Monday, May 23, 2011

Off to jolly olde england(e?)

By the time you read this, we'll be enjoying englandy things like pints and cherry bakewells prior to the Big! Beach! Bums! meetup on 5/28.

Let's see: quid, arse, "happy christmas" and "grab your coat love, you've pulled". I spent months in England and that's all I remember of british colloqualisms. Not a linguist, nope.

Mars bars, digestives, coronation chicken, tesco finest, wine gums, crisps... You can tell I was paying more attention to the food than the language :).

Don't rob our house while we're gone!

It would make Waffles very sad if you did!



Be back in early June!

Friday, May 20, 2011

New laptop love!

This is a bit of a departure from my normal posts, but I wanted to write about the new laptop of my life, which arrived yesterday. I guess it relates to the blog because... I'll use it to blog? That's weak, I know. Sorry!

I decided on a PC because, well, as much as I want to be the kind of person that uses a mac and enjoys the really exotic raw sushi rolls and always knows how to pronounce french words... I just didn't like using a mac (nor am I into really exotic sushi, nor can I pronounce french words very accurately).

I had my macbook for about 3 years and, the whole time, basic things like rotating a photo, or installing new software, would totally confound me. And I'm pretty smart I think. I just didn't enjoy using it. So, I'll try to still keep my creativity street cred even while using a PC :).

I chose the HP dm4x because I really like a 14" form factor - anything smaller feels like a netbook and is too small to really use, anything bigger is just a monstrosity with tons of wasted space and is too huge to carry around. I also liked that it came with a reputable graphics card and a big hard drive and an option for lots of memory.



My Macbook that I had used for the past 3 years died a horrible, gasping, expensive death wherein we replaced it bit by bit and still had it crap out. I traded it in for scrap and at least got a little bit of store credit out of it!

The unboxing*:


Start here? Well, okay, since you are between me and my new laptop.


Pretty simple, though I think a non-column layout would have been more clear, because I read it as "take your stuff out of the box... then connect via wireless!" because I'm a left-to-right reader, column breaks be damned.


Look at you, snazzy thing in your snazzy plastic baggie.


Further snazzy things in baggies that weren't a pain to open, which was nice. No blister packaging for me to injure myself with in my haste.


Oooh, even the tape has the "hp" logo on it! Fancy tape. I want tape with my initials.


Power cord plugs into the side - I prefer the back (ha, that's what she said?) so I can sit cross-legged without it poking me (that's what she also said? sorry.)


Pristine keyboard that is appropriately clicky and tactile. Comfortable to type on.


I like the layout, it isn't too wide and there's not vast tundras of unused space on each side of the keyboard like with larger laptops.

First boot:

whaa? Was bummed this was the first thing I saw upon booting up. Was it tampered with? Did it crash as they were building it? Will everything load ok?


Everything seemed to load okay, and the default background was really beautiful! I wonder if HP profiles its customers so that if you order and have a female-sounding name, they put a pretty background. And if you're a dude, they put, like, a truck or something. I don't know. A grill?


"Sir, take me to THE INTERNET". I laughed out loud (lol, as the kids would say) at this oversimplified way of putting it.


The first thing I did - download Chrome. IE is terrible, HP should include other browser options! I had to use IE to download Chrome and it made me feel dirty and confused.


Also removed the Bing bar - guess HP and microsoft are so entwined that no other options make it onto the computer.


Was super excited that Evernote was included - I've been wanting to try it! I mean, it's free to download, so it's not like it saved me any money that it was on the computer already, but it was nice to see preloaded software that wasn't bloatware!



Anyways, enough of this, which is basically just me gloating that I got a new laptop! I'm super excited to use it! Expect... bloggier blog posts? I dunno. Something? Yes.

*wherein I try to take enticing photos of me basically opening a box and taking things out of it. Try to contain your enthusiasm. I know it was difficult for me to do so.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Thursday Links*

Folks, I wish I was making this up: Florida OB-GYNs set weight cut-offs for new patients starting at 200 pounds and turn down women who are heavier.

Frances taking on Cosmopolitan Australia with a great article on fatshion.

Fat Dudes = Hot. Yes.

I died. FAQ for students: Rapture edition

Photography: How to make your own bokeh shapes. The cow one is my favorite!


