Tons of tulips June 16, 2009
Posted by miamired in Missoula, a few of my favorite things, photography.Tags: flowers, spring, tulips
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Spring was fleeting here this year – late snow and then the quick onset of summer weather – but there were a few weeks when the tulips were in bloom. And really, what says spring more than tulips, my favorite flower?
Because I love free May 5, 2009
Posted by miamired in Blogs I read and like, Missoula, a few of my favorite things, design, jobs schmobs, moving.Tags: amazon.com, fonts, free, mp3, music
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Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? (just attend random political get togethers on college campuses…you may have to listen to some weirdos, but they almost always have pizza)
As I’m currently pieceing together a couple of part-time gigs in town and have started the search for a place to live, I’m becoming well aware of the obscene cost of living/pay ratio in this town and am feeling a little lean in the pockets. Blah. I don’t think I’m asking for so much–a one bedroom or maybe even a studio that’s preferably not in a (dark) basement and isn’t a trailer, but so far those criteria seem hard to meet for less than about 500 big ones. Ouch.
For that reason and because, well, I love free, I’ve really been appreciating these two things lately:
- Free music on Amazon.com. Forget Apple and their weird limitations on where you can play the music you legally bought and head over to the Amazon MP3 store. They offer ridiculously good prices–Ben Harper’s newest album can be downloaded for $3.99 this week–downloaded music is automatically added to your iTunes library (if you want it to be), lots of albums include a free track, and they have over 8,000 completely free songs ranging from well-known artists to obscure music from around the globe. You have to download this small Amazon Music Downloader application and then click, click, click your way to free music. I’m so in love with this guilt-free music (did I mention it’s totally FREE?) that I’m thinking of highlighting some good tracks I found over there in a series of posts. Yes.
- Handwriting fonts at Kevin and Amanda’s blog. About a month ago, the woman behind Chez Larsson (a Swedish home organization blog I’m sort of infatuated with) wrote that she got a free font made of her (obviously perfectly neat) handwriting. By the time I got around to writing out all the alphabet and beyond, the site had changed the fonts to $9.95 or $14.95 with special characters. Lame. But when I searched around a bit, I came upon Kevin and Amanda’s blog. I have no clue who these people are, but hundreds of people have submitted handwriting samples to this lady, who then turns your handwriting into a font–which she emails to you for free and posts on her site. I think handwriting fonts can be so amazing when done well (and so cheesy when done poorly–Bradley Hand, anyone?) so I was psyched to download over 300 handwriting fonts with the single click of a button. Wha? Yeah, I know. Awesome. I’m totally submitting my handwriting to her tomorrow. (Amanda, if you read this, pick me!)
Spring cleaning April 20, 2009
Posted by miamired in Blogs I read and like, Missoula, a few of my favorite things, blog, jobs schmobs, photography.Tags: blog, ideas, inspiration, spring
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The weather gods may keep threatening snow here about once a week, but I’ve got spring fever. So many great blog posts lately with such bright spring colors have left me with an overwhelming desire for the days to be warm and long. I had forgotten how gray winter can be here—how headlights automatically turn on in the middle of the afternoon (well, for those with cars newer than 1987, I’m told).
I don’t have a house to spring clean (or at least sort of organize…) so I thought it might be time to clean things up a bit around here. I just realized that my “About Me” section in the upper right hasn’t been updated in about a year. Oops. So that’s a work in progress. I’m also planning on adding a couple of new features in the next couple of weeks. And I just uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr, finally.
Things have been really slow around here for a while, but I have all sorts of ideas. I’ve spent the last monthish working on a very long, tedious project (which just finished up!) and while watching pages slide through the scanner all day, it’s amazing where one’s mind wanders. The newfound sunlight is increasing this feeling of energy, excitement, creativity. Even the page flags I remove all day have me thinking spring!
Delayed April 19, 2009
Posted by miamired in a few of my favorite things, moving.Tags: last.fm, love, music, playlist, playlist.com, Valentine's Day
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I started a mix CD for a friend for Valentine’s Day. I wanted it to be upbeat, very loosely love-based but not too theme-y, something that makes me smile and that I thought, in turn, might make her smile.
