some things that are neat/funny!

hey, guys!

i know, it's been a while.

here are some things that have happened on the internet and in the world since we last talked...

<3 quite a few people whose opinions i trust have said that this pbs special about the depression II: full throttle is very informative and really good. i haven't gotten around to watching it, but i am happy to share it with you, in case you have a free moment while shooting about the interwebs.

<3 this is the ultimate primer for internet trend knowledgability. these are all the internet trends that have been big, in no particular order, in one place, so you can catch up a bit.

<3 is this delicious or disgusting? BOTH!

<3 some evil geniuses created a 'silence of the lambs' musical. here are the songs. here is the youtube video of the obvious classic "put the fucking lotion in the basket." obviously not for those who are easily offended and probably not funny to people who don't know the movie.

extreme sheepherding!!


<3 this photographer shoots things with a gun and takes photos of it. weird and neat.

<3 me and some friends are going "no 'poo." it basically means we're not using store bought shampoo or conditioner. there are many benefits to it, all of which are outlined AT LENGTH in other website, if you're interested. here are some sites i've liked so far:
http://www.naturemoms.com/no-shampoo-alternative.html
http://babyslime.livejournal.com/174054.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Go-No-Poo/
let me know if you're gonna try it out! we can email about it!

what have you been up to?

shopping trip.

for those of you who don't care at all about clothing, you can skip this blog entry because it's all pictures and stuff about clothes. check back later!

for those of you who like clothes - hi!

i have been really impressed with the discount clothing sources in the world lately. i'd like to say it's because of the economy, but it's not, though this is a well-timed observation on my part. payless shoes, off saks (the saks fifth avenue outlet), target, old navy (though that's not exactly discount, it's the cheapest of the old navy/gap/banana republic family... all these places have had some really, really good stuff lately, for totally great prices.

i went to target for a gold digital watch yesterday (sure, why not?) and then filled a cart with some amazing finds, all for target-cheap prices. then i felt guilty for shopping more because i have been on two big off saks sprees in the last couple weeks and i feel like a loser, so i abandoned all my finds, but i took pictures that i wanted to share with you.

okay, we'll start with some housewares.

this bedding set has the ikat print that all the fashion and decorating magazines have been really excited about this last year. the lamp below has a great shape, it's a nice size, and i like the kinda flashy body (silver metal with clear glass over it or something) with the staid navy shade. i am pondering this for my new bedside lamp.

i'm a sucker for green glass, though these are the kind of vase that i always have a hard time using, since i seldom have only a few of a certain kind of flower, like...three tulips. but these together on a coffee table would be very west elm.

this vase is kick-ass. obviously my iphone photography doesn't fully convey what it looks like, but let me describe it. it's a rectangle vase, big enough for a dozen and a half roses probably, and it's got the shape of a curvy vase printed on it. brilliant. i have a crush on this, even though i absolutely do not need any more vases at all.


SHOES!
the shoes right now at target are solid. i could have seriously bought an entire new shoe wardrobe yesterday, i think.

cute shoes. they came in a bubblegum pink, too. sort of 60s flight attendant barbie shoes.


i would not wear these shoes personally. they're not my style and the older i get, the less reasons i can come up with to wear heels of any kind, much less vaguely avant-garde future shoes, but these are really, really "editorial" as the fashion world might say. with the crazy shaped heel and the wide strap across the foot, they're like something an olsen twin would wear, with slouchy menswear pants that are pegged and cuffed. can't you see it?


these are total urban outfitters shoes. i think that designers from the urban family might have jumped ship and taken over at the target brands (mossimo, exhiliration) because it's kinda uncanny. these are really cute fake huaraches, but they're made of plastic tubing and were flat as pancakes. they'd be misery during the summer. imagine your sweaty feet slipping around in those unforgiving little cutie pies. but seriously, they're cute as hell. these ones are fruit striped, but they come in brown and black and white, i think.


also, totally olsen twin shoes. shoes for women who are mean to others and their own feet. sexy. ouchie.


it is such a sign of the times that these are some of the shoes i seriously considered, when compared to the really cute heels i've shown you. these have a sensible heel, a soft, kinda molded faux suede footbed and leather straps that don't pinch. i'm old now, and i am concerned about having comfortable feet. or maybe i am too smart now, and too married, to feel that having sexy feet for a night is worth the days and possibly years of misery those sexy feet will buy me.


