Last Month Online (September 2018)

We'll start this month out with a video from the Gregory Brothers, remixing one of my favorite YouTube bakers, Rosanna Pansino! I lost count of how many times I listened to this. It was just so catchy. :)



And next we have a video from the Voca People! This group doesn't put out that many videos, but they will always be a favorite of mine, as they had literally one of the first viral videos I ever really became obsessed with. They aren't primarily a YouTube group, so they are usually too busy touring to make videos, but when they do I always enjoy them.



I also just realized that this makes two months in a row that I have featured an ABBA cover. No offense to Cher, I obviously loved her song too, but I think this was my favorite. I just love these weird a Capella aliens. :p

Another month, another video from Jonna Jinton. Don't worry, despite the title, nothing bad is happening to her cow. I was afraid this was going to be a horribly depressing video until I read the description. Stjärna is moving to another village for the winter, so she's telling her goodbye. :)



Side note: I love the name Stjärna. :)

I don't think I've featured Jacob Sutherland on my blog before, but he's done some great covers of songs from some of my favorite cartoons. When he put out this Adventure Time medley, I knew I had to feature it. It was so good, and I probably listened to it like ten times the first day it was up. :)



Here's a collab I never knew I needed, Walk off the Earth, and Gabriela from the Eh Bee Family! I never would have thought to put them together, but I loved the result!



And finally we have another hilarious video from Studio C! Tori is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors on this show, which will really help next year when the original cast leaves to form their own studio. (Sorry to break the news to you, if you hadn't heard) Tori's reactions and facial expressions here were some of the best I've seen, and I was dying of laughter the whole time.

Catch Up Part 2: Shaina's Birthday

Yesterday I posted pictures from Christmas, these pictures were from Shaina's birthday party, which happened not too much after the holidays. Sarah has always loved making specialty foods, and she recently got into planning tea parties, so for Shaina's birthday we planned an Alice In Wonderland themed tea party.

This was the spread. The Wonderland details are subtle.

The blue butterfly.

A white rabbit.

Sasha even provided Steve, so we'd have a walrus. :p

Sarah made a whole bunch of tiny tarts and muffins.

And she has a large collection of assorted china.

Sasha made a crown for the birthday girl. I should mention that this was a surprise, so she wasn't warned in advance to dress for the occasion. Which explains the hoodie. :p I was the most dressed up, as I own a Mad Hatter costume. However, I neglected to get a picture of myself that day, so here's one from a few years ago instead. :p

A sample of the fare.

Sarah made her own lemon curd, and clotted cream!

Sasha made all the tea sandwiches.

They went all out!

I blew up balloons. :p And these were actually more difficult that they look, because those aren't polka dots, it's confetti that had to be stuffed into the balloons before blowing them up!

After the tea we watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

I have like five different versions of the movie, but Sarah wanted to stick with the classic. :)

Later Shaina opened her gifts, I gave her four Funko Pops from one of her all-time favorite movies, Labyrinth. Can you spot the fourth Pop? It's slightly hidden. :p

My friend Sam gave me two Irish unicorns to give to her, because she knew I had a cousin who absolutely loved unicorns. And Shaina absolutely loved them. :p

Sasha made Shaina a rainbow cake, which we had later that night.

Shaina loves rainbow anything.

She LOVES rainbows. :p

Even the inside was rainbow'd. :)

Shaina was suitably impressed. :)

And that's all from that day! I am pretty sure I have some other pictures to catch up on as well, but those were all the other big holiday pictures. I'll get to the others eventually. :)

#UnicornFacts!

I wrote these true facts ages ago, mainly for my cousin, who loves unicorns, but I kind of left them on my phone and forgot about them. I came across them a couple days ago and decided that now was as good a time as any to post them, so here they are! True facts about unicorns!

About

Unicorns!

Did you know that unicorns are believed to have gone extinct around 600 years ago? The last known unicorn was documented in medieval tapestries. #TrueFact

Did you know that unicorns could not actually fly? They actually propelled themselves through the air with a combination of extraordinary leaps and levitation. And also mind powers. #TrueFact

Did you know that there were more than one breed of unicorn? There was even one rare breed that was carnivorous! Though, this particular breed only ate monkey squirrels, and that's why monkey squirrels are also extinct. #TrueFact

Did you know unicorns could be tamed by anyone? It is a common misconception that only virginal maidens could tame them, but that is just not true. Anyone trying to catch one could, as long as they used their favorite foods as bait: spinach and candy canes. #TrueFact

Did you know that unicorns used their horns as tattoo machines? They would use them to tattoo pictures onto each other's flanks. This is where the idea for the My Little Pony toys' cutie marks originated. #TrueFact

Did you know that unicorns invented yodeling as a warning to predators? This was actually quite effective, as it was absolutely terrifying. #TrueFact

Did you know that unicorns could play the lute with their mind powers? #TrueFact

Did you know unicorns invented the scrunchy in the '80s? The 1480's, that is. They wore the scrunchies on their tails along with four leg warmers while they dancercized to their favorite Gregorian chants. #TrueFact

Did you know that most current unicorn sightings are actually just horses with a parsnip duct taped to their forehead? #TrueFact

Did you know unicorns could travel through time? This is why, despite some confusion, due to the whole parsnip thing, a few actual unicorns are still seen in remote forests to this day. #TrueFact

Unicorns Really Do Exist!

