas and suggestions before I can even make them!” (as in I was throwing them out into the conversation, not dismissing them).

Poor guy.  He really did want to help me.  And as I briefly mentioned, it’s very nice and refreshing to have someone who is as completely fascinated by my brain and the way it works as I am, and who is not trying to keep me focused so he can move on to his next “case” (in his report he actually referred to me as “this interesting woman,” and I wasn’t insulted, I was complimented).

And I gained some insight from this process.  Not much, but some is better than none.  I could write about it here, but it gets highly technical.  It isn’t that I don’t think you all could grasp it, you could, but wasn’t the above account thoroughly more interesting?

Moral of the story:  There are all sorts of ways of being smart.  And I am.  ;P

© Ruby Tuesday and I Was Just Thinking. . . 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ruby Tuesday and I Was Just Thinking. . . with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. This work is protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

This Is What I Get (For Trying To Get Some Sleep)

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So I took a sleeper late Thursday night/early Friday morning, and with the exception of a few brief interludes (e.g. my very short post yesterday), I have been asleep ever since (after reading the aforementioned post, I was arguably asleep when I wrote it).  This is what happens when I start a project and then don’t keep up with it:  I’ve got at least a dozen comments to respond to/posts to comment on (I know, not like 100, but I try to respond to each with thought and depth) both on my blog and the blogs I read, 17 – no joke or exaggeration, 17 - unfamiliar blogs to thoroughly read, examine, and in all ways vet (usually this process includes commenting and seeing what, if any, response I get), which may seem overly intense, but I have recommended and/or put blogs on my blogroll that seemed like good start-ups, only to realize they were – well one I’m even wondering about the honesty/authenticity of – not anything I wanted associated with my page after the fact, so it has caused me to be extra-careful (once bitten. . .).  Now I spend probably a minimum of 45 minutes on each, and if they’re very new, I put them on “watch” status:  I check back in with them every few days so that I can form a proper impression.

A number of these blogs also have blogrolls, which of course I check out as well, so this process becomes basically endless.

I’m still working on. . .  I am not even going to count the number of pages I need to edit as well as links I have to double-check before I add them to this blog, so that I can finish my “construction,” for now anyway.  I have another blog post that I need to write up, which will probably be broken down into about three separate days, but it’s different from my normal posts, much more focused and expository, not to mention extremely important and potentially difficult to write.  It’s one of those things that I am also extremely ambivalent about writing, but in the final analysis I know that I really need to, whatever the reaction from the masses.  I had planned on setting aside yesterday for that purpose, so I am already behind.

Also, tonight I have the semi-dreaded dinner with my father (even though it was my idea, I blame the sleeper because it wasn’t my original idea and it’s a more direct and confrontational approached than I had planned on initially), so everyone wish me luck with that.  As a nice little topper, my chin has been breaking out from all the stress in my life lately, so I have to allow extra time while getting ready to do a full face (also because I get terrible dark circles when I sleep for too long as well as not long enough) - my skin has been so kind to me lately and I haven’t needed to do one of those in ages.  Sigh.

I also have yet another project brewing in my mind. . .  Lord help me. . . but that’s just going to have to wait.

So that was what I had set aside three days for, and now I’m down to one and a quarter.  And yes, I can continue on into Monday and further if I need to, I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything to interrupt the day, and no, no one will die or be grievously injured if I don’t get it all done on my deadline -

And I just remembered a bill that was due yesterday that I have to go pay (I’ll potentially get socked with a $30 late fee on a $30 bill now), as well as a prescription that needs filling.

This is why I stopped planning things in my life.  Because they don’t work out when I do.

Moral of the story:  ”The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/Gang aft agley/An’ lea’e us nought but grief ‘an pain,/For promis’d joy!” ~ Robert Burns

I think I need a nap.

© Ruby Tuesday and I Was Just Thinking. . . 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ruby Tuesday and I Was Just Thinking. . . with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. This work is protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

I Am A Genius. Seriously.

