Michael Cera

There's just something about this kid. I saw "Arrested Development" a few times but it never quite caught on with me, but since I've seen Michael in other stuff, I totally appreciate him. I found this Internet webisode project thing he did with his friend Clark Duke at www.clarkandmichael.com that is HILARIOUS. You really need to check it out...there are ten episodes and the premise is that they've written a script for a show that they're trying to sell to a studio. It's so funny, please watch!

And here's a spoof from Knocked Up (which I still have yet to see); in it, Michael is playing the main character guy's role and can't quite get the delivery of his lines right....arguments and hilarity ensue.


Besides being adorable, he's hilarious! And thus, Michael Cera is one of my favorite things. =)

Piano-playing cat

This video is just cute. I'd be friggin' annoyed if I was a student trying to concentrate on NOT screwing up and there was a cat there taking care of it for me, but it's funny how she actually looks at the people while pounding on the keys, like she's totally doing it deliberately.

Dreams come true

I like that new iPod Touch commercial with the song that goes, "Music is my Boyfriend" so I googled it to see who the artist was ("Music is My Hot Hot Sex" by CSS if you're interested). Well, I learned that the commercial was made by an 18-year-old college student who just made up a commercial using Final Cut Pro and uploaded it to YouTube. He really liked the lyric "my music is where I'd like you to touch" and it reminded him of the iPod Touch concept, so he made a commercial for the hell of it. A little while later, some Apple advertising people got in touch with him and made it into a real commercial - and not much different than his original version.

Read the entire story here.

On top is Nick Haley's original video and on the bottom is Apple's TV cut. It's pretty cool that "normal" people can be tapped to do big things!

Celebratory Post

Just turned in my health campaign paper - w00t! So I'm taking a little while off to blog...and watch SNL.

One thing I've struggled with in my life...and still struggle with....is the choice between science and art. Architecture, plastic surgery, health advertising, health magazine editing...these have all been ideas I've had about striking a balance between the two as a career. Here's a really cool way to have both on your wall; your DNA profile on canvas. Pay $550 to spit on a swab, send it to a lab, and get a canvas with your unique code. I think it's cool, and I wish I had the money to do it.

I have wanted this umbrella for years, plain 'n' simple. What else could make a dreary day seem bright and cheery? Definitely looking up and seeing your own blue sky and fluffy white clouds!!

Garland shade light - this brass garland attaches to a light socket, and that's pretty much it. However, look how pretty it is!

And finally, I'd totally hang my keys on a hand like this.

Lazy Friday Night

I deserve a night off after a week of pure CRAZY NON-STOP STRESS!!!!! So I will sit here and find lots of fun stuff that makes me happy, and I will blog it. :o)





The stuff at right is mucho addictive. It's the same stuff you get at Starbucks, but some grocery stores sell it too. It's chai concentrate, so all you do is add it to milk and-voila-you've got a chai latte. For awhile there my chai consumption was becoming problematic. 0:o)







I love these wine tags and totally want them. They're under $7 at Perpetual Kid. They've got four different sets to choose from; on one set, each tag says "cheers" in a different language; another set has different ways of saying "tipsy" on each. If/when I get mine, I'll choose the "Reviews" set: Reviews- subtle but noseworthy, lingers on your palate, fruity firm & well-packed, delivery complexity, nutty with a kick, modest yet confident, easily approchable, mellow but charming, mild yet not bland, undemanding yet delivers, competent but laid-back.


This needs to be at sporting events from now on. It's a wearable inflatable ring-toss game called Cone Heads. You can look stupid while having fun and best part is, it's inflatable, so you won't get hurt while throwing stuff at each other's faces while drinking.







Lastly, I want to share a website, www.threadless.com. I stumbled upon it as a link from another site and just thought it was a cute boutiquey tshirt site. Later I was doing some thesis research on social networking on the internet and came across an article mentioning the Threadless website...pretty freaky, considering I had only found the site myself the day before that, and the article wasn't exactly new. Anyway, the site is really cool; people submit designs and ideas for tshirts, the community comments on, leaves feedback for, critiques, and votes on submissions. "Winners" are then printed and turned into actual products that are sold on the site. It's a virtual community effort! And the tshirts are works of art, really beautiful pieces. Well, some of them...some are gorgeous, some are quirky, some are funny, some are tongue-in-cheek. They also have a really cool t-shirt of the month club where you pay up front for the whole year, declare your shirt size, sit back and wait for the shirts with the highest votes to come a-rollin' in. A lot of their stuff is just $10...I'm not sure if that's a holiday promotion or if it's like that all the time....

Anyway, less talky, more shirty.

Here are some designs I like:
It's "panda-monium"

Scuba Santa

People! Scuba Santa feeds the fish every day at 12:30 in the large aquarium at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia (my home zoo!).

Click here to see the ZooView webcam during regular zoo hours, and make sure to tune in at 12:30 to see the fishies eating lunch from the hands of Scuba Santa himself!

SNL

I'll always be a diehard SNL fan. Even though it will never be as good as it once was, and it will probably get worse as time goes on, it is still quirky (if I'm lucky, I'll catch it on a quirky-good-way night). I love its envelope-pushing, toe-stepping, sometimes cringe-inducing humor that is sometimes witty, sometimes smart, sometimes middle-school-esque, but I always appreciate that it's for the sake of humor. And where's the fault in that?

