Well hello Monday. Where did you come from?

My blog posting, like every other productive aspect of my life has fallen to the wayside lately. See I didn't have internet for a year which made posting very difficult. So when I got it again this past September I had high expectations for being a productive member of the online community yet again. But then Netflix Instant View happened and Hulu and well...yeah.

But apparently reruns of The Office are not a way to spend a life - or so some believe. So I'm back.

But not just here. I have plans to do things IRL as well. Just because TV is better than real life is no reason to turn my back on the real world, is it? Well, is it? I guess we'll find out. So I've got some plans. Goals, if you will. Some bigger - more long term. Some that maybe someone might not want me getting into on here. So we'll stick to the general and more attainable. So every week I'm going to make some goals for myself and post them here so that when I get home from work and Jim and Pam want to hang out I'll have a reason to pass. So here's this week's:

1. renew flickr account
2. print/purchase pics to be framed for living room wall
3. tailor/photo 5 of my to be etsy'd vintage items pile
4. begin christmas card process - list/addresses and find/purchase/design cards
5. bake enough so as not to waste any of the icing made last weekend
6. garden state fort date
7. fill out kitten adoption application

And, if I am successful in completing my tasks I will reward myself with a thrift store/record store excursion on Saturday. Yay. Oh, and in the future these will be posted on Sundays.

Oh, and I'm gonna post more here, too. That's gonna be like a constant unspoken goal each week. And here's my first little posting treat:



I am absolutely loving the color palate of Etsy's current home page. Want it all!!

I can't believe I forgot...

Rather than say I forgot, I'm going to say that I was waiting to save the best for last. So here, a week late, the best dance sequence in a movie.







Try to argue otherwise. I dare you.

It's sing along time, yo.

Today's topic? Karaoke songs, baby! Which is totally right up my alley thanks to Japas 27 and their party rooms. Cuz after enough all-you-can-drink wine and sake, I can do in the privacy of a room full of my friends what I could never do (no matter the amount of alcohol) in a public arena. Yay for karaoke. Below are my go-to karaoke picks. The key is to pick songs that everyone else in your group can't help but sing along with. This way you're not singing alone (gasp!).



No karaoke session is complete with out at least one Billy Joel and one NKOTB song. My faves are Piano Man and Cover Girl, although it's hard to sing as high as little Joey Mac. Hangin' Tough or Step By Step are usually a safer bet.



Santeria - Sublime




Basketcase - Green Day




I Want You to Want Me - Cheap Trick




All-time best karaoke ever? I present to you: my friend Ben.



**Please don't pissed friend. I'm just giving the public what they want.

It's about treehouses!!

So today's Music Week Blog Party is Guilty Pleasures. The problem is, I don't feel guilty for liking any of these. They are so totally rad in every way. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.



For some reason YouTube is not letting me embed any of these. Click the links for some awesomeness. I promise you will not be disappointed.



C'est La Vie- B*Witched



Bring it all back - S Club 7



Mmmbop - Hanson



Tonight - New Kids on the Block



Lucky - Britney Spears



Come on Over - Christina Aguilera



With You - Jessica Simpson



Status Quo - High School Musical

[I almost posted this with yesterday's post, but I definitely think it's more fitting here.]






**I'm hoping at least one of the two people who understand the title of this post are reading this. ken, friend, are you out there?

A little late to the party

I've been trying to bust out of my blogging rut for a while. Today I stumbled upon Magchunk, Sweetie Pie Pumpkin Noodle, and You Are My Fave's Blog Music Party Week and figured that's just what I needed to get back to blogging regularly again. I've missed two days but will get to Monday's and Tuesday's topics eventually. In addition to being just the motivation I need to blog again, it's also an awesome way to stumble upon more really nifty blogs by checking out who else is in on the party. So enjoy my selections and then check out the rest of the party people. Oh and if you have a blog, come join the party!

Today's Blog Music Party topic is favorite songs from/used in movies. I went a little crazy. There's lots. Hope you enjoy! Comment if you disagree with any of my obviously awesome choices or think I forgot anything.

