Silhouette Masterpiece Theater

Drawn! recently featured these awesome hand cut silhouettes by Wilhelm Staehle and I HAD to repost. Hilarious and brilliant. Check out more here.

Artomatic

Last night, I dragged my brother to Artomatic. We took in all 9(!) floors of art, and gotta say, I was very impressed. There was a lot of terrible work, but there was also a lot of fantastic, extremely inventive stuff. We both enjoyed it, in spite of our widely varying tastes. Here are some pictures of our favorites:

You should definitely check it out before July 7th.

Posing

This image of a woman posing for Alphonse Mucha is so simply beautiful. It's interesting to see what artists use as inspiration and reference, no?


image from the Mucha Foundation

I'm Bad With Goodbyes

If you had any idea how reluctant I am to let you off the phone some nights, how I get this slight feeling of panic, and want to yell WAIT!, to tell you not to go yet, how I badly I want another minute....

I'm pretty sure you would have me committed.




picture from the Mile End area of Montreal as the sun was setting.

Adventures in Wonderland

Has anyone seen these stunning pictures from Tim Burton's take on Alice in Wonderland? It looks aaaaaaaaaaaaamazing. The characters will be digitally manipulated to create a sort of 2 parts live action 1 part animation movie. It's set to release in March 2010, and I CAN.NOT.WAIT!!!!


images from USA Today

Truck Lobster?

Yesterday afternoon, my mom and I were happily cruising down Gallows Rd, on our way to pick up some lunch. I should point out that by this point I had been awake for a solid 2 hours, and I starting to get a little loopy. I looked out the window and was surprised to see....


A truck with a GIANT crustacean on it! There was nothing written on the truck to indicate that it was an ad, and the driver didn't seem bothered by strange looks he was getting. Wtf? Raaaaaaaaaaandom.

Oh, How I Miss You.

It's true; I do. And I wish I could do it more often.



image via i can read

Be All That You Can Be

For the past two months or so (technically longer, but that's another story), I have been training to perform HIV tests at a DC clinic. Today was my last day of training, and as of next Friday I will be testing on my own.

AND!

My first day testing all by myself will be on National HIV Testing Day, which I feel is entirely appropriate. I feel like all the little pieces are falling into place. Things are on track. I am doing exactly what I have wanted to do for sososo long. Suddenly, I realize that's not such a scary thing. I can do this, and I can do it well. It's an amazing feeling to realize that you really can make a difference, and in the process, impact an entire community.

(p.s.-- Every test I performed today ended with the patient sincerely thanking me for the work I'm doing. I wanted to hug every single one of them.)

image via i can read

The Treehouse Meets the Teepee

These Treepees are part tent, part swinging treehouse, and part trampoline! I think it's technically designed for kids, but so what? How fun would it be to go camping in one of these little guys?!

I want.

Sleeeeep

I want to fall asleep like this. As soon as possible.

Vintage Coke Cans

These vintage Coke cans are pretty awesome. Why don't we have cool cans like that anymore???

Razzle Dazzle Frazzle

I've been feeling excessively frustrated (and slightly frantic) today and yesterday. Listening to Ingrid Michaelson sing my favorite Elvis song seems help.

Regina Spektor <3<3<3

Regina Spektor has a new CD coming out a week from Tuesday (June 23rd), and I CAN.NOT.WAIT.

Eet

Wooooooozy

I mentioned before that I haven't been feeling great...

Last Saturday, after the Race for the Cure, I took a bit of a nap. When I got up and tried to go about my day I was super woozy and lightheaded. To the point that I had to park myself on a package of paper towels in the middle of the grocery store. This continued all day Sunday... again Monday... and by Tuesday I was ready to make an appointment with my doctor. She was as perplexed as I am, so she drew some blood for labs. Ok, a lot of blood. More blood than I wanted to part with. Of course, everything came back normal. She did give me some lovely little pills to help my head.

Well, I've been taking these pills pretty religiously, and it occurred to me that maybe this odd feeling went away all on its own. So, for the first time in several days, I have nothing in my system. Not even Advil for the headache that has been accompanying the lightheaded ickiness.

THE VERDICT: I am sad to report that I still feel like crap. Boo. Back to drugging myself. And back to the doctor. Double boo.

With Their Powers Combined...

Was anyone else COMPLETELY shocked by the Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel engagement?! I was. Completely and totally shocked. They do look rather cute together...

May and June: The Months of Never Ending Thunderstorms

These two very angry clouds were coming for us the other night. I still hate thunderstorms, but having one EVERY.SINGLE.DAY has helped me be less neurotic.

The Big Mac

It's time for a random Amanda fact!

I have been feeling exceptionally gross lately, and when I feel gross, I want McDonald's. You see, when I was little and stayed home from school, my mom would ALWAYS buy me a happy meal. It didn't help that there was a set of golden arches directly across from my doctor's office. It's comfort food for me, and it never fails to make me feel better.

So there you have it. McDonald's makes everything better.

I could use that

I would LOVELOVELOVE to be in that hammock right now.



via ffffound.

i need a hug.

Today was an incredibly long and hard day. It was painful and heartbreaking, but incredibly enriching and validating at the same time.

What surprised me the most: I did not, even for a second, want to bolt. If anything, it made me realize that this work is important. Sometimes it sucks, and it might break some small part of me, but it is sososo worth it.



p.s., today I performed my first HIV test. Ever. On a real patient. All by myself.



image via ffffound.

Things We Forget to Do

I'm a little in love with this blog.This person writes little notes on post-its and leaves them around Singapore. Both brilliant and inspiring. These two really hit home with me right now. More on that later!

Death of an Era

My phone died. My poor phone, which I bought four long years ago, got caught in a terrible thunderstorm and just died,died. Wouldn't even turn on. I wallowed for a couple of days, and finally went to the Sprint store. The first thing said to the salesman was, "I do not want a blackberry." I walked out of the store an hour later, blackberry in hand. Yes, I was duped into buying a crackberry, and we're slowly getting aquainted. Already, I hate it a little less, and I'm sure this will be the first of many mobile blog posts. *Sigh* and we're off to the 21st century.