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Not Another Top Ten List

NOTE, 12/28: Since I wrote this post on 12/22, I’ve come across many, many more amazing Top lists. I’ve amended the post to add those

I once had a roommate who made a lot of lists. She’d make a homework to-do lists, shopping lists, cleaning lists, and, sometimes, even lists of lists. I used to mock her a little, but realized it was a really good way of keeping yourself organized when you have a lot of stuff going on in your life.

At the end of every year, magazines and blogs feel like it’s their job to do a year-end countdown lists of their favorite things. The Aughts are almost over and I’ve noticed an overwhelming number of Top Ten of the Decade lists to make it to the front page of my favorite websites lately. I’ve even seen some Top 17 and Top 40 lists.

It’s amazing to think about what’s happened in the past decade. Personally, I started and finished high school and college… lost my first and second loves… started and got fired from my first job. Instead of writing my own Top list of things that would undoubtedly become trite or boring, I’m going to share some of my favorite lists I’ve come across.

• Entertainment Weekly online’s 10 Biggest Comebacks and Career Collapses of the ’00s is a good list. It’s interesting to compare the comebacks next to the collapses because you can see where some of the career paths were kind of the same.
• CNNMoney.com‘s 8 Names You Know, RIP list compiles the top brands that died during 2009. Circuit City and Gourmet magazine were the biggest losses for me. I don’t own a PC or drive a car, so the Encarta, Saturn, and Pontiac closures don’t affect me that much.
• New York Magazine‘s 17 Extinct Things You Probably Don’t Miss list is a funny one. Because of my age and my industry, I’m expected to, and do, adapt to things rapidly. Some of these things I stopped using long before they “died” (many still exist, they just aren’t popular anymore) and I’ve long since moved on to other technologies to get what these things once provided. For instance, Floppy disks are still on this list… the successive technology is technically CDs, but those are pretty much long gone in my world too. My computer doesn’t even burn CDs, nor do I ever put CDs in to listen to music.
• The Top Ten Awkward Moments from Time Magazine is the list you always dream of, but never actually think about making, unless you’re that particular writer on Time.com. I’m a big fan of awkward moments, mostly because I’m basically a genius when it comes to creating awkward moments in unawkward situations, and 2009 really was a year of the awkward and political correctness. If something wasn’t necessarily awkward, the media or coverage around the event made it awkward by analyzing every single angle of every single story.

These lists are all great, but I the last list truly captures the massive shifts in culture and technology in the 00′s.

• BuzzFeed.com‘s 40 Things That Were Popular at the Beginning of the Decade that Aren’t Anymore basically sums up the past decade of my life (with the exception of JNCO jeans, trucker hats, or parachute pants… I never wore those). This is that list that makes you go “WHAT THE FUCK was I thinking?” The list that reminds you of seeing  your parent’s prom pictures for the first time and kind of giggling and their long hippie hair and silly tuxedos. Why, why, why did I like boy bands? Why did they think frosted tips and bandanas were cool? Why’d everyone freak out over Anthrax? All good questions.

Finally, my favorite: a video of the top political, cultural, and … just plain weird news of 2009 from JibJab.

I thought I’d be driving a Grand Cherokee by now.

A coworker and I were having a conversation yesterday about actors and directors. Which actor do you know you’re supposed to like, but just can’t? Which director has made the biggest impact on film making this decade?

Those are some tough answers to find. We instantly agreed that we couldn’t get behind Penelope Cruz even though she’s a critical darling. We bonded over our hatred of Volver (probably not Cruz’s fault, though). After a little discussion, we both agreed that Stephen Soderbergh would get the award for best director of the decade. Between all the Oceans movies, Traffic, Erin Brockovich, and so on… how could anyone else really get it?

Personally, I’d have to give most enjoyable director to Jason Reitman. Before today, two of his films were my favorite of the Aughts: Juno and Thank You For Smoking. Today, I can add Up in the Air to that list.

It’s not every day I get to take off early from work, gallivant around town, and take in a movie by myself. But, boy, are those days enjoyable. Ever since I started working in Bethesda, I’ve been promising myself to walk down to Bethesda Row for a movie after work and I finally did it … six months later.

