Updates from November, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Carmen 6:00 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    movie review, sort of… 

    So I tried to watch Bride Wars last night.  I only got half way through which could be attributed to the late hour but also because the movie hadn’t made me angry yet and I wanted to quit while I was ahead. (high five?)  You know what my forte is? What I reeeaaaally excel at? Overthinking.  Yeah.  Is this a bad thing? I’m not sure yet (I haven’t overthought my tendency to overthink yet (its on the list of things to do this weekend)).  So, I think a “normal” person could watch this movie and just enjoy the minimal amount of humor it has and be done with it.  But I have to analyze its quality and its impact on our society and wonder what kinds of messages is it really sending to all the women out there and is it harmful or not harmful, and then it just starts making me angry.  Like, who are these women??  I don’t know any women who have been saving and planning for their wedding since they were 16. Do you?  I know I haven’t been dreaming of a wedding for any length of time.  But I know they exist or else why would all these movies and tv shows about them exist? Is it an outdated idea thats left over from the 50′s?  Or is it a healthy characteristic that I was not taught about?  Am I weird? Or are they weird?  Honestly, it doesn’t really matter.  What concerns me is if young ladies (like teenagers) watch these millions of movies made about weddings and believe that that is the way to behave.  Because if that happens we’re all fucked and irrational bridezillas will take over the planet!  (Yeah, I’d watch that movie!)  Hopefully these teenagers will just appreciate it for the half-way comedy that it is and just forget about it.  Which is exactly what I am going to attempt to do tonight as I finish watching it.  I can do it!

    On a somewhat separate note, I already know exactly whats going to happen all the way through this movie. As I have said before, these writers have no imagination and the whole story follows a very narrow and predictable line of reasoning.  But I’ll let you know if they surprise me.

     
    • Emilily 6:55 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink

      Well, I am not sure about all that. Probably because I need to improve my over-thinking skills.

      I have not spent any time planning for my wedding, aside form the random comment about how insanely expensive they are and that I am never going to be duped into spending $300 for a floral centerpiece or some nonsense. I do know a few girls who fall prey to the bridal fever, and I know of even more mothers who have spent considerable time and money in planning for this event. I think it is something left over from more traditional family roles, and yes, probably some 50′s values. I am willing to be that those silly women who came up with National Men Make Dinner Day had been picking out bridesmaid dresses since Junior High!

      Okay, now that I think about it, the wedding planning goes waaaay back. Have you ever heard of a hope chest? (Also called, disturbingly, a glory box.) It is for a woman’s family to save all kinds of valuable things in that she will be given when she weds. Like one big Christmas for matrimony. And what about a dowry? Parents had to plan the wedding ahead of time, how else would they land a suitable husband? No wonder a girl was encouraged to get excited about her big day – for her, it might have been the only silver lining in the whole sold-into-domestic-slavery transaction. Families have been planning how to unload their female offspring for ages, and I bet women have been plotting on how to escape watchful eyes of parents for just as long. Only today when marriage seems so impermanent, when women are free to leave the house and pursue their own desires, husband or no, when aspiring to be a housewife shows a lack of personal ambition rather than good wholesome values, does all the wedding planning become optional, superfluous. I don’t think we are weird to not sit around thinking about seating charts and color schemes, I think we are evolved, and the entertainment and media industries are simply lagging a few decades behind.

    • Atom Ant 5:37 am on December 1, 2009 Permalink

      It’s sick … really. I always wonder what kind of person would think movies like that are funny. Bride Wars, Runaway Bride, My best friends wedding, The Wedding Planner, the list goes on and on. Stupid, predictable, marginally funny at best. This is true with 98% of romantic comedies. So my conclusion is that these movies were made for 98% of the (female?) population. So, with a few simple calculations… 304,059,724 / 2 = 152,029,862 X 0.98 = a butt load of people out there who are just plain idiots. And to further my point, lets just ask Jerry Springer how much money he’s made off of this country’s toxic, brainwashed, obese by choice, drugged, alcoholic population?
      I’m sure that everybody reading this is in the 2% of the population who actually have a functional brain.
      Right?

  • Emilily 2:10 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: feathers, mai lamore,   

    Mai Lamore shoes 

    feather shoesI was browsing through my Elle magazine yesterday, and came upon these lovely shoes! They’re made by a French designer, Mai Lamore. (For our reader(s) out there who aren’t Carmen or Emilily, we recently purchased feather earrings, so this is in keeping with a theme.)

    Here is a link to a larger picture at SBeulah’s fashion blog, because you really have to see them full size to appreciate the beautiful detail.

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    rose shoesWhen I did a quick web search to see where one might purchase these beauties, I found another stunning pair, made out of hand-painted silk and 18-karat gold, for only $27,945.

    I know the price seems a bit outrageous, but I think these really are a work of art, and the fact that they are functional makes them that much more valuable.

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    rothkoSeems a little more reasonable when you consider someone paid $72.8 million for Rothko’s  Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose. I wonder if anyone pointed out to them that they could have had 2,605 pairs of Mai Lamore Rose petal shoes instead.

