My Sickening Habit!

As many of you who do read this blog know, I am a teacher!  With teaching comes extreme stress, and I spend hours upon hours trying to find the best possible ways to de-stress myself without spending a lot of money.  I read, and that helps some, but recently it has been hard to pick up a book without me wanting to sleep several pages into it.  But recently, I picked up something that has helped me many times to cure boredom and help de-stress all within a nice price.
What is this miracle cure you ask?  What has kept my interest for many years?  Well, its in fact something you can buy at your local book store, Wal-Mart, Target or Dollar Store and that is the Penny Dell Variety Puzzles And Games Pack!

These guys are great for rainy boring days, long car trips and in general time waster.  I have spent hours working on these puzzles only to realize I had spent all day working on these things and it was almost time for bed.  The boyfriend begrudgingly deal with the fact that while watching movies at Movie Tavern, I’ll pull my book out and work on the puzzles while listening to the movie (especially the scary ones).  At times after a horrible day, I’ll spend my off period working on these so I’m not taking my bad day out on the kids.  My whole house is filled with books upon books filled with answers for each book I buy, I will start at the beginning and move my way towards the end.  I started doing this once I realized that I was wasting the books working on puzzles I only like.  This way, working from page one, I’ll finish the book, skip the more complicated (or scrabble based games) and continue to move ever forward towards a new book, with new puzzles.  I only wish that they would come in the spiral bound copies more, those work better than the normal bound ones due to the fact I”m not ripping through the pages when writing on a back page!

 

Dreamers, do you have a stress reliever that has turned into a nasty habit?  Or are you a giant puzzle pack junkie like I am?

 

Regards,

The Oracle of Dreams

Septimus Heap Series Book #1 – Magic

I’m a gigantic Sci-Fi/fantasy book reader!  I love out-of-this-world stories that deal with dragons, faeries, and spaceships!  Magic or an element thereof has to be present in my Fantasy novels, and transient beings looking for a home be it in a spaceship or a horse and cart.  Also, some bit of a love story has to be present as well. It’s just to be said that I love fantasy, but that wasn’t always the case.  When I first got into fantasy, it was my Junior year in high school, everything about fantasy before then was scoffed at for its inability to face reality (then again I was reading ALOT of paranormal/Vampire books at the time).  My life changed when I read the epic, Winter of Fire by Sherryl Jordan.

From Amazon

This was a great book, and opened my eyes to a new world of fiction, and even though I borrowed this book from a friend of mine, I am still on the look out for this amazing novel.  If you ever find it, PLEASE READ IT, it will change your life.  Since then, I’ve read everything from  David &Leigh Eddings to JK Rowling, and felt that I had exhausted the search for good fantasy fiction.  The Eddingses were the ones who helped me escape from the aftermath of Hurricane Ike! Reading the Elenium and Tamuli series by candlelight is something every one should try!  For a while there, I was content with the re-readings of the Eddingses and spent many hours escaping into their fantasy, that was until I found a new book!

For Nook, Barnes and Noble has this Free Friday deal where you can download the offered book for the day for Free!  Last week (Yes Last week 1/21) the free book was called Septimus Heap, Book 1 Magic, by Angie Sage and Mark Zug.  At first I wasn’t interested, nothing to me could top that of Harry Potter as Young Adult Fantasy Fiction, but the moment I read this book, I was hooked.  I finished this book in a record 3 days, a first for my Nook, Septimus Heap is seriously a book you cannot put down!

From Amazon

I’ll summarize the first Chapter of Septimus Heap: the story revolves around,  The Heap wizard family, Silas Heap, a 7th son, and his wife Sarah Heap along with their 6 sons, were awaiting the arrival of the 7th member of their family, a 7th son of a 7th son to be named Septimus Heap (a 7th son of a 7th son is regarded as a great miracle in European cultures, a person of incredible magic, in some of the Latin American cultures, especially in rural Argentina, the child is regarded as a future werewolf, who is still of great magic).  But the birth of Septimus Heap did not go well, and the baby was pronounced dead by the midwife.  Silas was not aware of these events as he was walking through the forest coming back from a family friend’s house, the white witch Galen, picking up medicines for the baby, until Silas felt something, the tiny life-force of a small baby girl.  Knowing her to be a newborn, and not wanting to leave her to the elements, Silas takes the child back home with him only to find out that his 7th son is dead, and in his stead Silas takes out the beautiful baby girl and presents her to Sarah and they adopt the baby as their own, she was to be named Jenna.

