Le First of Le Month

Happy BEDA!

Happy MLB opening day(s)!

Happy April!

Welcome to day one of the month I have legitimately completely honestly realistic intentions of blogging every day for.

Can I just begin by saying that it is a gorgeous day out? Everything and everyone is just so happy and exciting and full of anticipation. Because it's beautiful out, I am even more excited for summer, and this song makes the spring fever even worse. I feel like it's one of those songs you play on a summer road trip. Or at the beach. I can't get it out of my head today.

April Fool's Day, when not treated like "Excuse to be a Jerk Day" is kind of fun. I always fall for something online, even if it's only for a minute or two before I have that, "Ooohhh...." moment. The "fool" for this year that had me going for a minute was "Starbucks Mobile Pour." I read this late last night, though, to be fair... so I didn't realize it was after midnight. Who am I kidding, I probably wouldn't have figured it out today, either. The sad thing is... this actually could be our future....

If you signed on to Gmail today you probably noticed "Gmail Motion." The people they interview about it are hilariously serious. Another one Google put out was "Being a Google Autocompleter."  That's worth watching. It's funny. I absolutely love how Google takes April Fool's day so seriously every year. Like, hours and hours of planning/writing/filming/designing has to take place for these things.

Anyway, those are the ones I've come across today that I have particularly enjoyed.

GUYS. EVERYONE IS DOING BEDA. There are so many blogs to read. So many. I want to read/comment on them ALL, but I'm sorry if I miss a few days of yours! I'm quite excited to get to know all of you better this month, and I am quite excited to share all the things I am planning to share. Oh, also, thank you for all the positive comments about my FaultBook blog. Maybe we should start it together. ;]

Go outside!

FaultBook

Today marks exactly three weeks since I last logged on to Facebook. You know what that means? Reflection time! Last week when my best friend (who is doing this with me) visited, we talked about it a little and how easy it really is. She made a good point that I very much agree with. She said that, when it comes down to it, Facebook is for stalking and making yourself look good. Not that either of these things is entierly wrong or the whole purpose of Facebook, but it's pretty true. This could be applied to tons of things on the internet, especially the "making yourself look good." Which got me thinking.

What if there was a site that made you show your faults*? What if you could only show the parts of you that you try to hide at all costs? Your profile picture had to be a picture of you just as you open your eyes in the morning - remnants of yesterday's eye makeup half an inch below your eyes, hair as fluffy as a bird's nest. And your photo albums consisted of pictures of you on the nights you spend alone, crying and wasting time doing pointless things.

What if your statuses had to be about how you spent more time that day stalking your ex's girlfriend than you'd ever want to admit, or how you're way more jealous than happy for a friend's newest accomplishment.

What if your "About Me" looked like this:

I don't let people win arguments.
There are often nights I cry about the guy that broke my heart two years ago after going on dates even now.
I was sexually abused as a child and it has an effect on all of my relationships.
I have really bad morning breath.
I talk behind my friend's back all the time.
I think I'll end up more successful than most of my friends.
I'm afraid of commitment.
I run when a situation gets difficult.
If you try to get close to me, I'll probably flip out and question the crap out of your intentions.
I suffer from an eating disorder.


Then what? If we could see everyone's faults before getting to know them, would there be certain faults we stay away from? Would we only choose to becomes friends with people whose faults are similar to our own? Because, faults almost always surface themselves after you're already close friends with those people. So, at that point, it doesn't even matter because you already love the person.  Personally, because of my own pride, I think there are definitely faults I would see and say "I'm glad I'm not that person" or "That is way too much for me to handle, becoming friends with them is not worth it." I think it would be very similar to hobbies. If I see someone enjoys Harry Potter, I will want to be their friend. If it's cars they're most passionate about, I won't have as much interest in getting to know them better. In the same way, people who suffer from things I know nothing about I wouldn't necessarily be interested in getting to know.

I think we have a lot to learn from our opposites, though. Why are people passionate about the things we think are quite... stupid? How can we help people who suffer from things we'll probably never know about first hand? The first step to erasing ignorance and apathy is understanding. I want to understand better. Let's strive to understand better.

Meanwhile, I don't think this fault site will be taking off anytime soon. I guess I should stay in school and accept the fact that I never will be Mark Zuckerburg. Or date him, for that matter.

*Hypothetical faults are hypothetical and used for the sake of example.