     
    • Carmen 2:15 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink

      oh geez thats so pretty… yeah i’m into feathers right now for sure. Also, when i get more free time i’m going to start making my own shoes.

  • Carmen 11:41 am on November 30, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lagerfeld,   

    helmets… 

    Karl Lagerfeld is designing these helmets, I’m thinking about getting one for riding my bike. What do you think?

    helmet

     
    • Emilily 12:25 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink

      Ironically, I think he is counting on people liking these after they have sustained a head injury.

      Or perhaps Lagerfeld is one step ahead of me and is using irony as a clever means of commenting on the world of high fashion. If I play along and put my pseudo-intellectual bullshit cap on, this image says to me: models are retarded, or maybe, handicap people can be stylish too.

    • Emilily 12:30 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink

      Also, I really like her eye make-up.

      (I felt I should add something nice, since my previous comment was pretty offensive to models, handicap people, head-trauma victims, and Karl Lagerfeld.)

    • Carmen 12:36 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink

      I think if I got this helmet it might make people want to run me over… thus, it would come in handy at some point. Karl is so clever!

  • Carmen 1:02 pm on November 25, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    want… 

    so pretty…  on sale on gilt today by Jonathan Kelsey…

    sequin-shoe

     
  • Carmen 12:37 pm on November 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    LHC update… 

    I just wanted to update you on the progress of the Large Hadron Collider.  Apparently, thier website gives out bulletins keeping everyone up to speed.  Unfortunately, these updates make no sense at all and are only written in their super secret science language.  So, I’d like to take a stab at translating for everyone (i’m talking to you emily (and my mom) since you’re the only one reading this).  Here is their bulletin, and here is my translation:

    “We have been shooting beams of energy into these pipes since last week and they have gotten about half way around this big ass circle we built.  We’re using some really expensive and sensitive equipment to track the particles moving around in there and so far, nothing has broken.  Pretty soon we’re going to start shooting particles into another tube going the opposite direction and in about a week we should be able to see these particles getting into some head-on collisions.”

    So there is your update, not too exciting yet.  Even if I don’t understand the specifics of what they are talking about I love reading bulletins that talk about such things as: “beams dumped just upstream of  the experiment cavern.” and “particles produced by the impact of the protons on the tertiary collimators left their tracks in the calorimeters and the muon chambers of the experiment.”

    And here’s a bonus if you are interested in learning the facts about a baguette being the guilty party in the LHC’s emergency shut down.

     
    • Atom Ant 5:17 pm on November 23, 2009 Permalink

      I beg your pardon? Emily is the only one reading? Far from true my little lily pad. I am a religious reader.

    • Carmen 5:29 pm on November 23, 2009 Permalink

      Ay dios mio! my apologies! I didn’t mean to exclude any of our religious readers. Please allow me to edit that part out…

  • Carmen 12:08 pm on November 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    What is going on here?? 

    From the Victoria Secret fashion show last night (which gets more and more ridiculous every year)…

    vsfs

     
    • olga 4:28 am on November 21, 2009 Permalink

      I’ll tell you what is going on. God has made a serious error with those legs! Where does she put them when she is on an airplane? On the poor schmucks shoulders sitting in the row in front of her?m Also, it’s hard to tell if she is missing her torso due to the gold-plated foliage. I’m concerned about her ability to process food. From this angle it looks like there is some hard core misappropriation of proportions on this girl. Somebody better call a 911 fashion emergency!

    • Emilily 10:59 am on November 23, 2009 Permalink

      Aside from Olga’s very astute comments above, I also object to their portrayal of people from the future (I think that is what they are implying with all that metallic nonsense?) because I think people from the future will have the good sense to stop wearing lucite platform stripper heels.

  • Emilily 1:03 pm on November 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Josie Maran Argan Oil 

    argan oil

    So we’ve discussed the Nars Monoi Body Oil, and the Moroccan Hair Oil, so I thought I’d do a quick review on the Josie Maran Argan Oil (for the face.)

    According to Sephora:

    What it does:
    Josie Maran Argan Oil is a legendary oil that’s rich in vitamin E and essential fatty acids, and grown organically in Morocco. Argan oil is known to have many treatment benefits, including hydrating and nourishing skin, as well as toning and firming. It’s gentle enough to use on all skin types and is believed to help with skin conditions including acne.

    What it is formulated WITHOUT:
    - Parabens
    - Sulfates
    - Synthetic Fragrance
    - Synthetic Dye
    - Petro-Chemicals
    - Phthalates

    What else you need to know:
    The oil is housed in a recyclable glass bottle, and purchased from women’s cooperatives in Morocco to support their social and economic welfare. These cooperatives work within a UNESCO biosphere reserve that ensures the protection and reforestation of Argan trees.

    Now, I like the way all of that sounds. Natural oils, recycled bottle, no chemicals, sustainably harvested…but none of that was enough to allow me to get past the fact that this stuff, put simply, smells like manure. Not a slight, musty stroll-through-the-stable smell, but a full on bury-your-face-in-a-pile-of-it stench. Needless to say, I returned it, and for future reference, I think argan is Moroccan for horseshit.