This is all I can delve into the book as of now, but who is this baby girl who was named Jenna?  Where did she come from, is Septimus really dead?  What is going on outside of the Heap’s house regarding the government, and why are people discriminating against wizard’s?

Definite must read for those who loved Harry Potter, I personally am waiting for my next paycheck so I can go and purchase the second novel in the series!  I absolutely loved this book.

Dreamers, have you ever had a book that you just couldn’t put down?  Or, was there a book that far exceeded your expectations?
Regards,

The Oracle of Dreams

Gothic Charm School – A New Blog!

As it may, or may not, be very obvious, I love to read blogs.  My blog tastes have ranged from the fashion blogs, such as Doe Deere Blogazine or Style Amor, to the very random blog writings of sir Neil Gaiman.  Lately, I’ve been fancying a blog called Off Beat Bride which is a great manual to those brides who feel like they do not conform to the rigid standard of a traditional wedding. Anyway, several weeks ago a post was made regarding Goth Wedding Etiquette.  Reading the article, I noticed that the author was a blog writer herself, and her site was called Gothic Charm School.  This site is the epitome of information regarding the Goth subculture and the even more mini goth subcultures that exist in this world today. 

This is what I liked about Gothic Charm School, The Lady of the Manners, aka Jillian Venters, has spent years defining the proper etiquette for a Goth in a world of ignorance.  While most of the topics I have noticed are of bullying, many are about proper ways of dressing for work/school/life, aging gracefully as an eldergoth, or compromising with your parents regarding the way you should dress, and parents who have found this site and have questions regarding the strange way their children are dressing.  I also appreciate the fact that she even goes into fashion of the goth subculture, including the mini subcultures revolving around the name of goth and Clicky Links of great Goth Designers.  My boyfriend and I are going to be purchasing our engagement rings off one of the sites!  more to come on that later!

Lady of the Manners also has a great book out now!  It is entitled, Gothic Charm School: An Essential Guide for Goths and Those Who Love Them

This is a great book for those who wish to learn more about the Gothic Culture, or if you are a babybat who wants to know more about fashion or gain answers for the confusion of life, or for parents of babybats trying to see if what style their child has chosen is ok for them.  This book’s got it all, including the aging of the elder goths and party etiquette.  I purchased this for my nook, and I have yet to put it down, click the link or the picture above to see the Amazon page for the book.

Being a former Goth myself, I feel like I still have the attitude and when I go out and about on weekends, I tend to look more goth than my normal sunny teaching exterior.  While I do try to bring my Goth roots out to my students in class, I tend not to dress overtly goth, but the dark clothes that I’m slowly dissolving were paired with Victorian styled necklaces, and boots (I will never give up buying Victorian boots!).  While I no longer choose to dress like a professional Victorian, my life outside of school revolves around me being an absolute bat!  Besides, without my goth roots, I would have never created my alter ego, The Oracle of Dreams.  So for those who are closet Goths, real Goths, babybats, or parents of babybats trying to make sense of an eerie culture.

Regards,

The Oracle of Dreams

Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under Review

Ok, so my last post was a bit of a self-righteous form of blatant publicity.  I will make no excuses for the fact that I am a die-hard Amanda Fucking Palmer/The Dresden Dolls/EvelynEvelyn fanatic!  Not only that, but I have been a Neil Gaiman fan since before I had ever heard of Amanda Palmer, and in my self ignorance, chose not to acknowledge their budding relationship till my brother, who is also a giant Gaiman fan, told me that they were dating, upon discovering this, I now had my two most inspirational persons in the whole world mesh into one, at that moment in time, my life felt whole!

Yes, I will admit my ever-increasing form of scary fanaticism towards Amanda Palmer, Brian Viglione and Neil Gaiman, is severe enough to talk to a therapist about, but that is another post that is in the works with PICTURES!

Anyway, I decided for the first time in my almost 5 years of being an Amanda Palmer/Dresden Dolls fan to finally break down and buy a new bundle for Amanda’s newest album:

Tee Hee!