Hope you guys are great. And you SO better be doing BEDA. :]

Thoughts From a Bread Bowl

This morning was weird (four hours of Skype?) , I feel quite disoriented (this could be the excessive amount of coffee), and I am just tired (I don't think I can remember the last time I felt rested. Sigh.) Therefore, I am spending the late afternoon hours at Panera eating comfort food (just look at the deliciousness of that bad boy!) and drinking even more coffee. Bread bowls are genius. It makes me what else you could wrap in bread. The other night I came to Panera with a friend and they had no bread bowls left. If I hadn't been with my best friend I would have probably cried even more than I did. Just kidding. My eyes only got a little watery. What if... you had your coffee in a bread mug? I have an empty bread bowl here, and the luxury of free coffee refills. I may or may not try this. What if... you wrapped yourself in bread every morning? Holy nom. 

---

I loved reading all the comments on my last blog. I love knowing I'm not the only one that has this extensive of a memory. I love knowing that a lot of us share the same memories. I've always thought nostalgia would be the death of me. I live in the past way too often way too much. Not that I'm not just as excited for the future, I'm just unhealthily nostalgic. A little over a year ago my friend attempted to get me out after a bad day. She dragged me to places I had good memories that I probably needed to forget. She just kept on saying, "We're makin' NEW memories in OLD places." I must admit, it works pretty well.

----

Last night my roomie and I bought Justin Bieber pajamas at Walmart. Pictures. SOON.

Quote: "People say it's artistic and stuff, but I'm like.... you're an egg." Justin Bieber on Lady Gaga's arrival to the Grammys. You can watch the whole interview here from Chelsea Lately. The kid is funny, I'm not going to lie.

----- 

One month ago I had everything figured out about the direction I want to take my career. Now I'm confused again. I need to just stop thinking. I have graphic design and public relations. Which do I major in and which do I minor in? Here's the thing. I would enjoy a base level crap graphic design class. I wouldn't so much enjoy a base level crap public relations job. But being in the PR department for an up and coming company would be so fun, and I'd still have enough gd knowledge to freelance a tad (even just for fun) on the side. I love relationships and communities online, and I could talk about them for hours. Would someone please take that sentence and tell me how to get a job out of it and what I need to learn?

But the most important thing is getting a foot in some door, so I think I'm going to buy giant shoes before I move to Chicago. Meh, I'll stop stressing.

There's a social media consultant job in my area this summer that says this:


"Job Responsibilities and Duties: 
•Create & execute comprehensive social media strategies
•Experiment with new and alternative ways to leverage social media activities
•Coordinate social media efforts both internally and externally with clients
•Monitor trends in social media and appropriately apply that knowledge to increasing the use of social media
•Analyze the market to identify social media sales opportunities and develop plans for execution of marketing campaigns.
•Initiate and manage company's presence on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yelp and other similar community sites

Requirements: 
•3-4 years of social media and marketing experience
•Good copywriting skills with ability to produce copy of varying tone and messaging based on target audience and medium
•Experience with managing and promoting blogs
•Project management"


*Starts to put big shoes on* *Reads necessary experience sentence* 


LE SIGH. I bet I know more about half of that stuff than some random marketing dork who has three years of experience. 


Six days until BEDA! 

Memories Part I

Nawh, look how cute I used to be.

Sometimes this blog becomes more of a journal. This post is definitely one of those times. I often think back to grade school quite fondly and I wanted to get some of this stuff down so that I can remember it in years to come. Maybe you could do the same, it's extremely fun.

Without further adieu, here are some bits and pieces of my childhood:


Preschool - I remember bouncing on my best friend's bed, breaking her 101 Dalmatian snowglobe, and crying/hiding in the corner. I hadn't felt that kind of guilt in the entirety of my 5 years of living.

Kindergarden - I remember eating lunch in my backyard fort with my new best friend.

First Grade - I remember being obsessed with Treasure Mountain. Anyone? Anyone?

Second Grade - I remember always being the first girl to hand in assignments. Especially cursive. Who wants to spend forever getting your curves exactly right? Sometimes I would always try to beat the boy who was always first. He was ridiculously fast, though. 

Third Grade - Oh, for some reason I have so many third grade memories. I remember my friend finding chicken on the ground and flinging it with his spoon. It landed in my teacher's hair. We didn't tell her, but another girl tattled about 15 minutes later because she had previous qualms with said chicken flinging boy. 

