Happy Blogs

I'm calling these "happy blogs" because they're where I go when I need to cheer up or zone out for a bit. There are lots of blogs I waste time on, but some of my faves, like Passive-Aggressive Notes or STFU Parents,  can be more enraging than relaxing if you're already in a bad mood.

Tom & Lorenzo

"Precious Unborn Fawns, here is a Family Pack of Meat for you to discuss." Oh, Tom and Lorenzo, you make everything better. I'm not a "fashion girl," but when I lived at home I watched Project Runway with my mom and ended up getting addicted to Project RunGay, a blog that recapped each episode's dramas and analyzed each hastily made garment. Project RunGay was a hit, and long-time couple Tom and Lorenzo soon began covering more of the fashion and entertainment world. When I was able to recognize a pair of Alexander McQueen shoes in a music video, I knew they had ruined me forever. But hey, sometimes the day calls for gazing at pretty dresses and critiquing/laughing at the ugly ones. 

The bloggers. Makes me wish the Runway Toons!

The Comics Curmudgeon 

Did you know that there are things called newspapers? And that they feature comics that are not webcomics but comics on paper that are often questionably drawn but somehow have been continuously published for decades and decades and decades? Did you know that there's a blog about them and if you start reading it you will suddenly find yourself dependent upon Josh Fruhlinger's examinations of Rex Morgan, M.D.? It's true! While our nation's seniors find reassuring predictability in Family Circus and Marmaduke, the Comics Curmudgeon sees a repressive cult and a murderous demon hound. But it's not all malice; Fruhlinger is certainly bringing these comics to a wider audience. Before this blog, did anyone under 30 know there was a thing called Apartment 3-G featuring the world's most hardcore BAMF, Margo? 

Thank you, Josh, for bringing Margo into my life.

The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee

Kitten photographer extraordinaire Laurie Cinotto has been documenting her work as a foster parent for kittens for the Tacoma/Pierce County Humane Society for years. My family has fostered many kittens for the Humane Society too, but not nearly on this scale! Homeless kittens that are too little to be adopted yet are placed in foster homes so that they can get lots of socialization and love. Laurie, her husband, and their own kitty, Charlene Butterbean, raise the fluffy babies into happy, adoptable pets. With Laurie's great photographs capturing each kitten's personality, you'll fall in love with every tiny stray that passes through her home!

The Darling family is one of many litters fostered by Laurie.

Poem in Your Pocket Day

This year's poster.

This Thursday, April 26, is Poem in Your Pocket Day, part of National Poetry Month. It's a day for carrying around a poem to share with "co-workers, family, and friends." If that sounds kinda awkward (especially co-workers. "Here are those TPS reports...and a copy of Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love."), you can also participate on Twitter with the hashtag #pocketpoem, post a link on Facebook, email a poem to friends, or just shyly hoard your poem if you're a total introvert.

Other National Poetry Month traditions include NaPoWriMo (for National Poetry Writing Month, modeled on the writing-a-book-in-a-month event NaNoWriMo), where you write a poem every day in April. I was too lazy to do that this year (and most years, TBH), and now it's the 24th, but at least Poem in Your Pocket Day is something I can commit to!

But which poem(s) to choose? My first thought was "OMG 'The Waste Land' duh! :D !!!" (my first thought for most situations), but then I realized that's not very pocket-sized, so I'll have to keep thinking. The Academy of American Poets has tons of ready-to-print suggestions here, with favorites like Robert Frost's "Design," Emily Dickinson's "I'm Nobody, Who Are You?" and Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends."

More places to find poems:
Verse anthologies & volumes on Bartleby.com
Poets.org Library

Wasting Time on Youtube 3

Youtube is the worst. It's the ultimate time suck. You get stuck in a loop of "one more video" and then it's 3am and somehow via "suggested videos" you've transitioned from a link your friend posted on Facebook to the midst of the turtles-humping-pigeons subgenre you didn't know existed. That's why it's so great when you find a new favorite prolific channel - hours and hours of videos to catch up on and no ventures into that "weird part" of Youtube. 


Wasting Time on Youtube 1: Smosh, Mr. Arturo Trejo & Amigos, Kids React, Epic Rap Battles of History
Wasting Time on Youtube 2: The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, Cute Win Fail, California On/AsKassem, Mythicbells Persians

NigaHiga

Ryan Higa is one of the superstars of Youtube, and with his good looks, expressive face, and joyous enthusiasm, it's easy to see why. He became well known for his faux infomericals (infauxmercials?), which give him the opportunity to showcase his ShamWow-ready speed talking. He's also made some very popular music videos with Chester See, my favorite of which is this tale of bromance, which includes guest appearances and frolicking through LACMA's Urban Light.

Gatonovela

This is stupid. It's so stupid. But I can't stop watching it. Flix uses the internet's surplus of cat videos to craft short, totally unrelated scenes of a telenovela featuring cats. The drama includes the forbidden love of Ramon the lizard and Felipe the cat and the danger of the ruthless cat cartel played by Shiro and friends. Which brings us to...

Shironeko

The feline performance art troupe Shironeko & Co. They sit in things and on things and balance objects on their heads and paws. That's pretty much it. They are internet famous, especially Shiro. There's even a stuffed animal of him!

Journeyman Pictures

Okay, so you've watched Ryan Higa bouncing around and hours of cat footage, and now you'd like something serious and educational. The documentaries and documentary trailers cataloged by Journeyman Pictures are rarely fun (frequent topics include genocide, misogynistic violence, and human trafficking), but they are enlightening and compelling. And with nearly 4.5k videos posted so far, you have a lot to choose to explore.