     
  • Carmen 1:00 pm on November 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: helena bonham carter   

    Helena… 

    I just thought you might want to see the most recent picture of Helena Bonham Carter… just to bask in her awesomeness.  And just so you know, when my hair grows out this is what it will look like.

    Untitled

     
    • Emilily 10:56 am on November 23, 2009 Permalink

      Helena Bonham Carter is awesome, and I think she should totally be your hair muse. When Alice in Wonderland comes out, you should watch it and get ideas for future hair styles. Probably you should also start working from home so you can rock hair like this every day.

  • Emilily 12:33 pm on November 17, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , trader joe's   

    when good food does bad 

    sausageOh, Trader Joe’s, how could you?

    I cannot come up with any combination of ingredients that would justify that sad little comma.

    P.S. I typically do not like apple sausages (something about combining organ meats and fruit…ick) but I had to buy it for the blog…and I didn’t think they would appreciate if I removed the cardboard label and put it back on the shelf.

    P.P.S. Yes, I am grocery shopping for the blog.

     
    • Carmen 2:40 pm on November 18, 2009 Permalink

      I think Trader Joe’s needs to read THIS.

  • Carmen 5:40 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: dreams   

    Lucid dreaming… 

    This last weekend we hosted a christening party for our friends who just had a baby (max is the godfather!). And I was chatting with an interesting woman who was telling me how lucid dreaming helped her friend overcome a traumatic event.  I had never heard of this method before but logically it made sense to me.  And then! after i went to sleep I proceeded to have multiple bad dreams! The dreams don’t sound that bad in the light of day:

    Playing with my niece Violet in the verdant landscape outside my dream house, its a beautiful sunny day.  Out of the corner of my eye I spot a Moose trotting towards us! I say “Holy shit, its a fucking moose!” (keep in mind, I don’t cuss like that in my waking life, only in my dreams).  Knowing what I do about moose I grab Violet and take off running, trying to be quiet and stealthy but I can see the moose tracking us so I tell Violet to be really quiet and we hide underneath some bushes.  But I can hear old moose creeping up with his heavy hooves and I know I’m about to get trampled to death. And then I wake up.

    After a couple other bad dreams I can’t seem to relax and I’m just laying there all tense and stressed out.  And then I remembered what I learned about lucid dreaming…  So I put myself back in the dream and imagine it happening all over again.  Except this time I yell at the moose “Hey Moose! You can’t terrorize me here! This is MY dream motherfucker!”

    And then I slept peacefully for the rest of the night.  If you ever have bad dreams you should try it out!

     
    • Emilily 5:56 pm on November 17, 2009 Permalink

      Well, I read that Wikipedia article, and it was quite interesting. I do this sometimes, although I didn’t know what it was called, its just that sometimes in the middle of the dream, I’m like “oh, this is just a dream” and sometimes I wake up, sometimes not (well, obviously I wake up eventually!)

      What do you think was going on with your dream? I wonder what your dream house looks like? I did some research on the symbology of moose, and here’s what I got:

      According to Native American totem mythology…“One of the most ancient and unique power animals, the Moose energy brings in the power of self-esteem through recognizing ones own strengths and place in society….” In Pagan mythology, moose energy…“symbolizes expressing joy of accomplishment, not in a boasting way or to seek recognition…”, and is at “her” peak during late autumn. Were you running away from your self-worth? Since I don’t put a lot of stock in mythology, I should point out that the moose is also the Abercrombie & Fitch logo.

      All kidding aside, though, Wikipedia says “In terms of raw numbers, they attack more people than bears and wolves combined…” So it’s probably good you ran.

  • Emilily 4:03 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Drinkin’ the Kool-aid… 

    hatDylan and I went on a run the other day, and I decided to sport some of the paraphernalia! D looked like he was considering asking me to run ten paces behind him, but then thought better of it, probably cause I looked so kick-ass.

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    (More …)

     
    • Carmen 5:17 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink

      That shirt design is horrible but the hat is OK. Maybe you can do some re-branding for them…

  • Emilily 10:30 am on November 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Is this lady looking at me weird? 

    whoa02whoa03what01

     
    • Carmen 3:08 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink

      Yeah, but i can’t quite put my finger on it. Its like she’s wondering why we’re looking at her.

    • Olga 5:09 am on November 19, 2009 Permalink

      She is thinking… “can they tell I’m doing kegels right now?” or “I wish that dog would quit licking my toes!”

  • Emilily 8:08 pm on November 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    picture template 

    new orleans project testSo here’s another picture template I made! It is a lot less complicated than the last one, but I think will still work for short projects, and also is a nice way to post three images and a little type. Plus, it can be vertical or horizontal!

    Just to see how it looked online, I’ve posted my last three pictures from New Orleans. This is the Mississippi River from Jackson Square. I am not sure what that is across the water, probably just more Louisiana?

