There was an interesting discussion on Yuli Ziv’s post about Fashion Blogger Stereotypes.

Did you know that believing you can be smarter can actually make you smarter? The next time you run into a stumbling block in your work, studies, or hobbies, remember your smarts aren’t set in stone.

This photo of Chris Brown and Jean Paul Gaultier is really, um…unfortunate.

These typographic playing cards are beyond perfect. Who’s up for a game of Spades?

What happens when you unplug from your internet addiction? I’ll never know, but this writer braves the disconnected life for two weeks.

From An Exercise in Changing Yourself, Harvard Business Review

2010 Digital Marketing Outlook: If you’re considering expanding your business this year, consider the idea that consumers are now content creators and distributors – they are the medium.

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This weekend, I finally had the time and motivation to do something I haven’t done in 5+ years: I (temporarily) straightened my hair.

Part of the reason I haven’t put hotcomb to hair strands in so long is that I never really felt the inclination. Okay, fine–I admit that being lazy busy had a lot to do with it, but my natural hair texture also felt more me. However, last weekend, curiosity got the best of me, and after a protein treatment and deep conditioner, I fired up the ol’ Gold N’ Hot curling iron, carefully combed and brushed out my coils, and got to work.

Ah, memories

The process didn’t take as long as I thought it would (whoo!), but it definitely brought back some long dormant memories: The sizzling sound of hair oil as it meets heat, the slippery clamp of the curling iron, the smell of hot metal and almost-burnt hair.

The results looked like a cross between Prince’s 1979 album cover and one of RHOA Kim’s wigs:
Then I got the brilliant idea to set it on bendy rollers and wound up looking like a disco version of Blair Warner:

Sigh. Yep, same old hair. My straight hair feels like a childhood acquaintance I haven’t seen in a while, and it hasn’t really changed.

I want Cece hair!

I remember a particularly vulnerable (read: insecure) time around 7th grade or so, when I would’ve given my left pinkie toe for my hair to behave like Cece Peniston’s–to have it hang flat in a shiny ebony-colored curtain, swinging neatly to and fro when I moved, before immediately settling back in its carefully styled place.

Let me tell you, my hair never would–and still refuses to–lie flat. It took years for me to realize my strands are just not heavy enough before I gave up that fight, and last weekend I was quickly reminded of the time and effort I used to put into trying to get my hair to do something it just wasn’t made to do.

So what can you do?

It didn’t take long to learn what my hair will do. It will fluff for days. It will feather. It will form unsolicited swoops and swashes ’til the cows come home, which is why I’ve grown to appreciate the “tousled bedhead” look.

I really just had to accept that my hair doesn’t stay in it’s place. Oh sure, I can attempt to control where it goes and what it does, and it will cooperate to a certain extent. But then there comes a point where it seems to decide that it would much rather loop and swirl and do it’s own thing than obediently stay put and do as it’s told.

I can relate.

Maybe I am my hair.

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Hope everyone had a great holiday! I had fun spending time with the fam and giving and receiving gifts, including this lovely new Nikon D3000 that I have no idea how to operate (but thanks for the surprise, Dad!), a new TV and a TV cabinet from IKEA (thanks Mom!), which FriendBoy and I put together in record time. I’m telling you, trying to make 378 pieces of compressed wood and a smattering of screws into something resembling furniture is the true test of a relationship.

Setting up the new stuff made me want to clean out the old, and in the process of clearing out (some of) the darn near ceiling-high stacks of magazines I’ve accumulated over the years, I came across my prize publication: The September 1993 issue of American Vogue. Can you believe I still have this? A testament to my pack-rat tendencies.

There are some…”interesting” early 9o’s throwbacks in the issue, including Drew Barrymore’s Guess ad, an article about the revival of punk (I guess some things never change), and page after page of “New Romantic” looks–think Linda, Kate, and Christy sporting layers of velvet and paisley and Seinfeld-esque puffy shirts! It’s just too good not to share, so once I get my scanner situation figured out, I’ll post some images.

How was your holiday? Did you do anything exciting?

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My apologies, y’all. Since the Maintenance Mode plugin refuses to work properly no matter how many times I un-and re-install it, you are going to be subjected to all of the ugly behind-the-scenes messiness this blog redesign entails. Just FYI, it will probably take a while since I’m working on the next issue of Style Sample magazine now.

To make up for it, here’s some better stuff to read/look at:

The header from Just JR

• I can’t get enough of the gorgeously quirky collages at JustJR. Dude is amazing.

• Problogging: 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started over at ProBlogger. This blog is one of my daily (okay, every other day) reads.

• If you’re a font ho like me, you probably have a lot more font options than you really need. Luckily, Six Revisions put together a list of 10 Free Apps for Managing Your Fonts.

• According to The Cut, French Officials are Still Trying to Get the Sheikh to Buy Christian Lacroix. Will somebody with millions of dollars to throw around please step up to the plate?

Alber Elbaz is scurred

• Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz is scared of bloggers. Join the club, man. Join the club.

• Seth Godin questions the reasoning behind doing things “within reason.”

• Chris Brogan tackles the difficult and oft-debated process of Measuring Social Media Marketing.

• FOLIO:’s blog questions AOL’s new online editorial guidelines. Is linked content better than original reporting? (Yes, I see the irony)

Happy reading!

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