Things I Want to Buy From Urban Outfitters

OK, first of all, I don't know if Urban Outfitters is uncool - like, if it's a place where only teenagers shop or something, but I LOVE UO, especially the website which is really fun to browse. I'm putting the link to it at the bottom of this post, because if I put it here and you clicked on it, you would not come back here and read the rest of this post because you would waste hours looking at UO stuff and probably buy some doorknob-shaped curtain hanger things (in purple) or something and then it would come in the mail and you would be like, "I can't believe I spent $28.00 plus shipping on these two doorknob-shaped curtain hanger things (in purple) - stupid Lori and her misdirecting blog!" But then, within moments, you would be all, "You know what would go with these? Those Hibiscus Line Flower curtains on sale for $24.99 marked down from $34.00!" You may wish you lived in an urban loft where the walls were white-painted brick.

Anyway, I thought I would give you a little peek into my wishlist over at UO - just a few of the many urban hipster items I covet. I should point out that I doubt any of the clothes they sell would ever fit/look good on me, so I'm mainly choosing items from the "apartment" section. Here goes:

#1: Strawberry Roots Canvas by Masha D'yans
They sell art! This is a "painting" on canvas of a tree with strawberries for roots. Cute!

#2: Flowering Branch Tapestry
I would hang this on the ugly wall by my front door with the thermostat on it. I think it would go with my red couch.

#3: Midcentury Chair
I love this chair. This is the chair I've been looking for. It's the kind of chair that has hard wooden arms and legs but a soft cushy seat and back. Also, it's blue-green-gray colored. It's the perfect chair to put in the bedroom and leave your clothes on, but I also think it would look cute with my red couch (it's all about the red couch).

#4: Smurf Plush Figures
This isn't actually on my wishlist, but come on! Smurfs!

#5: Orange Crush Mini Amplifier
I will one day be rocking the ukulele with this orange mini-amp.

#6: Radiohead - OK Computer
I already own three hipster records from UO. This one has two of the three Radiohead songs I know. I think I would enjoy listening to almost all of the records they sell at UO.

#7: Things That Suck by Jason Kaplan
UO has several books that make you want to buy them and give them to your cool librarian gamer friends as gifts.

#8: Birds on a Branch Hook
I like birds. I mean, not real birds, they are kind of scary.

#9: Let's Hang Zipper Pulls (Pictured at the top of this blog entry)
I loved looking at these cute "in a box so you don't know which one you are going to get until you buy it" things in Japan, but I almost never actually bought them. I mean, they cost like 500 yen! I'm not dropping a big 500 yen coin for some little thing when I don't even know what it is. But these are cute, so I would not be averse to say, getting one as a gift (hint, hint).

#10: Sun Jar
Come on! It's a jar that you open up and put out in the sun and then at night it stays lit up with sun-power! That is cool. I'm taking my Sun Jar to Burning Man some day. I'm going to be rocking the orange mini-amped ukulele by the soft eerie jarred sunlight. It's way expensive at $45, but still - Sun Jar!

Also, I actually really do kind of want those doorknob hook thingies.

Go to Urban Outfitters.

Springfield Punx

Sorry for the late post - it WAS a three-day weekend, after all.

So, it's time for my first blog entry about another blog. Here it is...

Springfield Punx

Springfield Punx is a blog run by the talented Dean who draws Simpsons-style versions of popular characters. Many of them seem to be obscure comic book guys I've never heard of (whoever Angel is, he looks like kind of a lame superhero, but he makes a cool Simpsons type) but there are a lot of cool pop-culture characters.

It reminds me of when I Simpsonized photos of the cast of The Office and got a mention on another favorite blog of mine...

Pop Candy

Pop Candy is run by Whitney Matheson over at USA Today and is the place to go for all things pop culture. It's the only blog that I check on a regular basis.

Here's the post I was mentioned in...

Make a Celebrity 'Simpsons' Character

Oh, the picture at the top is me, Simpsons style!

Navy Blue Nail Polish

The hot weather is finally here (in So. Cal at least) and that means it is time to get a pedicure so you can wear those cute new sandals. Remember a couple of years ago when black nail polish became main stream and wasn't just for Depeche Mode concerts anymore? Kindergarten teachers were wearing it to work and so forth? Well, it seems like the hot color this year is Navy blue.

