Ghostbusters improv

Okay, I smiled SO HARD at this. LOVE.

Color Me Katie is such an uplifting and positive blog. She participates with something called Improv Everywhere where they do crazy/fun things and video them. In this one, people dress up like ghosts and go through the NY Public library and then the Ghostbusters come in and try to capture them. Go to the site to watch the video, it will make your day.

(photo from Color Me Katie)

ani

I read a lot of fashion bloggers, but one I've been reading for a long time is The Clothes Horse. She often posts little animated GIFs of her doing things and I think they are quite charming. Click on over to her site to see the one above, which is a fave.

I just napped at my desk on my lunch break and actually started to dream. I would really like to go home and cuddle up with someone or something soft and warm, listen to the rain, and take a nap.

Daily Pep Talk

Daily Pep Talk From A Best Friend knows what I need often when I don't.
She posts little "pick-me-ups" and pep talks, which could sound cheesy, but are really nice. Sometimes you need a positive reminder. I am a cynical optimist, but the emphasis there is optimist. I really am a happy person. I'm trying to give myself time right now to adjust, to be sad, to be cynical, to be anti-social, and I need that time, but I'm trying not to get sucked into the dark place. I want to see the light. I want to be my normal cheerful, enthusiastic self, but it's just hard to do that right now. I don't want to socialize, then feel bad for wasthing perfectly good days doing nothing. I get tired of making all the plans all the time. I don't reach out for help if I need it. I've been taking care of myself for too long. So when I'm left suddenly truly alone, it's hard to figure out where to go.

Here are some of her pep talks below:
Dating is not so bad.
Pep talk: If this one isn't THE one, you'll survive without them. It's daunting to go back to dating but you can handle it. You're foxy as hell and you will not settle.
Today remind yourself: Dating is not so bad.

You can forgive.
Pep talk: Forgiveness frees you from the pain of the past. It allows you to progress and to stop feeling like shit. If you forgive, you don’t necessarily have to forget, but you can at least stop obsessively thinking about who done you wrong. I can’t even wrap my head around how angry and twisted my life would be without forgiveness. Forgiveness is a blessing.
Today remind yourself: I can forgive.

You're boldly going.
Pep talk: If you don't care what a person thinks, don't ask for their opinion. You know you're heading in the right direction and you can be confident without feedback.
Today remind yourself: I'm boldly going.

She's started lately to post videos of things she's edited for Gawker, which I don't care for as much and detract from the message of her blog.

The Oracle says

I'm a little creeped out that the upgrade of our content management system is now called "Oracle" in red letters (in the same font as Honda, I might add).


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I love Cake Wrecks. If you haven't read them, you are not my friend. Go. Go now to the last post. The Oracle says so. Wait for the last bit, it's the best.
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At work, there's a quote on event flier at work by Winston Churchill:

You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.

Every time I see that, I start singing the "You Get What You Give" song by the New Radicals.


The singer is bad at lip-syncing.

Happy things

Borrowed from Taza, it's good to do these now and then.

10 things that make me happy
1. sunny days
2. Eastercrack
3. getting published
4. the smell of a new book
5. invitations
6. the first warm day after a long winter
7. new stationery
8. sparkly jewelry
9. spooning with Kia
10. a good hair day

Used to

Have some more Dear Old Loves.

Three Rings
You play video games and work a desk job. I’m joining the circus. Do you still wonder why we didn’t work out?

Lonely Tylenol
We were so good together. And not just because of our mutual affinity for palindromes.

Pick One
You will always be the man I love. But he’s the man who loves me.

Ugh, this one especially got at my heart:
Used To
I just referred to you as someone I used to know.

We're gonna party like it's 1989

I had a dream last night that I traveled to Ethiopia, except it didn't seem like Ethiopia, partly because I was surprised that people spoke Spanish there and was delighted how well I'd fit in. I think I was visiting an Anthony Bourdain-type traveller, and was staying in a run-down local motel and other people's houses, but the food was amazing and the company was fantastic.

Then we were on a boat, cruising through Europe and then eventually ended up back at my childhood house in MD, where my mom and I were trying to climb out my parents' bedroom window, and my dad was still alive, and it felt like 1989 all over again. There was a mysteroius and powerful man in a white limo waiting for me, clearly designed to take us to something or somewhere important, but my mom couldn't get out of the window fast enough, so I kept telling the man he had to slow down so my mom could catch up.

I woke up to a dead limb--I had slept on my arm so hard that when I realized it was asleep, when I moved it, my brain did not even register that it was attached to me. It was a VERY odd feeling, like moving this heavy thing, and I didn't even know it was mine. Between my black-out, cold-blocking curtains and the cloud cover, the morning came too fast and I couldn't even tell it was time to get up.

Found this cool site for illustration, photos, art: batzy

Dear Old Love

I haven't read Dear Old Love on my bloglines in awhile, and looking at them is so bittersweet.

From the site: "Dear Old Love" is short notes to people we've loved (or at least liked). Requited or unrequited.

Here are a few that especially made a mark. The titles are what make some of them so hillarious.

Smoke Signaling
I’m running out of social media to apologize with.

Human Nature?
I just don’t understand why after a year of loving me, you can’t at least be kind.

Party in the Back
I didn’t mind your mullet.

IM in Trouble
I really thought I was over you, until my computer broke and I realized I was going to lose all our old IM conversations. I cried in the middle of the Apple store.

In Spite of Me
I’d beg you to take me back, but I know you can do better than me.

Extra Quiet
We haven’t spoken in six months, so you probably won’t notice, but I’ve finally stopped speaking to you.

Guess
You know that thing you never, ever let me do? The new guy lets me do it.

