“Instead of complaining that the rosebush
is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn
bush has roses.”

Clothing of the future – Self illuminating fabric!

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Should be viewed while listening to Shawn Mullins “light you up”

Vogue – 758pgs of Pure Bliss

Red Lips – David Letterman once asked Anna Wintour (former Editor and Chief of Vogue) if you have only $20 to spend on  “being fashionable” what should you buy?  Her response “you could always buy a lipstick.”  That’s so true for Fall 2011.  Pictures of women with retro red lips and fluttery eyelashes are everywhere in this year’s issue.  Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Ultra Lipstick in Rouge ($23) was featured in the Index.  I might not get to jump on every trend this year but I will definitely invest in a high quality red lipstick:

Vintage Hollywood Glamor for women.  Glamor is definitly the right word.   “In difficult times fashion is always outrageous.” Elsa Schiaparelli.  It’s Katie Perry/Marilyn Monroe inspired pin up girl for those with the courage to flaunt it.  Scarlet Johannson/Grace Kelly elegance for those who like subtle glamor.  Naughty or nice either way you can’t go wrong with tailored feminine pieces, long lashes, skinny waists, perky boobs, high heels, soft bouncy wet set curls, knee length dresses and voluminous skirts.  Pulling off this look is surprisingly cost affordable.  A lot of today’s inexpensive fashion items are the staples of yester-year.  Want sky high perky boobs like the early 60s?  Go to walmart and reach for the 18hr bra in a box ($20).  Want the flawless curls? Raid the hair roller department at the dollar store ($3).   Can’t afford a diamond necklace?  Neither can I.  A strand (or two.. or three) of freshwater pearls will do the trick ($25+).  Paired with wardrobe staples a girl can look expensive and trendy without having to pay a fortune.

Slim suits & Skinny Ties for Men  Gone are the days of cargo pants and ratty t-shirts.  Suits and shiny shoes are back in and I’m very excited about it. 

Fur – Fur jackets, capes, boots, bags, gloves,  dresses, belts, etc. etc. etc were all over this month’s issue.  Trying to go all out with this trend could cost a small fortune.  I think a simple fur scarf & fur lined gloves paired with staples will do the trick.   Not into wearing dead animals?  There are plenty of authentic looking look-alikes on the market.  Some of them are softer, more cost effective and more durable than the real thing. 

Ankle Boots.  Are in.  Undeniably so.  I might be a social outcast for opting out of ankle boots but they’re just not flattering on my body type.   Even so, if you like them, stock up… this is your season!

Jacket & Boots paird with EVERYTHING.  Double points for jacket & boots paired with skirts & dresses.  And tripple points for a grey trench/boot pairing.

Grey, Tan, Wine & Berries  Is how I can best describe this year’s color scheme.  

Simple Leather Bag You should always end on a good tote.  The simple leather bag is a trend I can stand behind.  No fancy clasps or prints.  This is a load up once, take everywhere & wear with almost anything kind of bag.  [Round of applause] 

Why I hate the NFL

#1.  Sunday Night Football:  Sunday night football was a bad idea by whoever created it.  It overlaps Jersylicious.  Strike one.

#2. Fantasy Football: Makes you watch every NFL game.  Strike two.

#3. Madden 2012:  Actually more boring than watching football.  Strike three.

#4. Pink Jerseys:  Pink is not an NFL team color.   It used to be the safest color (as a girl) to wear to any sporting event.  Now it’s not. 

#5. Mascots: Don’t make sense. In the real world a lion would eat a ram.  Saints can’t steal.  Cardinals are about as tough as hummingbirds.  It’s just wrong for the patriots to beat the Chiefs.  And dolphins?  If you have to go aquatic…go with a shark, stingray, killer whale, octopus even.  Not a dolphin.   If I had to start an NFL team it’d be the “I – Crush – Yous.”   

#6.  The rules.  Are impossibly confusing.

#7. The announcers.  Are even more confusing.  This is what I hear…. “67 to the 32 yard line.  Second to three.  Inside hand off.  At the first down.  Beautifully done by Scotty Hampton. Set 3 great play by the defensive offensive line to the quarterback.  Full back.  Defensive end.  Biochemical engineering. At&t. Human Genome Project.   Blue 42.  Back to you Ted.”

#8.  The pants. 

9.  “Official NFL” Sports Merchandise.   There’s a lot of it.  I bet you could find an official Green Bay Packers snow globe whistle that doubles as a toaster oven.

