suuuper f**cker

Love this image (Aesthetic Outburst)

I have too many design blogs on my Bloglines and when they cap at 200 posts, it's intimidating to even start reading them, because I don't want to miss anything. I finally started digging through Aesthetic Outburst today and have been "mark as new" ing nearly every post so far to look back on again. That's a sign of a good blog.

Today is a day of stupid questions. Can it just hurry up and be 7:30 so I can listen to music and have coffee and pastry with good friends? It's so intimidating to know that I have to get through 2 jobs before I can even do that today.

(From Superbomba)

I had a catch and played frisbee on Sunday on top of my normal gym workout and now I can't move my arms. But in good news, a female coworker friend told me that I was looking particularly fit yesterday (even when I didn't feel it), so that was a nice ego boost. I WILL be fit for summer. I was looking at photos of me from the Kugel Ball from '08 and DAMN I was nice and skinny. I want that back. Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, eh?

Superbomba makes me think of the song Superf**ker by a Venezuelan band called Los Amigos Invisibles. I still laugh that the CD I own, The Venezuelan Zinga Son Vol.1 has an "Explicit Lyrics" sticker on it because of that song. It's the perfect summer breezy party CD. It's loungey and Latin and electronic and fun.

Want to go there

I wish these guys lived here so we could be friends. I want to live this life too. Or really, I want to visit whatever country they're in and live with them for awhile.

Sandra Juto has the most amazing photos.

new food at RVA News

I've got a few new articles up over at RVA News about food focusing on new places that have opened up, including Spoonfed, Strange Matter, and Fan House

http://rvanews.com/sections/food

Faces, facets, and fanpages

I was just talking to someone who blogs about markets, under a pen name, and how his article got linked to by a big name writer in that area. But since he writes under a pseudonym, will anyone ever really attribute that article to him? How do we prove we are our pen name? Do we need to? What's the benefit and drawback to being anonymous online?

I was trying to find an article about this very topic on Penelope Trunk's blog (I'm still looking and that's a post for later--WAIT, here it is) but came across this blog post of hers about social media identity instead:

Because mashing our social media together for the purpose of marketing one feed to another dilutes the value of social media. If you express yourself in the same way on a blog and on Twitter, then you don't need both.

Each of us is multi-faceted. With a selection of media to choose from, we can express different parts of ourselves in different ways.

(Emphasis mine). I cannot agree with this point more. I used to always complain with my friends would write a LJ entry and then post the exact same thing on their MySpace. They'd get mad and say they could do what they want, but they were missing the point. Why would you just repost the exact same thing, when you have 2 audiences with the potential to write twice as much? I'm just going to stop reading one site or the other if you post the exact same stuff. This is why I will not follow any Twitterers that simply post links to a blog, or add a company on Facebook that just says the same stuff I can find on their homepage.

Quotes and Content

This weekend my friend asked me what my New Years resolutions were, and seemed shocked when I told him that I don't really make resolutions. While I see the value in them, I don't think there's anything especially important about what I'll want in January that I won't want to do year round. I tend to make resolutions throughout the year as I need to.

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.” --Epicurus

This is another nugget of wisdom from The Happiness Project. I like quotes, but only when they really strike me. Otherwise, they are just cliche (isn't this true about most things in life?) On my last job, I had written down several inspiring quotes and had them posted around my desk area, and it was nice to have them as reminders and markers of what I believed in. I think I'll try to do more of that here, not just posting the quotes (though that does satisfy my love for lists) but also explaining why they are important to me, and to generate discussion.

This quote above speaks to the "grass is always greener" mentality. Oh and how tempting it is! Blogs and twitter and insta-communication make it so easy to complain about things, and there's value in venting, but I try to remember quotes like this to be thankful for what I have.

I want to do more with this blog. I want more readers, I want the sense of community that I feel by reading my blogs and seeing all the commenters there. I know that to increase readership, I have to provide something unique, desirable, and interactive. I like posting photos and linking to pretty things, but I also need to contribute more--give you something to think about. I don't have strange yet funny happenings like Cafe Darkness, been on 100 bad dates like The Checkout Girl, but I love the Internets, journaling, connecting through social media, and sharing.

Enthusiasm as courage

I've written before about my affinity for The Happiness Project. Gretchen just published a book and is on tour with it now. I must admit, I do judge a book by its cover, and was disappointed to see that the cover was done in a very childlike, cartoon-y manner, which I don't think is befitting to the subject matter.

Gretchen writes:

Confidence has an overtone of posture; also it relates to the way I’m seen by others, or the way I feel about myself. Enthusiasm, on the other hand, has to do with the way I feel about something or someone else. Enthusiasm is a form of social courage; it’s safer to criticize and scoff than to praise and embrace.

