if you had to trust a third grader or me about spelling something correctly, I'd go with the third grader. despite that and an appalling overuse of ellipses and parentheses, I'd say this blog was pretty worth reading. I might even call it genius (obviously).
I'm loving this flickr stream from the White House. It's mostly "behind the scenes" shots of the prez and others. I love all the shots of Obama giving people birthday cakes (he evidently does it quite often, to White House staff or visiting dignitaries). However you feel about politics, I don't think you can deny that Barack and Michelle obviously love each other. This is the photo that got me started down the "thousands of pictures" rabbit hole.
Love the proud look on his face as they watch Michelle give a speech at the DNC
I've also been obsessed with this Austin version of #whatshouldwecallme called#wheninaustin. It perfectly describes the way I feel about certain things
I don't know how to show a GIF, so I just screenshotted it. (Is that a word? Now it is.) Go to the website; it's way funnier as a GIF. I especially love "When you're looking for a rental in Hyde Park, Tarrytown, or Travis Heights."
Tumblrs are hitting it out of the park this week, because I'm also loving Awesome People Hanging Out Together. It's exactly what it sounds like: awesome people hanging out together.
Waylon Jennings and Buddy Holly
Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox (photographed by Lynn Goldsmith)
A post where I will make you say "Awwwww!", laugh, cry uncontrollably, and then say "WTH, Terry Crews?"
1st up...
Cute puppy learning to howl. Simple and adorable.
2nd...
Starting in 2006, two guys, Streeter and Amir, at CollegeHumor.com (a website that has funny videos and pictures and is generally a time-waster) started pulling pranks on each other - and videotaping them all for our enjoyment. They started out small, tricking Streeter into meeting an imaginary (hot girl) fan for a fake date or getting Amir to make an (embarrassing) audition tape for show that didn't exist. Over a few years, this turned into a vicious (and oh-so-funny) prank war and the boys started raising the stakes pretty dramatically. After Amir sent in a fake marriage proposal on the big screen at a Yankees game for Streeter and his girlfriend, I knew that the revenge prank was gonna be good. (Dude, Streeter's girlfriend was pissed when she realized she wasn't really getting proposed to.)
Amir thinks he makes the half million dollar half court shot at halftime at a baskeball game... (a little bit of NSFW language)
3rd... (I'm being serious about the crying. This is gonna be bad.)
"Arthur Boorman was a disabled veteran of the Gulf War for 15 years, and was told by his doctors that he would never be able to walk on his own, ever again." First sentence in the YouTube info section and I'm all ready to pull out the tissues.
Just watch.
Lastly...
Let's dry those tears and watch Old Spice kick another ad campaign out of the park.
I have this obsession with watching videos of people where they are truly, genuinely happy. I've shown this video before about two dads being told they'll be grandfathers; I have a giant smile on face every time I watch it. There's nothing like watching someone get wonderful news (BTW, do not get sucked into the time-warp of watching "telling mom and dad we're having a baby" videos on youtube. You'll look up at the clock and realize you've been sitting there crying and smiling for hours.)
This guy got tickets for a handball game for his Olympics-obsessed father but kept them as a surprise. The dad just thinks they're just headed over to Olympic Park to see how close they can get and look at it from the viewing platform. The look on his face when he's reading the ticket and starts to realize what is happening is priceless.
Totally worth 4 minutes and 16 seconds of your day.
One of my friends from college, David, showed me this video; it might be one of my favorite things ever placed on the internet. (Side note. The lead actor in this commercial used to work at Trudy's with me! Crazy, right?)
You're welcome.
Now, the real story of the day. A few girls from work wanted to have a joint baby shower last week. I told them I'd love to help, and then discovered I had a midterm right in the middle of the shower. I figured if I couldn't come, then I could at least make everything look like a party. (Best way to make something into more of a celebration.. Decorations!)
Since the party was outside, I knew I couldn't do anything for the tables that might get blown away, so I decided on a bunch of bunting, balloons and a few signs. I went with a couple of shades of blue and a light kelly green and only spent about $10 on a bunch of tissue paper, string and balloons. (Seriously, cheapest decorations ever.) You've seen me make bunting like I'll show you below for Katrina's 30th birthday party and I pull it out for every occasion that needs a little festivity.
