Ok, this is too cool. It's a census map from a few years ago. This map has over three million dots!

The cool thing is that you can zoom in really close and see things like small rivers and lakes. Admittedly, I played with this longer than I ought to have. 

Have fun!
Cami  =)

This link is to REM's "Losing My Religion" video, but tweaked so it's all in major scales instead of minor. What an interesting change in flavor! It's less salty, and less dark. I have synesthesia, and I often wonder if sounds are the same for everyone else. What about you? What do you think of the minor to major scale change?

Thanks for reading!
Cami  =)

p.s. Your good juju today: What minor shifts could you create to make your world taste different?

p.p.s. Here's the link to the original video, just for reference.

I found an eye-opening article about why e-mails and texts—the internet in general—are so addictive, and thought I might share a bit with you.

And here I thought texting and surfing were just a distraction, or that cats are just that darn cute. Figures that it's brain-chemistry related. Now to overcome the addiction. And help Daughter too.

The complete article, by Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D., can be found in its entirety on the Phychology Today website.

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =)

I hope this finds you healthy this time of year. I'm sure you already know it's flu season, and this year's a doozy.

The map here, according to Google, shows in red which states have what's considered an "intense" outbreak of the flu. Looks like your state is red too.

The best thing you can do for your health is to be happy. Yes, easier said than done, of course. But here's my short list to help with that.

1. Avoid watching (or listening to) the news. If it's important, someone will tell you in person. (Trust me on this. I haven't watched the news for at least 10 years, and I've not missed anything.) 

2. Fix the stuff you can, when you can, if you can. Don't worry about stuff you can't fix. Worry can kill you.

3. Eat as "close to the ground" as you can, as often as you can. If it comes in a bag, it's probably not nourishing your body. Oh yeah, and eat a lot of ginger—that stuff is awesome!

5. Love often and laugh often, especially with kids.

And if you do get the flu, PLEASE stay home!

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =)

p.s. Your good juju today: A spoonful of good juju daily will keep you healthy and off that red map.

It take a VERY playful adult mind (Wes Naman) to think that it would be a great idea to photograph someone with a scotch tape-smooshed face. Kids do this kind of thing all the time, don't think twice about it, and giggle themselves stupid doing it. But imagine the internal monologue: "I know, I'll tape my face into a dorky expression, then take a photo. It'll be great. Hee hee!"

It takes the same sense of playfulness from these (adult) people who allowed their faces to be taped! Their monologues: "This will be great! Yeah, tape my hair too, that'll be fun. Hee hee." Again, a child wouldn't hesitate.

In the end, it takes the same kind of playful mind to appreciate these. Hee hee!

Thanks for reading!
Cami  =)

p.s. Your good juju today: I hope these made you giggle yourself stupid, at least a little.

The word kintsukuroi came up again recently, thanks in part to a post by Sam Harrison (which now I can't find, sorry). Kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of repaired pottery, but it's something more than that. An important something.

These days, would you even consider a broken ceramic bowl worth repairing, let alone consider it more beautiful for having been broken? Probably not. No, of course not. 

But slow down a minute. Consider the bowl, made by hand with maleable clay and fired to a couple thousand degrees, forever altering its molecular structure. The bowl's creator strived to create perfection. 

A handmade object, like a bowl or cup, is revered for the care it took to make it, its beauty, and its purpose. But broken, the object is demoted and loses its honor, so to speak. Repaired, however, can raise the object to a whole new level of appreciation. Not a common idea in western culture.

Some people, more scholarly and patient than I, attribute the origin of the repaired-ceramics artform to story from the mid-1500s. The story goes like this. A great military leader (with a supposedly hot temper) was given a beautiful bowl for an important tea ceremony. Someone dropped the bowl, which broke into five pieces (a more complete essay can be found in Flickwerk, The Aesthetics of Mended Japanese Ceramics, available here). One of the guests spoke up with an improvised poem cleverly linking the name of the giver of the bowl, the style of the bowl, and the five broken pieces, making them all laugh and avoiding the wrath of the hot-headed leader. This specific bowl has since become quite famous, and is considered now an "Important Cultural Property."

This essay goes on to say that instead of the break "…diminishing [the bowl's] appeal, a new sense of its vitality and resilience raised appreciation to even greater heights." The bowl has become more beautiful for having been broken. The true life of the bowl "…began the moment it was dropped…" 

"So it is not simply any mended object  that increases in its appreciation but…the gap between the vanity of pristine appearance and the fractured manifestation of mortal fate which deepens its appeal."

In other words, the proof of of its fragility and its resilience is what makes it beautiful.

