The other part of Geno's gift to me came in the mail today! OMG SO CUTE! Chococat is my second favorite Sanrio character! He is going to fit perfectly on my bed with Hello Kitty and Mr. Strawberry Head!! ^_^ Thank you so much!!! This is like the cutest gift ever! <3
If you are a tumblr user and you adore all things kawaii then chances are you have seen a good amount of cute gyaru pics on your dash and you have noticed that the girls in the picture have freakishly big anime eyes. Most of these photos were either manipulated in photoshop or the girls in the pictures are wearing huge contact lenses that make their eyes appear bigger. I decided to post up a tutorial today which shows you how to get this same effect without having to buy contact lenses or searching for tutorials on youtube (which can take hours to find one that works right). Without further ado... LET"S GET GOING!
For Today's tutorial I decided to use a picture of Nicole Richie instead of a photo of myself. Reason being? I do not have many good clear close up photos of my face that I can use. Actually, I do not have any at all because I hate close ups :X Also my eyes are already freakishly huge and people think I look like an anime character so I prolly should not try this out on my face. Anyways Below is a before and after comparison just to give you an idea on what it is we are actually going to be doing here.
BEFORE
AFTER
Now, most people who do these types of anime style pictures usually make the nose SUPER tiny and the mouth as well for a more cartoonish look. I don't like when people do that and I think it is ugly so I just left her mouth and nose the way they are. If you would like to see how to make her nose and mouth smaller leave me a comment and I will gladly show you how.
STEP 1: Open up the jpeg file that you wish to manipulate in photoshop (duh and if you dont know what a jpeg file is... that would be the picture). Once you have your picture opened you will need to duplicate it. Go to the New drop down menu at the top and you should see the duplicate layer option. click on that and BAM! YOU ARE DONZO! NEXT!
STEP 2: JEEPERS CREEPERS WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE PEEPERS!?
Next we shall work on making those ojos bigger! Select the lasso tool (it literally looks like a lasso) and carefully select the first eye you are going to work on. I chose the left one :D. Ok so once you have your eye selected you are going to be able to manipulate it's size and shape. Make sure that you trace your lasso tool as closely around the eye as possible. (see picture for reference) If you do not do this you are going to have a lot of editing to do later on when you try to blend the eyes into the face so that you can't tell you photoshopped them. By the way if you know how to use photoshop already you prolly know how to select objects. if you do not, then you prolly need to google that chit.
Step 4: Messing around with the eye till you get what you want.
Ok really there is no right or wrong way to reshape the eye. Just make it to where it looks cute. What you do is after you select your eye with the lasso tool you are going to click on your move tool (see first pic above this step if you don't know what that is) and once you do that you will be able to make the eye larger and move it around on the face to where ever you want it. Basically you just have to mess around until you get the result you want. You are going to do steps 3 and 4 for both eyes!
Step 5: Color the eyes in.
Ok this is easy all you have to do is select the iris with the lasso tool once you do that....
you are going to click on the Image option at the top of the screen, then go to adjustments, then go to hue/saturation. Once you do that you should see this....
TA DA! COLOR! You can slide the little do hickie things up and down until you get the color you like. I chose purple :D
By the way as you can see the eye looks like it has been cut out and pasted onto her face. see step 7 for how to blend the eyes into the face. I am sorry, I forgot to take screen caps while I was doing the original image so I had to go back into ps and do it all over again. as you can tell this eye looks different from the one in my after pic. it's because this is not the same picture! if that makes sense.
Step 6: Burn tool!
Select the burn tool to apply virtual eye makeup! The burn tool basically makes you or the person you are manipulating look like they are wearing eyeliner and eye shadow. When you select this tool you are going to stroke around the eyes until you get the desired look you want. In my case, I used a thick brush size and put on a lot of makeup! below is the end result
Step 7: FLATTEN IMAGE AND CLEAN UP!
Ok When I was doing this in photoshop I forgot to make screen caps of each step so I had to redo the whole thing. The second time I just made screen caps of each step so yeah.. this is not the original picture I made up at the top (the one i used for the after pic). As you can see the eye shape is different. Basically when you are finished re sizing the eyes you are going to be left with a face that looks like someone just cut and pasted eyes onto it. You are going to have to blend in the upper and lower lid into the face properly so that your image does not look like Frankensteins monster. Here is how I cleaned up my image.
