I’ve had a blast makingads for ATLOSCon 2012′s Facebook page based on popular internet memes. As I’ve said before, I think it’s time that Objectivists start marketing in new ways beyond the classroom. We had a great response to the ads and got a lot more traffic on our FB page. Here are some of my favorite ads:
Here are some funnies to get you through this darkest of days:
I love this poem. I’v posted it many times. But now it’s animated! Yay! (Thank Rory for showing it to me.)
I’m so excited for this new Sassy Gay Friend video on Black Swan.
I wish they would do one for Lady of Shallot.
I find myself in an interesting place. I’m a grown-up, but barely so. I have friends that are over 30 and under 10. I can go to the ATLOS playgroup and discuss discipline issues with the mommies, then play on the slides with the kids. I play for both teams.
I’ve always kind of felt in between. It’s fun: the kids don’t think I’m boring and the adults don’t think I’m incapable, but it is awfully strange sometimes. But certain events these past few days have hammered home that I really do teeter the line between adult and kid.
Ways in Which I Play for the Mommy Team:
Ways in Which I Play for the Kid Team:
I suppose one day I’ll grow all the way up and might even have kids of my own, officially cementing my placement on the Mommy Team. But for now I’m enjoying being a double agent.
I stumbled across these videos last night. It’s from my senior year when 7 senior boys decided to challenge each other to eat a Whopper with 14 patties on it. And at least 50 people showed up to watch, myself included, to cover it for the school paper. Oh. My. God. Talk about small town, huh?
None of it is edited, so it’s really not worth watching both all the way through. But see if you can spot high school me walking around. 
When I first started art modeling I did a lot of long poses of somebody else’s choosing. But now as I get more jobs, I’m doing a lot more gesture poses. Gesture drawing is what artists do to loosen up. The poses are short (30 seconds to a few minutes) and allow for more dramatic poses that otherwise couldn’t be held for several hours. The model’s goal is to provide dynamic poses that have different levels, angles, and views of the body. I like gesture poses a lot because I get to set the pose and I don’t have to hold still in one spot forever. But there’s also more responsibility on me to come up with multiple poses on the spot and all of them different and intriguing.
I’ve done well so far, but I find myself doing similar and less athletic poses. I find it difficult to come up with various athletic poses that I can hold. I’ve also never been an athlete, save a few years of marching band and dance, so I feel strange trying to do anything but pretty plies. But I’ve come up with a strategy that might help.
I am going to pretend I’m Spider-Man.
And other people too. I figure if I pick 2 or 3 characters and mimic their movements, it will give me a wide range of poses. It will also help me break past the weirdness of doing poses that I myself have no experience with, because I will be someone else in my head. For example, if I pick the characters Spider-Man, Joan Holloway, and Artemis, I’ll get poses like this:
I’m hoping this will push me to be more creative and also loosen me up. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes!
Thanks to the wonders of antibiotics, I’m feeling much better than I have these past few days. (Ear infection. Ow.) I’m all pepped up, but snowed in, so I’m happily fixing up the apartment and going through my YouTube favorites. Here’s a few videos to spread my cheer.
Happy snow in!
I think this interview is fabulous. I love her passion, her humor, and her explanation for what makes the best grilled cheese sandwich on the planet. Her sentiments toward cooking can definitely translate into any passion. Enjoy!
P.S. I always remember this video when I make a grilled cheese sandwich.
Merry Christmas Eve! I’m back home and doing some last minute stuff to get ready for tomorrow. I’m very excited for the presents, food, and jollyness tomorrow will bring. Here’s some a collection of internet stuff to make you merry and bright.
Links:
Quotes:
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
-Hamilton Wright Mabie
“The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance”
-Ayn Rand
“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.”
-Andy Rooney
“Christmas–that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance–a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.”
-Augusta E. Rundell
Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space.
-Dave Barry
