While we're on the subject

this is a great time of year except for one thing: my skin is...

Wed, 30 May 2012 23:10:00 -0400

this is a great time of year except for one thing: my skin is blindingly, embarrassingly pale. not a pretty, smooth, freckly, pinkish white, mind you … my skin boasts that blueish tint commonly seen in skim milk.

so! until i get some sun, i’m pleased to report back to my pasty friends everywhere: this stuff works. i repeat: FINALLY. THIS FOAM STUFF WILL NOT MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE A STREAKY ORANGE AND WHITE ZEBRA CENTAUR PERSON. it’s great. that is all.

+1 on that comment. newshour: kqedscience: Floating...

Wed, 30 May 2012 11:52:01 -0400

+1 on that comment.

newshour:

kqedscience:

Floating Architecture: Finding Ways to Live With Rising Water

“The Ark is a hotel by Russian design firm Remistudio and is meant to be self-sufficient. The transparent foil roof would allow light to reach plants inside, and the waste produced in the building would be converted into fuel. The cupola form is meant to be energy-efficient, and its shell basement with cables and arches is designed to distribute weight evenly to make it earthquake- and flood-resistant. ”

Making this a featured comment:

You make me regret that I am 80 and won’t be around to see this great vision of a new world. Oh well, maybe the next time around.

"Being funny is like any other artistic skill, but to wield it successfully requires outspokenness,..."

Tue, 29 May 2012 19:32:00 -0400

“Being funny is like any other artistic skill, but to wield it successfully requires outspokenness, unapologetic honesty, supreme self-assuredness, and an outright refusal to pander. And those aren’t exactly the traits we foster in our little girls. (Instead, we go with mistrust of other women, an extreme longing for expensive garbage, and the idea that being pretty is more important than being smart. Oh, here’s your toy, girls, it’s a fake baby that poops fake poop into a fake diaper for you to fake clean up. Have fun “playing.”)”

- Hey, Men, I’m Funnier Than You

- Can I just say: THIS IS SOME TRUTH TELLING! Here’s my experience: Most people — especially other women — don’t expect you to be funny — actually, they almost refuse to let you be funny — until they have had time to analyze you and sort you into the “quirky weirdo girl” box. Sometimes it takes forever to happen or just doesn’t happen at all.

This has happened my whole life. Thankfully, it has happened to others, too, and it turns out that I have some hilarious lady friends.

naked face eating

Tue, 29 May 2012 13:36:36 -0400

so, listen. as a “digital native” (i hate that term but whatever) i didn’t really think i had any personal boundaries when it comes to viewing disturbing things on the internet.

as it turns out, i do: blurry “naked face eater” photos make me uneasy as hell. (this coming from a woman who just the other day i google image searched “flesh eating bacteria.” i don’t recommend it.) i think it’s the cocktail of a lack of humanity/utter madness/sad drug use/morbid curiosity around it that makes my stomach turn. i have been avoiding my various news feeds as much as possible until the public at large latches onto a Time cover or a Kardashian marriage and the frenzy shifts.

anyway, discovering these truths about myself and the world — what it takes to meet my limit, the fact that i have said limit, being reminded that PEOPLE WHO EAT FACES exist — all of those things make me really bummed in a way i can’t really explain.

Medill girls (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 28 May 2012 20:18:44 -0400

Medill girls (Taken with instagram)

Memorial Day cookout carnage + @kellenhenry in a Nancy Grace...

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:13:13 -0400

Memorial Day cookout carnage + @kellenhenry in a Nancy Grace shirt (Taken with instagram)

Watching petals fall off one by one. (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 26 May 2012 15:22:29 -0400

Watching petals fall off one by one. (Taken with instagram)

Fleeeeet week (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 25 May 2012 20:38:47 -0400

Fleeeeet week (Taken with instagram)

Notice Ruth’s sly little face. Fleet week. (Taken with...

Fri, 25 May 2012 19:05:30 -0400

Notice Ruth’s sly little face. Fleet week. (Taken with Instagram at Brinkley’s)

i will fall for this every time

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:50:56 -0400

i will fall for this every time

also

Thu, 24 May 2012 22:34:46 -0400

me: it smells like cat pee
tj: ... it's the rain
justin: you've been spending too much time in new york

dc word association

Thu, 24 May 2012 22:18:04 -0400

pavement

froyo

potbelly’s

sauna

anyway, i’m exhausted.

Peeps (Taken with Instagram at Ping Pong Dim Sum)

Wed, 23 May 2012 22:35:57 -0400

Peeps (Taken with Instagram at Ping Pong Dim Sum)

Budz. @tjortenzi (Taken with Instagram at Ping Pong Dim Sum)

Wed, 23 May 2012 21:11:15 -0400

Budz. @tjortenzi (Taken with Instagram at Ping Pong Dim Sum)

Working. Rainy DC. Me as ghost. (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 23 May 2012 18:09:32 -0400

Working. Rainy DC. Me as ghost. (Taken with instagram)

"Maybe in the end this is not about having more money. Maybe this is about choosing to spend what we do have in a way that is more aligned with what we say is important to us and understanding that happiness is not about getting more money."