cute. you can't see it in this picture (though i am clearly a professional fashion photographer) that the bows are sewn above a little round gathered hole, and the toe scoops down to show some toe cleavage. not totally comfortable but maybe worth it.


this reminds me of a jacket i saw in a few fashion spreads. it was from vera wang's line at kohl's, which is also pretty solid. a little bit old for me, but some stand out pieces, and the fashion magazines really like it, too. this jacket is what i think of as a wasted layer. i'll digress...

before i learned how to drive, i walked everywhere. i can't even guess how far i walked on average every day, but it was freaking far. because i didn't have a car to stash stuff in, when i left the house in the morning, that was all i had to work with for the day when it came to layering for warmth or coolness. i started this habit of wearing a tank top under everything, every single day, in case it was warmer than i'd expected and i got too hot. one too many days smothering in too many layers, i guess. likewise, it was dangerous to wear any single layer that was TOO warm, because if it warmed up, i'd be stuck carrying it all day. (i carried this huge messenger bag sometimes, that could have easily carried a toddler, and it was mostly full of clothes. i like to be prepared.)

anyway, i discovered after a certain point, that certain types of layers were wasted. they were useless. perfect example: a jean jacket. not warm enough to keep you warm. if it's so warm that a jean jacket will keep you warm, there is probably a lighter, less stiff layer you could use instead. also, in order for it to look cute, it needs to be tight, but then it's too tight to wear layers underneath.
USELESS. GET RID OF IT.

this jacket is another one. besides being a shape and length that is hard to work out, it's also got 3/4 sleeves, which are really only appropriate for certain weather. it won't provide warmth or coverage from any type of weather, really. cold? whoops, it's got short sleeves. hot? it's material is weird stiff nylon. a waste.

but cute. i am imagining a spread in lucky magazine with this, a turtleneck sweater, a chunky necklace, a pencil skirt, and shoes like those avant garde ones from earlier.


urban outfitters bite again. hard to see the shape, but it's not ugly. i'd buy this blouse. plus, i'm a sucker for charcoal grey.


this looks like crap, but it's a lovely blush colored faux satin. the cut isn't my favorite and the ruffle itself is silly, but it's a very daring design, and i'm impressed at target for trying it out.


more urban biting. i think it could look very lovely on, though it looks a bit 'golden girls' in this pictures. quick, blanche needs a new dress for her date with the retired dentist she just met!


accessories.

this is a nice sized tote. it's got that convertible strap thingie that everyone is doing now, where it can be turned into a messenger bag, or be carried with this two shorter handles. it comes in charcoal grey, too.


ugh, i wish this picture had come out. these look like some vintage glasses that would be at an american apparel.


cute.


both these pairs are urban outfitters-style. they're cute. but really cheaply made. course, so is urban's jewelry.



i took quite a few more pictures, and there were TONS more cute things there, but some of the pictures didn't turn out great. i always forget that i need to hold my iphone for a second after i hear the little camera noise, because it hasn't taken the picture yet. they always come out blurred.

grab bag, 2/27/09.

* it's the website for my famous little pup and his famous little siblings! check in often to see how the wee pooches are doing, and maybe buy a calendar!

* when i first moved to LA, me and lu lived in an amazing shopping neighborhood. there were a lot of things about that neighborhood that sucked, like the traffic and being a million miles away from every freeway and the lack of like-minded people living nearby (at least none we found.) but there was a LOT that was great about it, and it really was the perfect neighborhood for us to live in when we first got there. it was really centrally located, so not being near freeways wasn't that big a deal, though lu was dating a guy who lived in pasadena, so that sucked for both of them. it was a manageable driving distance from UCLA. there were a lot of tasty restaurants within walking distance, including the best coffee i have ever had. (seriously. it's amazing and so intense. if coffee is pot, this coffee is totally hash.)it was a couple of blocks away from the beverly center, which is a giant mammoth of a mall. and, aside from the bev, there was really, really, really good shopping on 3rd. really good.