I just used the clone stamp tool and the healing brush tool on the background layer and on the duplicate layer until the image looked good. It takes a lot of time and patience to get rid of all the "excess trim" as I call it. I did not take detailed screen caps of all of the touching up I did because that would have taken me forever to show you each move but I think you get the idea. If you want I can post up another tutorial on how to get rid of flaws and show you exactly what you have to do. If you already know how to use photoshop you prolly don't need a tutorial for that, but if you are new then you might need one. Once again I apologize for not making detailed screen caps of the clean up. :[ After I finished cleaning up the eye lids I flattened the image and cleaned it up some more because there were still a lot of flaws. see below to learn how to flatten an image. When you flatten an image it locks down all your layers and once you do this you can close and save your image. WARNING ONCE YOU FLATEN YOUR IMAGE AND CLOSE IT AND SAVE IT YOU CAN NOT DO ANYTHING ELSE TO IT! I mean you can.. but you cant go back and fix things as easily. so make sure you have everything you want done to your image before you flatten it and close it and save it. If you
your image and do not close it out and save it you can backtrack and undo flatten image.. but yeah.. like i said once you close it and save it you can not undo that option.
THIS IS HOW YOU FLATEN AN IMAGE. AFTER YOU DO THIS SAVE FILE AS A JPEG AND YOU ARE SET!
I already wrote these things down on paper but here they are just incase you want to see them. These are not really resolutions per say.. more like things I want/ goals I want to achieve next year.
1. Finish Going To John Tyler By this summer.
2. Visit L.A
3. Go To Tokyo!
4. Get Braces (again)
5. See Jane's Addiction Backstage
6. See Tool Play In NC
7. Transfer to a university in the Fall
8. Save up enough money to move away
9. Make at least 2 new IN REAL LIFE friends.
10. Write at least 5 songs.
These people are allowed in mai bed. I don't have anything serious to post today.. least I do not think. So this is just kind of for fun. I might post a serious entry today idk yet. Of course I do not only find "famous people" attractive.. but erm I am too embarrassed to talk about irl people so yeah... I am a liddo shy.
Mila Kunis
Although this is a purdy old picture of her.. I like it. So there for I do not care. She is the cutest liddo girl In all of zee world and I love her cute little voice and her cute little nose and the fact that she is a nerd.
John Frusciante
:3 I have had a thing for him since I first starting listening to RHCP. He is my favorite guitar player in the world and erm yeah.. I love everything about him!
Sash Grey
She has the most perfect face and HER NOSE OMG ITS THE MOST PERFECT THING EVER! EVER!
Scott Weiland (stp front man)
He is sooo classy lookin and I love stp. They were one of the first bands I got into. I got the chance to see them play live twice in the past 4 years and I totally went all fan girl each time and yelled things out to him.. pretty sure he heard me to.. which was kind of awkward.
Danzig
ok ok not now but when he was young.. :3
HANDSOME SQUIDWARD
WHO WOULD'NT?!?! I MEAN LOOK AT THIS HANDSOME SON OF A BISH HE IS HOT!!!! JUST LOOK AT THAT REFINED NOSE AND STRONG CHIN!
Nikki Sixx
Little embarrassed to admit this one sometimes but yes.. it's true. cheesy maybe? what ever.
Anthony Keidis
I do not think he will ever be off this list.. even if he does now sport an ugly hitler hair style and stash. (this picture is about 9 years old or so I think but he honestly looks the same)
I might have left a lor of people out.. (ok actually I did) but anyways these are just a few of my favorites. :3 Who makes your list? Is there anyone that you have a thing for but ya don't know why ya do?
I would like to do a blog post with your questions and my answers. send me questions on formspring and I will answer them in one massive post on here! :D
A lot of people have asked me how I eBay. It's not that hard but amazingly there are a few people who genuinely have no idea how to use it. I started using eBay at the ripe old age of 12! My mom was the one who got me into it. When it first came out it was super easy to sell things. Almost all of my listings always ended with at least one bid. I has to use my mom's account back then of course because I did not have a debit card or a bank account. It is really hard these days to make money on there but not impossible. Here are a few tips for those of you who would like some extra income. There have been some weeks where I have made up to 130 bucks and others when I did not sell anything at all. See the below points to help you out in your Ebay carrier!