Throughout the film, Reitman utilized his filmmaking trademarks that make his films so enjoyable:

• Putting characters in unsympathetic roles and making you love them anyway. First, it was Nick Naylor in Thank You, the cigarette industry lobbyist; then Juno, the smart-assed, pregnant sixteen year-old; and now Ryan Bingham, the man who makes a living by… ending people’s livelihoods. Each one of these characters has the odds stacked against them; place them in any other director’s hands and they could come off self-loathing, self-serving, self-involved… Instead, they become human and three-dimensional. They know exactly what got them into this situation and they spend the film struggling to get themselves out of it.
• Employing great, yet understated actors to play these complex roles. All three leads are incredible actors that really shine when put into these situations. Ryan Bingham is basically an invisible man. He travels 270 or more days out of the year and never stops to take a break. He thrives on the road and gets human interaction only from complete strangers – - attendants at the check-in counter at hotels or airports, employees he’s laying off, and women he takes back to his room after a night at the hotel bar. He’s not attached to any one of these people in his life, so it’s easy for him to care about them. Family? Love? There’s too much baggage there to check at the gate.
• Taking locations and destinations out of the story and letting it rest on the characters. Each of these movies could be set in New York or LA with a montage of catchy music edited into a music video splicing each scene, but Reitman doesn’t do that. He lets everything rest on the lead character, knowing they’ll drive the story home. Just as Juno isn’t about teen pregnancy, Up isn’t George Clooney traveling across the country to fire people in each location. The movie’s really about how he handles each situation – -  how a man who thrives on being alone without other people’s baggage is the one person who can help a stranger when they’re at their lowest point. Each character figures out how they got there, if they want to stay there, and how they’re going to get out of the situation they’re in.
• Character changes are pretty large, but make sense. Every screenwriting class discusses the character arc and how the character needs to go from point A to point B literally, figuratively, or both before the end of the script. Reitman’s films allow the lead characters to do this naturally. The movies aren’t about the good guy getting the girl or the hockey team winning despite the odds. They’re about real people making real decisions. Even though the characters wind up doing something completely out of character by the end of the movie, it never seems forced. Reitman guides the character on an incredible arc that not only leaves you understanding this person, but rooting for them.
• Taking risks in the subplots and minor characters that are featured. In Juno, Allison Janney nearly stole the film with her obsession of Weimaraners and the wacky activities she allows her not-so-capable five year-old Liberty Bell to partake in. I was a little worried about Natalie (played by Anna Kendrick, most notably Bella’s friend Jessica in the Twilight saga) being featured so prominently but she allowed the story to go a little deeper – - make you understand how and why Ryan had gotten to the point he did. His steadfast cynicism about connections to other humans and his work beat her down while her naivety and idealism build him up. Both make huge character changes toward the end and make a long-lasting impact on one another. It’s also nice to not see this role go to a guy and take the easy father/son role. They both learn from each other and encourage the other to grow. Plus, Kendrick delivers some pretty killer lines (see blog title above).

I’m not quite sure how he does it, but I’ve loved each one of these movies. They may not be top contenders every time around for Oscars, but they are certainly well-acted, well-written, and well-told stories that, together, make for an impressive resume.

New Project: Rip Off Scarf

So, I did it again.

I was searching for a pattern for a friend’s Christmas present and couldn’t find one she’d like. After hours of searching, I finally gave up and decided to do some online shopping. I came across this comfy looking cowl on ModCloth.com:

I was kind of shocked at the price tag ($49.99!!!) on it because the yarn is 30% wool/70% acrylic. I know how cheap that crap is. In fact, I have boxes of that crap in my closet that I bought for $2.99 a ball.

So I ripped out an old, ill-fitting sweater I made when I first started knitting and quickly knitted up the cowl. I fastened the ends with buttons hoping it’d have the same affect as the cute ModCloth scarf… and it does for the most part!

It’s not as quite as bendable(?) or scrunchy as the ModCloth scarf, but it’s super warm and looks a lot nicer than their picture. Plus, it just cost me $2.99, and just four hours of my time.

