A couple nights ago I went to the Downtown Eatery and got to chat with my friend Jillian, whom I hadn’t seen in ages. She’s been watching a lot of documentaries lately and told me about a man she’s become obsessed with named Henry Darger.

I haven’t seen the movie yet so I don’t know much about him, but his story is fascinating! He was a janitor in Chicago who became famous after he died for his 15,000+ page manuscript, which he had illustrated himself and titled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.

Darger never set foot in an art class and actually led an interesting and sordid life. Everything he did was self-taught, and the results are gorgeous.

The first time I ever saw outsider art was when I was in high school, and I fell in love. There’s something about the sensibilities a person has when they aren’t formally taught how to make art which I really appreciate.

Sometimes I find myself jealous of people who haven’t been ‘trained’ in art because their minds are more free than mine could ever be! When I sit down to draw, I have all these thoughts flowing through my head that revolve around what previous professors have drilled into me over the years. If only there was a way to un-learn myself!

If you’re interested in the documentary, it’s called In the Realms of the Unreal.

Photos via PBS, Sara Ayers, Hammer Gallery and Lost At E Minor

He looks like he’s up to no good, doesn’t he? I met this little fella on our second day in Bangkok, after we spent a night slumming it on Khao San and made way for the more-plaid and less-dreads side of town. You can see a close-up of him here.

I’ve finally got off my rear and started putting a dent in editing / uploading our travel photos. It feels so good to have Photoshop at my fingertips again! Keep up with the uploads on Flickr with my Thailand set.

I also wanted to give a quick thanks to everyone who left comments on my previous post, Just CMYKill Me Now. I appreciate the loads of links y’all dropped my way, and had a lot of fun sifting through them. Clearly, I’ve settled into something new… Here’s to hoping it lasts! ;)

Two nights ago the 2-hour series finale of Battlestar Galactica aired. I honestly can’t remember the last time I cared so much about a TV show! I have been obsessive over shows in the past, but they always manage to let me down eventually. BSG never did (save a few stinker stand-alone eps here or there. Like s02e14? Yeah, I’ll be skipping that in my series review marathon).

I know there are a lot of people out there who have been severely disappointed by this finale. Reading random comments online has left me wondering if there is anyone out there who is willing to be satisfied just with the way things happened! The two main complaints I seem to come across are:

“There are so many unanswered questions… And even more questions were made!”
Maybe, but if they explained every detail it would take away the magic and wonderment they’ve left us with. Use your imagination! I thought this was a beautiful ending and I’ll admit to getting way too choked up several times. When Adama sat on the cliff after burying Roslin, I finally lost it!

“And all that stuff about GOD and religion. Bleah!”
I hear this comment all the time about BSG– that it got too “religiousy” at the end for some. But the show has always been about mythos, religion, prophecy, God/Gods, the struggle between good and evil, etc. I have no problem with this and even find it very culturally relevant, adding to the brilliance of the show as a whole. And that’s all coming from the godless heathen that I am, hah ;)

I know there’s at least one BSG fan out there. What did you think?

I’m slowly but surely making a very overdue effort to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I couldn’t resist such a nerdy title. But, I digress– here it is! My hill tribe silver ring I searched high and low in Bangkok for.

I was a little miffed at myself for not buying any hill tribe jewelry while in the North, as it’s ridiculously abundant and relatively cheap there. But all it took was a good half hour of getting separated from Chris on Th Khao San and I had found a vendor with bowls and bowls of silver rings (and earrings that were over 1,000 baht! Yikes!). I paid 300 baht– or $9– for this beauty. Click the photo for a more detailed view!

What I Wore Today:

T-Shirt: Khao San Rd
Silver Ring: Khao San Rd
Leggings: Hand-me-down

And this is the outfit I wore on our first full day back in the States. We were lucky enough to have clothes brought for us to change into, but for some reason Chris got a pair of fresh jeans to wear and I got these velvet brown striped leggings my old room mate, Katie, gave me. I’m not complaining, though. They fit like a charm and look real good with this shirt I got in Bangkok, too.

I’m curious: Do any of you fellow bloggers have this sick, obsessive tendency to constantly redesign your blog? Seems like I’m never happy with my final layouts for long. I just whipped this one up right before we left for Thailand because I was sick of the overly simple one before that. And now, here I am, sick of it all over again! Either I am insatiable, or it’s a curse for being so quick to drop out of graphic design classes back at Humboldt. Guess I should’ve stuck with it, and maybe in the end I would’ve been able to design something that would please me for longer than a month!

In just a few hours we’ll be driving up the I-5 to Redding for our final(ish) destination! After I hug my MIL, kiss my cat and make my rounds of phone calls, then the photo editing marathon will begin! I am especially excited to post photos of all the wonderful things I bought in Thailand.

In the meantime, here are some links to blogs both big and small whose layouts I like lots, for one reason or another:

Brand New
Design*Sponge
Little Thoughts
My Folk Lover
Treats and Treasures
Uppercase

Please, feel free to leave a comment with your favorite blogs! I need all the inspiration I can get. Don’t be surprised if you see some changes around here in the next couple of weeks (big sigh!).