ALWAYS BUY THINGS THAT YOU KNOW WILL HAVE RE SELL VALUE
This is very important! If you buy clothing from places like TJ Maxx or Marshalls and decide that after a seasons worth of wear that you do not want them anymore you can pretty much just take them and donate them to the nearest goodwill instead of thinking about re selling them online. The main reason no name brands do not not sell on eBay is usually because they are cheap to begin with. Why would someone want to buy something for 12 dollars on eBay plus shipping charge (which is usually on average 5 bucks), than have to wait 4 to 5 days to get it in the mail? If someone wanted clothes like that they could just drive down to one of those stores and get it at a cheaper price and have it that same day. What I usually do is I buy new clothes every season. I make sure I buy from places like American Apparel or H&M because I know that clothes from these two stores have re sell value. People like to give me a hard time sometimes because I like to buy expensive clothes but I do it because for one, I know that clothes from stores like Forever 21, although cute, are cheaply made and usually fall apart after a seasons worth of wear. For two, I know that I am going to just end up selling them on eBay once the weather changes and I can no longer wear them. I may not get back exactly what I paid for them, but most of the time I earn back at least 15 percent (somtimes more) of the money that I spent to buy them with. I make sure to take good care of my clothes and I NEVER wash them. I dry clean them.. well I mean I wash my underwear and socks and t-shirts that can not be dry cleaned but everything else gets sent to my parents store because Dry Cleaning preserves the quality of your clothes. I do not mean to be a promo whore but if you want you can bring them to our store because we are the lowest priced in RVA (really we are). Anyways it is a no brainer that fashionable, next to new clothing sells best.
VINTAGE CLOTHES, DO THEY SELL?
Yes and NO. How vintage are we talking? We all know that hipsters and other alt. cultures like to wear vintage styles of clothing, but what kinds of vintage clothes actually sale on eBay? If you want to know this I suggest you get yourself a tumblr account and follow as many hipsters and goths as possible so you can get an idea of what kinds of things they like to wear or want. You cant just go to the thrifts store and pick up anything that was made at least 20 years ago and expect to sell it. You have to know what is trendy! Right now there is a whole grunge revival thing going on amongst subcultures. I know one hot item that sales for sure every time is velveteen dresses. Especially babydolls or bodycon style ones. I have seen one sell for 40 bucks before that I know for a fact was probably purchased at a thrift store. See image below for reference. ( I actually have one myself in black and I am wearing it in my facebook default pic)
I pulled this from a random ebay listing. its not me but she kinda looks like me a little haha!
Do handmade items sell well on ebay? If so what kinds of items should I make?
In my experience, no. But in other peoples experiences yes! The best way to become a good seller on eBay is to lurk other sellers accounts to get a feel for what sells. I have a few people i keep tabs on and i have noticed that sometimes they do sell homemade items. The best kinds of items that sell (at least from what I have noticed) are usually screen printed garments. In particularly, dresses. Anything with a band member from a popular band will sell just about. Often times on tumblr I see posts of dresses with Kurt Cobain printed on them or Morrisey. If you know how to screen print then you are in good shape! If you do not you can prolly find a place that will screen print blank dresses or t-shirts for you so that you can sell them. The later is easier and requires way less effort, although it will cost you more money, but it will save you time! see below example for reference.
Bodycon Mini dresses ALWAYS sell for the most part (e.i close fitting dresses)
Is Ebay Safe? Can people break into my account and take all of my money?!
Ebay is very safe. I have never had my paypal account hacked ever, although I am sure other people might have had in the past but it hardly happens. In order to sell on Ebay you must have a Paypal account. Getting one is free and easy. You just have to sign up for one. ALSO you MUST HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT AND DEBIT CARD in order to get a paypal account. Basically how Paypal works is when people bid on our item, the winner sends you their payment via paypal. In the olden days there was no such thing and people had to send money via cash, money order or check. Now you can only buy things if you have a paypal account. If you want to purchase something and your paypal account is empty no worries! You can transfer over money using your bank account because you can link your two accounts together. You always wait until after someone has sent you payment to ship out there item to make sure you get payed. Sometimes people do not send payment and you have to end up re listing the item if you still wish to sell it. I HATE when people do this to me. I have had it done to me twice and it is very annoying!
How do I make sure I maintain good feedback?
People can give you feedback on items they purchase and vice versa. You want to make sure you get as much positive feedback as possible. If you do happen to get a negative feedback from someone it is not the end of the world. In my whole ebay carrier I have had two negatives because I did not ship out the times on time. But that has not slowed down my sells. Just make sure you don't have like tons of negatives because that WILL hurt you. The best way to avoid negative feedback is to make sure you list a good description of the item. Sometimes items will sell even if they do have a small hole or stain, just make sure you list that so the buyer is aware of it. Another way to avoid it is to make sure you have good contact with the customer if you are running late on shipping. I have problems myself with timely shipping mainly because I am lazy. But I always send my stuff out (even if it is three weeks late). Most people do not care but others are really impatient and throw a fit when they don't get their item within 5 days.
