Your friends tell you there's an actress who looks exactly like you. Ha, you think, that's likely—not. Thanks to the interwebs, these two girls, Samantha and Anaïs, found each other on opposite sides of the Atlantic, thousands of miles from where they started, in that exact scenario. Now they're raising money to make a film about it.

Can you imagine?! (I sincerely hope there's not a twin of mine lurking out there. I think the world could only take one of me at a time!)

Thanks for reading!
Cami  =)

Again the lovely Brainpickings blog links to a home run—go Maria Popova! 

This one is about a book by Caroline Paul, illustrated by her partner Wendy MacNaughton, called Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology.

Caroline's story begins with an accident that involved a shattered ankle, a new love, and two older tabby cats—one of which, after rejoicing in Caroline being home again, goes AWOL.

An Amazon reviewer, P. Mann, summed up the factual parts nicely, "Ultimately, 'Lost Cat' is four things: (1) A story of a woman devoted to her cats, (2) a piece of funny writing with lots of funny illustrations, (3) a serious investigation into a cat's meanderings around a neighborhood, and (4) a glimpse at some of the stranger parts of San Francisco, complete with pet detectives, pet psychics, and a 'scientist' who teaches people how to communicate with their pets. There is a small section of sadness in this story, so be ready for it, but mostly this is a humorous piece, a sort-of Dave Barry light."

Being a cat person myself—although currently catless after 18 years with the best of cats—I get her story. I understand the panic, dread, confusion, and anger you feel when your cat disappears. I bet my pal Julie gets it too.

But the best part of this book is this little pearl of wisdom:

Yep. That's the shizzle, right there. Seek love — harmony and trust and joy can't help but follow.

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =)

If all else fails, you can blame it on the aliens. In which case, create yourself a mind-probe-protection hat—the taller the better—and breathe through only one nostril (see photo). That usually does the trick for me. Good luck, and send pictures once you get your hat made.

Happy Friday and thanks for reading!
Cami  =)

I had a hair-brained idea this week that wouldn't go away. So Thursday morning I asked a few people whose opinions I respect about my idea. They seem to like it, and agree with me that, carried to fruition, it would be fun and beneficial. 

But since it's my hair-brained idea, I have to  make it happen. Thankfully I'll have the help of my personal cheerleading squad, Stefan Mumaw. 

I'm only going to give you a few clues and leave you guessing. That way it'll be a good surprise when the news comes out. It has to do with the HOW Design Conference. Care to take a guess what it is?

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =) 

I have another photo like this one, but where we're all smiling and being calm. This one is WAY better!

So next time you have a group photo, consider being outrageously silly—it'll make you laugh when you see the photo years later.

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =)

Another great article on synesthesia can be found here on the NPR website. For those of you who have read my earlier posts about it, I have the grapheme-color (also recently called ideathesia) kind of synesthesia. The only time it really hampers me is when I have to type random alpha-numeric codes. Then I have to type one-fingered, sometimes with one eye shut. Ha! I can't imagine how disruptive tasting sounds and images would be!

Thanks for reading!
Cami  =)

p.s. Photo illustration by Daniel M.N. Turner/NPR

…at least according to Philippe Petit. 

I've seen this video before, and stumbled across it again this morning. I encourage you to read this great article about Philippe on Brainpickings as well.

A lifelong autodidact (self-taught person), he was always curious and did not stop to think that he shouldn't (or couldn't) learn a certain skill. His joy for life just gushes—you can see it in the video. 

What do you get THAT excited about? Maybe THAT's what you should be doing. With a little passion, faith, tenacity, and intuition mountains can be moved. The impossible isn't. 

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =)

Over cocktails and tapas at Extra Virgin with Best Friend last night (delish!!), I was accused of being very smart and having all the answers. Sweet, but both claims are false, I assure you! Unless I've lived your life and walked in your shoes, there's no way I can have all the answers you need and know what's best for you. (Those who claim to know for certain are full of themselves.) 

What is true however, is that I listen and I ask tons of questions to the people who claim to not know. In looking to validate their reply, sometimes they discover they've had the answers they seek all along and didn't realize it. The challenge in getting to these answers within you is to quiet that inner chatter that keeps repeating misinformation and buttressing your unreasonable fears. The voice that says you can't and shouldn't and how dare you. It's normal and natural to have those doubts and fears echoing with your inner voice. It's like your own built in parent and you're still four years old. But how to quiet that?

When facing those big-picture "what should I be doing with my life" kind of questions, my advice (being a list-maker) is to write down—specifically—all the things you enjoy doing, the things you'd do even if you weren't paid to do them. Like helping little kids tie their shoes, being outside, driving a forklift, painting portraits, whatever. The answers may already be within your list. If you were looking at your list as an outsider, what would you recommend? What things could you combine in a novel way? 

Since I believe that we teach best what we most need to learn, I need to get it in gear! I need to make my specific "what Cami likes to do" list. It'll be huge. Then the list of "what Cami doesn't like to do." That'll be smaller. From there I hope to discover what wonderful things await me. 

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =)

Last night's full moon and the icicles hanging from my house, taken with my cell phone of all things.

Thanks for reading,
Cami  =)

For those of you who have been keeping track, this is my 100th blog post in a series. Why is this a milestone? My darling mentor, Peleg Top, challenged me back in December to make 100 blog posts by March 25th, the day he's back from sabbatical. Well Peleg, welcome back! I did it!  :-D