The drabbles of an art student
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Single and Ready to Mingle: Henrietta Manning
Apr 15th
Our featured eligible bachelorette is Henrietta Manning. This Canadian native is seventy-one years young, and in our opinion, doesn’t look a day over sixty. When she’s not spoiling her grandchildren, you can find her taking care of her eight cats. Henrietta is certainly not a catist, considering that she houses breeds from tabbies to calicos. In the winter, you can see Mr. Jingles, Gertrude, Kevin, and others trotting around the house stylishly in their warm, hand-made booties that were knitted by their owner.
Her cat apparel has been a real hit at her neighborhood church, and although Henrietta’s pair of hands are decades old, she can crank out a mean dozen pair. If she likes you enough, she’ll even make you a hair of mittens with a matching hat.
On the weekends you can find Henrietta at Blackout, the local bingo hall, playing anywhere from one to eight cards at a time. Henrietta is hoping to find her good luck charm so she can finally hit the jackpot in love.
The iPad: Upgrade Your iPhone or iPod Touch
Feb 28th
Apple fanboys and fangirls can rejoice for there is a new product Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, recently unveiled. By now, surely everyone has heard about it; I’m talking about the Apple iPad.
One of the features of the upcoming iPad is reading iBooks. Sure, reading iBooks on the iPad sounds like a great idea and would save paper but is it worth deteriorating your eyes over? Staring at a backlit screen can’t be good for you, especially if you were at school or work for eight hours staring into a regular computer screen. Would you then want to come home and snuggle up with an iBook?
The anatomy of the iPad compared to the iPhone is exactly the same besides the screen size and the processor. There are the same external buttons, sleep/wake, mute, volume and home. The screen size is 9.7 inches while the iPhone and iPod Touch is 3.5 inches. No USB ports, although you can buy a separate iPad camera connection kit that will allow you to convert the iPad connector to allow you to import photos via your camera’s USB cable or via SD card. I’m hoping that this separate accessory will lead to a way of hacking the iPad for a more customized product. Also, the largest capacity of an iPod Touch is 64 Gigs and guess what? That will be the largest capacity offered for an iPad, too.
One thing that is unpleasant about the iPad is that there will be no flash support in the web browser. According to Steve Jobs, the reason why there is no Flash support in Safari is because Flash causes Apple products to crash and act buggy, as well as diminish battery life. If you’re a big fan of YouTube, though, fear not, for there is an app just for viewing YouTube videos that will work on the iPad (just like on the iPhone and iPod Touch).
From my overlook on the iPad, I believe that they are the computer of the future for the rich and spoiled. Maybe I’m just being bitter and I’ll be honest—If I had just five hundred dollars lying around, I’d probably buy an iPad. But I don’t. Spending five hundred plus dollars on a machine that does basically everything that my iPod Touch can already do seems steep. The user interface on the larger screen size of an iPad is without a doubt gorgeous, but for someone like me who actually counts on their computer to be a machine that is able to do more than just check email and surf the web with, the iPad just isn’t powerful enough
If you really want an iPad but can’t shell out the extra five hundred plus dollars for one, there is one way to upgrade your iPhone or iPod Touch for less than ten bucks that my friend Sam pointed out: Search for “Magnifying Glass” at Amazon.com.
I Hate Papyrus
Jan 24th
I’ve always disliked the Papyrus typeface. To the amateur, they see it as being a font that “stands out,” is “creative,” or is “unique.” Me? I see a font with multiple flaws in just one letter. Why does it make me so mad? Because it’s overused and overdesigned, not to mention that Papyrus looks like it got sprayed with a sandblaster.
When I was in the sixth grade, our class was forced to read a book that came out in weekly installments in the local newspaper, chapter by chapter. We would read the story, about a Native American boy who could turn into an animal, and would have to answer questions and write essays on each new section we read. I not only disliked the story and hated writing about it, but I also wasn’t happy that I had to do this horrible and dull assignment once a week for an entire school year.
It wasn’t until recently that I realized why I disliked Papyrus (for what I thought was) the first time I saw it. In reality, I had seen this typeface much earlier, for it was this very font that was used in the newspaper to type the titles and chapters of the story I was forced to read in middle school.