Ok so those are a few pointers on what to sell and how to sell. If there is anything I did not cover that you had a question on please leave a comment and I will address your question. I hope this is helpful to someone!
They came in the mail first thing this morning!!! Thank ya very much mam! The HK cell phone charm is so cute! And I am going to hang the key ring charm you made me from the rear view mirror of my new car! :D For those of you who do not know, Geno has been my friend since 2009. Every year for Christmas we exchange gifts. She always makes sure to send my favorites too! (kinder and salsa verde tostitos that are impossible to find in Richmond). She gave me a cute hello kitty planner too! I needed one for school next year! :D THANK YOU SOO MUCH!
Dulces!!!!!
Funny thing is I was gonna use the same pink drawstring bag to put the candy in that I sent to her but than changed my mind haha.
As we all know the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the Birth Of Jesus. Not all countries though have a large majority of their population that is Christian. Many asian countries such as Japan and China only have a christian population of 1%. Even though the large majority of people in these countries are Buddhist, they still celebrate Christmas but not exactly the same way we do of course.
In Japan Christmas Eve is celebrated and treated like Christmas day. It is considered more of a romantic holiday as well (kind of like how we treat valentines day here). It s widely celebrated by couples and usually couples go out to dinner or take a stroll out on the town to view Christmas Lights. Booking a table at a nice romantic restaurant can be extremely difficult around this time of year because it is a very popular custom to go out on a dinner date.
In Japan, Santa is called Santa san (Mr. Santa) and instead of leaving gifts under the tree he leaves one gift on a child's bed. The Japanese Santa is a little more careful about getting dirty on the job, forget about coming down a soot filled chimney and possibly becoming a roasted Santa upon trying to enter a house, In Japan, Santa comes in through the window! I guess he does this because he knows that the chances of him getting shot for breaking and entering In Japan are very low seeing how it is illegal to own a gun in Japan (well unless you are a hunter, hunters are allowed to have shotguns and rifles only).
There is something that I found very strange about Japan and Christmas. As most of you all know here in the states most families usually have a nice Christmas dinner that is usually not that different from Thanksgiving (well at least I know at my house we do). KFC is a VERY busy place during Christmas time in Japan because it is tradition to eat fried chicken dinner on Christmas. Crazy right? Most families have to place their orders in advanced because so many people follow this tradition.
In China, Christmas is usually only celebrated in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. In outside villages and smaller town most people do not even know what Christmas is. Shen Dan Lao Ren is what Santa is called in China (sounds like something I would order at a restaurant hardy har) His name translates to old man christmas. I think is it pretty ironic that most of the world's plastic Christmas trees and ornaments are made in China yet most of the people in the factories that made them do not even know what the products they are making are used for.
cute liddo christmas cake. In Japan it is tradition to make a cake with christmas decorations on top of it. Usually a sponge cake is made but I saw many cute ones online that were more elaborate.
Many of you know that I RARELY take pictures without make up on! As a matter of fact I never ever ever go on webcam with my friends or anything else for that matter without make up on.. yet I hardly put it on in real life when I go out. Sad Right? Anyways I took This picture back In January of this year I think? A lot of girls over the course of this year asked me about my makeup in this picture and where I got the dress from and all of that. The dress was purchased at Hot Topic Last year and It sadly is no longer available for purchase at that store. You might be able to find it on Ebay. The brand is Sweet Love. Good luck finding it. I bought it for 40 bucks but I am sure if someone has listed it on Ebay you can find it for less than that. The Bow is from Hot Topic as well and is made out of pleather. I am sure you can find a similar one on ebay. I hardly shop at Hot Topic these days but sometimes I see things from the window that I must have so I end up walking in and buying things from time to time.
I do not know why so many people like this pic of me but w.e
Now for my makeup.. These are the following products I was wearing in this picture. I might do a video tutorial if anyone REALLY wants me to. It's real simple though. All i did was put eye shadow over my eyes and erm.. put liquid eye liner on my bottom and lower lids. I have naturally long eyelashes so I only curled them. I never use mascara.
