Friday Frisson: Special "Sick Preschooler" Edition!

Quickly, quickly, before the lad wakes up! Here are the frissons I'm enjoying of late.

How to Beat the System to Get a Great Job. This post by Penelope Trunk, a fascinating woman if I ever virtually met one, offers great ideas for kicking career ass while you're underemployed.

Lollychops. Great projects, but for me the big draw is the huge amount of super cute/useful downloads.

Claire Oswalt. I don't remember anymore how I found Claire's site, but every few weeks I have another look to see what she's up to. She's a fantastic artist with incredible style, and does everything from drawings to knitted pieces to wooden puppets. These are a couple of my favorite pieces from her site. It looks like she's got an exhibit up right now, here in LA, with one to follow in September.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Not the movie (though obviously I can wax rhapsodic about that anytime--just ask, okay?), but an amazing reinterpretation of the poster made for the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. I so want to hang this in my living room. And maybe pet it every now and then.

Just Something I Made. Cathe Holden is another artist with a graphic design studio, an Etsy store and apparently a zillion ideas on gorgeous, fun things to make. On top of which she's also designed a bunch of super-cool blog buttons and add-ons. Love it.

Contxts. I signed up for this yesterday, although I'm still a bit undecided on it. It's a great idea: an SMS-based business card that you can simply text to people! On the other hand, the business card itself often helps me to remember the person, and cold text ain't about to do that. Also on that same hand, I tend to keep only very close contacts on my phone, and am not sure that I want tons of business-card info stored on it. But on the third hand, who knows? Send me an email if you want to exchange biz-card beams.

Enjoy your weekend, lovelies.

Friday Frisson

Happy Friday, lovelies! This week's frissons can be filed under "useful," "too awesome for words," and/or a gorgeous combination thereof. Let's jump right in!

Laurel Plum Online. An organizational genius, Laurel blows my mind. She has excellent, non-threatening tips for organizing, like, every single bit of your (my) life. Also, her matter-of-fact tone makes me feel like my rusty homemaking skills are not something to be ashamed of--just worked on. Easy, right?

OSS 117:Le Caire nid d'spions. I'm not quite sure how to convey the awesome contained within this movie. Let's start with the tagline: Secret agent OSS 117 foils Nazis, beds local beauties, and brings peace to the Middle East. Good, yeah? It's sort of like...if Inspector Clouseau [the real one, not the big phony Steve Martin one] were a little more Austin Powers. And looked like an exact cross between Bob Odenkirk [on the left, there] and Hugh Jackman [you don't really need a photo of Hugh, do you?]. Oh, and it's in French. (Twenty-five percent of you are running out right now to get this. The other 75% of you are unsubscribing to this feed.)

On Simplicity. This is a blog I can't get enough of right now. Of late, I am particularly enamored of this post, entitled 37 Easy Ways to Say I Love You. True, heartfelt and practical. Kind of what we could all use right about now, I say.

Libre Tea Glasses. An idea whose time has come! A portable, thermal cup for loose leaf tea! Loose leaf is so much tastier and healthier, too. Now it's easy to take with you. Seriously, why did this take so long? I grew up drinking tons of tea, or what we called tea; apparently the correct nomenclature for the stuff is tisane? Well, I never. In any case, preparation for said beverage went more or less thusly: pick lemongrass, orange leaves, lemon leaves or mint from the garden, or open up a cellophaned pack of Mexican cinnamon sticks. Boil water. Turn off heat, stick rinsed foliage of choice in the water, cover. Let steep about 5 minutes. Drink. Now I can take my tea with me! Bonus: it looks so pretty in the clear container. Love it!

Friday Microcoworking. Listen, L.A. freelancers: this is really cool. A group of us has been gathering at a coffee shop in Redondo Beach on Fridays for a couple of hours. We get some tables together, plug in our laptops, get some work done, have good coffee, and share in the unique delights of freelancing. Come join us, won't you?

