An Unfortunate Encounter with Pop Music.

Last night: restocking, reorganizing, refolding after hours. As soon as we closed shop, my fellow employees changed the radio station to some Pop Top 50 thing. I avoid music from those charts like the plague, but this time I was locked in with my paycheck riding in the balance.

And I left with one question: WHY??!!

Let me give you the overview:

Lyrics: Damn, girl, you lookin' hot. Damn, boy, I'm lookin' hot.

Beat: Same canned hip-hop beat we've known since the early 90's, looped bass line, annoyingly repetitive sample from old song or movie.

Message: Male = woman user. Female = meat.

Musicality: I don't know words with more than 3 syllables.

Seriously. Depressing. Tell me how this falls under the same artistic category as Bach, Beethoven, Glass, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Sigur Ros...it's blasphemy, I tell you! I know I'm a music snob, but, honestly, this is the popular music of our generation? It's like I'm inside an Ayn Rand novel...

Time for the E.A. Meetings...

That's right. Etsy-holics Anonymous. I'm addicted! You can get on the forums and help answer people's questions and critique their shops...and then you post a comment and people look at your shop...and then they say they like your bunny pic and more people look at your shop...and then you have people favoriting you and wanting to trade...and then you become well-known enough to quit your day job--wait, I don't have one--well, to just use your part-time job for it's stellar discount and make stuff full time...and then...wait, sorry, totally dreaming. But I did get a bunch of favorites and a trade offer. What fun!

Oh, and about my discount...did I mention that I got about $300 worth of stuff today for $90 when they gave employees a %70 percent off sale items sale? Jealous?
.

Betsy on Etsy.

Yes, the crafty little community that stole my name without the B now has me on as a seller.

My name: Plan B.

I'm just getting started, so there's only a couple things on now, but more is to come soon. You can keep track by this handy-dandy Etsy widget to the right here. And, dear friends, now would be an opportune time to buy so that you can be my guinea pigs, before the real people start buying (hehe...just kidding. You're real!). If you see anything on my website you especially think should be posted, please, do tell.

Oh, slight warning: when you venture onto the Etsy site, better alot a significant slot of time, cause there's some amazing stuff on there (my own included, of course!).

End of self-promotion.

a jar and an unwritten note.

Some pics I took this week. And, I finally got a job! I'm working at J.Crew in support/visuals and raking in a crazy awesome discount. Should be a fun place to work for the time being. And now I can have my heat and electricity turned back on...

Ron Paul = Substance

Ron Paul seems to be the only candidate to bypass all the sycophantic fluff and just tell it like it is.

How do we get this guy on the ballet???

Why *everyone* should read The Fountainhead.

"...why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want."

From Peter Keating, of all people, comes the crux of Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead. What if we disregarded what others thought of us, stopped wearing the clothes that make others turn, buying the toys that make others envy, pursuing the profession we thought others would approve of? What if our actions were determined solely by our own convictions and deepest desires? Maybe the "virtue of selfishness" would make the world a better place, because behind every job done, every thing created, every action made would be the greatest passion and the most ardent aspiration for the best in ourselves.

Don't worry. I'm a proffetional.

Happy.

Some people are made happy by ice cream. Others, by kittens. For me, it's by changing the default font on my browser to Futura. Craig's list is looking a whole lot better these days.

Ah, those summer days...

I forgot I had these...reminders of the fabulous camping trips I took this summer.
This particular one had everything:

family (above)

burgers

danger

fire

firecrackers

photo fun

a beached whale (really!)

Obama momma

Eric's butt...er...footprints

waves and sand

strange plant life

and really cool contrails.

which one?

Click on the image to see the fonts in their true glory.
For most of these fabulous, free fonts, go here.
For I Quit's beautiful font, go here.

On Design

Just a snippet from Debbie Milman's The Essential Principles of Graphic Design:

As we progressed into the twenty-first century, Americans were regularly exposed to 1,500-3,000 advertising messages daily from online, print, outdoor, and broadcast media. From 1999 to 2003, we created and stored more information than all the information produced since the beginning of mankind.

It goes on to say how the cram of information and super-fast lifestyle is taking a toll on our bodies: stress and stress related problems, ADD, sleeping disorders...

To survive this fast, constant, and sometimes debilitating information stream, we automatically edit out 85 percent of the information that comes our way. The information that penetrates these filters and is retained tends to be information that is symbolic, relevant to our lives, and meaningful intellectually and emotionally.