The bundle includes a t-shirt of my choice (We are the Media shirt in Purple or Black), North American Down Under CD, along with the digital copy of the Album, We Are the Media Patch, Sticker and Button, I (Tasmania) AFP bumper sticker, Map of Tasmania Single Cover Sticker, and a Black Death (Vegemite) Button.

Now, Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under is an album based on the love affair Amanda has with the great Continent/Nation called Australia; this also includes the Tasmanian and the New Zealanders as indicated in the songs themselves (reference back to my last post on the song Map of Tasmania) along with mentions of Amanda’s menstrual cycle.  The track list includes an ode to the country Australia and New Zealand, and references to the local colloquialisms regarding shaving the pubic area and having sex.  Along with native foods, pet names and a cover song penned by one of Amanda’s favorite artists, Nick Cave.  You also get a surprise guest appearance from the ever great drummer Brian Viglione of The Dresden Dolls.

The sound is basic of the Amanda Palmer experience with the honest lyrics that many of us AFP fans have come to know and love, it’s the honesty about her love towards Australia, and her handy ukulele that we have also come to love.  Most of the album is a great inside joke for those who understand the terms “Map of Tasmania,” “Vegemite,” and “Making Whoopee” and the lovely commercial song We Are Happy Little Vegemites that I had to search for the lyrics to understand what the hell the audience was singing. It’s almost as if you would play the Armor Hot Dog song to a group of people…or the Oscar Meyer Weiner song…crazy!  You get the traditional AFP cabaret sound in the album with the songs Dr. Oz and Formidable Marinade.

I have to say I do love this album, it has songs on it that I can see myself playing over and over again, and I just can’t get enough of how this is a mostly live album, and has mistakes and off the fly curses and completely raw, I just love it.  Somehow the raw recordings of this album creates a feeling of being in at the concert with Amanda.  For those who do not know, its hard to see Amanda living in Houston, Texas and sometimes feel left out of the Amanda Palmer experience, but these live shows lets me feel as if I haven’t missed out, I also use the DVDs Live in Paradise, and Live at the Roundhouse, to recreate the live experience.  It’s a lonesome road, but at least you have Amanda Palmer to travel with in your mp3 player, or in my case, my cell phone.

Please my Dreamers, if you ever have a chance to listen to this album, click the link above and listen to it at the Amanda Palmer website before purchasing.  At this point in my life, I’m just purchasing Amanda Palmer shit left and right knowing that I’ll love every single piece of it.  Yes, it is obsessive, yes, it is a bit crazy, and yes, it is scary, but when my post shows up about why I am like this with Amanda Palmer, you will see, it’s not about me buying something from a favorite artist, but supporting a best friend who really has no clue about me.  Whether she knew it or not, she was there for me at a bad time in my life and helped me through it, since then I have always felt like I have owed her, and I will support her no matter what.

Regards,

The Oracle of Dreams

P.S. This is the package I purchased below, it is $33.00 at Post War Trade, go support and purchase AFP shits!  I really wanted the AFP pillow with the Merkin on it, but I couldn’t afford the $100 price tag…oh well.  If I could afford the $5,000 package, I’d have to marry my boyfriend when she comes and play, since we’re planning on a Dresden Dolls/Steam Punk/What-the-Hell-Who-Cares-Its-A-Commitment-Ceremony themed wedding.  It is my plan/dream to have Amanda play at my wedding if she’s willing, I’ll buy her a beer just to be nice and feed her yummy foods, allow her to bring her Moxie, and her Moxie’s evil evil nemesis the oh so great, Mr. Kevin Smith of Dogma, Chasing Amy, and Mallrats fame…oh well, dreams are dreams right!  Did I mention I have a cousin named Kevin Smith?

$33 before shipping

Map of Tasmania – The Hype the Philosophy

I had to show this video, its by my most favorite artist in the whole wide world and I loved the ideology behind it, to explain some reasons behind my “hygiene.”

But first!–straight to the meaning behind the video!  When Amanda was last Down Under, she was visiting the local beach sites in Tasmania, when some random men flew by in a car screaming, “Show us your map of Tasmania!”  Perplexed by the random occurence, Amanda asked one of her friends who was a native Tasmanian, and the friend replied, “A Map of Tasmania is a local colloquialism for the lower feminine area, because Tasmania on a map, looks like the patch of hair down there.”

