In Pictures, Part II - Featuring Red and Blue

In pictures.

Part II.

SHOP.
LOCAL.
SHOP.
DOWNTOWN.

Featuring blue.

And red.

And bled.

And rue.

Rue de Mûre.

In pictures.

I am now a proud mother!

... of an Olympus Evolt E510 Digital SLR Camera!

Isn't she precious?

You're looking at a large part of my summer earnings, but definitely a good buy! (Don't worry, I did my research). This will really come in handy with my job at The Cluster, and it will allow me to take a Digital Photography class, completing my photography minor. As soon as the battery charges, I'll be posting some photos with my beautiful new Olympus!

New House on New Street

Begin rant.

First of all, how do any of you stand uploading pictures to this thing? The photos are inserted at the top, where they clearly do not belong. And then you have to move them down, but it's completely impossible if you have a vertical picture above a horizontal picture at medium size because you can't drag the top picture far enough to make it go below the horizontal picture! To get these photos on here after the first one, I had to upload them to a hosting site, then copy and paste the HTML. Grrr!

Rant over.

So my good friend Emma and I are now living in an adorable two-bedroom house, only minutes from campus by foot, bike or car. Prepare yourself for a virtual tour!

This is the view from the creepy, vacant house across the way.



Sorry these photos are gigantic. This is our living room that you see as soon as you walk in the door. We have yet to decorate it, obviously.



If you turn to the left as you walk in the front door, you'll see my room.



Here's my desk, where I will do much studying.



Don't hate on the craft corner!



Closet!



This is the mantel in my room. There are mantels all over the house, even in the kitchen.



And speaking of the kitchen ... voila!


Next to the kitchen is a sunroom and dining area, which I love. Definitely my favorite part of the house.



Another view of the bookshelves in the sunroom.

Gay Marriage? Not our business.

From Georgia native and nationally syndicated columnist Charley Reese ...

You would think to hear some people complain about gay marriage that heterosexual couples would drop dead or become impotent as soon as some state approved a gay-marriage law. Whether gays get married or not, it has no effect on the rest of the population. Except for gays, it's meaningless. It's a non-issue.

In the meantime, there are plenty of issues that do affect all of us -- the devalued dollar, high energy costs, loss of manufacturing jobs, wars overseas and ballooning debt, both public and private.

As a heterosexual, I personally don't give a hoot one way or the other about gay marriage. If gays wish to provide more business for divorce lawyers, it's no skin off my nose. If they think making the state a third party to their marriage is desirable, it is OK with me. It's one of those legal matters I don't have to worry about, and I like those kinds of legal matters a lot.

What irritates me is busybodies who want to stick their nose in other people's business. For God's sake, let us all mind our own business. The world will be a better place if we do.

Most people believe that homophobes are in fact latent homosexuals and what they really hate are their own secret urges. So under no circumstances should any child be driven to despair and suicide because someone disapproves of his or her sexual preference. Whether homosexuality is a matter of nature or nurture, I don't know, and it doesn't matter. It simply is not important enough to cost the life of any child.

Furthermore, if the state recognizes a contract -- which is all marriage amounts to, in secular terms -- it by no means sanctifies anything. No one accuses the state of sanctifying sales contracts.

The religious aspect of marriage is separate and apart form the state's involvement. In fact, I don't think the state should be involved, but it has involved itself. But whatever is holy and sacred about marriage is a matter of religion, not a state marriage license, which is no different from a plumber's license.

If you wish to worry about marriage, it is better to worry about the all-to-many marriages that fail. It is better to worry about all the single mothers struggling to raise children without a father. It is better to worry about a sleazy culture that disdains the necessity of marriage and treats a relationship as nothing more than a sleepover. There are a lot of legal and moral issues that need to be addressed in our society, but gay marriage isn't one of the. It's an issue only for a small minority of the population. If they wish to live together in a state-licensed relationship, it's nobody's business but their own.

Quote of the Day

"Man ... I'm never buying tuna from Dollar General again."

Mount Righteous

I might just have a new favorite band.

But first, a little Lillian musical background.

I have a very wide selection of musical interests. My favorites as a young girl mainly consisted of showtunes and Disney songs. I've had all the colors in Joseph's amazing technicolor dreamcoat memorized since I was about seven. (Red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ocher and peach …) And, of course, I've always had a fondness for the folk music I was raised on. Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, etc. And, of course, we can't forget the Beatles.