I think I have a new favorite scarf…

To Give or Not To Give.

Since I moved back to DC, I’ve worked for EarthShare, an environmental fundraising federation. We assist nonprofits in raising funds through workplace giving and the Combined Federal Campaign (the federal government’s version of workplace giving). I had no prior knowledge of workplace giving, the Combined Federal Campaign, or really even charitable giving until I interviewed for the position.

For six months now, I’ve been promoting our member charities through Twitter, Facebook, and our e-newsletters asking people to give to their favorite charities without ever really knowing what the system was for donating or what the process for choosing your charities could be like.

Tuesday, we finally had our in-house workplace giving campaign where you learn about the charities you can support, ask questions about donating, and play some silly games. Larger companies and branches of the government have full-blown charity fairs where every type of charity can come out and speak to employees about their program work and why it’s important.

Before the campaign, I already knew the three charities I wanted to give to – two EarthShare charities the Surfrider Foundation and American Farmland Trust, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. I make exactly $9 over an even amount every pay period so I figured I’d donate $3 every paycheck to each one of them for a total gift of $72 a year to each charity ($216 a year if you aren’t a math wizard). It may seem like a lot of money, but, honestly, I won’t miss $9 a pay check. It’s one less trip to Chipotle or two less trips to Starbucks a month. I think I can give that up for the greater good.

When I went to fill out my donation form, I instantly noticed that IAVA wasn’t listed as a beneficiary in my campaign. You can get around that if you donate more than $100 a year to a charity, but my donation was just going to be $72.

I searched for more EarthShare charities in the brochure and came across two other charities I absolutely love: The Student Conservation Association and Rails-To-Trails Conservancy. Both have impressive accomplishments throughout 2009 and work hard to conserve land across the country.

• SCA boasts 50,000 alumni and this year they had 4,000 volunteers who logged over 2 million hours! SCA encourages young people to volunteer in their communities, tracks individuals’ progress, and has some pretty impressive alumni (G. Love of G. Love & The Special Sauce!).
• RTT turns abandoned railroads into biking and hiking trails in communities across America. They’ve helped in the preservation of nearly 1,500 trails across the country. Their programs have encouraged other organizations, such as popular the Highline Park in New York City, to do similar work. RTT also promotes bike riding and healthy lifestyles which I fully support without actually knowing how to ride a bike.

How do I choose between those two?

Since I’m intimately familiar with both programs, I decided to look at just the facts – their ratings on Charity Navigator.

RTT received just one-star which was very confusing to someone who knows their work. It’s so hard to judge every charity on the same standards – low overhead and fundraising efficiency – and put it in the same magical equation just to spit it back out with a one-, two-, three-, or four-star rating. RTT technically has a large overhead, but what if their programs don’t actually cost that much to implement? Maybe they need a larger staff to accommodate the various programs in each state so that makes their administrative expenses skyrocket. Also, because their program growth was down for the year, they lost a lot of points in the efficiency rating. Should a charity really be penalized one or two stars because their programs didn’t grow during the recession? The fact that they only decreased by 2.3% is pretty impressive to me.

On the other hand, SCA received a three-star rating. Their fundraising expenses and overhead were each half of RTT. Additionally, they had a 9% growth in 2008. These are all impressive things, but my feelings about the RTT rating left a sour taste in my mouth and decided to toss this so-called statistical reasoning out the window.

I brought the ratings up with a coworker who had no idea that RTT had a one-star rating. We’re both familiar with, and fans of, their work and were shocked to hear they ranked so low. I couldn’t imagine being an uninformed donor having just the Charity Navigator rating to go off of when choosing a donor.

EarthShare recently did a survey of workplace givers and the psychology behind why they give for which charities. Many of them use sources like Charity Navigator and GuideStar (both are GuideStar valued partners, as is EarthShare) to vet the charities they’ll contribute to. If this is all they have to go on, how often are deserving charities missing out on donations? Are there other charities that do funny math on their overhead fees and get higher ratings? Could they benefit?

Who knows.