I think she's got a great point here, one I never really considered before. This also goes along with my mantra of choosing happiness. You can choose to be enthusiastic. You can choose to be harpy. Which one of these is going to make you happier? I tend to evaluate the world with a critical eye, so I have to catch myself not to go too far that direction. Gretchen writes that she is not naturally an enthusiastic person, which surprises me, probably because I very naturally am. It's easy for me to be enthusiastic, so I should definitely use the traits I already have.

There’s a dark tendency in human nature to mock or attack other people’s enthusiasms.

This is so true. As I especially found over the past year, negative people only bring you down, and make you become a more negative person. I've cut those people out of my life now, and don't need to apologize for it. In wanting everyone to like us, we can be blinded to the quality of the people whose attention we are vying for, or relationships we are trying to nurture or salvage.

What about you? Do you have enthusiasm attackers in your life?

Gotta love RVA

Nights like tonight make me love Richmond. I had an impromptu meetup with RVAfoodie tonight at new restaurant, Garnett's in the Fan. The nice thing about 2 degrees of separation in Richmond is that it's easy to get to know people. Had a lovely chat with the owner, Kendra Feather, who was manning (womanning?) the bar. We talked about community blogs, gluten allergies, and her other restaurant, Ipanema, which I love even though I am so not a hipster. I will go there so much more now that the smoking ban is in effect. I will be going to Garnett's for dinner tomorrow with my Church Hill restaurant owner friend.

RVAfoodie and I discussed anonymity on the Internets, online learning and higher education, and local food and food blogs, since he writes about food on his blog and organizes Richmond food blogs over at Eating Richmond. We even discussed this post here, where he calls-out the concept of "Best Of" restaurant lists. Go see for yourself and chime in.

Garnett's had gotten great reviews, from all over, but mainly from blogger I Could Go On and On, who writes so eloquently and descriptively about restaurants and fun things in RVA. This being Richmond, we've not met yet, but of course have 900 friends in common, and have just narrowly missed each other, including just this weekend at First Fridays.

Since putting together my list of RVA food/drink specials, patio dining, brunch, and cheap drinks early in 2009, I've gotten interest from other parties to continue this, so I'm going to make an effort to keep updating my list.

At Garnett's tonight, I discovered they have happy hour from 4-6 nightly, which means their already-affordable beer and wines are $3. Tonight I enjoyed the Sallies Malbec (I do love a Malbec) and my drinking companion had the San Vito Organic Chianti, though mentioned it was dry.

Tonight I will be walking to a friend's birthday party to hang out with a bunch of 22yr olds. This will make me feel even more old, especially since I found a new grey hair just this morning :) The friend, turns out, lives in an apt I drive by every day on my way home, so I will happily get drunkitydrunkdrunk if I so desire, and walk home in my chic, flat boots. I hate cold weather, but wine makes it a little more bearable.

Little Letters

Dear Apartment 10,
Thank you for being cute and posting this little letters idea today (even though it originally came from Taza, but I haven't gotten to her on my blog reader yet). Writing this is keeping me from flying off the handle, or breaking down today.

Dear Nursing Home,
When I drive through 2 states to bring to your attention my grandmother's labored, constant cough, you should take me seriously, so she does not end up in the hospital for the umpteenth time.

Dear Dr. Gallagher,
Please call me back and let me know what's going on with my grandmother. Calling me to talk about possible end-of-life plans and then not updating me at all in 12 hours is making me anxiety-ridden.

Dear Mom,
Please be a little more reliable. Please also don't hate me forever when I tell you that I'm not coming home for Christmas this year. See also, Postsecret.

(photo credit: Postsecret)

Dear Self,
Remember to put on eyelid primer first or else the eye makeup will all slide off, doing a terrible job of hiding the puffy eyes from crying last night.

Dear Students,
Please stop being so dense. I'm losing patience.

Sunshine and happiness surround you when you're far from

Blogger Liebemarlene Vintage (I almost wrote, "my friend", even though I don't know her. The blogs I've been reading everyday feel like real friends) posted the most lovely video and I just had to link to it. Her boyfriend Drew filmed it. She likes to go on adventures to antique shops, historic sites, and countrysides in her state of Georgia, and often takes photographs, but this is the first video. I watched it just now on my lunch break and got lost in it for a few minutes. I didn't want it to end. It is so dreamy and warm. I just wanted to curl up and take a nap out there in that sunlight.

Nolan house from Drew Tyndell on Vimeo.

wasting time on the Internets

I should be cleaning my house for having people over tomorrow but instead I'm drooling over fashion online. I like these 2 photos from Le Blog de Betty. Her face and hair are beautiful, and she puts some weird clothing combos together. I share her love of sparkles and jewelry, but often I just don't get her style choices--but she always looks chic. Being beautiful helps, for sure.