    I am not sure if you can tell, but along the bottom of the template I drew some graph paper. I might have to make it larger or darker for it to really show up…I guess if you just wanted to show three images, you could use the template at full size (this is medium size) and then the graph paper would show. It occurred to me that with the orange type in the banner, the graph paper, and the clean orderly arrangements of everything in P2, we have a sort of Rhodia notebook theme going on!

    graph paper2

     
  • Emilily 8:40 am on November 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: dieline   

    nice package 

    So yesterday (yes, this is a banked post!) I was standing at the water cooler, chatting with two of the engineers from our office (I know, how cliche) and we were talking about what snacks and beverages we were going to have in our booth at next week’s trade show. We always have Red Bull, water, Hershey’s Minis, and Quaker Oatmeal Bars. Sometimes we have a keg on the last day of the show. The staff is pretty evenly divided between those of us who snack on the oatmeal bars and water (me, about 89% of the time), and those who consume the Red Bull and candy, but everybody likes beer! Another thing we agreed on was that we really need to try some of those energy drinks with the alcohol already in them – not because they’re going to be any good, but because they are horrifyingly fascinating. I’m going to equate them to shooting a gun – there is great potential for bodily harm, but despite one’s better judgment, curiosity wins out. (Speaking of not listening to one’s better judgment, it was also at a trade show that I tried one of those 5-Hour Energy drinks and had an incredibly bad reaction to the toxic levels of niacin it contained.) But back to the alcoholic energy drinks…is there any other (legal) substance that can give you a buzz and keep you up for the next 24 hours? (That was a hypothetical question, but the answer is: NO, and for good reason.) So, with my opinion of these so-called beverages as nothing more than highly toxic sludge improperly marketed to teenage binge drinkers firmly in place,  I hopped on the internet and did a little research. And the result? I totally have to try this. Why? Not because my opinion of alcoholic energy drinks has changed, but because I like the packaging.

    So how much of a sucker am I? There are four pictures below. The leftmost two are energy drinks currently on the market, one called Sparks that looks like something a 15-year-old might be able to score at his/her local 7-11, and one by Monster featuring new Nitrous Oxide technology. Technically, I think this one may not have alcohol, and I don’t think they’re trying to imply it’s like a shot of espresso and a whippit; I believe they’re just trying to give their disgusting, foul-tasting brew the foamy frothy consistency of beer on tap. Somehow I am offended by the mere fact that they are trying to improve this crap. Now, for the next two. The first one is called Mojo, and looks like one of those anti-oxidant infused water bottles you might find at Whole Foods. All of a sudden, I am not bothered by the fact that it is 7% alcohol and has 2.5 times the caffeine as the equivalent amount of coffee. It’s French, and comes in three flavors: Tropical Fruit, Star Fruit, and Dragon Fruit. ‘Nuff said. The next one (far right) is a concept drink called Tagged, and the smooth, matte aluminum bottle makes me pray the proposed state ban on alcoholic energy drinks doesn’t nip this pretty baby in the bud.

    sparksn2o monstermojotaggedxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxx

    On another note, I found Mojo and Tagged through a Google image search which led me to a great blog called Dieline, featuring what else but package design! It was just a happy accident that through a post about my complete and instantaneous lack of free will when faced with a nice package that I stumbled upon this website, but it pretty much reads as a shopping list for…everything. I mean, look at this wine bottle! And these tampons…seriously? A non-repulsive tampon box? The only way that box could be improved upon is if you could also use it to bludgeon people. And, last one I promise, this rum bottle looks like it was designed by the same lettering artist who did that Wired article on pirates.

    Dude, nice design just makes me happy, and gives me hope for humanity.

     
    • olga 5:26 am on November 15, 2009 Permalink

      Yes yes yes, we are nothing but two legged cows that are easily milked, bilked and put out to pasture with our smartly designed bottles, boxes and bags. The powers that be are busy bovinizing humanity seeking to produce a vast herd of homogenized consumers. Driven not by what we need but what we can afford. If only we had lead a commercial free childhoods. If only we had been raised by wolves is more like it, then and only then would we buy what we need and not what we see and want because of the pretty or smartly designed packaging.
      P.S. I really like the “Tagged” aluminum matte finish, I would buy that!

  • Emilily 11:05 am on November 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Peter Thomas Roth   

    aesthetically obnoxious but really useful information 

    unwrinkleI know you are as interested as I am in looking as beautiful as we do FOREVER, so I thought I’d share this with you.

    I am running out of skin cream (I last purchased a set of the Juice Beauty Green Apple face and eye creams from Hautelook) and I’ve been researching what to buy next. I think I am over Creme de la Mer after reading so many reviews stating it was mostly petroleum jelly, and I have not really been satisfied enough with the Juice Beauty to stick with it. I’ve read a few magazine articles that always seem to tout the newest ingredient, but don’t have a comprehensive list of the overall best. I finally found this blog, Ageless Beauty, that appears to be objective (so many websites try to pretend to be independent, but they’re really just trying to sell you their sponsors’ products, the bastards!), is thorough, explains how to decode the claims of the hot new anti-aging ingredients, and provides detailed lists for all skin care issues. Be warned: this website is hideous. Ads appear in the middle of articles, sidebars flash annoyingly, and the soft pastel color palette and rose banner just smacks of old lady. However, there is a wealth of information, much of it verifying bits and pieces I have learned from what I would consider reputable sources. Based on what I read here, I’ve decided to try the Peter Thomas Roth line. It’s expensive, but most skin cream is, and I find a little usually goes a long ways – if I only have to shell out $120 for this stuff every six months, I feel like it is worth it. I will let you know how it goes!