Invisible Circus "Hot Rod Lincoln"
I was briefly obsessed with this movie. This scene was one of my favorite.


A Lot Like Love "If you leave me now"
This move is totally underrated. I kind of hate Ashton Kutcher but he is so likable in this. And Amanda Peet is just awesome in everything she does.



Dirty Dancing "Time of My Life"
Upon recent viewing I'm absolutely loving the scenes with Baby's parents. First of all, RIP Jerry Orbach, he was an amazing actor. Second, I love when he jumps out of his seat after Johnny jumps off the stage. Hilarious! Thirdly, it is so very rad that Emily Gilmore was Baby's mom. Lady got moves. Lastly, when Johnny sings along and wrinkles up his nose as he dances with Baby (approx 4:12) = love.


Reality Bites "My Sharona"
Makes me want to chop off my hair. I can't watch this movie. Totally brilliant.



Almost Famous "Tiny Dancer"
Of course.


Breakfast at Tiffany's "Moon River"
Of course.


Garden State "New Slang"This was amazing once so it makes the list. Plus, Natalie Portman = love.


10 Things I Hate About You "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" This is sad now.


The Breakfast Club "We are not alone" Less for the song, more for the dancing.


Ferris Bueller's Day Off "Twist and Shout"Just pure awesomeness.


Rent "Seasons of Love"I can't lie. I used to be a Rent-head and I seriously shed a tear when I first saw this opening scene in the theater.


Empire Records "If You Want Blood" Honorable mentions: "Sugar High," "Say No More Mon Amour," closing scene dancing on the roof to "This is the Day," AJ and Corey making out to "'Til I Hear it From You"




Pippi Longstocking "Theme"Memories.


Elizabethtown - various songs This is from the scene after Orlando Bloom gets his "very special map" and listens to the mix tapes Kirsten Dunst has made. The below clip is a part of this scene. It's also dubbed over. It's all kind of hilarious.


Newsies "King of New York" Awesome. Also, Christian Bale = yum


I couldn't find clips for these but they should be included Say Anything "In Your Eyes" - iconic boombox scene; Igby Goes Down "The Weight" - with visual of Igby on the airplane at end of movie; Love Actually "Both Sides Now" - when Emma Thompson's character listens it to it after finding out Sirius Snape gave the necklace to some other chick. that scene gets me every time.

On a semi-related note, in trying to find clips on YouTube I stumbled upon my absolute favorite childhood movie "Wrinkles in Need of Cuddles." The entire movie is on YouTube. Below is the first third of the movie. I didn't include it with the above list because I couldn't pick one song out of all of this awesomeness. Seriously.

Spring is in the air...

Or at least on your desktop...







In honor of the first day this spring where it's actually felt like spring, I present to you ten awesome spring themed desktop wallpapers created by the brilliant artists over at The Kindred.


Head on over there to springify your desktop immediately. I'm on a serious button kick so here's the desktop I chose to rock this spring:

Gentleman? More like Gentledouche.

The Foggy Monocle is entertaining in an 'I'm so glad I met my friend Ben and no longer have to waste my time dealing with these kinds of douchtastic tools' sort of way. If you look past the fact that all of the conversations posted are real and the folks chatting actually exist, the conversations are occasionally amusing. Sad, but amusing.



There is, however, something particularly awesome about the posting below. Part of its awesomeness is the reminder that the majority of these frat boy cum investment banker dimwits are now unemployed. Mostly it's because I know exactly where this is all going down. Do my A-towners recognize the locale?



Pulled from here:



