StumbleUpon Sunday (16)

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StumbleUpon is a great way to lose hours of your life.  Luckily, I braved the Internet vortex so you don’t have to.  This week I found these especially interesting websites:

  1. Neonflames
    Swirl different colors around and make a galaxy!  This is completely mesmerizing.
    download
  2. 15 Multifunctional and Ingenius Furniture Designs Ever Made
    I want the couch/bed/desk and the desk bike!
  3. Out of the Ordinary Beauty Tips That Work
    Toothpaste on yellow nails, powdering greasy hair roots, brown sugar treats dandruff, and more weird (and cheap) solutions!
  4. On the Madness and Charm of Crushes
    This article is brilliant!  “The crush reveals how willing we are to allow details to suggest a whole.”  I readily admit that I take one gesture or sentence and automatically construct prince charming.
  5. TRENDS: 50 Fun Facts about Languages
    I especially liked the facts about endangered languages and the shout out to Tolkien’s 12 created languages.
  6. 30 Flat Design Color Palettes That Just Work 
    Very handy colors schemes for arts or crafts or home decorating!
  7. 10 Awesome Infographics for Graphic Designers
    Some of these are too specifically tailored for graphic designers, but the Psychology of Color (first one) is fascinating!
  8. Ink – Quotes about Writing by Writers
    “A writer lives, at least, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all. To transmit that feeling, he writes.” -William Sansom
  9. Most Beautiful Villages around the World
    This list wins points for largely ignoring picturesque European villages and instead finding beauty in poorer towns in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
  10. 22 Incredible Photos of Faraway Places
    India, Yemen, Cambodia, Afghanistan…these pictures are stunning.

TV Rec: The Mole

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I’m not very interested in reality TV.  I have gotten intensely involved in So You Think You Can Dance, and one summer I cared deeply about who would win The Bachelorette.  But most of the time, I find reality TV repetitive and needlessly dramatic.  Plus, I’ve never found anything that can live up to The Mole.

The Mole was, on the surface, a typical mission-based travel game show.  Contestants had to perform challenges to add money to a group pot, and the winner of the show would take it all home.  Part of the fun of the show came from the varied nature of the challenges, which included bull fights, laser tag, art shows, and jewelry appraisal.  What elevated The Mole above similar shows, however, was the twist its name implies.  Amongst the 10 contestants was one mole–a man or woman whose purpose was to sabotage the games and keep the winnings as low as possible.  At the end of each episode, everyone took a quiz to identify the mole (which often included absurdly detailed questions like “At the start of the “Crusoe” mission, was the Mole wearing a hat?”  The person who scored the lowest was eliminated, and the show went on.   Continue reading →

How to Stress Like an Introvert

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The past couple weeks have been super stressful.  This is almost entirely centered around two things:  1)  putting a lot of pressure on myself to get all my fundraising done NOW, and 2) wanting to be involved in everything all the time.  This amounts to a lot of complaining about things that I legitimately enjoy doing.  Plan a party for a retiring minister.  Yes!  Plan a massive yard sale that keeps growing with thoughtful donations?  Of course!  Work on designing and adding content to the church website?  Ooo, cool!  Five more concerned friends offering fundraising ideas?  Great.

But all of this together?  The fun starts feeling like pressure.  And as an introvert who shuts down in the face of stress rather than acts out, things usually look like this:  Continue reading →

F•R•I•E•N•D•S Book Tag

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Q.U.E.S.T.I.O.N.S

1. Monica- The one with your favorite perfectionist.

Steve_Jobs_by_Walter_Isaacson

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs is, I think, the most perfectionistic person on the planet, which is why he was horrible to work for but managed to create some of the world’s most innovative and beautiful technology.   Continue reading →

I’ll Never Be Over Final Fantasy 7

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I love obsessively.  Once I decide that a thing or a person is MY thing or person, that’s it.  I will love them until I die.  Sometimes I feel alone in this passionate fury of single-minded adoration, but then there is the Final Fantasy 7 fandom.