Welcome to the world of design. Among the slew of media, images, messages...how do you create something meaningful?

A few things about Portland so far...

1. I love rain! But...when walking to a job interview, glancing at your reflection, and seeing the frizziest hair ever, one starts to wonder if it might be time for an umbrella. I know, not a true Portlander, you say. But a hood flattens it, and rain frizzes it. Maybe a really cute polka dot one? Or one with owls?
   
   
   
2. Why the smoking? Portland, with your vegan restaurants, your ubiquitous bikers, your parks and trails and ski slopes...didn't anyone tell you that smoking kills? And seeps into the lungs of everyone near/in the room below/with the windows open in the apartment next to you? And don't act like throwing a cigarette on the ground isn't littering. 'Cause it is. So get with the times, Portland. You're almost perfect, why not go for the gold?
   
   
3. I went to a piano concert yesterday, a duet on one piano. I get there, and they introduce two elderly ladies--complete with white, tightly permed hair and floral sweaters--as the pianists. Great, I think, and wait for some cheese-o medley or something. I nearly jumped when they started banging out this atonal piece, complete with rubber bars used mid-song to play half the keys on the piano all at once. Clearly, these were not your typical old ladies. Turns out the piece was written by some 23 year old kid, and these ladies were playing the premiere. (Hmmm...such opportunities for young composers...) Then they played some Schubert and more goods. All for free! Yep, music to my ears.
   

Po-ort-lan-duh.

No posts for a while. Sorry about that. But, you know why? I've been moving! Yes, packing tiny bits of paper, concert tickets, CDs and DVDs (do I take the cases or not?), sweaters, hats, scarves, frames, photos, scads of books, and all other random paraphernalia found in my room.

Hauling everything up in a trailer covered with a flimsy tarp that looked like a hula skirt by the end of the trip, Mom, Dad and I drove up on Friday. Almost nine hours after leaving 112 degree Redding, we started unpacking in 106 degree Portland (how could you DO this to me!). We got everything settled and the place looks really cute, thanks in large part to cool wood floor and Ikea. So, I've got an apartment. "Job?" you say? Ha! I laugh in the face of jobs! Until tomorrow when I beat the pavement to find one. May the employment gods shine down upon me.

Super cool Ikea kitchen rack system. Neato.

Strobist Jet-Pack?

Check out Jesse's stellar strobist how-to video. Informational, as well as entertaining...and I got to ride a really sweet bike for it. Starring super-friends Kallie and Josh, and, of course, Jesse himself, and shot by muscley-armed-camera-girl Lyn.

Redwood forest how I love thee!

Look at that. Need I say more? And the wonderfully rocky coast, the angry waves, the 60 degree weather, the camping hair (Kallie wins!), the s'mores with burnt marshmallows, Adele's chicken apple sausages, crunchy coffee, banana slugs, snipes, ferns, elk, frisbees...

So, all you who've never been out here...GET MOVING!

See all the fun camping pics by Jesse and his unpaid intern--here.

Make way for Momma.

My incredibly child-savvy mother has posted her first e-how article on how to have fun reading with your kids, using the book Make Way for Ducklings. My mom's a pro at this, so if you have kids, or have friends that have kids, or have friends that have friends that have kids, read the article or point your friends or friends of friends to it. I think the plan is to post on a new book every week, so check back for new articles. And now....story time!!!

Time for Some Campaignin'

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

The latest piece of genius from JibJab. Look for a special guest citizen (i.e. my mom) at the voting booth at the end. I love these guys.

Dot Matrix meets Radiohead

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

What happens when you use ancient printers, scanners and such to remix Radiohead? Well...this.

Be patient, the actual tune starts about a minute in, after the TV fuzz prelude.

Remind me: Why do people live here?

Welcome to summer in Redding. Brutal.

The view from here.

So, the smoke's finally starting to clear up, but lest we forget what a matchbox Northern California is, here are some pics from last week, just down the road from our house. Admittedly, smoke does make for some cool photos.

Fireworks have been canceled because of fire danger, so we're fleeing the smoke this weekend and taking haven in the redwood forest. Ah, what a haven! Much thanks to all the firemen who are working their tails off to put out the fires!

Some people watch sunsets. We watch fires.

Yep, those singed bushes are from the LAST fire, about two years ago.