Have a fantastic weekend!

xo

Why, of all the dirty, rotten...

Dear friends, there is no Frisson Friday today! I'm so sorry. I've been working and working at some very exciting new things, things I can't discuss just yet but ooh, they're going to be good! Anyhow, as a result, here it is Friday and I'm empty-handed. Not to mention it's coming up on one in the morning and I need to get up early to bake (!) for a yuppie-esque mama/kiddo thing I've organized (!)at the park tomorrow. So can I ask something of you? Will you leave me a comment with a Friday Frisson suggestion? That would be lovely and much appreciated. Your favorite article, video, site, image, Tweet, whatevs. I'd love to know what it is. Thanks, dollbabies. You're a bunch of peaches!

Friday Frisson

Let us spring forward into the weekend.*

Platform 21. Remember when we fixed things because they weren't disposable? Oops, turns out they still aren't disposable. But we knew that, right? Platform 21 pushes the crazy notion of repairing what you've got. (Hear that, Apple? Repairing! What whaaat?) I would like to give Platform 21 a hearty handshake!

The Graphics Fairy. Being the crafty, DIY sort, I've got the vapors over this blog, a fantastic source for vintage graphics. Like this one. Charmant, indeed. Look at this one! (It has P's would-be name written all over it. P, you can write "Missus" above the "Gervais" and make a set of coasters... c'est romantique, non?)

Holy Experience. You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate this phenomenal post on this excellent blog. Gratitude and good cheer are no longer optional for me. These words--one in particular; you'll see--have helped to cement that in me.

Crash. I am obsessed with this painting by an artist named David Molesky (who, by the way, was also pre-med, with a focus on neurobiology? Wow.). If I had a painting like that, I'd never leave the house.

*Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Friday Frisson

Happy happy (almost) weekend, everyone!

carbonmade. So here I've been wringing my hands and developing stomach pains over my lack of online portfolio like a sucker, when all I need to do is get myself over to yonder URL and, like, upload some stuff. Presto change-o, a portfolio. Did I mention it's free? Am I the last person on earth to know about this? Hot damn, it's rad.

Nirrimi Photography. Whilst having a good meander through carbonmade I stumbled onto this lovely set of photos. Daydreamy, nostalgic, but exciting, they remind me of the photo shoots in the first few volumes of Sassy, like maybe 1988-90. Love! But wait...it turns out the photographer is sixteen years old. Shut up, really? Oh yes. And her self-portrait on her bio page is beyond gorgeous. See? Unreal.

the tweezers. A few years ago I had this terrible job. It was crazy, insane madness. The kind of job that acts like it's going to kick your ass at the bus stop if you don't give it your lunch money or your soul or whatever. One of those deals. But two good things came from it: one, I learned way more about my limits and my potential than I can go into detail about here; two, I met Bob, who taught me about a zillion life lessons in subjects ranging from sales and marketing to David Bowie to Antarctic exploration. And who is cooler than the coolest stereotype of cool you can imagine (if you don't believe me: one day he told me about the time he hung out with Iggy after a show. Yeah, that Iggy.). Anyway, so he's recently unearthed a bunch of gems relating to the tweezers, his band from days of yore. Check it out here! And there's a blog here, too.

Miscellaneous assortment of shame. Okay, I've been debating over whether to include this link for a couple of weeks now. Because it's not, like, awesomely hot? Except that every time I go through these, I end up in tears, doing that very unattractive scream-laughing. Sometimes I have to slap the top of our computer desk. See, the lovely and talented Heather Bailey held a contest on her blog, inviting people to leave her their most horrifyingly embarassing stories in the comments section. And while some pretty horrifying shite has happened to me, it's nothing like some of these stories. Granted, not all of them are knee-slappers--some didn't seem even remotely embarrassing (in fact some seemed like a pretty good, dignified day to me). My advice is this: if you need a laugh, click the link and scroll about halfway down the page. Dive in. Enjoy. Make sure you read the one about the pregnant American woman and the bathtub in West Berlin. Ahem.