among the stores on 3rd that i'd haunt, like a little starving, fashion conscious student ghost, there were several that seemed to sell only candles and soap and stuff. that doesn't seem like a very appealing mix to me in my head, since i don't burn candles much, and i don't just buy bars of soap on impulse, but there was a candle in one of those stores that was the yummiest smelling thing i had ever found in the entire world. i would visit the candle, and smell it, before wandering on to keep browsing because it was ridiculously expensive (for me, for a candle.)

but i couldn't get it out of my head. it had a smokey, almost creamy smell. it came in a gorgeous deep red smoked glass container, with a cool picture on it in relief, with an elephant and some words in french which i was eventually able to figure out was the name of the company and some reference to tea, which made sense. turns out the scent of the tea was earl grey tea. YUM. so, when i got my student loan disbursement one quarter, i splurged and bought it.

oh man, how delicious our apartment smelled, which was quite a feat, since our apartment was not a naturally tasty smelling place since we lived across the hallway from a huge open garbage pit thingie that bred cockroaches. so maybe the smell was more smokey earl grey tea mixed with hot garbage. but still, that's better than just hot garbage.

and, as happens with many things we love and use accordingly, eventually there was only a thin little layer of was on the bottom. despite trying to ration my usage to stave off this eventuality, it happened. so i decided the enjoyment was worth the cost, especially since shannon liked the smell of it, too, and shannon hates scented everything! see? it was a GOOD BUY!

but, alas, the store i'd bought it from had closed. and all google searches for the company came up with nothing. and i am not going to pretend i didn't seriously despair.

that was a few years ago. i have come to a place of peace about the loss. i barely ever think about how tasty that candle was. so imagine my positive DELIGHT when i found a reference to the french tea house that makes the candle in this week's GOOP newsletter from gwyneth paltrow! and, searching the website, I FOUND MY CANDLE!!!! and they have more candles that are probably totally yummy, too!!

a sobering check on the exchange rate from euro to dollar shows me that a single candle off this website is $57. >gulp.< but man, i really want it.

* people, compassionate fascism says absolutely not to fundamentalism of all kinds. so, behead your wives and bomb abortion clinics while you still can because your days are numbered. (obviously obama's social spending and just the beginning of the rebuilding of the welfare state, which is laying the groundwork for government taking over every aspect of our lives, which will be the perfect time for compassionate fascism.)

* i'm concerned about what happens 'when shit goes down' and so is the onion.

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

some thoughts on education and the future.

shannon and i talked through some ideas about the educational system under compassionate fascism.

the whole talk started with a discussion of the operating system used in a lot of computers in future movies. you might be familiar with the one i talking about. it's the one tony stark uses in 'ironman.' they use it in 'minority report' too. they also use it in 'vanilla sky.' the basic idea is that everything is controlled with your hands. 'ironman' has it floating in 3D space, and he's just poking stuff and tossing it around and talking to his super-computer. i was more impressed with the one in 'vanilla sky,' which was otherwise a totally weird, forgettable movie.

in that movie, the computer was a flat panel on tilda swinton's desk, and she was using it a lot like we use iphones. again with the poking and flinging and dragging, but with her hands.

that is some future technology that i think isn't far away, and i am stoked on ways it can be applied to schools and to business.

so, computers will be one panel, either propped up in front of you with perhaps a wireless, touch-sensitive mouse pad, or laying flat on the table in front of you. the entire thing will be a screen, like an iphone. the keyboard will hide or be shown as needed. you'll drag things manually from one place to another. you'll poke a file with your finger and drag it into the trash. easy as pie, right? i'm predicting this isn't far away. not next year but within the next 10 years, i think we'll probably see that.

students will have laptops that they are given when they arrive at school, probably from the youngest possible age. preschool kids will play shape and color games on them. they'll have writing recognition programs, so that you'll learn to write on them, too, using a stylus. all tests will be taken on them, and then sent to the teacher's computer, via wireless internet. no textbooks, because everything will be downloaded to the computers as needed.

bibliophiles, you'll still be able to buy real paper books. but we need to do something about the paper useage in books and people we don't need to be printing hundreds of thousands of copies of the newest diet fad book. save the trees for something that matters. like celebrity gossip magazines.