I had started this post last year, but when my computer crashed a couple months ago, it was forgotten in a drafts folder on an external hard drive. Today on Facebook, a friend posted a cartoon which reminded me of this post, so I went back to finish it.

I had made a similar post on my other blog ages ago, but now that that blog is gone, I decided to revisit the subject, since I can easily relate it to another of my favorite subjects, Cryptozoology.

If you’ll recall, in one of my papers last semester, I explained that Creationists believe that Dinosaurs were the creatures behind all the dragon myths that permeated many ancient cultures. But what about all the other famous mythological animals? Surely they can’t all have been purely make believe. Couldn’t some of them have been based on a living animal?

Second only to the dragon, most people’s favorite mythological beast would be the unicorn. These days, it seems popular to view the unicorn as a wimpy little animal that only little girls like, but I've never really been one to care what's popular. I still think unicorns are awesome. I prefer a little more of a dangerous version though. When I was younger I liked an illustration from the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia series that showed Jewel the unicorn with blood running down his horn. I may have been a slightly disturbed child… :p

Aaanyyywayyy…

Where did the unicorn come from? Was it real? The Bible talks about Unicorns, and it talks about them in passages that do not suggest they are speaking of a fictitious creature. It speaks of them the same as it does a sheep or a horse. So if one believes what the Bible says, then obviously there has to be a real animal behind the name. But what was it? Someone much smarter than me actually took the time to track down an answer, and the video he made pretty much blew me away. It makes so much sense, I don’t know why this didn’t occur to anyone before this guy figured it out!

Answers in Genesis, the ministry behind the Creation Museum, and the upcoming life-sized Noah's Ark in Kentucky, wrote an article about this as well, and they went on to say that in the 18th century there were reports of explorers in Africa, discovering ancient drawings on stone of equine-like animals with one horn. Could the "Mythical" version be real as well? As far as I know, there isn't any documented evidence of these drawings. I think AIG would have referenced them if there were.

I still think it would be cool if there were a real animal that looked like a horse with a giant horn growing out of its forehead, but knowing that the unicorn was (And still is!) a real animal is pretty awesome. :)

By the way, here is the cartoon that reminded me to finish this post. :)
The artist may have been making a joke, but I bet they never guessed how close to the truth they were!

I’m in a Music Video!

Well, maybe not me exactly, but I bet that got your attention. :p Allow me to explain. First watch this video. Or rather, listen to this song, as the video really isn’t anything more than lyrics running on the screen.

I love Parry Gripp’s songs. They always crack me up. :D “Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)” is just one hilarious example. :p After he released this song he announced on Facebook that he was looking for drawings to use in his next music video for Slushy the Slushball. He’s done this before, you might recall my brief obsession with Space Unicorn. :p I didn’t make my Space Unicorn drawing until after he’d made that video, but this time I decided I’d submit a drawing. If you watched the Space Unicorn video you could tell he used everything he was sent, so I was pretty sure I could get a drawing in there. Here is what I drew. (As long as you listened to the song, the picture makes perfect sense.) :)

 

I know, super simple. But I did it that way on purpose. I wanted to test out my developing Photoshop skills. Here is the after.

I submitted it and today the video was released. Check out the third drawing! :D

This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me! :D Well, probably not really. But I am excited to have one of my drawings in a Parry Gripp music video. :)

Now that I’ve gone back and reread my Space Unicorn post, I realized I still need to make a big piece of art. It never progressed beyond that drawing. My obsession died soon after I wrote that post. :p Maybe I will use Photoshop and see what I can make out of that drawing. I'm sure I still have the original file somewhere… Stay tuned, I may just do that. :p

Marshmallow Lasers!

Okay, if you read my posts on facebook, you may remember a few days ago I posted a video, because it contained a song I couldn’t get out of my head. I’ll post it here in case you need a reminder, or if you don’t have a facebook account. It’s called “Space Unicorn,” by Parry Gripp.

That song really cracks me up. I’m not quite sure why, it’s just so funny! I downloaded it from the artist’s website, and I listened to it repeatedly while exercising at the wellness center a couple days ago, and I used it to block out annoying noises coming from my brothers bedrooms. Once I listen to it once, it just won’t go away. It plays in my head over and over. The rest of the day after I found it, I kept posting little bits of the lyrics to my facebook. I’m sure people must have thought I’d gone crazy. Maybe I have.
So now my mind has been filled up with an surplus of “Space Unicorn” and it needs to come out. I am planning on doing a large piece of art later, when I have more time, but last night I couldn’t wait anymore and decided to draw up a small sketch, just to tide me over. I am pretty much rubbish at drawing real looking animal poses without a reference of some kind first, so I went to Google and found a great picture of a horse.

And from that, came this.

The dust cloud is supposed to be a rainbow colored nebula, since he “Delivers the rainbows all around the world.”
Just don’t ask me about his marshmallow laser. I haven’t been able to think of any good design for that without anthropomorphizing him too much.