I was nine years old when my brother Roy brought home Final Fantasy 7 for our desktop computer.  We had already established a precedent of playing the King’s Quest games together, so when he said I could watch him play, I pulled up chair to the big wooden desk and felt my jaw drop as the chunky, geometrical Cloud leaped off a train in Midgar.  By today’s standards, the graphics are laughably horrendous, but in 1997, our tiny pre-pubescent brains were blown away by the realism.   Continue reading →

Another Life: If I Stayed in Peoria

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Shelly, a man from my church, is letting me use his house for my yard sale this weekend.  He’s moving out, and when I first showed up to start unloading people’s donations, my mom and I took a quick tour of the empty rooms.  It’s an old person house, for sure.  Lots of carpeting, small rooms, individual fix-its.  I fell in love immediately.

“Look!  The sink is in the corner,” I breathed.  My mom nodded in agreement.  Yes, the kitchen sink was in the corner.

Then she laughed.  “There’s a toilet back here!  With just a curtain.  I think I’d rather have a door.”

With the unthinking ferocity of the newly obsessed, I insisted, “No, this makes perfect sense.  When you have to, like, go to the bathroom really badly, you don’t have to deal with….doors.”

We moved on, and with every room, I fell more in love.  It is an extremely small house with surprisingly roomy closets.  With custom-made shelves, always a weakness of mine.  Outside was even cuter, with lots of trees and landscaped flowerbeds.

“Mom, I love this house.  I love this house.  I want it.  Will you buy it for me?”

My mom side-eyed me pretty hard.  “Tricia.  You’re moving to Greece in four months.”

“Yes, but.  After that?”

“I guess you could just tell people that you’re taking the money they’re donating and using it to buy a house instead!”

“Psyche!”  I laughed.  Then I considered this.  Could I convince everyone that their thousands of dollars were better spent buying me a house rather than enabling me to teach and befriend women who have been sexually trafficked?  ….Probably not.

We went back to loading the garage with donated goods and planning the yard sale.

***

The next day we were back.   Continue reading →

I Hate Myselfie by Shane Dawson

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Although he has been a Youtube superstar for years, I only discovered Shane Dawson’s vlogs a couple months ago.  That led to his podcasts, and now, to his book.  At first, I loved him because he was awful–he said the most outrageous things, and I delighted in someone’s complete disregard of societal politeness.  But the further I fell into the Shane Dawson world, the more I realized he’s a genuinely good guy whose ability to be brash is layered on top of a lot of pain and compassion.  He’s a total sweetheart, and this makes me love him even more than when I thought he was a jerk.

I Hate Myselfie gives readers a peek into Shane’s past, a fuller reveal of topics he’s hinted at in vlogs.  His abusive father, being a child of divorce, enduring harrassment for his teenage obesity, becoming an internet phenomenon–his essays cover some seriously dark topics while managing to make me choke with laughter (like his mental breakdown resulting from a Splenda addiction).  His honesty about his neuroses and self-doubt feels like an invitation to admit and accept our own embarrassing secrets, and maybe, just maybe, even to laugh about them.  I could choose literally any paragraph to demonstrate his wry sense of humor, so here’s one at random:

When I was seven my first job was getting the newspaper every morning from the front porch and taking it upstairs to my grandma.  I know it sounds simple, but I was obese and my front porch had like six steps, so it was a daily struggle.  Also the fact that I had to walk up another thirty steps to get to my grandma’s bedroom made it damn near impossible.  I saw a commercial for one of those electronic “stair chairs” for handicapped people that literally lifts you from the first floor all the way up to the second story of the house.  It was on my wish list to Santa every year.  I never got it.  But I did get a Princess Diana Beanie Baby in a glass box, so all is forgiven.

I hope I Hate Myselfie is the first of many books Shane writes.  He’s a creative powerhouse, and whatever he does will be brilliant, I’m sure.  Below is an introduction to Shane’s life in all its irreverent and heartfelt glory.

i-hate-myselfie-9781476791548_hrBook Jacket

From his first vlog back in 2008, to his full-length film directorial debut, Not Cool, Shane Dawson has been an open book when it comes to documenting his life.  But behind the music video spoofs, TMI love-life details, and outrageous commentary on everything the celebrity and internet world has the nerve to dish out is a guy who grew up in a financially challenged but loving home in Long Beach, California, and who suffered all the teasing and social limitations that arise when you’re a morbidly obese kid with a pretty face, your mom is your best friend, and you can’t get a date to save your life.  In I Hate Myselfie, Shane steps away from his larger-than-life internet persona and takes us deep into the experiences of an eccentric and introverted kid, who, by observing the strange world around him, developed a talent that would inspire millions of fans.  Intelligent, hilarious, heartbreaking, and raw, I Hate Myselfie is a collection of eighteen personal essays about how messy life can get when you’re growing up and how rewarding it can feel when the cleanup is (pretty much) done.

