How to Ruin Your Life

I stumbled across this a while ago, and I loved it.  I don't really know why.  It stresses me out because I saw myself in every paragraph.  

Stay in one place your whole life. Always order vanilla even though the menu is four pages long. Become the type of person who sends back lattes. Save up your money for a plasma TV instead of a plane ticket. Talk a lot about things you know nothing about. Have an affair with someone you don’t even find attractive.

Refuse to forget your ex. Make it impossible for yourself to do anything without remembering that you used to do it with them. Hug your knees under the sheets and think about how safe you felt when they held you at night. Remind yourself daily of how empty you feel. Find new ways to make yourself sad.

Get drunk all the time. Consider no Saturday night, national holiday or extended happy hour complete without a vodka-induced breakdown. Graduate college but keep drinking like you’re still in it. Notice that cheap beer tastes watery and stale when you drink it alone but drink it anyway. Look at old Facebook photos wasted and wonder where everyone went.

Never drink. Never do anything that could potentially be “bad” for you. Treat your body like the temple it is and say no to carbs, yes to wheatgrass, go to bed at ten sharp and turn down cake on your birthday. Take fifteen different dietary supplements. Monitor carefully. Succumb to nothing. Miss out on everything.

Compare yourself constantly, to everyone. Allow the standards of image-obsessed, age-obsessed culture to make you feel decrepit at 25. Scroll through skinny girls on Tumblr feeling wistful and inadequate. Pull at the skin on your hipbones, stomach, and underarms in the mirror. Sigh a lot. Sigh all the time.

Don’t fall in love with anyone or anything. Put an impenetrable wall between yourself and other people. Add a fire-breathing dragon and eight yards of barbed wire. Be suspicious of everyone’s motives. Hold grudges long after you’ve forgotten what for.

Fall in love with everyone and everything. Run after the next best thing like it’s a bus you’re perpetually late for. Throw your heart into every other stranger’s hands and be genuinely surprised to be hurt. Refuse to learn. Refuse to ever learn.

Via

Margo

This is Margo.

She is my sleeping partner.  She's super great.  One of the things that's great about her is her laugh.  If she thinks something is super funny, she'll start laughing so hard she can't breathe.  Making her laugh that hard is my goal.  Here are a few of the things that I found for her to make her laugh tonight.

The best moments of this video at 2:38-4:04 and 5:57-6:55

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2012 - Ruh Roh Edition
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C.N.I.: Cable News Investigators - Hoodie Threat
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And then 3:27-4:12 in this video to prep you for the final one

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Vulgar Games
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Will Ferrell
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Seriously.  I get so much joy out of all these things, but I love when it when Margo and I are giggling at something and all of a sudden she can't breathe.  What will I do when I move out in a month?

Today

I've had a few things on my mind for the past few months, and this morning was one of those times when I was trying to think about everything all at once.  The end result was a pretty grumpy Skate.

The solution?  Getting to work and taking care of some pressing issues.  Then lounging in the sun with roommates for a few hours.  Then lounging in our living room after the sun went down.  Napping during the CES fireside.  Pride and Prejudice.  Finally, a Justin Timberlake jam on my own.  

My Obsessions

The Good Men Project

I discovered The Good Men Project and have fallen in love.  This website looks to answer the question "What does it mean to be a good man?"  The website features articles about sex and gender, sports and education, marriage and families.  I think they say it best themselves:

"Guys today are neither the mindless, sex-obsessed buffoons nor the stoic automatons our culture so often makes them out to be. Our community is smart, compassionate, curious, and open-minded; they strive to be good fathers and husbands, citizens and friends, to lead by example at home and in the workplace, and to understand their role in a changing world. The Good Men Project is a place where that happens. We’re glad to have you along for the ride."

I discovered this website from an article called "Why Women Aren't Crazy" by Yashar Ali.  This article is incredible and completely changed the way that I try to treat others and, more importantly, how I treat myself.  I would recommend it to anyone, male and female.  

Some other favorites:

"Unwanted Sex vs. Rape"- explains that difference between Actus reus, a guilty act, and Mens rea, a guilty mind. 

"What Makes Dudes Cry?"- pretty self-explanatory

"Confronting Life"- a really interesting video/ essay arguing against protestors in front of abortion clinics

"Why I Don't Want to Talk About Race" 

Charlieissocoollike

I first discovered Charlie McDonnell from watching his roommate's YouTube video's called "Alex Reads Twilight." This kid is funny, clever, and British.  So great.

