Category: Work

Freelance, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work

Friday Links

“I’m a very ritualistic, routine-oriented person, and I discovered over the years that I love working Monday through Friday.”
– Edie Falco

It’s a Friday with a busy weekend ahead, Monday is my birthday (I’ll officially be in my late 20s, and therefore entirely mature and responsible, of course), and next week is my last at the Franklin House. The times they are a-changing.

Here are your links, add any others worth knowing in the comments and let me know what you’re getting up to this weekend!

First and foremost, I wrote a post this week that went a tiny bit viral (by my standards at least). It was in response to the Santa Barbara killing and why I find it so important to claim the title of “feminist,” in spite of and often because of the price I’ve paid for it. The response I’ve gotten to this post on social media and via email has been pretty awesome. Here’s one response post from another writer.

Nerd culture and misogyny, h/t to Ellie, a friend of mine who is an editor at Marvel.

Another good link (h/t my friend Molly) about a culture of toxic masculinity. It’s not an easy read, but it’s an important one. When I say Patriarchy hurts everyone, even men, this is what I mean. And as the author points out, in the last few months alone there have been a string of events where men and boys have hurt or killed women for refusing them dates, sexual advances, or proposals. This is not an isolated event, this is the latest and most visible in a pattern.

Lastly on this topic, Laurie Penny over at the New Statesman wrote a much better post than mine on the killing, and everyone needs to read.

Okay. Other links for the weekend, though please do continue the conversation at my link or elsewhere. Our culture really is starved for better conversation about gender violence and we need to recognize that genuine misogyny is not a problem for other geographic areas of the world, or different cultures, it’s everywhere. And we need to fix it.

I’ll just leave this Instagram find of the week right here.

A question I have wrestled with for most of my life.

I’m gearing up for another round of applications and pitches, and it turns out some friends and members of the minion coterie are in the same boat. Here’s a link Alanna sent me that I’ve really been enjoying and using to gut up and stay motivated.

The inspiring and lovely Bethany over at Love Grows Designs wrote a guest post this week that I also found helpful. Which of us has not had a “long dark tea time of the soul,” to both paraphrase and plagiarize (Douglas Adams in particular. One of my favorite books)?

Tying scarves like a Frenchwoman, because summer is coming and we need pretty, breezy looks.

Friend of the blog and writer over at Riding Bitch, Niva wrote a really beautiful piece about loss and friends.

I would very much like this hat for summer, please.

Oh man…right in the childhood! Long live Reading Rainbow! (PS, they are still taking donations, and as of typing this, they were at $1.8 million.)

Another gently thought provoking piece from Maxie McCoy over at Ilo Inspired. I was lucky enough to meet Maxie at a Levo League event, which only helped to solidify my girl crush. I’ve had to “give up” on a few things recently and, to quote Frost, “it has made all the difference.”

I’d watch an awful lot of these. Submit your own mashup ideas in the comments.

My tiny kitchen and I have yet to reach an understanding, 8 months into our relationship. I never understood my mother’s complaints about kitchen spaces “not working” in several of the various houses we lived in over the years until now. Some are simply planned better than others. And I’m not even a particularly domestic woman! But I found these tips helpful in thinking of new ways to tackle that space.

I like collaborative apps, so here’s one if you’re trying to eat healthier. FoodTweeks will help you cut unnecessary calories and make food donations every time you do so. Winning!

I lied. In continuing ridiculous sexism and women’s sexuality news, this high school induces headdesks.

Britain, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend, Work, Writing

Friday Links (Summer Has Arrrived Edition)

“I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.”
-Groucho Marx

This week has turned things around in a big way and much has been done, all of it . I had another cowork day with Alanna (who might soon be upping sticks on an adventure of her own), completed lots of  freelance work, went to a book launch (more on that later) and had an impromptu date night with Jeff. All things considered, that’s a banner week. Here are your links, kittens – short and dirty this week, so do link anything else worth knowing in the comments. For the benefit of the minion coterie, you understand!

I’ve only got six (!) working days left at the Franklin House, so there’s been a lot of gearing up for the Next Big Thing here at Small Dog headquaters, which of course includes a new round of pitches to editors. Here’s my confession: pitching irrationally terrifies me. It’s not at all as scary as my brain builds it up to be, which I understand intellectually, and I’ve got some new recent and impressive clips now to help me out, but still. Scary. Which is why this kick-in-the-pants post from Linda Formichelli was quite timely!

