Monday, March 29, 2010

Made My DAY.

This website combines two of my most favorite things: history and Twitter.
Clearly, this is the best thing I've seen all week.

http://historicaltweets.com/
Go ahead. You'll thank me later.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Ten Things I Can Do in Three Minutes

A post idea from a writer's workshop blog:
175. List ten things you can do in three minutes.

I don't know if this means doing ten things in one three minute period or ten things that each take three minutes respectively, but I'm going to make the executive decision to go with the latter.

(1) My hair. It takes me three minutes to do my hair in the morning because I have been wearing my hair the same way since I was in high school. Pin back the front, put the rest in a ponytail.  On Sundays, twist and pin.  Don't be fooled; what appears to be pure talent is actually sheer laziness. I got 99 problems and my hair isn't one. Yes, I went there.

(2) Make a sandwich. Bread, Mustard, Cheese, Lettuce & Ham. Thank you, ma'am. Let's not overthink this.

(3) Learn a new word.
-In text: "...the house was nestled in a peaceful sylvan surrounding..."
-Dictionary.com, search: sylvan.
-Definition: "of or pertaining to woods or forest regions."
-Repeat to self over and over.
Sylvan = not just a learning center. Vocabulary lesson learned.

(4) Complete a Sudoku puzzle. I am the master.

(5) Become distracted by social networking when I get online to do homework. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if college kids before the age of the Internet got their work done faster. Like when they had to go to the library and use a card catalog and read actual books to do research (so archaic!). This is my 21st century ignorance speaking, but how exactly does one get sidetracked in a library? "Sorry my paper is late, Professor, I lost track of time realphabetizing the cards in the 'Ra-Ri' drawer." Library-time is business-time. And not in a Flight of the Chonchords way. Stop laughing.

(6) Making decisions. Ok, that's overstating things a little. The decisions I make in three minutes or less are pretty banal. We're talking things like, where to eat, what to wear, do I want to buy these shoes, and more importantly, do I NEED to buy these shoes? (In the case of shoes, I generally err on the side of "yes". It's a problem. I'm working on it.) Life decisions? Let's not kid, I waffle about those for weeks and months. The quickest big decision I ever made was in deciding to go to Purdue. I applied, got accepted, visited, and made my decision in the time span of two weeks. You're impressed, I can feel it.

(7) Find and share amusing links. Like so. You're welcome.

(8) Fall asleep at night. Ok not every night but when it happens, it's kind of awesome.

(9) Empty half of the dishwasher. The top half. Give me a break, the silverware is time-consuming. Other three minute household chores: emptying the trash, cleaning a window, wiping the countertop. Lame, I know. It's not like I even have countertops to wipe. 

(10) Make you laugh. Or at least smile. Most everyone has laughed in my presence (physical or Internet-ical) in under three minutes. It's not that I'm a comedic genius.  Most often, it's laughing at me and not with me but that's ok. I'm fully aware that I do stupid stuff on a regular basis. Like trip and fall going up the stairs. Or down. Or get my hair caught in my jacket zipper. Or just over absolutely nothing at all.

Well, it was harder than I thought to think of ten things without making bald-faced lies. Like running a 3-minute mile. Or reciting the times tables.

Things that did not make this list (but should probably be on it)

(1) Phone calls. I didn't think I was much of a talker but I checked my call log and though they are few and far between, they are pretty lengthy.
(2) Showers. ahahahahahaha.
(3) The time between waking up and getting out of bed. see above.
(4) Changing a tire. Since I have never tried, I don't actually know how long it should take. Three minutes is probably a slow day for a pit crew. I could see it taking me twenty minutes.
(5) Reading emails. Well maybe if I didn't get twenty emails a day, it wouldn't take me so long to read them.

The lesson we learned today? Most things take me longer than three minutes. Also, the slow pace of my job has been great for my blog. Not so much for my thesis.  Speaking of...okthanksBYE!!!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Things I Love Thursday

Hey you. Yes, you reading this. You should feel really extraordinary because I am updating my blog even though my thesis is due one week from today. If you hear a faint cheering noise on April 1st, even if you are on the other side of the country (or the world, for my 2 international readers), it's probably me. I will most definitely be cheering. There will also probably be dancing in the streets. I might even hug strangers. And then I will calm down and go take East Asian History exam #2. Shame on you Hastings for scheduling an exam on April 1st. As if I'm going to have the brainpower or energy to study.