First, cut out whatever shape you want your bunting to be. For this party I made square ones, circular ones and these triangle ones. Place the template on the already folded edge of the tissue paper. Seriously, make it easy on yourself. Your tissue paper will already have all of these folds in it; you might be wasting a bit of paper (because it's bigger than what you need) but you save so much work.
Cut out your shapes; if you did what I told you to and used the paper already folded up, each cut should get you ten pieces or so.
Open the tissue paper up, place your string on the fold and glue one half, plus a third of the way up the other half (I use a glue stick). If you don't glue on the second half, your string will be a little loose and your paper will slide up and down the string.
That's it. So easy, right? Now, depending on how much you need and where it's going, you can put the tissue paper closer or father apart on your string. If you are decorating a big space and don't have much time, put them farther apart. It'll be more sparse, but you'll have more space covered. If you don't need very much, or are just decorating one wall, put them closer together. I've seen it done where the circles/triangles/whatever are almost touching and it looks super cute.
I saw these balloons in the exact colors I was already using and I had to use them. I took some inspiration from one of my favorite blogs, Little Green Notebook, and made some strings of balloons. I love her ombre ones, but they didn't have the right colors. This is what they were supposed to look like; I pictured them hanging from a tree or something.
I didn't really account for the wind, so they clumped up and ended up looking more like this... Still cute, though.
I knew there would be trees at the site, but they were more spread out than I thought. Instead of stringing multiple streamers of bunting between a few trees, I improvised and wrapped the streamers around the big trees and only strung a few from tree to tree.
The party was at Emma Long park in Austin and was gorgeous. It had been raining all weekend, but it turned out to be a gorgeous day for a baby shower.
The other side of the tree said, "It's a"
Every time I talk about decorating I always end up at this point. Why spend lots of money on cheaply made, cheesy decorations when you can do it yourself? It's not that hard.
Note to self: next time, don't rush out so early. Get some better pictures of your cute decorations. You aced the midterm; you didn't need to hurry.
I'm putting this sticker on every mirror in every bathroom in every school that every one of my little sisters goes to. This idea is so important to constantly remember - not just when we look at some crazily photoshopped model in an advertisement or see a middle aged celebrity on a magazine cover and there's nary a wrinkle in sight...
The reason? I'm seriously considering replacing the RAM on my macbook myself. I googled "why is my macbook running slowly?" and "how do I make my macbook faster?" and it said the same thing Hannah's friend Micheal did: I need to upgrade my RAM. The Apple store will charge me a million dollars (or $400ish - same thing) to do what the entire internet tells me I can do with a #0 Phillips head screwdriver, $60 worth of RAM I bought online, and a nickel. (I dunno! All the tutorials list some sort of coin in their materials list...)
I'm thisclose to doing it.
Quadrupling my RAM (i.e. keeping more tabs open as I browse, running more programs, waiting less time for things to load) will only cost me 60 some odd bucks and a little worry. Do-able, right?
My I-can-totally-do-this-build-this-make-this-sew-this attitude hasn't ever extended to computers before, but I think this is going to work out.
I think.
These are the videos I watch instead of studying for the final I have in 10 hours/writing the paper I have due in 24 hours/studying for the 2 more finals I have in 2 days/planning the final Journeys in Music program of the semester in 2 days.
I watched a short film last night about a 9 year old boy, Caine, who really loves arcades and decides to make a cardboard one in his dad's automotive parts shop. He's super creative and makes a bunch of different games, machines and all the accoutrements that go with an arcade. His first customer is a filmmaker who... Well, just watch this video yourself. It's worth the 11 minutes, I promise. I must have watched it 4 or 5 times by now and it still gets me.
The dad in this movie is a perfect example of supportive parenting. As a little creative kid, I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged my pursuits. (My mom did a fantastic job homeschooling me in elementary school and I made some awesomely creative stuff as a part of my schoolwork.)
This kid is so creative and an amazing problem solver. He'll obviously be super successful someday, so the people behind this film made a website, Caine's Arcade, where they set up a scholarship fund. As they say, "Imagine what this kid could do with an engineering degree!" I love it! People all over the country are watching this video and loving this kid as much as I do, donating a buck or two and in 8 or so years, he's gonna have every educational opportunity available to him! (It's over $100,000 so far.)