     
    • Carmen 11:57 am on November 13, 2009 Permalink

      Oh fabulous, because I am nearing the end of my experiment with the Olay revitilization night cream. My conclusion of this product is that it feels good when I put it on my face and it doesn’t clog my pores. Also:
      Do I have less wrinkles? not sure.
      Do I smell like an old lady when I go to sleep? Yes.
      Is the cream color abhorrent to nature? Yes (purple).
      So, I too am looking for the next wonderful cream that I can waste my money on. high five! I think I’ll try the Peter Thomas Roth Eye Overhaul Duo.

    • Emilily 12:50 pm on November 13, 2009 Permalink

      Before you do, let me email you my Sephora coupon for 20% off!

  • Emilily 4:32 pm on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: genes   

    designer genes 

    This article on the speech gene is pretty interesting. I know it is a rather simplistic supposition, but what if we could somehow put the human speech gene into an animal with adequate brain capacity for complex communication, like dolphins! Or maybe elephants, who it has been suggested have tribal, not just individual, memories – could they tell us what it’s like? And here’s one where we could borrow a gene – the ability to regenerate body parts – from a fish!

    I just left a smart-ass (if slightly illogical) comment on the Daily Galaxy Image of the Day, a photo of the HGC 87 galaxy group. In addition to making myself laugh, this has the added benefit of putting a link to our blog on their comments section!

     
    • Carmen 12:12 pm on November 13, 2009 Permalink

      Oh I’m so excited for the future. See, by the time we’re like 70 we can stop spending our money on anti-wrinkle creams because we’ll just be able to regenerate our skin! All of these beauty companies should really be putting their money into gene research and then progress would grow in leaps and bounds. Its all based on how useful it will be to the public. Thats why DARPA’s discoveries always have a dual purpose – one for the military and one for the percentage of the public who have lots of disposable cash. Just look at how space travel has grown when the focus is moved to getting the public to spend their money on it. Suddenly we have a space hotel under construction. Whatever, I’m all preachy today. As much as I love progress i think capitalism makes me angry. After doing a little research I might have to take back what I said about DARPA, most of their projects are only for the military. Unless the public wants one of these!

    • Emilily 12:45 pm on November 13, 2009 Permalink

      Holy batship Robin, I want one of those!

    • Emilily 1:08 pm on November 13, 2009 Permalink

      I just thought of something…that thing would be way more stealth if it didn’t have its own Wikipedia article.

    • Emilily 1:10 pm on November 13, 2009 Permalink

      We’re totally on the same page, here, too – capitalism is good for the pocketbook, bad for the soul.

  • Emilily 1:40 pm on November 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: cake   

    viral cake 

    whole cakeSo, I probably mentioned to you that a few weeks ago I contracted a nasty computer virus while looking up a recipe online. I don’t know if I mentioned what kind of recipe I was looking up, but it was a rainbow cake, and for future reference, if you are ever thinking of looking for a rainbow cake recipe, don’t try to link to the site that says “Nazi Rainbow Cake”, even if you’re like “what the heck is a Nazi Rainbow? I just have to check out this nonsense...” Anyways, there’s no need to hunt down a recipe for rainbow cake, all you need is two boxes of Betty Crocker yellow cake mix and an ungodly amount of food coloring. I know, you don’t have to tell me, yellow is not a flavor, and food coloring is not food. But this cake is not about the toxic sickly-sweet sponge that you end up with, it is about the gorgeous, amazing, never-before-seen-in-nature colors!

    red orange yellowthe first cutcake cut

     
    • Carmen 2:18 pm on November 11, 2009 Permalink

      oooh pretty! pretty cancerous!

    • Olga 3:52 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink

      Sometimes a rainbow is just a rainbow? That is some cake Emilily! So when you say a lot of food coloring… how much exactly.. say for instance does it take to make the purple? 1/2 gallon of red and half quart blue?

    • Emilily 4:05 pm on November 12, 2009 Permalink

      Yes, I too thought a rainbow was just a rainbow, but when I gave the remainder of the cake to Dylan to take into his office, he sent back this picture and a message from the tool makers at his work: Dylan, we enjoyed the cake. Please tell your boyfriend thank you.

      viral cake

    • Carmen 2:55 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink

      hhaaaaaahahhh!

  • Carmen 1:06 pm on November 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Saw this in the window the other night, not sure what to make of it.  Trying to figure out how to insert a joke about the Second Amendment but I’m not sure anyone would get it.  Any suggestions?

    bear arms

     
    • Emilily 1:12 pm on November 11, 2009 Permalink

      How about…
      Nordstrom’s celebrates the much anticipated update to the second amendment, providing for “the right to bear arms, and an alligator ass”

    • Emilily 1:25 pm on November 11, 2009 Permalink

      Ok, it’s been like 13 minutes and I still haven’t gotten an LOL. I was making a pun. BEAR as in Grizzly, and ARMS as in limbs…(pause)*…I’ll try harder next time.

