Friday, August 29, 2008

tell me what i want to hear



I'll End The War In Iraq Responsibly... Finish The Fight Against Al Qaeda And The Taliban In Afghanistan... Provide Affordable Health Care for Every American... Cut Taxes For 95% Of All Working Families... End Dependence On Oil From Middle East In Ten Years... Invest $150 Billion In Renewable Sources Of Energy Over The Next Decade... Rebuild Our Military To Meet Future Conflicts...

i'm so hopeful.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

netflix

based on my previous viewing habits, netflix made a list of my most viewed genres:

1) TV Sitcoms
2) TV Dramedy
3) Pre-20th Century Period Pieces
4) Sci-Fi & Fantasy
5) Social & Cultural Documentaries

i enjoy TV shows and i'm clearly all kinds of nerdy.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

welcome to my video blog


i just got back today from the bay area. updates soon.

Friday, August 15, 2008

i often feel this way (about abraham lincoln)

five for friday, part three

i'm currently in the bay area visiting my totally awesome sister-in-law, attending a wedding with karl, and enjoying a much needed break from work and home life. in honor of that, i'm five for friday-ing my trip (in two sections, only, this time).

five things i love about attending other people's weddings are:
1. free booze
2. dressing up (see navy)
3. food
4. seeing the creativity put into the decorations
5. letting the hosts stress while you enjoy the above

five things i love about san francisco are:
1. a good number of my friends live there
2. the weather is nice (relatively)
3. it's walkable (and/or public transitable)
4. restaurants!
5. bars!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

ghost in the shell

a friend of mine recently shared this link with me. i think as a kid i always wanted to strip down to the bottom of these kinds of toys to see their magic for myself, but i also dealt with some serious anthropomorphic issues with my toys--like thinking i needed to kiss each one before going to sleep, as one might get jealous of the other's attention-getting. anyway, enough about me as a young neurotic, and more about how cool my pet monster looks stripped of his characteristic dignity.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

wonderland


yeondoo jung, an artist from korea, took children’s drawings and made his own real life replications of them in a series he named "wonderland." after collecting more than 1,000 drawings from south korean children between the ages of five and seven he narrowed the drawings down to a small selection of favorites and staged full-scale photo shoots designed to bring each drawing to life. here is the whole series.

i have to say i love this kind of artwork. i'm a huge fan of children's artwork and remember the year i fell in love with a series at my college library featuring the works of young kids living in war torn countries. kids have a way of pairing honesty with fancy and wonderment that adults cannot. we, as adults, can do one or the other well, but there's something in the way (maybe ego) that typically won't let us freely do both, i think.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

O_O

if this wasn't enough for you, i present...DRAMATIC LEMUR:

Friday, August 8, 2008

you win a TOY YODA

five for friday, part two (arkansas edition)

top five things i will miss about fayetteville, AR when i move are:
1. the many walking, hiking, and biking trails.
2. exceptionally delicious bbq joints: lucky lukes, the whole hog cafe, and penguin ed's AND delicous southern chicken joints: chick-fil-a, slim chickens, popeyes, mamma dean's.
3. small town/college town trappings: craftsman and historical houses, sidewalks, tree lined roads, enthusiasm for local history, walk-to farmers markets, excellent public library.
4. all four very beautiful (even if sometimes harsh) seasons.
5. a near perfect ratio of stuff i want/need located in an area that is unmatchable in cost-of-living and affordability.

top five things i will NOT miss about fayetteville, AR when i move are:
1. occasional unabashed or unrealized blatant racism.
2. the lack of racial (and to a lesser degree, cultural) diversity.
3. humidity.
4. lack of larger music scene.
5. absence of an h&m, urban outfitters, costco, and trader joes.

