Dim Sum Diaries

Another cute skirt find from Etsy. It's really well made and super comfortable. I like to twirl around in it when no one is looking.
After being pissed off for 8 years over the state of the United States (I think you know who I'm talking about) but not sure what to do about it, I think I've finally decided who I want to vote for on November 4.



'Nuff said.
How to suffer the torments of the damned---

1) Have PMS
2) Know that as a freelancer you usually work alone and your boss has decided to traipse off to business trip in China and is therefore not available to give you immediate feedback on your work because immediate feedback is good.
3) Get a high profile project from another guy at work.
4) Get first draft sent back with request for edits.
5) Work till 11 pm to finish second draft.
6) Everyone hates the second draft, so frantically work on a new rendition of what they were asking for (load screen).
7) Come up with what you think is a pretty good 3rd and final draft and send it off again.
8) Remember that you are working ON YOUR OWN and Boss is prancing (ok he's working really) around in China and not there to soothe your graphic design ego.
9) No response from anyone as yet and its been over an hour. Frantically click refresh on your webmail to see if you did get any response.
10) Wait.....

SOLUTION:
--At 5:30 am local Chinese time, see that Boss is online but apparently asleep...repeatedly ping him (loud dinging sound) until he wakes up groggily, make him review his emails so he can see what you did and then give you his opinion then comb through his emails from others to see if there was anything else said. Keep bugging him until its about 7:30 am local time in China, ensuring he is not able to get anymore sleep and he has to get up for a full day of meetings. Be extremely smug about it.
Work has picked up so I'm a bit more busy (that's always good) and you can definitely feel the bite of fall in the air (yay I love fall!). Working out has definitely paid off...I think it's been about 5 months now and I can definitely tell the difference! Still stuck with a bit of the preggers gut though, so I'm concentrating on the abs/gut to try to whittle it away. Oh to have the body of a 20 year old again, but oh well, what can you do!

Couple of quick links of note...

Via Kottke, Someone's literal video rendition of A Ha's Take On Me...that is, the words of the song are changed to reflect what actually happens in the video. Muy cool.



If you need a bit of a break from life and look at pretty, arty things, check out the work of Chicago based artist Anne Toebbe. Slightly quirky and edgy, with a folksy feel, I am really digging her art.



Also, if you are looking for another book to read, try The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga.



I found out about it via The Green Chair Press Blog, and it appealed to the book/bibliophile nerd in me. And it's really really good! Reading each page is rather a bit like indulging in a piece of really really really good chocolate, to be savored slowly. From the back cover:

I was twenty-nine years old when the Arno flooded its banks on Friday 4 November 1966...On Tuesday I decided to go to Italy, to offer my services as a humble book conservator...to save whatever could be saved, including myself.


Margot is a young girl with a bright future---she is going to Harvard in the fall and she can't wait to start. However, her Mom comes down with cancer, so Harvard is postponed as she takes care of her Mother. She never does get to go much to her disappointment...she goes to a local college instead whilst taking care of her dying parent...

But it was a long time before I could shake the feeling that Harvard Yard, which I'd never visited, was a magical place, a charmed circle in which all the good things of life were concentrated, as in an alembic; and that there was another me out there, a ghostly double who'd made love to Fabio Fabbriani on the beach in Sardegna, who'd gone to Harvard, who'd apprenticed with Roger Eglantine in London, who'd been profiled in a Dewar's ad, and who'd gone on to become the first woman to head the conversation department at the Library of Congress---a me who matter to the world.

Which of us doesn't have a similar ghostly double wandering around somewhere out there in the big wide world? A self from whom we parted company long ago, at some unlikely crossroads? But do we ever encounter these ghostly selves?


How can you not read a book like that? ;)
Have finished reading Neil Gaiman's latest book, The Graveyard Book and I absolutely loved it. It's as smooth as butter and you won't be able to put it down once you start it, I promise you. I handed the book over to daughter and urged her to read it.

"It's really good! I promise!" I said.

"No Mother, it's ok I have other books to read," she replied with typical pre-teenagery know-it-allness. "Maybe later."

The next evening, she rushed into the office. "Mom! I want my own copy of this book! I really like it!"

"Wait...what was that? You mean...your old Mom recommended something...and she was RIGHT? HOW INTERESTING!!!!"

"Oh Mom!!!!!"

For the rest of you slackers, here are 2 videos reading Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the book and you'll know see what I'm talking about!

Chapter 1:

Neil Gaiman Reads Chapter One of The Graveyard Book from The Graveyard Book Tour on Vimeo.

Chapter 2:

Watch Neil Gaiman Read Chapter Two of The Graveyard Book from The Graveyard Book Tour on Vimeo.