[ march 09: things i collect ]

I was going to be all good, and photographer-y and actually take pictures to go with this post, but the day got away from me, so all you get is the text. My b.

Things I Collect:

1. Cameras: I guess this one is kind of expected. I just love cameras. I have a couple vintage ones, some of which actually still work, and a bunch of newer ones. It's just so fun to have so many.
2. Buddhas. Buddha statues of all sizes, shapes and colors. I started the collection in Nice, France, when I was 14 or 15. I was in Europe with my soccer team, playing in two tournaments (one in Rimini, Italy and one in Vittoria, Spain), and we drove from Italy to Spain. We stopped in Nice for a night, and went to a street market, and one of the tables was covered with Buddha statuettes. I don't know what drew me to them, but I ended up buying a black statue that had blue glitter on the cloak. After that, I looked for them everywhere I went, and now I have a couple dozen.
3. Ampersands. This is a fairly new collection, if you can call two a collection. I remember vividly how excited I was when I could finally draw an ampersand correctly, without looking at one. For years and years, I always ended up drawing cursive capital S's. Once I finally was able to draw them, I basically became obsessed... hence the name of my blog!
4. Sharpies. I love them. I have probably a hundred or so. I have just about every single color in every single thickness that is produced. I just love 'em to death. They're fabulous.
   

What do you collect? For any particular reason, or did it just sort of happen?

[ march 08: shows i own on dvd ]

1. Gilmore Girls (all 7 seasons)
2. The OC (seasons 1-3... the post office lost season 4)
3. Family Guy (seasons 1 & 2)
4. I Love Lucy (seasons 1 & 2)

Lame-o boring post. Quickie style.

Enjoy.

[ march 07: things i just don't get ]

There are some things in the world, that I simply can't seem to grasp. So here are some things that I just don't get.

The Purpose of Delegates & Superdelegates.
I just don't get it. I've looked it up online; I've asked people to explain it to me; I've tried to pay attention to the news. What the hell do they do? Are their votes more important or count for more than regular people? Why are superdelegates going to decide if it's Hillary or Barack? Someone save me from not understanding this.

One Tree Hill.
How the HELL is this show still on?!? First of all, when it first came out, no one talked above a whisper. It was freaking misty-voice land! Even when the person was angry, it still came out all misty and wispy and blah. I decided to give it another chance earlier this week, and I wanted to shoot myself in the face. At the end of the last season, they graduated from high school. And instead of going to college (and shooting themselves in the foot like almost every high school drama... Saved by the Bell, The OC, etc), they jumped ahead four years, and are still shooting themselves in the foot. The dialogue is inane, the characters are stupid, and they still all talk in a whisper. How is this still on, but Gilmore Girls was canceled? How? HOW?!?

The Fascination with Britney's Downfall.
Yes, the girl is an absolute train wreck. And yes, at first, I admit that even I was curious. But now, I just want the world to leave the poor girl alone. Sure, she's been a sucky mother, and an absolute loon. But in the end, she's a human being who desperately needs help, and instead is being taunted, ridiculed, poked at and prodded. There's a new show on her plea for help or twisted downfall or the fact that she's a fallen princess practically every week. Freaking paparazzi (those rat bastards... don't even get me started on that... way to give the beautiful art of photography a horrible, horrible name) taunt her and seriously try harder to make things worse. Do people not grasp that they're making everything worse? Just leave her alone. Do us all a favor, and back the hell off.

Will Ferrell.
Okay, before I get shot over this, let me explain. I enjoy him immensely in small parts. I thought he was hysterical in Wedding Crashers; his small parts in Starsky & Hutch and Old School were great; he was awesome in Zoolander and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. But GOOD LORD do I hate him in a major role. All his major stuff makes me want to poke my eyes out after about fifteen minutes. Elf, Anchorman, Bewitched, Blades of Glory. Hate them all.

