Sunday, January 29, 2012

On The Road

I've been reading On The Road by Jack Karouac for the past few weeks (yes, I said weeks). With all the other things that have been going on this month, finishing this book has kind of fell by the wayside. However, I thought I would post some of my favorite quotes from what I've read so far. Going through them I realized how religious this novel actually is, which I definitely did not expect from the Beat movement's golden boy. Brace yourself, there are a lot (and I still have 2 "parts" left to read):
"I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future."
"Looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when He made life so sad."
"Troubles, you see, is the generalization-word for what God exists in. The thing is to not get hung-up." 
"Love is a duel."
"Everything is fine, God exists, we know time. Everything since the Greeks has been predicted wrong. You can't make it with geometrical systems of thinking. It's all this!"
"Lucille would never understand me because I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion."
"All kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see."
"God exists without qualms. As we roll along this way, I'm positive beyond doubt that everything will be taken care of for us." 
"Only damn fools pay no attention to visions." 

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Fine By Me

it's always exciting to see the final product of something you worked on. here's a video I edited for The Concert Agency's client - Andy Grammer. It's so weird to see it up on Facebook with almost 200 likes and on youtube with almost 500 views. woah. big girl things. check it out!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

collective

Classes are back in full swing, so I have been MIA for quite awhile. So here are some of my pictures from the past week or two. A collection of yummy meals, cute puppies, random excursions, happy accidents, and more from my life back in Athens. I'm going to try to post more of the recipes that I cook during the week and outfits I wear. (and of course more pictures of my puppy Cali) Stay tuned! 


Food For Thought
Left: Breakfast quinoa made with milk, cinnamon, brown sugar, and blueberries. Middle: Breakfast of champions. Kayla made the french toast and I made the smoothies (full of every berry possible). Great start to the weekend. Right: Healthy dinner time. Kayla made the couscous with grilled chicken. I made steamed vegetables in lemon garlic butter sauce and southern style biscuits. Heavenly. 
    
Puppy Love
Left: Cali was worn out from being reunited with her friends after the break. Middle: Cali and Kodah begging for food while we cooked dinner. Typical. Right: Cali and Brewster really wanted my smoothie apparently. 

Happy Accidents
Left: Accidental photo that turned out kind of cool. This was the outfit I wore for my Skype interview with a production company in LA (eep!) Middle: The sunset on my drive from Athens back to Conyers, beautiful. Right: The ceiling of the children's building at MCG hospital in Augusta. My roommates and I visited Suzanna's little sister while she was getting blood work done. 





Daily Discoveries
Left: The new drink machine at Zaxby's looks like a spaceship. It took everyone longer to pick a drink due to this contraption. Middle: The two records I bought at Wuxtrey Records in downtown Athens. Cage the Elephant's Thank You Happy Birthday and an album released after Jimi Hendrix's death. Both albums are amazing and sound so much better on vinyl than coming from my computer. Right: Andre champagne's warning label. It's too classy for drinking straight from the bottle. This was a fun Friday night with my roommates playing Just Dance 3 and being silly - quality girl time.
 


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

End Piracy, Not Liberty

Tell Congress: Don't Censor the Web

Check out this article on google about the Internet blackout and SOPA. Sign the petition people! Don't let the government silence us. Take action!

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Vintage Fashion

I have a love for old ("vintage") things. I'm constantly searching through my mom's clothes, jewelry, shoes, and records that she saved from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Antique stores, thrift stores, etc. are some of my favorite places. It's just something about that era that I love, and wish I could have experienced myself. The clothes, the music, the hair and makeup... Love it all. I am most jealous of my parents because they both attended a Led Zeppelin concert in 1973 (the same one and they didn't even know each other yet, how cute). So, coming back to the point of this post, I discovered an amazing online store today. Tunnel Vision is full of vintage clothes that made my heart skip a beat. Although some of the pieces are a little more "eccentric" than what I would personally wear every day as a college student in Georgia, they're still great and full of that vintage vibe. Today was the website's pre-debut and their fans on Facebook got access to a promo code for 50% off of everything. Shout out to Chictopia for posting about this, sales are my kryptonite. Even though I wanted an unreasonable amount of pieces from this site, I settled on an open-knit fringe vest and a Southwestern printed jacket
(pictured below; wanted the necklace, but sold out. womp womp womp):
Tunnel Vision will also be introducing their own collection called Bad Vibes (designed by Brit Nason and Madeline Hansen). I can't wait to check out what is in store! But seeing how well the vintage side of their site is doing just on the pre-open day, I think it's safe to say Bad Vibes will be just as much of a vintage Heaven. 