Release Date:  March 2015

Netflix Rec: What I Watched in August

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Wet_hot_american_summer

Wet Hot American Summer

I’d heard about this weird movie that starred a lot of current comedian gods and goddesses, but never really had the motivation to watch it.  When I heard about Netflix’s sequel (prequel), I figured I’d give it a shot.  You should too!  Wet Hot American Summer is absurd humor at its finest.  And it is so enjoyable to see Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper and many more familiar faces having the time of their lives.

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Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp

This 8-episode “prequel” is even weirder than the movie that inspired it!  I adored every single self-aware reference to the fact that men and women in their 40s were playing teenagers.  The jokes get stretched further, the characters are more hilarious than ever, and the famous faces grow in number.  I’m guessing a lot of actors were fans of the movie and begged to be in the show; especially noteworthy are Chris Pine, Jon Hamm, and Kristen Wiig.  I’m not in the cult deep enough to know if this is a popular opinion or not, but I think I liked First Day of Camp even better than Wet Hot American Summer.   Continue reading →

StumbleUpon Sunday (15)

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StumbleUpon is a great way to lose hours of your life.  Luckily, I braved the Internet vortex so you don’t have to.  This week I found these especially interesting websites:

  1. 10 Incredible Thrill-Seeking Adventures To Do Around the World
    I will never do any of these because I am a big coward.  Maybe the wing walking.  But only on a dare.
  2. 29 Mind-Blowing Coincidences You Won’t Believe Happened
    I’m naming my son Hugh Williams.
  3. Dog and Lamb
    A boxer frolicked with a lamb, and there are pictures!
  4. What It’s Like to Fly the $23,000 Singapore Airlines Suite Class
    Oh my GOSH this is the most amazing thing I’ve ever read.  Someday when I’m flush with cash I will spoil myself silly on the world’s most expensive flight.  The guy who wrote this has a great sense of humor, too.  I especially loved his horror at sleeping for six hours, or “$6,000 worth of the flight.”
  5. 14 Brilliant Pieces of Literature You Can Read in the Time it Takes to Eat Lunch
    I love this list of bite-sized literature.  It is especially useful for its links to places you can read the story for free.
  6. ‘Real Monsters’ Art – Mental Illnesses as Monsters
    Wow.  These creatures are really beautiful, in a horrible way.  The artist, Toby Allen, does a wonderful job making mental illnesses understandable.
  7. 26 Gifs So Cute You Might Die a Sudden, Tragic Death
    Death by adorable is a good way to go.  (Hint: click on #5 to see a whole video of this tiny orange kitten climbing up to sit on a cameraman’s head. And #11 IS SO CUTE.  Just, all of them.  Look at all of them.)
  8. 12 Interspecies Hugs That Show That Love is Universal
    More cuteness!  I’m especially awed by the lion and the fawn, but there’s also the cat and the owl!  And that last picture of a koala sleeping on a dog’s back is super adorable.
  9. 10 Mnemonic Tricks for Never Forgetting Anything Again
    Super useful!
  10. What Real Beauty Looks Like Around the World
    These photos of diverse women in their 20s are a stunning reminder to embrace your culture and background.

Harry Potter Challenge – Days 26-30

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Day 26: If you could be able to work one spell without a wand what would it be?

accio_guitar_by_pettyartist

(image referencing A Very Potter Musical by pettyartist)

Accio everything!  Listen, I’m a lazy person, and I cannot think of anything better than crawling into bed, realizing my book is still on the desk, and whispering, “Accio Harry Potter” in order to avoid getting up again.  And if the real Harry Potter happened to zoom into my room, well.  All the better.

Hah, “real” Harry Potter.  I DON’T CARE.   Continue reading →