      *I often think the funniest part of puns is afterwards, in that awkward pause that occurs between the teller having to explain their pun and then apologizing for making it in the first place.

    • Carmen 2:17 pm on November 11, 2009 Permalink

      Oh, I’m sorry i’m late on my laugh, i had to eat lunch! (i refuse to say LOL) I get your pun man, but thank you for explaining it anyways for all our lazy readers who don’t feel like looking up the second amendment. Good job!

    • Olga 4:00 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink

      In these stressful economically woeful times I’m so glad to see that the retailers understand and will help us by selling us our fur coats in sections. Next week they will have just the bodice for sell?

  • Emilily 5:17 pm on November 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Halloween   

    Humboldt Honeys 

    Well, my Halloween was a complete bore (I spent all day/night cleaning my old apartment) but it looks like my little brother had fun!

    For future reference, you can always identify a bona fide Northern California drag queen by the pit hair and choice of footwear.

    DSC_7622DSC_7621

     
    • Carmen 11:09 am on November 10, 2009 Permalink

      wow.

  • Carmen 7:07 pm on November 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    More tiltshift goodness… 

    From a roof on a beautiful day…

    IMG_0022IMG_0024

     
    • Emilily 3:53 pm on November 9, 2009 Permalink

      I agree, Tiltshift is awesome. I took this picture of my grandma over the weekend, and first it was a bit creepy with the candlelight and all, but then I applied a little tiltshift, and voila!

      mimi

      However, I think it works best on landscapes, or images that are brighter to start with.

  • Carmen 1:54 pm on November 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: french toast   

    Sunday morning food styling… 

    Max made french toast with apples!

     
    • Emilily 4:11 pm on November 9, 2009 Permalink

      That looks delicious!!!

  • Carmen 7:58 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    everything looks better in tiltshift… 

    This is a sister post to the one you did earlier on the TiltShiftGen app.  Everywhere I look I keep thinking it would look better in tiltshift.  I just love how it saturates everything and brightens it all up.  So, for you viewing pleasure…

    The view outside my work window… The remnants of a delicious chocolate cake from a great place called Bar Jules…  And the GG bridge at sunset.

    IMG_0013IMG_0014

    IMG_0021

     
  • Emilily 4:21 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    we’ve come a long way, baby….not 

    masthead1

    Dylan forwarded me this link he received from one of his married buddies. To Dylan’s credit, his email was titled “Stupid Idea” and I like to think the only reason his friends were forwarding it is because they, like me, were mocking the sad state of affairs it hints at.

    I was inspired to write a testimonial to these people, but then discovered that their “Read What Other People Are Saying” section was not open to public posting, so I’ll share it with you instead.

    Dear National Men Make Dinner Day Organizers,

    I actually think it is a great idea…but only because your website provides a forum for women to meet other women who have married men so pathetic and lazy that they require the motivation of a fake national holiday to get their fat asses off the couch and learn how to use a can opener.

    On second thought, after reading your Recipes section, if some poor woman’s knuckle-dragging mouth-breather of a husband is going to make her ONE meal, and she requests a pecan-date (and mayonnaise) cheese ball…well, maybe the lucky domestically-challenged Mr. will earn enough points that she’ll put on something from Frederick’s of Hollywood circa 1982 and they can have 1.3 minutes of sex.

    Sincerely,
    Anonymous, from the 21st century, U.S.A. (p.s. it is nice here, you should visit sometime)

     
    • Carmen 5:31 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink

      There’s alot going on here and its all pretty funny (if you can get over the whole premise of the main idea). First of all, Its possible Dylan was saying “stupid idea – yeah right i’m gonna make dinner, thats what restaurants are for”. Secondly, pecan-date-mayonaisse-cheese balls! yum! I love balls!
      This is all very foreign to me due to my live-in chef boyfriend who just made Cassoulet the other night. However, I remember growing up with the lady of the house making dinner every single night and that was considered normal. I would imagine that that is normal for about 90% of Americans no matter what part of the country you’re in. Gender roles are changing far and wide right about now because of this weird economy turning the tables on the breadwinners. It turns out that the women are the ones who still have jobs and are bringing in the sole paycheck. So, I’m really in full support of National Men Make Dinner Day because they need a little help! The kitchen is a scary place for some people and they need a little boost to get over it. Be brave Men!
      I really like the FAQ part of the website:
      Q. I once asked my husband to pick up a round steak for dinner. He came back from the store lamenting that they only had rectangular-shaped steaks. Should I help him with the shopping stage of ‘National Men Make Dinner Day’?