10.  The reactions.  I don’t hate this per say it’s just really amusing.  My husband is not a loud man.  If he drops something heavy on his foot you get a barely whispered “ouch.”   If he wins $100 you might get a calm “hey look at that.”  But a touchdown.  Now that gets a completely different reaction.  ” GO!   GO!   GO!   GO GO GO!!!!   TOUCHDOWN!  HELL YEAH!  TOUCH – DOOOOOOWWWWWNNNNN!!!!!!! Did you see that?  DID.  YOU.  SEE.  THAT.  TOUCH DDDDDOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWNNNNN!!!!!  HELL!!!! YEAH!!!!  THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!   Replay.  Replay.  Check this out. THERE HE GOES.  O…O… OH!  OOOOOOOOHHHHH!    TOUCH DOOOOOOWN!”

Junior’s Picture

Created for Junior with Sketcher on a Motorola Droid

The Green Balloon

This fell into our backyard last night.  I’m not sure where it came from.  I’ve thought of a few likely scenarios.  All of them very sad.

I hope the message made it to its intended recipient in heaven before it deflated and fell back down.

It’s at times like these that time travel is very comforting to me.  Einstein said it’s possible to the point of inevitable (4).

Here’s the way I see it.  If time travel is possible then everything & everyone always exists.   Nobody EVER dies.  Death is an illusion based on perception like thinking the world is flat or that we’re at the center of the universe.  Here’s why I say that….

You can’t travel to a place that no longer exists.  If we can travel to December 2, 1999 8:30:15 AM from November 7, 2011 7:12:02PM then 1999 never went away.   Just like traveling  from North Dakota to Texas.  Everyone who was in North Dakota is still walking around & business is ticking along as usual even though we’re in Texas now & can’t be a part of it from here.

I think time works the same way.  We go through life driving from 1950 (North Dakota) through South Dakota (1970) and Nebraska (1990) all the way to Texas (2011) and possibly onto Mexico if we’re lucky enough to be in a vehicle that lasts that long, we maintain it properly & we don’t get into any major accidents along the way.  Our vehicle drives at a constant speed in a straight line, only carries one passenger and only starts & stops once.  If you leave someone behind in Oklahoma you’ll never ever be able to see them again without hopping out of your vehicle and turning around.

In this scenario the vehicle is the human body.  I don’t think time travel is possible in a human body – just don’t see it.  Everything about us physically reinforces our perception of time.

BUT a grad student (neurologist) wrote a paper.  He said if you made an EXACT copy of your brain and put it into another body… that person would think it’s you. That’s why you can replace almost any human organ or tissue and still be you.  Since then people have built upon this concept.  You could build a replica brain and put it in a machine – that machine would think it’s you.  And even a computer program.  The computer program would think it’s you.  If done successfully there would essentially be two yous.  It’s all theory.  Nobody knows how to replicate a human brain in practice.  IBM is trying (3) but only in a general AI sense.

Okay… so here’s my theory.  My theory is this:  the human body won’t be able to travel through time but the human mind can.  If you replicate it exactly and package it as data.  We already know how to transfer data from point A to point B in space.  If we’re able to send it through time through via extraordinary means [like a natural worm hole or DARPA’s atom smasher(1) or like what Wash U’s John Cramer is trying to do with a UV laser(2)], direct it somewhere specific and someone at the other end has the technology to transfer that data into a machine or a body… “you” with all of your memories and your personality could go back to 1999 and hug your mom.  You could even tell her when she passes away & what happens after her death (“you have three grandbabies.  One’s in college, one just got married, one is running for president.  We all miss you and love you very much, etc.”) because your memories & feelings would be included in that package.  In present day you wouldn’t have any memory of this happening until the data was repackaged and sent back then converted.  And even then it’s just a record.  But your mom would be aware of it. 

Anyway… that’s why I’m comforted by the thought of time travel.  Even if nobody converts my brain and sends me back in time, I like the idea that nobody ever dies and that its possible.

Until then, I think sending a balloon to heaven is a really nice thing to do.  And I’m glad it ended up in my backyard.  Even though I’m very sorry that family can’t be apart of their mom’s life.  Their mom is still living at one time.  And I hope one day it’s possible for all of us to send ourselves back in time to express our love to our  loved ones.

The end.

OH!  And one more thing. I talk about time travel a lot with friends.  People think it’s dangerous because you could go back and change a lot of things.  Put a quarter in a newspaper stand instead of two dimes & a nickel… and all of the sudden the Empire state building is gone.  The butterfly effect.  I don’t think time is like that.   The trick is to stop seeing time as events in a sequence – like a timeline.  If you think of past, present, future all laid out at once like a terrain it’s easier to understand.

Back to the analogy of North Dakota & Texas.  You can vacation toNorth Dakota year after year and you won’t have the exact same experience twice.  You can change what you do, where you stay, who you mingle with and what you say, but overall North Dakota is still North Dakota, and under normal circumstances everything within will progress as it would have if you’d never visited.  It is outside your control.  It’s bigger than you.  If you did something significant (like bomb North Dakota) things would change.  But probably not to the extent you’d think.

