A Very Long Post About Everything

(okay, so not EVERYTHING)
A bit of a deviation, but it's my blog so pthhh to you. :P
haha, so has anyone else seen the commercials for the upcoming show on ABC called V? (damn they like their letters)

So anyone familiar with sci-fi shows like Stargate SG-1 or Firefly (or even How I Met Your Mother, though that's not scifi) might have recognized Morena Baccarin as the leader of the alien peoples.  For me I was staring at some website on my laptop when I heard her voice on the commercial.  And what was my first thought? What is Adria up to now?  What, Origin failed so now she's got a new strategy? And my second thought was OMG What did she do to her hair?! Where'd it all go!?

But if you think about it... as Adria she was the human leader for the Ori, spreading faith which came along with the promise of peace and knowledge if the people agreed to worship them.  She seems extremely kind, wise, and charming until you cross her; then she's a raging murderer with no heart and very manipulative in her ways of persuasion.  Now this new character I know nothing about so I looked up her bio on the ABC website and here's what they have:

"Anna is the stunningly beautiful, charismatic and powerful Leader of the Visitors. She is benevolent, charming and offers friendship to the people of Earth. Privately, she is fierce and manipulative, ruling the Visitors (and if she has her way, humanity) with an iron fist."

Hmmm see some similarity? I tell you it's Adria in disguise!!!

Anna or Adria??

And just by the way I think she's a fantastic actress and very pretty, I'm just pointing out how amazingly similar these two characters are.

Moving on! To what, you ask? I have absolutely no idea!  I'm making this up as I go along!

     Spurt of creativity time!  Alrighty so I was pointlessly reading tons of MLIAs the other day (and if you don't know the site, I suggest you check it out cause it's awesome and sucks your life away) and I found MLIA number 1064638 and I was instantly inspired.

"Today, my aunt asked me on facebook what the charm on my necklace was in my profile photo because it was too small to see. She asked if it was a "little hamburger running with a javelin." It's really a lion, but from now on I'm on a quest to find a necklace like that. MLIA"

I want to make that necklace!! How randomly fantastic is that? A hamburger running with a javelin?  It's so completely out there I just love it, and I can just imagine the reactions of people when they see it. hahaha.  So the first sketch I loved and it took alot of thinking but I think I'm going to try making it out of clay and I'm also going to try Shrinky Dinks. Remember those? Ahhh good times, childhood.  Good times.  So either way I won't be able to actually do anything till Thanksgiving break, so no update on it for a while.  I hope it turns out good though! Here's my sketch:

And yes, the post-it is stuck on the DVD cover for The Princess Bride.  Cause The Princess Bride is just so amazing :D

     Oh and a hearty round of applause and congratulations to Jason Mraz for receiving the 2009 Missions in Music Award by the Environmental Media Association.  Very inspiring he is.

Funny picture time!

(image via here)

Hahahahaha xD

And I shall end this VERY long blog with a link to a lovely video that I can't help but smile whilst watching (besides the guy is handsome and has gorgeous eyes ;D ) THIS IS A LINK I THINK YOU SHOULD CLICK!!

Picture Blog!

Like a video blog, but without sound or motion!!
(caption for picture will be underneath it)

ZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ.... sleeping contently this morning. :)

Woke up to Paige's alarm scaring the shit outta me.  Look at my itouch, CRAP! It's 7:30- my phone died overnight!!!

Gotta get ready and run out the door to get to class on time!!!!

Ah, never mind.  Class is actually cancelled.

Oh, lemme show you this.  I got it several days ago.

There's a bajillion little individual cards and on each of them I'm writing some sort of inspirational quote that I found and liked.

See? Cards.  And lots of tiny cramped writing.  Thank you Rice-R-Us for giving me the small handwriting skills I need.

Ok, snack time!!! YUMMMMMM

Alrighty, so yea.  I've got this cute little thing to carry with me everywhere I go.  Thought it was a neat idea, and now whenever I'm feeling blue or need inspiration I can just open up to a random card.  Annndddd picture story cause I woke up with morning and now have nothing to do till my next class (and I know if I go back to bed I won't be getting up again haha).