ShackledGman: how you feelin today?
ChevysChevalier: extremely bad
ShackledGman: me too…i just want more sleep
ChevysChevalier: my brain may be dead
ShackledGman: woops
ChevysChevalier: so much drinking …
ShackledGman: i rested yesterday
ChevysChevalier: I was going to
ChevysChevalier: but Swenson* and I were swapping out my car battery and decided to stop at Chevy’s, of all places, at like noon for some god forsaken reason
ChevysChevalier: Swenson* had never had a Pacifico
ShackledGman: i take it he liked it?
ChevysChevalier: so he tries one and, of course, deems it delicious
ChevysChevalier: and, given that we are both unemployed, we have 8 each
ChevysChevalier: until the Russian barmaid cuts us off because you are not allowed to have more than 8 drinks a person at a Chevy’s
ShackledGman: thats lame
ChevysChevalier: I can’t decide what is more depressing — that I learned what the cutoff limit is at Chevy’s, or that I wasn’t even remotely drunk after 8 beers
ChevysChevalier: So at this point Swenson* is all into the Pacifico
ShackledGman: it is delish!
ChevysChevalier: and we grab a 12 pack from teeter
ChevysChevalier: then we go back and put my battery back in
ChevysChevalier: by the time we stumbled through that, it is like 7pm and we are hungry
ChevysChevalier: so we decide we are gonna get $5 footlongs from Subway
ShackledGman: (I’ll now be singing that song all afternoon)
ChevysChevalier: but, on the way there, we see Jay’s and decide that it is a way better option because they have food, drinks and we can smoke indoors
ChevysChevalier: we were absolutely swilling pitchers and Wild Turkey shots and Swenson* was eyeballing some yuppie dudes
ShackledGman: uh oh, he make an ass out of himself?
ChevysChevalier: he was like, “I hate those yuppie fucks!”
ChevysChevalier: I had to remind him that they were dressed exactly as we would have been when we had jobs, which made him hate them even more for likely having jobs
ChevysChevalier: those guys were also with like 4 chicks the likes of which Jay’s had never seen
ChevysChevalier: thus further exacerbating Swenson’s* hatred
ShackledGman: they just had to rub the old, “we have jobs and make sex” in your face, didn’t they?
ChevysChevalier: Swenson* finally freaked out because one of the yuppies was “ice grilling” him — a term that I think he made up on the spot just so he could get in a fight — and we had to leave.
ChevysChevalier: A proud day for us and our families.
ChevysChevalier: also, we looked like homeless people by that time (circa midnight/1am-ish)
ShackledGman: Amazing. yall were a vision i’m sure
ChevysChevalier: if I had a job I would have had to call out today
ShackledGman: lucky for you, you do not have that problem

i wanna hug yo' face

go see coraline. like now. also check out coraline.com. you won't regret it.




promise.

20 days to break a habit...

I don't know where to start.




I'm going to be blogging more. But it's going to be different.




I've run out of good stories. I'm no longer working alone in a blind man's basement. No longer living with my crazy religious parents. No longer going on random dates with sketchy drunk russian guys.




I'm going to try and get better stories for you. I had one ready to go and I asked my non sketchy non drunk non russian friend ben to put together a corresponding image to post with my story. I figured this would make people forget that it wasn't really an interesting story at all. That was the plan. If you've met either Ben or myself then you know what happened. No picture, no story, sorry.




I've been saying sorry a lot recently. I want to stop. I want to stop having to say I'm sorry. I've been unhappy for a while. I want to stop all that. I'd like to stop working in advertising and living in Jersey City but that's not going to change at least for the next six months (the latter at least, who knows about the former). In the meantime, I'm going to focus my attention elsehwere. Here for one.




My friend Ben told me that it takes 20 days to break a habit. I believe him. April 1st is exactly 20 days from today. I've mentioned before that I don't like March. Mostly because it's a lie. It lies to you and makes you believe it's something it's not. I feel like I've become March. It's also a 31 day month with not a single closed work holiday. That means an extra long month of full five day work weeks.




But this March is going to be different. Every year March pushes me. It just pushes and pushes. This year, I'm fighting back. Watch out March, I'm coming for you!




I'm going to be posting on here a lot more. Some of my posts will be similar to previous posts. Some are going to be super duper random and maybe not make sense to anyone but me. I'm okay with that, I hope you are, too. Some of my stories will be about things that happened last month, last year, or even longer ago, when I actually had good stories to tell. Maybe by writing about them, I'll remember what makes a good story and I'll be more aware when a good story opportunity presents itself to me in the future.




During my not-so-brief blogging hiatus I was updating my tumblr truth and beauty bombs. You can check that out too if you want. Again, a lot of the stuff on there might make sense to no one but me, but a lot of its shiny and pretty so feel free to take a look around. A lot of the extra random stuff on there will probably eventually become a longer post explained on here so, you know, that's cool.