In the case of time travel… If you went back to 1999 and told your mom how she was going to pass away she might be more cautious when she reaches that part of her journey.  You might be able to buy her a little extra time with your input.  But eventually her vehicle will give out and her journey will end.  Some things you can’t change. 

Another analogy… when you get back from vacationing out of state things are generally as you left them.  A few things might be different (like the amount of money you have in your account if you gambled it away on your vacation) but overall your furniture will be in the same place, you’ll have the same food in the fridge, the same dog will be there to greet you.  I think time travel is the same way.  You can go back and try to change as much as you want – and will likely have a completely different experience in 1999 than you previously had – but it’s still 1999.  2011 will still be 2011 with all of its main features. 

I don’t think people should fear the concept.  If anything they should be encouraged by it.  Nobody ever really dies.  Everyone and everything we’ve ever been in contact with still exists.  The possibility of interacting with it is very legitimate.

Okay now – really – the end.

Roll the credits…

(1) Darpa’s Atom Smasher & Time Travel Article

(2) Physicist trying to send signal back in time article

(3) IBM replicates brain activity

(4) Einstein: Time travel is possible

Mad Men

Mad Men on Netflix is my new addiction.  It’s easy to get addicted to a series when you can watch it commercial free episode after episode.  I’m through season one.  The clothes are beautiful.  The makeup is stunning. The plot is so-so.   Every man is a JFK.  Every woman’s a Marilyn Monroe.  It highlights the good qualities and bad of the early 60s.  I could watch it on mute.  I just like looking at the clothes.  They never wear the same thing twice.

Goals…

WHY NOW?   “The executive brain doesn’t hit adult levels until the age of 25,” says Jay Giedd of the National Institute of Mental Health.  I’m pretty sure that’s true.  I’m 25. My brain wants to execute stuff.   It’s bored.  It’s sitting in my head thinking thoughts like “you should be more goal oriented” and “I know what sounds like fun… reading” and “finish those dishes and you can have a glass of wine” and “OOooooo they have plates at 8:30 on Wednesdays!”

Health Health is on everyone’s goal list.  It’s on mine too.  I’ve already joined a gym and started cooking at home AND I am enjoying it.  For the gravity of this to sink in 100% you have to know me.  Normal me is not a wake-up-at-7AM-eat-toast-and-jog.  Normal me likes funyuns & shock tarts.  And sleeping in.  Somewhere between 23 and 25 a switch was flipped.  And now… I donno… all of a sudden I’ve turned into a hybrid of my parents.  Coffee & toast the morning (mom) and a quick trip to the gym (dad) and my executive brain is happy.  I’m altogether pleased with this change.

Family The next biggest change has been my attitude toward family.  I noticed it first with my parents.  They went from being the last people on earth I’d ever share my personal life with to some of the first people I call for advice.  Then there’s how I view my husband.  He isn’t a boyfriend, someone to take to parties and kiss whenever I want.  He’s family, an extension of my family tree and one of the most important things in my life right now.  My goals include things like… having a baby… having a good home life… spending time with these people. 

Work The trick is, I can’t stay stagnant.  I have to keep striving for something.  The next step for me is undoubtedly marketing.  Most people would think sales management.  Nope.  I’d rather be covered in apple juice concentrate and eaten alive by ants.  But marketing… now that’s a next step I can strive toward.  Luckily my company is pretty liberal when it comes to marketing.  I can do as I please as long as it works and doesn’t cost a fortune.   So I’m going to work on marketing and do my best to show that it can produce sales.  Build a portfolio and either move up with my current company or with a different company.  Win win. 

Money Everyone wants to make money.  I hadn’t seriously considered the long-term ramifications of not having enough money in savings until recently.  Maybe 25 is too early to think about retirement.  BUT maybe not.  Because I’m hell-bent and determined to live to see my 100th birthday, buy a house, and have a baby, put that kid through college, and go on a few vacations with my husband in between.  Those are my goals.

Progress with adobe illustrator

Might not look like much.  It’s not even colored in.  But compared to where I was yesterday….  Leaps and bounds bay-bay.  Leaps.  And.  Friggin.  Bounds.

Jazz Lounge

I’ve been in the mood to do something downtown.  Bright lights, big city, bistro on the corner, speakeasy in the alley way, martinis and retro jazz music… something to wear a little black dress to and unwind.  

Gonzo found the perfect place downtown.

 

We had a ridiculous amount of fun.   The next day we lounged around the house and did nothing.  I tinkered around with the art kit.

(pencil)

(Marker)

(Acrylic Paint)

(Final Picture)