In My Copious Free Time

You take the good, you take the bad...

14 "classic" television shows from the 70s and 80s...

It's Apple season

Southern Things, Interrupted

My sister asked me to talk about some of the difference between living in the north and the south. Unfortunately, my webcam crashed and I lost the first part of what I said.

I have no shame

If I did, I wouldn't be making a video with my hair plopped in a towel! But thanks to a lot of discussion with friends about makeup and its application, I decided to do a how-to video. It's in three parts, but I'm only posting part 1 here - the others are linked on th YouTube page for this video and I'll put the links to them at the bottom of this post, too.

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drIQSS56tk4

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU22WFLFVF8

blogging the old-fashioned way

Hello everyone, it's me again.

Lest you all think I've forgotten how to type, I figured I'd blog the old-fashioned way for a change. Just  a quick update on what's going on as that's about all I have mental bandwidth for at this moment.

I had a terrific work experience in Trinidad and I'm almost done with a piece about being in the minority and how that impacted me. I did post some pictures from the trip on my Flickr account, though.

After four days away, I came home Sunday before last and Joe and Alex left the next day to go to Pennsylvania. Joe's father is very ill and since Joe is in the down period before starting his new job, there's really no sense in him not spending as much time with his parents as possible. He was planning to drive home today, but those plans needed to change, so now I'm planning on going to get Alex either this afternoon or tomorrow. I miss them both, but Alex is really ready to be home and needs to start getting settled in to a school-like routine. I'd just give anything if Joe weren't having to go through this, though.

On Sunday my friend Chris came over and made brunch (among his many talents, he's an excellent cook and went to culinary school) and we just chilled on the couch and watched Katt Williams.

It's hard to believe that Alex is starting school next week. I said something about being on maternity leave 7 years ago and still being mad that someone took my inbox while I was out. A co-worker chastised me saying it hadn't been 7 years and was floored to realize that Alex is in fact turning 7 in 6 weeks. SEVEN!!! In the SECOND GRADE!!!

This weekend I broke out the TED 2008 DVD set and watched a few of the talks. It's such a shame that many of them are so edited for online posting. Ben Zander's talk is fully twice as long on the DVD as it is on the TED site. I understand why they do it, but the editing means web viewers miss the "beyond the fuck it" story.

If you can't tell, I am really enjoying video blogging and I can't say enough about how wonderful everyone's feedback and support has been. I'm pretty floored by the response, to be honest. I never expected to be getting comments from mostly strangers, or to have people SUBSCRIBING to my channel! But then again, I never expected to vlog in the first place. My videos can be found on my channel at YouTube. Do drop by and say hello and join in the fun by giving vlogging a whirl!

And rather than telling you what I thought about Hillary Clinton's speech last night at the Democratic National Convention, I'll just embed last night's vlog. Which is a little about the speech and a little about the poem it made me think of. (If you read enough poetry, everything reminds you of a poem. That is a good thing.)

Feeling vloggy

When I put out a "what should I vlog about message yesterday, my friend Tim Jackson asked me "How to handle bad days with dignity and poise; seems to be your gift." So here's the resulting vlog:

Ask Me Anything and Onepinktreetee

Three vlogs from the weekend. The first is a quick reaction to finding a t-shirt with a pink tree on it in the new Macy's flyer...

On plurk I posted an "ask me anything" and here are some of the answers. The first video has shorter answers to some of the easier questions. The second has a bit longer answer to one more serious question. Well, the answer is serious, anyhow. And in the second one, the person I'm talking about is Zimbardo. I always forget his name.

Where is 'Better Off Dead' on this list?

This was sort of an accidental vlog.

Let me just stop right there and say that I don't know what happened when they upgraded the TypePad compose interface, but if I make a mistake and have to backspace, it takes forever for the cursor to move. No idea why.

Anyhow...so here's a video I made last night before leaving the office in response to a vlog about guilty pleasure movies. I thought the list was a little odd, though. I would add:

• Clueless
• Summer Rental
• Midnight Madness (does ANYONE remember this movie?)
• Heaven Can Wait (the Warren Beatty version)
• Armageddon
• Legally Blonde
• Cocktail
• Better Off Dead
• Mr. Mom

Okay, I could go on but I won't, cause I already did:

Why I'm vlogging

While I waited HOURS last night for my first vlog to upload, I made another one. Be warned this one is quieter because I'm sleepier, but in it I discuss what really made me start vlogging...among other things. I did this low-resolution, so it's a bit jumpier and it makes the lighting more off (the study doesn't help things)...so sorry 'bout that.

So...if there are any vloggers out there...why do YOU vlog? Or if you blog, why do you do that? I'd love to hear!

*deep breath* My first vlog!

Okay, not to sound like Britney Spears, but...

OMG Y'ALL!!!! I just uploaded my first video blog! It's a little rambling and crazy, but it was literally the first take, one take, straight out of the box with this webcam. Since I have no idea how to edit video, there's no cutting out any of the nonsense. Actually, it's all nonsense, but you know what David Whyte says...

I find myself
Wanting to do
Something
Stupid and lovely.

While I was waiting HOURS for this video to upload, I actually made another vlog about why I was doing this and about this poem, but it'll take forever to upload, so maybe you'll eventually see that, too.

A little credit where credit is due:

It was after watching The Anthropology of Youtube after my good friend Mack posted it in his blog and watching that turned out to be the little push in the right direction I needed for this particular act of stupid-and-lovely-ness.  I also am a huge fan of Michael Buckley, and while this video is in response to Do it in the Shower, it was really his Don't be Afraid to Vlog video that inspired me. So thanks guys!

Anyhow, here I am - a little slice of me in real life.

And don't worry that because Michael Buckley sings in his videos that I'm gonna do that, too. I hesitate to say it's never going to happen because I've been doing a lot of things lately that I never thought I'd do, but in this case, I think it's pretty safe. I promise I am never going to sing in my vlogs.

So...OMG Y'ALL!! Like, leave me a comment on my video!

;)