stolen props

loved ms taryn's post today, was a perfect steal for word. check out her blog as she moves on up to SF! congrats and best wishes my friend! you're gonna blow sf's socks off! xo

the world to me

when parents text...

if you haven't checked out when parents text - you must. i honestly think its better than damnyouautocorrect!

what they said....

given to one of my best friends. and she is, it's true.

at the steps to one of the many places i stayed on my "couch tour" . 

found in a little town. i have other words for it... and i am called a bitch! ;)

given by a friend. not the same as above. i really have amazing friends. fact.

ya, i wood. so would eddie.

an amazing friend took this for me. i want this. car and license plate.  or "IAMGREY"  (disclaimer: this has NOTHING to do with grey's anatomy. which i love. but not like that....)

i totally disagree with this actually, but most my friends would say this is amazing! ;)

....that would be you!

props again to seth godin.....

The world's worst boss

That would be you.

Even if you're not self-employed, your boss is you. You manage your career, your day, your responses. You manage how you sell your services and your education and the way you talk to yourself.

Odds are, you're doing it poorly.

If you had a manager that talked to you the way you talked to you, you'd quit. If you had a boss that wasted as much as your time as you do, they'd fire her. If an organization developed its employees as poorly as you are developing yourself, it would soon go under.

I'm amazed at how often people choose to fail when they go out on their own or when they end up in one of those rare jobs that encourages one to set an agenda and manage themselves. Faced with the freedom to excel, they falter and hesitate and stall and ultimately punt.

We are surprised when someone self-directed arrives on the scene. Someone who figures out a way to work from home and then turns that into a two-year journey, laptop in hand, as they explore the world while doing their job. We are shocked that someone uses evenings and weekends to get a second education or start a useful new side business. And we're envious when we encounter someone who has managed to bootstrap themselves into happiness, as if that's rare or even uncalled for.

There are few good books on being a good manager. Fewer still on managing yourself. It's hard to think of a more essential thing to learn.

"wow" (aka - words of wisdom!)

courtesy of my friend sean's status today:

Take chances. Tell the truth. Date someone totally wrong for you. Say no. Spend all your cash! Fall in love. Get to know someone random. Be random. Say I love you. Sing out loud. Laugh at a stupid joke. Cry. Get revenge. Apologize. Tell someone how much they mean to you. Tell the asshole what you feel. Let someone know what they're missing. Laugh til your stomach hurts. LIVE LIFE!

i liked it ;)

i want this!!!

the WORD posted a blog about this ridiculously cool book!

Tree of Codes

An enormous last day of life.

“Jonathan Safran Foer, deftly deploys sculptural means to craft a truly compelling story. In our world of screens, he welds narrative, materiality, and our reading experience into a book that remembers that it actually has a body.”
–Olafur Eliasson

Our early conversations with Jonathan Safran Foer aboutTree of Codes started when Jonathan said he was curious to explore and experiment with the die-cut technique. With that as our mutual starting point, we spent many months of emails and phone calls, exploring the idea of the pages’ physical relationship to one another and how this could somehow be developed to work with a meaningful narrative. This led to Jonathan deciding to use an existing piece of text and cut a new story out of it. Having considered working with various texts, Jonathan decided to cut into and out of what he calls his “favourite book”: The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz.

As Jonathan began to carve out his story, we started doing our production homework and literally got turned down by every printer we approached – their stock line being “the book you want to make just cannot be made”. Thankfully, we found Die Keure in Belgium who relished the challenge of making a book with a different die-cut on every page.

Over a year of writing, cutting and proto-typing later, comesTree of Codes, a haunting new story by Jonathan Safran Foer cut from Bruno Schulz’s words.

The book is as much a sculptural object as it is a work of masterful storytelling: here is an “enormous last day of life” that looks like it feels.

Design by Sara De Bondt Studio
Cover design by gray318

Published 15 November 2010
ISBN 978-0-9565692-1-9
Paperback

how insane is this guys mind? in the best way! adding this to the amazon universal wish list now!

love is...

so well said i wish i said it myself.... ;)

On Love

Love.

I thought I'd tackled this topic before. But no, I'd just talked about The Sex and how it relates to The Love.

I do believe in Love. Love with a capital L.

I do. Just because my experience with it is limited, doesn't mean I don't think it exists. I've seen it.

On of my best friends, Morgan, is getting married. And while she and her imminent husband (her term) may not have seen it, they had this meant-to-be-ness surrounding them from the start.

I don't believe in destiny, but I do believe in timing and chemistry and compatibility and desire and these two have all that in spades. The spark between them was so strong even in the beginning that we all couldn't help but be fall in love with them as a couple.

