Weekend Roundup

Some articles and things I've found interesting.

First is just a plug for my latest post on my photoblog here. I got to photograph a For Today concert (which left me really wanting to become a band photographer again) and really loved the experience, especially because I haven't photographed anything this month. 

Photo copyright Alan Powdrill
I really enjoyed this photo series by Alan Powdrill about people with tattoos. The side-by-side comparisons are lovely and I love each person's little statements about their tattoos. I'm pretty sure I'm too scared of needles to ever get any substantial tattoos, but who knows. NSFW

Photo copyright J Henry Fair
As someone who is interested in the environment, this photo series on different methods of mining left me feeling a lot of different emotions. On the one hand, mining is extremely terrible for the environment (to include the humans that live near these areas) and it made me sad to see these images. But on the other hand, they are formally beautiful, which plays on the idea that there's beauty even in the horrible things of the world. It's a strange paradox of beauty versus/with destruction.

Photo copyright U.S. Geological Survey
In the same vein, this photo series that the U.S. Geological Survey is doing includes going to spaces where the effects of global warming is clearly seen. A lot of these places are in my Alaskan backyard, and I've seen it firsthand. For example, my beloved Byron Glacier that I love to sled on during the summers is pretty much nonexistent now. No one can really sled on it anymore or enjoy it, and that's just within the past three years. These images show the more extensive results and it's kind of hard to deny that the earth isn't getting warmer when you see these photos.

Enneagram Personality Test

For one of my classes I had to take this personality test, and it's one of the most accurate descriptions of myself I've ever found. I'm a Type 4, and I could have been written everything myself (except for maybe the part about parental figures). If you explore the website for a bit, there's also articles on how the different types interact with each other and common issues that arise, which is super interesting and helpful. You guys know me, I love personality tests. This one is one of the best.

Photo copyright Rebekah Campbell
I've been following Rebekah Campbell's work for several years, and she recently published a series + interview titled, "they woke up like this: 10 creative women in bed". It's a really fun article about some inspiring women's morning routines, which makes me want to make my own morning routine a little less haphazard (oh but how I love my sleep). Just a tender, witty look into the holy space of a person's bed. NSFW


Hope you guys have a lovely week!

let it breathe

You can usually see me in some variation of this outfit. These days I'm going for comfort, especially because it's gotten harder over my college career to wake up in time to make an informed decision about my outfit before groggily stumbling into class. So it's usually black pants, some shirt (when I wore this I figured lace would offset the army green jacket nicely--wow a coherent thought by Lauren before 9am!), and this jacket. A long time ago I heard or read someone say that the shoes make or break an outfit, or shoes pull the outfit together, so I try to wear fancy shoes to elevate the outfit. Plus, it probably wakes me up while I try to walk in heels for my ten minute walk to class. And also I am usually wearing last night's hair, as seen here. Yes, I am the height of fashion.

I guess I'm also in some variation of this outfit because it's not quite cold enough for tights yet but cold in the mornings but hot in the afternoon so I never know how to dress. Oregon is doing this weird thing where it's really cold one day and then really hot the next, and we haven't gotten much rain yet so I'm just perpetually confused. Okay sorry I always talk about the weather, I grew up doing that, haha.

Yesterday Matt and I went to see Elliot Moss in concert and it was magical. We got to see him in February for our anniversay and told ourselves if he ever came back to Portland we would have to see him again. And we did. And it was incredible. Seriously one of my favorite artists. As for today, I've been nursing my ringing ears and drawing cartoon cats and putting my face in online old people generators, for art of course.

explore your intersections

I just finished watching this TEDtalk that I'm sure a lot of you have seen already. Please definitely watch it even though it's twelve minutes long, because it's really good. And especially at this stage of my life (the one where I "have" to decide what I want to do forever), it was really comforting to hear.

