20/20 Hindsight

If you've ever not liked the way you looked, I think this post - a wonderfully well-written piece on looking back at an old photo - will hit home. I know I've had this moment myself. You probably have too.

Moreover, it says something about how wrenchingly hard it is to be an adolescent. I had a lot of great times growing up, but God, I wouldn't do it again if you paid me.

This Could Be...

(via PostSecret)

Ever-Increasing Possibilities

...for public humiliation.

I kid, I kid.

...well, sort of. I ran my first 5K.

...well, sort of. It's not my first, it's just the first time I ever tried to run one. And I didn't; I broke down and walked for a couple of minutes midway through. And my time was unspeakably dismal -

...well, sort of. It's speakable, it's just dismal -

Wow. And it's actually wrong on the official site, I just noticed. Two of our group had the same first name, we finished one after the other, and somehow they mixed up our times.

ANYWAY, my point is, because I DO have one, and it IS an optimistic one, and I'm NOT focusing on the bad stuff like it sounds like I am, my point is that I DID IT, and I truly AM happy about it. I don't have to be scared of it anymore, and I can cross it off my goals list, and I can just do it again and do it faster next time!

2500703090_77f8a9b5d4_o
Originally uploaded by Saranne03

And there were some perks, even besides all that. An unbelievably gorgeous morning with great people who were ridiculously proud of me, and who in two cases did their own record-ish things for themselves - made it all pretty nice.

And really, how often do you get the chance to get schooled by an eight-year-old in two different sports before brunch? It's got to be healthy to get your ego that firmly in check.

(Although that's usually accomplished pretty effectively just by having the ever-awesome Tracy around.)

Weekly Roundup: Photosets Worth Your Time

• Preschool lunches. The kid is spoiled something awful. The mom is either amazing or terrifying; I can't decide. But I am in awe.
• Nowata High School yearbook. The comments are to die for. (These two via PCJM)
• Best Flickr Babes. Is... basically that.
• Flickr's Best Polaroids.
• Flickr's 100 Best.
• Stick Figures in Peril.
• Closer and Closer.

Weekly Roundup: Because I Owe You One

• Quite a few friends have lost phones recently and made me remember how important it is to have a contact backup. I use Verizon's Backup Assistant.
• I got a Traveler IQ of 100 - that's through level 8 with 252965 points and a smug Naval aviator scoffing over my shoulder. How about you?
• Check out Scott Wade's Dirty Car Art.
• Most kids want to be a doctor or a teacher or a fireman when they grow up. I wanted to be a Thundercat. (I didn’t. As you may have noticed.) But I loved finding these outtakes ten years later. And re-finding them ten years after that.
• My new favorite artist is Elliott Puckette. I'm not usually a big abstract fan, but I love her work.

Picture This

I met Emily in England in 1999. She's had an amazing journey through life since then, full of grand, sweeping stories. And she's come out of it as brilliantly creative as ever, as evidenced by her new website: Emily Lamont Photography. Go look, she's breathtaking. I love how she uses high contrast to take any too-sweet edge off the gorgeous moments she captures.

And while I'm at it, I realize I know quite a few brilliantly creative photographers.

Lorraine shoots weddings on both coasts, and finds all the beautiful images in them.

Mike roams the world and takes stunningly vivid pictures of his amazing destinations.

Bill is a portraitist who made a project of immense proportions to perfect his thoughtful style.

What Did YOU Do at Work Today?

(via PCJM) You have to look closely at this photo to see that it's not, as Brian Williams put it, just some weird "silvery Stonehenge".

It's the 12 members of Engine Company 22 deploying their fire shelters. Which sounds very technical and powerful.

But what it really means is that they were trapped - as the photographer put it, in a chimney - at the top of a hill. They didn't have water, so they were digging to try to block the fire. And it got around them. The fire shelter is the very last resort. They don't use it unless there are no other options.

So, as the ground they were crouching on reached 300 degrees, they were squirming into giant metallic bags. Ever bake something - fish, a potato - in an aluminum-foil jacket? Like that.

Go watch the NBC Nightly News piece here. It's really worth seeing.

"Heroes" is a word that gets thrown around so much that it's lost its meaning. So I won't use it. I'll just say that this story made me cry. It made me very grateful that there are people like those twelve guys. And it made me remember that most of what I worry about isn't important at all.

Also, to be media-geeky for a second, I love that the photo was so memorable that it was the impetus for the TV report. I hope Karen Tapia-Anderson from the LA Times wins the Pulitzer she deserves.

Weekly Roundup: Life Edition

Friday: Simplifying me.
My closet now has wind whistling through it, thanks to the Cheeses.

Saturday: Disarming me.
Playing model in Brooklyn for Bill. (Extra points if you know who the next day's model is.)


Sunday: Girlyfying me.
Tea and massages (I am so sore, it was perfect) and shopping with the Cheeses. Also a quick phone call with Matt, sounding more cheerful.

It was a wonderful weekend. Simply lovely old friends - disarmingly engaging new ones - girly splurges - splendid times altogether. I'm a lucky girl.

