YouTubeAholic

I've posted a couple of internet things this week... and in the spirit of that, I figured I'd continue on with some of my recent favorites.

Off of a few YouTube channels I follow....

Convos With My 2-Year-Old.
It's Baaaaaaaaack!

I.. love these. I am so happy they've struck up a season 2. If you have kiddos - more specifically if you have one [or more] like mine, then this makes perfect sense to you.

For you Bieber skeptics out there, I stumbled on this and had to share. I'm nowhere near enjoying any of his music, but I heard this and became intensely appreciative of young talent doing useful and beautiful things with their ability! THIS is the kind of application I want my daughter to look forward to: maybe with music, but no matter the avenue, I would love to see her develop into something that can inspire the next.


In the spirit of bittersweet inspiration, here's good old Miley, before she went celeb-rogue. Can you imagine if this image were what she would've pursued? I'm not discrediting Dolly at all here, but it goes without saying that Miley IS talented... perhaps we'll see more of this once the shine of the word TWERK wears off. [*note, that will be the only time you will ever see me use that word. Ever.]:

For some humor... and a PSA on the importance of not over-hashtagging everything in our lives:

#LOVETHEM. ;)

 

Jamie posted this little guy on my Facebook a couple days back.. If you've never seen any BLR's, I would suggest you do it.. especially if you need a good laugh [the NFL version is an excellent place to start, hah!]:

"Eat a waffle bug!" ;)

Lastly, the trailors for 2 novel-to-movies: 1] the second installation of the Hunger Games trilogy, and 2] the first installation of the Divergent trilogy. And before you ask, yes, Nikki, Elisa and I are going to both of these. Feel free to join. [*Disclaimer.. spoiler alerts! .. oh, and READ THE BOOKS first!]

and.....

And uhh.. I think that's about enough for now. I'm YouTube'd out.

xo | cmd

FACE MASH [Inspiration]

To the internet, again I must say, Thanks.

Somehow I stumbled upon some celebrity facemashes today, and decided that at some point, I'm going to launch off into my own project of compilations. I'll keep ya'll posted, but I now have some solid ideas of how to incorporate my own spin on the concept.

I'm excited.
For now... here's [courtesy of Freaking News] some celebrity mashups for your random viewing amusement. To make it a little more interesting, the answers are at the bottom of this entry.. see if you can guess who's who? (:


#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

Answers. Ya'll ready? (:

➊ | Alice Cooper & Al Pacino
➋ | Angelina Jolie & Keira Knightley
➌ | Donald Trump & Bill Gates
➍ | Julia Roberts & Jessica Biel
➎ | Meryl Streep & Paris Hilton
➏ | Natalie Portman & Keira Knightley
➐ | Orlando Bloom & Johnny Depp
➑ | Paris Hilton & Jessica Simpson
➒ | TomKat [who needs their names, anyway, haha]
➓ | X-Men Transplant! Mystique & Magneto

So that was ... time-consuming, right?
Not the most content-flavored entry I've ever posted, but I'll be referring back to this later....

Happy almost Hump-Day!

xo | cmd

Meanwhile, in Equestria....

Sydni's here!

... and that means that I just spent the entire evening re-enacting scenarios that only happen in Equestria. Not sure where or what that is? Well leeeet me tell you then! It's where THESE things live:

my little pony

I have skittle-colored plastic ponies everywhere.
In drawers, in my bed, under my bed, in the couch, on the kitchen counter.. I swear these things are going to soon overrun the house.. haha.

[not mine pictured, but] we have this, too.
my little pony. everywhere.

It was kind of funny, because as I sat tonight with Pinky Pie in one hand and Rainbow Dash in the other, conversing with Applejack and Fluttershy .... [yes, those are their names... and there are about 30 more just like that if you must know..] It dawned on me that I had MLP's when I was a kid. I'm sure I still have them stored in some corner of my old closet at the parents' house; I'll have to ask the next time I'm home.

1995 vs. 2013

^ Found that online and immediately remembered that yes, I did have those, because I very distinctly remember their faces. Looking at the ponies now, it's funny to see how the designs have changed over the past years, too. [We'll have to check out Barbie later, huh.. haha]

So this, my friends.. is what my night has been. It's slowly morphing into Fall outside, so Sydni and I didn't venture far from the house out to one of the stone retaining walls with our ponies before the evening chill really starting to set in. Now we've set up the village of our exquisite little equine all over the couch and coffee table.