Sooo let's see.  Today I'm grateful for cancelled classes.  Isn't it just fantastic when you are in no mood at all to sit through a boring lecture and you discover it's been cancelled?  And it's even better when you find out there was something due today that you didn't actually get done.  So yay!!

Andddddd let's end this with one of the quotes from my little thingie.  Hmmm, I seriously need to come up with a cute name for the thing, not just "thingie" or "inspirational book".  Any ideas?

"Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow.  It only robs today of its strengths."  -A.J. Cronin

The Fan and the Flower

No excuses this time, just way too lazy to get myself onto this site.  Thought I should share something nice though, and decided on this.  The Fan and the Flower.  Fantastic video, really makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

the Fan and the Flower from Cavvie Bartjanello on Vimeo.

I'm horrible with thinking up cool titles to draw your attention in so this will do for now.

     Oi so four days without a post.  You might be thinking that I fell off the side of the earth or got lost somewhere in the Amazon, of which you are completely wrong for thinking.  I was actually lost in Antarctica.
     So, really, why was I absent?   Honestly I've been in a pretty bad mood for the past five days or so.  Not in a mood to blog, hardly in a mood to talk to anyone, hardly even in a mood to smile.  Sometimes we just have those off days where everything is whacked out of place.  When everything seems like it's too much and it's impossible.

     Mulling in my dejected attitude I was going over some of the past links I'd StumbleUpon 'd earlier but forgot to close the window.  I came upon the 32 Keys About Life webpage and started reading the introduction.  (I'd saved it for when my headache had gone away.)  So I get through the introduction without much a thought and make my way onto the topics themselves.  Scanning them quickly I suddenly stop when I'm in Despair and my eyes find the name Erich Fromm.  Erich Fromm.... hmmm... The name rang a bell but I couldn't place it.  Where did I hear it before?  In a show?  Online?  In a book?  And it comes to me.
     I shift the clutter off my desk and resurrect the yellow post-it that I'd stuck in a spot that I had hoped would always be in my sight.  In my neatest handwriting I'd written down my latest favorite quote that I had come upon from Jason Mraz's twitter account.

     "There is only one meaning of life, the act of living itself." -Erich Fromm

   A smile plays across my face as I read it.  My focus shifts back to the webpage and I read the quote they have.

     "Who will tell whether one happy moment of love of the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies." -Erich Fromm

     And just as I finish reading the quote, what song comes on my random shuffled playlist?  None but Jackie's Antioch song, a song I have long loved, Little Wonders by Rob Thomas.  And with his gorgeous voice he reaches out to me with the first lines.

    "Let it go,
     Let it roll right off your shoulder
     Don't you know
     The hardest part is over
     Let it in,
     Let your clarity define you
     In the end
     We will only just remember how it feels"
  
     I let it go, I let all the stress and worry and fear just roll off my shoulders and onto the floor.  I cast my despairing thoughts aside and look out at the bright sunny day for the first time today, for the first time in a few days (although admittedly it's been rainy grey for the past four days).  Thank you Erich Fromm, thank you Rob Thomas.  You made my day better and got me out of that rotten mood.  Today I am grateful for the two of you.  You're awesome!

Get 'em up way high, Can you gimme that high five?

Because you deserve one :D

  

     So what am I grateful for today? Today I am grateful for.... Heaters.  Warmth.  Isn't it just fantastic to come back to your dorm, to come back home after braving the cold, cold elements to a toasty warm room?  You peel off your soaking clothes and turn the heat up even further before curling up in your blankets and watching a movie/ surfing the net/ reading a book, whatever.  Maybe even grabbing a cup of hot chocolate, you can't help but feel love towards your heater.  Be grateful for the warmth that welcomes you at your house, for there are many out there who don't have such a cozy temperature to relax in.  Smile to yourself and watch those poor souls freezing outside battle their way to their private sanctuary.

photo from here

Update on Today. Forgetfulness.

