Blogging By Number

Wasting time at work, and because my gmail is currently experiencing 'Temporary Error 502' and I can't log in. Oh, the horror! (Um, yeah, I guess I'm also completely ignoring the possibility of actually doing meaningful work which would likely benefit both my company and my professional development. Oops.)

(top) Five ways to waste time at work (basically, in order):
5. My RSS Feed
4. Online (window) Shopping
3. Gmail/Gchat
2. Blogging (ta-dah, here I am!)
1. Facebook (Scrabulous!)

Five dresses I liked while I was e-browsing today:
5. I absolutely love strapless baby doll dresses, like this bi-colored Bailey 44 one and
4. this Jill Stewart one. But
3. this sleek one shoulder by Tracy Reese and
2. this Black Halo one grabbed my attention as well.
1. Also, this swiss dot dress from J.Crew. I just love swiss dots, even though I don't yet own anything in the material. I'm still kicking myself for not buying that awesome white swiss dot halter dress with ruffles that J.Crew made last spring. :(

Two designers I've recently discovered and like:
2. Loeffler Randall
1. Lorick

Two interesting news stories:
2. DCist: More Metro Stations to Get Red LED Lights -

The red lights apparently grab more passengers' attention, according to Metro general manager John Catoe.

I think this blip on new Metro lights is interesting because 1) red light is very flattering and makes everyone look better. I'm sensing a rise in something that will soon be commonly referred to as "metro goggles." (p.s. - beer goggles effect explained, complete with mathematical formula! I carry this formula around in my wallet. I don't trust myself. Just kidding. I don't, and I do.) and 2) for obvious reasons, I feel like these new roseated metro stations will remind me of the Red Light District in Amsterdam, except deep underground. Sketchy. Maybe Amsterdam Falafel in Adam's Morgan (see this post for an interesting bit about currency acceptance) has something to do with all this metro red light implementation... I just hope guys stumbling home at (what ridiculously early time does the metro stop running again?) 12:30ish don't mistake girls tottering around in high heels for hookers. They're not. Well, not all of them any way.

1. The Super Mario Multiverse (sidebar: I seem to link things from popsci.com an awful lot and with increasing frequency in my blog. This is (quite possibly shameful?) evidence that I am a huge dork, isn't it?) - I think the idea of parallel universes (universi?) is so cool. What a trippy and intriguing mind fuck.

Three of the best bottled waters:
3. 1 litre - which I'm drinking right now. Delicious water, and such a cool design. It actually inspired me to include my favorite bottled waters in this blog post. Wow, I'm really bored at work.
2. Volvic
1. Fiji
(side note: Evian sucks. Seriously, I think it is absolutely disgusting. I abhor it.)

Five completely random things I've been thinking about and would perhaps like to blog about in the near future, taken from recent notes in my paper notebook (yes, I actually carry a paper notebook sometimes. I'm not all blog.):
5. "After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world." - Oscar Wilde on absinthe.

4. I recently saw a story on BBC news about Dessau, Germany. Apparently it is the possible building site for a pyramid. That's right, a pyramid. Like the ones in Egypt. Like the ancient Egyptian pyramids, it would also hold human remains. The cremated ashes of people would be contained in each stone and it would be build over years. (However, I imagine strong interest in the project would speed up building time considerably). You can reserve stones for when you die. Weird.

3. While reading The God Delusion I read about physical (P; what something does, following the laws of physics), design (D; what something is designed to do, may go against natural laws of physics), and intentional (I; what something wants to do) stances of things (beings). The intentional stance (recognition and adherence) saves time and is vital to survival, according to Dawkins, though sometimes we impute intentions when there actually are none (on a computer, car, for instance). These stances generally seem to function in the higher order manner of I-->D-->P. The interesting "problem" I see with the intentional stance is that it seems that it almost necessarily leads to dualism. It seems this way because if monism ruled there could only be a physical and design stance. But then, this leads me to continued ponderance (made that word up) of the concept of free will and the illusion of free will...

2. Craic vs. Hygge vs. Gezzelig.

1. Hypochondria and Socialized Healthcare... my thoughts on this hypothetical scenario.

One thing that's bugging me today:
1. My tights got mysteriously snagged on something underneath my desk. It's the tights monster.