*Let's not pretend this is more than it is. We all know that I abandon recurring posts like a... thing that abandons things alot**. Yeah.

**the abandoning alot leaves things everywhere!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Things I'm enjoying lately

1) Big Beach Bums is next weekend! I've been enjoying the anticipation - we're heading out early and I'm so excited to meet everyone, especially Claire, who has been super kind to help me with my travel plans and is just all around awesome.

2) Bubble tea. It was a staple of my bay area existence but there aren't any places in my neighborhood here that have it.



3) This hilarious interaction with a advertising banner for a travel company, next door to the place where we got bubble tea. Especially poignant given #1!



4) Nilla wafers with peanut butter = favorite snack forever. Plus, I recently got a new huge yellow mug on sale and it's perfect for the large amounts of tea i like to drink in one sitting. Also, books.

Monday, May 16, 2011

I'm a favorite thing!

How sweet is Rachele from The Nearsighted Owl for featuring me?


Very sweet. If you haven't seen her awesome blog already, go check her out!

Friday, May 13, 2011

OOTD: to Target and beyond!

This is the face of a person that went to Target and found an awesome shirt on clearance.



This is also the face of a person who really loved her outfit that day.



I went to my first estate sale a few weekends ago and scored this awesome yellow cardigan. I felt a kindred spirit to the lady whose belongings were being sold - she had 100 cardigans, all of them my size, none of them wool. She must have been allergic to wool like me!



Outfit details:
dress: asos curve, 2010
cardigan: estate sale, vintage, AWESOME
petticoat: made by me (here's a tutorial)
lace necklace: whiteowl.etsy.com

Have any of you been to an estate sale before? What did you think? I felt torn because it is sad to rummage through the remnants of someone's life... but also glad that these garments and items were getting new life and being repurposed...

Sunday, May 8, 2011

OOTD: For 6 hours on planes

Folks, I had been awake since ~3am when these were taken, and had slept in my french braids after drinking, oh, about 14 margaritas for cinco de mayo. Then, I got on planes to make my way home from Austin. And I think I looked awesome even with the lack of sleep and questionable hygiene!

(I used to have an animated gif here but the site I used for it is causing a broken link so I took it down)



Outfit details:
Dress: fatshionista LJ swap
Belt: Target, men's section. It's braided elastic and super comfy!
Brown cardigan: Target merona xl, from 2005 or so. They don't make em like they used to.
Scarf: AA circle scarf
shoes: toms. I'm hopeless trendy.
tattoo: almost done!

Also, check out the awesome new-to-me bag I got at the farmer's market last weekend. It's vintage, but never used! I desperately needed a new laptop/carry all bag since my H&M one was disintegrating and leaving a trail of chartreuse-colored vinyl flakes everywhere I went.



When I travel, I love wearing dresses because they are lots more comfy than pants for me, and I feel like I look nice while wearing something comfier than sweatpants. I feel like I'm fooling everyone that thinks I dressed up and am SOOOO uncomfortable, because really I'm super comfy.

Also, being dressed up is extra armor for me, because flying whilst fat can be trying since I don't fit into the seats very well and am always prepared to be met with unkindness from fellow passengers or flight crew. When I feel like I look nice, it's easier for me to feel good about myself even if other people don't dig me.

What do you all like to wear when you travel?

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Mother's day gift FAIL, courtesy of B&N

Soc Images has a great post on mother's day gifting today, noting that the mother's day "gift guide" from Barnes & Noble lists a diet book as the top suggestion for a gift for mom.


From the article:
Weight-loss related items are, generally, problematic gift ideas. They put the recipient into the position of having to acknowledge in front of anyone watching them open the gift that their weight is considered unacceptable, and that the person giving the gift agrees with that. Even if a person wants to lose weight and is actively trying to do so, they may not wish to have their weight brought up unexpectedly and opened up for public discussion.

I couldn't agree more. My mom was on diets often when I was growing up, but I still can't imagine a diet book being an appropriate gift for her. Aren't there so many other things that make up her life and personality than this one aspect? I think so - my mom is a great lady with many other interests and hobbies and a rich inner life, she's so much more than her desire to diet.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on this? Will you be getting your mom a gift for mother's day?
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