Another timely read from Garance.

One dad has made some artwork based on the crazy things he has said because of his children, and some of them are pretty giggle worthy. Parents, weigh in. Accurate or not?

I’m a little bit in love with these animal pun illustrations for cards, etc.

My inner five year old is thrilled, a new gigantic dinosaur fossil has been unearthed in Argentina and to dates it’s the largest dinosaur ever discovered.

Pineapple earrings. Which might be necessary to my happiness, as my birthday is just over a week away…

As a person with a hard won and complex relationship with faith and spirituality, I found this short Buzzfeed piece written by a young woman who has lost hers interesting.

Janssen’s Summer 2014 Tell Me What To Read list has begun over at Everyday Reading. I love her reviews and she influences my own To Read list heavily, but her comment threads are also excellent places to pick up recommendations.

Britain, Expat, Freelance, Humor, London, Work, Writing

Friday Links

“There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear — the city of London and the South Seas.”
-Herman Melville

This has been one of those weeks that mixes fantastic highs with crippling self-doubt. Imposter syndrome is alive, well, and living in London, my friends. But enough with the first world problems, they’re nothing hard work and gumption won’t cure, on to links. They’re all quick and dirty this week. Share anything worth knowing in the comments and let me know what you’re getting up to this weekend.
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(Feeling rather like the goose!)

Pantone before there was Pantone. By which I mean the 17th century.

My love for the blogging pair Tom and Lorenzo is well documented, so I loved this interview with them in Bitch Magazine.

I would play the heck out of this. House rules, you cannot ask questions about physical appearance. Terrible life choices, House allegiances, potential terrible fates only.

This new cartoon find amuses me greatly: (mostly) conversations betwixt inner organs and body parts, without being nearly as gross as it sounds. For example, the irritable bowel is…irritable.

A photography project to make you smile.

Either everything is a conspiracy or nothing has meaning. You decide.

Nate Silver, a quantifiably  intelligent guy, has some interesting thoughts and data on the 2014 election. Vote, people, you lose your right to complain otherwise.

Sick of Buzzfeed quizzes? Here’s a new, kind of trippy alternative one h/t of Katarina, and it nailed us both.

Paging all book loving minions – which is the vast majority of you, let’s be honest. I’m a bit in love with this little boutique collection. Someone with an iPhone get that cover so I can live vicariously and enthuse about your purchase with you.

“The greatest threat to extremism isn’t drones firing missiles, but girls reading books.”

“You won’t allow me to go to school.
I won’t become a doctor.
Remember this:
One day you will be sick.”
– Poem written by an 11 year old Afghan girl
Freelance, Humor, Work, Writing

Freelance Talk: Self Care

“I was a little excited but mostly blorft. “Blorft” is an adjective I just made up that means ‘Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.’ I have been blorft every day for the past seven years.”
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

The last few months have been one of the happiest and most positively productive periods of my life, but it’s also been one of the most stressful. A move to another continent, even one that you’re excited for, is not easy to organize or manage. Setting up a household in a new country is expensive. Pursuing your life’s ambition is incredible, but it can also be exhausting. And finances? Well, those are tightly managed. Times are tough out there for writers and anyone who says differently is lying.

Lately I’ve been so driven to follow as many opportunities as possible that I’ve felt unable to say “no,” even to things that perhaps I should have. Not just because of a genuine enthusiasm for new opps, but occasionally because of a genuine (and somewhat well founded) fear that if I do, an opportunity won’t come around again. But in spite of the triumphs, of which I’m lucky to have found so many, I’m starting to feel a bit depleted and stress is taking a very real toll on my health. Even if it’s for a job or in a field you love, doing work without pay is grueling, on the soul as well as the body. And spending time working on those projects has the very real potential to impact my freelancing work negatively – no one’s at the top of their game when chronically sleep deprived.

But on top of all this, I have a confession: I can be bad, as in really terrible, at self care in times of stress. The first thing to go are exercise and a balanced diet, followed quickly by wise time management and regular sleep. Add to that a shot of self-medicating with too much sugar and a chaser of self-flagellation when I feel even the merest whisper of overwhelm. Freelancers should know better than anyone than busyness in no way correlates to success, and yet I fear I’ve fallen into that trap a bit.