In elementary school, I listened to Faith Hill, Sarah McLachlan, the Backstreet Boys, N*Sync and the Spice Girls. Even now, I really appreciate popular music. I went to a Hanson concert last October. Yes, Hanson.

In high school, my major musical loves were John Mayer, Weezer and Ben Folds (and more showtunes). In my later years of high school, I was introduced to Rilo Kiley, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sufjan Stevens and Death Cab for Cutie. I guess that's where my interest in so-called "indie" music began.

Nowadays, I will listen and want to listen to pretty much anything, including bluegrass, country, rap, hip hop, punk, folk, rock, pop, electro. Put something in front of me and I will check it out. Probably the only music I just cannot make myself like are screamo, emo, Christian music of the annoying variety (this doesn't include hymns and old religious songs), and some of the more disgusting and/or degrading rap songs.

My favorite songs are inevitably the ones that leave me feeling really ridiculously happy, and let me tell you, you don't get much happier than Mount Righteous' album called "When the Music Starts."

Let me introduce you to the band – the ELEVEN-piece band. There's a sousaphone, snare drum, xylophone, accordion, bass drum, melodica, a few acoustic guitars and two trombones. Everything they play is completely acoustic – no mics, no amps, no synthesizer, no electric instruments whatsoever. As it states on their MySpace, they sound like a "happy marching band choir."

Just a few examples of their lyrics:

Lollipop roads custom made for painted toes
all landscaped by people in the know
I've never been there, but I've heard it's gorgeous.
Walking the streets, you wave hello
to all the birds you meet (tweet, tweet).
The bumble bees will never sting your feet,
Well, they're too busy making honey.

Don't worry baby there are cupcakes in the sky
Everything will be alright, you're the apple of my eye.
We'll take a paper airplane flight into the licorice night.
- from "Licorice Night"

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Love the world a little more,
Give them what they're hurtin' for.
Open up both your arms and stretch them wide.
Learn, learn, learn a little more,
Ignorance is such a bore.
Learn and then you can soar above the lies.

Run, run, run while you can,
God will hold you in his hands,
Set your feet back on the ground when you fall down.
Give, give, give a little more,
Of your live so sweet and pure.
When you give all your love you shine, shine, shine.
- from "A Little More"

–––––––––––––

Never met a martyr but I met a lotta men,
Never met a zero, never met a ten.
If I ever met a hero I could tell you then,
But I never met anyone quite like you, my friend.
One, two, three, four you're the one that I adore.
Four, three, two, one, now I'm telling everyone.

Met a lotta chicks, met a lotta dudes.
Met a lotta not a lotta never like you.
- from "You the Magic Number"

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Doesn't it just make you go :-) ?
You should check them out.

Blog Neglect

I apologize for the inevitable period of blog neglect.

My absence is partially caused by pure laziness. This laziness in only enhanced by the fact that, since last week, I've been working a different job at the paper.

A copyeditor/page designer recently moved back to her hometown, and because I know the pagination program, InDesign, I was recruited to work on the copydesk. This also means that instead of working from 10 a.m. to around 6 p.m., I go in at 4 p.m. and don't leave until after midnight. So the hours aren't great, but I'm learning a lot about InDesign which will make my job with The Cluster next year SO much easier.

Welcome to the most thankless job in journalism.

Legalize Books!

From one of my favorite web comics, Toothpaste For Dinner.

Come craft away with me.

If you're anything like me, from time to time you get these grand ideas about projects and crafts that will be oh-so-trendy yet oh-so-easy. 

If you're anything like me, these projects rarely work out. 

Since attending the craft festival this weekend in Cave Spring, Ga., the itch to craft has become … itchier.

Here are a couple interesting ideas from Readymade magazine, a bimonthly do-it-yourself instructional handbook. It's a crafter's dream. And who's to stop me from dreaming?

This updated suitcase lookes delighfully retro with just a small addition. 

This inventive bookcase is way too complicated for my pitiful crafting skills, but I'm drawn to it's eclectic, home-y and geometric look. 