I've already paid homage to one of my daily addictions, cuteoverload.com, and they recently had a video of a dog paddling to which they alluded to this video. I had to post it, because although it's "vintage," it's freaking hilarious.

Synchronized Swimming

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Guy 1: "I don't swim."
Guy 2: "Men's synchro isn't even in the '88 olympics yet."
Guy 1: "That's ok, because...we could use the time. I'm not that...strong...a swimmer...."

Sheer Talent

The Grooviest Videos on the Web, GroovyGrooves.com

Pretty much, check out all of www.groovygrooves.com. I found the link to the violin chick on a friend's myspace page, and from what I can figure, the site is one where people can upload videos of their talents, namely singing, music, and dancing.

**Upon further exploration, there seem to be some videos of explicit dancing, so just beware. But other stuff is really good!

For want of snow...

Home, Kitchen, etc.

I want to be able to go to a farmer's market and use a cutie neato basket like one of these. No reason why I can't...maybe come spring and summer time, I just might.







Egg Pants....need no further explanation, really. They are what they are, and that's useless, unnecessary, and cute.

Cat and Crow

You can learn a lesson from the cat and the crow...campy, yes, but hey...cast aside what society says you should think of people based on who they are, and just freaking care about people because they're worth as much as you are.



And this is just cute.

Nerdy Stuff

Pixelgirl Presents is a website where I get really cool desktops, but she's also got icons and iPhone wallpapers (if any of you who read my blog are actually cool enough to own an iPhone, yay for you, Gadget Geek!) The same girl who runs that site also has a cool boutique website linked from Pixelgirl, so check it out as well.

This is the logo and tagline for her store, Shana Logic. It's something I wish we could all afford to do more :o(

My Christmas List

My camera died months ago, and I've been camera-less since. This is a Sony which is good since I've got all Sony memory sticks already from my previous cameras, and it's BLUE!!!!





Um....more to come later as I can think of fun stuff.

Holiday Goodies

There's not much food-wise that I don't like. However, I'm not a big Tootsie-roll fan. BUT....this is the best invention ever. It's like a candy cane on the outside of a tootsie roll. On a stick. What part of that can't make you happy? I haven't seen them in the stores this year, but mom said she has. It's a good thing I stocked up last year and had two unopened bags waiting for me in my box-o-Christmas stuff!!! You won't see me leave the house without one in my bag.

Another thing that I partook of last night (is that a word?) is this amazing beer. Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome. Very good stuff! I'm a sucker for seasonal ANYTHING, so I tried, and I liked. And check the label; it's a very happy label!










(RareBirdFinds found this, I can't take credit)
When I was little I learned how to make this...thing...out of paper. It was kind of accordion-ish, kind of snowflake-ish, but very "little kid craft"-ish. THIS (at left) reminds me of a grownup version of that sad little thing I used to make, however, this is much prettier, much more Martha Stewart than Bible School.







Look at how cute these retro plates from Target are!!! I love kitsch...I was going to have a 50s themed cocktail Christmas party tonight, but nobody seemed to want to come, so I'll just have to wait and do it right one year when I have lots of money and I can buy stuff like THIS to really get in the spirit.



Riverbanks Zoo is my home zoo in Columbia, SC and they've got a ZooView webcam that features different animals every month or so. During the month of December, every day at 12:30 they're showing the big aquarium on the webcam. There, you can see Scuba Santa feeding the fish!!! Here's the link

New Blog!!!

I've decided to create a new blog...I'm slightly obsessed with a few blogs and wanted my own space not to brood or pout or fill out sophomoric surveys like I often do on Myspace. This blog is purely for the celebration of stuff that makes me (and others) happy. I think a lot of times I spend too much time stewing in the negative and need to actively climb into the positive. So here I am - let's see where this goes!!

PS - for the list of blogs that inspired this...

• www.cuteoverload.com - for pictures and videos of cute animals and occasionally cute products
• www.icanhascheezburger.com - not sure if this qualifies as a blog, but taking pictures of cats and other animals and adding outrageously hilarious quotes = always a good time
• www.perezhilton.com - ok, this is the one I'm not entirely proud of since it's just Hollywood celebrity smut gossip, but he's funny, and I get caught up, so sue me.
• http://rarebirdfinds.typepad.com - this is an amazing blog filled with boutiquey gifty goods; awesome stuff you'd probably never buy yourself, but also stuff that's not entirely useless either. Check it out, they've got stuff from jewelry to banana-anti-squishers to USB toys to...well, everything
• and http://postsecret.blogspot.com - most everyone's heard of the PostSecret project by now, but if you havent...people mail this guy Frank postcards with their secrets written on them. They jazz them up and make true works of art out of them, and he puts them on the website every Sunday morning. He's made a couple/few books of them and goes on tours speaking (mostly?) at colleges about his experience with this project. Sometimes the secrets are funny, sometimes they make you want to cry. Some people write in that they themselves have found solace in reading others' secrets and have been saved from hurting themselves. It might've started as a novelty experiment, but it's turned into something bigger than anyone could've imagined. People are leaving their own secrets in the PS books in their local bookstores for other people to find, the freshman English instructors at Clemson are assigning PostSecret cards as a visual communication project...I'm rambling, but it's just really cool. :o)