     Oh so this is the second post of the day, I encourage you to read the first post of the day (which is below this) before reading this one since I touch upon something from the first.


      Ok so there was another link I originally wanted to share today but totally forgot to post in the original post.  Found this first, before the other stuff, but my mind was sidetracked and I didn't remember.
     Click this  and bother the poor dude by shoving your cursor in his face.  Just keep it there for a while.  It's pretty funny.  I actually did a double take and burst out laughing the first time I did this.

     And for anyone that cares here's an update for today:  found out there's a Whose Line is it Anyway? thing this Sunday in my tower and got really excited. Sooo going to that!  Went to the first Towson Skydiving Club meeting and am REALLY super excited for this.  Like you have no idea.  But going out to the meeting at 7:00pm I totally forgot my umbrella, and realized just exactly how grateful I really am to have it. My glasses were impossible to see through, my jeans and converse got soaked, and I was a wet soggy mess by the time I got back to my dorm. So yay for umbrellas!!

Have a fantastic night! Nicole out!

Being Grateful

Today is a cold yucky day.  With a high of 42, a low of 32 and rain all day it's not the best weather one could ask for.  On such a day it's hard for one to look on the bright side, especially when your shoes grow wet and your fingers numb from trying to keep the umbrella from flying off into the wind.

(© Vanessa Fitzgerald)

    Everyday I try to be grateful, and so here's my resolution to help myself look on the brighter side of life and to keep up with the daily posts.  I'm going to try and post about one thing that I am grateful for every day.  Let's see for how long I can keep this going.  Hopefully for a long time :)

     So today I am grateful for.... umbrellas. Yes umbrellas.  So simple a thing yet they keep you (well, at least your head and shoulders if the wind's bad) dry.  They keep your hair from being flattened against your face.  And who would want that to happen after so many minutes in front of the mirror?  Without umbrellas we would have to resort to ponchos and overall we would be a much wetter race.  Plus they brighten up the rainy day by bringing in some splashes of color in what would otherwise be a grey and dismal atmosphere.  And when you're walking on that rainy day and you hear the pitter patter of the drops against the plastic it's not only a relaxing sound, but it's a sound of victory.  Mother Nature sought to ruin your hair and make you drip through the day but thanks to your umbrella you've outsmarted her and raked in a win.  Humans 1, Mother Nature 0.

     So also I have lately been addicted to StumbleUpon, thanks to Jen.  I'm finding all of these fantastic sites and videos, so now I have even more awesome stuff to show in here later on.  Just a little while ago I found this one site which is really awesome.  I've seen these things in videos from real life before, but have never actually seen one in real life nor online for use.  But I've thought they were really cool, so when I stumbled upon this I got really excited.  After an hour of searching online I found this video of which I recall being among the first that I saw of this kind of 'instrument'.  Pretty awesome, huh?

     So below is my own try at making sweet sweet musical beats with this online program.  Listen, like and maybe even try creating your own tune. :)

Om Nom Nom Nom

Ah see? Already I am failing to remember to post every day.  At the moment it's 11:42pm and I am extremely tried.  Too tired to think of a good and proper topic to blog about, too tired to write this in a creative style.  Almost too tired to even post, but I'm doing it for the sake of you, so you're welcome.  So I'm taking a random video out of my saved link folder so astutely named "Videos made of awesome" (yes it's really called that) and now am going to try and tie it in with what went down today.  Here you go.

     Right now my stomach is grumbling and groaning to no end.  Even this morning as I sat in my art history class I had to punch my guts in attempt to quiet my loud complaining stomach.  I had the usual hamburger and fries for lunch after that class and it was strangely obsessively delicious today.  Not sure why, but I scarfed down that burger as quickly as I could swallow.  And then I fell asleep at little past four today, woke up around 8:45ish, and only just had time to tune into Glee.  Now my stomach complains from the absence of dinner and I duly regret falling asleep.  At this moment I so wish I was this kitteh, noming on delicious food and making my tummy happily full.
     You just can't help but smile at his noms.  NOM NOM NOM *grumble* aw shut up stomach.