Morgan expressed some angst recently that friends and fam didn't seem to be surprised or excited enough when they announced their engagement or over wedding plans (I think). But I told her (and I can only speak for myself here) that I hope my excitement translated (I think it did as I squealed over the phone like an 8 year old girl who just got her Barbie Dream House) because I am so excited!

But I was not surprised. Not surprised at all. In fact, I was comforted to know they were making this happen because if these two did not end up together, the world would implode.

These two renew my faith in Love.

I have loved. But have never been loved. I have been told the words. But known they were empty, despite the desire to mean them. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure I know what it looks like and I know what it doesn't look like. 

I don't believe in destiny. I've said that. So therefore I don't want to be someone's other half. 1 and 1 make 2. We're not incomplete people searching to be whole (thanks, Aristotle). We're whole people all on our own. So I want someone who is great and happy all alone. Who doesn't need me to be happy. But wants me anyway.

Love is not a filler of a void. I have to go back to the idea that you have to fill that yourself, love yourself. Otherwise someone else's love will just wash in and out of that cavity.  Because I think Love is complimentary.  I don't think you can truly love and appreciate someone else until you and appreciate yourself first. I don't think love can survive otherwise.

Love is about balance. I can't be someone's idol and I shouldn't worship someone else. Imbalance just seems to me to be a shoddy way to begin. I want to find my equal. Someone who challenges me in a way I can reciprocate. Someone who loves me with the same force I do.

I don't want to be anyone's doctor. I can't fix what is wrong with you. I can be a kickass listener and I'm supportive to a fault. But my job is not to mend your brokenness. You have to do that work yourself.

Love is not an addiction. So many people struggle with addiction to substances, why is addiction to a person so encouraged? If it's not a healthy relationship, then it's not love.

Love is between adults. I'm not looking to parent anyone and I'm not looking for a parent. I didn't get the mother I deserved, but I also don't deserve to replace her with a romantic partner and neither should my partner have to parent me. I have to learn to parent myself, to give myself the love my mother didn't.

I think that bears repeating. Whatever love you didn't get in childhood is not the responsibility of a romantic partner.

I feel like this post is getting preachy. Or pedantic. Or just lame.

I feel like I'm not making my point well.

Maybe my ideas about love are naive. Maybe ignorance truly is bliss. But each of those situations above? I've been in. And that's not love.

Love is not a safety net, not something to fix our bruised and broken lives, not something to obsess over and cling to with desperation and fear. I don't think so anyway.

So I'll wait, thanks, for that real thing. For the love that blows me away.

amazing! 

check it!

line of the day.....

my adorable grandma sent me this book a few years back. i loved the author's style and sense of humor immediately....little thoughts like this one....


The Line

Where does the line go

between

self-love and,

selfishness,

and how do we know

when we cross it?

http://carmenrichardsonrutlen.com/

inspiration....

my not so little anymore mini me posted this earlier. i really liked it. and...i liked it. 

But come here fear,
I am alive.

And you are so afraid of dying.

werd

Hacking education

"You teach kids how to succeed when they successfully foil the educational system."

Arlo Guthrie

word. brooklyn

love this. a bookstore in brooklyn called word. word!

with a blog of course.


and out of curiosity.... word.com, surprisingly more interesting than i expected for merriam webster.

exuberating

excerpt from a recent aaron karo ruminations....


-I was hitting on a girl recently who told me how her job takes her around the world, and that she finds travel “exuberating.” As we continued talking, I discreetly tweeted that this wasted chick had just made up a word by combining “exuberant” and “exhilarating.” Only later when I Googled it did I realize it’s actually a real word. Now, granted, given the situation, I’m 100% positive that she stumbled upon it and did not use it on purpose, but nevertheless I feel humbled. I guess the world can learn a lot from slurring drunk chicks.


http://www.ruminations.com/column/178


ps. the blogger headline is highlighted as a misspelled word. 

me am

growing up i was constantly reminded that if i  added the "am" after i or me i would know which was the proper use. 


i still don't really stop and think about the am, i just say me or i. sometimes i hear the haunting reminder but i honestly just laugh about it.


i have never been one for conforming to "the rules" just because someone made it so. for instance, not a fan of caps. maybe its lazy typing (i also do not type with the "right" fingers on the "right" keys) but i think its much more an aesthetics thing. i like the way the lower case letters look. except in a few people's handwriting that is all caps - and i envy it. weird i know!


but i never liked all the rules that went along with writing. i think that's a big part why i didn't pursue a career (paid at least!) in writing. the rules always took away the pleasure of the expression, the art of writing... 