It’s not just unhealthy, it’s the textbook definition of unsustainable. So I’m putting out the call for help. I need some advice for self care best practices as I fight to “make it,” as the kids say in the Big City. What negative effects do stress have on you, and what are some of the best ways you’ve found to keep yourself healthy when you’ve stretched yourself?

Freelance, Work, Writing

Freelance Talk: One Year Full Time

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
― Louis L’Amour

I just realized the other day that I was coming up on the first anniversary of going into full time freelance work and so I thought we needed to mark the occasion. One year ago today was my last working full time at the police department. I have no idea where the time has gone, it’s been such an intense year and a half of change that the months have flown by. Time for some recap and reflection!

In January of 2013, an offer of virtual assisting work (combined with training and invaluable mentoring) with friend and Friend of the Blog, Caitlin Kelly was my first chance at freelance work – look out for a couple of hopefully upcoming pieces about this on other sites! This led to other VA work, which led to content production work, which is (slowly but surely) leading to pitch work. Currently I’m working with authors, two entrepreneurial start-ups, and am subcontracted through other freelancers with multiple businesses. My writing is starting to appear on some external sites as well as I’ve learned how to pitch publications and organizations better.

I love freelance work, I love writing, and there are times I have to pinch myself to be convinced that it all isn’t a dream, joke, or prank. It’s been an uphill battle at times, but looking back, I’m really proud of where I’ve been able to get in 15 months.

I admit, sometimes there are days when I still manage to feel totally bogged down or even despondent. Student loans are still a worry, we have to budget things tightly, and there have been plenty of late nights where I’ve tried to put in as much work as possible in order to make ends meet. As I type this I’m nursing a semi-sore throat from one too many past-midnight work sessions since one of my major clients was on vacation last week and had turned over the majority of her content commitments to me to manage, in conjunction with the design team. An exciting (though thankfully temporary) jump in responsibilities that gave me a lot of good experience, but it certainly upped some of my stress levels.

And yet, in spite of financial or other worries, when I emerge from my work fog or To Do lists and look up, I’m unbelievably grateful – and totally overwhelmed by how much change a year and half has brought. I got what so many people needed: an opportunity to try and learn and attempt the kind of work I wanted. A foot in the door. And it has made all the difference. A year ago, I never would have guessed I’d be working, however temporarily, in a major magazine office today.

I was talking to an old schoolmate the other day. Back in middle school we both toted notebooks around (a la Harriet the Spy) which we filled and replaced regularly with day-to-day observations, ideas, whole short stories and – very bad – poetry. We read and critiqued one others work, encouraged each other, and both dreamed of the day when we would make our living by our pens.

Fifteen years later, we’re doing it. She works for a major cultural heritage institution drafting all kinds of content, from letters to grant proposals…and is querying her first novel. I write website copy, social media campaigns, research summations…and my articles, both personal and professional, are being seriously considered and published. It’s not at all what we thought our lives would look like at 13 years old. I think it’s better.

Today’s notebook, the inheritor of teenage ambition. A bit battered, but still stuffed full of ideas and goals – though sans bad poetry.

 

Freelance, Humor, London, Work, Writing

So…I’m Up To Something…

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
― Stephen King

As you might have read or heard , I’m doing another magazine work experience this week. I scribble this to you, well beloved minions, from the offices of LOOK magazine (nestled in between Women and Home, and InStyle). I’m conducting an interview for a potential feature later today and have the the Shard for a view directly to my left.
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By damn kittens, there are days I feel like I’m going to make it.

(Followed, inevitably by a long dark night of the soul and a crushing fear of failure, but golly the highs make it all worth it!)

Expat, Freelance, Friends, Humor, London, Work

Freelance Talk: The Importance of People

“Friendship,” said Christopher Robin, “is a very comforting thing to have.”
― A.A. Milne

In a typical work environment you’re thrown in together and meeting new people all the time. You’re making friends (or not making friends, as it happens) with all sorts, tackling projects, exchanging information and swapping ideas. When you work from home, that rapport simply doesn’t work the same way and if that sort of connection is important to you, it’s largely up to you to find ways of creating it.

