Morning Advice

The best way to start your day is to take a step away from the boring and mundane. Put on your awesome underwear. Happiness starts from within, and it's best not to put anything in its way of escaping into joy.

Quick Thought

I have a lot of hair. I apparently have very gorgeous hair. It happens to be one of the ways people identify me in a crowd.

I ask you then, what would change if half of it was gone?

19% of My Life is Dancing in My Underwear

The title of this post says it all. If you are not my roommate, don't know me intensely well, or do not follow me online, you may not know this fact. I dance a lot in life. I sometimes dance well, I sometimes dance with uncontrollable angst, but a lot of the time, I dance like a dork: a cute dork, but definitely a dork. A lot of that dorky dancing occurs in my apartment in my under garments.

With that introduction in mind, due to my StumbleUpon habits, I have been on 8Tracks a lot. This post is then my gift to you: music that I sway to, that makes my heart smile, and that I dance to in my undies.

Enjoy.


Ingrid Michaelson "Be OK": This song is actually a bit depressing if you listen to the lyrics, however, I think that's why I like it.


Florence and the Machine "Kiss with a Fist": One more reason I love 94.7 for finding this for me ages ago.


Cobra Starship "Guilty Pleasure": From my sisters' 18th birthday present CD to me.


The Strokes "Reptilia": Because I am a dork.


Franz Ferdinand "Michael": Because I am a sexy dork.


Vengaboys "Boom Boom Boom Boom": Feel free to judge me. I'm aware of it. Let the judgement commence, but doesn't everyone get some crappy pop from their high school dances stuck in their heads at some point?


David Guetta ft Akon "Sexy Bitch": Once again, I enjoy pop/hiphop for the beats. Get over it.


Ke$ha "Kiss N Tell": I am not a fan of her wardrobe choices, or blatant product placement, but girl makes some catchy pop.

Eight songs from me to...me, well myself and whoever reads this blog or checks facebook. Go strip and dance in your undies!

In Portland Town, Oh Portland

By now, many of you, or anyone who is remotely internet savvy and possesses a facebook account, has heard of the internet show, "Portlandia" with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein from SNL. If you have not heard about it or seen it, well that's why there's a link above. Go click and check it out.

"Portlandia" is a little show that both mocks stereotypes of Portland residents, neighborhoods, and the city's attitude while still being ridiculously hilarious. For anyone who lives or visits downtown, I personally think it's so amusing because of how close it hits close to home. While I technically live in unincorporated Washington County, I say I am from Portland. I hang around downtown a good deal, know the West side like the back of my hand, and can find my way around the East side. Also, you'd have to pay me good money to say I lived in Beaverton.



Many people know the show, but did you know that Portlandia is actually a large, iconic statue for the city? It's not just a made-up catchy title.

While "Portlandia" the show may be entertaining, I'm still not quite certain how I feel about it still, however, it did encourage me. On my last day home over Winter Break, I set out to be a tourist in my own city. Armed with my point and shoot camera, which apparently had almost no battery, I started in Pioneer Place and began to wander. Unfortunately, my camera gave out just as I was entering the Pearl. Pearl shots are subsequently captured with my phone, and by the time I got to the North West area and the East side, well, there's documentation in my mind, but not in any format that I can upload.

Thus, below, I give you another highly visual post. Welcome to some highlights of Portland. My Portland.


Children playing by a fountain is always adorable. Hi Pioneer Place.

These type of fountains are along both sides of the Pioneer Courthouse. What's cuter than otters?




Sorry bear, the otters are cuter.


The courthouse itself, as seen from the if you were facing towards the waterfront.


Awesomeness is awesome.


No writing about Ptown is complete without the Portland Man.



There is a special place in my heart for the food carts. Gold star to anyone who knows where they go to sleep at night.


Artsy-fartsy time. Welcome to the rear of the Arlene Schnitzer Hall.


In an attempt to take a picture of the works outside the Portland Art Museum, I accidentally captured a snapshot of a true Portland beard. In the Rose City, we do everything hard core.


Southpark Seafood Grill, why are you always so tasty?

This doesn't necessarily have a lot of cultural or historic meaning, but Clay is how you get to Sunset Highway, aka my mad dash home.







FINNEGAN'S! Prepare for pictures of stuffed animals. Finnegan's is the Northwest's largest independently owned toy store.


Where else am I going to find a stuffed Tasmanian Devil? Not the Looney Toons character.

Quality reading right there.

I have no idea what their message or cause was, but the signs looked cool.

Oh hi, Living Room theatre.

Please pardon the blurred pictures. At this point, I was taking pictures with my phone. While my little Droid 2 is awesome, it still can't compete with a quality Sony camera.

If I could die wandering the shelves of Powell's, I would be a lucky lass indeed. I love Powell's. That's about the simplest way to put it without sounding like a crazy fanatic. Powell's is the largest independent bookstore west of the Mississippi River. Powell's gives me hope for the world. It is the physical embodiment that print is not dead. If you are ever in Portland, visit Powell's. Take a coffee and get lost. It'll do your soul some good.

The Powell's pillar.






There is also Powell's 2; the technical bookstore, which recently relocated from deeper in the Pearl. Someone's got to stock books about mathematics, programming, and engineering.



Once again, I apologize for the picture quality. While hard to see the sign, this is the Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub. While I gained vast amounts of Portland knowledge when I was 16, obviously my knowledge of bars and pubs has been a bit minuscule. This was my first legal beer in Portland. I highly recommend the porter. On Portland beer notes, the Widmer Brother's hefeweizen is also fantastic.


Two gold stars to whoever can say this street correctly.

Unfortunately this is where most of the pictures end. I miss shopping at Ray's Ragtime and Three Monkeys. Getting my movie time in at the Fox Tower and then grabbing a donut at Voodoo Donut's. I miss the Cuban food at Pamiche. I miss flicks on the bricks in the summer, and the tree lighting in the winter. Portland is my home. Ptown represent.

Should I?

So I've started sketching more again, due to the large amount of free time over winter break. The question is, can I maintain this once classes start? Taking two art classes, one would suppose a positive yes, but can that be safe from statistics? Mathematical analysis? Economics research? My horrible desire to do everything?

I'm hoping yes. As I think, there isn't much point about this post besides to show off my sketches. Let's be honest, I know that unless I post this to facebook, all of four people will probably read this, therefore, I'm not being that vain in showing off my little sketches. This isn't even quality finished work, just little wisps. Oh well, off to sketch lovelies.



I guess that this is also a call for free, and paid, requests/commissions, since those normally keep me at some level of productivity.



Growing up sucks.

That is all.