Mansions, Houses, and Earthships

     Who didn't have that dream house when they were little? Be it a house on the moon, a plastic bubble under the ocean, a house on the clouds or the large home down the street, every kid had their idea of what they would live in when they got older.  For me this was the Richy Rich mansion/house.  Dubbed so by myself because on the ornate double gate blocking the drive way are two elegant R's.  So like any child who has had their fair share of classic cartoons I would give the house the name of the one character we all know of that shares those initials.

     As far back as I can remember I recall being excited every time we drove down Skyline Drive, staring out of the window to catch the glimpse of the most gorgeous house I knew of.  Besides the winding driveway with the gate the property boasts of a beautiful pond, a wooden bridge over the water, trees blocking neighbors away, and the most classic and sophisticated house I could only imagine in this setting.  I'm going to get all stalkery here and tell you to google map these coordinates 41.036828,-74.250077 and street view that house.  Just tell me you don't like it.  I dare you.

      And if the owners of this house ever do stumble across this blog I apologize for creeping on your house like this, but it's the house I've wanted to explore as long as I can remember.  If you had an open house I would deff come back home and pretend not being a poor college student just so I could see the inside.  Your house is amazing.
      And because of this obsession with this one house I've found it impossible to see myself living in almost any other.  I've fantasized about many futures and tried to see myself coming home to countless houses, but feel repulsed when considering many of the ordinary homes that line most of the streets today.

     This summer I found the second house I could see myself in, smaller than the first but the architecture and impression it left on me was astonishing.  My family might recall the house I obsessed over when we were on our drive to trap shooting.  And now thanks to 25 minutes of searching street-view on google map, I give you these coordinates to also stalk. Give or take a few houses, it's the one with the cobblestone driveway and two white statues flanking the door. 40.875744,-74.315764  Now is that not also an amazing house? And again, if the owner(s) of this house come across this blog, your house is awesome and I love it.  Seriously. No weird stalkering feelings intended.

      And then on September 19th I found the third home I would love to call my own.  On Superforest Jackson published a post about earthships and was just as confused as you probably are now.  Earthships? Like spaceships?  Not really.  As I take this from the earthship website:

"Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills."

 These are homes made to work with mother nature, to help get yourself off the grid and depend more on yourself.  How amazingly awesome is that?  Whilst searching the site, I found this one particular earthship out in Taos, New Mexico that I have fallen in love with.  At a selling price of just under half a million ($440,000) it seems like a deal to me! (keep in mind I don't have any clue as to what would be a good or bad deal. I just insanely love this home.)  Click the link.  Look at the pictures.  Watch the video if you're up to it/ got the time.  These earthships are simply amazing and I would love to find my future self living in one of them.
Peace out.

See? I told you science is good for something!

I had just cozied down at my desk with my copy of the November 2009 issue of Popular Science that I picked up the other day in Barnes and Noble and a delicious classic yardbird (aka, grilled chicken sandwich from Paws) when I suddenly came across this.  The little blue ticker at the bottom.  And I began cracking up.  On a page holding an article about earthquake proofing buildings and another on nuclear drought in hospitals I found this sentence outrageously funny and completely out of place.  Glad to know that the scientists of the world know what's important.  (Click on the image to enlarge it so you can actually read the words.)

The Story of Stuff

Sorry I didn't write yesterday.  I was kinda busy having my dorm room to myself and reveling in my alone time and privacy.
  So what is the topic for today? Stuff.  More specifically, the story of stuff.
     How many of you like to go out shopping on a regular basis?  And maybe when you go shopping, you feel like you need to buy something; like the day was a waste if you don't.  I know I felt that way.  It was so bad, I was buying things just for the sake of buying.  And that not only affected my wallet in a negative way, but also the environment.  Today we are obsessed with having the latest items, the newest things on the shelves and the most stuff.  This is not good!  Why, you ask?
     On July 16 Jason Mraz shared a link to The Story of Stuff, an extremely insightful video about where our stuff comes from, what happens during the production process, and how we all are affected by it.  I implore you to watch it all the way through.  When I first saw it I told myself I'd watch only the first minute but found myself twenty minutes later still staring at the screen.  I think this is a message that everyone needs to hear and to wizen up about.  Hopefully after seeing this you'll be a bit more reserved when going to the mall and more conscientious about the creation of stuff.

