if a tree falls

Lost and Found

This weekend, I made an interesting discovery. The previous owners of our house left us some crazy things-- among them religious statues, old paint, and hidden x-rated magazines. This weekend, way in the back of an attic closet, I found a disintegrating piece of paper with decidedly female writing on it. The contents might be considered NSFW, so enter knowing you've been warned.

It's in the stars

They know how neurotic I am. Here's a piece of today's horoscope:

If you find yourself obsessing about the future, you could try giving in to it for a while, for you probably won't be productive until your mind comes to rest.

Anyway, Denver! Here we come! Hopefully I'll be back with pretty pictures soon.

One day more

Today is my last day of full-time employment. After this, I will be a full-time entrepreneur, and will be talking more about the business of starting my own business. I'm really looking forward to a summer of interesting turns and creative thinking. But today I have to buckle down, get some things done, and try to exit gracefully.

Interestingly, here's my horoscope today*:

You know that big changes are in the air, but you can't tell what's going to happen. Even if you decide to stay focused on your daily routine, this still won't take enough pressure off the current situation to make you feel at ease.

Fun times already.

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* For the record, I am not a firm believer in astrology. I look at it more as entertainment, and prefer to read horoscopes after big nerve-wracking events than before  them. However, I personalized my Google desktop yesterday, and it came included as a feature. "Why not?" I asked. I'm already pretty neurotic is why not.

On criticism

One of my favorite EW writers, Whitney Pastorek, writes a thoughtful essay about criticism in a message-board world in Popwatch. Interestingly, the comments follow suit. They are suspiciously well-spellchecked and capitalized.

Blast from the past, notes for the future

Recently, I asked my mom to send my my old journals from high school and college. I wanted to thumb through the pages, see if I really wrote as much as I thought I did as a teenager, and possibly destroy incriminating evidence of my immature existence.

I definitely didn't write as much as I thought I did, but I did have plenty of angst and useless drama, with the occasional bored doodle or mix tape playlist thrown in for fun. One bit stood out as far more mature and realistic than I am even now, ten years later. It turned out to be a college admissions letter, which I typed up and included below. Maybe teenage me wasn't so completely unrealistic.

I want to learn about the world that I live in. I want to become aware of my wold as a person and use that knowledge to make myself a better person.

I want to study history, science and literature, not only because I love knowledge [Ed: kiss-ass], but because I want to experience the world to its fullest and know everything there is to know about it. I want to travel and possibly study in foreign countries to experience the richness of the world. I want to meet people who are different than I am, people who can teach me things about life. I want to fight prejudice and help those in need.

I want to work in a career that enables me to talk with people. I do not want to perform the same task time and time again. I want to be able to use my creativity and contribute original thoughts. I want to be in a prestigious position. I want to be successful and influential to other people.

I have many general goals and ideas about my future, but I am not yet willing to set specific aspirations in place because I am afraid that if I set a goal that is unrealistic I will focus all of my attention on obtaining it. My goals are high, but they also give me room to make my own decisions. My goals can be reached whether I decide to become a doctor, a lawyer, a businesswoman or a housewife.

I hope that your college will be a setting shere I can realize my calling and find a career that I am passionate about. I love life and the challenges that I am faced with in it. I think that college can help me to accept those challenges and challenge others.

Friday reading

The inimitable GOB, er, Will Arnett, answers stupid questions on EW.com.
(Fun facts revealed-- he does voiceover work for Lamisil and his father was CEO of Molson Breweries)

A recipe for homemade Cadbury Creme Egg ice cream.
Pure geniosity.

"It's not you, it's your apartment."
Excellent NY Times article sent to me by Debbie

"What happened?" "Dunno, she stopped blogging"

I can't express in less than six words how much this Wired feature inspired me. Not only did they round up some of my favorite authors to write science fiction stories that are six words long, but they also helped me to jump-start any writing session with a quick lesson in the economy of verbiage. (By the way, that last sentence could have been at least six stories of its own.)

The favorite? Orson Scott Card, revered author of my favorite science fiction story ever, Ender's Game , writes: The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.

Runner up, if only because I'm not familiar with Rockne S. O'Bannon: It's behind you! Hurry before it