Window Clings

I know that Halloween is long gone. In all honesty I can't really believe that November is almost over. Where did the fall go? I'm not yet ready for Christmas, despite the continual reminders that have been up in every store since the day after Halloween.

I've been saving the picture above to post on the blog. I found it on Lovely Listing the day after Halloween or so and just had to keep it. I don't normally put up window clings or do any major decorating for holidays. But these made me laugh. I would put up these clings. They're so whimsical and cute and odd. All the things I like.

It's images like this that make me think that I need to start a Pinterest account. A place that I could keep all the pictures that I want to save. Then I remember that's what the blog is for.

Nerd Strong

I've read Doonesbury for years. I love both Trudeau's characters and his great political satire. I've saved a couple of the good ones over the years and bought a couple of the books, but there's one that's tacked up on my bulletin board at my desk and I thought it was finally time to share it.

I'm a nerd, a geek, an oddball. I've been so all my life. In middle school I was called every name in the book. By high school I worried a lot less about the names. I was just happy doing my own thing. By college I was comfortable enough with my oddness, and now I downright embrace it. One of my coworkers this week called me a "super crazy geek" and I took it as a compliment. I have no idea if he meant it as a compliment (I actually think so) but that's how I'm going to take it. I'm a bit different. And I'm not worried about that.

So this comic strip about Nerd Strong resonated with me. I've started using the phrase myself. I'm impervious to insults. I'm comfortable being called a geek or nerd. I revel in my oddness. I find myself hanging out mostly with geeks and nerds. I find it makes life more interesting. And I think most adult geeks do the same. I think deep down we're all a little odd. It's just a matter of how much we let it show.

P.S. If the image is too small to read, you can always find the original here.

Why Build Square Buildings?

I'm in the mood for something fun and silly. I had an amazing weekend filled with friends and family and then promptly spoiled it by going back to work. Today's not been my greatest day ever. I'm spending too much of my time at work thinking. I've been a little fragile about both my physical therapy (yes I'm somehow still going) and my work situation so I figure that I need to distract myself. If I distract myself long enough, the problems go away right?

And what better way to distract myself than to look at pictures of interesting buildings online? Or am I the only one who does that? Actually what got this post started was a building that was featured on Neatorama. The image below is Waldspirale (or Forest Spiral) an apartment building in Darmstadt, Germany. The building has no straight wall, forms a gigantic U shape, and has a forest planted on the roof. So it's pretty much my dream apartment building.

It's not only the lack of straight walls that fascinates me, check out those windows. I love that each one is unique and the difference adds something of a Seussian quality to the structure.

Looking for pictures of the Waldspirale led me to this building, Krzywy Domek or The Crooked House in Sopot, Poland (pictured below). I'm not sure what is housed in this building but I love the crazy whimsy of the place. Be careful when looking up images of this one, after about ten or so pictures I started feeling a bit sick. Apparently this one crosses the boundary between fascinating architecture and too much for my little brain to spatially organize. Still an incredible structure.

I realized that in all the time I've been writing this blog I haven't discussed my fascination (bordering on obsession) with Antoni Gaudi's buildings in Barcelona. How can you not love a building that looks like it was designed for hobbits? The Casa Batllo, which used to be an apartment building in Barcelona, includes such unique characteristics as a dragon-scale roof, round doors, mosaic tile walls, and spiral ceilings. It is the place of dreams. I would recommend checking out the full photo gallery on the building's website.

Gaudi created a number of buildings and parks throughout Barcelona, Spain. His style is focused on rounded walls, whimsical additions, stained glass, and plenty of oddness. I've been dreaming of going to Barcelona for years in order to see Casa Batllo, Park Guell, Casa Mila (pictured below), and perhaps Gaudi most famous work, Sagrada Familia.

An image of Sagrada Familia. This church was unfinished at the time of Gaudi's death in 1926 and is still under construction since his full design for the building was not known at his death. Consider it the longest construction project ever.

Moon

As an added note, Happy New Year all. Not only is it the end of a year but the end of a decade. Always something to be marked. And to add to that excitement, there is an odd moon tonight. Tonight is a Blue Moon (a second full moon within a month), something that only happens every couple of years. I would be curious to find out the last time that a Blue Moon fell on New Years Eve. I would bet many many moons ago. It is also a partial lunar eclipse tonight, although we in the U.S. won't be able to see it. So some unusual astronomical occurances for the New Year. If only I believed in omens...

People of Walmart

Now I don't shop at Walmart. I know too many small business owners to shop at what my family refers to as the evil empire. But after checking out People of Walmart (thanks for the suggestion Em), there are other reasons not to shop there.

People of Walmart is a blog dedicated to displaying readers' pictures of people they find in Walmarts. There are the poorly dressed,

the crazies,

and the "what were they thinking?".

I'm not brave enough to post a picture of the mostly dressed although there were plenty of those. It's a mix of some of the oddest pictures you'll ever see. And almost all of them are funny and sad and frightening.

Jeff and I spent part of the weekend, while recovering from shopping, clicking through the many pages. I was both humored and scared by the end. I'm amazed people leave the house looking like that but I'm also a bit scared for society in general. There are some odd people out there. And most of them are shopping in Walmart.