So to figure this out in the most logical way possible, I did a statistical analysis of the 30 photos that make up my current profile picture album.

11 are photos of only myself.

~ 7/11 of these photos were taken when I got a new hairstyle.

14 are photos of me with friends.

~Of the 14 photos there are a total of 15 different people. 5/15 appear more than once.

5 are a photo where a beverage is present.

~4/5 of these beverages do not belong to me.

4 photos are taken on a rooftop.

~2/4 of these you can make out a water tower.

2 blatantly contain graphic manipulation ( photoshop/wordpaint ).

1 is a photo of me in a crowd

1 is a photo of a cat

1 is a photo of my feet

1 is a photo of me as Dracula

So what does this all tell me, and just exactly when am I going to get a new profile pic?!

Well from these 30 photos, I think any passerby/stalker can deduce that:

I’m a twenty something  Brooklyn hipster ( water tower rooftops, photoshop skillz, obsession w/own hair) who has a handful of perpetually drunk friends (beverage photos, 5 friends) that share interests in cross-dressing(Dracula), minimalist art (feet) and LOLcats (cat).

Now about that new profile pic…

bubbles

Our first month together was kind of a hot mess. Kinda hazy but slightly memorable thanks to paparrazi friends.  We probably had too much fun but hey it was our first month together.

tahoe hotmess new years

A couple of months into it, we were already serious and I did something I had always wanted. I moved across the country, and you came with me. Looking back it was a good learning experience, but we probably should have waited. New York had a long winter, and it was DAMN COLD.. for the first two months it was a struggle.  Futile job hunts, homesickness and the flu really made the future look bleak. I had a mild quarter life crisis and started to question everything…especially you.

23rd and sixth

Then came Spring.  With the return of the greenery, my sanity also came with. We finally started settling down.  New friends were made, new restaurants favorited and we had found fun in eachother’s company again.

"NY MAG: my first New York"

Spring was short, but Summer was welcomed with open arms.  There is something about Summer in New York. It’s the shit, and New Yorkers/Transplants/Tourists all know this.  Summer makes you fall in love with the city, and coincidentally this was when I fell in love with you 2009.  I don’t know if it was the summer heat, all our crazy adventures or simply the fact that you look great with a tan, I was in love. And I was happy.

bk love

I wish I could say the rest of the year was like Summer, but Summer was Summer and Fall was Fall. And as quickly as we found our Summer love, we soon started to fall out.  Maybe it was our lack of time for eachother, or maybe we were slowly becoming different people but the little bits and pieces started to add up.  The city is a big place, and we were at pivotal points in our lives.  We just grew apart.

greenpoint rooftops

Luckily we could both see this coming.  We both knew it was too good to be true and that it would probably someday end.  It just happened that 2010 was starting to come into our lives.  We didn’t end because of anyone else.  We ended because we had too and our relationship had taken its course. Even if we are no longer together today, and yes I am now seeing 2010,  but I will love you always 2009.  We were great together but things change and even if we were to hold on to what we once had, it would never be the same.  Here’s to our year together. Happy Anniversary and I hope you have a Happy New Year.

runaway bride

Being thousands of miles away from home, I had no idea what I was going to do.  Its my first Christmas without my familY!!?! Does that make me sound like a baby? Anyway, I was sad… But today, I came home from a bomb diggity dinner with good friends, good food and good booze. At home, I would just get good food. lets be real, I’m not friends with my family. …im awkward.

So I guess what I am trying to say in my slightly drunken stupor and what I came to realize tonight, while holidays like Christmas might be built on tradition and what not, as long as with your with ones you love new traditions can be made and its not so bad.

A throw back.

Happy Holidays

x.gracenotkelly

Having to convincingly keep up this ‘image’ I constructed for myself, I had done a little research.  Now a couple of years later, I think I may have regretted this like that kid who cried wolf.

So why is a quarter life crisis only half of a midlife crisis?! And why is it plaguing me & my generation?

Well after visiting the “all knowing” aka Wikipedia, I found this list of telling characteristics.

• feeling “not good enough” because one can’t find a job that is at one’s academic/intellectual level
• frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career——makes for the best material for heartfelt indie rock. my favorite or maybe
  
• confusion of identity—Explanation for the lost bros in Williamsburg
• insecurity regarding the near future——Why I have commitment issues
• insecurity concerning long-term plans, life goals
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships——Oops. My bad. At least now I know why! I <3 U IRL!
  
• disappointment with one’s job
• nostalgia for university, college, high school or elementary school life——reason why Asher Roth is famous
  
• boredom with social interactions
• loss of closeness to high school and college friends—–Let’s hope this doesn’t happen too much
  
• financially-rooted stress (overwhelming college loans, unanticipatedly high cost of living, etc.)
• loneliness—–emobear
• desire to have children——but the kids on the train are so cute!
  
• a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you—–It’s cool to underachieve k
  

So damn right!? uh oh, am I screwed for the next five years?! Fear not my twenty-somethings! Christine Hassler who wrote Twenty-Something, Twenty-Everything (2005) has the answers!  She also has a blog over at The Huffington Post where she occasionally addresses reader generated questions!