So if you'll excuse me, I've got a castle to save from an "evil pony with an evil magic wand, Mommy!" [??]
... Or something. (:

xo | cmd

A NoOb, All Over Again

Meh.

It's been something of a process getting back into a full groove here in Cincinnati, but I've found the beauty in not rushing anything. It's actually been really nice, working things out at my leisure, without anything or anyone pushing me in directions out of my best interest.

Today I obliged the request of some staff members from SonRise, and joined a group of others not unlike me in being new to SRCC, at a luncheon after the late morning service.

get planted.

I'm glad I did (:

Some things that this made me realize today:

It's been a long time since I've been a noob at a church! Haha. I don't mind really, because we all have to start somewhere, but it's refreshing in a way. It's also another step in the direction of finding my own pathway back on the home turf.

I discovered areas of outreach and ministry into which I have an interest in growing. I spoke with some folks on the praise & worship team, and got some contact information for a few other areas of interest.

Today seemed average on all accounts, but in retrospect, it's a milestone for me. The bigger picture is that I'm finding my way, after several rocky months, and for that I am left feeling blessed, encouraged, grateful and above all... happy.

I think... we're almost there, folks... I'm taking my time on this one, and so far it's paid off in ways I wouldn't have imagined.

xo | cmd

Motor City Work Conference, Pt. II

gooood morning, detroit :|

I woke up in Detroit this morning.
I woke up way too early.
I smelled like an ashtray when I woke up.. because you can still smoke indoors in Michigan.
And somehow, I woke up hungry.

Luckily for us, the Westin is a classy little-well, not really little - joint, so there's nothing to complain about with wide waterfall showerheads, marble sinks, window blinds that filter in the light but not the dilapidated view of demolition and chaos.... and of course a full-scale breakfast buffet line, complete with coffee.. to start off day 2 of our conference.

Fast forward to training [it's a bunch of useful info that's applicable to my job but not really to a blog].. and then fast forward again to the part where we continued eating. They called the food-intake part "breaks." We called it the other way around: in between eating, we took some breaks and learned some stuff. It's a huge win.

So yeah, we ate, again, at the full-table service awards luncheon. ConGRATS to Kortney on being recognized as one of the top 5 sales reps for our territory, to Nikki, Kortney & Anna on completing their EUC for sales, and to a tiny self-backpat for completing my EUCP. It only took me a shy 3 years to do it. Haha.

express takes care of its own ;)

Oh, and Chris bid for and won this:

4-foot tall wooden express superhero?
..... check.

Haha.

Anyway, it wasn't long before Nikki, Elisa and I were back in yoga clothes and packed in a row into the backseat, headed for home. We stopped off at a gas station in Wapakoneta [yep, welcome to Ohio...] and debated a mini visit to the Armstrong Air & Space Museum, but were distracted immediately by the DQ, which of course was a bigger priority. It'd been nearly FOUR hours since we'd eaten, so by this point in the weekend after having stretched our stomachs to the max with heart-attacking food, we figured, why not?

neil armstrong air & space museum | wapokoneta, oh

.... and then, finally, we were home.
It's still early in the evening; Oktoberfest/Zincinnati is happening this weekend downtown, but if I'm being honest, I'm parked on the couch now and really not in the mood to do anything else. 

... Don't judge.
I'll see how I feel about all of it tomorrow. (:
For now, I'm gonna lay here and attempt to will this food to digest.
We'll pick this back up tomorrow.

xo | cmd

Detroit : Sales Summit 2013

Well it's been a long day.
Great, but long.

It started at 5am when I was up and getting ready for the rest of the day. By 6:45am, I was in the foyer of my boss' b-e-a-uuuutiful home, joined shortly thereafter by Elisa and Nikki. The five of us piled into "Mom & Dad's" car [that was their title all weekend], and embarked on our 4-hour trek north to Detroit, MI.

And because I'm an Ohio native.. and because I've been to Findlay, Toledo, Perrysburg and further... I can say this:

The downtown bowels of Detroit are a DUMP. Literally. It is so much so, that in an eerily-fascinating way, it's enticing.. but at from behind a camera lens. Otherwise, it's not much to celebrate at this point if you consider what those vacant, destroyed-but-standing buildings once were or held. *sigh.

yep. room with a view... it's definitely.... somethin' ..