The LOLcats.
How did that get so popular? How did that even start? They freaking creep me out before they make me laugh. Some of the ones of the cute cats, I get. But have you seen the freaky ones that people manipulate the actual cat?!? Jeeeeez, talk about the stuff of nightmares. And it always takes me like five minutes to figure out what the hell the words are supposed to say. Ugh. Don't like 'em.

I just don't get it. Don't at all.

What do you just simply not understand?

[ a little help please ]

So a friend I met through LWL has offered to print me a sample of her product. She wants to start a printing business, focusing mainly on large scale photographs printed on canvas. I am having trouble deciding what image I want printed. I know I want it to be one of my Waterform images, and I know I want it to act as a headboard above my bed, but I can't decide which image I should use. It's gonna be big, so I have to be sure I'm going to like it.

Therefore, would you mind taking a quick second a voting for one? I'd really really appreciate it!

Option One:
This one would add some contrast to my apartment. The blueish-greens go really well with orange.


Option Two:
This is the most abstract of the options. It has tons of colors, including oranges and yellows, so it definitely works with the rest of the room.


Option Three:
This is the warmest of the images. Goes well, interesting shapes.


Gah! I can't pick. Which one do you like best?

[ march 06: the abc's of me ]

Saw this a while back at Nicole's blog, and thought I'd give it a try! Enjoy the ABCs of me.

A - Age: Twenty two
B - Band Listening to Right Now: The Weepies
C - Career Future: Professional Photographer
D - Dad’s Name: Robert
E - Easiest Person to Talk to: my friend Kelly
F - Favorite Type of Shoe: ballet flats
G – Grapes or Grapefruit: Grapes. The grapefruit must be perfectly sweetened for me to enjoy it, but grapes are always good. Green, seedless ones are my favorite.
H – Hometown: Sandwich, MA... small, small town on Cape Cod
I – Instrumental Talent: I played clarinet when I was younger, and guitar for about a minute
J – Juice of Choice: Apple... Mott's Plus Light is like biting into an apple
K – Koala Bear or Panda Bear: I'm gonna go with Koala.
L - Longest Car Ride Ever: Drove cross-country with my mother to move from North Carolina to Arizona
M – Middle Name: Lee
N - Number of Jobs You’ve Had: Let's see... daycare at Sportsite Gym; babysitting; barista & sandwich maker at Java Journey; data entry technician at Center for Applied Demography & Survey Research; photographer
O- OCD Traits: organization of my movies by genre (I look them up on IMDB)
P - Phobia[s]: water that is deeper than I am tall; boats; balloons
Q - Quote: "Oy with the poodles already" - Gilmore Girls (I've been watching the DVDs lately)
R - Reason to Smile: I have a paying photography gig coming up!
S - Song You Sang Last: Love Song by Sara Bareilles. Really good one to blast on the highway
T - Time You Wake Up: I set my alarm for 6:01 am, never 6:00 am. I never set the alarm for a time that ends in a zero. That should probably be up with O, huh?
U - Unknown Fact About Me: My back is actually fractured in three places. One vertebrae, three cracks. (See X for more!)
V - Vegetable You Hate: potatoes, in all forms
W - Worst Habit: Making incredibly detailed to do lists, and then losing them
X - X-rays You’ve Had: Full body bone scan. We couldn't figure out what was causing the really bad pain in my back, so I got a full body scan. They injected me with some crazy silver stuff, which I could actually feel moving through my body. And it was because of that x-ray, we found out that I have three stress fractures in one of my vertebrae.
Y - Yummiest Food My Belly Likes: Cheesecake; Ben & Jerry's Phish Food; Special K Chocolately Delight
Z - Zodiac Sign: Gemini

[ march 05: fashion senses i wish i had ]

So I don't claim to be particularly stylist. I don't really follow fashion magazines, or actually know what's in or out at the moment. I just kind of wear what I like. I am trying to slowly update my wardrobe, so that I don't look quite so much like a college kid anymore. Let's just say it's a really good thing I work from home part-time, and the office I do work in is pretty casual.