This Native American animalboy was degraded to Papyrus because it is supposedly natural looking. Not unlike how Arizona Iced Tea, yoga mats, and organic foods are labeled with Papyrus. My first encounter with Papyrus has subconsciously enhanced my hate for it. Both the ugliness of the font and the middle school horror is why I have come to hate the typeface that is Papyrus.
The Difference Between Hos and Hoes
Nov 30th
What they are made out of: STDs vs. metal.
Hos: They may look like your average, skankier person, but the three main parts of a ho are tits, ass, and STDs.
Hoes: Although hoes come in different shapes and sizes like hos, they are all made up basically the same way. Hoes have a piece of metal at the tip for the blade and also a long handle. The blade is made up of metal, while the handle can be made up of wood, fiberglass, or more metal so you will not get splinters while at work.
The sounds they make when you pimp slap them. Whimpering vs. clanking.
Hos: if you pimp slap a ho, you might hear some screaming, yelping, yelling, and even a whimper. If the ho falls down, there may also be a thud.
Hoes: Unlike what Soulja Boy thinks, if you pimp slap a hoe, you will most likely hear some clanking, and not a wha-psh-like sound. If the hoe falls down, there may also be a thud.
What they are used for: Fucking vs. gardening.
Hos: Although Webster has a definition for a ho, I like the one from urbandictionary.com better. It says that a ho is “A whore. A woman who uses her body, or gives the impression that her mark can be intimate with her, for material gain or to boost her own ego.” Basically, a ho will use her body to get something out of you, whether it’s just to get a new purse or to say she that she did it with you (but only if you are important).
Hoes: According to Wikipedia, hoes are used to (1) agitate the surface of the soil around plants, to remove weeds, (2) pile soil around the base of plants (hilling), (3) create narrow furrows (drills) and shallow trenches for planting seeds and bulbs, and (4) generally dig and move soil (e.g. harvesting potatoes), and chop weeds, roots and crop residues.
Your chances of picking up a disease: AIDs vs. Tetanus
Hos: Some hos have some common sense; they wrap it before the pack it, however, others don’t. Sure, some STDs are curable, but others aren’t. Besides, you don’t want your genitals to feel like they are on fire even if it’s only for a few days, anyway. Even if you get something that won’t kill you, like herpes, your occasional flare-ups aren’t going to attract any new partners, even if you are on Valtrex.
Hoes: While you are tending to your garden on a nice spring day, and the sun is out to play, make sure you don’t slice yourself with your dirty, rusty hoe, or you may end up needing a tetanus shot. That is, unless you want to have muscle spasms in your jaw, hence the name lockjaw.
What they ask from you: Everything vs. nothing.
Hos: A word to the wise: Never give a ho your number, or any information about you, actually. Not even your first name. For all you know, this ho isn’t really a ho at all, and is working with an undercover cop feeding everything you’re telling this firecrotch to the officer after you drop her off. Even if this ho is a ho, then you shouldn’t be giving out your information, anyway. Although you may be a long time customer, that doesn’t make you friends; really, she’s a stranger. You really think her name is actually Cherry? Ha. Well, when Cherry gets into a fight with her pimp, she’s going to hit you up for some money because she knows you have it (which could quite possibly be a scam), or even a place to stay the night since Bruno (that’s the pimp) kicked her out on the street for the night because she talked back to him.
Hoes: Nothing, it’s a fucking hoe and the best thing about them is that they don’t talk. The worst that will happen is that the tag that comes with it will say to occasionally sharpen the blade and to store it in a shed so it doesn’t get rusty.
Legality: Not legal in many places vs. can buy at the store.
Hos: As far as I know, the only place in the country where you can legally obtain a ho is from Nevada and apparently Rhode Island, too.
Hoes: Unlike hos, hoes can be legally purchased. They are sold at a number of home improvement stores including Home Depot and Lowe’s. If you are a fan of gardening, then you can just pick one up the next time you go to your favorite greenhouse to buy some perennials and kill two birds with one stone. I am also willing to bet that you can find some hoes at Target or Walmart, and probably even Costco if you like to buy in bulk.