top five places i realistically fantasize about moving to from fayetteville, AR are:
1. seattle, WA
2. boulder/denver, CO
3. albuquerque, NM
4. austin, TX tied with nashville, TN
5. CALIFORNIA

top five images, in my mind, that represent AR are:
1. old main and the the many trees around the UA campus.
2. the 540, the only major freeway that brings you to and from fayetteville, AR.
3. wilson park.
4. dickson street and the view of the downtown area from mount sequoyah.
5. the clinton library.
(images in thanks to: mith242)

top five fun facts about AR are:
1. the diamond is the official state gem, designated as such in 1967 and AR is the only domestic source for diamond mining.
2. famous AR births: johnny cash, bill clinton, gen. wesley clark, john grisham, billy bob thorton.
3. state motto is the "natural state" and the state contains over 600,000 acres of lakes and 9,700 miles of streams and rivers.
4. sam walton founded his wal-mart stores in bentonville, where the company's headquarters remain today.
5. after the case of brown v. topeka board of education in 1954, the little rock nine brought AR to national attention when the federal government intervened to protect african-american students trying to integrate a little rock high school. governor faubus ordered the arkansas national guard to aid segregationists in preventing nine african-american students from enrolling at little rock's central high school. after attempting three times to contact faubus, president eisenhower sent 1000 paratroops to escort and protect the students as they entered school on september 25, 1957.

so i get the map out and draw a line



al franken draws a near perfect US map from memory. am i a creep for finding this talent exceedingly hot? because i do.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

the greening


my friend recently shared some techniques she's using to reduce the amount of money she spends each month like drying clothes on a line during summer, which also happen to inclusively reduce carbon emmisions. a win-win, right? i get excited about money saving ideas, that involve recycling and reducing, especially when those ideas also involve me receiving/maintaining additional revenues. so, in an effort to share some great sites i've come upon that save money, reduce waste, and are easy to do, i've created this short list of websites. feel free to share ones that are not on this list.

paperback swap: lets you sign up, list ten books you’re willing to trade by mail, and the site gives you two credits. a book costs one credit--you “spend” one of those credits on the site to get any book they have listed sent to you. every time you send a book to someone else, you get a credit. other media sites like this: swapadvd and swaptree. i'm also a huge fan of selling all and occasionally buying my books on half.com.

local harvest: finds all sorts of retail sources for locally grown foods all around you, including door-to-door grocery delivery co-ops. these services are popular in the larger cities like LA and SF. see magda's entry for a review of spud.com, which exclusively delivers to the larger west coastal cities. for a long time, i assumed farmer's markets were my only option. thanks to local harvest, i found a great spud.com-like program in my area, old soul organics.

bringsome: is a new web site that connects folks who can't shake their cravings for foreign treats with travelers whose itineraries include the countries in which said treats can be found. although it’s still in pre-beta, the site has already logged over 100 requests for goods, which include ads offering to bring something back—-it's like a great big international potluck. and while the savings and the eco-friendliness of it isn't explicit, there's something about connecting yourself to fellow travelers and global strangers that makes me think it helps people be more aware of your larger community. plus, you're likely to save some money.

walkscore: walkscore allows you to put in your home address, then lists the services near your location in a bunch of different categories (grocery stores, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, movie theaters, schools, parks, libraries, bookstores, gyms, drug stores, hardware stores, and clothing stores). it also assigns a "score" which provides a rough numerical estimate of how good your house location is in terms of the resources available within reasonable walking distance. my score is 35/100, which is about what i’d expect given that i live in a relatively small town. people in larger, more urban areas have much better scores. the score itself isn’t all that useful other than as a thumbnail comparison, instead it serves best as an identification of nearby services for any address. plus, i think it humbles your need to drive. when something is only three miles away, it makes you wonder why you always jump in your car to get there.

manybooks: has tons of classics that are in the public domain and available for free. all you have to do is download the ones you want. those with kindles (not only do i want to theive your little digital book reader), you have the luxury of pointing their kindle’s web browser at manybooks.net and downloading away. the best part of the kindle coupled with this site is that the web browser on the kindle works anywhere that cell service works. i so want a kindle. i'm already the type of bibliophile that doesn't need to own the books i read, so i love the idea of keeping my life lighter and cheaper. plus, my local library also carries some newly published ebooks, as well, and yours might too. this bookless advantage is catching on with college campuses as well.