So anyway, I've really been admiring the following people's fashion senses lately (and yes, the first two are fictional).

• Lorelai & Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls. It's my all-time favorite show, and I just finished watching season 7 on dvd. And those girls always look so pulled together and composed and classy. So I wish I could combo them, and dress as pulled together as Rory does, but with some of Lorelai's funk.
• Reese Witherspoon. She just always looks so classy.
• Rachel Bilson. She's totally girl-next-door, but funky and hip. And she's beautiful. And she's totally my girl-crush. I heart her hardcore. Summer Roberts, forever! (Don't judge...)
  

Who do you admire style-wise?

[ march 04: books i'm currently reading ]

I've always been a big reader. I'm the first to admit that I'm a huge dork, and would usually prefer reading a good book to going out. I've usually got a couple books going at one time, and now is no exception!

So, without further delay, here are the books I'm reading right now:

• One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich: My friend Kelly told me about Janet Evanovich, and said that her books were a quick read, and completely hilarious. And so far, she was right! This book has had me laughing out loud several times. Her series of books focus on Stephanie Plum, a novice bounty hunter living in Trenton. It's really fun.
• East of Eden, by John Steinbeck: I loved Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, so when I saw this book on sale for practically nothing, I snapped it up right away. I'm only about a dozen pages in, but so far, I'm liking it a lot. I'm sure it will be another Steinbeck masterpiece.
• Harry Potter e Il Principe Mezzosangue, by JK Rowling: I'm slowly working my way through the Italian translations of the Harry Potter books. I was on the fifth book, but the stupid Post Office lost it, so I had to skip ahead to the sixth. It's good stuff, and makes me feel like I know Italian better than I actually do.
• Purple Cow, Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable, by Seth Godin: This is the March selection for the LWL AZ Read to Succeed Book Club. It's all about different ways to make your business stand out from others like it. Good read, so far.
• Attracting Perfect Customers, The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by Stacey Hall & Jan Brogniez: This was February's selection for the LWL book club, but I didn't finish it in time for the meeting. But it's a great book, so I'm sticking with it. It's about not wasting time on clients who are just going to stress you out, because there are clients out there who are perfect for you.
• Women & Money, Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny, by Suze Orman: I desperately need to learn more about finances, and I desperately need to have more control over my financial destiny, so I picked this up a couple weeks ago. So far, so good!
• The Moment It Clicks, by Joe McNally: My boss actually gave me this book about a week ago. It's a collection of Joe McNally's photographs (he's one of the greatest photographers in the world), and they're put up next to his tips on how he got those shots. It's an incredibly interesting read, especially if you're a photo geek like me.
  

I love books! And I'm genuinely loving each and every book I'm reading right now! One of my biggest goals in life is to have a reading room / library in my home, jam-packed with all my favorite books.

What are you reading? What are your favorite books?

[ march 03: randomness of my musical taste ]

Everyone who knows me, knows I'm a music freak. I'm not a music snob, by any means. I'm just as likely to rock out to Mandy Moore (playing right now!) as I am to Queen. I just love music. All music, any music. There's very little music I don't enjoy. Death rock hurts my ears a bit. And a lot of rap lyrics make me angry. Other than that, I'm pretty much game.

I also have a freakish ability to remember lyrics. I know all the words to easily a few hundred songs. Possibly a few thousand. I don't know how I remember the words. I just do. And I can also remember words to songs I haven't heard in years.

However, I'm not a music know-it-all. I've never followed the details of any one group. I don't know everything about everything. Music equals entertainment for me. I don't feel the need to know the coolest indie group before the rest of the world. I'm fine finding a group or singer whenever I find them. If it's five years after they were cool, and I like their music, that's fine by me. I've never apologized for my taste in music, or felt ashamed by it, although on waaaaaay more than one occasion, I've been made fun of or looked down upon for some of what I like. I don't care if someone writes their own music (although that's always incredibly impressive to me) or if they're just a pretty face and a pretty voice presently someone else's lyrical genius.