The little girl in me who took a JC Penny's bridal catalogue and started a fake wedding planning business loves the idea of this movie. (I'm totally jealous that I didn't think of charging strangers for my services; I gave them away for free to my friends!) I think about having my own kids someday and how to foster their creativity. How do you make sure kids know that if they work hard, experiment, and trust their inner artist (crikeys, that sounds cheesy), they can really create something special (even cheesier)? I better have kids with the Corder/Howard gene of "Dude, I don't exactly know how, but I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to make that myself." Nature/nurture, whatever, they'll have it.
Oh, and I know I made some of you reading this design weddings with me.
"Ok, so you're going with bridesmaid dress #4R79S2 in lavender #5P28D3. What shoe do you want again?"
I'm pretty sure this is what all my planned weddings looked like.
I haven't been feeling super fantastic this week (as Loryn and Mel got to witness when they dropped by to see my beautiful, pj clad, unwashed hair self) and since I found out I can make up some of the test I bombed last week, I've been laying around watching The Office and studying Linguistics.
In a particularly challenging chapter on phonology, I found this:
"switching my major to figure drawing"
I feel you, mysterious artist who also bought/sold their book to the UT Co-op. If I had to study this stuff for more than one class I'd switch my major too. (And if I wasn't 242 days away from graduation, I might switch my major to one that didn't require this class as well...)
this chart is the bane of my existence
------------------------------------
more funny things...
a drunk guy in the back of a cop car sings "Bohemian Rhapsody" flawlessly
"I have done nothing wrong - even the situation where you grabbed me, has nothing to do with having been sort-of intoxicated, as you proclaim! And I didn't say that I was intoxicated... And it doesn't even matter! What it has to do with is brotherhood of man on the planet Earth!"
------------------------------------
I'd like to thank Clint for showing me this next video and its compatriots. My Drunk Kitchen is a series where a girl named Hannah gets drunk while she films a cooking show and posts the videos to YouTube.
It's as awesome as it sounds.
Most of the videos are about cooking things like pizza or omelets. My favorite, however, is one where she attempts to make cookies. She's not a fan of baking, by the way... (language warning)
"nothing about cookies is fun" "now it's the worst part, the part where we cook and don't just get drunk"
"pretentious a** recipe"
"put some baking powder in, it doesn't matter how much"
"things to do while it's baking - clean your kitchen so your roommates don't get mad about your drunk cooking show"
Clint, let's make our own drunk cooking show. We'd be soooooo good.
------------------------------------
Nobody does "Garth and Kat" better than Andrew Rodriguez and I. (I'm Garth)
some of Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig's best work.
"That's how your hair looks when you come out of the shower?"
"I heard a rumor that you gave me chocolaaaaaaates."
"Please, Seth! We came all the way from Colonial Williamsburg!"
"Please! I'm begging for my life!"
Every single time they break and start laughing, I almost pee in my pants. They've done this bit a million times (you're welcome) but I love it every time.
Ok, maybe not, but a resume should have something about it that stands out. Maybe it's your stellar references or a well crafted "About Me" section, but even then it can get lost in the crowd.
(Personally, I just write, "Dude, you know you want to hire me." on all of my resumes.)
Loft Resumes has come up with a brilliant concept. It gives you "style-conscious resumes for the standout job seeker" and lets you pick the look of your resume, fill in the areas, arranges it all for a balanced, well-designed look and emails you a PDF (along with a similarly styled blank cover letter that you can open up in Word.) It costs about $100, with customizations like multiple pages, a faster delivery time or custom color scheme for $10 - $40 more.
I'm obsessed with this idea. It's brilliant. In this economy, job interviews are hard to come by and though this might not be ideal for a conservative workplace, it's perfect for someone looking for a job in a creative field.
So, if you're looking for a job anytime soon, these just might be the ticket. Or, you could do what most successful job searchers do... Put me as a reference. Hired!
(And tell me somebody got the Legally Blonde reference!)
I found this video somewhere on the internet. (No! I wasn't wasting time watching pointless youtube videos!) While it's a great ad, I also love the whole idea and look of the company. Their website is well designed and it's a great idea. Pick a razor (2 blade for $1 a month, 4 blade for $6, and the Executive - I don't know how many blades it has - for $9) and they send you 4 cartridges a month. I always thought it would be fun to go into advertising and I always really appreciate a great ad - even if the product they are selling is something I don't need/won't buy.