Solitude, by Frederick Leighton. circa 1890
Solitude, by Frederick Leighton. circa 1890

Freelancing for me, based on the nature of the majority of the sort of tasks I do, is largely a one-person show. I don’t mind this exactly, I’m a nice mix of introvert and extrovert who is perfectly capable of amusing and entertaining herself, or going out and enjoying the crowds. But I’ve found that long term, the solitary nature of my work affects me in interesting ways that I have to be proactive about noticing and correcting.

One of the reasons I decided to seek some volunteer work, apart from experience in a field I love and hope to support in some capacity in one way or another for the rest of my life, was that I was realized I was becoming emotionally and verbally out of touch. Six months into living in London, I was working from home six days a week and doing the bulk of my communicating via email. 99% of my conversations were happening with my husband – who is a great person to talk to, I stress lest you think otherwise – and I was noticing that in a very real way, I was losing the skill of being able to meet and connect with new people. In short I was becoming awkward. Not awkward in they shy and retiring way, awkward in, “Oh hi, so nice to meet you, let’s be friends immediately!” hyper way that instantly throws many off. With some people, such enthusiasm can be cute. I am not one of them…

Luckily, working at the museum is staggeringly fun. Not only am I feeling re-socialized, I’ve also been introduced to a number of publications I’m considering pitching. Most importantly, I’ve made some lovely new friends (like Georgina – another up and coming novelist and all around whip smart girl who I genuinely adore. We bonded over classics and Roman history, which is always a stable foundation for buddy-hood). Having friends, whom I not married to an interact with in places other than my flat, has been tremendously important in keeping my life happy and balanced.

Speaking of, another thing that’s been interesting to recognize is how much inspiration comes from other people. “Duh, C., you idiot,” I hear you say. But I’m not just talking about big ideas and big inspiration, I’m talking about the often small things that jumpstart you and keep you motivated as a person.

I met Alanna at a networking event a couple of months ago and I instantly thought she was one of the neatest people I’ve come across in a long time. She runs a consulting service that specifically works with social innovation, women’s development, and international development. We’ve started co-working together about once a month, and I always look forward to it because it’s easily one of my most productive days in that week. Just being around another person engaged in solid, innovative work is inspiring in and of itself and having another person in the room helps keep me accountable and not goofing off. Not only that, we’re able to swap ideas. Last time we worked together I helped her develop possible pitches to different publications about one of her upcoming projects and she introduced me to a number of sites and online tools that have made her life as a freelancer easier and more productive. Oh, and that swanky new  blog logo I’m enjoying? She whipped that up in five minutes just for fun, without my even asking, just because she said she needed something creative to do as a break!

Simply being around people who succeed at freelancing, entrepreneurship, writing, blogging, design work, or just learning new skills personally gives me a tremendous boost of confidence. Seeing others succeed encourages me to think that I can too, in a way that I don’t always feel slumped over my desk grudgingly at one in the morning.

Another example. The other week Andrea and I finally got the chance to meet up (she’s been in Morocco, I’ve been in Paris – I know, our lives are such a trial, right?) for a long overdue hangout. We took in a free photographer’s gallery and then spent a couple of hours sipping tea and swapping stories and our experiences with freelancing and expat life. It’s amazingly relieving to hear that, even though your work might be solitary, your personal problems definitely aren’t unique! Not only that, about every ten minutes one of us said to the other, “That’s a really interesting story, you should pitch that.” Just by chatting and enjoying one others company we were coming up with really great ideas left and right, I came home and scribbled down half a dozen. I can’t wait to go on another girl date with her, not just because she is everything hilarious, delightful and interesting, but seeing her work ethic really gave a boost to my own.

I always believed that people are important to me, personally and professionally. I just never realized how much until this first year of freelancing.

Sharing time! Who are your people, and how do they inspire you? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Have you had to get proactive to change unforeseen  emotional adjustments due to self-employment? I’m nosy and want to know!

Freelance, Humor, London, Weekend, Work

Friday Links

“There aren’t enough days in the weekend.”
~Rod Schmidt

Another big week. I’m working with a new client on a social entrepreneurial campaign which I’m finding fascinating and quite rewarding (as well as great fun), work at the Benjamin House goes swimmingly, and I had a couple of meetups with some fabulous women. Sleep deprivation continues as per usual, but so does contentment. I’m still trying to work out a better and more successful schedule, but I think that (like most things) I’m simply just going to have to knuckle down and accept that free time is a myth. At least until May.