in the beginning of my dream internship at an advertising agency, the creative director told me that "..." was not to be used in advertising. it wasn't good. period. i could have quit right then but there are actually some rules i follow. 


so, i use the "..." and did in my various work beyond there, but, i wasn't going to quit my internship on the spot, or not follow through with my degree....i just wasn't necessarily going to be doing anything related to it for a career... 


i obviously use more than needed commas, or so i have been told. but i write as i think and i need to denote a pause somehow, when i pause for thought. maybe it's cocky. 


i like changing spelling of words to suit my fancy, shorten words (again maybe laziness but maybe aesthetics....) and on the rare occasion i have enjoyed (making) a word longer. hott. "(it's) so hott (it) got an extra t"...kerry.  (www.kerrykrenzin.com)


i specifically like adding/using k's, x's, and words with z's. k because my name starts with a k, and most people will never ever ever remember that. i once got a note on a self-addressed envelope addressed to "cori". and even in emails when using my email that has my name in it, still - dear cori. i like x's and z's because they're just not used enough. and they're "hard" letters. if you don't get that i don't know what to tell you. it made my first sighting of zzyzx road very very exciting. well, that and something else. i really pretty much wish i could live on that street. if it wasn't in the middle of nowhere. would just be a bad ass address.  

i don't know why/what differentiates my use of "..." versus "-" versus ",". they're all pauses. different kinds somehow.


i doubt i could ever be a legitimate paid writer, as i doubt i will ever conform to any writing style out of a text/hand book. not to pat myself on the back, but i could count on one hand the number of non "A" papers i got throughout my whole life, mostly because the few that were not, were very impactful for reasons much greater than the grade itself). furthermore i took a variety of writing courses from creative writing to journalism, copy writing, scriptwriting, copy editing, press writing, and so on, and seemingly did so well enough. i just "abhorred" the rules. that "abhorred" is a quirky reference to my father, also a "writer". he, i think, thrives on those rules? (i just LOL'd remembering some funny moments. and i would NEVER use LOL like that had it not been a hank moody reference. i doubt you're keeping up with me. whoever YOU are...)


CAPS. for yelling or VERY very important emphasizing. (changed emphasis to emphasizing to get in a z....)


so, i apologize now, and likely only now, for my abhorring grammar, spelling errors (which i promise you is almost always intentional as i always spell check...), lowercase letters, abbreviations, extra punctuation and such. i hope, you can read past that, and read just simply what i write, the content, the words, and not be too concerned with all the rules...

i came across this seth godin blog recently and i think it nicely applies here....

Interpreting criticism

Heartfelt criticism of your idea or your art is usually right (except when it isn't...)

Check out this letter from the publisher of a magazine you've never heard of to the founder of a little magazine called Readers Digest:

But, personally, I don't see how you will be able to get enough subscribers to support it. It is expensive for its size. It isn't illustrated... I have my doubts about the undertaking as a publishing venture.

Of course, he was right--given his assumptions. And that's the except part.

Criticism of your idea is usually based on assumptions about the world as it is. Jackson Pollock could never have made it as an painter in the world as it was. And Harry Potter was rejected by just about everyone because for it to succeed the way kids read would have to change.

The useful element of this sort of criticism isn't that the fact that people embracing the status quo don't like your idea. Of course they don't. The interesting question is: what about the world as it is would have to change for your idea to be important?

In the case of Readers Digest, the key thing that changed was the makeup of who was reading magazines. Most of the people (and it was a lot of people) who subscribed to the Digest didn't read other magazines. And so comparing to other magazines made no sense, except to say, "this is so different from other magazines, the only way you're going to succeed is by selling it to millions of people who don't read those magazines." And Starbucks had no chance if they were going to focus on the sort of person who bought coffee at Dunkin Donuts or a diner, and the iPad couldn't possibly succeed if people were content to use computers the way they were already using them.

Keep that in mind the next time a gatekeeper or successful tastemaker explains why you're going to fail.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/09/interpreting-criticism.html

ruminations...

my first blog crush, started awhile ago. actually picked up a book or two and now wanna see his stand up comedy show. ...stalkerish. obsessive. is writing art?....

aaron karo, ruminations.com, aaronkaro.com

http://www.ruminations.com/column


from a recent blog..... i put in bold a few i particularly like.

-Even if I’m explicitly reminded to “read from the bottom up” when forwarded an entertaining email conversation, I still read from the top down and ruin it.

-Utilizing both a smiley face and parentheses in the same sentence is a complex maneuver few should attempt.

-Ever notice that in Word when you right click on a plural term in order to find a synonym it merely gives you the singular version of the same word? No one wins.

