TBIF: Real Good

Here's what happened on the internet this week.  Miso and I discovered this:

Clearly, we're obsessed.

Happy Thursday!

TBIF: Don't take my word for it

I am 100% over the moon for this Reading Rainbow kickstarter.

I cannot remember a time in my life that I did not love books and reading. I am forever grateful for my parents who encouraged books to be a part of our lives, by making it a part of our entire family.

Now that we are older, books are still a part of our family. They get purchased as gift for someone, as an excuse to read them ourselves, then passed around the family. There are books that I got as gifts that have never actually spent anytime on my shelf (which is fine, I feel completely comfortable taking books of any number of shelves and never returning them - it all works out in the end).

I cannot imagine not having this relationship with books. I can't imagine a life not full to the brim of stories I have read and the comfort that comes with a book in my hand.  While I did not need Reading Rainbow's peer pressure to try books for the first time, it gave me security in knowing that this love I had for books was a great thing.  And I watched it joyously, just as I watched Seaseme Street, 3, 2, 1 Contact, and Ghostwriter (PBS did a damn good job raising kids in the 80's and early 90's. Thanks guys). I know there are kids out there who discovered reading through the show and for that I think the world is a much better place.

I am tickled pink that the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter has already blown itself out of the water because there are so many people, like me, who recognize the value of reading as a joy rather than a test-able subject in school. People who are nostalgic. People who love LeVar Burton (he is so very, very lovable). People who love a good coffee mug (I am way too excited about this mug).

I also know there are people who more skeptical about this whole thing. People who do not trust the internet, or celebrities, or crowd-sourced anything. And I completely understand and respect that.

To those people, I say, give your money that maybe would have gone to this to Open Books. My favorite literacy program in Chicago. Open Books give kids the joy of reading with bonus joy of writing included at no extra cost. They make living life better for kids in Chicago. The programs are focused on reading and writing as a thing to treasure rather than one more thing to worry about failing.  And if you feel like you are being scammed if you don't get anything in return for your donation - go down to the Open Books Bookstore and buy yourself something nice. All the money from the store goes back into their amazing Chi-city programs.

I feel like there are so few things left in this world that we can just enjoy without worrying about how its going to kill us (food, the water in Lake Michigan, hugging people) that reading should be something that is pushed for its capacity to make the world a better place.

TBIF: No words

One of my favorite silly obsessions is words that do not have a direct English translation. There is even one I am considering getting tattooed on my body for forever because I love it so much.

Of course, the internet took one of my favorite things and made it even better by adding pictures.

Anjana Iyer's Found in Translation series. Its hard to pick a favorite, but this one spoke to me.

God bless the Norwegians for knowing how important this is and being able to label it. I'm super excited that she still has 50-some days left. I cannot wait to see the rest of the words.

Maptia did a similar series based on the book Through the Language Glass (which is now at the top of my to-read list).

Happy words!

TBIF on Friday = Friday Finds, full of flowers

Last night I fell asleep before I could get my act together to write this blog, but I was too excited to skip a day and/or skip telling the 4.7 people who read this blog about this amazing company.

My favorite go-to lady for whiskey drinks and romantic entanglement stories, KK, shared this on the fassse-boouuk.

Flowers for Dreams

As someone who has ordered several bouquets and received two (#humblebrag) in the past few weeks, I have spent a lot of time being disgusted by the ticketmaster-esque gouging by florists.

Not anymore, mi amigo.

Flowers for Dreams has a flat rate system. Something says $35, you pay $35 (+tax because #chicago). Its a game changer, folks. Not only that, but a portion of however much you spend on flowers goes to their monthly charity partner, so you can feel good about buying flowers for someone because 1- You're being nice to a single person and 2- You're being nice to humanity. Extra double bonus points.

Also, in case you were confused, their bouquets are gorgeous. You have some capacity to select the flowers you want (although, they're flowers - if people get bitchy about getting the "wrong kind," they don't deserve them) but their limited selection is why they are priced so reasonably. Also now you don't have to pretend like you know something about flowers.