I love you!

     Okay, so yesterday when I finally decided to do my laundry I decided on a whim to take the stairs.  God knows I've been meaning to but am just too lazy every time I get back from classes or from eating.  So lugging the bag over my shoulder I climb down the fourteen flights of stairs to the laundry room.  I load up my laundry and climb back up the fourteen flights.  Twenty minutes later I walk down them again so I can load the soaking wet clothing into a dryer.  This time when going down the stairs however I don't just look at my feet.  I observe the stairwell and the different name tags on the doors of each floor as I pass it.  And what do I see?  To my dismay I find this in between the second and third floors.  To put it in the words of Stephanie Tanner from Full House, "How rude!"

     I switch my laundry over with a frown on my face wondering what would compel a person to write that in the stairway.  I climb back up the fourteen flights, half an hour later going down them again for dinner and seeing the words splashed across the white, glaring at me, screaming of hate and anger.  That is not the mood I want to be in when I walk up and down these stairs I think to myself. But what can I do to change it?  And in the middle of eating my mediocre hamburger and delicious french fries it comes to me. All I need is painter's tape, a white piece of paper, and several colorful markers. Giddy with excitement and the thought of what reactions my action might evoke I eagerly got to work once I was alone back in my dorm room.

     Finished, I placed the paper inside my folder and went to sleep with a smile on my face.  This morning I woke up and was barely able to keep myself from running down the stairs a half-hour before I even needed to leave for class.  At 7:35 I tossed the painter's tape into my bag and took the stairs down to in between the second and third floors.  And with a few panicky looks around to make sure I was alone and a few pieces of tape I saw myself looking at this:

And it has definitely made my day better.  It made the stairwell just that much brighter. :D  I hope others see it too and I hope it puts a smile on their faces.  Wouldn't that be fantastic if we could change all the negative graffiti we see on a daily basis to something positive?  The world would be such a happier place!  Well here's my first step towards that world.  And don't forget, never forget, I LOVE YOU!

Lucky Duck

  
     Today is a beautiful day! I only had two classes today, and did not fall asleep in either!  And feeling particularly lucky since I got two of my midterms back today, one from my Health and Leisure class and the other from Brit Lit to 1798, and I failed neither of them! So that is really fantastic.  Got a B- on my lit midterm, and not exactly sure what I got on my other. But anyway, enough about my grades!

     So kind of interested, does anyone believe in luck?  Good luck, bad luck?  Or is it all up to you and luck has nothing to do with your achievements?

     I particularly lean to the attitude that what I do affects what happens to me and luck generally has nothing to do with it.  That's probably because I don't really like the idea that things are totally out of my control.  But then again.... And of course I do wish my fellow person good luck, break a leg, etc.  And I usually chalk any bad things that happen in my life to bad luck cause then it just seems more bearable, like there was nothing I could have done to change my luck.  So yea. Basically I have both but neither opinions on luck.  But I'd like to know what everyone else thinks (or anyone else for that matter).  What's your thought on luck?

     And what inclined me to incorporate luck into today's post?  That would be me rediscovering this video where these people are INSANELY lucky. Watch and enjoy their good fortunes.

Love Being....

Okay so a hearty congratulations to me for remembering to come and post something awesome! A pat on my back!
 Alrighty so I thought I would start it out with explaining the name of the blog. Love being. So simple, isn't it? Where did this come from you ask? Well it came from mycokerewards. Yep, you read that right.

 Sometime in 2007 Coke came out with five different figurines, all dealing with a happy theme (or something of the like.  I didn't personally see the connection between the five different designs but I imagine that it was about happiness or love). The first four I didn't like at all, and the fifth I didn't understand. At least not at first. Weeks passed and as I racked up my rewards points I thought about those two words. Love being? Love being what? I asked myself as I entered the ten digit code that would grant me three more magical points. And then I suddenly understood.

