Archive | hot links

Happy Halloween! I’m going to be a black cat this year.

Check out what I found on the web this month:

• So, this is what happens when you pour molten aluminum in an anthill.
• Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe has been un-packed after 60 years and is on display in Mexico City.
• Los Angeles history: A cowboy + a film studio +  a modernist architect + a big-budget flop = very bad land deal (i.e. Century City).
• Divorce, Remarriages add complexity to elder care and not much has been studied about it.
• Secret Fore-edge paintings revealed in 19th century books.
• A thought provoking essay on invasive species (and life) by a high school student.
• Follow the Instagram account of a photojournalist living in North Korea.
• Escape from Tomorrow – Watch the trailer of b&w noir film secretly filmed at Disneyland.
• How much do you spend on beauty related things? If you get out your calculator and add it up it might just blow your mind.
• Portraits of Albanian women that live their lives as men.
• How to finally get over someone or something.
• Looking for a good spooky book? My book club is reading Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children this month.
• Whip up some easy pumpkin butter.

XOXO,

J.D. Okhai Ojeikere at Gallery 51
via [Photojojo]

• Stunning – 1,000 photos of elaborate Nigerian hairstyles from the 1960 and 1970’s
• This fantastic essay reminds me why I love Los Angeles. “In L.A. you don’t have to be embarrassed by yourself.”
• WHAT? How North Korea got itself hooked on meth.
• What sleep experts do when they can’t sleep.
• Researchers control one person’s brain from another person brain. This is mindblowingly scary.
• Could being pretty just be a set of skills?
• Did you know NASA wants to catch an astroid and pull it into orbit around earth?
• Beautiful, delicate, thoughtful piercings (nothing like the violent piercings of the 1990’s, when I had 2 nose rings)
• A pear tree planted in 1630 In Salem, MA is still producing fruit.
• Russian cave diving photos.
• An abandoned resort town in Croatia.

Have a great labor day!

Building facade, with air conditioners, Montevideo, Uruguay.

• Read what Sanjay Gupta has to say about why he changed his mind about weed.
• What decade are you most nostalgic for? Elderly Americans want to go back to the 1950’s. I’d pick 1975-1985, but I guess that’s not a decade.
• When 3D printing goes wrong.
• Friends always ask me why I blog — here are 10 ways blogging totally improves your life.
• Mood Maybe teaches us how to make the perfect boozy popsicles.
• A tutorial on how deal with difficult clients.
• See the 1930-1940’s in fabulous, rare color photos.
• Refinery 29’s list of the best books to read this fall.
• I’ve never understood the virginity fetish.
• Case Study houses added to the National Registry of Historic Places.
• What needs to happen for a blog post to get over 500,000 likes.
• Ashton Kutcher’s not lame and kind of great acceptance speech at the Teen Choice Awards last week.
• How to get the most out of a 5, 15, 30 minutes of downtime at work (ignore the retarded  60 min. suggestions).
• Images of life on the west coast: The best of California photography.
• The anti-bucket list – a list of things you are NEVER going to do. I need to start one of these lists.

This week in LA: It’s hot, but I cranked up the air conditioning and I am getting a lot done. This week I am designing an atrium space with green walls and an epic view of Los Angeles, a few new WordPress projects clients, and a top secret project that I am really excited about. This is the 52nd consecutive day that I have walked around Echo Park Lake. I finished the second Hunger Games book and I am marathoning Weeds. I am getting the test garden cleaned up and I am starting to plan out the fall/winter garden. I’m writing a few long blog posts that will be up soon: things I wish I knew I was 20, saying goodbye to our lake house, and photos from our trip to Cappadocia, Turkey.

Happy Thursday!

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A map on the wall at my grandmother’s tailor, the Wee Sew Shop, in Bloomington, IL.
Every time they alter a garment they put a pin in the map showing where it was originally made.