gazelle: is a simple-to-use website that allows you to search for the gadget you wish to get rid of. after you find your item you can input the condition it is in. for example, i typed in "blackjack ii" and i was asked if the item powers on and what condition it is in. after that, gazelle spits out an appraisal and allows me to add the item for checkout. it also has an estimate of how much the item may be worth in the future. for electronics the price trend tends to go down because people always want to buy the newest gadget. after i checked out, it prompted me to print out a prepaid shipping label and ship the item with a box. for some qualifying items gazelle will even send you a box to ship the item. after the item is received gazelle will inspect the item and confirm that it is in the condition you described, then you will be paid the quoted price. this process takes about a week according to the website. the company also guarantees that if you ship in an electronic with data on it they would wipe it clean so you do not have to worry about your privacy. they will also take items with no value for the purpose of recycling. currently the company buys mostly electronics such as cell phones or gaming consoles, but they may expand the types of items they are willing to purchase in the future.

greenyour: ever since greenyour.com launched on earth day (in beta), it seems to pop up on eco-blogs every other day or so in some form or another. if you ever sit and wonder how to green particular items and/or parts of your life, this is an exceedingly useful resource. everything is arranged in easy to find categories and subcategories, making this one of the most comprehensive, navigable go-to go-green sites. start out with the facts, move through to the tips and then end with products.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

when worlds collide

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

i've been following the whole mccain vs. hilton family thing from the moment daddy hilton eagerly donated twice the allowable campaign funding to mccain, to when mccain's shocking and off-topic political ad slammed the hilton's most (in)famous daugther, to mommy hilton's outraged (and well-said) huffington blog post, to the above mock ad by princess hilton herself.

i love when my guilty pleasures meet my less-guilty pleasures and create hilarious hybrids.

Monday, August 4, 2008

consumer reports: organics

The magazine lists sixteen fruits and vegetables worth buying organic. These selections are ones that tend to build up pesticide residues the most, so if you’re going to dip into organic fruits and vegetables, start with cranberries, nectarines, peaches, strawberries, pears, apples, cherries, cantaloupe, green beans, sweet bell peppers, celery, cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, peas, and lettuce.

i <3 rachel

i know, i know, all the ladies (and many dudes) do too. but my crush crippled me ages ago, i swear. anyway, if you don't know her by now, she's most famously known for hosting a show on air america and near-daily appearances in MSNBC punditry.

her background, via wiki:
A graduate of Castro Valley High School in Castro Valley, California, Maddow later obtained a degree in public policy from Stanford University in 1994. She then received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1995 and used it to obtain a D.Phil. in political science from Lincoln College, Oxford University. Her political activism has focused on AIDS and prisoners' rights, especially the prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS in prisons. She is gay, and is an outspoken advocate for gay and progressive issues.

but like i said, i'm not alone. for more on her and her following, see this.

Friday, August 1, 2008

five for friday, part one

ten years ago, i was doing the following five things:
1. dating a boy named abe.
2. living in the mojave desert in california.
3. finishing my junior year of high school.
4. working at a drug store.
5. in the best shape of my life, running 15+ miles a week.

five things in today's "to do" list are to:
1. set-up etsy shop store front.
2. take photos of newest porcelain paintings.
3. organize office/studio.
4. reschedule optometrist and dermatologist appointments.
5. write out “thank yous” to tanzania trip givers.

five snacks i enjoy are:
1. naked juice
2. blue diamond wasabi & soy almonds
3. tropicana fruitwise
4. blue cheese and fruit
5. iced green tea

if i were a millionaire, i would do the following five things:
1. live in tokyo for a year or two.
2. buy a craftsman in san diego’s north park area.
3. go on two global volunteer trips every year.
4. get masters degrees in library science, philosophy, and computer science.
5. buy a whole new wardrobe.

five places i have lived:
1. east los angeles, california
2. rancho cucamonga, california
3. apple valley, california
4. san diego, california
5. fayetteville, arkansas