Dark blue is a cool alternative to plain black. People can't really accuse you of being goth or emo and you still get away from shiny pinks and reds (or, the "it" color of two years ago, coral).

I have a suggestion for all of you who wish to jump on this trendy bandwagon, and that is...

Sally Hansen Salon Nail Lacquer in "Navy Baby" (in the square bottle).

I tested several types at the store on my thumb nail (which ended up looking, as my friend said, like I had "hit it with a hammer") and this was by far the best. It's not thin so that you have to put on several coats (I, in fact, only used one coat!) and it's very dark. All of your friends will want to wait two weeks and then go out and get it after they see it on you, so they don't look too much like they are copying you.

I don't get paid for this or anything, but to buy it online, go here:

Walgreens

Blog Templates

After three weeks and three posts, I've finally changed my Blogger template from the one that came with the blog. What do you think?

I like to have a cute blog template (I also prefer white words on a black background), but there are downsides. If you still have your original template and are looking for a change (or if you want to start a blog) here are some things to consider.

The blog templates that come with blogger are pretty boring, and they can make you look like a beginner. Experienced blog readers will get a bad first impression. Other free blog templates often have advertising on them, however, which can get annoying. Pyzam offers some really cool and easy to use templates (especially if you are a teenage girl who thinks she is into "punk") but they come with an ugly orange bar at the top of the page.

Pyzam

Another good place to look is here:

Blogger Buster

I was using the one called "Notepad Chaos" for a while (I know that blog layouts that look like pieces of paper are cliche, but it was pretty!) but I couldn't get the things on the side to display the date correctly. If you know a lot about HTML, etc. you might be able to fix the minor bugs yourself, otherwise you'll be stuck with an attractive but imperfect blog. You can see a picture of it at the top of this post.

One other helpful tip is to go here:

Remove the Blogger Banner

This site shows you how to get rid of the blue Blogger navbar at the top of all Blogger pages, if you want to.

Have fun!

Update (7/18/09): I changed my template again to this one with the pink stripes. It WAS black with pink flowers on the side before.

Listening to Records

Today the record player I ordered onlne was delivered. I always wanted to "listen to records" but we didn't have a record player when I was a kid. I did sometimes hang out with my friends in their parent's basement, but they didn't really have a ton of records we were interested in (I do seem to recall listening to The Turtles). Anyway, after Coachella, I decided to go for it. I ordered my cool hipster record player from Urban Outfitters and scored some old Wings records on ebay.

The player arrived before the records, however, so after I got home from work, I went down the block to the (very) nearby antique store. The records were located in the back of the store in big boxes. I quickly picked out two, then spent some time looking through some of the other boxes.

The old Hispanic man who runs the shop did kind of give me a hard time about my selections. I believe his words were, "Do you LIKE this kind of music?"

I got Red Rose Speedway and Living in the Material World (which I haven't listened to yet). It took me all of one minute to get the player out of the box, plugged in and working. It wasn't hard to learn how to use and in no time I was listening to the end of "My Love" (having not been sure enough about where to drop the needle to start with the first song). It was pretty cool. However, I did learn that the awesome B-side medley (I say things like b-side now, because I am a vinyl person) is can be pleasantly sleep inducing.

One thing I have learned: Playing records + warm weather = sleepy me.

While the needle on my record player does seem to need to be dropped manually, so far I haven't had to experience the horrible scratching sound from the end of the record. I suspect this has more to do with the record than the player, though.

The charm of the whole thing, however, lies in its very manualness. If I wanted to listen to 500 songs in a row, shuffled, I could turn on my computer - I could even use the "remote" app on my iPhone to skip a song from across the room. If I wanted to listen to a particular song while sipping my iced latte in a cafe, I could plug the headphones into my ipod. To listen to records, however, I must be at home. After five or six songs I must get up, walk over to the player, and flip the record over myself - an actual piece of vinyl in my hands. If it's too quiet, I have to get up and turn it up. If it's too loud, my neighbors just have to put up with "this kind of music."

After all, it's only for five or so more songs.