My weekly internet roundup, Hot Links:

• 40 Maps that will help you make sense of the world.
• Lately, I’m obsessed with savory pancakes. They are so easy to make. Try these gluten-free chive pancakes with a dinner salad.
• Gen X hits midlife – How do us ‘slackers ‘deal with mid-life? Great Salon discussion piece.
• If you have 12 minutes you need to watch the most hilarious and epic Vine compilation video.
• How Africa (yes – Africa) will dominate the world in the near future.
• Top 10 lessons learned from a guy who traveled the world for 10 years.
• Welcome to the world’s largest penis collection. FYI – This is probably safe for work.
• How to: Press Botanicals (my great-grandmother Myrtle used to do this when I was a little girl.)
• Thom Browne, fashion designer, lives in this tiny, polished NY apartment.
• Ellis Islands – creepy images of what’s not on the tour.
• Tips on how to travel in India.
• How people woke up for work pre-alarm clock.
• Any if you haven’t seen it already, Shark Cat Riding a Roomba.

It’s the dog days of summer here in Los Angeles! I finally had to turn on the air conditioning in my office. I am extra busy with design projects this month, so I may not be blogging as much as I would like to. The garden is finally in full tilt, now that it has gotten hotter. I’m planning the last BBQ’s and beach trip for the summer. I’m secretly starting to shop online for fall boots. We just finished marathoning Orange is the New Black last night (a new Netflix show) about women in prison (recommended – watch it!). I started going to an outdoor yoga class in the park. I generally more of a Pilates girl, but outdoor yoga is great. I started Gala Darling‘s Radical Self Love Bootcamp, which gives you writing assignments everyday  for 30 days that focus on helping you turn down the volume on personal self loathing and negative mind speak. I’m only a few days into it but it seems like a really powerful exercise. And today is day 38 of my consecutive daily walks at Echo Park Lake! Oh — and I might be getting Lasik surgery soon. More on that next week!

Happy August!

30 Days at Echo Park Lake

This weeks round-up of things I found on the internet:

• It’s hot, mix up a batch! 25 ice tea recipes.

• If you travel and love architecture, then kill it with the Phaidon Architectural Travel Guide App.

• 6 secrets of super productive to-do-lists and people who get shit done.
• Meanwhile, inside an abandoned underwater strip club…

• Would you eat a plate of living food?

• Cop selfies.

• Have you heard of jpegmini? It’s an app/website that reduces the size of your jpeg files without sacrificing quality.

• Time Travel: Let’s go back to Groovy Afghanistan.

• Find an heirloom tomato you LOVE at the farmer’s market? It’s easy to the seeds and grow it next year.

• A see-through car from 1939 – PHOTOS of the futuristic Pontiac Ghost car.

• Want to be a wizard identifying AGAVES? — here is the Sunset plant guide.

• Maps of never-realized urban projects — the cities that could have been.

• Self employed? 7 key times to ask for a referral.

• Acting you wage, not your title or age.

• Gala Darling on reasons who you should give up coffee ASAP + her favorite alternatives.

• And Tim Ferris (of 4 Hour Work Week) on his favorite 4 power beverages.

• Thing you were awkward as a tween? Prove it. Post your before/now pics on the Awkward Years Project.

My week in Los Angeles –

• I did it! This is day 31 of my 30 day goal to walk around Echo Park Lake everyday! It is the highlight of my day, so I am just going to keep going and see how long I can walk an unbroken chain of walks.
• I’m still going full full throttle on my summer work-a-thon. This week I worked on 5 websites/WordPress sites, a set of green walls in an atrium, a portfolio and a new garden. + A bunch of great projects coming up. I’m still still trying to break my work up into 90 minute units, which is really working for me.
• This week I am listening to Spanish for the Busy Housewife and Catching Fire (2nd book in The Hunger Games trilogy) on audio book.
• The test garden is cranking out tomatoes, peppers and beans right now and a few late strawberries. I’m starting to daydream about the fall/winter garden…
• I updated to Abobe CC ($50 a month), which is something I have been avoiding, but I knew I need to do. Hopefully it will improve my workflow and make me uber efficient.

Go enjoy summer!