I remember ganging up with a boy (who ended up being my partner in crime for many grade school years) to convince everyone to pretend we all have runny noses and use up the crappy school kleenexes so that we would be able to use the lotion puffs a mom brought in. There was never a kid not by the Kleenex box for like two weeks.

I remember having a sleepover and staying up until 3:15 am, a ridiculously risque time. At said sleepover, I remember discovering that my best friend is the deepest sleeper of all time. We threw stuffed animals at her, we tickled her, I jumped on her, etc. Eventually we gave up and put together my friend's new Rugrats puzzle.

Fourth Grade - I remember using the expression, "Hold your horses!" to a boy. He could not stop laughing and responded, "I don't have any horses!"

I remember writing my first "chapter book" Millow Mountain. It's quality stuff. Quality. 

I remember our teacher reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." I can not thank her enough.

I remember playing basketball and having to guard the biggest 4th grader ever known to man. I was about 4 feet tall.

Fifth Grade - I remember having a crush on the same boy my best friend did and making an actual list of ways to find out who he likes and how to get him to like us. Somehow we weren't concerned with the fact that he would eventually have to choose one or the other.

I remember starting the "Ju Ju Club." It was legit.

I remember doing a pop routine to Jock Jam's "Tootsie Roll." Oh dear. Oh no.

Sixth Grade - I remember one of my friends in seventh grade passing away. Dealing with death at that age is a strange, difficult thing.

Seventh Grade - I remember getting my science teacher to divulge way too much of his personal life. He didn't particularly like Partner in Crime and I. One time he kicked me out, so I started crying because I knew it would make him feel like a horrible person. Mission accomplished. He ended up being the one apologizing. :]

I also remember historically laughing about the fact that the word "peat" in our science book was defined as a "brown mushy substance."

I remember starting cross country and hiding behind a car my first race because I was so terrified. 

Eighth Grade - Oh, eighth grade was the best. So hilarious. I remember skipping recess (when it was freezing) to talk with the secretary about life and eat starbursts. This lasted at least 3 months before our teacher found out. 

I remember hitting my principal square in the face with a snowball because my aim is that terrible.

I remember the videos in health about abstinence. The speaker was named Pam. These videos were about as hilarious as 90's documentaries come. 

High school will be next. Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me. :] Looking forward to reading yours, maybe!

Tomorrow is Friday!!1!111!!!

No, I am not going to bed! I will write this blog. To help me stay motivated, I'm listening to those songs from The Social Network soundtrack that can make even browsing Tumblr seem productive and life changing.

(Edit: I went to bed and finished this post today, sorry!!)

This past week has been all over the place. I think I'm finally settled back into the fact that I do, indeed, have seven entire weeks to go before I can have summer that I do, indeed, have to get through whether I want to or not.

First, let me announce the winner of my slightly mustache heavy giveaway:

Kaleena J. !!

Congrats! You can e-mail me at allysonkatew@gmail.com. :] You should check out her blog. It's quite fun, and I bet you'll be able to relate. Even the first time I browsed, it had me smiling a ton!

Today is Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday. Friday. Friday.

You know what I've been thinking? The lyrics to to Friday, albeit hilarious, are no less pointless than those of Telephone by Gaga. Rebecca Black seems to be handling this whole thing well, though. Her Ark Music company is probably ecstatic. What some of the people making fun of it don't realize is that any publicity is good publicity. By pointing, laughing and saying, "she's SO stupid" all you're doing is helping. Psh, her company couldn't care less whether you hate it or love it. All they care about is that everyone knows who they are now, and they are making baaank over this.

If I had written this blog two days about it would have been a lot less reflective and much more me trying to fit in as many Friday references as possible. I'll spare you. :]

Although the song is still. in. my. head.