I only apply concealer under my eye lids because I have dark circles (because I am hispanic and most of us have dark circles under our eyes due to genetics). I used Mac's select moiturecover in NC30. This is the ONLY concealer that works for me. I have tried plenty of others and they always make my lower lids look green or pale yellow. It is WORTH THE PRICE.
Mac's Vex Eyeshadow. THIS IS THE PRETTIEST COLOR EVER! It works great for that whole smokey eye look. It looks grey at first glance but if you look closer you can clearly see that is has bits of purple and pink in it as well. this eyeshadow as a weird look to it. I guess the best word I am looking for here is iridescent? I also put black eyeshadow on the corners of my lids as well.
Loreal Liquid Eyeliner.
Ok now ya got to be careful with this stuff because if you over do it your gonna end up looking like a suicide girls reject. Liquid Eyeliner either makes you look hot or like trash. So make sure not to apply a thick coat of it. It takes A LOT of practice to put this stuff on properly. This first time I used this was when I went to go meet Trent >.< eww.. erm.. anyways I did not now how to apply it properly and I ended up accidently stabbing myself in the eye with the brush and got liquid eyeliner inside of my eyeball. My whole eye turned red. NOT FUN! I usually always wear a cat eye but in this picture you can clearly see that I am not.
Now if you look at this picture it CLEARLY looks like I am wearing lipstick. WRONGO! I am allergic to lipstick and lip balm. Found that out the hard way! I would rather not talk about it.. that was a really bad incident that happened and well.. lets just say my lips swelled up for a whole month. Instead what I do is a little photoshop magic! I basically just selected my lips with the magnetic lasso tool and then changed the hue of them to a bright pink. FOOLED YA! I actually never photshop out my blemishes so if your calling me a cheater than you are sadly mistaken. Only time I ever do is when I am changing the color of the whole picture or when I am putting on digital lipstick.
okay so now all of you girls on FB know about what make up I used in this picture! Go out and buy everything I mentioned! ASAP!
I want to post more Holiday Themed Entires here so I decided to research some other Holidays that are celebrated during this season other than the ones that were are all familiar with (Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukah). I have always had fascination with these cute little girls with wreathes on their heads but I never really took the time to find out what they were actually celebrating until just now.
The girls in this picture are celebrating a Swedish Holiday known as "St. Lucy's Day" Or "St. Lucy's Feast". This day is not only celebrated in Sweden, Many other nordic countries participate in St. Lucy's day as well and also it is celebrated in Sicily as well (St. Lucy herself was a Sicilian). The Holiday falls on December 13th and is celebrated in congruence with Christmas in Switzerland. Before i get into all the ways this Holiday is celebrated I am going to give everyone the background info on why it is celebrated and who the holiday is about.
St. Lucy: Who was she?
St. Lucy was a Sicilian born into a noble and wealthy family in Syracuse, Italy. Her father passed away when she was very young which meant she was raised solely by her mother. When She was a young girl she vowed to keep her virginity for Christ but her mother had different plans for her. When she reached her teen years her mother tried to force the girl to marry a pagan boy but Lucy of course, refused the marriage. Lucy's mother eventually developed a hemorrhage and became very ill so Lucy begged her mother to pay visit to the Tomb of St. Agatha in order to receive healing. Her mother agreed and she was cured soon after she paid visit to the holy site. After her mother was healed, Lucy told her her about her vow to God to stay a virgin and then asked if she could bestow her fortune amongst the poor. Her Mother agreed with her choice and she was let off the hook from marrying the young pagan man her mother had chosen for her. Of course, he was not very happy about this. This young man accused Lucy of being a Christian in front of a Judge and she was sentenced to serving life in a brothel (ironic huh? a virgin in a brothel..) As the judge's guards tried to drag Lucy away to her faith they were shocked that they were unable to budge her. She was then sentenced to be burned and amazingly she got past this consequence as well. It was finally decided that a sword would be struck into her throat in order to punish her. The date of the day Lucy was killed is believed to have fallen on December 13 AD 310.
There is another story of St. Lucy as well. Some believe that she was working to hide Christians in the catacombs during the terror of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. In order to bring with her as many supplies and food as she needed, she wore a wreath with with candles attatched to it in order to free her hands from having to carry a lantern so she could carry all of her surplus.
How is this day celebrated?