Anyway, my shift is almost over so on with it!

(1) Viral Videos I love wasting time on the YouTube, I really do. My favorite videos are the parodies of songs/people/political events, like a rap song about East Coast preps (thanks Hattie!). Yo, yo, where my WASPs at?  And also really random videos that have no point but to make you laugh, like The Internet is Made of Cats, or an infomercial about ham set to a mad techno beat.
One of my favorites:


(2) Mint Chocolate Brownies Actually, I am lie-telling. I have not tried this recipe with mint chips. I wanted to, but Harris Teeter (Harris Teeter! I love the south and their grocery stores with old man names!) did not have any. Regardless, this is an amazing recipe for dark chocolate brownies if I do say so myself.
 If I wasn't such a failure at food photography, you would be able to see the yum.

(3) my Minolta Maxxum 4 film camera I love love love working with film and not because it's old school and hipster to do so. I have used this camera since high school and it takes beautiful photos (see below!). I took it with me on my trip to NC and I can't wait to develop the film.  The only drawback is the extra time and money it takes for the camera shop to scan the film so I can edit the photos.  Someday, I will own one of these so I can do it myself.
                          One of my favorites from a wedding
 (4) Blip.fm  First I listened to Yahoo Radio.  Then I became a Pandora fiend. My Pandora stations were the stuff of legends. And then Pandora decided to operate on ad revenue. Not only are my stations constantly interrupted by irrelevant advertisments, there is a limit to how many songs I can listen to. Recently, Pandora has also taken it upon itself to add really terrible music to my stations. And then I discovered Blip.fm (well, Bryan did. And then I copied. Thanks Bryan.). I pick all the songs and can "reblip" other people's picks.  It's like Twitter for music. Incidentally, it automatically updates to Twitter when you blip a new song. Now my music-listening experience is free from interruptions and unwelcome additions.
  
(5) Big Daddy's Burger Bar in Charlotte, NC. To me, hamburgers are usually the same: big, beef-flavored, and good with fries. I was wrong. Christina and Karra took me to this restaurant in the hip Dilworth neighborhood and my eyes were opened. Best. Burger. I've. Ever. Eaten. Hands down. If you are ever in the area, stop by. Immediately.

Shortlist:
-Midnight Pomegranate body lotion from Bath & Body Works
-Spring Break. It was the perfect mix of productivity and relaxation.
-Finally getting someone's wedding present in the mail from Anthropologie. And laughing because the bill came in its own cotton satchel.
-The thrill of taking off in a plane
-Fitting all of my stuff into a tiny carry-on suitcase and not having to pay to check my bags. I win Delta airlines, I win.
-Making my connecting flight during the world's shortest layover in the one of the Midwest's biggest airports aka Detroit International.
-a thousand things. coolest birthday gift ever. It's a book of Polaroids. By Jason Mraz. Adam, you're awesome.
-Teavana
-The Pipgras family
-Pink vintage typewriters (thanks Karra, now I want one too.)

Hope your Thursday was worth loving!

Friday, March 19, 2010

A really boring post about what I did yesterday and today.

Good evening from a pleasant and sunny North Carolina.

I missed Things I Love Thursday this week. My apologies, but I was traveling all day.  Flights went well, only a minor altercation over the arm rest on the first flight. Had an interesting layover in Memphis. Boarding was delayed an hour because something was wrong with the brakes. We in the terminal were glad to wait while they made sure we did not have a Toyota situation on our hands. I made good use of the extra time on the ground. Stretched my legs, got some lunch, and even squeezed in an animated political discussion with two elderly folks and a southern business man.  I love having conversations in airports.

I arrived safe and sound to the Charlotte airport, where I was greeted by some smiling faces. Since my flight was late, we had to hurry and eat dinner because there was a gospel meeting.  I did not know there was meeting and was rather under dressed for it but I managed to make myself somewhat presentable in the Qdoba bathroom. It was the first and last time I will ever wear sneakers to gospel meeting...

Today was beautiful! What awesome weather they have. This morning I went with Christina to see her ultrasound. While it was really cool to actually see the baby, to be honest, I had no idea what I was looking at for most of the time.  It appeared to be an amorphous bowl of fruit because I could have sworn at one point a pear floated by.  Possibly followed by a cantaloupe.  Fortunately, Christina and the ultrasound tech didn't seem to be alarmed so I figured all the right human parts were there. Also, the pictures that were printed out had labels on them which helped my comprehension immensely.