Love being an American. Love being an Austrailian. Love being German or British or Brazilian. Love being white, love being black, love being asian. Love being a girl, love being a guy. Love being in school. Love being adventurous. Love being original. Love being yourself. Just love being. Love the fact that you are alive and your own amazing individual person. Love being. And I knew in that moment that I HAD to get that figurine. And I did.
 It sat proudly atop my desk at home for three years and now it sits upon my desk at college. I look at it everyday and remind myself to love being. When I try to explain to friends or family what it means, or at least what it means to me, they never understand. "But why does it just say love being? That doesn't make sense. You need another word after it." No. No you don't. It does make sense and I just wish you could understand so you could revel in its meaning too.  It took me a while to get past my lack of understanding.  Just think about the phrase and I hope you will capisci.

 So that is the story behind my blog's name. Why it's titled Love Being. Cause you just need to love being. And speaking of all this love, why not end this post with a lovely song sung by none other than Jason Mraz?

Why I'm Here

I'm actually procrastinating from working on a five page paper on setting in a short story.  But that's not the real reason that I created this blog.  Lemme tell you why I'm actually here.  I am an avid follower and excessive fan of Jason Mraz.  He is the first person I can actually look at and say for certain that they are a role model for me.  I began listening to his music in June of 2008, started reading his blog around August, September of the same year, and have since followed his posts and updates.  His words and point of view had already altered my state of mind, making me more calm and putting me on the track to an awareness of wanting to be healthy, wanting peace, and a wish to save the planet.  I hadn't realized the true extent of it until August of this year when he supplied a link to a blog I'd never heard of.
     Upon visiting Superforest for the first time I was overwhelmed and figured the site to be a hippie, love the earth, recycling obsessive place.  Of course this is mostly right, but I originally tagged negative connotations to these things which made me reluctant to explore the site lest I be considered a part of them by friends (although I have no idea how they would know I visited the site).  Yet a few days later Jason posted another blog and yet again linked to this strange site.  It seemed like he really loved what they were doing so I decided to check it out more in depth. And I was amazed.  Saving the environment, being nice to others and making the world a better and more amazing place never seemed so possible.  I cannot express just how amazing and awesome this site is.  If you had to give a definition of happiness I would tell you to cite this blog.
     Since I've started reading their posts and visiting the site everyday I've quit eating junk food, only buying healthy and nutritious foods.  I've become aware just how great peace is and how it can be spread from person to person.  I've become more focused on saving the environment and have limited my purchases, begun buying green items and am more aware than ever of recycling.  I tell a person on the street if I like their bag or shirt or shoes or whatever because I know it would brighten my day if someone said that to me.  I smile at random people who look down.  I think about different things I can do to make other peoples days better.
     And just today Jackson (now quickly becoming the second person I can call a role model) finished posting a story of a young girl and her awesome blog.  And it has inspired me to act on what I've been tossing around in my mostly empty head for the past week or so.  To create my own new blog.  Yes, I have several blogs from before.  My first I used to complain about life and how horrible it was, crying for attention and wallowing in my sorrow.  My second I started using as a sort of diary/writing blog but that didn't quite work out.  And now my third is meant to spread happiness and love.  I want to post positive happy things that I find on the inter-webs all the time.  A place for people to (hopefully someday) look at and enjoy.  I want to post things I'm grateful for and acknowledge how awesome life is.  Sort of my own little superforest if you will.

     So there you have it.  Why I'm here, why I'm posting this and what I hope to be doing.  Of course it'll take some getting used to (like actually remembering to post).  But I hope that one day my blog will be read by others, not including my family and friends that will be forced to read this.  So to end this post on a happy note, I'll show a picture I took from my dorm room on the 14th floor that has been awesomely transformed with this of which, I have to say, I discovered thanks to Superforest. Polaroid converter ftw!