Which is actually not that far off, come to think of it. The first quarter of this year flew by alarmingly fast.

Anyway, we’ve mustered a nice little roundup for you this week, the best and weirdest of the internet as always. Got anything that needs to be brought to the coterie’s attention? Self promotion encouraged, by the way, don’t forget to add your favorite blog posts for the minions to peruse. Share in the comments and have a great weekend!
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I’ve fallen prey to the selfie-shock phenomenon since I’ve discovered Instagram. My family are not huge picture takers, but Jeff and I have made a serious effort to document our live abroad. Which means instead of the mirror reflection, which I’m used to, photos of me tend to look like an entirely different person in my mind!  Anyone else experienced this or do I just have a massively lobsided face, apparently?

Speaking of, here’s a great short piece on how 21st century technology has rewired our brains. At  technology changes how we interact and use resource as a species, but now (ironically) we have the technology to track what technology does to us. Meta!

There will never be enough Shakespearean insult material on the internet as far as I’m concerned.

Map distortion is a funny thing that interests me greatly. Remember that scene in the film version of The King and I when the royal children can’t accept that Siam is such a small country? The same sorts of things happen today, and maps are one of the reasons. It’s extraordinarily difficult to transpose at 3D world onto a 2D piece of paper to start, but other issues like bias and imperialism play a distinct role. The best example is cartographic portrayals of Africa.

So…this kid. I’m incredibly impressed. (And committing to learning more about design form and function this year.)

I found this post from UK writing and publishing blog Novelicious to be excellent advice for any and all who wish to do any kind of writing professionally. The first person who should take your aspirations, plans, and work seriously is yourself – think and act accordingly.

I’m just going to leave this here: “Sorting 19th Century British Novelists Into Hogwarts.”

And that leads quite nicely into this. I’m Cecil Warburton. Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the proscribed format here and the well of futility and annoyance it drills into the dark depths of my novelist aspirational soul? Three steps. First name, last name, write your novel – I WISH.

As gratified as I am to learn the science behind the strictest of childhood laws, can it just be a good enough reason that it’s gross, rude, and communally irresponsible? No? Science it is!

Okay, I think I’ve found my new retirement plan idea. (The official blog is a stunner as well!)

And here’s another site for you, this one belonging to the lead costumer on Game of Thrones Season 3. Her work, heavily featuring stunning embroidery, is really incredible, and she’s also been a part of other major film and television works so check her galleries. Also, can we tell I’m outrageous excited for the series to be back on?!

Well that’s…gruesome. h/t Jess

Speaking of news on the writing front, let me humble brag shamelessly that a piece I wrote for Levo League was also picked up and shared by Business Insider this week. And I’ve been contacted about it being shared elsewhere. I’m beyond pleased that my work is starting to get out there – here’s planning on more to come!

Finally, at a loss for words? Vintage Robin is here to help you find that perfect exclamation with all of his own memorable ones compiled for your benefit.

 

Britain, Education, Freelance, Life, London, Work

New Friends, Levo League, and Business Skills

“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose”
― Leonardo da Vinci

I absolutely loved my degree at university – a BA in European Studies (emphasis in British history, literature, and linguistic development) and a Minor in history. But I will be the first to admit that as educated as I believed my degree helped make me, there were a host of other skills I didn’t learn at school. Among them were a number of business skills that I’ve spent the last year working purposefully to acquire. I’ve had to develop a book keeping system. I’ve had to learn how to set prices for my services, and how to eventually change them to reflect new skills, value, and economic realities. I’ve had to learn how to do taxes as a freelancer – yick. I’ve learned about coding and SEO and other things still beyond my current scope, but not as much as they once were. But one of the most important things I never learned at school was “networking,” and I’m still learning how to do it well.

Since transitioning to freelancing full time, I’ve worked from home. For a few months I was working from a kitchen table in the middle of a central Virginia in a rural town. Now I work largely from a desk in a foreign city. I love meeting people, swapping stories and information, but chances to engage with other professionals (freelance or not) to say nothing of people are not always easy to come by.

Which is why I was thrilled that Levo League was organizing an evening of networking and negotiation training and discussion last weekend! I signed up immediately and last Thursday, off I trotted to it.

