Lulu's Good Reads and Good Blogs and Good Stuff and More

Reading for me, is like breathing.  I have to read.  MUST read.  Cannot-go-a-day-without-the-printed-word - type of obsession. 

I will read anything.  The back of the cereal box, the newspaper from two days ago, an airline magazine, the directions for mixing cement.  According to family legend, I started reading at age 4 and haven't stopped.  When I was young, I would go to the library weekly and check out the maximum allowed of 7 books, and then would ride my Stingray bicycle with the deckster banana seat to the bookmobile and take out seven more, balanced in the little vinyl wicker basket on the front.  My car pulls into bookstores of its own accord. If I don't have a stack of books to be read, I'm cranky and nervous.  As I'm running in heels to catch a plane I will run through the airport bookstore. I'm usually reading at least two and sometimes three at a time- well.  You get the picture.

It's interesting that I'm also hooked on reality TV.  Not saying, just saying.

So.  There is a website called Goodreads and all you hipster readers should definitely check it out.  In the not so distant past, I was obsessed with this site, and logged on at every opportunity to pick up tips on what other people were reading, to list all of my books, to talk about what I had read, what I was going to read, my reviews of these books and so on and so on and then...and then.....I stopped.  Not sure why, although it may have had something to do with realizing that many of the goodreaders were more interested in using the site for social networking than for book clubbing.  There's nothing wrong with that, it just wasn't for me.  I want to talk booksbooksBOOKS.  Phew.  Too much Starbucks at Barnes and Noble.

Dear Goodreads - we needed a break.  It's not you, it's me.  You are deckster readable.  I'm not really breaking up with you, I'm just finding my reading self somewhere else (actually, the irony is that I'm now reading all your deckster blogs out there, my fives and tens, and kind of ummmm.....well...I guess...social networking.  Blush.)

And the Pleasantville Housewives monthly book club doesn't actually discuss the books.  The invites proudly state that "most of the time, we haven't read a word of the book, but c'mon over y'all to get away from the kids and have some wine!"  

THE POINT OF THIS POST - and I do have one, as it's so much more interesting for the reader when I do - is that I'm still reading a lot of books AND reading new blogs every day AND I'm also obsessed with magazines.   

So - the pictures are of my latest stacks (already read{glasses on top} and to be read{no glasses} and please ignore the dust).  

Check out these NEW BLOGS, as I think these women have interesting things to say -  The Fifty Factor and The Flying Pinto - new deckster blogs with a different point of view.  

And finally, please look over on the right there, in my sideroll of interesting things, where you'll see more More MORE - More Magazine items to review and discuss.  This time it's a discussion regarding lying about your age - good stuff in both the print magazine and the dot.com 

Whew.  I'm exhausted.  Off to lounge on the couch on a rainy day, sniffing my new books and watching the Red Wings.  That's another obsession, for another day.

Vacation Karma UPDATE

....and yes - today on VH3 (Vacation Hostage Day 3) - we have, for your enjoyment - a tornado AND gastrointestinal distress while we were trying to punch the tourist ticket with a visit to the alligator adventure farm! The hits just keep coming...

The cool thing is that my nephew is teaching me to play Call of Duty - Worlds at War Nazi Zombies, so I'm keeping up on my hand-eye coordination while we mow down the bloody bad guys. And my niece bought a bunch of salt water taffy for me.

So that's pretty deck.

And I think I'm going to announce the Etsy store giveaway tomorrow - OTT!

UPDATE: And because I have time to blog around the internet looking for deckter hippy blogsters to read, here's a new member of the cool table FoN at Kids and Daquiris.

Lulu's Baaaaack!!!

hi hi Hi Hi HI HI HIHIHIHIHIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!

Hellooooooooo......

I'm back, all you deckster hippy blogsters and twitters :)!

After utilizing every current form of transportation known to mankind - except for a rickshaw and a glider - I'm home after 8 days of living out of a suitcase.

Planes, rental cars, trains, subways, taxis, a ferry, a bus and my own legs - walking ACROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE no less - all moved me about in various cities and states and locations.  I worked, I met, I conferenced, I ate, I drank adult bevvies, I had addies, I shopped, I walked and rode and drove and flew.

But no blogging.  I could see all y'all, but couldn't comment or post to my own blog - sooooo very frustrating!  The IT department at Huge McNormous is gooood.  And I'm not complaining really - I'm glad that they're protecting me from viruses and evil spammers and the potential that someone will steal my computer and download porn (really.  that's one of their biggest fears.)  - it's just that I feel really far behind, and need to get caught up out there in cyberspace.

Unfortunately, I won't have a lot of time this week, as I'm hosting my entire staff at my home tomorrow night for a department dinner so I'm cleaning and polishing and dusting.  At least all the places that someone is likely to see......my husband thinks I should just clean the kitchen and the bathroom because those are the only places that people hang out during dinner.  But I'LL know that it's dusty in the corners of the upstairs bedroom and it will bug me.

Also, in-laws coming at the end of the week for a week - cleaning needs ramped up even more.

But I'm back!  I'm coming to comment on your blogs!  Please give me a shout-out to let me know that you're still with me!!!

Blogless Travel Week

So I'm sneaking in a post while I'm supposed to be printing my travel documents for a week-long trip and paying some bills.  I'll be gone until Monday, March 30th and while I'll have my work laptop with me, I may not be able to post anything here or make comments on your fabulous hipster blogs - something about 'corporate policy' and 'company IT security' and 'keeping your job' - whatever.  A bit non-deck, if you ask me.

I'm taking my own Look Book with me to capture my new creative ideas and blog thoughts, and I'll be reading and planning while gone.  A fabulous giveaway is coming to this space soon and here's a hint to get a jump on the competition - check out my etsy store AND gather your friends to get them to peek at the blog and the store.  It will be a very simple giveaway, but there is a tiny bit of homework involved.   

So don't forget about me - I'll be back!

Also, I've joined the NC Triangle Etsy team and I'm looking forward to being part of this great group - check us out in etsy - simply put nctriangle into the search area.  Very deckish!

Have a great week, in the event that I'm 'blocked from inappropriate sites!'

Are we Deck?

Hipster 

Definition:  One who possesses tastes, social attitudes and opinions deemed cool by the cool. (Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term "cool"; a Hipster would instead say "deck.")  source - The Hipster Handbook

Because Diane asked for the definition of a hipster table in her comment and because I immediately went to her blog looking for more potential outsourcers and because her blog now qualifies her for the cool table (remember...over there.  on the right.  that's it) I looked for an official definition of a hipster table.

My definition of the cool table or the hipster table goes back to high school, when the cool kids sat at the cool table in the cafeteria.  And we didn't actually identify it as the cool table - everyone just knew.  No one at that table identified themselves as cool either - because to do so was uncool - and if the non-cool sat there, they were politely tolerated (natch.  It was Catholic school).  If you tried to do what the cool kids were doing or saying though, it became uncool.  

Because - as we all know - trying to be cool automatically makes you not.  Cool. Or deck.

So now, the dilemma.  If you qualify yourself as deck, can you really be deck?  And if deck is mainstream does it then become non-deck?  Because if it has to be defined in a book, then can it be deck?

And - most important - if I say that I'm not trying to be deck, then am I automatically deck for going against the mainstream of being deck?

I say yes!  To being so anti-deck that you are deck! So - all you hipsters at my cool table blog, you rock the deck.  Or something.

I'm going to go lie down now, until all of this caffeine wears off or until more basketball madness starts.  Before someone decks me to get me to shut up. 

BTW - I won a giveaway on Liz's blog for her blogaversary - deck!