Dear Sea World

"I feel independent"

Thanks to "Dr. Greg" Mortenson, my Pakistan/Afghanistan interest has been piqued... poking around the web, I found a couple of things you may find interesting as well.

(I don't pretend to be an expert on this, by the way. I still have a lot of learning to do.)

Concisely shows what the Pakistani madrassas of nationalists (rather than Taliban insurgents) are up to nowadays. Nice.



Also, has anyone seen the movie Tea with the Taliban? What did you think?


And also, click through this inspiring slideshow on how Afghani women are moving forward, despite the Taliban threat.

"I love working at the National Museum—I feel independent. I can work, study, travel, earn money. Under the Taliban, I couldn't work. They beat one of my relatives so badly on the spine for not wearing a burka that two days later, she died."

- Qudsia Zohab, an employee of the National Museum of Afghanistan and a literature student at Kabul University

via Marie Claire

How much I, an American woman, take for granted.

Here's to napping naysayers

"Napping should have the status of daily exercise."

-James Maas, Cornell University sleep expert

Read full article here.


Here's to a restful, content weekend.

It was storming today, so I'm hoping to get some quality hammock time in tomorrow (and maybe a run too).

Pictures forthcoming from my daytrip to Ogunquit and Kennebunkport, Maine.

XO

Spock, SocioPATH, & Streusel

NYT's Maureen Dowd on Obama as Spock.

Don't worry, I don't like Sci-Fi either.
My sister does, though.
But she's probably too busy knitting, off-season training or having dorm parties to see that movie anyway.
Oh well.

(haha!)

Oh, sociopaths...you never cease to dirty our planet with your filth.

(via Overheard in New York)

Oh I made this BOMB Apple Crumb Cake with my roomie last night. TRY IT.
We used 2.5 times the amount of apples called for (5 total, unpeeled), and spaced on putting the crumble topping on so we just dumped the rest of the diced apples we had on top.
Then we had a legit ghost storytelling session. Amazing.

Free candy inside

Okay so one of Lindsey's ski bum friends bought this 'molester van' (as they called it) with his fellow ski bum college co-eds.
They had Canyons season passes and had plans to sleep in it the night before they would go.
Why? I don't know, they were just being silly boys.
They also put a "Free Candy Inside" sign on the back window as a joke a couple days prior to it making it on KSL...
Classic college.

Read the full story here.

Although, I don't think KSL got to the deeper economic implications- why is this dude literally living in his van part-time??!! Haha.
Apparently now, he has been nicknamed "stranger danger" by all his friends.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Above from Vogue's 2007 Alice in Wonderland fashion shoot featuring Natalia Vodianova, shot by Annie Leibovitz.

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First look at Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie!

(coming 2010)

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A 4th Grader questions Condi Rice about waterboarding.
Wow.
I think in 4th grade I was most consumed with beating boys at recess games.

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Vanity Fair slideshow of actors and directors:
"Something Just Clicked"

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Swine Flu count at 1,000 and counting: via Al Jazeera. Yikes.

Mexicans finding that (masked) laughter is the best medicine.

Full NYT story here: "Viral Humor Helps Mexicans Cope"

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Also funny: Vanity Fair's Frank DiGiacomo's The WASHMEN!

parody of "The Watchmen"

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Oh, wait, this too:

NY Mag's "analysis" of last week's Gossip Girl.


and last, but not least...
Have we swooned enough over the 6'5" actor Armie Hammer yet (aka Gabriel on GG)?

No, not enough, methinks....


XOXO, Gossip Girl

Newsbits

A crazy sad (yet brilliantly designed) CO2 emissions interactive world map.

The computer font 'Comic Sans' is now deemed by WSJ as overused!

Video: quite possibly the best ever volleyball kick assist (Stanford Men's VB- my cousin's former team) - (how was that set, Amy?!)

Video: You thought pedaling was all there was to riding a bike.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp prisoners identified.
Bonus: click around on the same Flickr photostream for really neat WWII era photos.

Dooce (former Mormon) talks about popcorn popping and likes my name for their unborn daughter. (She has great photography too)

How to make a baby, in case you didn't know:



Briefly chatted yesterday with my former editor (who has since left the NYC magazine where she worked and I interned last summer), who is now LSAT'ing and working at Blue & Cream Boutique...
Since bandage dresses have been in the back of my mind lately (a la this Herve Leger), I am now obsessed with Preen's Power Bandage Dress....

I can only hope ABS makes a knockoff soon...
if not, then, dreams are recession friendly, right?!
What an epiphany.

Here's WSJ weighing in on discount designer duds.

I think the above red or black would be rockin' with these shoes of mine:

(they make me about 6'4" but, worry not, I've embraced it...due to a lot of encouragement from short friends/strangers in airports and grocery stores throughout the years who have admitted they wish for my inches).

Apostate-gate

Just for the record, I know the girl who made the error, and she is probably one of the sweetest people I know. I would have so rather taken the guilt over this than her because trust me, she doesn't deserve it.

I also know Rich Evans (quoted in the above article...mocked in the not-worth-your-time comments), and he is a really really decent, humorous, and upstanding guy who made the BYU newsroom fun for my tenure there.

I think he said it best in his Facebook status update yesterday: "Rich Evans is tired of getting feedback from people who have lived mistake-free lives."

Really, it's all about the media being dissuaded thinking there is a story over the fuss created by disgruntled ex-Mormons trying to take a whack at their former religion any way they can.

Just like the Octomom has annoyingly dominated the news for a while, the fact that this warranted an AP story must mean there are not many newsworthy things to report. Hmm.

Dear journalists,
Hate to break it to you, but you're only making yourselves look uninformed. And in the media, being uninformed equals bad.
I urge you to put two and two together.

Thanks,
Alex

The Publicity Dilemma

I really like the Church Newsroom's Web site, because it cuts through a lot of rumors that swarm about Mormon culture.

For example, I thought this was a very dignified response to what is being disrespectfully exploited on Big Love.

For elites of the film industry to claim they're tolerant, then rashly show things we regard as sacred, is maddeningly disrespectful.

For example, it's like if you approached a Muslim woman and demanded she remove her hajib because, oh I don't know, you were curious to see what she looked like...regardless of reason, it's just so offensive!
The amount of hajib a woman covers herself with is a personal decision, and we should all respect that woman for covenanting with Allah in the way she has decided!

Go here if you'd like to give HBO feedback. It takes two seconds.

I didn't weep and rail on them, I simply just said that I find their exploitations offensive and intolerant.