Price: Depends on the ho vs. depends on the hoe.
Hos: Let’s face it, just because they’re hos, it doesn’t mean they’ll do everything. For example, Julia Roberts; she won’t kiss on the mouth. But if you need to pay someone to makeout with you, then you have some serious problems. Even if there’s no such thing as a classy hooker, there some differences varying on your neighborhood. Or maybe those hos are really just nomads and know how to get around. The more you want from a hooker, though, the more you are going to have to pay. Think of it as a hotel. The nicer it is and the longer you are going to stay in it, the more it’s going to cost you.
Hoes: If you’re just needing to do some weeding on a few pesky dandelions on a Sunday afternoon, then you can just head to Walmart and find a cheap hoe, many of which are ten dollars and under. If you’re a landscaper or a serious gardener, you will want to invest in a good hoe, though. I don’t suggest buying from Solid Cactus, though, because this hoe ( bam ) is more than even your most expensive ho. Maybe it does things a ho wouldn’t want to, I don’t know. One of the pricier hoes I found besides the godly like one previously mentioned ran around a hundred and fifty dollars. That might be the price of a cheap hooker, but at least a good hoe can be reused multiple times and you don’t have to pay for each dig.
Their amount of danger: Dangerous if you don’t pay vs. dangerous if you start swinging.
Hos: If you’re stooping to the level of getting a ho, the least you can do is pay. There’s nothing worse than a guy who won’t even pay for his blow job that he agreed to. If you are thinking about saving a hundred bucks, you might want to watch out. Just because she’s a ho doesn’t mean she’s unarmed. If you managed to get away from the ho with a switchblade, you’ve still got to watch out for Bruno (remember him?), and you don’t want to mess with him.
Hoes: Before you start gardening, make sure you can keep your hoe in check. Take periodic breaks when you begin to get tired or you may end up swinging that thing and hurting someone. You don’t want to be the idiot who has to wear a helmet when he weeds, do you?
In conclusion, if you want to eat out but don’t have enough bones to buy a ho, then the next best thing is getting a hoecake at Cracker Barrel. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper and it is still delicious, too.
Billy Mays: A Tribute
Nov 22nd
It seems like just yesterday when Billy Mays was still alive and well, selling things for only $19.95 plus shipping and handling. That guy could sell me a nickel for twenty bucks, I bet. I wish I could sell anything like he could. It would definitely help now. I would be able to get extensions on the due dates of every single one of my projects and papers, sell the stuff in my junk drawer for obscene amounts of money, and convince boys to buy me nice things. Maybe I’d even be able to talk the school into lowering my tuition. Maybe.
I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about Billy so much, lately. Maybe it’s just because I miss him. I’ve always wanted a clock that had his voice for the alarm. It would have said something like, “Hi, Billy Mays here for the morning! Now get your ass up and do something productive!” And you know what? I would have. I. Would. Have.
Even though he’s gone, I will remember the good times. All of the countless hours of infomercials in which Billy projected his voice while I watched in awe of how many uses OxiClean had (not only did it make my white clothes whiter, but it also made my bright clothes brighter). Had my jaw hit the ground because of how much liquid ZoorbEEZ (you know, the amazingly absorbent cloths that ShamWow ripped off) could clean up and hold. Was amazed by how many things could be easily attached with Mighty Mendit (use it to glue paper, fabric, or bedazzle your phone!). It all seemed just too good to be true.
Mighty Putty didn’t work as great as you said it would, but I’ll give you a pass on that one, Billy. I’m not one to hold grudges, and I’m sure as hell not going to start now. Sure, in the infomercial it showed you using that powerfully strong putty to tow a semi. A semi. It looked badass, but if I were to try that, my putty would probably just crumble. I used to think that it was because the product wasn’t as good as you promised it to be, but I was wrong. The real reason why it wouldn’t hold together for me is because I’m not Billy freaking Mays. He may have always been shouting (I’m sorry, I mean projecting), and he might have been a bit of a crackhead (literally), but dammit. He was my baby.