Meh.

I Was Wrong. Snow. Again. And I Am Not Overly Thrilled With It.

/ Ally Bean / 25 Comments

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So I wake up this morning in a cheerful mood.

I am ready to face the day with joy and purpose and hope.  It is springtime after all.  This is the time of year where things get done.  And I am ready to do things.  Oh. Yes. I. Am.  And then I look outside and see SNOW!

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 This does not make me happy.

Have I not put up with this crap for months now?  Have I not been a good person who doesn’t whine about the mess & inconvenience that snow brings with it?  Have I not stated clearly here in this blog that the time for snow is over?  HUH?  Did I just not say that but a few posts ago?

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Yet, there is snow in my world.

And as much as I’d like to continue on with this rant, I have to admit that the blue sky that has accompanied this LAST SNOWFALL* is beautiful.  And encouraging.  And rather, dare I say it, springlike.

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Being nothing if not pragmatic, I have a plan.

Today I will focus on the pretty white clouds in the sky and totally ignore the white mess on the ground.  Yep, that’s my plan.  DENIAL.  When asked by other people what I think of this snowfall, I will say: what snow?  I don’t see anything like that around here.  All I see is Spring in the making.  Hallelujah!

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* from my lips blog post to God’s ear

2 Movies, 2 Books & 1 Unique Bumper Sticker

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

As part of my attempt to live a more balanced life in 2013, I have given myself the assignment to watch 2 movies and to read 2 books each month.  Here is my February report.

2 Movies

The Magic of Belle Isle – Bland + trite.  With Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen in it, I thought that this movie would be a sweet, but nuanced, look at life in a small town on a lake.  It was not.  In fact, it was boring, mildly insulting to women over 40, and just a plain waste of beautifully decorated lakeside homes.  Not recommended.

Helvetica –  Fascinating + inspiring.  Helvetica is a font that was born in 1957 and permeates our lives.  It has been revered and it has been marginalized, but it is still here.  The interviews with graphic artists are compelling, even if you disagree with what they’re saying.  Recommended if you have an interest in typography and the world around you.  [H/T to alejna at collecting tokens for telling me about this documentary.]

2 Books

The Spice Necklace –  Charming + fun.  I enjoyed this book.  In a nutshell, Ann Vanderhoof and her husband decide to live on a boat, travel around the Caribbean and research the local cuisine.  Along the way they make friends with some nutty characters the locals, learn about alcoholic beverages regional history and decide to conjure up recreate Caribbean specialities in their tiny  galley kitchen.  Recommended if you like recipes, travel and cheerful adventurers.

Marrakesh By Design –  Beautiful + informative.  In this colorful book on Moroccan decorating, Maryam Montague explains the history of the region as well as the reasoning behind this style of decorating.  The photos of patterns, colors and homes are perfect.  I read the book all in one sitting, then came back a few days later to get lost in the photos.  Recommended if you have an interest in African history, art and/or home decor.

1 Unique Bumper Sticker

The bumper sticker on the back of the van said: Play More Viola.  I saw it first and was silently thinking about it when Zen-Den noticed it, too.  Naturally we needed to know more about it, so I googled it.  I half expected it to be a line from a Saturday Night Live skit a la “more cowbell.”  But its origins were much simpler than that.  It’s a bumper sticker encouraging everyone to be more joyful… by playing more viola.  Cute, huh?

In Which I Manage To Disappoint By Merely Existing

/ Ally Bean / 24 Comments

I have hit a new low in blogging.

Putting aside the fact that I’ve never written a word about wind chimes until today, I think that it is fair to say that this spammer took a very dim view of one of my blog posts.  I’ve never received such a sad piece of spam before.  Most of my spam is of the “great job” variety, so the unhappiness described in this piece of spam is almost too much for me.

I feel the angst.

But here’s what confuses me: why is this piece of spam telling me about some clunky, un-melodic wind chimes?  I had nothing to do with the wind chimes.  It’s almost as if this piece of spam was written without anyone actually reading what I wrote… as if there is no correlation between my content and the spam comment… as if this spammer doesn’t care about me at all.

Oh dear!  That couldn’t be it, could it?  😉

Facebook, Friends & Flow Charts

/ Ally Bean / 10 Comments

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about this week.  Brought to you by the letter “F.”

• Facebook.  I was talking with a casual acquaintance the other day.  Over the years we’ve gotten to know each other– sort of.  She is nothing if not outspoken.

Often we talk about FB.  It fascinates her that I just left it.  Like that.  No worries, no looking back.  It’s kind of a theme with her.

And honestly, I’m fascinated about why she doesn’t leave FB.  She hates it– complains about it every time we are together.  In fact one of her biggest complaints is that her friends have the audacity to post status updates using words. That they think she’ll read about what they’re doing.  This seems to bother her to no end.  She mentions it often.

So, I asked her straight up why she messes around with something that so clearly upsets her.

And she told me that the only reason she stays on FB is so that she can see the photos that her friends post.  She wants to see these photos so that she can judge how these friends look.  Her word: judge.

Being the polite soul that I am, I just nodded my head up & down, mumbled a vague sort of “uh-huh,” and quickly changed the topic of conversation to something that didn’t give me a glimpse into the psyche of someone so shallow– and probably– more typical than I care to admit.

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• Friends.  I stumbled upon this article: Bitter About Your Life? Blame Facebook.  The subtitle says: “New research suggests heavy Facebook users are more likely to believe other people have happier lives.”  

According to this article, researchers posit that this perception is due to the fact that people see all sorts of happy photos that FB friends post.  Then these people assume that other people are having a better time than they are.  Enter bitter feelings.

Wonder if that is what’s going on with my acquaintance… seeing how she is a nut for photos.

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• Flow charts.  While I was enjoying all that Pinterest has to offer, I came upon this wonderful How to Delete Half Your Facebook “Friends” flow chart.  It is by a blogger named Samantha who keeps a blog called ashore.

I love this chart.  Now I just need to get my acquaintance to understand it and use it.  Might make her happier about her experiences on FB.  Maybe.