The Christmas Card Photo

Derek Natalie and Irie
Originally uploaded by Saranne03

For serious, how photogenic is my family?

Mainely Pictures of the Ocean

I finally posted pictures from Erin and Mike's wedding. Go look at the pretty!

Cliff House balcony panoramic

Europe Photos Up, Blogging from Blackberry

Let me know what you think!

This is so not safe.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! (And Welcome Back, Me)

This is for Mr. and Mrs. Sekerak, who clearly do not have enough to do at work except send me bratty emails. But it really has been a long time, hasn't it. And my goodness so much has happened.

So yeah. I went to Vienna for work, and that got done as well as it could have. I hurt the same ankle I've been hurting on and off since November. I really need to buy more flats if I'm going to be able to run a 5K (RIGHT, ERIN?) this fall. But then I got free of boss and client and suits, spent an evening with my foot in a sinkful of ice cubes, and had myself a holiday.

I spent a day in Vienna after the work people left. It's an imposing sort of place, but in a good way - very elegant and waltz-y, really. But simultaneously, I'd been at the hotel so long that the staff knew me and it got to feeling homey, which was nice.

Then I spent a couple of days in Prague, which was both larger and shabbier than I'd imagined, but still very interesting and full of pretty bits, just not the unreal fairytale I'd envisioned. My hotel was amazing - this ultra-modern outpost of unnerving chic, but full of the sweetest people. (Also, ridiculously inexpensive.) If you go, stay at the Icon and tell Nadja I said hi.

Then I flew to Paris, saying goodbye to Matt from the airport as he left for Newport - and took the train to Montpellier, which was just lovely. It's quite literally a thousand-year-old college town. So if you can imagine all the wonderful things about being a college town, and a medieval town, and in the south of France on the Mediterranean, it was all of those. Just a sun-drenched laid-back paradise of young people in cotton sundresses clutching baguettes and meandering around past pret-a-porter shops and below open French windows looking out of cool tan stone houses. Really, truly, all the time, every day. With - most importantly - the lovely Severine, who was an absolutely perfect guide and host and friend!

And then I came home with just enough time to unpack, re-pack, and go to Maine for Erin and Mike's wedding. It's wonderful enough to be with my family, who are all crazy and silly and fun and full up to the top with total love - but it was an amazing wedding, where every detail spoke of their relaxed, elegant, fun attitudes toward life and their families and each other - and it was just in the most breathtakingly beautiful place on Earth. As much as I adore Europe, Maine may be one of my favorite places.

I packed egregiously badly at all times, spent a whole lot of money on presents and jewelry and accessories, had a few lonesome moments where I realized I want my next holiday to be with somebody, and at one point apparently missed running into Tracy by all of 20 minutes. But it was an absolutely wonderful time and I am so, so lucky to have been able to have it, and to be safe and happy and full of so many great things.

I have to get my photos up on Flickr, which will be much more interesting and tell lots more specific stories - like the one about the Kazakhstan athletic team! - but I do have to do a little bit of work now. Especially since I came back yesterday to a promotion, thank you very much. Yes, you may now refer to me as Miss Director. And why yes, if you're keeping track, this is the second promotion in four months. How good of you to notice!

Hee. All done bragging now. Time for some specifics.

Jon will be pleased to know that I've continued to practice my whistle. However, it continues to be much more of a wheezy splutter than anything resembling a whistle.

Happy birthday to Ria the stunning chef, who was right about Maine as she is about everything; to Kristi the lovely maker of jewelry, who lives too far away; and to Tommy, who I can't wait to treat to dinner tomorrow!

Now. Everybody go look at stunning Jilly at 365Portraits. (And check it again next Saturday, maybe.)

Weekly Roundup: Three... Two... One

Three weeks' worth of places I'll be

• Chester
• Stewartsville
• Frankfurt (just to change planes but still)
  
• Vienna (where I have just discovered there is a baby panda!)
  
• Prague
• Paris (just to change planes and trains but still, specially as I may have a little time to pop my head out)
  
• Montpellier
• Ogunquit
  

Two people I am so worried for it makes me cry but so proud of it makes me dizzy

• Tracy - who is currently in Scotland and WHOSE FORTIETH BIRTHDAY IT IS TODAY SO GO SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HER
  
• Matt - who leaves next Saturday
  

One final thought

• Wish them luck (and me too).

Two pictures that are not great, and for which I'm sure I'll catch heat from their subjects, but which I love because they show two of my favorite people happy:

Weekly Roundup: Sleepytime Plz?

I think I had a good week. There's a lot of stuff that's not resolved and some of it is decidedly grumpy-making. But I did do a lot of work and more importantly had an awful lot of fun and went to some amazing places and met people I liked and saw people I'd missed. The bad stuff isn't going away, but I'll handle it.

AND Saturday I was just in time to see this from only a few rows away!



Thought One
It's interesting to see a new side to a person. Sometimes it's very good. Sometimes it isn't. And sometimes both happen with the same person. That happened this week.

Thought Two
Sometimes you want a person to know that you need them to listen. But sometimes you have to realize that you have to just start talking for that to happen. That happened this week, too.

