Eyelash Mites

"Mite repellent mascara anyone?"

All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well. To find out more on the A-Z blogging challenge follow the link.

Eyelash mites

Guess it comes as no surprise that there are creepy looking monsters hiding all over our bodies. So small that we can not see these monsters, let us take a look through a magnifying glass and meet Mr. Mite: he’s about one third of a millimeter in length, and survives by feeding on your skin cells and oils.

Find out more by clicking on this picture

That little annoying eye-twitch that you get sometimes occurs more often in people who see eye to eye with the common eyelash mite. About half of the world’s population keeps these little critters in their lashes. Except for making your eyes itchy, the common eyelash mite doesn't really do any harm. Early morning itching and irritation is common with these mites because of their aversion to light. They come out at night and mate, lay their eggs on the lashes, and then crawl back into the follicle in the morning, causing the patient to itch. To make things a bit more creepy, Mr. Mite also leaves a good amount of poo around your eyelids. Are you creeped out now?

Doll Island

"Got myself a crying talking sleeping walking living doll?"

All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well. To find out more on the A-Z blogging challenge follow the link.




Doll Island


From the Uncanny Valley to the Island of the Dolls, we thought dolls were creepy enough until we found this place. Now they are even creepier. On this Island hang decaying and dismembered dolls. Some even claim they are haunted...Well, it is a tourist attraction for the bizarre seeking tourist so of course the dolls are spooky. Haunted or not, they are definitely creepy. As a tourist would you visit this place?

Here is the story behind Island of the dolls:

CLOWNS

"The ballons creep me out!"

All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well. To find out more on the A-Z blogging challenge follow the link.

CLOWNS

Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns. You are not alone if you find clowns creepy and scary. People have been frightened of clowns for centuries, although not a lot of people actually suffer from extreme clownphobia, most people just don't like them. There are even websites dedicated to clown hating such as ihateclowns.com . I do not hate clowns but Stephen King's book IT definitely made clowns forever creepy in my eyes.

Clowns are supposed to be entertainers for children but a survey of 250 children between the ages of 4-16 showed that most children dislike clowns and even feared them. Have clowns always been so scary or did something happen at sometime to make them this creepy? What do you think?

BED BUGS

"Talk about a bedtime snack!"

All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well. To find out more on the A-Z blogging challenge follow the link.






BED BUGS 

They have been around for thousands of years. These nasty little buggers like to suck on our blood while we sleep.They prefer exposed skin, preferably the face, neck and arms of their sleeping victims. Talk about creepy! Just take a look at one.

Good-night---Sleep tight---Don't let the bed bugs bite! Don't know about you but I am going to change my bedclothes and maybe even wear some full body armor to bed! 

IWSG: Where fore art thou Muse?

Just a small note for the first Wednesday of the month dedicated to the Insecure Writers Support Group. Inspiration lacking, imagination stale and dedication failing. Sound familiar? It took me almost two years to write my first book which was published last summer. The sequel to that book at the rate I am going now will take twice that long. The fire has gone out, the well is dry and everyday is just another Monday. Oh well, nobody said this was going to be one long week-end of inspiration. The sun is out and the weather is warmer so I am sure my writing engine will soon start again and my muse will return to help drive me forward. Until then I have this A-Z challenge to fuel my curiosity and imagination.

Happy writing!

ANIMATION AND THE UNCANNY VALLEY

Time for the A-Z blogging challenge! To sign up or find out more follow the link to the A-Z challenge blog site.

Creepy, strange and weird, You talking about me?

All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well.

A-ANIMATION AND THE UNCANNY VALLEY

Obviously, not all animation is creepy. Good old fashioned Disney movies and cartoons have installed many good memories from childhood. However, today animation is so realistic that I often find it as creepy as bumping into a mannequin and saying, “Excuse me!” Check out this video to see what I mean.

Thank God For Batman!

Sometimes the easiest way to deal with unfortunate situations is by maintaining a sense of humor. After my mother recovered from her initial embarrassment from falling off the stool in her shower, which resulted in a couple of broken ribs and two black eyes, she hobbled out of her bat cave the next day wearing her newly acquired mask. She made a grand gesture as she opened her shawl, and my eyes quickly glanced over the marmalade stains on her nightshirt and focused on her childish grin.

“I look like batman,” she giggled and then winced, grabbing her side.

I couldn’t stop myself from bursting out in laughter, even though I was angry at her for not asking for help. Her stubborn nature has become the villain she faces every day.

“Next time you want to play super hero--- mom, please wait for your side kick to show up!”

A week later, the mask is fading...

Who am I kidding? She is NEVER going to ask for help. I don’t much like having a mother who thinks she has to be a super hero, especially when she goes to such lengths to look the part.

The past few months I have been trapped in some kind of bizarre alternate reality which consists of diapers for both the young and the old, as well as toothless grins and gurgles among other things. Soon my mother and granddaughter will be equally equipped to face the challenges of being fed with a spoon. 

Like I said earlier, sometimes the easiest way to deal with unfortunate situations is to keep a sense of humor. I am doing the best to keep mine and although my inspiration for anything remotely creative has been lacking for quite some time I am hoping that I can kick start my writing engine through the A-Z challenge this year. My theme will be creepy, scary and just plain weird. Are any of you joining the challenge this year, and do you have a theme? I know that I have a lot of catching up to do with my blogging friends and I am sorry about that. Thank god for Batman and a good laugh. Sometimes the strangest thing will put everything else back in place.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week! I will back to share some creepiness with you on April 1^st.

Life in Color

Cabin on the lake painted by me shortly after my divorce and move to Norway

Life is like a canvas full of different colors that splash randomly, making surprises in life. Do you ever wonder what your life would look like if it were to be painted on a canvas? What are the colors of paint that would be splashed, and what forms would they take? As an artist and a writer I would like to show you my life on canvas and paper for one simple reason, to relate, to make a connection, to not feel so alone in this world. 

How many of you feel like your life started out in pastels, moved to black and white with some splashes of red and then a lot of white just to be painted over by black, making everything grey?

I am so sorry that I have not been around for my blogging friends lately; you all know that there are personal reasons for this. I am fighting through the grey, struggling to find some color to paint with again, struggling to find words that will make any sense.

 

Following a splash of pink created by the birth of my first granddaughter, today a bright white splashed its way onto my life’s canvas. My oldest daughter Nicole has started her own blog about food and family, please visit her and say hello.

http://nicolelindblom.wordpress.com/

Maybe pastels and light are forcing the way onto my life’s canvas again, blotting out the grey. As we all grow older less grey is good, right?