    • Emilily 6:11 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink

      I think (hope) Dylan was saying “stupid idea” because he believes an adult male should have mastered the fundamental skill of feeding himself, but you do bring up an interesting point. Just like you are coming from the perspective of someone who practically eats at five-star restaurants every night from the comfort of her own firehouse, I am coming from the perspective of someone who’s dating pool is populated by unmarried (ideally) 30-something men. If these guys haven’t progressed beyond the Cup O’ Noodles that sustained them throughout college, they are probably losers in more than the cooking department. However, to the 90% of the country you refer to who might benefit from this, they probably married their husbands in college or high school, at which point these man-children transitioned straight from their first mother’s dining room to their second mother’s…I mean, wife’s…table. This may be the first time it has even been suggested they cook dinner! Who can blame them? It’s not their fault, and I hope that somewhere, one of them discovers, and finds true joy in, a long repressed love of cuisine that will in some small way justify this thinly-veiled suggestion that women belong in the kitchen the other 364 days of the year.

      Boy, am I ever opinionated today. I think I had too much coffee or something.

    • Carmen 10:34 am on November 6, 2009 Permalink

      So I was talking to Max about this (as he was making dinner last night) and his reaction when I said “Hey, Its National Men Make Dinner Night!” was “Just like it is every other night in restaurants all over the country.” Which brings a whole different perspective that I hadn’t considered. The majority of people working in restaurants are men and the majority of chefs are men! So this whole NMMDN is a big F-you to all the hard working chefs out there. Well, I tip my hat to all you restaurant industry folk out there because I could never do that job. I would run out crying on the first night for sure.

  • Emilily 2:26 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    everything is better with an app 

    photophoto(2) Here are two pictures of Dylan’s house – on the left, a picture of the real thing, and on the right, a miniature model of Dylan’s house.

    No, I’m just kidding, that’s the exact same photo edited by the TiltShiftGen app!

    I bet you knew that, didn’t you?

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxphoto(3)

    And here’s an adorable picture of my cat, edited with the ColorSplash app. ColorSplash allows you to de-saturate an image to black and white and then color back in just the areas you want.

    On that note, should we be concerned about how much time we spend playing with our phones? It’s not even really a phone anymore, it’s a hand-held computer that occasionally takes calls. And to be perfectly honest, I like mine better when it’s not taking calls at all so I can sit quietly and make Bloom and Trope music.

     
  • Emilily 12:56 pm on November 4, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Yard Sale 

    412-A West Sola Street

    412-A West Sola Street

    So I had that yard sale like an entire week and a half ago, but I had planned on doing a post about it, so I was taking notes all morning. Here’s how it went, along with a picture from the scene of the crime, as viewed with my back to the street. The little cottage front and center is where Dylan lives, the main house to the left has tenants (four 19-yr old girls), the studio above the garage behind the main house has a tenant (another college girl) and the studio above his place has a tenant (a Presbyterian Orthodox pastor.)

    (More …)

     
    • Carmen 1:16 pm on November 4, 2009 Permalink

      Haahahhhhaaaaaa!!

    • Carmen 1:16 pm on November 4, 2009 Permalink

      she probably bought that tanktop for her daughter.

    • Olga 5:10 am on November 5, 2009 Permalink

      So.. Emilily.. here is my question; why was there a tank top with “very obnoxious indeed” doing in the pile at your yard sale? Per chance was it yours? And if so… did you wear it with said spike vinyl heels?
      P.S. I don’t blame you for judging. Every time I see generations of Jerry Springer wannabe’s I just sigh and wistfully dream that someday my taxes will actually go to helping schools and hospitals rather than on boxes of Krispy Kremes.

    • Emilily 1:58 pm on November 5, 2009 Permalink

      That’s a very good question, and I actually have a good answer – it was a party-favor type gift given at a bachelorette party I attended a few years ago. If you ask me, it is a slightly passive-aggressive thing for a bride to give her single girlfriends. Sadly enough, I never had the balls to wear it, although I like to think it has inspired a few of my relationships since then.

      I’m kidding about that last part. Really.

  • Carmen 1:24 pm on November 3, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Laser fusion and stuff… 

    So, as I’m sure you know (!), the large hadron collider (LHC) is going to be starting up again in the next couple of weeks after that disappointing FAIL last year.  I feel like they are putting a whole lot of expectations on this thing.  I mean, they have spent SO much money to get this thing built, and its so huge (in terms of the space it takes up) and yet it is based on concepts and theories.  I admit that my knowledge of whats going on in the LHC is quite sparse so I’m going to assume that they had some very convincing data to get the kind of money they needed to build it in the beginning.  I mean, they don’t even know if the Higgs Boson exists but they plan on finding it!  I’m going to suspend my judgment and of course give them the benefit of the doubt because I truly want them to find everything they are looking for.    What I’m really hoping for is for a stargate to open up right the middle of that thing! That would be awesome!

    LHC

    I also came across this article while reading about the LHC which I find wholly incredible and exciting.  In case you don’t feel like reading the article, its about the very real possibility of creating unlimited energy for the world without the toxic waste that comes with electric and nuclear plants.  I feel like this should have been figured out a long time ago and it probably would have if greed did not exist.  I’m sure that technology in this area has been held back because people have been making way too much money on oil and energy in general.  Anyways, this new “National Ignition Facility”, which is in California (high five!) and starts up in 2010 and is also based on a theory (which they must have proven at some point to get the 3.5 billion start up cost).  The theory: “scientists will use the world’s most powerful laser to create 192 separate beams of light that will be directed at a bead of frozen hydrogen in a violent burst lasting five billionths of a second…the intense beams produce a powerful shockwave that crunches the fuel pellet at a million miles an hour, generating temperatures of around 100,000,000C. Under such extreme conditions, which are found only in the core of stars, the hydrogen atoms will fuse, producing helium and vast amounts of energy.”  Woah.

