Minimalist living

Last week I read an article about a couple who had decided to declutter their lives in a major way. The upshot of the story is that one can keep more of their money by minimizing their stuff, and also have more time for non-capitalist pursuits.

The catalyst for this had been an article that challenged readers to live with no more than 100 possessions. Thinking about the stuff currently in my house, I think my shoe collection would kill about half of the 100 item limit. So it's certainly an incentive to think about what you really want around.

I began making a list of 100 gotta haves. So far it includes:

• An iPod
• Kiehl's Silk Hair Groom
• A Sonicaire toothbrush
• My car
• Several cats (let's say four)
• A stereo
• My piano
• A Macbook Pro laptop
• A digital camera
• Two pair of Josef Seibel sandals
• My music CDs (will need to consolidate)
• Assorted slutty lingerie
• A coffee maker
• Central air conditioning

Horoscopes gone wild

I was clearing out my junk mail filters and found my weekly horoscope from a Web site called The Frisky:

If someone is going to play games, go ahead; play them back, but harder. If they do confusing, you can do it better. If they play evasive, do it like a pro. Sure, playing games never brings the best results, but these are not normal times and sometimes bringing out your worst is how to bring out another’s best. Think of it like a screwed-up way of getting your yin and yang balanced.   

I'm not sure what this is all about, since I don't consider myself currently involved with any game-players.

I suppose I should stick to reading The Economist while eating my Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake.

Rapping rodents

Even though I'm not in the market for a new car, I found myself actually liking this ad for Kia's Soul.

A one-minute high-def version is posted here (the TV version is 30 seconds long).

If you look closely, they've even changed the NYC street sign to read Hamsterdam Avenue. And the 1-minute version even has a few dancing hamsterettes in pink miniskirts thrown in. One can't leave chicks out of a rap video.

Working in an ad agency again, I can't help but wonder how that creative pitch went. To put it another way, how does someone stand up in front of a room full of executives and say "we want to put hamsters in your products"?

Anyway, after they got Kia's blessing, it took a studio three months to make the computer-generated hamsters.

More here:

Framestore has spent three months creating 45 photoreal CG rodent rap stars for David & Goliath’s hilarious new Kia Soul spot, This or That.

The right time of the month

It seems that I have quirky hormones to go along with the rest of my quirkiness. Maybe it's an age thing.

It's not all bad; for example, when suffering from PMS, I rarely become homicidal. Instead, I become clumsy and start losing interest in sex. So when I begin dropping things, I know that in a few days I'll be technically out of commission. And when that happens, the klutz factor disappears and I can sleep again, content in the knowledge that my libido will return in a few days.

But this month, the clumsiness hung on.  Flag day* is here and I'm still dropping cell phones, keys, makeup brushes and books.

And this morning I did a magnificent job of dropping a can of cat food after pulling the lid half off. It hit the kitchen counter and ricocheted back on me, hitting me squarely in the chest. I had cat food gravy all down my front and stank horribly, although the cats seemed to think no less of me. At least I was still wearing my Hanro nightgown - it's white cotton, so I can bleach it a bit if I need to.

* Australian slang for the first day of one's period.

References done the right way

Ever since learning that some headhunters search LinkedIn for job candidates, I decided to pull my stockings up and sort out my profile.

After I expanded the resume portion and tossed in some keywords for good measure, I decided to ask some ex-colleagues for recommendations. I'd written a few over the years; now it's time to ask for some payback.

My favorite response was from a married boyfriend from 11 years ago. He lives in California, is a data consultant, and travels about 50% of the time. I edit white papers for him now and then.

Here's what I wrote him (name changed to protect the guilty): 

On 08/06/10 8:44 AM, Melina Reilly wrote:
--------------------
Dear Neil,
I know you're busy and hate writing stuff, but I think you could write a recommendation that makes me sound better than I really am.

Neil's response?

If you'll spend the night with me 9/29. I have a layover.