Enjoy, lovelies. Thank you for sharing your time and your thoughts with me.

Friday Frisson: The Smart Set

Lie To Me. What a great show. Well-written, with interesting characters and great dialogue... it's no Sports Night or nothin' (remember that?), but it's goooooood. I've admired Tim Roth since Reservoir Dogs, so it's nice to see him in an ongoing role. (And if I may say so, he classes up network television a bit, eh?)

One Sentence. Real stories, by real people, told in one sentence. It's harder than it looks. Try it! And try to guess which one is mine.

Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissue. Wait, I can explain. While perhaps not representative of the seksay content you've come to rely on here [anyone up for the ol' Tim-Finn-got-his-arm-sweat-on-my-arm story again? Huh?], this product is, nonetheless, pure genius. It deserves your attention! I don't know how it's been with you, but this winter has been relentlessly sick-making around my house. This Kleenex actually kills 99% of the little monsters that are itching to get all up inside your system! Blow your/his/her nose and the tissue kills whatever's in it! Hm. That's not quite... I mean, I'm sure your fingers are fine inside the tissue, you know? They wouldn't put, like, flesh-eating Kleenex out on the market, right? Anyway, they aren't paying me; I am genuinely this excited about tissue. Because the winter illness, it must end. I just can't take any more.

Nubby Twiglet. Au currant, interesting, useful and attractive. Aahhhh... that's good blog.

Happy weekend, lovelies. Enjoy it!

Friday Frisson

Drop.io. Listen: open another browser window right now. Type "drop.io" into the address bar and observe in amazement as your life gets more convenient. Sign up for a free account; upload large files. Send the link to people you know who want to download the large files; they then download said files. Easy, peasy. Way easier, peasier than zipping, and more convenient than a memory stick. And NOT ACCESSIBLE TO SEARCH ENGINES. And free. (And you can customize the look of the page, which is fun.)

iCiNG. Like a party with magazines, thick black eyeliner, cupcakes and gin. And the Velvet Underground, maybe? And glitter. Reading iCiNG makes me all squealy and gets me out my not-infrequent funks these last couple of weeks. It's run by Gala Darling, an adorable badass. Firstly, that is her legal name--she chose it herself. (Having legally changed my name at the age of 22, I have a special soft spot for others who do this.) Secondly, she's kind of all over the place--fashion! health! self-image! travel! boys! fun!--which is always a million times more interesting than keeping with the same theme all the time. Thirdly, and perhaps most important, it would be all too easy for this type of site to go horribly awry. But owing primarily to the balance of frippery, common sense and a genuine interest in other people, Miss Gala's iCiNG is a delight.


This crochet necklace from Cheeky Magpie. I think I would replace the button with something a bit more flash, which is fine because the necklace isn't for sale; nay, that Cheeky Magpie has created a tutorial! Which means if I ask my mama for (yet another) crochet lesson (it never seems to stick, but perhaps the eighth time's the charm?), I could totally have one of these by the weekend! (Image from Cheeky Magpie, which is so fantastic I am considering starting a fan club.)




This magic, right here. As you may or may not know, Mr. Eastwood enjoys a rather exalted status in my household (or would, were he ever to visit). I think this collection of all things Eastwood is a damn fine thing. Have a look at this set of three teaser designs from a UK press sheet for A Fistful of Dollars.






















Also, apparently he was a badass even as an infant.





















I just soiled my diaper. Feelin' lucky, punk?

Yeah, sorry, I just couldn't help myself.
(All Eastwood photos via The Clint Eastwood Archive.)

Friday Frisson

[First, a confession: I have no recollection where I got the first two of these images. If they belong to you, will you let me know so that I can credit you?]


Gorgeous, lovely, adorable, charming--and a million other adjectives. I can't get enough of this photo.


Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly how it works!


This is a photo I took facing south from the top of the parking structure at home. This sunset is, to me, shorthand for "home."