Things I Love (no matter what)

Oprah gets to go around telling everyone about her favorite stuff, now its my turn! Just a little silly fun here, don't go looking for profound words of wisdom at the end...well, maybe from Michael Pollan...

Disclosure - Yep, I'm tacking on Amazon Associates links right and left here. Why the heck not? The opinions, however, are 100% true and 100% mine!

Some things just stick with you. They may not be cool, or classy, or intellectually impressive, but you meet, you fall in love, and that's that. We've all got a list...here's mine.

Blue nail polish - My first bottle of blue nail polish came my way in 4th grade. It was Wet 'N' Wild metallic blue with silver glitter. Blue has held a special place in my heart ever since. I started doing nutty things with my nails in high school, when a dollar store opened up across the street from my house, and got more elaborate in college, when weird colors went mainstream. Today, Sally Hansen and OPI are especially generous with the blues. My current #1 nail polish lust item: the gorgeously glittery OPI Disney's Alice in Wonderland 2010 Collection Absolutely Alice .
Plaid flannel shirts - I've stopped waiting for grunge to come back as a fashion trend and started wearing them again. Feels like home.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel - I think I'll always love these shows. I've watched them both start to finish multiple times, and look forward to doing so again. These shows were like a playground for kooky storylines, experimental production techniques, sweeping character development and variability, and snappy dialog. Really not caring that you can tell when the stunt doubles are being used. Would they work today? I dunno...
Pickles in tuna fish - I've always eaten it this way. Dill or sweet...love them both, depending on my mood.
Daria - Hated Beavis & Butthead, loved this spinoff. She smart, sulky, and baffled by the inanity of high school. Full series out on DVD in May!
Peanut butter - With chocolate, carrots, apples, in sandwiches, mixed in oatmeal, in cookies, whatever. I love peanut butter. The natural kind that's not all gooped up with too much sugar.
Poe - One of the alternative girl punk/rocker/semi-goth types from the late 1990's. Nobody seems to remember her, but I still love both albums. Her voice and songs swing from sweet and sorrowful to angry and vengeful at the drop of a hat.
Cargo pants - Comfy and terrifically functional. Who needs a purse when you've got massive pockets with button flaps?
Photoshop and effect filters - A lot of photography purists don't agree with manipulating photos. While I am adamantly opposed to the kind of extreme airbrushing and distortion that has become the norm in media, and misrepresenting altered reality, I just love playing with moody color effects, extreme contrast, film simulations, print aging effects, and yes, even spot color. They may not be "true photography," but they sure are fun! My current favorite filter pack is Color Efex Pro
Payless Shoes - I confess, I cannot bring myself to shell out hundreds of dollars for a pair of shoes, no matter what color the soles are. Especially when the $10 shoes I picked up last month are super-cute, non-slip, and the first pair of stilettos I can actually wear without agony. Likewise for the ridiculous styles I like to buy...yay for fake Chuck Taylors in silly girlie-punk prints!
Hell's Kitchen - I really don't like reality television. The Real World was a silly, enjoyable addition to my high school summers, but this has really gotten out of hand. Hell's Kitchen, though, is a big exception. I love to cook and spent whole buncha years working in restaurants (albeit front of house). I find the whiners who wouldn't last a week behind the line funny--can you really call yourself a serious professional if you get all crybaby about having to do prep work?), and the real talent awe-inspiring. And Gordon Ramsey is a trip to watch...only somewhat of an exaggeration of some of the KM's I worked with in my day!
Photography blogs - Hardly seems fair to do a big post like this and not give a shout out and link love to some favorite blogs. Three of my faves: Digital Photography School, Digital Pro Talk, and Photopreneur . Loads of inspiration, tutorials, industry chatting, and business/marketing ideas for the photographer looking to step things up and get more than satisfaction from their photography.
Books about nutrition, the American diet, and our food supply - A fairly recent pet topic of mine has been the way most of us eat, the state of nutritional research and public health policy, today's food production and marketing practices, and what it's doing to us. A couple favorites below (please note: I am NOT an expert in any sense of the word. I just find these books and the points they make very interesting, disconcerting, and plausible. You'll have to decide for yourself what to do with their suppositions.)

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health I don't love some of the later chapters, which don't seem as well-supported and a little gratuitous. The first several, however, on the fat hypothesis, the history of US public policy with regard to diet, how carbohydrates affect our bodies, and the mechanics of insulin are riveting if you can stay with them. This book is not a light read by any stretch, but I found it worth the effort.

Michael Pollan - He's got three books I know of, two of which I've at least partially read. He has the passion of an activist without losing his head, getting loose with is research, or getting preachy. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals follows the history of four meals - meals from McDonald's, Whole Foods, a sustainable farm, and foraged in the wild. Really fascinating, especially the insight into how industrial farming affects the nutritional content of everything we eat. I still need to finish this one. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto focuses on the health impact of the Western diet and introducing some really simple guidelines that should help to at least reduce our exposure to its nasty effects. Not a diet book at all, more an eating philosophy based on 7 words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. ("Eat food" will make more sense when you read the book. It means real food grown in a more appropriate way.) The other book is Food Rules: An Eater's Manual . Haven't read it yet, but it basically takes the principles of In Defense of Food and breaks it up into pithy rules with bite-size explanations. Not sayin' I never crave McD's cheeseburgers and fries after reading these, but it's suddenly gotten a lot easier to walk away.