Thought Three
You should always get eight hours of sleep a night. That didn't even come close to happening this week.

This week's roundup is some reading that I like, cos and in case maybe you will like them too.

• Liz has cancer. Liz is also fucking funny.
• (Kerrin and) I should make this, these, these, this, these and this. Also perhaps shop here.
  
• This sounds like the most spectacular holiday imaginable right now.
• I like this photo essay on shoes. Her photography is sort of both spunky and elegant. And this photo essay is one of the things that make me long to be a gardening sort of person. Equally I like this essay on being a dilettante. For better or for worse, I think that's one of the words that describes me rather well.
  
• I have one of these posters (awaiting mat, frame, and a wall) as do two of my favorite people. But the clothing might help too.
  
• 39 ways to live is common sense that is hard to actually get up the nerve to do.
• Postsecret and Found are just places to go back to.

Now it's time for a silly cat moment and getting on with my afternoon.

Edited cos I can be forgetful of the very best things when trying to remember everything!

Guess What Just Fell Off the Top Shelf in My Closet

Told you it was around somewhere....

Absolute (Photoshopping) Power Corrupts Absolutely

I have mixed feelings about what I'm about to say, because it's hypocritical. I've totally Photoshopped pictures of people, and I have totally Photoshopped pictures of myself.

To fix stray hairs or bad lighting is one thing. But when you make people look skinnier than they are, that's a little messed up. But when you're a celebrity that people idealize, I think it's really extra messed up.

I posted last year about Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty and how much I loved how it took a clear-eyed look at how wrong-headed our cultural ideals could be.

Now Dusty just sent me this article on Faith Hill's retouching for a magazine cover. And I mean, seriously. If Faith Hill needs to be made prettier and skinnier in order to meet our ideals, doesn't that show how screwed up they are?



Edited to add: Yes, they are two different shots. But if you look the pattern of the dress, you can tell that she barely moved between the two pictures. And you can tell by comparing them that she's been Photoshopped to death. Her arm is much thinner, her shoulder and back have been taken in, her collarbone is lightened, the bridge of her nose and under her eyes have been fixed up, her hair has been poofed up, her left thigh has been taken in, and so has her waist. It's not hard. I could Faith Hill your ass so fast your head would spin. (...If that makes sense.)

Edited again to add: Playing with this old photo took me about 15 minutes. Unretouched, I look dubious, tired, and shiny. Retouched, I look like a teenage drag queen in a bad wig. So it's not exactly an improvement, and I'd never actually want it. But it shows how different you can make somebody look without much effort.

Edited again again to add: I don't know why but pictures of me here creep me out. So I took them down.

Home Sweet Home

You can even see Robert's lawn tractor outside. Oh, ow, this makes me homesick.

Weekly Roundup: Supersized, with Extra Editorializing

The Definitive 1,000 Songs of All Time, 1955-2005. I don't know why you'd go to the bother of sorting and counting. Frankly, I wouldn't go to the bother of reading it. But the sheer size of the project is pretty impressive. (Seems to have pop-ups, though, even on Firefox. Yuck.)

Vazaar. Social photography, sort of? Like Flickr, but with critiques, and members-only. Mike might like it. Not one of my new favorites, but again, I can see how people might get into it.

Relatedly, let me know if you find a photography class. Something that would teach you how to use all the manual controls on a prosumer digital SLR. I've been looking and calling and finding nothing.

"I Got a Crush... on Obama". (I, too, kinda have a crush on him.) Fascinating to see how user-created media will affect the election. Because they will. Blogs, Youtube, Facebook - they will shape the under-30 voter opinion. Because we trust each other more than mainstream media. (And candidates are catching on.) The question is, will we actually vote? I hope so. As that article says, by 2015 Gen Y (1977-1994) will be 1/3 of the electorate. Wouldn't it be cool if we used all that power?

One Hour No Power. Speaking of power and campaign issues. Noon on July 1. It's so little. But it makes you think.

Tickle. If you need to fill your day. (Karen.) Lots, and lots, and lots, of quizzes. (I'm a "Cultural Traveler," it's "Puppy Love," and my true talent is "Verbal Ability.")

The Impossible Quiz. If you really need to fill your day. Thanks to Tracy, I got to 40 before my brain started to melt out my ears. (Damn. Now I'm sucked in again. This time I got to 63.)

Where Daft Punk Got Their Samples From. Fun. If you like them.

Unazukin. I want one. It's a Magic 8 Ball and a Russian nesting doll all in one.

Nabaztag . Similar, but I don't get it at all. Peter? Can you explain?

Facebook. Seems to be becoming the new Myspace like Myspace became the new Friendster? At what point will I tip and move over? And where do Orkut or Bebo fit in?

Trojan "Evolve" ad. Love it. And because I'll get whined at if I don't, here.

Groove Armada feat. Mutya Buena, "Out of Control (Song for Mutya)." Love it.

Larger Than Life

The Rasterbator is the coolest new thing I've ever heard of.

My Favorite Adventurist

Look who's just a little bit famouser.