This video, however, is the big hitter. It's a funnier, more informative and cheaper (I heard it only cost $4500) version of the Old Spice ad campaign. I'm pretty sure I've watched this thing 10 times.
My favorite line? "I'm no Vanderbilt, but this train makes hay."
I was reading on Jezebel about a busker who performs down in the subway in NYC. The story told about how he saved someone who had fallen in the track and linked to a video of his performance of one my favorite Adele songs. I loved it. It's definitely one of the best versions I've heard.
So, I've spent the last hour watching all of the videos on this channel, but this one is my favorite. In short, the Bechdel Test is "a basic gauge to measure women's relevance to a film's plot and generally assess female presence in Hollywood movies." (quote from afore-mentioned clip) The idea is simple. Are there two women characters (who have names)? Do they speak to each other? And is any of that dialogue about anything but a man? You'd think that was a seriously low bar to set, wouldn't you? Well... We'll see. Now, this test doesn't have anything to do with whether a movie is any good, has a positive view of women/men, or is focused on a woman character, it just gauges whether there are female characters in this movie relevant to the plot. In the clip, Anita Sarkeesian goes through this year's Best Picture nominees and the results are surprising...
I won't ruin it for you, just spend the 10 and a half minutes and watch it. Think about it. (And then go to the YouTube page and watch all of the rest of her videos...)
I also really like #6 in her Tropes vs. Women series, The Straw Feminist. and the Lego & Gender videos part 1and 2. Now, I don't agree with every single thing she says or some of the rhetoric she uses, but these are things we need to think about. Anyone who's seen the amount of skirts I wear (that I made myself!) or embroidery I do won't argue that I don't have stereotypically female interests and skills. But, that doesn't mean I don't need to be aware of what I think about being a woman in the US at this period in time. I might have a daughter some day; do I want her to think it's interesting/weird/different that Mama has just as many power tools as she does sewing accoutrements? Or should she just think that I'm really good at a lot of things and wielding my jigsaw is just one of them? Cause I am. :)
Anyways. These are things I think about and I hope you do too.
I'd like to thank my old friend Jack (from my first waiting tables job at the Olive Garden) for letting me see this little clip. He's got a killer blog (in name and content) called Motorcycle Sidecar Drama and every time I read it, I feel a little less cool about my iTunes contents. I'm pretty sure he might be one of the funniest people I've ever known, and despite the fact that I haven't seen him in at least 5 or 6 years, the internet/facebook lets me keep up with his hilarious status updates and KILLER Halloween costumes. (Otherwise known as facebook stalking. Don't judge me, you all do it.) (Oh, and if I've ever been talking to you about awesome Halloween costumes and I ever said, "Oh! I've know the best ones ever!" and then I went on facebook and showed you pictures of some guy you don't know... That's this guy.)
Dear god, Jack. How did this blog about how cute Kristen Bell is on Ellen turn into love letter to you?
Anyways, Jack posted this video on facebook and I think it might be the most charming thing I've seen in a while. Evidently Kristen Bell really loves sloths and when she... Well, just watch the video. You won't regret it.
I got really into Veronica Mars a while ago, and I'm pretty sure we (Kristen Bell and I) would be really good friends. This just cemented it.
Favorite line: "He's coming for the party?"
EDIT: I was going to add a photo Jack and I once took that is probably in the running for best photo ever. However... I can't find it. This is very disappointing. But... it actually might be a good thing; I'm pretty sure (from what I can remember) that it's a pretty embarrassing picture. I'll try to find it so I can show you (or not, if it turns out to be as ridiculous as I remember.)
A friend of mine posted about this video on facebook, and since I was wasting time on the internet late at night, I watched it. (As would be expected.) Then I watched it again. And then again. And again. And a million more times. I don't know exactly what I like best about this. The gorgeous, simple harmonies are a giant factor; the use of the cup game as the rhythm is amazing; I don't know exactly what it is, I just like it. I've never really listened to Robyn (the original artist) and so I don't know if I've ever even heard her version of the song.
So, I've got my last final in about 9 hours and I've been studying like crazy. I thought I'd take a break and for some reason, went to YouTube to watch a video of Dolly Parton singing "Jolene." My sisters are forced to go to Jo-Ann's (the craft/fabric store) with me often and one of them wrote a sweet version of this song that goes like this, "Jo-Ann's, Jo-Ann's, Jo-Ann's, Jo-Aaaaaaaaaan's, I'm begging of you, please don't sew my pants."
