Inspirational Saturday
O.M.G. I'm totally inspired. I just came across this blog That Unreliable Girl, who writes about design, photography, architecture, fashion, art and decorating. She manages to find the most whimsical images that are calming and inspirational. I'd love to create the types of images she finds but I think I'd have to either use film or PhotoShop filters. And move to the country!
Here are some finds that are just gorgeous. They're from all different sources so you'll have to go to her blog to find them. But it's worth checking out.
Long Overdue - Linchpin
Hey folks. This post is long overdue. I had the pleasure of seeing Seth Godin and Steven Pressfield speak at Borders Monday night with Natasha from New Age of Marketing & PR. We both felt the talk was inspiring. And personally, I think both of us have already started applying Godin's ideas in our lives. Natasha has a great writeup of the event here. In addition to what Natasha wrote, I'd add some other interesting ideas that Seth and Steven brought up.
Guiding principal of life; whatever you feel the most resistance to, that's what you're soul feels it's the most needed to do.
That in the end, the satisfaction from working and conquering your "resistance" is much more gratifying than the immediate happiness from avoiding work.
When you're trying to achieve a long term goal, let go of negative thoughts. Let it pass. It's resistance and it's horse shit.
Think about making a positive impact in the world.
Keep doing what you're doing over and over again. This goes in line with what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in Outliers (10,000 hours) and what Anne Lamott discusses in Bird By Bird. The more bad ideas you have, the more good ideas you'll create. It (life, success, entrepreneurship, art, creating) is a marathon and not a sprint!
I can happily say that my public high school (Teaneck High School) and the great teachers it contained, prepared me for this kind of thinking. For the most part, I've envied my friends who took a more traditional path to life and work - grad school, job with specific rules, timely promotions, etc. But now I realize that my zigzag, crazy path full of temp jobs, entrepreneurship, retail, sales, etc. will be just as beneficial in the long run.
Wrap A Nap = Genius
I found this website while fighting the resistance (Linchpin/War of Art talk); i.e. procrastinating, on my photography assignment. You know those moments where you desperately need a nap but you're at work... or in a car, or traveling elsewhere and nature just did not equip you with the perfect napping pillow. Well.. this is definitely one of those ideas that I wish I had thought of, especially as an avid napper. I found it through Tanveer Badal's photography website. After reading reviews, I'm convinced it's comfortable and will put you right to sleep. The Poseidon Wrap-A-Nap has my name on it. Maybe the Wrap-A-Nap will prevent me from having weird dreams about Paris Hilton like I did during my half hour snow storm nap today. Hmmmm.
Smugger's Notch - All Together Now
Wow! I've been crazy busy this morning. Hellz yeah. I totally prefer running on adrenaline than being so bored that I need copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake. So I don't have time to give the play by play but a picture is worth a thousand words right? The highlights were that I'm apparently sort of a natural - only took a half hour lesson from my friend Mike who was kind enough to help us. But apparenently I'm dangerous to myself and others and I probably should have taken an official lesson and SLOWED DOWN. The weekend was about overcoming some fears. I still had to get myself into a happy place while on the very high two person lift even when I was sitting next to my boyfriend. Yeah, heights and I don't get along. Not a rational fear and I must have fallen to my death in a past life. I certainly fell on my ass about five times and lost a bit of confidence towards the third run.
I ate tons of junk food. My body is now made up of 60% Cheetos, Doritos and potato chips. The people I went with are super awesome. I had the opportunity to spend quality time with mostly everyone and it was lovely having some simple, wholesome fun like completing the hardest hologram puzzle known to man and playing bullshit. It was great to be on the road. I laughed so hard to a Dane Cook's stand up routine I had to stop myself from seriously crying and freaking out the three other guys in our car. And I think I've finally forgiven them for abandoning me during karaoke. And now.. for your viewing pleasure..
I don't know why I love this picture. It's an action shot!
Bullshit!
Some morning puzzle action
A frozen tear.
Sunday afternoon lunch at Casa Del Sol in Vermont.
And if you're interested in seeing more pictures from my weekend, you can check out my flickr here.
TED Prize
I interrupt my Vermont Ski trip recap to bring you this message. Congrats to Amy and Chris at TED for being interviewed by CNN. I'm looking forward to seeing what Jamie Oliver will come up with and would love to support his cause in some way. It's amazing how working towards curing obesity can solve so many problems in the US. I'm going to try and follow his teachings, cook food from his cookbook and bring in my lunch more often.
