A PICTURE FOR THE WEEKEND NO. 8

Because I can't stay out of caves.  And yes, there are drawings and hand chiseled graffiti in the background.  People were jerks back in the day.

Happy Easter!

MY CULTURAL ATTACHE

Just Jared

Have you ever wondered what you looked like relative to other people?  I sometimes do, and there is where Reese Witherspoon comes in.  Reese seems pretty down to earth as celebrities go, she goes to Paris more than I do, and she can also indulge herself by going shopping at whatever store is associated with that large orange shopping bag.  Hermes?   Most importantly, Reese is 5'2" which is my height, and this allows me to virtually place myself everywhere she appears. 

People Magazine

For example,

This is what I would look like walking next to Jake Gyllenhaal, if I were to ever meet Jake, he were to be attracted to me, and we were to date.  Good God, he's huge. 

Reese also helps me know what clothes to avoid, and what clothing choices might work on me, without my having to get off my couch and try things on myself.     

On the other end of the spectrum, Salma Hayek is also 5'2" and this should be included in this post as equally important information.  However, Salma is way way way too sexy and...um...let's say that my proportions are different than hers.*

* Do I have to spell it out?  Salma is curvy as all hell on a tiny little frame!  She confounds all laws of nature.  I do not confound any of nature's laws.  I obey them. 

JOSEPH CHILTON PEARCE

Source

WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE?

Kate Bosworth: Nylon

You dress to reflect who you are, or who you want to appear to be.  Am I making sense?  I don't want to be Kate Bosworth, but I do want to dress like her in this picture.  It's a study in contrasts.  She looks at ease, but sharp.  The colors are basic, but put together there's an edge to it.  If I could, I would find some version of this to wear all over the place.  

I've always liked the rocker edgy look, but too much eyeliner, leather, and grommets and it becomes a costume, like I'm trying too hard (I'm sorry, she's young, but Taylor Momsen comes to mind).  Here, the clothes just seem like a natural extension of her.  Like good makeup, it enhances the person.  

MONDAY GOALS

Happy Monday!  Monday always seems to get a bad rap, to be the anti-Friday, that day that everyone universally dislikes because it marks the beginning of the workweek suckfest.  So it seems appropriate to celebrate and welcome it.  Start the week on a sunny note.

 

I like change (for the better), and usually have a list of things I want to do to improve.  This is where the beside comes in.  The bedside stand always seems to be the place where goals go to pile up and die.  I apologize for the mess, by the way, I just didn't want to  have a polished picture.  Perfection wears a little sometimes.  If I ever photograph my living room, my yellow garbage can is staying in the shot.   

 

Ever had one of those days where you just wake up to streaming sunlight and think, I will change X,Y and Z about myself! I will get started on cognitive behavioral therapy!  I will start journaling every day!  I will read the economist!  Oh, what's that?  It's my phone that I keep fully charged so I can surf the web before passing out. 

 

Here are some new goals:

• Get a real pot for that poor plant.  It's just too sad.
• Read Womancode: Perfect Your Cycle, Amplify Your Fertility, Supercharge Your Sex Drive, and Become a Power Source.  Has anyone read this?  I'm very intrigued, because I have noticed how hormones can sometimes dictate behavior, and not the other way around.
• Maybe check out some goals from Simple Lovely 
• Learn to wake up on a positive note.   

A PICTURE FOR THE WEEKEND NO. 7

I should probably stick to living plants, but these had a nice shape to them.

I SPY A HIDDEN LIE

Source

Remember when Google was like that cool older brother that gave you sudden access to all of life's illicit goods?  Suddenly, the internet was your oyster, and you could finally figure out what the Paris Hilton sex tape was all about, or any other sex tape, or find articles about cats drinking cactus beer out of trolls.  Even if it didn't exist, you could google it, and then you would know for sure that it didn't exist, because Google gave you zero search results.  Google's search engine literally improved my quality of life.

On the flip side of that coin, however, Google has been quietly building work campuses on Superfund hazardous waste sites* and making the lives of those people in them literally worse.  Here are some quotes, and my interpretations, from the linked article that I found interesting, from Google spokesperson Katelin Todhunter-Gerberg:

"Employees in the two buildings had access to the information on the intranet, but [Katelin] declined to say whether they were warned of any health risk."  Having access to information is not the same as being told that they are working on a hazardous waste site.  "Hazardous waste site" has a certain ring to it.

"[Katelin] said that employees were never in any danger."  Google employs people directly, and also hires people through contracting agencies - temp workers, who are employees of the agency, and not Google.  Technically, this statement could be true, because this site may only house temp workers and not actual google employees.

Sometimes, meaning can be found in what Katelin did not say.  "Danger" is generic, it is much more vague than, say "Employees were never exposed to hazardous chemicals" or "The measures we took to filter out hazardous chemical from our buildings kept out 98% of these toxins from all areas of all buildings, including stairwells and workspaces."  She could have said these things, or made some other very strong statement, but she didn't.

*See: Google Employees Face Health Risks From Superfund Site's Toxic Vapors.  See also, Superfund site

BEND NOT BREAK

Video

I always read how the quality of resilience is a virtue: it is key to success, to happiness.  All well and good, sir. However, in practice this is difficult.  What I can offer, is inspiring stories where people show how this quality works in practice.  It seems to work pretty well, and is surprisingly humble.

A PICTURE FOR THE WEEKEND NO. 6

This is how I want to see the world: bright, lively, and spiked with color.

A PICTURE TELLS A STORY

Sometimes you go hiking, and sometimes you will see a cow, a cow with dreams twisted up with bits of aubergine.  Aubergine, she thinks would be a good name for my next one, the one I will teach to wander away from the fold, to that place I can reach only with my eyes.  I will lay her on the sweet grass away from the others, so that she will cultivate a taste for it, and all other grass will be bitter by comparison, and those that eat it will seem alien and rough.  Every day I will move her, until she becomes accustomed to the peculiar and will recognize no part of this place as her home.  

She will sleep instead, with a cold, coarse shard of curiosity.  In time, she will wander away in the night, down the hill, over the stream and through the river.  She will move with quiet assurance over the unfamiliar terrain, until eventually she finds her way over there, that place where the light reflects off the water.  When she does, the only thing we will share is the sky.  She may even miss me, but only just a little.