This is what I watched.
It's awesome.
Then, I just fell into the black hole of YouTube. I clicked on another video from the "Related Videos" sidebar and just watched weirder and weirder stuff. This mostly stayed on music videos (by virtue of the sidebar) and luckily for you, I've decided to share the awesomeness that happened.
Now, this is gonna get embarrassing, but don't judge me. ;) And... I didn't watch very much of very many of these videos. Most of them got from 15 seconds to maybe a minute and a half of viewing time. Here goes.
From "Jolene" I watched the White Stripes' version. This thing is super sweet. I love that he didn't change the words (to make the lyrics work for a guy.) I kind of hate it when people do that to a classic song.
Somehow, from there I fell into a crazy vortex of wedding parties doing what they said was THE BEST WEDDING DANCE EVAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! They were all horrible, and I won't subject you to all of them. At this point, I was pretty committed to only changing videos via the "Related Videos" sidebar and I thought I'd never get out of this heinous dancing video hell. One of the worst actually saved the day, because the half-drunk bridesmaids doing the Slumdog Millionaire dance to "Jai Ho" gave me a link to something else. The AH-MAY-ZING (no sarcasm here, I mean it!) Pussycat Dolls' version. (I can't tell if this was the worst or best thing I watched all night.) That led me to this next video, which I watched the whole thing of, because I love, love, love, love, love Bollywood movies. It's pretty old school and the set reminds me of a scene in the Shirley Temple version of The Little Princess.
My friend Ayla and I used to rent Bollywood movies from I Love Video all the time.
In a welcome respite from the earlier crap, I listened to Etta's version of "My Funny Valentine." I then remembered that Amy Winehouse was a really talented jazz singer - this live recording of "Lullaby of Birdland" is awesome! You know when the sidebar showed me an Adele video, I immediately went there. There was a interview with her where she was all adorable and British. Then, a longer version (the British adorable-ness.) I'll watch a cute little kid sing anything, but a cute little girl and her dad singing "Rolling in the Deep?" I'm there. This being, of course, the dad/daughter combo that everyone has seen singing that "Home" song.
How many marriage proposals did that dad get after this video?
I've had some killer ideas over the last month or so for Halloween costumes, but they've all been really complicated (and time intensive and potentially costly and seriously awesome!)
I just found a picture that will be awesome and funny and easy and original (well, except for people that have seen the picture on the website that I saw it on) and cheap and awesome and easy.
So, who is having a party on Monday for me to show off my genius?
(Pictures will be revealed Tuesday. Lucky you.)
I will show you things I considered, but ultimately rejected.
(Just joking, I never considered them. They are awesome, however. By "awesome" I mean horrifying.)
Of course, last Halloween was the beginning of it all... If I dress up, I still have to continue the"being awesome for Halloween" trend I started. I never dressed up for Halloween as a kid, and in college half-heartedly threw something together if I had a party to go to. Last year, however, I decided I had to be a skunk. I had seen someone the year before having a blast in a mascot-style skunk costume (the ever amazing and always gorgeous Lori - Child! We have to start our cheap fashion blog!) and I really wanted to make my own. (Of course, I couldn't rent or buy one, I had to make it.) So, I took a black hoodie, made ears and white fur circle for the stomach and then made a giant tail. The tail was my crowning glory (so to speak) and stayed up with little backpack-like straps I added on. The worst part was, after sewing and working on this for forever, I got super sick with strep throat. I almost didn't go out at all, but after lying in bed for a few hours, I realized that I had to show off my labors. I went out for about 45 minutes, but it was worth it. Hannah put in her dibs for wearing it next year about 5 seconds after I finished it, so it'll get another moment in the spotlight.
Told you it was awesome.
I was seriously proud of this thing, but it wasn't very funny or clever. This year is gonna be awesome. And hilarious! And easy! (Did I already say that part?)
I think my sister sent me the best Kanye West tweet of all time...
While that's pretty awesome, I do love this one as well:
Even better than Kanye's ridiculous tweets about things that normal people never have to deal with/think about/put any energy into though, is this little gem of a video.
.JPG)