That’s when this project started, Amanda, inspired by the events, started writing a song that best represented the feelings towards the little know Map of Tasmania.  I couldn’t believe the hype that this is getting, on Facebook alone, I’ve been tagged to every upload of this video due to my fanatic fascination with this woman.  People everywhere are giving their two cents regarding this unexplored topics regarding shaving.

While I cannot speak for most women, and my opinions are entirely my own, I am a self-professed hypochondriac, I cannot for the life of me go with out cleaning everything with hand sanitizer and handi-wipes, especially in school.  But for the life of me I cannot spend hours shaving unnecessary places for the sake of appearances.  I do shave, I should preface that before anything else, more for work and health (I have eczema and its easier to put cream on without all that hair) but I have yet to understand why it is so important to do all this for the sake of appearances.  Who made it a rule that women have to be completely void of hair except for the eyebrows and the hair at the top of the head. Or should I bring up another shaving fashion from the past, back in the 50’s it was socially acceptable to shave off your eyebrows and draw them in, I have aunts who no longer have eyebrows because they followed this fad.

Although, this isn’t based off of my necessity to shave, I guess that I have a biased view or more of a glib view on hair, see, I have alopecia, and have been dealing with  patches of hair falling off of my head for years now.  So far in the past year, the patches appeared where no one can see them if I have my hair up or down, but seeing your hair fall at random tends to make you realize that hair is definitely relative, hair is not a necessity nor a burden, it is just that: hair.  I’ve come to terms with the fact that hair comes and goes, and it has left me ambivalent towards the shaving of other areas.  It seems that if I’m losing hair on top and not worrying about it, why should I worry about hair in other places as well?  That and I really can’t stand the stubble, I CANNOT stand the stubble!  Waxing helps but it just plain hurts. 

I guess most of my animosity towards shaving basically comes from the fact that I am just plain lazy. I really do not feel like spending my shower time shaving for reasons that were made up before I was born, I shave for my own personal reason, and no one elses, and I hope others shave for their own reasons and no one elses, its seems odd to me that people shave because we have to, without a reason, or an idea, but we’re people, we’re allowed that kind of mystery.  I do admire those who can shave their legs everyday without a blink of an eye, whereas I have to look like a Wookie in order for me to take notice of my hair on my legs. 

This is why I love this video, Amanda Palmer is just amazingly awesome, and Map of Tasmania reflects my philosophy towards shaving: “Who cares?” 

I think the best quote from Amanda was in an old blog post that I can’t find, but it was a question to the point of “Why do you not like shaving?” and Amanda’s answer was to the point of, “I don’t mind shaving, I just don’t like rules.”  That has been my philosophy since college, where the lazy really kicked in.

My lovely Dreamers, what are your opinions on this shaving debate, do you shave everything, everyday; do you shave once in a while; are you eu naturale?

Regards,

The Oracle of Dreams

My Fashion History and The Modern Business Bohemian

So, when I started this blog, I had a feeling that I was going to discuss my style ideas and how I can transform my style into something more up to date, more “with it” as some of my students prefer to tell me. My current style as of now consists of shades of black, gray, dark brown, cream and white. I add in some colors that are cheap jewel toned tops I have found in Target, JC Penny’s and Wal-Mart. My pants are purchased only from The Limited in the Cassidy Style as I personally feel, are the only style pants The Limited has that look good on me. I tend to also top these pants with bold stripe printed shirts, or polka dots, and top it off with a cardigan (the only ones I own are in Grey, Purple and Cream). The look I’ve owned since high school: Boring Librarian.

So, in order to stop this Librarian look, I went through catalogs, magazines, and websites to look at different tops, dresses, pants and skirts that I find attractive, while keeping in perspective of several things:

1. The clothes HAVE to be school appropriate!
   • No low-cut tops!!! They have to be a crew neck or a rounded neck.
   • Shirts hems HAVE to fall at or between mid hip or mid-thigh.
   • Pants or Skirts have to fall either on my natural waist line, or the top of my hip.
   • Skirts cannot go higher than my knee, I have long legs, and they tend to look gangly with anything higher than that.
   • Shoes: Flats, flats and more stylish flats!
2. Since I left my second job, they HAVE to convert from both Day and Night, with easy cleaning (I put a stop at hand wash and line dry).
3. They HAVE to have some color in them!
   • Printed or otherwise
4. Nice Jacket tops/Jacket looking cardigans.

