this is a rather large photo dump

With unintelligent commentary. Just to make up for having no pictures yesterday.

I am not a photographer. (But Yvan Rodic is. And my miniature recap of last night's fashion forum is at the end of this post.)

Starting off with...

The fabric-covered frames my roommate glued and stapled with her own hands and brought to put a little color in our living room. I kind of wish that instead of fabric-covered frames, we had a giant wall of fabric swatches instead. Oh my God that would be so cool. Actually, maybe I'll do that over my headboard.

And these thrifted ... glass frame things.

Above, the rather ambitious family dinner my mom roped me into helping out with.

Lamb, salmon, pile of vegetables, pile of vegetables deux. I don't know what's up with my mom and arranging vegetables, but it's a pain.

SUGARRRRRRRRR. (Store-bought, obviously.)

Above, an unrelated food photo from another meal.

A monster-sized grape.

MY GRYFFINDOR PEN. On my linguistics textbook. It doesn't know which team to play for because if you turn it over, it's...

MY SLYTHERIN PEN!!!

Above, epic fail of the my-head-is-too-heavy variety: glasses with headphones with a headband. Don't do it. So much pressure on your temples!

I don't know why I took a picture of this, but I like the colors. That's my grandma's purse. She's a baller. And then I changed into these clothes. For real. I looked 6 years old.

Uh... obligatory flower picture because it was in our kitchen.

In case you were wondering, "sloe" is a plant. It was the last word my cousin and I got stuck on.

Hahahha... from my Java textbook. Also from my Java textbook:

We all know what the answer to that question is.

It's 11 PM. Do you know where your children are? It's November. Do you know what you're thankful for today?

So last night I heard Yvan Rodic from Face Hunter, Liz from Late Afternoon (she works for Chictopia), and Laura from On the Racks (she works for Shop It To Me) talk at a fashion forum hosted by UC Berkeley's BARE Magazine and FAST.

(In attendance were... at least Jennie from Going West, Christina from Profresh Style, FAST model Tiffany (you are sweet! I didn't get your contact info! Email me!), Anisa from The Laugh Slut, Chandamheer from pancakeSTACKER, and Brittany from Work It, Berk. These three ladies were also supposed to have been there BUT I AM A CHICKEN AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MEET PEOPLE SO I HAVE NO IDEA IF THEY WERE THERE BECAUSE I SUCK AT INTRODUCING MYSELF.)

I'll have photos of what I wore later (probably much later...), but for now, here are my takeaway points:

1. A big part of blogging is being extraordinary. The other part is luck.
2. Bloggers are early adopters. Not trendsetters. Because everyone (including Liz's grandma but excluding Yvan Rodic) knows who Snooki is, but not everyone knows who Rumi is. The kind of audience a blogger commands is still nothing compared to even a reality TV star, no matter how big they are on the internet.
   
3. If a man with a French accent opens his mouth and no racial slurs come out, I have already removed my pants.
   
4. Biz Stone (of Twitter) said "Creativity comes from constraint," and Liz (smartypants) said something along the same lines, about how what a blogger puts online is an edited version of real life, the nice parts, the not-wearing-cat-and-dog-hair-covered-pajamas-sitting-in-front-of-a-laptop parts, and therein lies the appeal. It's a combination of aspiration and accessibility - as in something for a reader to aspire to and relate to.
   
5. The Bay Area at large has no remarkable style, probably because of its function-over-form aesthetic.
   
6. Some street style blogs actually have product placement and staged outfits. (This blew my mind.)
7. It is often a good idea to go where things take you.