Day 23

This was another hard one, because I looked through my favorites list and got sidetracked with re-watching all the awesome things I liked. Anyhow, I finally chose this 2-part segment of Cookie Monster on Martha Stewart, where Cookie Monster is basically obnoxious and drives Martha crazy. It was the first thing I ever favorited and hope you enjoy it too.

Happy Friday!

Day 01 — Your favorite movie

Day 02 — Your favorite song

Day 03 — Your favorite television program

Day 04 — Your favorite book

Day 05 — Your favorite quote

Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy

Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad

Day 09 — A photo you took

Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago

Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently

Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 13 — A fictional book

Day 14 — A non-fictional book

Day 15 — A fanfic

Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)

Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 19 — A talent of yours

Day 20 — A hobby of yours

Day 21 — A recipe

Day 22 — A website

Day 23 — A YouTube video

Day 22

This is probably a bit of a cop-out but I simply adore Facebook. I've been with the site ever since it was launched, although I later learned it was for... less than chivalrous reasons. (Although, really, I can't chide the guys for building it as a directory for the girls in school because I too had used it as a directory of boys during my first year at school.)

I consider myself to be part of the first graduating class of Facebook, since it was originally built as a college networking site and it launched in 2004, the year I graduated high school and went to college. It's amazing what has happened in six years. I wish I had some screen shots of the original Facebook. The wall used to be this empty text field where you could edit anything that anyone wrote in it. There was no newsfeed, no applications, and it was completely and totally restricted to people with an .edu address. Now it's a fully integrated website for communication and community -- complete with photo albums, video, blog, and link posting.

I'm still not quite used to the idea of being FaceBook friends with people's mothers, former teachers/professors, and guildies from World of Warcraft that I never actually met. Nevertheless, Facebook has become an amazing medium for communication. This week alone I have discussed the iPhone leak with one of my favorite college professors, made fun of my 2nd grade best friend in Texas for being a "white girl," made plans for a breakfast reunion with my high school gal pals, and began planning a Vegas Adventure for later this year. (That last one may have been a result of the jealousy of seeing what was apparently half my friends list jet off to Vegas last weekend.)

Want to be my Facebook friend too? Click here.

Day 01 — Your favorite movie

Day 02 — Your favorite song

Day 03 — Your favorite television program

Day 04 — Your favorite book

Day 05 — Your favorite quote

Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy

Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad

Day 09 — A photo you took

Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago

Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently

Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 13 — A fictional book

Day 14 — A non-fictional book

Day 15 — A fanfic

Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)

Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 19 — A talent of yours

Day 20 — A hobby of yours

Day 21 — A recipe

Day 22 — A website

Weekend Finds

Tyler Durden's guide to personal finance

What your doctors don't have time to tell you (via CNN)

Love this Löopa Gyro Bowl that stays upright no matter how your child carries it. (via mental floss)

Did you hear about the student who killed an intruder with a sword?

5-pound gummy bear (via the awesomer). (Alternatively, you can do what my friend did and allow a giant container of gummy bears to melt together and eat that.)

Make your own Tetris ice cubes with this nifty tray (via the awesomer)

150 things to do when you're bored

How Facebook can ruin your friendships

Food Blog Crush Round-Up

This week, I'm totally lovin' on some food blogs that make me drool all over my keyboard. As you may have noticed, I am somewhat fond of taking pictures of food. I'm always marveling at genuine undoctored (aka non-Photoshopped) food photos. If you FaceBook friend me, you'll find that I have my own photo album of food I made, appropriately titled "Food I Made."

Food Blogs I'm crushing on:

-True to her word, Dionne is my new best friend for showing me food gawker. It is basically tumblr for food.

-The Food Librarian has been a long time favorite of mine. Her persistent aspirations to make everything from scratch always inspires me.

-Of course, there's my good friend Tammi at Barefoot Vegan, who should really share more recipes. She was the one who showed me This Is Why You're Thin.

-Pink Parsley by Josie has fantastic step-by-step recipes with some creative twists.

-And, of course, I can't go without mentioning my ultimate go-to for recipes - All Recipes.

Happy cooking!

Couples Armchair

I must have spent at least 10 minutes scrolling through this lengthy post by If It's Hip, It's Here because Laura posted every single piece of furniture from the new Arik Ben Simhon sports-inspired furniture collection.