TED Prize
I interrupt my Vermont Ski trip recap to bring you this message. Congrats to Amy and Chris at TED for being interviewed by CNN. I'm looking forward to seeing what Jamie Oliver will come up with and would love to support his cause in some way. It's amazing how working towards curing obesity can solve so many problems in the US. I'm going to try and follow his teachings, cook food from his cookbook and bring in my lunch more often.
Smuggler's Notch Part 2
And so the drinking began
So where was I? My car (three guys) and I arrived at our spacious condo, had some shots then dinner at the resort. Post dinner, we decided to hit up the pool and hot tub. One brave soul attempted to bypass the lifeguard wearing only his skivvies but was harshly reprimanded. After quickly changing, we ran over to the "Fun Zone" in the hopes that we would find ping pong, as the resort website promised. Instead, it was a gym area fit for five year olds and we were told to head to the teen zone. Hoping that the term "Teen Zone" was somehow meant for the over 12 crowd without children, we headed over. We entered a room fit for a church basement with one ping pong table, a few pimpled teenagers and some couches. My boyfriend spoke to the attendant who demanded his age, to which he replied 28 (he's 30). We were promptly kicked out and told to go to the bar. Why is drinking synonymous with the one "adult activity?" Large purple book bag in hand, wet hair and glasses, we made ourselves comfortable at the resort bar and were informed that, naturally, they were hosting karaoke.
A few drinks later and I was singing Kelly Clarkson in front of the crowd by my lonesome, completely abandoned by my boyz who had initially intended on singing with me. Among the crowd was, of course, a fellow college alumni also at the resort with about ten other friends. Our group was anointed the "New York Group" and at one point, I think we were even booed. Yeah, I'm really glad this photo is blurry. All in all, it was a fun night and I'm glad we got to see everything the resort had to offer. A little La Bamba, an ill chosen Benny and the Jets, and we returned to the condo, dignity partially intact. The rest of our crew arrived that night and we all crashed at midnight prepared for a full day of skiing.
Smuggler's Notch. Oh Snap!
I had an amazing weekend. I went up to Vermont's Green Mountain, and rented a condo with my boyfriend and 6 others. My boyfriend made us meet at Grand Central at 8am on Friday morning, which I've probably mentioned a few times. But to his credit, it was actually a great idea and felt pretty good to be out of the city by 9am. I had so many life changing "Firsts" this weekend. I experienced Cracker Barrel for the first time which was glorious and kicked my two day French Toast craving. What genius came up with a restaurant that also contains a country store full of goodies.
Boyfriend's friend. (Ladies, he's single!)After taking what ended up being an hour detour through Stowe and then back around the mountain, we finally got to the resort around 4. My boyfriend planned the trip, reading that it was a top rated ski resort, but he missed the line where it mentions top resort for "families." So we were surrounded by families and got dirty looks throughout our stay - mainly because they thought we were going to tear up the joint. On the bright side, it meant that there were ample "Green Trails" for us beginners. Which was especially good since we missed our hour of free instruction and instead, received a 30 hour lesson from our friend Mike. I also felt comforted knowing that five year old's were fearlessly doing everything I was about to do.
To Be continued...
One More and Then I'm Out
by John Alber
Happy!
Today I went a little Tumblr crazy. You can see my posts here. I have to figure out how to use it. As a competitive Aries, I find blogs are no fun until you can figure out how to track your viewers.
OMG OMG, 2 more hours until quitting time. My boyfriend is making us meet at Grand Central tomorrow at 8am to leave for our Vermont Ski trip. I kindly tried to explain to him that he was on crack but he just laughed at me. Oh well. I can sleep in the car and I understood his thinking - that he wanted his vacation to start as early as possible.
High and Lows
Thank you Casey and Jordan once again for the shout outs. And if you want a more detailed recap of the event along with a book list, etc. please check out Natasha's blog New Age of Marketing & PR here.
So funny story, the hot water isn't working in my building. Again. I guess it's good I know this now instead of 7am when I'm trying to rush to get ready for my ski trip. So looks like I'll be staying at bf's place tonight after all. On that note, I'll be on the road tomorrow with limited access to the web but I'll try to sneak in a few Tumblr posts here and there mainly cause I haven't figured out how to Blog on Blogger via my iPhone. So catch those update HERE.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I'll keep you posted on my skiing adventures. This is actually the first time I've gone skiing. Yikes!
P.S. I haven't hawked my wares in a while so here it goes. See here for RedBubble. And because you can never have too many random canvas bags. See here.
Happy!
Today I went a little Tumblr crazy. You can see my posts here. I have to figure out how to use it. As a competitive Aries, I find blogs are no fun until you can figure out how to track your viewers.
