modern jewelry

i love jewelry. so a lot of my etsy posts will probably be featuring jewelry designers. sorry! ...tho it is my blog, so eh.

arosha luigi taglia actually has two stores: arosha of contemporary jewelry and sleeks, where he sells items made from handmade silk. both modern and simple, but very different in materials and feel. the items here are all from arosha.

etsy store: arosha
prices vary

not my choice

i watched a bit of abc's "what would you do?" last night. one of the situations was about a 16 year-old girl telling her boyfriend that she's pregnant and keeping the baby. he wants her to have an abortion. i won't go into the staging on the tv show, but this does bring up the question of men's rights.

before having sex with anyone you should really discuss (along with disclosing stds) what you guys would do in case of pregnancy. would she keep it? does she believe in abortion or would she put it up for adoption? does she expect you to help out financially or otherwise? and what are your opinions on these matters? these are pretty important things to know!

here's where my, i'm sure, "controversial" opinion comes in. i think that if she had previously very clearly stated that she would not have a child, yet she decides to keep it, and if you (assuming you're male) still don't want it, you don't have to help her raise it. you probably should, especially if you were in a committed relationship, but i don't think you're morally obligated to. (btw, i'm not talking about legal obligations or financial support here, i really don't have a clear opinion about that) you guys discussed it, you both expressed your opinions, and she changed her mind. but you didn't.

if i were a teenaged boy and if my long-term girlfriend said she would keep the baby if she got pregnant, i probably wouldn't want to have sex with her! that doesn't mean i'd leave her, but i sure as hell would consider a celibate relationship. and i'm sure a lot of guys (no matter their age) feel the same way.

i feel that when you talk about pregnancy and both agree to not have the child, it's unfair to him if you change your mind after you get pregnant. you had a verbal contract, and you broke it. he didn't agree to this and you shouldn't guilt him if he decides to not play anymore after you've changed the rules.

i don't think that he should force you into anything, however. it's your body and you have the right to keep the baby if you decide to. but he also has rights, and you can't force him into anything either.

i think a lot of guys in this situation stay with her even though they honestly don't want to. these are good guys who want to do the right thing, for you and your child. but you have to do the right thing also.

doggies!

the westminister dog show was last week. here are pictures of 102 of the 179 total breeds. when you go thru, make sure you read the dog names!!

ziggy the puli

btw, i never knew it before, but mop dogs are actually called pulis. cute!

self lovin'

woody allen in 'annie hall' - "don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone i love."

50 vhs's anyone?

we've been doing some long overdue cleaning lately and found about 50 vhs tapes. that's a lot! i wanted to get rid of them but figured that must be a better way than just throwing them in the trash. i went online and got two suggestions: freecycle and recycling through greendisk.

freecycle is a free online network where you can offer or request stuff in your community. anything. as long there's no money involved. so kind of like craigslist but actually free. greendisk seems like a great service to recycle your "technotrash." you pack it, ship it, pay a small fee, and forget about it.

but since i didn't really want to pay the fee (tho yeah, it would've been only $7 not including shipping) i decided to freecycle it first. if no one wanted it there, i'd send it to greendisk.


anyway, i put my offer of vhs tapes online, and about a month later someone contacted me! he wanted the tapes even tho they're all used and have super random recordings on them. and earlier this week i found our old vcr, which he said he could use too.

i met with him and his wife today at the local mcdonald's (to be safe). turns out they've been freecycling for about a year and they joined because they too were tired of seeing everything go into the trash.

btw, before i left the house to meet him, i called rip and told him where i was going to be, just in case i never came back. he was, unsurprisingly, not too happy. he thought the whole thing sounded unsafe. which i can definitely see. but that's why i wanted to meet somewhere public, and also why i called rip to tell him where i'd be. later on rip said that i should've gone with someone, which i would also have preferred, but everyone's at work and from his emails, the guy sounded really normal. which, i know, sounds stupid. but i just figured that while i'm sure there are crazies on freecycle, most of us aren't nuts. and i was taking basic precautions already. anyway. i was glad to meet then. and i had no expectations of what he would look like, but him and his wife were not hippies. just cool folks who like to be able to record tv shows. and you know what? i don't blame them. i don't have tivo or a dvr either. and i could just figure out how to record onto vhs, they would not have been getting mine! anyway, just wanted to blog about this experience.

i'm happy today!

finger puppets!

melanie of sweet melly jane makes the cutest finger puppets. well, she makes other stuff too, but i especially love her puppets!!

etsy store: sweet melly jane
prices vary

so not airfair

remember the days when the price of your ticket also included food, luggage handling, earphones, and a blanket? these days you have to pay extra for everything! the airlines tell us it's cause the price of gasoline has gone up and so they charge us extra for our bags too, because it's heavy and that costs extra fuel or something. (not really or something, i'm sure it does cost extra, yet i'm damn sure it doesn't cost an extra $25 in fuel to fly my 25lb bag from lax to jfk). they tell us this is also one of the reasons they no longer provide food and blankets. it's too heavy.

if it's the weight the airlines are so concerned about, i've got a solution. it won't make everyone happy, but it certainly is more fair and rational.

let's say each passenger is allotted a total of 400lbs (person+belongings) and 65 inches of luggage space (total length+width+height). (for comparison, delta allows 62")

when checking in, you and all your stuff get on a scale. if the total is under 400lbs then we'll make sure none of your luggage is oversize. if, however, your total weight is over 400lbs then you have to pay extra, maybe a $10 per additional 10lbs. of course, if you yourself weigh close to 400lbs then you're allowed very little "free" luggage. but if you're someone like me (about 100lbs) you can bring a ton of extra crap!

to make the situation more fair you can cap the luggage weight at 100lbs. that way even skinny people like me lose out.

and if the airline wanted to be nice about it, they could allow customers to sell back some of their unused weight. let's say i'm an average american male. i weigh 191lbs. let's also say that i have my max luggage. we total 291lbs. the airline could pay me (or credit my account for a future flight) with $5 per extra 10lbs. (i know, the airline is charging my heftier buddy $10 for his extra 10lbs, but hey, it's never going to be completely fair)

so yes, very obese people will need to pay extra. but if you set the weight maximum at something extremely high (like 500lbs) and also have a luggage max at 100lbs very few people will actually be paying extra. and honestly, the whole price hike thing is about extra weight anyway.

i'm not trying to discriminate against very large people, but i'm tired of always having to pay extra when i don't weigh very much. i have to pay extra for my flight and taxes and my insurance and at every buffet. and i ALWAYS pay extra for my clothes and shoes. i wear an xs, and yet that xl leather jacket costs just as much as mine!

why can't airfare be a little more fair?

love of design

i love beautiful things. seriously. anything that i find "pretty" or whatever, i love. posters, knick-knacks, ephemera, jewelry, art, photography, fashion, music, color, packaging, typography, architecture, infographics, prints, everything. that's probably why i have so much damn stuff.

anyway, i've recently re-found cargocollective. which is a " is a web publishing CMS and community-building platform" kind of like flavors, but expanded and catering to those who have lots of photos and such.

a few of my favorites using cargo (and yes, this is a bit heavy on graphic design):

alconic,  rob clark,  joe bauldoff,  always with honor,  mark weaver,  frank chimero,  milika favre,  jungeun kim,  elr*y

emotions vs facts

Father Brendan Flynn (philip seymour hoffman) in Doubt - "even if you feel certainty, it is an emotion, not a fact"