I have so many stories I could share and things I want to tell you on this blog, proving I don't blog enough. Bah. Here's a quick cheat list:

- OLIVER WOOD is appearing in Deathly Hallows Part II. Dreams really DO come true, guys!
- Bachelor finale. Anybody watch? Thoughts? I think I'm okay with it, even though I am so not a Brad fan. He made so many scenes so awkward. So laughable.
- I named my newest sculpture (made out of chicken wire and cheesecloth [nope, i didn't know what that stuff was, either]) Chunky Monkey because I "was going for" the rough effect. One of the many perks of being an "artist." Disguising laziness with "what you were going for."
- Next time, I will tell you about how I very much angered a middle aged man whose face looked like death at Hobby Lobby yesterday.
- Next year for St. Patrick's Day I will be able to drink green beer and see the green river in Chicago. Actually, I was there last year on St. Patrick's Day, but we could not for the life of us figure out which section of the river they dyed green.
- Facebook addiction = gone. Tumblr addiction = rapidly growing.
- I think I might add a tab up there with stuff I make. Kind of like a portfolio, except less impressive and probably highly sarcastic. Chunky Monkey, for example, would not be in my portfolio. I just need an 'A' from Toddly.

This one, like my banner, is what I just turned in. I wanted to cover the whole thing in letter clippings, but we didn't have much time to do this assignment and I ran out of time to scan. Plus, he liked this, so, sadly, I just did enough to know I'd secured an A.

Okay, I'm going to play my neglected uke, now. More soon. Have a fun FUN FUN fryyday.

My 100th Blog. PETA.

So, I've had quite some time to prepare for this 100th post thing, as I noticed it was coming up a few weeks ago. I have a draft saved with a list of about 50 things I love. These 50 were supposed to be 100, but they were already becoming weird. Not that it's difficult to find 100 things to be happy for, it's just... it's a long, strange list. So, with that idea exhausted, I couldn't post another blog until I DID come up with something for my 100th post.

But I think I did, now.

First of all, let me fill you in on a few life things. Since we've last talked,

1) I WON a signed copy of Save the Date by Jenny B. Jones from the lovely Natalie.

2) I saw Andrew Peterson perform live. He was so so good.

3) I got my ears pierced for the second first time (they closed up pre-high school, and I never bothered to get them re-pierced) and got to carry around a bright pink"JUST GOT MY EARS PIERCED!" bag all day, as did the four year old who was right behind me in line. We bonded over the fact that we were becoming big girls, now. Well, I felt a bond. Not as sure about her.

4) I have officially started my Facebook fast.



5) I visited my sister and I experienced ordering delivery Chinese for the first time. And yes, I really did get to eat out of the special little boxes! Since it was my first time, I decided it was only right that we watched a classic chick flick and pretend to get over a break up. We watched Save the Last Dance and I ate way to much. Hypothetical broken heart = cured!

6) Watched the series finale of Greek and had no one to share the sadness with, so I read all of the @replies on Twitter and felt a little better.

6) I watched It's Kind of a Funny Story this morning. I haven't read the book, but I think I'm glad I haven't, because then I may have not loved it as much as I did. I really really liked the movie. The boy who plays the main character is phenomenal. Also, a teenager. How many times to teenagers play teenagers?

Now, on to 100th blog post business. (Well, first, one more story. I promise it will prove to relevent very soon.)

Last year on campus I was approached by a girl who wanted me to sign for "healthier options in the caf." Well, sure, I'll sign for that. I'm not exactly the cafeteria's biggest fan. So, I signed and gave them my campus e-mail address. Little did I know, I was signing my soul to PETA.

(Acronyms looks so threatening in all caps. I have this theory that businesses with acronyms are more legit. This could be one of the reasons. There's a huge intimidation factor when typed in the middle of a formal letter. "Hello, Mr. Smith. My name is Scott and I was wondering if you would like to meet up to speak more about collaborating with my PETA organization." See?)

When the first e-mail came, I just overlooked it and made a mental note to get myself off of their list sometime. Except, I never did, and the e-mails started providing me a little bit of humor. Don't get me wrong, I think it's fine what they're doing, and totally respect vegetarians and vegans. But PETA's slogans and marketing ploys are downright hilarious. One e-mail this past December caught my eye with the opening line, "Two things that are ridiculously awesome: saving animals and wearing mustaches. Combining them is pretty much the best thing ever (right?!), so fall in love with our new "Grow Your Own Fur" campaign, and get 'stachy." The next day the e-mail started with, "If you've spent countless hours thinking about how you could use mustaches to save animals (like we have), you're in luck!" 

Well, gosh, PETA. You've got me all figured out! Turns out, you could get a free "Mustache Monday" packet for your school. The packet includes, among other things, posters and mustache stickers.  Free mustache stickers?! Well, okay peta spam e-mails, I'll take it!