    NIC

     
    • Emilily 3:25 pm on November 10, 2009 Permalink

      Okay, this reply is long overdue, but I had to set aside enough time to read all those articles. It’s so important to keep up on the science!

      First, the one from The Guardian about the LHC. I think it is amazing they fixed the problem already, I mean, a machine of that scale, with such specific conditions required to work, it’s no wonder it had a few problems! Do you think it is really possible it could create a black hole that will swallow the earth? I also like these guys, they have taken skepticism to a whole new fascinating level: …another group of physicists [who] say the production of Higgs bosons may be so abhorrent to nature that their creation would ripple backwards through time to stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveller trying to halt his own birth. Wow! Seriously, if humanity is going to destroy itself, that would be way cooler than slowly poisoning ourselves with our own sewage and pollution.

      I followed the link to the Wikipedia article on the Higgs Boson particle, and I’d just like to say, way to go Wikipedia, every link in that article led to another article that made even less sense than the first, like one of those Russian nesting dolls of obscure physics theories. In order to understand the God Particle, I had to read about scalar physics, which is “distinguished by its invariance under a Lorentz transformation, hence the name “scalar,” in contrast to a vector or tensor field. The quanta of the quantized scalar field are spin-zero particles, and as such are bosons.” I cannot even remember what I was originally reading about, but I did learn a new word! Quanta-the minimum unit of any physical entity involved in an interaction, and an entity is quantized when it is reduced to this minimum. I can’t use it in a sentence, but I feel like at least I have prevented one small fraction of this information from flying right over my head.

      I am sure this article about the National Ignition Facility and a potential clean, unlimited energy source is fascinating, but the time-bending dark-matter-spawning particle accelerator is a tough act to follow. Although, you make a good point about why haven’t we figured this out already – maybe if everyone weren’t focused on fixing the 60 billion dollar short-circuit at CERN, or manufacturing cars that have 3 rows of seats and DVD players instead of electric engines, we would have made some more progress on this by now.

    • Carmen 3:51 pm on November 10, 2009 Permalink

      Well, I hate to inundate you with even more information but another article regarding this so-called Higgs and its abhorrent nature which makes people want to time travel came out in the NYTimes – Collider article
      This will clear things up a little about the time traveling bit.
      I don’t know what you said about scalar and quanta-thes but it sounds good to me! And about black holes – yes, apparently black holes are being formed all the time so need to worry about them swallowing the planet. And if that should happen it will be super exciting! Looking forward to it!

    • Emilily 4:50 pm on November 10, 2009 Permalink

      That was AWESOME!!! Forces from the future are coming back to thwart the LHR!?! I was semi-mocking the whole idea in my last reply, but I have to say, once I learned this Dr. Holger Bech Nielsen is one of the founders of String Theory and a widely respected physicist (although I think they used the term “deep thinker” rather than “physicist” but same difference)…well, I can only say, this feeling is similar to what a 9-yr-old might experience if they suddenly found out that Santa Claus really did exist, after all.

    • Carmen 5:35 pm on November 10, 2009 Permalink

      yeah, i can’t wait for Christmas (the collider to start up)!

  • Emilily 10:35 am on November 3, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    (not)hautelook 

    tacky

    Today’s Roberto Cavalli blow-out sale is tacky to the max, but people still seem to be jumping on it. This thing looks like a bad upholstery cover – lucky for my couch, it’s sold out.

     
    • Carmen 11:04 am on November 3, 2009 Permalink

      wow. mixing floral with jaguar, thats ballsy.

  • Emilily 4:53 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    since I have nothing else to report today… 

    …here’s a conversation* I had with Dylan last night as we were sitting on the couch watching TV and Mick was sitting on Dylan’s leg trying to eat his blanket:

    *I’m using the term conversation loosely

    E: Hey, remember when we lived together and I always wanted a cat?
    D: [silence]
    E: And now here I am, living with you, and I have a cat.
    D: [silence]
    E: Do you think it will be funny, having me live here?
    D: [silence]
    E: Aw, look, how cute, Mick is grooming your ankle.
    D: Define funny.

     
    • Carmen 5:42 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink

      Well, thats a perfectly reasonable question from Dylan. The term “funny” could be interpreted many different ways. Maybe “awkward” would have been a more descriptive and accurate word to use. fun times!

    • Olga 5:48 am on November 3, 2009 Permalink

      Dylan sounds like a very intelligent man. He, unlike others of his species did not interrupt you, did not argue with you, did not just get up and walk away like you were not there. That’s a true sign of intelligence, so at the least he knows how to pick up on the thread of conversation, or at bare bones minimum can stay focused on the most recent topic of conversation carried on by others.

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