Geek in Heels - Page 53

Feb 15, 2012 • In Art/Design, Books, Scary

Dr. Seuss Taxidermy

Because I was not born in the U.S. — my family moved here from Korea when I was 7 years old — I never even heard of Dr. Seuss until I was in high school. And while I found Green Eggs and Ham to be pretty amusing, I personally found Dr. Seuss’s illustrations to be a bit disconcerting.

Alright, I thought they were downright scary. 🙁

So when I happened upon the following sculptures of Carl Turner, who has created mounted heads of Dr. Seuss’s creatures, I couldn’t help but chuckle. Just take a look — wouldn’t you be scared of these as a little kid too?

Be sure to check out Carl’s DeviantArt gallery for more fascinating sculptures! The Fishbaby, in particular, is sure to warrant a second glance.

Via Neatorama.

Giveaway: Plaid Doctrine Eco Messenger Bag!

Today I am very excited to be introducing Plaid Doctrine, a travel accessories company that crafts its products from recycled bottles!

Plaid Doctrine was created by Suzanne Park, who logged 300,000+ miles traveling for work and found herself frustrated with the travel gear available today. She says, “I searched high and low for my last laptop bag. It was on the expensive side, but it fell apart after just 6 months.”

According to Suzanne, “These are the kinds of travel accessories I would’ve killed for in my days of non-stop travel. They’re good-looking, but not too trendy. They’re green. And they’re built to last. It’s a win/win/win!”

What makes Plaid Doctrine even more appealing is that nearly all of its materials are sourced domestically, and all of its goods are crafted in the USA!

Plaid Doctrine has been featured in many of my favorite blogs, such as Mashable, Geeksugar, Apartment Therapy, Treehugger, and iLounge. So when Suzanne contacted me about offering a giveaway to my readers, I couldn’t believe my good fortune and immediately said yes. 🙂

Now, for the part you’ve all been waiting for…

Plaid Doctrine will be giving away the Eco Messenger Bag
(a $129 value) in argyle to one lucky reader!

The Eco Messenger bag measures 14″ x 10″ x 4″. The padded interior pocket is ideal for an iPad or a Kindle, and can even accomodate a 15″ laptop. The rear pocket can be slipped over a rolling luggage handle, and the two utility pockets expand to carry a water bottle or a small umbrella.

Crafted in downtown Seattle, this commuter bag is made from water- and stain-resistant fabrics (recycled polyester, recycled nylon, and ballistic nylon) and is sure to make a fashionable and durable addition to your travel gear!

To enter this giveaway, simply use the Rafflecopter widget below. Not sure how to use Rafflecopter? Watch this 45 second video for a tutorial on how to enter a giveaway using Rafflecopter. There are 6 methods of entry, with the first method (commenting on this blog post) being mandatory while the fourth method (Tweeting about the giveaway) can be used once per day:

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012, at 12:01am, at which point a winner will be randomly chosen and announced here.

Please use a valid email address and/or Twitter handle so that I can contact you if you win!

Sorry, this giveaway is open only to residents of the United States.

Good luck, and thanks for entering!

Cool Tool Tuesdays: The Baby Owner’s Manual

Welcome to today’s installment of Cool Tool Tuesdays, where I feature a favorite item from my life and spotlight it so that others who are not familiar with the product may also benefit from it. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, hardware, material, or website that I have personally tried and love.

Do you have any questions about today’s cool tool? Would you like an item featured in the future? Please leave a comment to this post, or send me a message via my contact form. Enjoy!

Do you remember the episode of Friends titled “The One with the Baby Shower”? Yes, I know Bamboozled is an epic game show we would all like to see live on TV, but I would like to talk about the story behind the title of the episode — more specifically, the scene at the baby shower where Rachel starts to freak out about not knowing anything about babies.

Oh mom, I swear I’m not an idiot. I’ve read all kinds of books on pregnancy and giving birth, but I — I just didn’t think to read the part about what to do when the baby comes. And — and then guess what? The baby’s coming and I don’t know what to do. Oh, can I throw up in my Diaper Genie?

“Wait a minute. That can’t be right. Is that a beer bong for a baby?”

This is actually a common problem amongst many first time parents. Even if you take baby care classes and read parenting books left and right, there is no denying that every parent goes through that moment of “Oh crap. I have NO idea what I am doing.”

Like the first time J and I gave Claire a bath. Although I have babysat and even nannied for babies in the past, my responsibilities had never included bathing an infant. Needless to say, we were petrified at the thought of bathing our daughter in — gasp! — WATER for the very first time and we had no idea how to do it. Should it be a two-person job? Do we submerge her all the way up to her neck? How do we shampoo her hair without getting the soap in her eyes?

In the end, we ended up doing a YouTube search for babies being bathed. 🙂

I wish that we had the topic of today’s Cool Tool Tuesdays on hand that first frantic week, because it would have saved us a lot of time and many doubts! Because today, I will be highlighting my personal favorite baby care book: The Baby Owner’s Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year Maintenance.

