Yeah, I'll admit, I just read about 400 awesome things. That's all they had on the site so far. And man, my 5 were pretty lame.
So here are some better ones:
-The feeling you get in your stomach at the top of the roller coaster
-When you are immediately connected to a real person, and not a recording on the phone
-Pretending you're asleep and fooling the other person!
-Scraping just enough PB or mayo out of the jar to make a sandwich
Also, I decided it was my civic duty to share this with you, because it totally rocks!
19 November, 2009
Something Awesome
Postsecret just turned me onto this website 1,000 Awesome Things.
So far, I've only gotten through four of them, but I'm hooked. It's a great website to look at right around Thanksgiving, isn't it?
My fave so far: When your nose is dripping and someone hands you a tissue.
Well, I'd say I'm inspired.
Here are five things that I think are hella awesome. Let's see if they're on the list of 1,000 somewhere.
5. The moment when everything suddenly calms down. I'm thinking specifically of when I got off the train from Paris to Lisieux last year. Everything was so stressful, and then stepping onto the platform was like an instant calm. But this happens all the time! When you check off the last in a loooong series of To-Does at work, when you put the last dish on the drying rack or dishwasher, when the giant tidal wave hits the arc you made for 1 million citizens and everyone survives...you name it!
4. Finding a sweet bit of nostalgia. You know the kind, the one you had almost forgotten, then it comes into your mind but no one knows what the hell it is, and you can't explain it very well anyway, so you begin to think maybe you created it too, but then one day it up and slaps you in the face. That one. For me, it's finding Garfield's Halloween Adventure or Dr. Quandary's Island. I'm still looking for episodes of Baywatch that featured scary things like vampires and ghosts.
3. Families we make for ourselves.
2. Falling in love, and having that person love you the same way.
1. My all-time favorite feeling in the world: When you wake up and look at the alarm clock and realize you still have one hour to sleep. I actually used to beg someone I knew who worked overnights to call me at like 4am so I could wake up and then go back to sleep!
I was going to criticize 1,000 Awesome Things for being a bit overblown with the writing, but I'm realizing now that that's just a side effect of raving about things that make you feel good!
So far, I've only gotten through four of them, but I'm hooked. It's a great website to look at right around Thanksgiving, isn't it?
My fave so far: When your nose is dripping and someone hands you a tissue.
Well, I'd say I'm inspired.
Here are five things that I think are hella awesome. Let's see if they're on the list of 1,000 somewhere.
5. The moment when everything suddenly calms down. I'm thinking specifically of when I got off the train from Paris to Lisieux last year. Everything was so stressful, and then stepping onto the platform was like an instant calm. But this happens all the time! When you check off the last in a loooong series of To-Does at work, when you put the last dish on the drying rack or dishwasher, when the giant tidal wave hits the arc you made for 1 million citizens and everyone survives...you name it!
4. Finding a sweet bit of nostalgia. You know the kind, the one you had almost forgotten, then it comes into your mind but no one knows what the hell it is, and you can't explain it very well anyway, so you begin to think maybe you created it too, but then one day it up and slaps you in the face. That one. For me, it's finding Garfield's Halloween Adventure or Dr. Quandary's Island. I'm still looking for episodes of Baywatch that featured scary things like vampires and ghosts.
3. Families we make for ourselves.
2. Falling in love, and having that person love you the same way.
1. My all-time favorite feeling in the world: When you wake up and look at the alarm clock and realize you still have one hour to sleep. I actually used to beg someone I knew who worked overnights to call me at like 4am so I could wake up and then go back to sleep!
I was going to criticize 1,000 Awesome Things for being a bit overblown with the writing, but I'm realizing now that that's just a side effect of raving about things that make you feel good!
06 November, 2009
Why people scare me
I typed "is" into google today, hoping to ask the wise internet world if I could get away with dropping an apostrophe (which, I know, is sinful most of the time, but it turns out it was OK in this case).