Music

Bon Iver, of course

Ryan Gosling's band Dead Man's Bones

String by Young the Giant

Blood- The Middle East

And weirdly enough

Memories from my old phone

Two days before I left for Jordan last August, my sister broke her phone.  I figured because I wasn't going to use mine for four months, I would give it to her.  I went through all my saved texts and photos and emailed them to myself.  Almost six months later, I went through the folder where I saved them.  Most of the texts had been cut off, but I mostly remembered what they said and who they were from.   Some of the texts were from the people who were important to me last summer, but I'm not close with anymore.  It was fun to read the texts and remember how I used to feel about those friendships.  It's just part of being this age.  In six months I'll feel the same way about the people I spend most of my time with now.  On the other hand, some friendships stick.  The people who are the most important in my life, my best friends and family, were there six months ago and will still be there in another six months.


Some gems:

"I hope things work out with him.  He matches your attractiveness level better than the last guy."

"Wait you dont know how to ride a bike?  i promise that im not making fun of you but that is amazing"

"it really funny because some people just cant understand how you could spell things wrong and then there are other people like me how cant figure out how to spell things right"

me-"I'm a horrible person!  I'll be there at 8:15"

friend- "820...where is the horrible person? I want her here with me."

"I just want you to know that i think you're pretty much super amazing!! Hope you're having a great day today:)"

And here is the picture dump

My adorable sister with the husky dog that she drew

A screw that I found in my sandwich on a date last year.  Even though I almost lost some teeth, we got a refund and free dessert, and it turned out to be one of my favorite dates.

Riley doing the chicken dance at a Passover dinner

Charmo in my laundry basket

My desk!

I stole my friend's watch for a week and have been wanting to own a man's watch ever since

My amazing work friends decorated my desk for my birthday with Winnie the Pooh because I was the office baby

Char again

Char with her Ukrainian headdress.  

6/2/12

“Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently,” Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt wrote in the decision. “There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted.”

“All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same-sex couples the right to be granted marriage licenses and thus legally to use the designation ‘marriage,’ ” the judge wrote, adding, “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gay men and lesbians in California.”


from

My favorite books

Today, I got the chance to read from my two favorite books for a bit.  I love these books so much, and I have for many years.  Because I love them so much, I always want to talk about them, but whenever I try, they sound silly.  Maybe they are, but to me, they are incredible.  The first is called These is My Words.  I love this book because it's different than most love stories.  It's not about a couple falling in love, its about their life together.  It doesn't fit the formulaic rising action, climax, resolution.  It's steady, just like real life.  I think it's an incredible story.

The second is called The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.  I read it for the amazing descriptions of love and loneliness.  Nicole Krauss takes ordinary bits of daily life and makes them beautiful.  Here is one of my absolute favorite parts of the book, called The Birth of Feeling.

Just as there was a first instant when someone rubbed two sticks together to make a spark, there was a first time joy was felt, and a first time for sadness.  For a while, new feelings were being invented all the time.  Desire was born early, as was regret.  When stubbornness was felt for the first time, it started a chain reaction, creating the feeling of resentment on the one hand, and alienation and loneliness on the other… Contrary to logic, the feeling of surprise wasn’t born immediately.  It only came after people had enough time to get used to things as they were.  And when enough time had passed, and someone felt the first feeling of surprise, someone, somewhere else, felt the first pang of nostalgia…

            Having begun to feel, people’s desire to feel grew.  They wanted to feel more, feel deeper, despite how much it sometimes hurt.  People became addicted to feeling.  They struggled to uncover new emotions.  It’s possible that this is how art was born.  New kinds of joy were forged, along with new kinds of sadness: The eternal disappointment of life as it is; the relief of unexpected reprieve; the fear of dying.  

Best Songs from January

Beautifully: Jay Brannan

Somebody That I Used to Know: Gotye

Finally.  The best song that I've been listening to this month.  The theme song of my apartment and my personal theme song...

5 things that I found in my suitcase when I started to pack

1. A recorder for my presentations

2. Hacky Sack

3. Balloons, a pump, and a balloon animal instruction kit

4. High heels that I was always too scared to wear

5. Silly Putty