I have until January to determine which charity I’m going to choose and will continue to do research until then. Maybe I’ll just wind up giving $3 a pay period to each one of them!

I Luv Teh Internetz, Lolz.

After yesterday’s post on my foray into online dating, I got to thinking about how much I really do online. It’s gotten to the point where I do almost everything online now.

I currently don’t have internet in my apartment so, for the past two nights, I’ve had to find coffeeshops that have internet long enough for me to check email and get some writing done. That being said, I’ve actually gotten more done in the four hours I’ve spent at coffeeshops over the last two nights than I would in four hours in one night at home. I’m embarrassed to browse ModCloth or PerezHilton within view of others, so I’m actually getting writing done… as you can see from the regularly updated blog!

I shop online for clothing, shoes, and, sometimes, even groceries. If I am going to do some in-store shopping, I check the store’s website first for any specials or coupons they might have and to see if there’s anything online I like so I spot it quickly when I’m in the store.

I work online. My entire job is to be the online communications department for our nonprofit. This means spending a lot of time on Twitter, updating our website, researching what’s going on in the environmental field, and keeping track of my favorite green bloggers.

I communicate more online than through any other method. Yes, this is the case for many people, but I use the Internet to communicate through Facebook, Twitter, and email for both work and personal things. I feel like 90% of my awake time is spent either on Facebook and Twitter… or with it in another tab. I’m never more than a click away from Twitter.

I read online. As previously stated, I do a lot of reading on environmental trends for work. On top of that, I come home and read all the news I don’t get to read at work. This includes CNN.com, PerezHilton.com, a few blogs, and Twitter links I favorite throughout the day. Oh, and occasionally, I’ll email myself reading material for the night. I used to be a writer whose work appeared in printed publications – like magazines and newspapers (remember those?). Now, I’m a sucker for a flashy – but not flash-based – website.

I share my hobby online. As stated in another previous post, I love to knit. One of the best social networks online right now (IMO) is Ravelry. If you’re not a knitter, of course, it’s completely useless. If you are, it’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten your fiber-obsessed fingertips on. I can browse any pattern based on a particular type of yarn I have, get pattern errata from hundreds of people who’ve done the same project, and then share it with others! On top of that, people who sell their patterns on Ravelry have made over $1 million.

I buy/watch music/movies online. I used to love buying an album, putting it in my car stereo, and memorizing all the lines before I got home from the mall. I can’t even remember the last full-priced CD I bought. Now that I haven’t had a car or a CD player in nearly 7 years, I have no need for it. My computer doesn’t even have a CD burner. … I can actually name five albums I bought on vinyl in the past year, but haven’t bought a single CD.

Movies are a different story. I mostly watch movies online through Netflix. Occasionally, I’ll rent a 99¢ movie on iTunes or catch up on a TV show that way, but I still buy DVDs. That said, I have lived in my apartment since September and haven’t hooked up my DVD player. I play everything through my computer.

Yeah, I know. None of these things are unique to myself. But it’s just incredible to think how lost I was for the 20 minutes I thought I wouldn’t have internet or computer access after 5:30pm on a week night.

When you think about how much time people do spend online, it’s intriguing to think about the first truly digital politicians we might have. The ones who had personal Facebook profiles in college or found their wives/husbands on eHarmony or Match.com. We think there’s an abundance of information out there for people to dig up on our politicians… just wait until people from the digital era start running for office!

Dating Rules in the Internet Era.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been dabbling in internet dating. After years of seeing a bazillion commercials for eHarmony, Match.com, and Chemistry, they finally hooked me with a free communication weekend.

At first, I was a little weary, self-conscious and embarrassed but I quickly got over that. Hours after signing up, I had 12 matches and I felt a little overwhelmed. I started going through profiles and immediately discovered that a lot of guys were making the same eMistakes, yet they’d have no clue because they can’t see each other’s profiles!