Well that's all for now, but I'll post an update when I get my purchases! happy shopping. 

Friday, January 13, 2012

Athens Sunset

On my drive home to Conyers this afternoon, the sunset in Athens was beautiful. This definitely made the drive more enjoyable. Happy weekend everyone!

Monday, January 9, 2012

20 New Year's Resolutions for 20-Somethings

I found another great article about resolutions to update my previous post on this topic. This article is from Thought Catalog (article by Jessie Rosen) and has 20 introspective, yet reasonable resolutions for people in their 20-somethings (people such as myself). Here's the list - again I have bolded my favorites and added notes:


  1. Before you status update, Tweet, Tumble or Instagram, pause and say to yourself, “is it entirely necessary that I share this morsel of thought with my entire social network?”and if the answer is not, “yes, I absolutely must,” then step away from the Internet. (Stop with the information overload. This isn't a journal for you to pour your heart out in 140 characters, get a real journal. And also, FYI to a lot of people I know - your future employers will be looking at those....um.... "unbecoming" photos of you and they might not "LOL" like your friends. Once it's on the internet, it never really goes away.)
  2. Know which candidate you’re going to vote for in the upcoming presidential election, and know why.
  3. Enough with the 14-day juice cleanses. If you want to lose a little weight quickly, eat less and exercise like crazy. If you want to lose a lot of weight slowly, do whatever Jennifer Hudson did.
  4. If you really like the person you’re hooking up with and would like them to be your boyfriend/ girlfriend, find a way to tell them, and hope for the best. If you don’t and wouldn’t, stop. (A.k.a. don't be a skank. Nobody respects or likes a skank.)
  5. Find a way to save approximately 300 dollars and spend it on a flight to see a friend or family member who lives far away.
  6. Please stop liking the Kardashians, all of them. It’s not helping anyone, least of all the Kardashians.
  7. Spend less than or equal to the money you earn each month.
  8. Wear clothes that fit you, especially to work.
  9. Call someone on the phone at least once a week, and speak to him or her for at least ten minutes.
  10. Start preparing now to get over the fact that Facebook is probably going to change again in six months. You’re not going to deactivate your account. You don’t know how. (I don't understand why Facebook changing becomes a WWIII situation. It's a website. They change. Move on.)
  11. Wait 30 seconds before you look up a fact you can’t remember on your phone, and try to remember it using your brain. This is what the olden days were like.
  12. Replace one terrible reality show you’re currently watching with one wonderful scripted show currently available on television.  Swap suggestion: Real Housewives of Anywhere for HBO’s Enlightened. (Seriously people stop encouraging the Housewives and others like them and watch something that makes you think) 
  13. Try that food you think you don’t like but have never actually tried, unless it’s brussels sprouts. They really don’t need any more attention.
  14. Cut one person out of your life who you truly do not like and add one person who you truly do. Note: not on Facebook, on Earth.
  15. If you’re still blacking out regularly, you should stop. (Seriously, it's not cute. Don't use the excuse, "but it's college, it doesn't count." Um, why does it not count? Have you found a pause button on real life that I haven't heard about? If so, fill me in.)
  16. Volunteer once over the next 90 days.  You’ll feel really good about it, and probably end up volunteering again over the next 275.
  17.  Tell someone who you love that you love them on a more regular basis. To their face, not in a text.
  18. Back up your entire online life onto an external hard drive, especially your photos.
  19. Crap or get off the pot. This applies to whatever thing you’re not doing that you should just sack up and do already.
  20.  And in the eternal words of Tom Haverford, “TREAT YO SELF!”

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Brave New Girl

yesterday, I read the novel Brave New Girl by Louisa Luna. I enjoyed Luna's writing. It was very easy to read, although some of Doreen's experiences weren't quite as easy to deal with. Doreen's experiences in themselves weren't very relatable for me, but somehow I still found a strong connection with her (hard to put into words, you'd have to be in my head - scary). The strongest connection that I found with Doreen was her love for music and how she described how she felt about it. I would recommend the book to others; however, I'm warning you it can get kind of "dark." Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book: (some of these they took right out of my brain)
"Sometimes when I listen to music, I feel like I could scream. It's like some music's got a direct line to my insides, and when I hear it, I go crazy all over."
"My head gets all jammed up all the time, but when I put music on, I don't have to think about anything. I really love that." 
"It seems kind of dumb - all these words to songs I don't like are in my head. I mean, there could be something really good in my head instead. I could have the cure for cancer in there."  
  • (I swear I have said something almost exactly like this before. I think about this all the time. For example, why can I remember lyrics to songs I haven't heard since I was 8, but I can't remember where I put my phone 2 minutes ago? But anyways...)
"Sometimes you have to do things before you know why you're doing them."  