The problem is that google predictor gave me this:
Yes, the volume of people who care so much about celebrity gossip is scary. But what's exponentially more horrifying to me is that 4 of the results question the sex organs of successful women.
Let's be clear: when people ask if Lady Gaga is a "hermaphrodite" (which, by the way, is a horribly offensive and inaccurate term) or if Wendy Williams is a man, they are specifically asking about what organs they have in their pants. No, people are not asking about their sexualities. They're not asking about their gender expressions, since both clearly express themselves as feminine. The people who ask these questions assume they have the right to know about these public figures' biology.
And why? Why should it matter to anyone? Lady Gaga is an incredibly talented, extremely successful pop artist. Wendy Williams is a well-known radio and TV personality who is also quite successful despite, or perhaps because of, her controversial brash reporting style.
These two women are powerful. They have notoriety because of what they do. Not because of their sex. I think this world would be a better place if these googlers would rephrase their searches. My suggestions:
-Is hermaphrodite an offensive term?
-What are the meanings of transvestite, transgender, transsexual, intersex, etc,?
-When is Lady Gaga's new CD coming out?
-What channel is Wendy Williams' show on?
-Is it OK to drop an apostrophe after a business name?
Basically, anything that actually educates us and doesn't feed into this inane obsession with celebrity lives and body parts. Or, you can read this article by Carrie Polansky that articulates part of the reason I felt so uncomfortable looking at the search prediction. It's because of this weird media storm that happened after a video of Lady Gaga in a short skirt was released. I think the genius of the article is that Carrie urges us not to care about the video or Gaga's alleged (not confirmed) response, but how incredibly disrespectful the coverage was.
Of course after I noticed what the predictions were for the word "is," I had to try some other ones.
Here's what I saw when I typed "why" (keyword Pakistani - this one is so terrifying I don't even know where to begin:
And here's the result for "what" (keyword strawberries - ...............?):
Seriously, people, seriously?
The problem is that google predictor gave me this:
Yes, the volume of people who care so much about celebrity gossip is scary. But what's exponentially more horrifying to me is that 4 of the results question the sex organs of successful women.
Let's be clear: when people ask if Lady Gaga is a "hermaphrodite" (which, by the way, is a horribly offensive and inaccurate term) or if Wendy Williams is a man, they are specifically asking about what organs they have in their pants. No, people are not asking about their sexualities. They're not asking about their gender expressions, since both clearly express themselves as feminine. The people who ask these questions assume they have the right to know about these public figures' biology.
And why? Why should it matter to anyone? Lady Gaga is an incredibly talented, extremely successful pop artist. Wendy Williams is a well-known radio and TV personality who is also quite successful despite, or perhaps because of, her controversial brash reporting style.
These two women are powerful. They have notoriety because of what they do. Not because of their sex. I think this world would be a better place if these googlers would rephrase their searches. My suggestions:
-Is hermaphrodite an offensive term?
-What are the meanings of transvestite, transgender, transsexual, intersex, etc,?
-When is Lady Gaga's new CD coming out?
-What channel is Wendy Williams' show on?
-Is it OK to drop an apostrophe after a business name?
Basically, anything that actually educates us and doesn't feed into this inane obsession with celebrity lives and body parts. Or, you can read this article by Carrie Polansky that articulates part of the reason I felt so uncomfortable looking at the search prediction. It's because of this weird media storm that happened after a video of Lady Gaga in a short skirt was released. I think the genius of the article is that Carrie urges us not to care about the video or Gaga's alleged (not confirmed) response, but how incredibly disrespectful the coverage was.
Of course after I noticed what the predictions were for the word "is," I had to try some other ones.
Here's what I saw when I typed "why" (keyword Pakistani - this one is so terrifying I don't even know where to begin:
And here's the result for "what" (keyword strawberries - ...............?):
Seriously, people, seriously?
05 November, 2009
02 November, 2009
After a long, postless absence
I just want to say, I have the best friends in the world, who keep me very busy, and two exciting new jobs that give me lots of entertaining stories. Sorry for my absence, but I've really been livin' it up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)