In going through about a hundred profiles now, I’ve noticed these common eDating faux pas:

• Surprisingly, a lot of guys put pictures of themselves with other girls as their main picture. This isn’t exactly what a potential date would want to see… you hanging all over some other girl at a bar. Or, even better, there are some guys who post pictures of themselves with a girl on both sides, each kissing a cheek. If you have that many girls willing to kiss you at one time, why are you on a dating site? Also, if there is an arm around your neck, I can generally tell if it’s a guy or a girls — even if you crop their face out of the picture.
• I don’t care if you list that exercise is your biggest hobby. Yes, exercise and nutrition are important, but don’t you do other things besides working, working out, and talking about working out? If not, I don’t think we have much in common.
• Be careful what you list as your favorite book. I haven’t read a book geared toward a male-specific audience in awhile, but that’s because they’re not for me. Don’t list I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell as your favorite book. I know who Tucker Max is. Yes, I find those stories amusing at times, but I don’t want to date a guy who lists that as his favorite book unless you can cite some paper or sociological experiment you’re working on as the reason for reading that book and putting it at the top of your list.
• Don’t list “attractiveness” as the most important quality you’re looking for in a date. Does anyone really want a partner that they think is unattractive? Do you really think there is just attractive and not attractive? What makes you so attractive that you get to put that as your top priority? I may not be the prettiest or the skinniest, but I definitely think I’m both attractive and sometimes sexy (if you like the librarian type) but don’t want to be judged primarily on that.
• List your actual job title or the field you’re in. I’ve noticed a few people that put silly job titles that do nothing but state how bitter you are about your job. Or, how you’re lacking a serious quality about the work you do all day, every day.

I’m not sure how long I’ll stay on eHarmony, but if it keeps providing writing material and potential dates, I’ll keep up with it for awhile.

New Project: Marian Cowl

Every October, I tell myself that I’m going to sit down, make a list of projects, and start working on holiday gifts for people. The past few years, only a few people have actually gotten their finished gifts because I, instead, find a pattern that I’m so completely obsessed over that I immediately knit it for myself and completely forget about finishing holiday projects.

This year, was no exception.

In researching projects for a friend’s birthday present, I came across the Marian Cowl and instantly fell in love.

With such thick, cushy yarn, it was a quick knit. I get compliments daily and plan on knitting one in every color of this yarn I have… and I think I’ve worn it every day since I finished it.

Now that there are just 11 days til Christmas, I should probably start working on people’s gifts I guess…

Unexpected reactions.

I’ve lived in a large, urban city for quite a while, and few things really have the power to surprise me. Also, as a single woman, I do my best to take all precautions to protect myself and be safe at all times.

There are still those moments when your guard is completely down and urban life comes back and smacks you in the face… or puts its hands on you unexpectedly.

Last weekend, after a long night of board games and pumpkin cheesecake, I left my friend’s house in Crystal City and made the late-night journey back to Woodley Park, via Gallery-Place Chinatown.

While this is one of the more lively metro stations late at night, I still feel quite comfortable sitting on a bench, with my headphones on, drowning out the world at 1:30 AM. Most people on the metro respect the headphones and don’t attempt to talk to you, but there are always those who go against the norms.

The 17-minute wait for the next Red Line train acquainted me with nearly every type of Washingtonian: the underage drinkers stumbling their way back to American, the preppy kids wearing their brown flip-flops and North Face jackets in December, the hipsters on their way to Adams Morgan (I guess I’m included in that group), the out-of-towners who should’ve been back at their hotel much earlier, and the homeless man betting on the odds that one of them will be generous and help him with a dollar or two.

Eight minutes to go and the homeless man approached my bench. Neither of my two bench mates obliged the homeless man. He stepped away for a few seconds and I thought I was in the clear so I nuzzled into my scarf a little more. At that moment, the man decided that, if I couldn’t hear him over my headphones, he was going to put both his hands on my shoulders to get my attention. Boy, did it ever.

I’ve been riding the metro late at night for years and have never had this happen to me. For some reason, the only startled reaction I had was to shot out, “NO!”

What are you supposed to do in that situation? If I didn’t have headphones in, I would’ve politely said, “I’m sorry, I don’t have anything on me,” and my night would’ve been completely unmemorable. Instead, this unexpected reaction to his unexpected action makes me feel both guilty and violated to this day.