I was going to tell you about the most excellent burger I had at lunch but then I realized how boring this post is getting so I should probably end here while you still have the strength to leave a comment. It appears that vacation has dulled my sharp wit and penetrating insight. How monotonous.

Don't get whiny, at least I updated.  Now I'm going to go take a nap for absolutely no reason at all, except that I can.

Jokes. but seriously. Three cheers for vacation. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Things I Love Thursday - Rainy Day Edition

Hello, all you wonderous beings!


This Thursday finds me melancholy and more than a little stressed. The April 1st deadline on my thesis is looming ominously before me. Spring Break literally starts in less than a day but I have so much writing left to do, I can hardly celebrate.  Enough of that!  This Thursday, I love things that make me smile on a rainy day.


(1) Gymnopédie No. 1 for piano by Erik Satie
Close your eyes and listen. You're welcome.


gymnopédie no. 1 from gastrodamus on Vimeo.

(2) My impending visit to NC. One week from today, I will be descending on the Pipgras household. Glee! Merriment! I'm hoping a certain adorable ladybug makes an appearance...
darling Phoenix!

(3) Having the windows open to let in the evening breeze. And then waking up to the sound and smell of rain on a cool morning. For a few minutes I can pretend it's not March in Indiana, where at any moment we could recieve anywhere from a tornado to a snowstorm.
 
                               My current view                    The rain pooling on the roof


(4) Spoonflower- Custom printed fabric. Just saying the words makes me feel like getting out a sewing machine. And I haven't felt that urge since the Fashion Class Debacle of '05 (A pox on you, Pressley. I still rue the day I took your class). The designs range from adorable to confusing all the way to downright horrifying . But seriously, take away my credit card or I'll have bed linens in this by Monday.

(5) Vanilla Green Tea Cupcakes . I haven't actually tried these yet, but I have a feeling they're delicious.  I'd really like to make these over break.  My only question is whether or not I could successfully substitute the sugar in the cupcakes for honey.  I think it has the potential for an awesome flavor combination but I wonder if it would make the cupcakes too dense. Also other recipes call for putting cream cheese in the frosting. Thoughts? 




(6) Books by Agatha Christie - The classic mystery writer.  Good, solid plotlines and hardy, likeable characters.  Too many mystery novels today are full of excessive gore, annoying characters and language not fit to print.  Not a single one can compare to the stories of the funny little Belgian detective with a silly mustache.  Or Miss Marple, for that matter.  Nothing quite relaxes me like a cup of tea and Death on the Nile.  That's not actually a sketch of Poirot, but that's how he looks in my head. ---->


(7) Bright Yellow Rainboots.

 
<---Enough said.












Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Things I Love Thursday

Good evening, mystical Internet creatures!  I am in a state of thesis-induced weariness that words can't sufficiently describe but I will not let Thursday pass unrecognized.  Thank goodness for my job, or else I would never have time to update.  Something seems inherently wrong with that statement...

Let us commence!

(1) Seeing the sun for the first time in many moons. And not just glimpsing it between bouts of cloudy dreariness but really seeing its entirety against a solid blue sky. I was so happy to wake up to that this morning, I severely misjudged the temperature and was rather underdressed to walk to class.

(2) Having a jar of flowers by my computer.  Thanks, Boss.











(3) Green Tea ice cream.  You don't know it, but I just changed your life.



(4) Sharing music. Hattie, I see your Spoon album and I raise you one Vampire Weekend.

(5) In case you didn't know, it's not Tuesday. Random, pointless websites that make me laugh so hard, my neighbors bang on the wall. Thanks Bryan.

(6) A fantastic lecture on Gettysburg in my Civil War class. Brought back great memories of my solo trip there last March. It was incredible, my only regret is that I didn't have anyone to share it with.  Although let's not lie, I got a little emotional on Little Round Top.  Probably better no one saw that...


(7) Passing the East Asian History exam that I clearly did not study for.  Really, Hastings, you're too kind.


(8) Sake cups. Actually anything miniature. And anything found in an Asian fusion restaurant.













(9) Special meeting and getting to spend time in Indianapolis with my family.

(10) TOMS new spring collection. Specifically the Seaport Vegan Classics. It feels wrong to want something so much.




Oh and also I love you.
Til next time.
(Likely, tomorrow.)
 

design + development by kiki and co. creative