If I enjoy it, I enjoy it. End of story.

In an effort to make a proper list to emphasis how freaking random my taste in music is, I jumped back and forth between two different options... showing you a completely random list of twenty songs, or a longer, but still completely random, list of artists. And then I decided one list just wasn't enough, so here are both!

The first list is of twenty songs. I put my entire musical library on shuffle, and hit play. I didn't skip anything, or replace anything with a "cooler" song. These are the first twenty songs that played:

1. Jamiroquai: Deeper Underground
2. Sufjan Stevens: Redford
3. Frank Sinatra: Falling In Love With Love
4. Antony & The Johnsons: Hitler In My Heart
5. Toni Braxton: Another Sad Love Song
6. Switchfoot: Gone
7. Stephen Kellogg: Summer
8. Billy Joel: Everybody Has A Dream
9. The Cars: Since You're Gone
10. Phish: The Mango Song
11. Sara Evans: Born To Fly
12. Rob Thomas: Little Wonders
13. Imogen Heap: Headlock
14. The Magic Numbers: Love Me Like You
15. Bright Eyes: First Day Of My Life
16. Alan Jackson: Livin' On Love
17. Plain White T's: Last Call
18. Cletus T Judd: Third Rock From Her Thumb
19. Green Day: Whatsername
20. Alison Krauss & Union Station: Daylight
    

If the fact that Cletus T Judd is on the list doesn't prove I didn't skip any songs or alter the list in any way, I don't know what would!

And here is an alphabetical list of artists that populate my iTunes. This is by no means a complete list of artists, as I have music from over 1500 different artists. I went through my iTunes and picked four artists from each letter. I tried to pick artists that I had at least one full album from (although that was impossible with Q, X & Z). I tried to be as random as possible, but also to cover as many genres as possible.

Enjoy the randomocity!

A | ABBA, Aerosmith, Air, Amy Grant
B | The Bangles, The Beatles, Billy Joel, Bette Midler
C | Carly Simon, Carrie Underwood, Cat Stevens, Cher
D | The Dandy Warhols, Darryl Worley, Dishwalla, Dixie Chicks
E | The Eagles, Ella Fitzgerald, Eric Clapton, Evanescence
F | Faith Hill, Fastball, Fiona Apple, Frank Sinatra
G | Gary Allan, Giuseppe Verdi, Good Charlotte, Gretchen Wilson
H | Hellogoodbye, Hilary Duff, Hot Hot Heat, Howie Day
I | Immortal Alice, Imogen Heap, Indigo Girls, Iron & Wine
J | Ja Rule, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Buffett
K | Katie Melua, Kelly Clarkson, Kenny Chesney, The Killers
L | Las Ketchup, Lauryn Hill, Lenny Kravitz, Linkin Park
M | Madonna, Mandy Moore, Marcy Playground, The Moody Blues
N | Nellie McKay, The New Amsterdams, Nickel Creek, NSync
O | OAR, The Offspring, Ok Go, Outkast
P | Paolo Nutini, Pat McGee Band, PJ Harvey, The Police
Q | Q-Tip, Quantic, Queen, Quincy Jones
R | Radiohead, Regina Spektor, Rilo Kiley, Robin Thicke
S | Sara Bareilles, Savage Garden, Simon & Garfunkel, Styx
T | Tatyana Ali, Tears for Fears, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Tim McGraw
U | U2, Uncle Kracker, Under the Influence of Giants, Usher
V | Vanessa Carlton, The Velvet Underground, The Vines, Violent Femmes
W | The Walkmen, The Wallflowers, The Weepies, The Who
X | X, X-2-X, Xscape
Y | Yann Tiersen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yellowcard, Yo La Tengo
Z | Zero 7, Zero Assoluto, Ziggy Marley, Zox

And yes, I do still by CDs, both real ones and from iTunes. I went through a phase of downloading, but haven't done that in a really long time.