This Holiday is celebrated in many different ways in different countries in Europe. I
n Sweden, the oldest (or youngest) daughter in each household traditionally carries a tray of coffee and traditional pastries called lussekatter (Lucy cats) to her parents before they arise in the morning. She wears a white gown, scarlet sash, and a crown of greens and four, seven, or nine lighted candles . Her brothers, wearing white shirts and tall, cone-shaped hats decorated with stars, and her sisters, all in white and carrying lighted candles, follow her. In many towns, a Saint Lucy is chosen to carry coffee and buns to each house. She and her followers, each bearing a lighted candle, sing carols as they traverse the dark streets while St. Steven, represented by a man on horseback, leads the way. The procession is done in memory of Saint Lucy's traversing darkened woods to bring bread and other food to the poor.
In Switzerland, St Lucy strolls around the village with Father Christmas, giving gifts to the girls while he gives gifts to the boys. In Venice, folks celebrate the Feast of St. Lucy by enjoying fried cheese. Italians eat small cakes or biscotti shaped like eyes, light huge bonfires, and conduct evening candlelight processions, all in honor of Saint Lucy.Sicilians pay tribute to a miracle performed by St Lucy during a famine in 1582. At that time, she brought a flotilla of grain-bearing ships to starving Sicily, whose citizens cooked and ate the wheat without taking time to grind it into flour. Thus, on St. Lucy's Day, Sicilians don't eat anything made with wheat flour. Instead they eat cooked wheat called cuccia.
Below is A video of A St. Lucy's day Procession that was held at the Sweedish Embassy In Washington D.C Feel Free to watch it if you like choir music :P
People are always asking me like what kind of bands I am in to and what kind of movies I dig and uh.. I like kind of get tired of repeating myself over and over again ESPECIALLY seeing how I have all that stuff posted in my about me section on facebook. I thought I would make a blog post about All that stuff so that everyone forever has a place to get the answers to these burning questions! ER HERM here we go..
1. Krista what bands do you like?: Well I could answer this and take up the whole entire day in doing so. I prefer to usually just tell people that I like to listen to 90's alt. rock and some modern day pop and 80's hair metal. That is never good enough though and people always want details so here ya go IN DETAIL some people that I think make good audio candy.
A PERFECT CIRCLE!
I first discovered this band when I was in 6th grade. As most of you all know my parents own dry cleaners and have had a fair amount of employees over the years. Some of them were actually pretty cool people. My parents had hired this 18 year old goth guy (who was my actual first crush oh wait.. erm second crush I forgot about that kid in my 5th grade class) named John and he had the prettiest long hair that was dyed jet black. Sadly he never got his roots touched up so my parents used to call him skunk boy for obvious reasons. Anyways skunkboy, erm I mean John, Let my dad borrow his perfect circle c.d. My step dad really liked Tool at the time so he was eager to listen to Mer De Noms (for those of you who do not know the lead singer of apc is also the lead singer of Tool) Anyways my dad borrowed this c.d from this kid and it actually never left the c.d player in my step dad's white toyota supra. I think he must have played that cd about a total of 300 or more times the whole entire time he borrowed it. I don't really even think it was because he liked it that much. I think it was because he was just too lazy to take it out of the cd player. I specifically remember this one time when we drove to D.C and like.. we listened to the album back to back the whole way to and back. You would think that I would have gotten sick of it but I LOVED IT! I never wanted my dad to give John his C.D back. When he did I was really bummed. I ended up eventually buying it (it was the second c.d I purchased in my life.. the first one was melon collie and the infinite sadness from the smashing pumpkins). My step dad actually ended up buying be the Mer De Noms Tab book for christmas that year because I loved the album so much that I wanted to learn how to play all the songs. HE EVEN BOUGHT ME ACOUSTIC GUITAR so that I could do that. If I ever end up becoming a huge musician I will have these guys to thank because Mer De Noms was the album that made me want to play guitar.
TOOL!
Ok so after I heard a perfect circle it did not take me very long until I started to listen to Tool. I had heard them being played in my step dad's car before but I never really payed much mind to them because I was only in 5th grade and music did not really matter to me much back then. Well fast forward to 6th grade and that's when music started to matter to me! BIG TIME! I can not even explain how much I love this band. Maynard's voice is god like and Adam Jone's is a flippin bad ass guitar player. Danny Carey is prolly one of the best drum players of all time! I think the thing that I like about Maynard the most would prolly be the fact that you would think he would be like this psycho crazy guy who is really mean and sinister but well... I think this picture speaks for itself (get a load of the star floaties!). I still remember the first day I saw these guys in a magazine. In my head I had pictured them to be covered in tattoos and have scary clothes and all that. When I saw how harmless they looked I was so confused.