Maybe it's because I never had any interest in any sports that required padding but I didn't quite see all the appeal until it came to this piece:

the Shazlong Ex Mackey.

Doesn't it basically look like a two-person armchair-ottoman-lounger-thingy? (I'm sure it has an actual name but heck if I could find it.) I could see Clement and I curling up together in something like this all the time. But I don't know about the fabric. If anyone sees anything that looks similar to this, let me know!!

Optimism

(icanread)

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Sound Advice

(via icanread)

Daily Joy: Blogging!

I can't believe this is already the last day of Daily Be's Daily Joy photojournal week!

Thanks, Karri, for the invite to this fun project! I've really enjoyed seeing you and other bloggers' posts about their daily joys. We should do this again sometime!

Today's daily joy is blogging!

(image via PRprep)

Thanks to all my readers and commentators for following my blog and giving me the opportunity to read and share so many great things with you! I've recently added a "Top Little Note Leavers" widget to the right and am in the process of piecing together a little competition for commenting in the not too distant future.

And thanks to all the amazing, inspirational, fashionable, fun, sweet, lovely bloggers that are too numerous to name (but check the blog roll to see me try) for all the work they do to keep me inspired and going.

This weekend, I have a date with Clement... we're finally going to see 500 Days of Summer and I think he has some other surprise for me? Who knows. We're celebrating 23 months together!

Story of My Life

I just found the trailer for Post Grad, starring Alexis Bledel (of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gilmore Girls fame, not to mention an interesting cameo in Sin City).

This looks like the perfect movie for me and all my fellow students-turned-unemployed friends that graduated during the hard economy, especially the ones who -- like me -- feel like life hadn't turned out the way it was supposed to be.

It's totally exactly me, right now in life. Couldn't have come at a more accurate time.

Scheduled to be released on August 21. Any starving students want to go see it with me?

Daily Joy: Nieces

I'm participating in Daily Be's Daily Joy photojournal week! (I came up with that name, actually, since she didn't have a fancy title for it.) I'll be posting a picture everyday of something that gives me joy and writing about it.

Okay, so they aren't actually my nieces... they're Clement's nieces and they are 2 and 4. Here is a picture of them with Gong Gong (Chinese for grandpa; Clement's dad) over the weekend, celebrating Taiwanese Father's Day.

Side note - the Chinese celebrate Father's Day on August 8th because 8/8 sounds like the Chinese for father.

I don't have any brothers or sisters of my own so I have to live vicariously through Clement. I love doing all the little kid stuff with them like playing and reading bedtime books, which I usually get pulled into by sticky hands =P. Hard to say no to those adorable faces!

Mouth-Watering Watermelon Bars

Don't these watermelon bars look delicious?? Recipe at Right@Home.

7

Hello! You bloggerinas have been busy while I was moving; I came back to find lots of amazing stuff to catch up on!

My pal Phoenix over at Res ipsa loquitur has just tagged me in a post to share 7 things about myself! Like her, I was surprised to be tagged by an amazing writer ;-) and am totally stoked about sharing my 7!

1. I am an only child and hate it when people ask if I was lonely growing up without brothers or sisters because it doesn't seem occur to them that I had an entire childhood like that and therefore don't have any basis for comparison. (Nobody ever asks if a person disliked growing up blond or something else they couldn't help. -_-")

2. I have been to Paris twice and Taiwan twice because I have a lot of extended family in both places.

3. I speak (mostly fluent) Mandarin Chinese, which I studied for about 5 years outside of school, but can't remember any of the French I supposedly learned over 3 years in school.

4. I have never broken a limb, knock on wood.

5. When I was little, I thought being a school bus driver would be a great job. My 6-year-old brain had concluded that their jobs consisted only of picking up kids for school, dropping them off after school, and the occasional field trip. Even when I was little, I was lazy!

6. I used to be heavily addicted to World of Warcraft and was in an active raiding guild back when the cap was 60 and there were 40-man raids. (And you wonder where the "geek" part of my description came in.)

7. My boyfriend's nickname for me is "Bunny" because apparently the way I do air quotation marks looks like I'm making two pairs of bunny ears hop forward.