kids will take notes on their school laptops. they can have their own home laptops, but the ones for school will be mandatory. everyone will carry flash drives with them everywhere they go, in case they need to get some work from their school/work computer onto their home, or vice versa. lectures will be automatically recorded and made available to students. attendance to classes will be monitored by thumb scans at the doorways of classes. each professor will decide on their attendance policy.

all papers will be written on the laptops and, again, sent to the professor via wireless connection.

shannon and i had some disagreements about upgrades, like what will happen when it's time to get new computers.

i felt like the old school computers would be collected, expertly refurbished, and sold online, with proceeds going to the ministry of education. perhaps they could be refurbished by students in higher level computer engineering classes!

shannon brought up an interesting point. he suggested that products under compassionate fascism be built to last, like old american cars. there is no conceivable reason why people need to buy the newest model of computer every year when the majority of the really important changes are software and operating system changes. so why not have a body that is so simple but so reliable that there's really nothing to update for? what if it was built to be used for an entire lifetime? so a kid is assigned a school computer when they're in kindergarten and they use the same one for their entire educational careers, until they graduate. any new changes to the model will be because of significant advances, not something dumb like changing the sharp edges into rounded ones, or changing the body from black plastic to titanium alloy.

i like this idea. i like the idea of america making cars that are built to be passed on to your kids and your grandkids with pride. and not as a cool, expensive luxury, like many classic cars are now, but as heirlooms, with standardized parts that make it fixable by a wide array of people, not just people with the expensive computers for diagnostics and crap. to balance the need for consumer spending to fuel the economy with our government's firm commitment to sustainability in all industries, at every level, we would allow auto upgrades for each driver every 5 years, let's say. no changing before that. you certainly don't have to upgrade every five years, and in fact you're encouraged not to, but as long as you wait five years, you are allowed to buy trade for a new model. that being said, i think the the auto industry, and all consumer industries, will be strictly controlled in the amount of new products or new models of old products that they're allowed to put out. if the main change is blue fog lights instead of yellow, wait until you have some other, seriously important changes and then release something new. say, every ten years, the auto industry gets to release a brand new model. however, all subsequent models need to be adaptable to the older models, and new advances in car components need to take into account that most people will just be getting upgrades to their old cars, because as a society we frown on conspicuous consumption.

some other odds and ends:

1) all professions are paid the same amount. you can be given bonuses for good performance, but there are no professions that are guaranteed money-makers. likewise, there are no specializations in medicine that pay more or less. being in public health will pay the same as holistic nutrition. also there will be no plastic surgery allowed unless the situation is related to a medical problem, like a burn or something. no gastric by-passes, no lipo, no vaginal rejuvenation. doctors of these things, you're wasting the world's time and money. please devote yourself to something that actually benefits mankind, not helps it become more lazy and image-obsessed.

2) doctors don't get paid by their patients until they've either cured the problem, passed the patient along to a different practitioner, or made a measurable contribution to the curing of the ailment. there will be no repeated visits for issues that aren't ever solved, for which you, the patient, are expected to pay. not that it matters because we'll OBVIOUSLY have universal health care and the insurance industry will seem as quaint and bizarre as the idea of barbers as surgeons.

3) there are way more doctors, and each doctor has fewer patients. this will give them more time to devote to solving individual problems, instead of making the patient clamor for help to no avail. doctors will be trained to understand that curing illness is their only job, and to the extent that illness is not being cured on their watch, they're failing. this won't put pressure on doctors to solve difficult cases, and there will be unlimited resources available for consultations with other doctors, and trying experimental treatments, or collaborating with practitioners of other healing styles (e.g. chinese herbs, ayurveda (sp?)) what it will do is force them to keep their attention focused on a case for as long as it takes to resolve the problem, or create a long-term treatment plan. for debilitating, long-term cases, one doctor will be in charge of all aspects of treatment, coordinating with the various others.

4) everyone automatically has a chiropractor, a therapist, a dentist, a doctor and a massage therapist.

i have more thoughts but it's late and i need to go to bed, so i'll leave you with this question to ponder for next time's discussion: while considering the case of the nutbar who gave birth to octuplets, is there such a thing as a country that's too free? (obviously that fertility doctor is also crazy and should be retired and sent to work in an apiary or something. no more medicine for you.)