Food for thought...

Picture of a velociraptor in thought that says "Female ballet dancer = ballerina. Male ballet dancer = baller?"

Stylebook

Friends, have you watched the 1995 movie Clueless? If so, you've seen this clip featuring Cher Horowitz's digitized wardrobe:

Random 90s aside - did anyone else wear berets in the mid-90s? I did the whole grunge thing because baggy clothes hid my body and that was my main goal as an awkward gender-weird fat queer kid. Also because I love me some combat boots and bandanas. But I did occasionally tried to fancy things up by wearing feminine accessories - much like I do now. My favorites at the time were dainty little necklaces, spiky headbands, fingerless gloves, butterfly hair clips, and berets.

Anyway, the technology in the clip looks a little hokey now but trust me that wardrobe is the shit. They still haven't managed to make one like it, which is a tragedy because I totally want one. Alas, since I can't have Cher Horowitz's wardrobe I had to make due. Which I did by spending $3.99 on the next best thing. What is this thing, you ask? The Stylebook App!

Stylebook's Home Screen.

This app is, quite frankly, amazing. Basically it's an app to help you organize your closet. You start by inputting your clothing either by taking photos or grabbing photos online. You can put the brand, size, material, color, and a bunch of other data in if you want (I only put in the colors). There are a bunch of categories for clothing (pants, shirts, shoes, accessories, etc.) to help keep things organized. Once you've got your clothing uploaded you can look through your entire wardrobe on your phone. No more forgetting things in the back of your closet because you're disorganized and have heaps of tulle stashed in there! *ahem*

Anyway, you can create "looks" aka outfits in Stylebook so that you can visualize pieces of clothing together and the layout for this looks like those outfit layouts you see in magazines, which feels swanky to me. Then once you've created your outfits you can save them, you can mark your favorites, and you can assign them to different days in their calendar to help you plan what to wear. The calendar has thumbnails of the outfits you've selected each day so you can quickly see what you wore so you don't re-wear the same thing right away. It also tells you which items are your most and least worn items, and which ones you haven't worn yet. If you put in the colors of your clothing it will also let you see which colors are most common in your wardrobe. This info can help you figure out what you actually wear vs what you think you wear. Important for making smarter clothing purchases in the future.

Someone making a "Look" on Stylebook.

If you're extra nerdy like me, you'll be excited about this next bit. When you input your clothing there is an option to put in the cost of the item. If you do this and you actually track what you wear each day, Stylebook will break down your wardrobe statistics for you. The app will tell you how much your closet is worth, the cost per wear of each of your pieces of clothing, and which items are the best and which are the worst values. All of this is good if you're trying to built a cost-effective wardrobe of clothing you will actually use.

Stylebook's Cost Per Wear Breakdown. 

Oh! And Stylebook also helps you pack for trips, too, with their "Packing List" feature. Plus it has an "inspiration" section where you can add photos of looks you like etc. But I already use Pinterest for that so I most likely won't be using Stylebook too.

Ballet Class!

Today got off to a rough start because Texas sprained his ankle yesterday when the wheelchair van driver failed to properly secure his wheelchair so it slipped and he crashed into the seat in front of him. Ugh! At least it's not broken? It did mean the morning took much longer than usual because I was afraid of re-injuring him.

Anyway, today was a momentous occasion for me. Why, you ask? Well, because I signed up for "Lunchtime Ballet" at the local Center For Adult Education and today was my first day of ballet class! There were some scheduling snafus with Texas so I'm switching to the Thursday class now but I still got to get a little taste of ballet and it was great!

My ballet inspiration: the hippo from Fantasia!

To say I was nervous would be a ginormous understatement. I actually did ballet for a year when I was six, and I've got the awkward home videos to prove it. Back then I was both the shortest and the most enthusiastic and also the only boy. Today, I was the fattest and the most enthusiastic and one of two men. The other guy is a burly looking sculptor with a thick Boston accent. 

Anyway, my brilliant scheme is to eventually become like these amazingly talented male ballet dancers.

Guillaume Côté, principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.

Eric Underwood, soloist of Royal Ballet of London.

Roberto Bolle, principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater.

Carlos Acosta, of the Royal Ballet of London.

Or really gorgeously pretty like these ones whose names I don't know:

Male dancer doing a high kick in a blue tutu.

Two male dancers making the infinity symbol with their arms.

Male dancer with draped fabric.

Anyway, I lack flexibility and I'm terrified of spandex and dance belts. At the moment my outfit makes me look like I stepped out of Flashdance. Or rather, sashayed. Because I look flaming. I also smell like sweaty death. And I danced in my socks because I have no dance shoes. But I survived! Fat, fanatical, and faggy ballet dancers unite! Now I just need to buy ballet shoes before Thursday...

Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter to those who celebrate!

I've spent the day with Fancy doing yardwork and setting up the backyard garden. Fancy took out a ginormous stump from the circular bed, sawed away weed trees, and cut off a bunch of lower branches from the tree to open up the space. I hauled away her scraps, rebuilt the raised bed, and extended the back wall bed so it goes along the whole wall. All of the beds were made using random brick and concrete scraps I unearthed while weeding - and there's still a giant pile of bricks we don't know what to do with...

Sky view of the backyard looking left. You can see the weird cutout on the left, the back wall beds, the pile of bricks we still need to get rid of, the raised bed, and the circular bed.

Sky view of the backyard looking right: you can see the raised bed on the left, the back wall beds, the brick bed, the circular bed, and the side beds on the right.