The Smashing Pumpkins
I have loved this band ever since I was a liddo Krista. First song I remember hearing by them was today. I was 5 years old and driving around with my mom in her Chevy Pickup. I did not know their name back then but like, one day the d.j said it after the song ended and I remembered the name for the rest of my life. When I was old enough to start shopping for music (yeah my mom did not let me do that till i was 13) I made sure that the first album I bought was Melon Collie because I was obsessed with "Bullet with the Butterfly Wings" This is a silly little story but I remember in 6th grade home ec. class this kid that sat next to me named C.J started to talk about SP and I flipped out because I thought I was the only one at our school who knew them. I actually had the chance to FINALLY see them live in person last year (check out my flickr page for pics). Sure Billy is the only original band member left but meh I don't care. They put on the best show I had ever seen (and I have been to quit a few shows over the years).
LADYTRON
Funny how most of these bands I did not discover on the internet huh? First time I heard them was when I lived in San Deigo. Me and my mom were driving to the mall and "witching hour" came on. I was so happy that the d.j said their name after the song ended because I was determined to hear the rest of their music. I wrote the name down on my hand and then when I got home I wrote it down on a piece of paper. I did not buy an album from them until after I graduated from high school actually. If you have never heard their music than go to youtube right now and look them up! I like to describe them as neo new wave or electropop.
Jane's addiction
I will be honest I had never heard anything by these guys except for "been caught stealing" and "jane says" and of course "mountain song" until I saw them live backstage two years ago on the nin/ja tour. I eventually downloaded nothing shocking a few months after I saw them live and fell in love. I don't really know why I never got into them when I was in middle school. I listened to EVERY 90's alt. band under the sun back then yet I never bought a jane's album. I think the main reason why was because of the cover art. I did not want my parents to get made at me for having a cd with naked people on it. Anyways I have stood in the same room with both Perry and Dave and.. ok ok im done name dropping and bragging. NEXT!
Rage Against the Machine
HATE THEIR POLITICAL BELIEFS BUT DAMN I LOVE THEIR MUSIC. Rage is the first band I remember listening to when me and my mother and my step dad first all joined our lives together. He had picked me and my mom up to take us to Clear Lake (that is a place in Houston) and yeah they were in his cd player. I have had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Mr. Tom Morello myself and he is the coolest flippin person I have ever met. He was super nice and just as talkative as me so we got along great! I have a picture of me and him together on Facebook. I look gross in that picture so I don't want to post it here.
LADY GAGA
NO I DID NOT GOOF. YES I LIKE HER OK?! I have gone from loving her to hating her to back to loving her. She is the only pop artist I have ever liked. I am guessing it is because of her crazy clothes and her over sexual lyrics. Still pretty ticked off that she stole my gimmick >.<
Ok I am not going to post every single picture of every single band/artist I like. As I have already stated that will take too long. So yeah just look at this list below to see who makes my top ten.
7th grade was such a weird time for me and I am pretty sure it was pretty weird time for others as well. I just started feeling like a little bit nostalgic today so I am gonna list all the stuff I miss about 2001.
STARTING WITH THESE BAD BOYS!
Ok so let's get a count of hands of the people that have owned these at some point in their life. Jnco JEANS! I really do not know why everyone thought these bad you some kind of sk8ter or goth bad ass but anyways.. I think most of us that wore them ended up looking like circus clowns. I know at my school we actually used to call these "circus pants". I owned QUITE a few of them and just recently (if you can call 2006 recently) donated the last pair of what I had to the salvation army. I think the only reason I even still had them in my closet when i was living in San Diego was because I was keeping them as a momento from my middle school years. The fondest memory I have of these is how they used to rip up at the bottom due to repetitively being stepped on. The way to prove that you were a fuckin bad ass in my school was that you continued to wear them even after they started to get all ripped up and split all the way to the middle of your leg. I can't even begin to imagine how idiotic me and my friends used to look walking around with these things. I do miss them though to some degree because they were comfortable as hell and I was a BIT of a tomboy back then. I used to wear them mainly to rebel against all the girls that were shopping at wet seal and like.. making out with boys and stuff.