Now for the sad news - they are a Chi-town (and surrounding areas) exclusive. You may only have this if you have ridden the struggle bus through Chibera and now want to live a Spring/Summer chock-full of flowers and delight.

Is it wrong that I want to buy myself flowers all the time now? It is for a good cause, right? Also, Friendly reminder if your mom lives in the 606-area you should buy her some good-for-the-world flowers.

TBIF - staying grounded and flying away

I am a horrendous self-promoter. My blog link can be found in various places on the internet, but with the exception of some weak tweets (also called tweaks? weets? we're working on it) it kind of just exists.

But then occasionally people call me out on it and so I talk about it in the most self-depricating way possible while trying desperately to change the subject. Sometimes I ask if the other person has a blog, and then they say no and I feel doubly stupid.

Sometimes though, they say Yes! And I get to experience things like Roots and [then] Wings, the lovely and thoughtful blog by my sweet and lovely coworker. I knew she was an amazing writer because duh, but her personal writing is just so honest and refreshing. She is a real writer while I often feel that I am not actually a writer, I just play one on the internet. 

This Thursday, enjoy someone who inspires me to try to tap into that place of writing that is in my deep inside soul bits and who makes me want to do yoga again.

The adorable secret (a love letter to Zooborns)

Guys, I have found the secret to positive and successful professional relationships at work.

Pictures of baby animals.

Anytime someone does something nice for me, or I do something nice for someone else - I find a reason to send them a picture of a baby animal.

It is solid gold in the professional development co-worker winning over department.

It may be that since I work in an office of predominately women, I have an edge over all of you Wall Street types. But we work hard and we are stressed and tired about 115% of the time and there is something to be said for an adorable baby otter making it all better even just for a moment.

I could not do this without Zooborns. And you shouldn't try it either. Zooborns is my go-to baby animal pick-me-up picture provider. You cannot go wrong.

Zooborns has been keeping me from crying at my desk since like 2010. Thank you for three years of adorable stress relief.

Happy Thursday, baby Otter, we're almost at the weekend.

TBIF: In mah belly

This week's find I actually discovered in real life (which sometimes happens).

I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the best minds in the world in my job. Not only are the people I see every day amazing, but the people who we support are making some inspiring discoveries and it is awesome.

This week as part of a conference, I got to hear the very dreamy Jack Gilbert talk about the microbial communities in our bodies and our houses and everywhere. It was super facinating and its exciting to know that he is just scratching the surface of all the things there are to discover on our insides and on our tables and door handles and how they affect our weight and brains and everything.

And, as we stand on the very brink of the future, one of the ways he is funding his research is crowd sourcing with American Gut. For just a few dollars, you can get a swab and then in a few weeks, you can know what your microbiome looks like. Compare it to other peoples. Put it up on your wall. Whatever.


Science, guys. It is the real deal.

TBIF: On my mobile

This Thursdays' Best Internet Finds posts comes courtesy of my lovely Mother and her knowledge of all things Frederick County, Maryland.

Two girls I went to high school with are doing amazing, world-changing things. Which is exciting because a vast majority of the news out of my hometown is about pregnancy, or jail time. So, bonus points for the news not being those things right off the bat.

As much as my mother would like to have you believe otherwise, cell phones are officially and completely the future. Especially in developing countries, access to cell phones can literally open the world to women. There are downfalls but the world is not going to step backward any time soon, so we might as well do everything we can to help these women step forward.

Also, bitches love cell phone covers.

Enter Kidogo Kidogo. Created by two girls I went to high school with (who have names, you know) Kim and Kristen Waeber.

Here's the deal. You buy one of these hella cute cellphone covers.

My favorite?

FLAMINGOS! They're perfect and pink!

And then you get a friend to buy one too.  Might I recommend the trees? 

And with those simple purchases ($30 is what I spend on Starbucks in two weeks) a woman in Tanzania receives a cellphone, a sim card, and phone credits to help her start new connected life.

The stories on their site are so simple and amazing. The thing you use to play candy crush is changing lives.

Guys, this is as easy as getting pregnant, but way, way better.

