Shipwrecked & Comatose

In the classic Peanuts cartoon, which all members of Generation X look forward every October, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown , we see a deluded young Linus, sitting in a pumpkin patch, waiting for the Great Pumpkin to bestow gifts upon him. The other kids in the neighborhood are not so deluded.  They are all out trick-or-treating (am I the only one who hates the use of  "trick-or-treat" as a verb?). We can assume that just about every house in the neighborhood participates.  The kids are collecting quite a bit of stuff (except for poor Charlie Brown). Trick-or-treating is a great system.  Everyone in the neighborhood contributes something.  Even people without kids are likely to hand out candy.  Every kid in the neighborhood is then able to partake.  Sure there are some people who may not be able to afford candy for the neighborhood, but their kids are allowed to share the festivities.  Maybe they can afford candy next year.  When t...

I have begun to notice a pattern among people who complain nonstop about Obama "ruining the economy" with his "socialist" policies. If the economy is in ruins, it doesn't seem these Republicans are suffering much from it.  I hear these complaints from people who seem to be doing quite well.  People who own nice houses.  People who can afford children and give them rather nice clothes and plenty of extra-curricular activities.  People who own all kinds of technology.  Families who have one parent staying home with the kids on a seemingly permanent basis.  Families who can afford multiple horses or expensive cars.  They have all of this despite these supposedly crippling socialist policies that the president himself has put in place, apparently without the help of Congress.  How much they must be suffering!  Tell me again just how poor you are.  Remind me of how all of those handouts to people who are clearly lazy and undeser...

Most looks I've been posting since I started this series have been about casual/fun looks.  What do I do when I really want to dress up?  What do I do for a night out? Obviously I go heavy and I have a lot of fun. Here are the starring players: liquid foundation, concealer, eyeshadow base, plum eyeshadow quad, blush lipstick, liquid eyeliner, mascara, and powder. I like my mineral foundation, but if I'm really going all-out with makeup, I like the extra coverage of liquid foundation.  Lancome Teinte Miracle is a favorite of mine.  It truly does make your skin look lit from within.  Worth the hefty price tag. I prep my skin with serum after cleansing and moisturizing.  I start with concealer, blending with a sponge and also use a sponge to blend the foundation. Eyeshadow base goes on the lids.  It smooths out the color and gives the shadow more staying power and keeps it from smudging too much. I use all four shadows in the quad.  It...

Dear People Who Believe America Is a Christian Nation, I've been thinking long and hard about what it must mean to you to be a Christian Nation, and I'm still very confused.  What exactly do you mean by "Christian Nation"?  How do you define it?  How should Christianity be expressed and enforced? Is it that you believe our leaders should be Christian?  This is diametrically opposed to the Constitution which states that there will be no religious tests for elected officials.  Besides, Christians come in many flavors.  Jimmy Carter proudly calls himself a born-again Christian, and yet it seems he is universally loathed by the Religious Right.  George W. Bush calls himself a born-again Christian as well. Would both of them be considered a proper leader of a Christian Nation? Is there a certain mold of Christianity that you require in your public servants?  Do you honestly believe that only a Christian is the right person for the job? Anyway, if...

The end of summer always makes me cranky.  Summer is my favorite season and I resent the intrusion of fall.  I resent that people act like it's the greatest thing ever to see fall arrive.  There is almost this esoteric essence that people believe in about fall.  I don't really hate it, as I jokingly say I do , but I will continue to trumpet the reality that it isn't all it's cracked up to be. But what of other seasons?  Do I like any other seasons?  Do I really hate fall?  Is summer really that perfect? I decided to enumerate exactly what I love and hate about every season.  Which one is the best?  You decide.* Summer Since it's my favorite season, I thought I would start with it. What I like about summer: I like being able to undress.  I love wearing sundresses and shorts and tank tops and sandals with fun pedicures.  Maybe it's not the most flattering look on my chubby body, but since everyone else is undressed too, it...

I remember a time when any little thought that came into my head was cause for a blog.  My old MySpace blog was updated almost daily.  Now it seems Shipwrecked & Comatose is more political rants than anything else.  I don't mean for that to happen really.   I suppose the more trivial stuff is best expressed in a few Facebook soundbites.  I don't want Facebook to kill my blog though.  I need the writing practice. So today's trivial topic is hair.  I'm getting my hair cut in two days.  What should I do with it? I haven't changed my hair much in the past two decades.  I have taken to wearing it long for a few reasons.  The first is that being a dramatic type I love the over-the-top look of my naturally big hair.  It makes a statement to have this cascade of raven ringlets.  It's also about practicality.  I need to be able to tie my hair back when I ride or work out (or I'm just having a bad hair day). I could go ...

Lately I've been trying to decide how much my desire to rekindle an old hobby would be worth the money and time investment. I was interested in photography at a very young age.  I remember the summer I got my first camera. That summer I was attending a day camp where photography was one of the many available activities. When we had elective time, I often chose to spend it in the photography lab.  I was the youngest kid in the elective. Most of the time I didn't do much other than snap whatever pictures I felt like taking and only just watched the counselor in the darkroom.  I remember the cameras we worked with in that camp.  They were the old-fashioned kind you had to look down into instead of holding them up to your face, and I advanced the film with a crank.  My own camera was a basic Kodak point-and-shoot, so I was exposed to the best of both worlds. One of the most vivid memories of that photography class had nothing to do with actual photo...