The book, written as if your baby is a product to be “maintained,” is filled with facts, instructions, and diagrams that explore hundreds of questions that first-time parents may ask, in a humorous and straight-to-the-point manner.

At first glance, the book is a satire — think of a VCR manual, except with babies. But it really is filled with great tips and information from board-certified pediatrician Dr. Louis Borgenicht and his son Joe Borgenicht, who is “a first-time father who frequently telephones his dad for advice.”

Perhaps it is due to my penchant for illustrations and diagrams. Or perhaps it is because I have no desire to read through hundreds of pages of fluff that is so prevalent with other baby care books. (Informative, yes — but still fluff when there is only ONE THING you need to know, especially when that tidbit is needed at 3am with a screaming baby in your arms.) Because as those first few weeks turned into months, I found myself reaching for this book over and over again, leaving the likes of What to Expect the First Year and Baby 411 gathering dust.

Another huge plus is that because the book is written with men in mind, they are much more likely to be receptive to it. I know that J cracked it open on more than a few occasions when he had questions that needed to be answered.

The Baby Owner’s Manual is sure to make a great gift for first-time parents. The other two books in the series — The Pregnancy Instruction Manual and The Toddler Owner’s Manual — look intriguing as well, and I am especially tempted by the toddler one!

Still doubtful? You can get a nice preview of the book before deciding to buy — most of the book’s contents are available via Google Books!

Google’s Geeky Valentine Surprise

Happy Valentine’s Day!

For a sweet Valentine’s surprise, type this into a Google search:

sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

Too lazy or suspicious to try it for yourself? What will happen is that the algebraic equation will plot out a graph in the shape of a heart, like so:

Feel free to share this with your geeky friends!

Via Mashable.

The Best Ad Campaigns of All Time (And What You Can Learn from Them)

Via CollegeOnline.

T-Minus Two Weeks

One of my ex-boyfriends is just 15 months younger than his older sister. When we started dating, he told me how, shortly after he was born, his parents sent his sister to go live with the grandparents for a year because taking care of two very young kids — one of whom was extremely colicky — was just too difficult for his mother.

I remember reacting to this story with judgement. “HOW can anyone send their own child away? That’s just absurd!”

Now, being a mother to two children just 13 months apart, I can understand why they did this. Not that I want to send Claire or Aerin away, but I can understand.

In just a couple of weeks, J’s parents will be returning to Hong Kong, which means that I will no longer have help with the kids.

And I am scared.

Correction: I AM TERRIFIED.

At 16 months old, Claire is still very much a toddler just learning to be a toddler. She still falls down and trips easily. She is starting to assert her independence. She tests our boundaries. And while she certainly understands the word “No,” she is more likely than not to ignore the warning unless you find a way to distract her, or forcibly stop her (which is guaranteed to end in tears). Additionally, because she is still too young, I can’t fully reason or bargain with her.

At 3 months old, Aerin is severely attached to me. She will not let anyone else even feed her. I am the only one who can keep her from screaming her lungs out. (And yes, she has been known to continually, hysterically cry for over an hour at a time when I am not available.) Unlike Claire, who never really liked cuddling from the beginning, Aerin loves to be held and cuddled and insists on being held by her mommy at all times.

As for how I will manage to take care of both of them, all day, every day, is beyond me. Yes I can put Aerin in a carrier…but she only likes being in a carrier face-out and only for about 15 minutes at a time. I can get a big playpen and leave Claire in there, but she is at a stage where she wants, and needs to explore the world that this too, would only last about 15 minutes before she starts to throw a tantrum.

This is on top of my lack of sleep. Ever since Aerin hit a sleep regression a couple of weeks ago, I have been so tired that I feel nauseous all day. I have lost 5 lbs in one week. My concentration and patience wanes with each passing day and more often than not, I will start crying too whenever one of the kids (or both) has a meltdown.

And this is when I have help.

I have considered going back to work and putting both kids in daycare. But the good daycares in our area would cost us about $4,500/month for both kids and that’s about how much I made at my old job after taxes and other deductions — now that the economy is down and the NYC market is oversaturated with people in my field, I cannot realistically expect to earn that much when similar job descriptions are paying much less.

We have considered putting Claire in a part-time daycare, but part-time spots are rare and the waiting lists are over a year long.

We are in no financial situation to hire a nanny.

The logical thing to do would be to just tough it out. Let the kids cry. Let them watch TV when I need a break. Let the house get messy. Do whatever it takes to just survive. Trust in God. (I just wrote a post about it yesterday, for goodness sake!)

And, if push comes to shove, we will need to make additional sacrifices to hire a part-time nanny or a mother’s helper.

Movie Poster Clichés

I do not pay too much attention to movie posters, so it comes as no surprise that I have never noticed these clichés before. I guess that the movie advertising business is similar to other design-related fields in that they know what works, and/or are fresh out of original ideas.