Like you.

Thanks for reading,
Cami =)

p.s. Your good juju today: Don't strive for perfection, just be you—cracks, lines, chips and all. You being you is what makes you beautiful.  

At my house this weekend, grown-ups gathered around the table, each with a straw, and remembered what it was to play and have fun like children. 

This game is called Blow Ball. The object? To keep the ping pong ball on the table. If it goes off the table in front of you too many times, you're out, and fewer people blow. Then it's down to just two players. Then there's a single champion who holds the title until next year's party.

It's WAY more fun than it should be.

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =)

p.s. Your good juju today: Have more fun than you should once in a while, and giggle yourself breathless (like we did).

Unfortunately, there are no real-life undos. No command-Z (control-Z for PC users) for "oh shit, did I just do that?!" or "I can't believe I just said that out loud." It would be SO nice if I could. That would be my superpower wish: real-life undos. Multiple ones, too. Once I identified what single decision led to whatever crappy situation I found myself in, I could do 27 undos until I got back to the crossroads, then choose the OTHER path.

I bring this up because of Wednesday. You see, Wednesday I left work early to take Kids to the dentist. In my head, I had my timetable mapped out, scheduled down to the minute. When I needed to be at the high school, when I needed to be at the middle school, and when that would get me to the dentist's office. 

But then reality stepped in and reminded me that what's in my head isn't what's out there in the real world. 

It was raining. I didn't know it was supposed to rain, didn't notice it in the forecast. Traffic was slow. I got to high school late. I finally found a parking place on the south side of the school and walked up to the office. The woman at the front desk said I had to go to the northeast side of the school. So I walk back to my car, and head there. Meanwhile, Daughter sends me a text asking to be picked up at the east side. East side I go. I park along the curb, and start to text her back to tell her I'm there. A man with the face of a bulldog walks up and tells me I can't park there, that there are busses coming, and that I need to park in the lot. Meanwhile, I can see Daughter coming towards me. I tell Bulldog man that I'm picking up my daughter, and I point to her. (There were no busses waiting for the space I occupied.) He tells me again, gruffly, that I cannot park there, yada yada. I circled around a row of cars, looking for a space to park in with no luck. By that time, Daughter is in the parking lot too, and I am angry, and frustrated. This little interlude has cost me about 10 minutes time I didn't have because of the rain.

Onto the middle school. Son was supposed to be in the front office 10 minutes before I got there. He's nowhere to be found. The ladies in the front office call to his class and have him sent up. Son had left his pass in math class. Son's teacher wouldn't let him go back to that room to get it. I can see Son slowly ambling to the front office; he doesn't see me. He's checking out the girls who are putting up posters. When he finally does see me, and the look on my face, he hustles. Now we're 20 minutes behind the schedule in my head.

Onto the dentist (who, by the way, has torturously uncomfortable straight-back chairs in his waiting room) with a packed waiting room. Son, Daughter and I had to sit separately; an oblivious mother-and-son were taking up the only extra chairs where we could have sat together. You can see how this whole thing just pissed me off, right? Like the perfect storm of tiny, insignificant annoyances. 

The icing on the cake? The dentist was running 35 minutes late. My scurrying and worrying were unnecessary.

I told Daughter that I felt like a complete fraud. "Fraud? Wha—why?" she asked.

"Things like this, days like today, ugh!…good juju, my ass!" No good juju was spread by me that afternoon. None. For a self-proclaimed good-juju-spreader, that sucked. Made me feel like a complete fraud. 

Talking later with a group of very supportive friends (HOWies), I admitted to such fraudulence. Dearest Crystal reminded me that you can't have the yin without the yang. Thank you Crystal, I really needed to be reminded of that.

Thanks for reading,
Cami

p.s. Your good juju today: You aren't just ONE flavor, or just ONE side of a coin. Both yin and yang. Now to scurry less and worry less.  =)

Yesterday, my 15-year-old daughter said dubstep = transformers having sex. 

I GUFFAWED in amazement! Absolutely brilliant! 

Thanks for reading,
Cami

p.s. For those of you who don't know what dubstep is, here's a random song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YhQ7BetDdM

The last few days, I have been so easily distracted! My daughter coined it "ADOS" (Attention Deficit—Oooo Shiny!!). I worked on house-stuff, tweaked a few logo design sketches, watched the last episode of season 2 of Downton Abbey (OMG, is that show good, or what?!), and did a whole lot of things that didn't involve organizing my crap for tax season. 

What stuff distracts you from doing the mundane work, besides reading my blog? =)

Thanks for reading,
Cami