TBIF: Tee blues

Sometimes you make rules that are rational and necessary. Like "stop sleeping with that guy," or "try to be only a half hour late to work at least a couple times a week."

Right now, my rule is, "No more t-shirts."

There is a t-shirt problem in my apartment. They're everywhere. In every drawer and stacked in piles in my closet. There are t-shirts in bags that I've sworn will go to good will and an even bigger pile that I have double sworn are going to be made into a quilt.

I have been pretty good about no more t-shirts and added the challenge of no more tank tops to the rule. Everything was going Just.Fine.

And then I stumbled on this picture.

This is easily the most badass photo, possibly of all time, and I do not even care if it is photoshopped, because it is that good.

I had to go on a quest for these shirts because hot damn do I love manners and brunch.

It did not take too long to find Buy Me Brunch and decide that I wanted nearly every single shirt they sell. It hurts me. It physically hurts to not already have the "Buy Me Brunch" tank on its way to my house. 

Every single shirt I see has people who I know need it in their lives. My brother? Absolutely needs a snuggle monster tee. 

Most of my friends from high school (and some of my friends from the rest of my life) need the Surprise I'm Drunk tee.

If it had not literally just been Christmas about six minutes ago, and if I did not spend my life in everything except t-shirts, ugh, it would be mine.

I'll see if I can wait until February before I bend because my will power is actually nothing. For those who do not make arbitrary rules, buy a shirt. Immediately.

TBIF: for Bros and Creepers.

Mel Evans might be the funniest person I know in real life. Its real creepy and weird how much I like her and not-so-secretly would like to be her friend. Its mega strange and if she is reading this (which, lets be real, she isn't.) she would probably be hella uncomfortable and rethink all those cat pictures of mine she liked on instagram.

At any rate. She is a contributor to the perfect on-the-clock time-waster Bro Jackson which is basically if Deadspin was like, "Fuck you, Nick Denton, we're in charge. Jezebel, you can come too. Be cool."

Her columns, introducing bros to the finer, loved-by-the-ladies, things in life, are consistently hilarious and worth a read. This week's installment about Flowers in the Attic was particularly eloquent and on point as it discussed why girls in 8th grade are weirdly into incest and inappropriate boinking of other varieties.

I, myself, did not read Flowers in the Attic, though I have no idea how I missed such an essential part of adolescence, though I am sure this rationally explains my fears of commitment and twins.

What I did read was Return to the Secret Garden which had to have had the same effect. My mom purchased it for me in an insane error of judgement (seriously, do not judge a book by its cover unless you want your child's favorite childhood stories being beat up and kicked down a flight of stairs).

The Amazon page for this book is really quite spectacular. The summary has a bulleted list of facts. And those facts are mostly about the original. Also, everyone in the comments section is mad. The Amazon page might be more entertaining than the book itself.

There are some passages to that book that I read so often as a ten year-old that I still have them committed to memory despite my insistence on killing of brain cells at an alarming rate in the interim.

The book got passed around my middle school like the new Green Day CD. By the time I retired it, the spine had been taped back together numerous times, so exhausted had it been lying open for the young, impressionable girls to learn about the intricacies of marrying your cousin (spoiler alert) and the complications that arise after illicit garden sex.

I cannot in good faith recommend this book. I can tell you that if you should find it for sale for under a $1 then sure, let me know how it goes. I can in good faith tell you to be really, really awkward around Mel Evans and read Bro Jackson around 11:30 a.m. when you have already given up on the day.

Thursdays best Internet finds - the grass is greener edition

When I say my life is at Def-Con Bravo stress levels, that is only a gross over-exaggeration in that my job has very little impact on the world. It is stressful because I am bad at managing stress. I am particularly bad at managing stress that comes from things out of my control. I am stressed, but only because I am terrified of failing and I am leaving my success up to others.

That being said! One of the ways I deal with stress is thinking about all the other things I could be doing. I dream about other places, other careers, other whimsical things that strike my fancy. 

One of my favorite stress-relieving day dreams is here- at Longest Acres.