Anyone else have a completely random taste in music? Am I the only one with such various interests?

[ march 02: places to travel ]

I love traveling. I have a yen to travel... I'm up to my ears in yen to travel. Here is a very not-at-all-inclusive and in no particular order list of places I would love to go.

1. London - I've been there before, but only for about 2 days. So not enough.
2. Hawaii
3. India
4. New Zealand - Once was definitely not enough.
5. Italy - Hopefully I'll be tour-guiding my Mummay around in the near future!
6. Paris - Again, been there for a few days. I need more time.
7. Morocco
8. Egypt
9. Brazil
10. Alaska
11. South Africa
12. Iceland
13. Greenland
14. Ireland
15. Portugal
16. Mexico
17. Tanzania
18. Kenya
19. Madagascar
20. Australia
21. Thailand
22. Vietnam

I want to go to hundreds of places. Millions, even. Even when I was younger, I always knew there was more out there. More that I wanted to see. More that I needed to see. As I'm sure pretty much everyone who knows me is aware, I get stir-crazy if I'm in the same place for too long. I always feel the need to go somewhere else. Do something else.

And the list above only covers some of the hundreds of places outside the continental United States that I'm dying to go. There are tons of places within the continental US that I've never been. Until I moved to Arizona, my experience with the States west of the East Coast was San Diego, for a week, about six years ago.

I want to visit all the Sandwiches in the States, just because it would be funny (I know of one in Massachusetts [where I grew up], Illinois and New Hampshire). And of course, the seaport of Sandwich in Kent, England, which is the original Sandwich.

I want to drive around New England, visiting little towns, and find a real-life Stars Hollow.

I want to see National Monuments and National Forests. I want to be able to say I've set foot in every single state in the nation.

I want to be able to pack up and take off at a moment's notice.

I want to see the world.

Who wants to go with me? Where do you want to go?

If you could pack up and leave for a year, where would you go? Would you go to one place, hunker down, and really get to know that one place? Would you hop around a country? A continent? The world?

[ march 01: lists for march 2008 ]

After being away from blogland for over a week, I am back with a vengeance. It's time for some NaPoBloMo, monthly style. So you can look forward to at least one post a day from me! And as the theme is lists, I thought I'd start the month of with a list of the lists you can look forward to!

Heeeeeeere we go:

March 01: Lists for March 2008
March 02: Places to Travel
March 03: Randomness of my Musical Taste
March 04: Books I'm Currently Reading
March 05: Fashion Senses I Wish I Had (both real and fictional people)
March 06: The ABCs of Me
March 07: Things I Just Don't Get
March 08: Shows I Own on DVD
March 09: Things I Collect
March 10: Stats from my iTunes
March 11: Movies mentioned in Gilmore Girls (aka Movies to See)
March 12: Celebrities I'd Want to be Friends With
March 13: Fictional Characters I'd Want to be Friends With
March 14: People Born on my Birthday
March 15: Places I've Lived
March 16: Actors Whose Body of Work I'd Like to See
March 17: Books to Read
March 18: Favorite TV Shows of my Childhood
March 19: Places to Live
March 20: Classes I Loved in College
March 21: Books I Own but Haven't Read Yet
March 22: The #1 Song on my Birthday Since 1985
March 23: Fictional Characters Who I'd Want to Date
March 24: Favorite Days of my Life
March 25: Cameras I Own
March 26: Places I've Traveled Outside of the Country
March 27: Weirdo Habits
March 28: Where I Got My Buddhas
March 29: Movies I've Watched Too Many Times
March 30: Favorites
March 31: A New & Improved 101 in 1001


Yay for lists. They are awesome, awesome things. I hope you enjoy some of mine, and I can't wait to read yours. Leave me a comment if you're participating, so I can check 'em out!