I took these last night. Turns out, my camera has a 'fireworks' setting that totally rules.
When we were on our way to watch the fireworks, I was trying to take pictures of all the woo-girls and boys wearing Canadian flags as dresses and tuxedos and stuff...and so I had my camera at the ready...on the wrong setting. So I accidentally made this video of our conversation:
Hi, I'm Nova and...oh hell, I'm just gonna say it: I'm a blogaholic. I follow over seventy blogs. No joke. And I read most of the posts on each of these blogs, I read them religiously, unless they're about recipes or fashion or written from a dog or baby's point of view. Or I get all backlogged and feel too much pressure to read them. Then I kind of rebel and hit "mark all as read". Yes, I do. But only after seeing if there's any awesome giveaways or pictures of tattoos. haha
I will sometimes unfollow people. When I'm feeling overwhelmed I do housekeeping in my bloglovin' list and get rid of people who feel more like a chore and less like fun. People I never grew to care about, and people who stopped posting are the first to go.
But usually for every one person I unfollow I will find two more interesting cool people to read about, thanks to lists people post telling me who is awesome these days. And so now I return the favor.
Trust me, this is not an exclusive list. I love every single person I follow. For now, here's eleven blogs I am especially loving today. They are charming, interesting, snarky, bitchy, happy, cute, take beautiful photos, are hilarious, inspire me, all of the above or none of the above. I just like them.
"Don't Insist on English" - a ten minute video on language loss and the Globalization of English. Language Death is one of my major fears for the future. Bigger than the ozone layer depletion or global warming. I am both passionate and terrified about this subject.
Kristin Luna's "get to know the girl behind the blog" post. There's some insight on life as a freelance writer, as well as allusions to the rest of her amazing life. Like how she's about to embark as 'assistant field office coordinator' on a cruise ship called 'semester at sea'... paid to go from Montreal to Ghana to South Africa to Mauritius to India to Malaysia to Vietnam to Hong Kong to Japan to Hawaii to Costa Rica to the Panama Canal to Cuba to Florida. RIGHT? I mean...get over to her blog and look at everything and then subscribe because it's only gonna get awesomer, if that's possible.
Looking Through the Bush by Roger Friedland. An essay on women's pubic hair throughout the ages.
My friend Sam's latest vlog about his epic bicycle journey across the USA (and perhaps beyond). He's made it to Iowa so far. From NYC. My favorite part is at 4:55 (Random Sam's Book Club FTW)
Each print is signed and dated and shipped with care in a serious, sturdy, cardboard envelope which you can put to use later as a wobble board, a fan or a convenient rectangle for sitting on damp grass.
Reading about weird mis-translations and culture shock. The story of the apple book is hilarious. And the best part is, I'm following two people's blogs who are on the same WWOOFing trip so you can read about the book from the point of view of Max and then check out Zoe's take on it.
That I finally figured out how to put that little black heart up in here. What am I talking about? Open my blog in a new tab...now look at the tab. Black heart. I AM AWESOME. Thanks to Amalie's help, of course. She rules. And so do these pictures. Also? This super easy to understand tutorial on how to make a horizontal navbar with images. Did you notice mine? I'm all proud, I DID IT!!! haha
This cover of Tool's Lateralus, by Adam Monroe on the piano. He NAILS it. It's crazy. I've probably watched this video forty times and it just gets better and better. Even the comments on YouTube are nice, which is saying something.
What should I read next? You enter a book you like, and this site will recommend similar books! How useful!
These hipster bears stuffed animals. I don't like owning stuffies or receiving them as gifts, but I'd definitely give these to other people! And check out the "Polaroid cameras" in the background.
This amazing video of the Toulambi Tribe of Papua New Guinea meeting a couple white men for the first time ever in the 70s. I love the innate curiosity all humans have, and how it eventually overpowers fear. And the way they express liking the taste of the food. :)
SOS, send love. Halley's mom was diagnosed with a cancer that has made it impossible for her to travel anymore. Please send her a post card telling her about your neck of the woods. It'll cost you a couple bucks and five minutes of your time. Do it!
Solargraphy. I first heard the word HERE on my friend Sam's blog a long time ago...basically it's extreme pinhole-camera-ing, and takes months for a single image. It's something I've been meaning to try forever!
Ever wonder what color your kid would choose to paint his room if he could choose any color on earth?
Ryan's oldest has decided it's time to have his own room, and we agreed. They're both getting too old to have a "toy room" anyway. So...step one was to make the room his own. With paint. He went for "Fresh Melon" which sounds a lot more soothing than it looks, hahaha.
I really liked doing this "lately" feature on my blog last time and have decided to make it a somewhat regular thing on Four Eyes Rella. The original idea came from Danielle, so I can't take any credit, but if you want to join me and do your own 'lately' post, please feel free to steal a stolen premise. I don't mind. (haha) So anyway, here we go!
Lately I am...
Reading: Well actually I've been listening to audiobooks lately, especially on my walks to and from the bus stop, and even on the bus if it's quiet enough. I used to think audiobooks were kind of like cheating, but now that I've gone through an entire book I've found it's nearly the same. You're getting the same information as you would if you were getting it through your eyes, and so you have to use the same parts of your imagination. It's still "work".
The only negative thing I can possibly say is that audiobooks are infuriatingly SLOW. It probably took me twice as long to listen to Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire as it would have taken me to read it. I'm a pretty darn fast reader, and he's a pretty darn slow talker. But still, I'd encourage you to give it a try, for the experience of being able to get a book into your brain and do other things at the same time. It's pretty neat.
Our public library offers an entire selection of audio books you can borrow and put on your iPod or whatever device you use. I'm sure yours will do the same. It's free and fun and definitely makes time pass quicker. Right now I've just started the third part of the Wicked trilogy: A Lion Among Men. Exciting stuff.
Watching: Game of Thrones. Awwwwwww yeah! We just figured out how to watch the entire series with our television provider, so it's marathon time.
Listening to: The Sword. Like, almost too much. I'm right at the peak of my fandom. You know, like where it's the first and only thing you put on ever, and you put particular songs on repeat so you learn every bass line and word to every song? Yeah I'm there.
They were actually playing in Vancouver last week and my friend Colin went and brought me back a t-shirt, which is my new favorite of all-time. Here's a picture of it I took inside the bathroom at work, hahaha. I'm nothing if not a classy broad.
YES! What you cannot tell by this terribly unflattering angle is that it fits like a dream and looks all bad-ass and medieval. And speaking of The Sword, this video is incredible. Please watch it, and keep in mind they're a band in 2011, not 1976.
And this is my favorite song by them ever.
Eating: Sorry vegans, I eat yogurt sometimes. And today is one of those times. I started with a generous helping of lemon flavored greek-style yogurt, added a million fresh strawberries, and topped it off with a zillion hemp hearts. Oh. Mein. Got.
Loving: The Weird Al song about tattoos, having a day off with ZERO plans after working 11 days straight, dill pickle potato chips, and gloating over the spectacular wasp and honeybee photos I got this week. (You'll see!) Oh, and that just now, like three minutes ago, I let the dog out for a pee and saw this:
And it stood there long enough for me to noisily hook the dog to his leash, go inside, grab my camera, come back out, line up the shot, and take the picture. Thanks, deer!
Looking forward to: Watching Game of Thrones for hours today with my man, finding awesome things on the internet (and catching up on my blog reading... over 500 posts in my bloglovin' queue! EEK!) and my dad and step-mom's trip here and beyond that begins in a few days...I definitely don't see them enough.