Reading this blog is like talking to the coolest girl you know who also happens to be the kindest and the most badass. Except she is a stranger. But I think we would be friends. Right? How creepy and stalker am I? I want to steal your life and be your friend. Yikes.

Her life doesn't sound perfect, in fact it sounds like it comes with all it's own stress and anxiety, but at the end of the day, when I have been sitting at a computer for 12 hours trying to make bagels appear out of thin air- it's the simplicity of her life that makes me so envious. 

It's not something I could sustain but to escape to a place where you get to control everything and find pride in that sounds pretty awesome. 

Thursdays Best Internet Finds: Make Me Things

I am drowning in everything right now. I just got a job, but I am also doing all the things I was doing before I had a job. So there is work-work, contract-work, babysitting-work, house-work, getting drinks with my friends-work, buying clothes-work...you get the idea.

Anyway. My gorgeous and insanely talented friend Cindy-loo just started this amazing blog:

Handmade Renegade.

Not only is Cindy-loo a french-speaking Engineer genius, she also is an amazing crafter who got her hands on a sewing machine and hasn't looked back since. Not only that: she is GROWING A HUMAN INSIDE HER. Seriously. She is incubating a person and making amazing princess tents. She can literally do everything.

Go look at all the amazing things she has made and be disappointed in your own inabilities. Then pin some stuff on your pinterest, eat a sandwich and feel better.

Thursday's Best Internet Finds - Fancy Photos

I am a huge photography nerd. I like taking photographs, looking at photographs... all the other things people do with photos (its kind of just a two step process, I guess).

The internet is cool because it makes looking at photographs way easier. Thanks Internet!

I was talking with a friend this past weekend about maternity pictures, as she is up the spout and I was wondering if she was going to pay someone a whole bunch of money to capture her glowy, round self for all eternity.

She isn't, because we both agreed its kind of silly. The professional photo industry is exploding, largely thanks to social media. I give photographers a wholebunch of credit, they have made quite the little niche industry for themselves. We spent some time wondering which event will trend as the next photo-worthy moment. My guess is secret proposal photos (which is already blowing up) followed by "Pictures-in-our-first-house."

Please don't think I am knocking photographers, or people who chose to have these photos taken - I am not at all. I totally understand it, and I really enjoy looking at the end result.

However. That is not what this blog is about. (holy tangent, batman).

Badass, creative photo projects are my number one fav. And here are three awesome ones.

Back to the Future - my naraccistic self so totally wants to be part of this. It combines my two favorite things: vintage photos and adults looking kind of ridiculous.

Toy Stories - children from all over the world (kids are the best subjects) and their most prized possessions. So wonderful and simple. The preceding article has some interesting anthropological tidbits but really when you look at these photos, in the back of your mind you are only thinking about what your possessions would be. I feel like that if I was captured at age 3 - 5, it would have been a cabbage patch doll, some legos in a yellow bookbag and a book or two (although one of my parents would probably answer that question better), anytime after 5 and before 10 - it was books, and barbies, and my Samantha doll and probably some dress-ups.

you are my wild - children (I was not kidding about them being the best subjects), photographed by their amazing parents. Parents (if they are lucky enough to be talented in this field) are the best at capturing everything that is wonderful about childhood. These photos make me want to be a parent. But only if I can also be an amazing photographer.

All the things.

I talked about this girl a few months back in a TBIF. And now she has a fancy new blog and a dynamite giveaway.




This blog is practically meaningless. Why wouldn't I use it to potentially score myself some sweet.sweet stuff? Guys, a cookbook? Etsy swag? You KNOW I love Etsy swag.

Kristen's blog is here. Read it. Oogle at her pictures. Give her a virtual belly rub.

So this is me entering her contest. If you go and you enter and you win. Ugh, I'll be so mad, but I'll still love you...but I'll be mad.

Thursday's Best Internet Finds! Stalker Edition

I spend far too much time on the internet. We could go into the why of this - but you're not my therapist, blog reader, and if you were - we would have waaaaay more important things on our metaphorical plate.