Here's a closer-up view of the side wall beds. Longer than it looked from the other picture.

The plan for next weekend is to add more dirt and compost to the beds, maybe neatening them up a bit while we do it, trim the bush in the corner, get rid of the brick pile somehow, and then do a bunch more work on the front yard so it looks pretty.

Fierce Friday - Perry Style

Ok. This Fierce Friday is one that lots of you have been waiting for and it's inspired by one of my favorite kids' shows: Phineas and Ferb!

I'm wearing my jeans with the orange cuffs, a teal shirt with a teal sweater over it, a brown fedora with black band, an orange paracord survival bracelet, and orange nail polish. I was going to wear my orange wooden bead necklace but couldn't find it this morning. Oh well. So, can you guess which character I am?

Me tipping my hat.

Body shot of my outfit. 

Me showing off my bracelet.

Pant cuffs, nail polish, and bracelet all match.

That's right! Perry the Platypus!

Happy Birthday Bro!

Today is my brother's birthday. Let me tell you, I really lucked out with this one! To celebrate, I'm posting a Throwback Thursday picture to one of our old Halloween photos that I think captures something about our sibling dynamic...

My grandpa holding my (then baby) brother who is dressed in a pink mouse costume looking disturbed by the whole Halloween thing. I'm next to them dressed as a green dinosaur and roaring with enthusiasm.

Physics Test!

In honor of how terrified I am of my physics test today, I'm posting my favorite physics comic:

Trip in Pictures

I'm back! I'm recounting my trip to California in pictures. On Wednesday, we (me, my brother, and his girlfriend) flew out to Los Angeles. We drove up to the observatory where we took photos of the Hollywood sign, climbed to the roof to look at the view and the huge telescope, and ate ice cream. Then we found our hotel room, got a TON of Korean food, and stuffed ourselves silly before going to bed.

In the airport.

On the plane.

The drive from the airport.

Interesting graffiti.

In front of the Hollywood sign.

At the observatory.

Observatory roof.

Observatory roof.

Observatory telescope.

Eating ice cream.

At the hotel.

Korean food.

Thursday we went on an all-day bus tour of LA - the kind where you can get on and off whenever you want. We saw all the stars with the celebrities' names, played around in a costume shop, drove by lots of famous people's houses, saw Beverly Hills, saw the San Andreas Fault and the La Brea Tar Pits, saw a piece of the Berlin Wall outside the museum, lunched at the farmers' market, saw the sunset strip, etc. After that we chilled in the hotel for a bit to recoup, then I dragged everyone to the local Guitar Center with all the famous rock stars' handprints in the sidewalk and Elvis' blue suede shoes on display inside. At which point I felt violently ill so we went next door to the Sunset Grill (the same one Don Henley wrote that song about) where I had water and a place to sit. Then I drove us back to the hotel where I proceeded to be sick for the rest of the night.

Graffiti on the way to our bus tour.

Me in the costume shop.

My brother in the costume shop.

Me pretending to be famous.

On top of the stars.

Bus touring.

Me in front of Beverly Hills.

Us on a bus tour stop.

La Brea Tar Pits and Museum.

Random bagpiper because of St. Paddy's day.

In front of a weird map fairy statue.

House graffiti.

Brother at guitar center rock walk.

Elvis display containing the infamous blue suede shoes.

Brother with orange juice at the Sunset Grill. 

Friday was spent sick. We drove from LA to Malibu, and when I wasn't driving I was lying in a hotel bed or being sick somewhere. No good. There are no pictures from this day. Only sadness.

Saturday was the wedding. I still felt a bit ill but I decided that since I was on vacation I'd push through it anyway. We started the day by going on a drive in Malibu and then I checked out El Matador State Beach while my companions hung out at the picnic tables because the walk to the beach was too treacherous for them. Then we went to the wedding, which was lovely. I danced a bunch and got to see my lesbian aunties (yay for queer relatives!) and was pretty much overjoyed for the occasion because my cousin is awesome and so is her new husband. It did make me a little sad for myself, since the wedding reminded me of how happy I'd been at my wedding and how shitty it was to see things end the way they did, even if I know there wasn't anything I could have done to save that marriage. But oh well. More pictures!

In front of the mountains on our drive.

Steep and scary path to the beach.

Cliff edge.

Cliffs.

Neat rock formations.

Me in front of the rocks.

Rock formations.

My toes in the water.

Ready for the wedding!

My aunts in their seats.

Flowers.

I do. 

Married!

Toasting the happy couple.

Brother and I.

Group shot.

Aunties and me.

On Sunday it was fairly clear I had overdone it the day before since I woke up feeling sick again. But it was also the last day of vacation so I was determined to deal with it. We drove to Santa Monica for the day and hung out at the board walk, went to the aquarium, and ate Mexican food (so tasty but such a bad plan). Then we headed to the airport, with at stop on the way for me to be violently ill again. Sigh. At the airport, we discovered that due to snow our flight had been canceled. Much frustration and much waiting later, we flew a different route which had us going to San Francisco and then to Boston. Got no sleep and wound up home far later than anticipated. Which meant instead of going to work as originally intended, I came home and crashed because I was both sick and tired.

Beach sign: "I've decided I no longer want to be an adult.
If anyone wants me I'll be on the beach making sand castles."

Me on the carousel.

Rock and Roll Jesus.

Me and brother on the boardwalk.

Ocean.

Brother and girlfriend on the boardwalk.

Me with the aquarium sharks.

Neat graffiti.

The end!