Scrunchie Fetish?
If you never loved me, then why did you buy hair elastics to keep at your place because you knew I always lost mine when I came over?

Ryder Wrong
I had to find out from a Facebook wall post that you moved.

Duct Type
You came up with clever make-shift solutions for every home-repair, but when it was our relationship that needed mending you were suddenly out of ideas.

New Alphabet

What type (font) are you you?
This is a short, interactive with video quiz to determine the typeface that suits your personality. The video allows for a very, in-the-psychologist's-chair feeling. The password is "character."

I am New Alphabet, above, which I find absolutely aesthetically unpleasing. It is a Dutch font, designed in 1967, based on early computer screens.

(found via DDD)

when comics are true

Click for bigger


I saved this who-knows-when but it is SO true. Had this dream just the other night, actually.

(source: XKCD)

Regretsy

This is genius. Regretsy makes fun of the ugly and nonsense things people post for sale on the well-loved indie online retailer, Etsy.

It's only 3 pages long right now, but I can see the potential. Currently, the site include Pokeman menstrual pads, vulva jewelry, Michael Jackson commemorative baseballs, and a CROCHETED MEERKAT NATIVITY

This is so odd.

Fight Happy

A while ago, I found a phrase that is one of my life's slogans: Choose Happiness

It sounds corny but it is something that really resonates for me.

A blogger I read has a whole site (and an upcoming book) called The Happiness Project. She writes in more detail about happiness wisdom from the past and present, and also gets input from people who are struggling or successful with happiness. She posts frequently, so much so that her posts are backed up in my blog reader, but I find wisdom in them every time.

After having a silly fight with my boyfriend this weekend (which we said we weren't going to do anymore), I found this list of phrases to use in an argument really helpful. I tend to stay angry and hold a grudge more than I'd like, so I'm going to try to be more mindful of these.

Please try to understand my point of view.
Wait, can I take that back?
You don’t have to solve this—it helps me just to talk to you.
This is important to me. Please listen.
I overreacted.
I see you’re in a tough position.
I can see my part in this.
I hadn’t thought of it that way before.
I could be wrong.
Let’s agree to disagree on that.
This isn’t just your problem, it’s our problem.
I’m feeling unappreciated.
We’re getting off the subject.
You’ve convinced me.
Let’s take a break for a few minutes.
Please keep talking to me.
I realize it's not your fault.
That came out all wrong.
I see how I contributed to the problem.
What are we really fighting about?
How can I make things better?
I’m sorry.
I love you.

I also like her idea of a one-sentence journal. I like to journal (now, primarily online), and hey, so many of us are bloggers, but sometimes it can be daunting to write out a whole blog post that is clever, funny, informative, and visually stimulating simultaneously. The one-sentence idea is that you keep a journal where you write just one sentence of a memory every day. I tend to get overwhelmed with starting projects and wanting them to be just so, so this works for my brain. Now that I think of it, it's kind of like a more organized Twitter! Maybe I'll start keeping one-sentence thoughts here as well. I think it'd be annoying to have a post a day with just one line on each, so I've got to think more about how I can make that happen.

And if you think one sentence can't make a difference, well just read what this commenter on the site had to say

My grandfather kept a calendar in his shed, which he occasionally wrote little comments on. None of the family knew. After he died, my grandmother was cleaning things out, and called my father in floods of happy tears - she'd just found an entry which simply said "Went fishing with [his son/my father] and [his grandson/my brother]. Great day". Posted by: MsLaurie

This makes me think of during the week after my dad died unexpectedly, when I was hacking his laptop trying to find if there was anything important in it, I found his Twitter page. I can't seem to find it now, but one of his posts from last year was something to the effect of:

Saw my little girl for the first time today. She's a princess, I knew it. I could tell by her hands.

We hadn't seen each other in 15 years before that. Yeah, it was all I could do not to bawl on that one.

Through the eyes of a foreigner

It's funny how it can sometimes take a fresh set of eyes to appreciate something you see every day. A gorgeous fashion blogger from France, The Cherry Blossom Girl, takes great photos, and she was recently in the U.S. Her photos here from the West coast beaches, LA, and Vegas are stunning and make me proud of my country.

This one's my favorite from her recent batch:


(photo: The Cherry Blossom Girl)

Caaake

I have been really agitated after a phone conversation this evening, but reading Cake Wrecks makes me feel better every time. Like this:

As Cake Wrecks says, "Resistance is futile."

Holga and Pinhole Photography

I desperately want a Holga camera. It is a medium format, plastic-based camera. They are known for their unpredictable coloring and effects on photos. I love that they look old-timey and often have layers of light and distortions. Even though it's made of plastic, they aren't cheap. I've seen them on the web and at places like Urban Outfitters for around $70.

Rockstar Diaries had great success with hers in the Dominican Republic, see?:

Gal bloggers

I'm posting this because I've been having an emo/cranky week which I will just go ahead and pin on PMS/hormones. Found these 3 bloggers lately who are fun to read and are all madly in love with their boyfriends/husbands and it makes me a little jealous actually.
Apartment 10
Rockstar Diaries
An Experiment in Poverty

Anyway, Rockstar Diaries has happiness lists from fellow bloggers so I thought I'd do one to boost my mood.

10 things that make me terribly happy:
1 Naps in warm patches of sunshine
2 Phone calls from old friends
3 An invitation to do something
4 Getting all dressed up
5 Getting a great deal while shopping
6 Laughing at an inside joke with a friend
7 The smell of the beach
8 Having something major to look forward to
9 Reading with a latte in a comfy coffee shop
10 Knowing I really helped someone