currently-obsessed-feb

In the past two weeks, I have accumulated quite a few sudden, urgent, and odd obsessions.

1. My first new obsession is quite a lot of work: learning Chinese. If you, like me, have lived your whole life in America with exposure to zero non-western languages, I’ll have you know that Chinese is quite a treat, with its four tones, phonetic spelling (pinyin) and complicated characters. *If you’re interested, I’ve recorded some of my fave sites for Chinese language learning at the bottom of this post, after the jump and next to the asterisk.*

2. Maybe because I’m unemployed, I have begun to love Anthropolgie with such passion that I visit the page regularly to see if something will go ridiculously on sale (fail). Anyway, they have lots of bright necklaces now (Pow! Accessories), including this one which is called a Strawberry Harvest Necklace. It’s only $200! Er. I’ll have to wait on that one.

3. Shout-out to my local library! I forgot how AWESOME libraries are. You can save tons of money and read tons of book and feel very smart. Queens libraries are esp awesome because there is like one every half mile, AND you can take out books for something like 20 days and renew them up to 3 times AND to check out you just put your books on this mat, and it knows what you have and prints out a receipt telling you when everything is due. Magical.

4.  I put the icon really small in my collage because I’m embarrassed. (I like American Idol. Breaking hearts and fueling dreams!) THERE. I said it. I DO. This week is the first time I ever watched it. Lucky for me there were two episodes on. Cara is a bitch, first of all. But I like Simon. I mean, he is too mean. But when he likes someone, he gives them a little wink and he has that adorable accent. And also Ryan Seacrest IS hot. I get it now. But is his real last name really Sea-Crest? Seems too good to be true.

5. I’ve just started reading Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (yep, thanks Queens Library!). JUST LOOK AT THIS PROSE which is (1) melodic, (2) hysterical: “All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other’s soul and flesh; but there we were, unable even to mate as slum children would have so easily found an opportunity to do.” (Ah, I love that! Don’t you?)

6. OMG. I stopped in the Forever 21 at Herald Square, and the accessories (second floor) look like CANDY. It’s because there are so many, piles and piles, and they are all really brightly colored. I was in love. While I particularly liked the in store set-up, the accessories this season are really bright and unique, and just a little cheaper than at Anthropolgie. I usually wear “costume jewelry” anyway. That way, I can have a lot more : ).

7. The Reader. In my opinion, this season’s best movie. It has at least two things going for it from the very start: Kate Winslet (I love her), and Stephen Daldry, who directed one of my favorite movies, The Hours. (I don’t know if it’s true, but according to IMDB he’s also slated to direct a production of one of my fave novels, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.)

* Chinese Resources: The internet is full of awesome learning resources including a great resource for learning to write Chinese characters (did you know that there is a correct and incorrect order for the strokes?!). Other great resources include: Yellow Bridge, where you can also learn how to say and write characters and attempt to read texts like the Tao De Jing; this page also has tons of links so you can find whatever resource works well for you; here you can learn how to pronounce Chinese words written in pinyin; and if you, like me, know nothing about Chinese you should start with something like this overview of grammar and whatnot and this basic wikibook introduction.

Note: The font featured in the above image is called Ray Johnson, and is availible for free at dafont.com.

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