If thats not your thing and you lazy/apathetic, you could always just watch these movies:

Hey, I got Netflix!

x.gracenotkelly

If you don’t know what anime is, please go wikipedia it.  I will not attempt to define it.
Like anything that is slightly subculture, Anime has its fanatics.  Die hards are a special breed. They are the ones who partake in the extreme sect of “Cosplay”

If you have any idea of what cosplay is in America, then you probably have an image of this:

American Cosplay is endearing, but it fails horribly.

Some times its not so bad tho..

But sometimes, its pretty epic!

However, America still has nothing on Japan.
For some reason, when Japan does cosplay, its just sexy.

Meow?

HAWTTTTT

Cosplay, is it the new fabulous or fanaticism gone wrong? Maybe it’s like anything great and foreign, Americans should just stick with what they know. Startrek and Batman

It’s one year later and while most of us might have jobs, we also have our doubts about what we really want to do.  Then there are those of us that are unsure and going back to school.  Instead of an commencement speech at graduation, I think we need a “one year later” speech.

I remember this song coming out when I was in middle school.  I’ve always been a sappy kid, and so of course I loved it.  Now that I am 22, I appreciate it.  It’s so much better now that I get it.

If you didn’t want to watch the video, here are the lyrics. I bolded things that especially struck a cord.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering
experience…I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will
look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…

In line with college/graduation/reminiscing, I leave you on this note:

x.gracenotkelly

But fear nots, speaking of things that just won’t go away, this entry will be about INTERNETZ.  or more specifically

INTERNET MEMES!

Some of you might now be humming to Rick Astley or duck rollin’ but before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s let our nonINternet friends in on the ‘kno’.

What exactly is an ‘internet meme’?

wikipedia defines it as a

“phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an inside joke.^[1] The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although this concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.”

cnn regards memes as

“Internet-circulated videos, photographs, catchphrases or other concepts.”

I call them

GENIUSSS

So Here are some of my favorite internet memes of all time, or realistically the last 5 years. Because there really wasn’t anything 10 years ago, unless you count AOL’s “you got mail” as a meme.

These are in no particular order btw y’all

DANCING BABY

ally mcbeal anyone?

DRAMATIC PRAIRIE DOG…

IT AINT A CHIPMUNK YALL

LIL J and no, not the one from GG

plz leave me a comment on myspace?

That one asian dude.

CUZ I like turtles too

MEME ON Y’ALL

Drunk dialing/texting… it’s nothing new. Who hasn’t woken up the next morning and started freaking out because they sent a text or left a message to that one “ex”. If you have caring friends, at some point during that night out on the town, they will confiscate your phone as to prevent you from humiliating yourself. Now, your loving friends will have another reason to take your phone away. Drunk facebooking.

Thanks to FB apps on crackberries & iphones, we have a whole new set of problems to worry about the next morning. It might seem like a good idea to friend request that “hottie” you just made out with..but by next morning when your beer goggles have fell off and you fbstalk him it’s wait… he’s not so hot. actually, he’s pretty fugs. shitshitshit… sometimes it’s just better to not know, if you know what I mean.

And that’s just the beginning of it. With the ability to poke.defriend.comment.msg we are totally screwed! With DDT (drunk dialing & texting) at least you have a record, on facebook there is no way to know if you friend requested your ex’s current girlfriend! awkward… OOPs.

So if your a good friend and you care, after a rager of a night please take my phone away from me….and my laptop, just to be safe.

k thanx <3

x.gracenotkelly

whoa nelly

Sometimes I really wonder what people are thinking. In case you haven’t been following the pop cult, Cassie just got a haircut… speaking of which I probably also need. I just probably wouldn’t go to her stylist. sorry girl.

In trying to decide just what kind of a cut I want, I’ve been thinking about the symbolic-ness behind the haircut. While we all regularly get cuts to maintain/change our styles, why do we tend to make larger changes when their is a change in our life.

ex. after her over publicized break up, our girl Lindsay decided to go back to RED! it’s been like over 4 years since I’ve seen this shade on her. BBgirl is looking girl is looking good!

That aside, what prompted Cassie to go with the drastic cut? She says,

“Sometimes in life, you need a change. Something deeper than what you thought you were capable of. Something that displays the “I don’t give a fuck” attitude that was always present but never showcased. “

Well Cassie, It really looks like you “don’t give a fuck”. I wonder what P.Diddy did…

x.gracenotkelly

If you’re an older man that likes younger partner, your a typical average male. If your a woman who likes younger partner, your a cougar… or Samantha Ronson. jk! i’m actually terribly sad about their break up to be honest

Any, back to the point.  So who are these cougars, and why are they so rare?  Should we be calling them unicorns instead?   Well TVLand is following the dating reality show band wagon but don’t worry, it’s not a show following a bunch of senior citizens and their geriatric escapades.  On April 15th, TVland is premiering, THE COUGAR: One hot 40 year old MILF’s quest to find her younger man.

It’s not terribly surprising that TVland is bring this innovative dating show to audiences today.  With the famous cougars we have today, it’s going to be the next BIG thing.

Why should the boys have all the fun?  It should no longer be so taboo for women.  There is no better example of Female Empowerment than the Cougar. So girls, in the words of Stacy,

“I am Cougar, hear me ROAR!”

x.gracenotkelly