-Have you ever mistaken a soap dispenser for a hand sanitizer dispenser and spent five minutes futilely rubbing soap into your dry hands?

-I last lived with a roommate five years ago and 3,000 miles away, but I’m still finding his shit. The other day I called Brian and said, “Dude, I’m pretty sure I have your pillow case.” “No way,” he responded, “How do you know?” “Well, for starters,” I said, “it has your name written in it.”

-Time Warner Cable just signed me up for “PowerBoost,” which is supposed to make my Internet faster for a few extra bucks a month. Clearly this is the 21st century version of being sold magic beans.

-You know you’re not religious when people offer you salutations for holidays you had no idea were happening.

-This morning my treadmill abruptly stopped mid-run and the screen read: “Maintenance necessary.” That’s just a low blow.

-I actually bought the Axe shower tool. Now I feel like one.

-And, finally, I’m the oldest child and my parents had me five years after they were married. I think five years is a good number. You get to enjoy each other’s company for a while (and make sure you don’t get divorced) before starting to pop out babies. The problem is, with people getting married later and later these days, waiting so long to conceive isn’t always an option. This has a disproportionately adverse effect on women, who now face dual pressure – from society to get married, and from biology to have kids. Meanwhile, I can stick to dating twenty-three-year-olds and not worry about either. The fact is, though, women are saints for putting up with all this. As I wrote in Ruminations #111, my mom left her career to stay home and raise my sister and me, only to return to the workforce shortly thereafter because I was such a pain in the ass. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I owe my life to my mom. And she owes hers to daycare. Fuck me.

inspiration not motivation

so in the challenge to blog more myself i have been on a quest to find (or stalking...) other blogs. is that wrong? i dunno...but it was recently suggested to me to look for inspiration, not motivation. and this blog in particular has indeed inspired me.... check out this archived post for example ;)
Mission Statement 

Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolution:

I will live a life of choice by pausing between stimulus and response to proactively choose a response that is deeply integrated with my recognized principles and values.  In every situation, I increase my ability to act with integrity as I pause to ask with intent, listen without excuse, and act with courage

I seize the day and refuse to waste a single moment that I could otherwise use to better myself or work towards my goals.

I treat people honestly and fairly in all encounters.

I ensure that there is no blunting of passions by excercising a firm, healthy disciple over desires.

I tactfully and respectfully stand up for my beliefs and values, for goodness must have some edge to it, or else it is none.

I will, above all, live with passion and a sense of urgency as I understand that this gift is not promised to be here tomorrow.

www.thisruggedlife.blogspot.com

drop a love bomb!

i recently learned of this great website/blog  - drop a love bomb. i love what they're doing and the community of blogs/bloggers i've discovered through them.

   Love Bomb is a project ofItStartsWith.Us. Once a week we come together to drop hundreds of love bombs (in the form of blog comments) for those who need it most. Subscribe via email below or follow us on Tumblr, and join us in our missions. It only takes 5 minutes a week! 

example: this week's mission

Bombing Mission: Chicago Fire Department

Note: We are now partnering with bloggers for missions! This week’s partners: Lauren Nicole Love, TheBee’sKnees, HannahKaty.com, CollectionOfThings, LettersSheWrote, InspiredMess.com,TallAsGrass, Talk2TheTrees, ABCCreativity.com, AmySoto, and ProneToWander. 
- - -
Hey Team!
This week we are doing something just a tad different.
Typically we drop a Love Bomb on one person, but this week we are dropping a Love Bomb on theentire Chicago Fire Department.
Chris Wheatley, one of their firefighters, died in the line of duty on August 9th.
Nate and I would like for this Love Bomb mission to be two-fold:
1) To encourage, support and comfort the Chicago Fire Department as they’ve lost a brother in duty.
2) To thank the Chicago Fire Department for serving their community so faithfully.
As most of you know, Nate (@ItStartsWithUs) runs our parent organization, ItStartsWith.Us - their 15 minute mission for this week is to help out a service worker. Every now and then the ItStartsWithUs team helps us drop our Love Bombs, so I thought it would be awesome if we could do our part by supporting a service worker (a lot of them!) while we drop our Love Bomb at the same time!
You can leave a comment on the Chicago Fire Department’s blog here: http://cfdblaze.com/2010/08/cffu-local-2-tom-ryan/
Lauren
P.S.  In your comment, mention where you are from. It’s always cool, and particularly awesome in this mission.

props

to other blog posts. post props?! the damn p's!  but never when i play scrabble....


but i love this post. both the change of spelling and everything about it from there.


http://herollercoaster.blogspot.com/2010/09/hikoo.html


HYKOO
i want to be tree
rooted deep under the ground
leaves shaking with joy