Tag, you're it -- I'd love to hear 7 from Jasmine, Brenda, Deb, Emily, Dionne, Nina, Lisa, and Tammi!

Strung Up on the Vitamin String Quartet

As promised, here is my compliation of Vitamin String Quartet videos!

Brief descrition from Wikipedia:

"According to their website, The Vitamin String Quartet comprises a rotating collective of Los Angeles musicians widely known for its tributes to cutting-edge rock acts. They have released a series of string quartet tribute albums, released by Vitamin Records using a wide array of instruments, but primarily violins and violas.

"Vitamin String Quartet is about applying rock n' roll attitude to classical technique," says Tom Tally, a violist and arranger who has performed on and produced over thirty-five Vitamin String Quartet albums."

"We Will Rock You" - Queen

"Don't Speak" - No Doubt

I had no idea this song could sound even sadder but I was quite wrong.

"Wonderwall" - Oasis

"When You Were Young" - Killers

Check out their YouTube channel to see if they've covered your favorites!

Oh, and can I just say, as a former violinist, how different and refreshing it is to hear the cello actually play melodies instead of just the boring harmonizing parts? Poor cello players.

AEiP Giveaway!

The always inspirational Jasmine, at An Experiment in Poverty, is super excited about her very first giveaway! Your chance to win a gorgeous Tolani scarf is just one comment away; all you have to do is leave a comment saying something you like about yourself. A self-booster and potentially winning an amazing scarf all in one shot!

If I win, I'm picking this one. It was my absolute favorite on the website.

(Hey, maybe if I don't win, I'll try to get chickdowntown to sponsor a giveaway for me ;-)

Alice in Wonderland Trailer

I've shared the pictures but did you see the trailer yet?

HD version here.

Like Mad Libs for Bloggers

I am very amused by The Lazy Blogger Post Generator. Fill in blank spots from a drop down menu! Here is mine:

"Holy Blog Of Doom, Batman! I just got slapped with a wet salmon - really - I have not updated this since they invented sliced bread... You would not believe the fairy dust I have to clean up. I hope they bring chocolate!.

I am lost in a sea of pseudo-olde-english with only your readership as life preserver, a ticking crocodile, just generally being Snow White to the secret service, my day starts with the dawn patrol from the second I am woken by murderous Teletubbies to till I fall into bed at midnight. I am wearing my budgie smugglers. it will be fun fun fun till they take my TBird away.

I go, my lords and ladies; just think of me as I battle mine enemies. You wanna test me? Don't hold your breath though, you're likely to turn blue.."

Your turn!

(via the Twitter of Ted Fu, of Wong Fu Productions)

Happy 4th

Food, friends, family, fireworks, and...

(via Le Love)

Burton in Wonderland

Am I the only person who hasn't heard about the Alice in Wonderland movie by Tim Burton, scheduled for release next year?

Ms. Jenn, at {Bits of Beauty}, shared gorgeous pictures of the film yesterday and it was the first I had seen of it.

(More pictures here.)

The movie has an all-star cast including Johnny Depp (par for the course), Anne Hathaway, and Helena Bonham Carter. It's definitely going on my must-see list!

Giant Pocky

I went to Mitsuwa today with Sage and found something amazing.

Giant. Pocky.

Each stick almost the size of my forearm.

I should have taken a picture with the box but I was too eager to eat them all as I found them to be actually more delicious than normal Pocky! Luckily, there is always the internet:

(via RoG at i-mockery)

Thanks, internet, for helping my demonstrate the size of the giant Pocky. A quick Google search showed that Amazon.com also carries Giant Pocky. You know what would be the best thing ever? If Costco carried them in bulk.

TinyChat

TinyChat is amazing, amazing, amazing. It's a web-based chat platform that doesn't require a sign-in. This means that if your friends don't all have AIM or gchat or yahoo! or whatever, you can still all chat in a room together! One person creates a room and then sends the url to whoever he/she wants to invite to the room. Of course, being the forward technology minds that the creators are, they have also provided links so you can share it to FaceBook, Twitter, and MySpace.

I just tried it out with some gals from my EMP class and they loved it. It was really simple and straight-forward. I can't believe how easy it was to get everyone into one room like that.

Super amazing brilliant idea. I love this!