THE 80's NOVELTY T-SHIRT
Once Upon a time Hot Topic actually used to sell somewhat cool shit. The first hot topic that opened here in Richmond was actually the one that is still in operation to this day inside of Chesterfield Town Center (yeah the one in Short Pump Closed due to a lack of mall goths in the west end of town). I had just gotten into the whole "goth/raver/alt." scene when i was in 6th grade, anyways Hot Topic opened up in the summer of 2000 I think and I was ecstatic! I made my parents buy me all my school clothes for the next year at this damn store. I specifically remember buying my first pair of bondage pants. they were so tacky!
WOAH I ACTUALLY FOUND THEM IN GOOGLE IMAGES!
I remember these pants actually were banned from my school at one point because of the straps. Our principles reason? BECAUSE KIDS WERE GOING TO TRIP OVER THE STRAPS AND BUST THEIR ASSES. I never saw how that was very likely seeing how the straps usually only came down to your knees but whatever. You would have had to be a pretty high stepper to make that happen. I was so mad when one of my teachers made me take them off (the straps that is). It's like ok.. these are bondage pants.. the WHOLE fucking point of wearing them is because of the straps!
Just incase ya don't know what I am talking about.
THIS FRICKIN WATCH!!
Dude I remember having this and I felt like i was the coolest person in school. You could drop his pants to see the time. Sponge Bob was HUGE in 7th grade and I remember making my parents buy me all this frickin sponge bob merch. I even had a Sponge Bob hoodie.
VOLATILE SHOES
I had about 5 pair of these. I honestly do not even know how my parents used to buy me all of these clothes .. oh wait.. yeah that was before the economy crisis.. kay now I remember why. I even had mary janes that were made by this company. I think it is pretty sad that I still had a pair of these chunky shoes up until last year. they had rainbows on the sides of them. I ended up selling them on ebay for 8 bucks to someone in Italy. The chunkier your shoes were the more goth points ya got!
Handmade Cartoon rave pants
Ok So I never actually owned a pair of these but I remember I used to look through all the listings on Ebay and drool over them. I wanted a pair of superman pants sooo badly. Basically people prolly used to make these and sell them on ebay for e money I think.
TOONAMI!!!
The last year it ran was in 2008 but like.. all the bad ass anime shows were pretty much aired in 7th grade. It was the LAST year sailor moon was aired on cartoon network If I am not mistaken. I REALLY miss gundam wing! I remember I used to buy the models that they sold at walmart. I never actually completed making any of them and I ALWAYS ended up breaking one of the smaller parts.
THE OSBOURNES
I was obsessed with this show! I wanted to be a part of their family SOO bad it hurt. I even bought the cheesy t-shirt that they were selling at Hot Topic at the time. Actually wore that thing until 10th grade. sad I know. I wonder what happened to that tank top.. prolly could have sold it on ebay today for a good price.
Kittie
Alright my music taste back then was not the best.. I remember seeing this video and thinking it was the most kick ass thing ever. I used to listen to Nirvana and alice in chains but I also used to listen to new bands as well. So before ya judge me just keep that in mind. here is another tune I dug..
and I am actually embarrassed about the one below.
I actually thought the lead singer was cute. good lord what was I thinking? I bet he is prolly working at a 7/11 by now and the rest of his band mates are prolly all in alien ant farm cover bands..
CHAIN WALLETS!
I had two of them. One was actually really cool. It had felix the cat on it and it was made out of this shiny pleather material. I actually think I still have it somewhere. I will post a pic sometime. I dont have the chain that went with it anymore. I used to have a pink and black checkerboard one as well that had skulls on the pink squares. NOT UNLIKE my bondage pants, these got banned from school as well. Reason being? KIDS COULD BEAT THE HELL OUT OF EACH OTHER WITH THESE THINGS! Ya know.. I am starting to think our principal just did not like alt. kids. Why were mini skirts from american eagle not banned?!
MAMON! (that would be a binkie for all you white folk)
I used to have two of these and I wore them around my neck. My mom had a package of mamons that were left over from her baby shower and she never opened them. I found them in my sisters room and turned both of them into necklaces. No wonder I got picked on in school. -_- Maybe I thought english class would turn into a rave or something? I had the beads too.
Ok so these are just a few things I remember about 2001. Do you guys remember any of this stuff? do you remember when we actually had to listen to music on cd's and with a walkman because there was no such thing as an ipod? Do you remember when there was no such thing as youtube and you had to actually go on Ebay and buy cd's of obscure bands because it was the only way you were going to hear music from them? Of course there was Napster but erm.. It got shut down thanks to ....
Anyways I WANT FEEDBACK PEOPLE! What do you miss about 2001?