With these in mind I started pulling images from the web that I liked, looking at tops that fit this criteria, and started pulling outfits that I could use. This is the result:

Sailor Sweater, JCrew, $88.00

Vintage Cowlneck Tee, JCrew, $39.50

Striped Painter Tee, JCrew, $42.50

Floral Print Tank, F21, $10.80

Ruffled Neck Top, F21, $22.90

Bow Tie Blouse, F21, $16.90

Berkeley Hills, ModCloth, $49.99

Sel Marin Tank, ModCloth, $34.99

Loop and Button Blazer, F21, $32.80

Lace the Morning Blazer, ModCloth, $84.99

Pyramidal Neuron Necklace, Morphologica (etsy), $39.50

This is what I ended up with, after a bit of brainstorming picking fashions that I do like, I came up with feminine floral prints, romantic ruffles, bold stripe and tailored, almost business like blazers with a straight pant leg, fitting on my thigh and hip. I came up with the name, Modern Business Bohemian, because of the flowy tops I picked out with the floral prints, the business from the structured jacket and dress pants, while the modern is mixed with the intriguing jewelry such as the Necklace by Morphologica, or the bold stripes in the sweaters above. I picked these pieces for comfort, I’m standing in front of teenagers everyday, I need some comfort, but also function, I can wear most of these with some good skinny jeans, some nice booties or boots. As for shoes, you can imagine the amount of flats I will accumulate to accommodate the idea of “Comfy”, these shoes will also reflect my style, coming in different forms of floral, stripe, plaid and solids. I even own some great booties from Hot Topic and Charlotte Russe!

Once I start shopping for these items, I’ll post images from my finds, with outfit ideas along with makeup. I’ll be posting a makeup tutorial soon on how to use my favorite eye shadows and lipsticks from Lime Crime Makeup in a daily go to teach high schoolers wear.

Regards,

The Oracle of Dreams

Something Old, Something New…

While I haven’t been an avid blogger since my days in college, I have been interested in keeping up with my blogging for quite sometime now.  I really wasn’t all that interested in the styles or offers of other blogging tools, and word press gave me something I could use to work with my growing ability in Photoshop, my Fashion sense, makeup, and my ongoing struggle with learning how to do hair!

While I, by no means, am an expert in any field, nor am I a sane normal person, I will attempt to keep a growing schedule of myself for at least three days a week.  I would like to track my ongoing struggles with life, and also talk about things I have seen eaten and heard today.

By trade, I’m a Substitute teacher, without giving any names or locations, I may give stories about some of the most insane conversations I have heard in my adventure in becoming a full time teacher.  No, I will not post my real name, nor my locale at which school I’ll be subbing and/or teaching at, for all involved.  I will give my soon to be faithful readers an account of my happenings, as some of the more interesting topics teenagers regail themselves with.

I will also chronicle my ongoing attempts at trying new fashion ideas, as of now, my subbing attire is mainly all black/grey/heather/ and any and all jewel toned camis, undershirts, and some nice colored printed tops.  I’m going to try to change my personal style from something I have created based on items I do like.  More on that in my next post.

I LOVE movies, while I can’t see all the movies in the world, I do see a few, and I will post my review of the movie, and I may even post a few pictures of me in costume to see the movie. I love music, with a passion I love music, I will post images and info on concerts I’ll be attending, images from the concert, and images of me in my concert regalia.  I will be seeing KISS later this year, so stay tuned! Books, I can’t get enough books!  I’ll post my reviews on new books I have read over the past few weeks/months, and also, I’m a new owner of a Barnes and Nobel Nook!  I’m very excited to have it, and I have read so much more now, than I have had in a year, since I’m not lugging a huge book with me.  Expect reviews very, very soon.

Makeup has been a huge passion of mine, I’m no expert, but I do try to create some very catching makeup.  I will even post about my normal everyday makeup, and how I can change it from day, to night. I’ll hopefully have some nice photos up of those sometime soon! I’m a bit of an obssesive personality, but when I find something that works for me, I go all out in obtaining every product that I can find, so expect some repeat offenders in my blogs on makeup.

This is all that I can think of for now, but please stay tuned for more interesting ideas and stories.

Regards,

The Oracle of Dreams