Saturday, January 7, 2012

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Yesterday I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I've been meaning to read this book for a long time, but as I am very easily distracted, I hadn't gotten around to it. The approach of the movie version compelled me to go ahead and read it before I got distracted again. It was a great story. I won't spoil the plot for anyone who is planning to read it/see the movie. But I will say that the ending... I did not see it coming. And it took me a minute to fully comprehend what discovery had just been made. I literally "gasped out loud" when I put the pieces together. And unlike some people, I believe that this part is the missing piece to making sense of Charlie. The only thing I still want to know is who he was writing the letters to. On a different note, I am really excited for the cast of the movie. I think they picked the perfect actors for the characters. I'm most excited about Emma Watson (love her) playing Sam and Paul Rudd (love him) playing Bill. 
And finally, I thought I would share my favorite quotes from the book - it was full of them. 
"We accept the love we think we deserve."
"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."
"I hope the people who wrote those songs are happy. I hope they feel it's enough. I really do, because they've made me happy. And I'm only one person."
"I really think that everyone should have watercolors, magnetic poetry, and a harmonica."
"Things change. And friends leave. And life doesn't stop for anybody."
"I would die for you. But I won't live for you."
"Every person has to live for his or her own life and then make the choice to share it with other people."
"Running after the sun... And everything was as good as it could be."
"So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them."
"...Things are good with me, and even when they're not, they will be soon enough." 

The Big Bang Theory Greatness


  • Sheldon: Howard, your shoes are delightful! Where did you get them?  
  • Howard: Are you serious? 
  • Sheldon: Bazinga! I don't care.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Realistic Resolutions


I recently posted this article from Chictopia's Everybody Is Ugly blog on my other blog so I decided to post it here as well. 

I was instantly drawn in by the title - "New Year, New You!" Yeah, Right. This is exactly my feeling on New Year's resolutions. Why does there have to be a designated holiday to improve your life? There are 364 other days in the year, and every one of those are just as good for making changes. One of our goals every day should be to make that day the best it can be. If you haven't done anything to make your life better any other day of the year, what makes January 1st any different? Nothing. So if you want to make a resolution to better your life, don't do it because it's a holiday custom. Do it because you genuinely want to and have the intention to follow through. If you have ten broken New Year's Resolutions, that could be really depressing. However, if you make one "everyday" resolution that is achievable - that's really empowering. So check out this article's "realistic resolutions" that seem simple, but can have a big impact. Try picking the ones that suite you and sticking to them. 


Here are the 7 they list in the article (I've bolded the ones that I will be starting/doing more):
  1. Only shop during sales (i am the sale finder queen, come shop with me and you'll save dinero)
  2. If you shop when there aren't sales, thrift (i love thrift stores and will be utilizing them even more this year)
  3. Only buy shoes if you really need them (i know a lot of people who need to learn this!)
  4. Paint your own nails (this is a great one for people who get frequent manicures, i do my own nails and can only imagine the amount of money that i've saved over the years just from this. just think of it like this: $5 bottle of nail polish and 5 minutes of your time vs. $30+ and at least an hour of your time. you do the math.)
  5. Make some of your own clothes (i'm really excited about this, i love having things that i've made myself)
  6. Make the most of your time (always a must)
  7. Drink more water (i started doing this during the fall and i will definitely keep it up this year)

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo



this is the introduction to the new US film version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. i remember the visuals being a little different in the theater but I could be remembering wrong due to my frenzied reaction to this song (it's one of my all time favorites, Zeppelin for the win, forever). the graphics were amazing. the whole introduction was breathtaking. it was a great cover of a great song. Zeppelin would approve. i had to share it. i'm obsessed. 

Thursday, January 5, 2012

DIY Band Boys Tees

just found a great article from Chictopia's Everybody is Ugly blog. it shows you how to make a DIY "band boys tee." it's so amazingly simple it will make you wonder why you never thought of this genius idea before. i will be doing this for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at the end of the month. be on the lookout for posts about my creation. hope you enjoy!