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I don’t mean for that to sound conceited (although of course it’s going to).  I mean it in the classic, absent-minded professor, Albert Einstein, Felix Hoenikker (Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut, read it) sort of way.  To wit – when something really interests me, I get engrossed in it completely, to the exclusion of all extraneous stimuli.  I fail to notice the phone, my inbox, my stomach, even my bladder, until it is really causing me serious pain.  And after I do eventually succumb to the need to relieve it, I dive right back in where I left off.

As an example, today I’m going to try something new.  Add a little “something extra” to this post.  Photos.  WOW!

Preface:  I have a 35mm camera.  I love my 35mm camera.  I don’t go for the whole digital thing.  I think it makes it easy for people with no actual talent to imitate good photographers, because they can look and know exactly what they’ve shot immediately, delete what they don’t like, and edit the hell out of all the pictures they keep to make them ‘perfect.’  With a 35mm you have to consider and set up each shot carefully, because whether it’s brilliant or it’s trash, you’ve used an exposure and you cannot un-use it.  That’s isn’t to say that there are not excellent photographers out there whose use digital, but until I can afford their $9000 worth of equipment (read: never), I will continue to be a total snob and love what I do with my camera.

Here’s the thing, though.  A few years ago, a friend was selling a cheap digital at a garage sale.  I thought, What the hell, why not?, and grabbed it.  I don’t think she even made me pay.  I came across it tonight, and I found some really gorgeous pictures on it.  More importantly, I wanted to show all of you what I did last night, and the extent of my madness.

So.  No installation instructions, no cord, no software, just this camera.  I found a USB cord and plugged it into my laptop, because thankfully if you are the complete antithesis of tech-savvy like me, everything these days is pretty much plug-and-play.  Yeah, not this particular camera.  I connected it to the computer – nothing.  I tried searching for it in my devices – not there.  I’m thinking, Lovely.  A digital camera that cannot be connected to a computer is officially the most worthless, useless piece of junk ever.  The damned thing was mocking me.

Well fuck that, I am certainly not going to let a camera defeat me!  I went to the manufacturer’s website, downloaded all sorts of software, and viola!, suddenly my computer recognized the camera.  Hah.

Except.  The freaking thing uploaded and then hid all of my pictures.  I think it even deleted some (on the computer, not the camera).  But I am me, and the more that this thing tried to screw with my head, the more focused and intense and creative I got, and many hours later. . .  I HAD MY PICTURES!  Take that, you mediocre bastard child of technology.

Back to my madness.  If I had remembered that I had this camera last night, I could have documented this whole five-hour process for you.  The organization of my makeup area.  As it is, you’ll just have to look at the final product and use both sides of your brain.  If you cannot get an idea of why this task took five hours, you are either supremely unimaginative, or a guy.  Or both.

Look at all of that makeup!

Not so fast, that wasn't the half of it!

And there is the rest. Almost. Pretty much.

Those are all Bare Escentuals products.  It is also all  makeup.  I have skin care products, and home spa goodies – I am not going to tackle that stuff anytime soon.  ;)

I have been wanting to organize this. . . mixed-up treasure trove for months.  I’m not sure why, but I finally got motivated.  It had to do with the fact that I have seldom been using makeup anymore, which led naturally to the hypothesis that this phenomenon might be manifesting because I could not find anything.

So there you go.  How I spent the last six hours.*  Oh, no joke.  From sitting down, trying to get the camera to work with my computer, to creating this post, that is how long it has taken.  I think that I got up to pee once.

Moral of the story:  Determination.  Get creative, think logically, do not give up.

Incidentally, those pics aren’t too bad for a cheap digital.  But I’m also not looking to enlarge them.  That’s where things get especially inferior with a digital, unless it’s top of the line.

*Seven, now that I’m through editing.

© Ruby Tuesday and I Was Just Thinking. . . 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ruby Tuesday and I Was Just Thinking. . . with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. This work is protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.