I guess I hope people read this. I mean, that's the point, right? I guess it doesn't really matter. I guess that's part of the habit. Caring if anyone's reading this. So maybe in 20 days it'll all be different. Maybe in 20 days it'll all be good again.

Someone call the ASPCA!

This is some serious form of animal abuse. There have to be some sort of laws against this:














That dog right there is just begging for someone to put him out of his misery!

New Jersey: We Make New York Smell Better

I love New Jersey. I make fun of it on occasion, I admit it. But I live here, so I can. I talk about moving, pretty much all the time. But not so I can live in New York City. I talk about moving somewhere warm and pretty. I want to live in Hawaii or Stars Hollow. I don't see what the big deal is of living in the "City." (I'm so going to get beat up on my way home from work tonight for this, I know it). But honestly, if Whitney Port's portrayal is at all accurate (which it is most definitely not), then I see no big draw. Seriously. It's expensive, it's cold, and it smells.



I know, I know. I drive on the NJ Turnpike through Newark often enough to know that saying NYC smells is being not even a little hypocritical. But the rest of NJ...is pretty much the explanation for the name the "Garden State." Get away from North Jersey and even some of the suburbs of Central Jersey, check out the Jersey Shore, Princeton, Cape May, and north north Jersey (the north Jersey that's not near NYC) and you'll be amazed at the beauty of this state.



I was with my friend Ben on his first trip to NJ. I took him to Princeton through the back roads of Cranbury and Grovers Mill. He was amazed that this was the same state that he always associated with the opening scenes of The Sopranos.



"It's not dirty! It doesn't smell! You guys don't talk funny! Where am I???"



Unfortunately, when my friend Ben actually moved to NJ, he moved to the exact location he imagined all those times he made fun of our fine state. C'est la vie.



My point is that NJ gets a bum rap. And I'm sick of it. Leave NJ alone! If for no other reason, then because it's an easy joke. Be creative. Make fun of a more deserving location. Have you ever been to Nebraska? Come on! That place is much more disturbing than NJ! I think you're all jealous personally. We have White Castle and Wawa and we don't pump our own gas! We know what we're doing man! NJ does it right!



Want proof?



Aromatic Mystery in New York City Is Solved



That's right. We made New York smell better! Not that we don't do that every day with the hundreds of thousands of commuters that come over on the PATH, ferry, or NJ Transit. My favorite part of the article? The following quote:

“New Yorkers smell a little smell and they’re getting all paranoid,” said Jay Beqej, 33, who works at the Fairview Public Works warehouse.

Haha! Stupid New Yorkers!



Why the hostility you ask? Why am I reducing myself to their level (them being those that needlessly mock New Jersey)? Because last I checked E. Hanover, Edison, Mt. Olive, Ramsey, Wayne, Princeton, and Mt. Laurel were all in New Jersey. We're not talking on the border of, or right across the river, we're talking very much WITHIN the state of New Jersey and yet f'in Macaroni Grill denies New Jersey even exists!



I can take the easy cracks at the "armpit of the country." I can laugh it off. I can smirk at Comedy Central's new subway ads that thank the many funny things in this world that give that channel its programming, which lists along with George W. and mullets, the state of New Jersey. But there's only so much a girl can take. And denying the state I was born and raised in even exists? Denying my home even has a name?



I'm sorry, but that's where I draw the line.



Edited to note: I decided to search further to see if maybe they are only suggesting that these locations are near NY and PA, but are in fact in NJ. So I searched locations within NY, thinking if they maybe had a NYC location they would list it under NJ, but no, they have two locations with the subheads being Albany and Rochester. So what I now can't figure out are whether they are suggesting that NJ doesn't exist and these locations are in NY and PA, or that Philadelphia and New York don't exist and are merely subdivisions of New Jersey, like Albany and Rochester are for the state of New York. In which case Macaroni Grill is arguing that New Jersey is so great that it encompasses all of the great cities in its surrounding areas. So either suck it Macaroni Grill, or rock on!