Tue, 22 May 2012 11:44:15 -0400

"Maybe in the end this is not about having more money. Maybe this is about choosing to spend what we do have in a way that is more aligned with what we say is important to us and understanding that happiness is not about getting more money."

one year after a deadly, mile-wide tornado devastated joplin,...

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:34:04 -0400

one year after a deadly, mile-wide tornado devastated joplin, mo., the difference between then and now is still painfully stark. this tells the story.

may

Mon, 21 May 2012 21:03:00 -0400

I’m going to try to writing here a bit more regularly. I might even set calendar alerts to remind me and everything.

So I’m going to start, and there’s personal stuff here that’s not me-at-work. Excuse the choppiness. It’s been a minute.

New York. I just had my one month anniversary here and despite a nasty sinus/cold thing this past week, my time in the city has been phenomenal. It feels like I always should’ve been here; I really enjoy how absurd, dirty, weird and delicious this city is. I remember reading message boards before I moved (idiot idea) and everyone was all like “ROACHES! SMELLY HOMELESS PEOPLE WHO PEE ON THEMSELVES! RENT SCAMMERS! RENT!!! RENT!!!! RENNNNNNTTTT!!!!!” New York has literally all of those things — I have seen it, paid for it, stomped on it, smelled it — but hey, I’m never bored.
Apartment. It is on the ground floor of an Upper East Side building. I found it on Craigslist and was in a pit of these-people-are-crazy home hunting despair when some nice humans e-mailed me back and asked me to move in. My roommates are normal and neat. My room is tiny and I feel about the size of a buffalo when I try to move around in it. But my bed is here. This is all that matters.
Laundry cubes. This is a separate bullet from the rest of NYC. I also feel like I always should’ve been sending out my laundry. It comes back in a perfect cube!
Alone time. Whether commuting or wandering around, I am alone a lot here. I really love it.
Froyo. Lots of froyo has been happening.
Social media. So. I have again assumed the full-time label of “social media” person. (It’s actually “social news” at The Guardian, which I thought was a nice twist.) It was something I thought a lot about before deciding on this because the term “social media” itself is something I’m not sure I’ll ever be comfortable with; to me, so much about “social media” comes with practicing journalism and creating original work — not just repacking someone else’s. I used it early on in my career as a reporter, and I’ve always felt strongly that an aptitude for social media doesn’t mean that you’re a certain “type” of journalist, other than one who is willing to try something new. Luckily, I’m at the type of place that encourages this and sees social media as wrapped up in the process as another tool for reporting, not just distribution. (By the way, I hate the question, “Could you push this out?”) I have been pretty astounded by some of the reporters we have here and how advanced and experimental they are with any manner of newfangled storytelling tools — “social media,” if you will. Next up on my plate: Projects!
All of my friends are getting engaged and married, including my best friend from high school, who (along with her amazing parents, of course) let me spend a lot of time with them when my family and I weren’t getting along. (We’re all good now.) All my life I’ve been lucky to have friends who’ve stepped in for me when I needed them, and one of my biggest regrets is losing touch with her over the past few years — I haven’t spoken to her on the phone in over a year, haven’t seen her in longer, but when she e-mailed me to tell me the news, I was reminded of the bridesmaid pact we’d established when we were young: “When it’s time for you to get married, I will be waiting with a car to get you the hell out of there, just in case.” It’s one of those things I wouldn’t bring up now, but I’m sure she remembers. I wonder if Elkhart, Ind. has getaway Zipcars available?
Pinterest. While in bed sick I’ve been revisiting Pinterest, more as a sorting-my-wants tool than a WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR JOURNALISM tool. I have been wanting to dress like a proper adult for awhile now. Maybe Pinterest is the key? I doubt it. Meh.
John. He’s still awesome and sweet and just turned 30. I hope he can move here someday soon.

Transgender at five - Petula is one of my favorite columnists at any paper. The fact that you can tell in every writing she does that she’s first and foremost a mother sometimes works against her, but not often, and not in this case. A great lens through which to tell a story, and her sons even peek in during the last paragraph.
What’s it like to have a spouse die? - I don’t know how I stumbled on this in Quora. But I read it the whole way through. And then I read it again.
How much should you save on retirement if you’re in your 20’s? Depressing, but good to know.
I am smitten with the TwoXChromosomes board on Reddit, mostly because it’s like Yahoo! Answers with common sense thrown in.

@kourtneybailey and I just discovered our rooftop! (Taken with...

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:54:19 -0400

@kourtneybailey and I just discovered our rooftop! (Taken with instagram)

little courtyard down the block (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 20 May 2012 13:31:33 -0400

little courtyard down the block (Taken with instagram)