Some of the songs are beautiful. Others are cheesy and even a bit embarrassing to like. Some of the songs (like “Love Song”) plenty of people are sick of hearing relentlessly–but I was busy enjoying Julieta Venegas’ “Canciones de Amor” (“Love Songs”) when Sara Bareilles became popular…so they’re new(ish) to me and will be new to my friend. Others (like “Jessie’s Girl” and “Kiss” and “High Hopes”) seem to find their way onto about half of the mixes and playlists I make.
But then I started a new job and then another, moved to four different places in less than a month, couldn’t find any CD-Rs among all of my stuff boxes, had my computer threaten extinction, and just generally got off track. I totally missed my V-Day deadline. I’ve now been in the same place for a few weeks, bought CDs, coaxed my seven year old computer into a few more months of rocking, and finally got around to making the CD and sending it her way.
I finally decided to try last.fm, so I’ll probably be adding a playlist around here somewhere.
But in the meantime, I thought I’d also share this mix with you all via playlist.com. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, right? Or at least a few songs for spring evenings.
LOVE Mix
Sexual Healing (live) : Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals (not available on playlist.com, see YouTube)
Gillian Was A Horse : Damien Jurado
Everest : Ani DiFranco (not available on playlist.com, all I can find is this live video from Central Park with random people talking in the background on YouTube)
Jessie’s Girl : Rick Springfield
All I Need : Mat Kearney
Anna Begins : Counting Crows
Skinny Love : Bon Iver
Linger : Jonatha Brooke
Slow Dancing In A Burning Room : John Mayer
Love Song : Sara Bareilles
By Your Side : Sade
One Two Three Four : Feist
‘Til Kingdom Come : Coldplay
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? : She & Him
Strange and Beautiful : Aqualung
The Promise : Tracy Chapman
Kiss : Prince
Tristan & Iseult : Tarkio
High Hopes : Neil Halstead
(just click anywhere in the box to get the playlist rolling)
Serendipitous March 29, 2009
Posted by miamired in Montana, jobs schmobs, photography, working.Tags: housesitting, serendipity, stationery, work
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Isn’t life weird sometimes?
After more months than I wish to count bumming around my hometown, doing a fair amount of reading and some dog walking mixed in with a lot of job applying and general internet time, all it took was one little catalyst to get things moving differently. And now, all of a sudden, everything is moving along at quite a clip in ways I would not have anticipated even a few months ago.
The temporary job I took last month is wrapping up but it looks like I’ll be staying on for a while part time. I just got hired on at a new part time job in town, one that is perfect for the recession. It doesn’t pay well, but it is something that speaks to one of my passions, something I maybe couldn’t do longterm but hope to really enjoy for a while. I’ve been on a string of housesitting gigs, one of which may turn into somewhere I can live through the summer paying only minimal rent. I’ve started seeing someone new. Things are falling into place so nicely.
I’ve been too occupied to pay too much attention to Google Reader, email, even Flickr and this blog. And that’s a good thing. A little internet time today is nice, but I’m out there taking photos, meeting friends for dinner, getting outside. It’s wonderful.
More soon.
Salutations February 13, 2009
Posted by miamired in Uncategorized.4 comments
This may seem a little random, but can someone please tell me how they end letters and especially emails? Letters to friends I’ve got down. Or I just sign, no salutation necessary.
But lately, I’ve needed to write a score of semi-formal emails and every time, I struggle with how to end it. Sure, “Sincerely” is the classic, and you can’t go wrong there, I suppose. It’s the one I use on job applications, etc.
But what about those sort of awkward “networking” messages? I can’t exactly say “catch you on the flipside” or “Later alligator,” but I also don’t want it to be the modern version of an engraved envelope. “Yours sincerely” or “Yours respectfully” – weird, right? Then there’s the professor go-to salutation: “My best” or just “Best.” Which, hey, are OK, but not great. I refuse to let perfectly good and well-edited correspondence end so awkwardly. It’s like the online version of the awkward man handshake Connor is always talking about. “Do you man hug? Do you do some weird handshake/signal? Does it include a pound?” Ugh. But hard to avoid, nonetheless.
A little help from the internets?
I like writing, photography, reading, music, design, typography, days in the seventies and sparkly snow, Spanish wine and cans of PBR. I spent a year in Córdoba, Spain, working as a 
