So, here I am. A year and some change later, I’m sitting in my new-to-me kitchen/dining room/living room combo, trying to get over a particularly awful summer cold and finally worked up the courage to get back in the (WordPress) game. Apologizing for not blogging is perhaps more irritating than not blogging at all, so I’ll save it — in any event, it’s not like I haven’t been around, as I occasionally deign to update my Tumblr and sometimes my agency’s blog. So there!
First things first, what’s new since I last posted (the truncated version):
- I got the job. I’ve now been working for an ad agency for over a year now (uh, okay; a year and 2 weeks), and it’s been really, really good. Good for me, good for my student loan payments, good for stretching my brain and forcing me to learn new things every day. Incidentally, this is the first job I have had that has lasted over a year. It’s funny to think that this go-round, I’m gearing up for an annual “creative performance review,” not steeling myself for yet another nonprofit contract conversation that inevitably ends in “Sorry, no budget.” This has been a year of tremendous, incredible growth both professionally and personally. Even when I’m exhausted and feeling creatively spent, I remember to be thankful.
- I moved into a new apartment, exchanging a top-floor view of the Agnes Scott campus for a ground-level porch overlooking a shaded parking lot. It’s a little more romantic than it sounds. I also swapped a 15-minute walk to downtown Decatur for a 4-minute one. I’m not instinctively wired for change, if you couldn’t tell.
- I am capable of making very good paella.
OK, here’s to hoping this sorry excuse for a post gives this blog a new lease on life.
Here are some interesting things I’ve found on the Internet recently — that I have actually been storing for this blog and this blog alone:
- Language is a Virus: How Loanwords Move the World’s Tongue. “Loanwords explain how and why English speakers can say things like Frankfurter, pretzel, hinterland, dreck, or kaput without their conversational co-conspirator batting an eye.” via Tumblr! I love it, this stuff is seriously fascinating. (via Daily Dot, h/t Tumblr Storyboard)
- “On Being an Aging Hipster Who Drinks in the Park.” When you’re 25 and feel simultaneously old and like a baby, pieces like this tend to hit the spot. Oh well. Sometimes it’s hard to be a walking stereotype.
- “Zelda’s Moment.” So, I think we can say that the hype’s died down over the latest film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and that’s fine by me (I loved it and am OK with my unpopular opinion). I read Nancy Milford’s Zelda: A Biography on a sleeper train to Italy in 2008, and the fascination with the perhaps lesser-chronicled Fitzgerald held strong.
- Have you ever wanted to read a hyper-academic analysis of Weird Twitter? Here you go, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
- “A Brief History of ‘It Girls,'” a list from LongReads. Good for Sundays.
So, that’s all for now. While you’re anxiously awaiting my return, here’s an important screengrab from Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow:
emily grim 