Slingshot — Interiors

Here are a couple of shots of the actual “calendar/planner” pages of the Slingshot. This would never do for a person with lots of appts. or a busy schedule. For me, I can write in an appt or three on any “date” and that will probably be sufficient. I don’t need the calendar to hold all sorts of info like it used to hold.

Here is the week of May 21-27. The fine print is the “memorable stuff” that happened on those days.

And here is the week of June 18-24. Whoever did this week did some cool stuff, but didn’t leave as much room for writing. Each week is different, which makes it lots of fun.

Oh yeah, the pages aren’t that yellow. That’s just the way my camera is making it look in this light tonight. But the ink is a kind of dark teal green.

My own personal ebay

So, I’m losing money and gaining space and piece of mind over the next couple of days. I’ve already sold a file box I didn’t want at cost, and am covering the shipping & handling myself, just to get it out of here.

And now, I’m making you an offer you can’t refuse.

If you (like me) love green. And sometimes love big honkin’ shoulder bags that hold a lot. And/or if you’re a Harry Potter fan, and/or always wanted to attend Durmstrang, and/or are crushy on Viktor Krum –

Have I got a deal for you!

It’s the Harry Potter gear that nobody ever recognizes as Harry Potter gear unless you raise the flap and they notice the relatively discreet logo on the front pocket.

It’s this:

Harry Potter Durmstrang Institute of the Dark Arts Messenger Bag

It holds everything in the world, and is heavy-duty fabric so I never worry about it splitting or anything. I can put my laptop in the interior, or in an exterior zipper area on the back, or an interior zipper area on the front. There’s a smaller pouch/zipper-thingy that’s on the front, too. I know, I should take pictures and post and if I have time later and need to, I will.

But for now I just want to let you know that it’s brand new, still in the plastic, because I ordered it for myself last year right before Mother’s Day because I knew that even though I asked for one for Mother’s Day nobody would get it for me, and ooops, I was wrong!

So it has been in a box in the closet waiting for me to return it, and now I’m saying, if you want it, I will mail it to you for my cost plus a nickel. Yes, if you send me a check for $30, I will pay the postage and stuff and send it to you, a brand new in the bag Durmstrang Dark Arts Messenger Bag that is really very cool (I use mine constantly). If you want to see how much that saves you, click on the link below the picture and see how much the Warner Brothers Shop will charge you to ship it.

Going, going ….

GONE!  Eighteen months later an old friend found this post and contacted me, we met for dinner and now she owns the bag and we’re in touch again.  Don’t you just love happy endings?

I’m Special. Snap!

Well, thanks for pointing out to me that I have some sort of preview something going on here. It is explained here:

Snap to it!

and only about 10% of wordpress blogs have it right now.

So tell me what you think, so I can give them feedback.

Yes, I am.

A prude. Or so it seems.

Because I ordered (sight unseen, pretty much) a small organizer/calendar thingy that just looked cool when I saw a pic of it on flickr.

How cool is this?

I even got to choose my own color cover, and there were lots of choices. I’m not sure if I chose “Humbolt Green” or “Green Anarchy.” I just know it’s dark green and I love it. (I wonder how popular “Santorum” is.) (And I think it’s part of its charm that they evidently even have cute little misspelled words here and there.)

Front:

Back:

Okay, to begin with it’s revolutionary, I get that. I mean, as in subversive revolutionary. As in, it has a “Radical Contact List” in it, and info on dealing with government repression. In fact, here is what it says on the first page:

“In creating this organizer, we seek to respond to increasing repression from government and the corporate industrial machine with ever more powerful creativity and love.”

Okay, I’m there. Any time I can be creative and loving and fight the corporate industrial machine, I am definitely there, in all my middle-aged suburban glory.

NOTE: It occurs to me that this would be a very cool organizer thingy for The Admiral and Mr. Harris to whip out at business meetings, but I digress.

More to the point, it is very cool. All hand drawn, line drawings decorating every single page. And dates you are unlikely to find anywhere else. I mean, did you know that on December 24, 1955, Aldous Huxley took his first acid trip?

Or that on July 4, 1835 the children of Paterson, NJ went on strike for a six day work week, and an 11-hour workday?

And of course in addition to historic boycotts, strikes, assassinations, etc., it includes the dates like Independence Day, Bastille Day — but wait, I’ll come back to that.

It also has a Menstrual Calendar, instructions how to “Check your nuts” “and your breasts” and tips on having successful meetings and conversion tables and a 5.5″ ruler on the edge of a page so you can measure things, and — it’s just very cool.

You see, this time last year I was ordering my new, much-much smaller Franklin Planner, and wondering if it was going to work out for me. Little did I realize that I would have turned my organizational system upside down and would be going even smaller.

And this cute little slingshot seems to be everything I want. Small, fun enough to make me want to use it, and the way my life is these days, I can usually fit any appts. into a small space. I keep my notes in my moleskine, use my 3×5s for the hPDA, so I think this may work.

I have my new Franklin refills sitting here, and I’m seriously considering returning them. (I haven’t opened the packages.)

So, what’s my point?

Well, the line drawings are sometimes a tad graphic. They range from simple almost childlike line drawings, to complex art. They range from kites and 50s-era spacemen and floral borders to a few nudes, one of which is a robust lady with delicate flowers covering her “delicate flower” with proper gentility.

But, did I mention Bastille Day?

Bastille Day made me blush when I first saw it. Made me close the book and go, um, I don’t think so. Not that I cared about the act itself — but I just didn’t want to see a line drawing of any sex act every time I flipped by that page, and so I thought about giving the Slingshot away to somebody less ::blushy:: than I am.

But the more I looked at my slingshot, the more I wanted it. 160 pages of fun facts to entertain my family and friends! And I thought, aw heck, why not have fun with it? Why not put a sticker of some sort over the odd little guy’s erection (and maybe another on the powder puff he’s using to, I suppose, powder the other guy’s bum (for all I know these are some sort of mythological creatures of which I’m woefully ignorant, or maybe just someone’s imagination).

Stickers, hmm. Oh. WAIT!

I ordered some stickers a few weeks ago. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I ordered the flylady stickers.

Shut up.

They looked fun, okay?

And I now have two flylady clingies, oh joy. Yes, I’m blushing about that, too, are you satisfied? (Um, anybody want them?)

So I’m looking and thinking, “Family Fun Time!” Now that’s a clever sticker to cover well, the picture I’m covering! Or the sticker that says, “PARTY!”

But then. I couldn’t resist.

“Tsk-tsk!”

I now have a tiny Flylady her-own-self hiding the sex act on Bastille Day.

Sex is fine. I don’t care who you are or what you do with consenting adults, yadda yadda.

Just please don’t do it on my planner page.

You see, I am a prude.

Miss Potter

I’ve been waiting for this movie for a long time, ever since I read the script a few years ago.

Has anybody heard any advance word on it?

I want it to be wonderful.

Miss Potter

I’m not sure what to think about them holding it until January to open wide. An exclusive tomorrow night, then nothing. That doesn’t exude confidence, does it?

Still. I’m hopeful.