I'm currently working on re-covering four chairs that live on our backporch with a nice printed fabric and sewing a matching tablecloth. I'll let you know how the crafting goes. 

Random Newsroom Outbursts, Vol. 1

One of the things I love about my new job is working in an environment where you are constantly interacting with others.

No, there's never a dull moment in the newsroom.

Because a career in journalism requires a certain amount of – how shall I put it? – loquaciousness, it is only natural that newsroom conversation be thoroughly saturated with sarcasm, hilarity and the delightfully absurd.

Here are just a few tidbits from my growing Post-it note collection of newsroom absurdities.

• On my very first day, someone sang Poison's greatest ballad. "Eeeevry roooose has it's thooooorn." But why? The world may never know, but every cowboy has his sad, sad song.

• "Oh yeah, that sounds like an interesting story...NOT."


• The Web editor's ringtone is the theme song to "The Golden Girls."


• "Steve, wanna go to the strip club? Go ahead!"


• (singing) "The Looooooooove Boooooooat!"


• I passed an isolated desk in the Past Times section (not in the newsroom and therefore much more dull) and heard a person snoring behind his computer.

• "Ugh, I am so behind the times. Do you know how many recreational drugs I need to be trying?"

• "Who's the floozy on the train?!"

• In my first week, I was drafted to judge a Play-Doh sculpture contest between the Features Editor and one of the primary photographers. They were making tigers. I chose the editor's because his had stripes.

• "Oh, so what was your Boy Scout troop called? The shimmering dragonflies?"

Some of these don't even make sense to me, I'll admit.

If you're worried that my coworkers' obvious mental complications might rub off on me, be comforted in knowing that I am extremely resilient when it comes to avoiding unwanted influences. It's become hard in the past weeks, what with the high concentration of crazy and all. But you know how it goes …

… all in a day's work.

For future reference…

People know when you link to their blogs. Or at least Aunt Carol does.

I didn't realize this little tidbit of information and thought that no one knew about this blog yet. Silly me. This is a lesson many people should learn about the internet: someone aaaaaalways knoooows. Dum, dum, dummm.

Well, now that you know, Welcome!

If you (like someone I know) are confused about the name, LilyPutty is supposed to bring to mind that wonderful, sticky, gooey, play-doughy concoction Silly Putty.

I hope this blog will be equally delightful, though the chances are small.

I should be getting ready for my new job as ace reporter (read: intern) for the local newspaper. In case you haven't heard the big news, old people did stuff at Berry College. I was on the scene to investigate.

Look, Ma! I'm a real reporter!

I got a job with the Rome News-Tribune, the local paper in my town. I'm so excited; I feel like a real, honest-to-goodness newspaper woman. It'll definitely be a lot different working for a daily newspaper, unlike The Cluster (the student newspaper of Mercer University, of which I am the Editor In Chief) which is a biweekly publication. I have to arrive on the job in a mere 10 hours, so I should probably get some sleep. I'll definitely keep you (meaning cyberspace, since I haven't told anyone about this here blog thingy) updated on my adventures in the newsroom.

In other news, I'm planning on shooting a movie with my friends Molly and Emma Hatch. Molly wrote a screenplay for one of classes at SCAD, and let me tell you, it's a real gem. I won't give away any of the tantalizing plot details, but you should know that it involves a talking apple, Jesus, and Bonnie Tyler's 80's hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Yeah, it's that good.

Well, I've really gone and done it.

Like my father (and my grandmother, my sister, my aunt, my other aunt, my other other aunt, my cousin, my other cousin, my other other cousin and so on), I've got a blog.

But what does one write on a blog? My dad seems to mostly write about politics and birds. Following his example, I should use this blog to discuss subjects too unbelievably boring for actual conversation. (Only kidding, Dad.)

For now I suppose I'll just wing it.

But to keep you interested, here are a few photographs from a black and white photography class I took last semester. The long hours in the dark room became almost therapeutic. Pictured at left is a column from the Rome City Auditorium in my hometown of Rome, Ga.

This is my favorite. But then, as a journalism student, I'm rather excessively fond of newspapers. This particular newspaper is The Telegraph, the newspaper of Macon, Ga. And none other than the comic section!


There are about two hours in the day when this picture would turn out. I guess I was just in the right place at the right time, but I love the way the lamp is shadowed on the wall.