OMG OMG, 2 more hours until quitting time. My boyfriend is making us meet at Grand Central tomorrow at 8am to leave for our Vermont Ski trip. I kindly tried to explain to him that he was on crack but he just laughed at me. Oh well. I can sleep in the car and I understood his thinking - that he wanted his vacation to start as early as possible.
Absolutely Inspired
Just got back from a panel discussion via Social Media Week: Women in Social Media Panel. It was amazingly inspiring and most definitely needed. Let's just say I've had to look at the LolCats website a few times since my last post to get me into a happy place. And I'm pretty sure my boyfriend thinks I'm a highly dramatic, emotional wreck to which I've tried to assure him that this is only temporary ... I swear!
Each panelist gave valuable advice and all seemed to come from similar places. They graduated from top colleges, attempted to go into traditional media or dying industries, tried to encourage their companies to utilize social media and eventually struck out on their own when they realized their companies were slow to change. Everyone seemed to have been struggling when literally one moment, introduction, or idea changed their lives and catapulted them into success - the kind of success where they have control over their own destiny and enjoy what they do. Jordan Reid's genuine kindness was a good reminder that if you smile at the world, the universe will smile back. Alexa offered practical advice about starting a business - Seth Godin's "Purple Cow" and "Free Prize Inside" are on my book list. I'll be sure to follow Meghan Muntean's soon to be launched website ChickRx, a brilliant website idea that answers questions we may be too afraid to ask our mothers. And Casey Carter may have encouraged me to move my blog to Tumblr for the community of people and dashboard feature. The moderator, Neha Chauhan kept the conversation going and asked insightful questions, leading to informative answers. All in all, a successful event.
Meghan, Jordan and Casey
Neha and Meghan
Casey and AlexaThinking Happy Thoughts
There was a significant amount of anger on the 6 train this morning. It came late and was packed. For a few seconds, the lights went out. Then, about 5 ft away from me, two women got in a tiff. The woman sitting had way too much anger in her and her language was fairly inappropriate considering her child was sitting next to her. A young, blond girl's bag accidentally touched this woman since the train was packed. The lady sitting yelled at her to move her bag and the blond girl defended herself. The lady sitting called her a bitch and a dumb ass, or something like that. Pretty harsh. I felt like the argument extended beyond boundaries of personal space, into race and social economic tension. Eesh. Way too much drama before 10am.
Photography Question
As per previous posts, I'm taking a portraiture class that seems challenging and thought provoking. We have to develop a long term portraiture project over the next ten weeks and I was thinking of comparing my new neighborhood (East 66th Street) to my old neighborhood (St. Mark's in the East Village). That might be a superficial project that doesn't push the limits of portraiture but I really love street photography. Here are some shots from Sunday. What do you think? Are they too much like The Sartorialist? Please, be honest. I love his site but I don't want my project to be about just fashion.
Holy Vagina.
Oh. No. They Didn't. Via. Agencyspy. NSFW
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl60s1GLZCU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=425&h=344]
So. So. Unnecessary.
Good Morning!
In attempt to do my photography assignment in 20 degree weather Saturday, I headed to Grand Central, and got these.
Photography Question
As per previous posts, I'm taking a portraiture class that seems challenging and thought provoking. We have to develop a long term portraiture project over the next ten weeks and I was thinking of comparing my new neighborhood (East 66th Street) to my old neighborhood (St. Mark's in the East Village). That might be a superficial project that doesn't push the limits of portraiture but I really love street photography. Here are some shots from Sunday. What do you think? Are they too much like The Sartorialist? Please, be honest. I love his site but I don't want my project to be about just fashion.
Cool Photo Effect
Click on this link to my tumblr page please. My tumblr was an attempt to have a photography only blog but I've found it difficult to maintain a blog, Twitter page, and oh.. I don't know, I life! I don't think I can get a similar effect using Blogger.. but I guess it happened cause I moved positions but she stayed exactly where she was. Coolness.
I love. Love. Love. Street Photography. I love how you never know what you're going to get. Maybe I'm lazy or that it's just the perfect thing for my slight ADD and curiosity. Or as my boyfriend put it, I'm nosy. That's right. Nosy and curious..
Upper East Side, Bitches!
This woman is wearing $755 Christian Louboutin heels with a fur coat and perfectly wavy, full hair (not shown) while dropping off her kid (in an Escalade) at school. Where is she going, dressed like this at 9am? Any ideas? It's too early for fashion week. Speaking of fashion, saw Nina Garcia, her husband and kid walking around West of my hood. Nice sighting. Wondering if I can include her in my upcoming photography project.
