favorite word

Pillow.

Is having a favorite word weird? Because I've always had one. In sixth grade, it was doodle. Sometime around high school, it became pillow.

Whatever the reason, I love that word. It makes me so happy.

During our stay in Austin, we slept on the most amazing pillows I have ever encountered. I can't stop thinking about them. 

via

If only I could justify spending the pretty penny they cost....

four eyes

Thanks to some pop culture icons for turning one of my nerdy necessities in to a hot trend. You know what I'm talking about already, right?

via

The so-called geek chic look is so desirable that people blessed with 20/20 vision are wearing specs with no prescription. I dig this look. I dig it because I have never had perfect vision (or anywhere close to it) and have been rocking some pretty thick frames for the last 20 years.

My first pair of thick frames were white with pink speckles.

real-life strawberry shortcake

The above picture is especially cute/sad when you know I believed (even back then) I looked like this:

cutest redhead with glasses ever? yes.

Thank God for moms who instill confidence in their daughters at a young age.....

In fourth grade, I got contacts and refused to wear glasses for the majority of my awkward pre-teen years. This was an excellent decision on my part, as I didn't need any unflattering additions to my red hair, bangs, braces, pale skin and bone-thin physique.

Notice there is no picture of this stage of my life. I mean, I'm not a masochist.

When high school rolled around, it was time for some new glasses. This time I went outside the box of the thin wire-framed glasses that were all the rage (remember the iconic CK glasses?) and bought a pair that sparked the short-lived nickname Rivers. It's pertinent to note this is also when I started to listen to Weezer (completely related to the nickname) and my music rebirth/obsession as I know it began.

Since I wear my frames infrequently, I usually keep one set of glasses for at least four years. Can you believe I don't lose them? I hardly can.

With that said, I'm still rocking my college frames. They are by far my favorite pair I've ever owned. And not just because they're Prada. OK maybe a little bit. My mom decided to start working when I left for K-State,  and got a receptionist job at an optometrist's office. Mom really liked the work and paychecks. I really liked the designer frame selection and her discount. This is where my affinity for designer sunglasses was born, but that's another story for another day.

two-toned and tortoise. can't go wrong.

So although I still treasure my current frames, I can't help but start planning for my next pair. There are so many options now that Ashley Olsen has been wandering around the world with big thick specs! Below, my two top contenders. What do you think?

bon look jungle chic

warby parker winston

creep fest

I realize this might be something that goes against my blog mantra, but I find it interesting/informative and thought I'd share. By now I think we're all aware that little BIG spiders/bots/companies track our every move on the internets. They collect data on where we browse, how often we're there, etc etc CREEPY. I'm not going to get in to the techy mumbo jumbo because frankly, I don't really understand it. I still can't figure out how my TV gets Cam, Gloria, Phil and the rest of the Modern Family crew in my living room every Wednesday.

Yesterday I discovered a nifty little gadget (they, the techy people, call these "add-ons") called Collusion. Disconnect, Inc. has made it their business to keep what you do on the web your business, to a certain extent.

One of the most popular add-ons allows you to "disconnect" from Google, Twitter and Facebook so their bots aren't stalking you all over the place when you're not even logged in to those sites. You can still get on FB like normal, they just won't receive notifications when you visit one of their over one million connected sites that can push your info to third parties.

I haven't downloaded Disconnect just yet, but I did install Collusion, which shows a map of all the websites currently tracking you. Get ready for a creep fest. I went to 3 websites (just 3!) after installing Collusion, and here's what my map looked like:

should we sign up for the Witness Protection Program????

So all these little guys have a snippet of my personal information and will continue following me until they decide not to anymore. There's nothing I can do about it, except install the Disconnect gadgets which will help a bit.

Just for full disclosure, the three websites I visited were Yahoo! Finance, Gmail, and this cute blog post sent from a friend. I don't think I want to know what happens when I get to AmEx, eBay or J. Crew.

Pretty freaky, huh?

2012: the year of the reader?

Hello and Happy Monday! Sorry I've been MIA lately, 2012 has been busy (but good!) so far. What's happened over the last few weeks? I turned 26, booked two international trips (!!!), bought a Kindle and met a friend's newborn daughter!

I held an internal debate whether or not to give in to the hype and get a Kindle for many months. I like to think of myself as an early adapter when it comes to most things, but to me, e-readers threatened to stunt the growth of my book collection (remember this post?). But after Cancun, where I finished a cumbersome 400 page hardback three days in to the trip, I realized there might be a certain convenience worth the $79 price tag of Amazon's gadget. (I was more than halfway through the book when we left for vacay... I'm not that fast of a reader!) Anyway, my mom was nice enough to let me download a book on her Kindle, and since then I've pretty much been hooked. I'll still buy classics and books I want to keep forever in hardback, but for book club and trendy fiction books, it's far easier to download the inexpensive e-book than buy it online, or wait for it to become available at the public library. 

So what's on my list of books to read in 2012? So far I've finished "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet", I'm 33% through "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and have "War Horse" and Ellen Degeneres' new book, "Seriously... I'm Kidding" in queue. On top of those I'd like to finish at least three classics, one biography and the last two books in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Not to mention the six book club books we'll pick this year... I'm so ready to be a big book worm in 2012!

Hannes Beer