Between the legs:

Black and white with colored flames:

Lying in bed:

Big heads in the sky over tiny people on the beach:

Back to back:

Large text over faces:

Blue nature-themed:

One big eye:

From the back (often with weapons):

The red dress:

Yellow indie film poster:

Reflection in sunglasses:

On a bench:

Go visit Le Sibère Carnet de Christophe Courtois (note: site in French) for more!

Reverent Sundays: Five Things I Took Away from “Crazy Love”

A few months ago, I received a surprise package in the mail: it was the book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan, gifted to me from my dear friend E who wished that I would gain as much from the book as she had.

I had heard of Crazy Love on various occasions in the past, and I had even had it on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time, so the gift was very much appreciated. (Thanks, E!)

The premise behind Crazy Love is to challenge the state of complacency that plague many Christians today, and to encourage us to love God the way that He deserves to be loved. Because, as the author Pastor Chan puts it, “when you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.”

I will not do a full review of this book as there are hundreds of it out there on the web. However, I do want to highlight five items from this book that made the most impact on me, and they are:

The movie of life is about God, not about us. So how is it possible that so many of us live as though it is about us? Who do we even think we are?
Stress and worry can be a sin. By engaging in these behaviors, we are implying that God is not powerful or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives, and that the things we stress about are somehow exceptional. (This is, of course, not to say that we should just sit on our butts doing nothing. We should do all we can, but trust that anything beyond that is up to God.)
We should not assume that we are the good soil. (I am referring to the parable of the sower here.) If anything, most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns, which is anything that distract us from God. We should not be lukewarm — we should be willing to give everything to follow Him all the way.
If anything, we should be OBSESSED with God. We should be humble and always be mindful of pride. We should care more about God’s kingdom coming to this earth than being shielded from pain or discomfort. We should be more concerned with obeying God than being successful or being wealthy. (In fact, the wealthy are at a serious disadvantage spiritually.) We should give freely, and without censure. And we should not consider service a burden, because loving God’s people is a way of loving God.
Making investments to this life is foolish. How much time, money, and effort do we dedicate to the things of this world? Should not our investments be to Christ and the eternal life that we share with Him? A good question to ask ourselves is, “Is this what I want to be doing when Christ returns to this world?”

This book was a HUGE wakeup call for me — especially the points about stress & worry, as well as the strikes against pride and wealth. In fact, this book is one of the reasons I started to actively make time to volunteer again.

The only possible criticism I have for Crazy Love is that some people may see it as placing too much emphasis on our deeds — in other words, a works-based salvation. However, I believe that Pastor Chan’s purpose for writing this book is not so much a handbook, but a wakeup call for the Christians of America and other first-world countries.

I will end this post with a quote by Frederic D. Huntington, from Forum magazine in 1890:

It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity.

Anyone Else Going LINsane?

Having grown up in New York, I have been a New York Knicks fan since (my generation’s version of) the Knicks’s glory days in the 1990s. I cried when they lost the 1999 NBA Finals. Meeting Allan Houston was one of the high points of my life. And, I remained true to my boys in blue & orange despite their flat-out dismal performance for the past decade.

Being an Asian American myself, I couldn’t help but be intrigued when the Knicks picked up Jeremy Lin in late December. I had heard good things about the Harvard grad, but remained skeptical.

I guess I have been a victim of the Knickerbocker heartache for far too long, because I continued to stay doubtful when Lin made his debut as a starter last weekend and scored 23 points against the Nets. “It’s only the Nets,” I thought to myself.

But it wasn’t just a fluke. Because Lin then went on to score 28 points against the Utah Jazz, and then, last night, he led the Knicks past the Los Angeles Lakers with an astonishing 38 points.

I have officially hopped on the LINsanity bandwagon.

It also doesn’t hurt that he is smart, humble, and a dedicated Christian. 😀

Just in case you missed it (or want to watch it over and over again like me), here are the highlights from last night’s Knicks vs. Lakers game:

And, because the nerdy handshake between Jeremy Lin and teammate Landry Fields (who is a Stanford grad) is too cute:

Aside from the fact that he is amazingly good at the game, there is also the sense of Asian pride that can’t be missed among my Asian-American friends. Even those whom I believed to be die-hard Lakers fans were rooting for Lin last night, and the world of social media just can’t seem to get enough of him.

You also can’t ignore the fact that Lin is the biggest sports topic in a city that just won the friggin’ Super Bowl.

Is anyone else currently going LINsane?

All three of the Knicks jerseys I own are of players who no longer play for the team. I can’t wait to pick up a new #17 jersey…but from what I hear, Jeremy Lin jerseys have been understocked and sold out everywhere. 🙁

P.S. — J and I can’t decide which of the following is a better nickname for Lin: “The Flying Dumpling,” or “LINja.” Admittedly, they are a bit racist, but you can’t deny that they’re clever.