I first heard of Levo through a blogger whose skill and tenacity I admire tremendously, especially since she’s five years younger than me and already accomplishing things I find truly impressive things even though we have very different interests. Levo is a network and community of and for Millennial professional women of all stripes. They offer content and resources in the forms of articles, training, events like the one I hosted, and what they call “Office Hours,” conversations and presentations from big names in their industries like Warren Buffet, Cathy Calvin of the United Nations Foundation, Deborah Spar the President of Barnard College, and Nanette Lepore.

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Why YES, I am bragging about where I get to go to work sometimes.

The event I went to was hosted next door to the Tower of London (the views were stellar) and one of the best things I’ve done in a long time. I met Maxie McCoy, a woman and writer who I’ve girl-crushed on from afar for months, who works for Levo. I bonded with the presenter, a fabulous woman in sales who taught me to think in a new way about offering value and with whom I hope to meet up with again in the future because she’s hilarious. I met students from NYU who are so ambitious, whipsmart, and capable that it’s a bit staggering. And I even met another freelancer doing amazing work with social entrepreneurship who was not just brilliant but wonderfully lovely to talk to – we’re already making plans to do some co-working when we need to get out of our home offices!

I’m really lucky to be working in a time when so many others are freelancing as well (some estimates in Britain put the numbers as 1 in 6 Britons and 1 in 5 Londoners working for themselves), and that there are communities and resources available to us. At times it’s been downright frightening to feel so out of depth this past year, but it’s also been really encouraging to find I’m able to rise to challenges with just a little help, good information, and the realization that I’m not alone in either my struggles or my triumphs.

Levo League is currently expanding in Europe (congratulations!) so hopefully there will be more of these events to look forward to – and more seriously impressive people to get to know!

(PS – nope, no one paid me to write any of this, it’s 100% gushing. Carry on.)

Freelance, Friday, Humor, Linkstorm, Weekend, Work

Friday Links (Big Plans Edition)

“The life of the professional writer – like that of any freelance, whether she be a plumber or a podiatrist – is predicated on willpower. Without it there simply wouldn’t be any remuneration, period.”
– Will Self

Another big week on the freelancing front, kittens. I got a position as a part time volunteer on the marketing staff of a museum (supporting cultural heritage and gaining new skills, win win!), I’m building some long term plans that are getting me more excited about finances than I’ve been in a while, I’m working on some fun and challenging projects that are stretching me in new ways, and I might have the opportunity to become a contributor to some really stellar platforms. Last evening I went to a networking event that I’ll talk about more later this weekend, and met some really impressive people including other current and wannabe freelancers, and I’ve found some new publications to approach.

In other news, we had a misadventure with banking and British bureaucracy, we worked out an extension deal with our landlady so we have a place to live for another year (clutches self a little to think that six months have already flown by), next weekend we’re going to Paris, and I’m looking forward to a steady stream of friends and visitors starting in April that already making me giddy with excitement.

That’s me. Tell me what you’re up to this weekend in the comments and link to anything else of note that the minion coterie should be made aware of!

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Someday I’ll add “lady adventurer” to my list of accomplishments. In the the meantime, Stylist rounded up some of the ones you should know about.

My sister-in-law is a mother of two and a living with Cystic Fibrosis. Her health has had peaks and troughs but she is a tireless campaigner for CF research, here’s a chance to learn more about her goal for this year and support her.

I cannot be the only online writer who has had a learning curve in making/using images for their blog/site, right? Here’s a handy tool for the similarly bemused.

In New York City and in need of a cry? Tumblr has you covered.

18th century gear we need to bring back!

How valuable is Twitter for you? I mean literally?

Most downloaded books by state – and I think we can all just breathe a sigh of relief that certain tomes (cough 50 Shades of Grey cough) have had their moment and moved on. Mostly. It is being turned into a film. Drat.

Oh holy hell, this is how society ends, people! When we start outsourcing even basic affection!

I really appreciated the feedback I got on my post about the #BanBossy campaign, and clearly the conversation around it is continuing. Here’s a good critical piece from Elle about whether this effort accomplishes meaningful change or not that’s worth the read. I deal in words, I think changing language absolutely matters, but it’s true that just changing words doesn’t accomplish legal or legislative changes that need to happen.

You guys, this caused major marital discontent last night – but what else can you expect when asked to choose between Doc Brown and Dr. Frazier Crane?!

Great news for American Public Libraries!

Oh, I see. The key to having a stunningly decorated home is to Know A Guy.