In my decade and a half of time spent in the internet tubes I have uncovered a lot of really amazing things and discovered some super cool people. Here's the weird thing - the people I've discovered, don't know I exist.

Its one thing to follow people who are asking for a following (Dear Baby Blog, I am looking in your direction). But there are others who have a super awesome thing going, but are not quite internet celebrities or are celebrities with personal blogs that don't get the same type of attention.

Internet stalking, yo. Don't knock it til you try it.

But today I am taking off the creepy black ski mask and letting my freak flag fly free.

Here are three of my favorites:

Army Pants and Flip Flops. This one is kind of cheating because this girl and I kinda-sorta travel in the same circles. I wouldn't know her if I saw her on the street, but my brother, my mom and probably my sister would - so...there's that. Anywhoodles, she is getting married to your Grade A type Army dude and so of course (because it wouldn't be a romantic comedy any other way) she is your standard Renn Fair loving theater geek. And he's deployed to Afghanistan. And there is a wedding to plan. And she's just trying to figure this ish out. The internet is a great place to get your Ish together. She makes me giggle out loud sometimes and she won Boyfriend's heart by confirming that you can in fact make a wedding registry on Amazon.com (not that Boyfriend is looking to register for Aneee.thing. He just really, really loves Amazon).

The Enjoy Project. Okay - Kristin is pretty darn close to famous. She has a business taking amazing pictures and so she probably racks up the hit counts. I found this blog through T-bone's wedding photographer Lydia Jane (check out T-bone's wedding! Lydia is ah.mazing) who is good friends with this Kristin, who (because Maryland is very, very small) photographed the weddings and engagements of some people I know from high school. Kristin's blog really caught my attention when she started blogging about how she met her (spoiler-alert) now husband. She and I operate on different wavelengths, but it is interesting to watch someone deal with doubt and fear and figuring it out because it makes you feel better about your own doubt and fear and challenges in figuring it out.

Please Note: I did not PLAN for this to be a TBIF all about shmoopy love business. I am not breaking away from my she-man-man-hating club. But I cannot be held responsible for the fact that girls who are increadibly talented and captivating writers tend to get boys all hot and bothered (I mean, duh, Boyfriend, case.in.point).

Dancing Brave. Heather is famous. Sups famous. I was obsessed with Heather back in 2002 when she was recapping for TWoP and had a sweet diaryland blog (guys - Diaryland was the real deal back in '03). Its weird to think that she was younger then than I am now. All making bad choices and being awesome. I thought she was so cool. I still do because she runs Go Fug Yourself (which I will proudly say, I've been reading since Day 1). But she also has a personal blog where she talks about raising twins (!!), and her love for all things Notre Dame (shake down the thunder, everyone). It is fun to see the dichotomy between her glamorous Fashion Week writing and her kids-at-home-how-we-do writing.

The internet is full of funny, smart ladies. The End.

Thursday's Best Internet Finds! The Fun Facts Edition

I only have one Internet find for you, because I have been working more and internet-ing less in the past few weeks. But this deserved a special nod, if only because with any luck this nod will turn into a nudge and she will update more.

Today in History

Kelsey came into my life at the most opportune moment, meaning - I was looking for a roommate and everyone I had met had been batshit crazy.  Way, way too crazy to share a kitchen with. But Kelsey showed up in a pair of green ballet flats and a kicky scarf (she will hate me for saying kicky - I am not quite sure what to call it though. Jaunty? Fun?) and saved me from a year of living of living with any of the lunatics who came marching through before her.

She is the friend with the best clothes, good hair and enough talent to make you totally jealous, but in a way where you still want to get drinks with her on the regular. 

She started this blog where she is teaching us all about history! And she has fun designs to go with it. And her commentary is hilarious.  You should learn from her, and then protest when she doesn't update for days and days (the days where she is not posting and Jon Stewart is in reruns are the worst for learning in my mind).

I too have a tumblr. It can be found here. It used to be about losing weight but I managed to crush that pipe dream under a pile of double stuf Oreos, so now it is just random thoughts and pictures. It is updated sporadically. If you combine the updates here and there you almost get one per day.