I had to take this pledge:

"I don't believe that animals should be killed to become someone's coat. There's nothing fashionable about bludgeoning animals and skinning them alive. By signing my name, I pledge to grow my own fur and let animals keep theirs.

Signed,
[Your Name]"

And before you try and make me feel bad, this pledge says nothing about eating animals, just wearing them. And, well, I have no fur coats. So.... check! Free mustache stickers and posters came in the mail a month or two later.

Oh boy. Am I a horrible person?

Regardless, for my 100th post I am having a giveaway, because I've kind of become addicted to them.  All you have to do is be a follower and comment. And you guessed it, you're gettin' mustache stickers.

Prizes are as follows:

- Your three favorite mustaches.

- This lovely piece of art for your room.

- A necklace like this.*

- A letter!

So, comment away! You can enter until next Tuesday, March 15 and I will announce the winner on the 16th. 

Days without a the big FB: One!

*About the necklace: I found a tutorial that I liked, played around with it, and was pretty happy with the result. So, I made one for myself, my friend, and I will make one just for you. :]

Irritable Allyson is Irritable

"I know you're wise beyond your years, but
do you ever get the feel
that your perfect verse is just a lie
you tell yourself to help you get by."

My hormones are all over the place right now. I can't even explain it to you. I've been such a crab. And everything is frustrating me. And I'm irritable to the max. It's been a horrible day. I left a class early because I couldn't take the incessant gum chewing going on behind me that I could recognize as clearly as the piercing sound of the lead singer of Nickleback's voice. And, dare I say, it was even more irritating. After a long, no good, frustrating, irritable day it made me leave class early, call the best friend, and just start crying. 

So now, I have shut myself in the quiet lounge, filled my tummy, and have begun to settle down.

However, it also could be this time of year. Like I said, I'm itching for change. I've contemplated a few drastic "goals." However, I usually sleep on them and remember I am being impractical and need to settle down. But how can you go anywhere in life if you're always practical? I mean, sometimes I feel you need to be impractical. 

Anyway, today I read yet another blog written by a girl who quit Facebook. She quit January 1, 2010 and said it would be for a year. Except, January 1, 2011 rolled around and she didn't reactivate it. She didn't want to. I don't want to sleep on the decision I just made, I want to do it.

Now, I think we've all thought about the possibility of quitting Facebook, whether seriously or not. I have. A lot. But, the same excuses as I'm sure we all have always pull me away from deactivating it. The, "I use it to keep in touch with old friends with whom I probably wouldn't be able to without it." or the "A lot of my events and messages are actually really important to keep up with for school or otherwise!" And yeah, without it, I would me much less connected to the social world. So, I'm not going to quit it forever. I'm just not. However, the season of Lent is coming up and while there's absolutely no requirement that you have to give anything up for this season, I know a girl who has given Facebook up for the last two Lent seasons. It's kind of just a good period of time to go by, since it's about a month and a half. They say it takes a month to break/form a habit, so this should be good, right?

So, this is happening. I'm giving up Facebook for Lent. (March 9 - April 23)

I'm going to deactivate it, which will definitely help, because then no one can post on my wall/ pictures/ message me/ etc... so I won't be "missing" anything "important." My favorite part of Facebook is probably the pictures. So, I think I'm going to create a Flickr account to put new ones on, just for peace of mind. Also, I still have a ridiculous about of social networking sites to keep me preoccupied.

Plus, I'll be going BEDA (Blog Every Day in April) again this year, so that will help. 

What I hope to get out of this month and a half is less stress and more time reading. Which may or may not happen, due to the fact that every time I tell myself I won't use Facebook for a day, I spend that much more time on Tumblr, or something. I can't just tell myself I'll only check it once a day, that never works. I'm a cold turkey kind of gal.

I just told my friend. The conversation went like this, 

Me - "Clare, I think I'm giving up fb for lent."

Clare - "Bahahaha that's a funny joke."

This is the support system I have to deal with. Sigh. :]

And really, this shouldn't even be a big deal. It's a month and a half. Goodness, this is hardly anything. Besides, I still have angry birds. :]

So, I ask you, have you ever taken a break from Facebook? Do you want to do it with me? Just think, if we complete our goal, we can REWARD ourselves... with CUPCAKES and CHIPOTLE.  *insert mischievous grin*