We landed at the Westin, in the heart of downtown; there were business-professional clad people milling around all over the sidewalk, assuring us we were in fact at the right place.

Fast forward to Elisa and I checking into our room, changing out of yoga clothes [aka, road trip attire] and making our way down to the opening presentation for the weekend. We reunited with owners and members of the other four local Express offices, along with a slew of other offices from around Ohio, Michigan and Canada.

Super profesh, I say. Super.

yyyyep (:

From there, we started in on our first round of training tracks, designed to cater to our job functions, but of course with a twist of fun [as is the Express way, for which I am ever grateful]:

kortney's a magician ;)

The formal part of the day came to a close and it was time for some fun, the way our local offices are known to do it: We [our 5 local offices] reserved a huge table at a local Greek restaurant, ate calamari and baklava, and drank uzo until we couldn't stuff one more thing into our stomachs, and had a really good chance to get to know some of the newer gals. We all agreed this should be a much more frequent thing, this whole social outing part of it all.

parthenon, greektown | detroit mi

flaming cheese. yes. queso con fueeego!

After dinner, the lot of us found ourselves directly across the street at the Greektown Casino, where we finished off the night out with some Blackjack, slots and more than enough people-watching [let's be honest]. From there, we made our way back to the hotel where Anna, Nikki, Kate, Elisa, Kortney and I spent the next two hours laughing ourselves into tears along with some random co-guests in what we learned was an out-of-town wedding party.

kate. elisa. kortney. cori. nikki. anna
greektown casino | detroit, mi

Oh, and we ate more food.
Not only will we be off the wagon this weekend.. I'm not really even sure we brought the wagon.

*and chyeah, this is backdated. Actual bedtime happened around 1...ish... AM.
Summit, Day 2 is tomorrow.

Signin' Off from the Motor City herself...

xo | cmd

& A Bunch of Random Stuff I Find Online

Every once in a great while, I find myself saving random articles, pictures, tutorials and creative project/recipe ideas off of whatever source they originated. I discovered today that they're starting to overrun space on my desktop; not that there isn't ample room there to share, but it's looking cluttered.

So here's an entry where I use my blog as a personal remember-this-for-later type board..

First things first:
FOOD. [Don't act surprised]:
[also, click on the pictures to enlarge, if you can't see .08 font ;) ..]

1. Banana Burritos ... or, if you're in Asian mode, Sushana:

things to try with syd!

2. Jelly Worms [these look tricky.. but fun .. for Fall & Halloween!]

wiggly...

3. Casseroles. You can so rarely go wrong with giving me a casserole recipe. The fact that there is an entire stick.. of butter, makes me want to prepare this for and send it to Marianne. Haha.

"curse youuu, paula deen!!!"
[and jk, i don't think is a pd recipe...]

4. Cookies. Don't ask. Just make.

things i promise to only make once a week.. at work...

These things are gonna make me start drooling... I'm such a foodie.. not to be mistaken with critic.. just a fanatic.. of food.. more specifically, eating it. No shame. Haha (:

This one made me laugh. A random number called my cell phone while I was at work, so instead of answer it, both for the obvious reason of my being at work, but also because I didn't even recognize the area code, I let the voicemail pick up. I later Googled the number; apparently G+ thought I needed help pronouncing it... assuming I know each sound component of the English alphabet letters already.

ohhhh, so that's why english-inept speakers sound so strange to us:
"fahyv" ??

^ Really? Twenty-six letters to memorize, but you've not yet done 1 through 10? Hmm. "Fawr, fohr." I think I'll start handing out my number in that format. "Eyt,... too,... fawr..." Yikes.

And then there's this... making me appreciate cotton and satellites in ways I probably never would have before:

thank you, buzzfeed.

Yyyyup.

Lastly, for today at least, I found a shirt that I wouldn't mind owning. It makes no sense, which is part of the quirky fun about it, but it's part of a tshirt company whose claim is in the printing of fun stuff specific to various parts of the Midwest [USA]. As someone who hails [mostly] from the MW, I have to say that many of my non-MW friends certainly do this.. a lot. This made me laugh especially after having lived in Illinois, to which nearly everyone would immediately reply, "Illinois? Ah, cool! Chicago!" ....nnnnnnnnnnnnnn...o.

want.

^ Looking at that, I realized I should probably start forming my birthday and Christmas wish list... more for myself than for anyone else.. haha.

Anyway, that's enough menial stuff for today.

xo | cmd