Let’s talk about datafication. Statistics. Moniters. Metrics. Whatever you want to call it, our society is rapidly becoming obsessed with crouching data. At work, we feed productivity numbers into a machine to track our progress. WHAT progress, you may ask? Well, don’t worry about it–if the numbers are green/orange/turquoise/whatever color you set to a positive collation on your spreadsheet, you’re making progress. At home, we get e-mail updates from social media websites, comparing our ability to type nonsensical satire into the internet with the ability of everyone else in the world. I got an email from Facebook last week about my SOCIAL METRICS. So, my social relationships should not be…
Beautiful Flowers, Rarely Seen
Hi reader, It’s time for some pictures of beautiful flowers because, let’s be honest: So far, March sucks. It’s freezing in New York, monsooning in LA, taxes are due in April and all any girl has to look forward to is 3 weeks of dry skin, peeling nails and the weird jet lag feeling associated with the spring time change. Total drag. In case you weren’t smart and forward-thinking enough to book some time in the tropics (or least the Carolinas…) here are some beautiful flower pictures I received from my dear friend Tatiana, who runs the always fabulous Tatiana’s Health and Wellness, to get you through your day. Enjoy!…
Chris Wool at the Guggenheim
The Guggenheim Foundation is fabulous. With locations all over the world, the Foundation promotes the understanding of contemporary art in a truly innovative and global manner. They showcase talented contemporary artists that work in a variety of mediums, including live performance. The latest show at the NYC Guggenheim, a self-titled exhibition entitled “Christopher Wool” left me feeling creative and revived. The work is gritty and portrays a sense of punk rock, artistic poverty and quiet, burning passion. Some pictures are below–enjoy! …
How to Be Interesting
It is the constant lament of young adulthood–how can you and your friends be more interesting? Once you’ve cycled through the normal schedule of alcoholic painting classes, Thursday happy hours and Sunday brunch, how do you keep your friendships absorbing and enjoyable without hitting a wall of total exhaustion? Sometimes, at the end of a day of work, I don’t want to go to a restaurant and discuss my feelings and sound interesting. I want to sit in a room by myself, reading People magazine and judging the life decisions of imperfect strangers. But at the end of the day, I’m always happy if I put down the Ben and…
Friends are Fabulous
One of the things I love most about being a woman is the amount of honest thought I put into my friendships. I consider them, I nurture them, I treasure them and I watch them grow (or wither and die) with huge amounts of purpose and satisfaction. Many aspects of my life are better when I am putting significant thought into selecting friends that are fabulous. As I was researching for this post I realized there has already been a tremendous amount written about the different types of friends women have. Springboards, mirrors, toxic friends, peanut butter friends, cheerleaders, Lamborgihinis, Volkswagons, bicycles, etc etc, whatever. So instead of restating the…
L’Eliser d’Amore (Elixir of Love)
Hi reader, Last night I saw the Metropolitan Opera production of Donzetti’s Elixir of Love. Written in the 1831, the story centers around the quest of Nemorino, a young village guy in rural Italy, as she tries to win the heart of Adina, a successful farm owner. While Adina is busy falling for an obnoxious, self-important army general, a traveling salesman passes through town peddling…..you guessed it….a magical Elixir of Love. Nemorino purchases the elixir at a premium and tragedy, confusion and comedy follow, ultimately concluding in happiness. Now I know that passion for opera is not what it used to be and I probably lost most of you at…
How to Give Great Advice
People who give great advice are fabulous. Brush up on your skills below: 1. LISTEN. Most of the time people can come up with their own advice/plan of action. What they really need is someone to listen. When your friend is upset about a fight with their boyfriend, don’t spend 25 minutes talking about how much you hate their stupid boyfriend anyway. Simply say, “I’m sorry that happened to you. Tell me about it.” Then put away your iPhone and actually pay attention for 10 minutes. Also, offer to make tea. 2. BLANKET ADVICE. When you speak, there are a few, well-chosen sayings and questions that are applicable in almost…
Dance Party
Just for fun let’s come up with a quick list of activities that are relevant on cold, disgusting, sleet-filled Sunday afternoons: 1. Binge-watch reality television2. Photoshop animal heads on human bodies and post online3. Make large quantities of borscht4. Organize sock drawer alphabetically according to color5. DANCE PARTY So, while these are all totally excellent options, obviously (as indicated by the cap-lock) I feel a particular affinity for option 5. Why, you ask? Several reasons– Why Dance Parties are the Best First of all, reality tv turns your brain into shallow, consumerist mush. Turn off your f***ing tv. Seriously. Second, making borscht turns your hands red. Third, I already…
Healthy Habits
I was just scrolling through an awesome edutopia article called Cultivating Healthy Habits of Mind (in case you were curious about how teachers spend Friday night) and I thought they made some excellent points about habits: 1. A habit is a regular practice. You don’t think about habits, they are just what you do. You can improve or replace habits you don’t like, because they won’t go away on their own. 2. “We form our habits, then our habits form us” -Brain Tracy (I have no idea who this is, just giving credit where credit is due) 3. Small habits chained together are a routine. Be intentional about the routines…
#fabulous
So I had a big pause in my social media usage this summer and fall for a ‘not fabulous’ reason. Its funny how going through a break-up can make you so much less interested in what your friends ate for breakfast/saw at the museum/did with their husbands and children. Honestly, I really enjoyed my time away the screen(s). Even as I’m taking my slow victory lap return to social media outlets, I still can’t quite deal with the way people think they know each other because of things they see posted on Facebook, etc. To clarify: someone you have never met before in your life, who you follow on Twitter,…