I do a lot of internal dialogue with myself. A lot. Like so much I don't think normal people do it (or maybe everyone does it?), but I analyze everything and look for the connections between everything, and I would say I know myself pretty well. It's been really interesting this year to see how all the different interests and experiences in my life (and a few in other people's lives) are all connecting to who I am today, seemingly unconnected things like time theory and personality studies and buying a billion disposable cameras when I was a child and philosophy and why I loved to eat leaves when I was little (haha I was a strange kid) and making art with thread and string and a lot of weird things. And even the obvious things about me like photography and writing--everything is starting to come together, why I did certain things or enjoyed certain things for a time.

It's really nice to know that I can be an Art Major (who's doing photography and mixed media), an English Major (who continually fails at writing that novel but now is in love with poetry), and I can also take philosophy classes (that relate to art, agrarianism, religion, and reason); and that I can be a photographer, a writer, a blogger (since apparently I'm back into it, haha), a studio practicioner, a social media exec (my fancy title that I made up for my side job getting paid to go on someone else's facebook), and someone who is interested in a million different hobbies (tea, book making, fashion, psychology, travel, sewing, astronomy).

And it's nice to know that I don't have to have it all figured out. Emilie Wapnick wrote another blog post to follow up on her TEDtalk, about different approaches to careers that multipotenialites can take, which you should read here. I think for me, the Einstein work model is the one that makes the most sense for me right now, maybe doing photography as my "day job" to sustain a studio art practice and writing practice, or maybe getting a generic part time job to do all three. There's a lot of options and I just have to remind myself that there are a lot of right choices, instead of just a single one.

So what am I going to be when I grow up / what am I going to do after I graduate? Lots of really incredible, creative things and live a really beautiful, fulfilled life.

back into the swing of things ...?

Uuuuh hey guys? Is this an outfit post? I don't know what it is, but I've really felt the itch to document my outfits again. I seriously don't know. I know I don't necessarily want this to be a daily occurance, mostly because I know I physically can't do that with my school schedule, but for some reason I really have been wanting to get back into it. Consider this a soft blog revival. I'm just testing the waters now. So go easy on me. I mean, my last proper-ish outfit post was almost a year ago, so I'm really rusty. I think part of the reason I've wanted to get back into it is because my life is about to enter another season of change, and maybe the outfits are my conscious way of my subconsious saying, "Hey Lauren, you'll really want to document this closely, so we're gonna use outfits as an excuse!" (It might also be because I should be writing a paper right now and I've run out of other ways to distract myself. I even wasted time by changing the blog layout, so bear with me while I add things over the next few weeks.)

I honestly don't know what this "coming back" means. I don't know if it even is a coming back. Who knows? I could get bored or lazy or busy with it. Haha I really don't know and it's kind of annoying because I usually know.

Anyways, I guess now I need to do typical "outfit post" things. Also I should mention that I'm starting to become interested in ethical fashion, not because I can change the world by changing my lifestyle (we need people to change policies for that), but just because I feel morally bad about being a part of the problem. I'm trying not to be too harsh on myself though because it's actually impossible for a person like me to live within their means + buy ethical food and clothing + eat vegetarian / be aware of the treatment of animals because that's just unrealistic for the culture that I live in. But it's small steps. Anyways, being all round about because while a lot of my clothes aren't ethically made, I haven't bought any new clothes in a long time and this outfit consists of old pieces (except for the shoes). The dress magically appeared in our apartment and it didn't belong to me or any of my roommates so I claimed it, the jean jacket is from my mom's closet (sorry Mommy, I promise I accidentally packed it and didn't do it on purpose!), the leggings are from forever21 and the boots are from target.

Sorry this post is so sporadic, but I also shaved part of my head (haha this part is mostly for my parents, if they're still alive after seeing the photo of it). I shaved it 1. Because it's super cool and I've always wanted to do it, and 2. To hopefully make my hair less hermoine-esque? A giant ball of poof? A tangled rats nest of terror and nightmares? Well believe it or not, it didn't actually reduce the poof whatsoever? Everything I thought I knew about hair is apparently untrue, or my hair is literally insane and has a life of its own and it does what it wants. And unless my hair is in a bun, you can't see it, and you can only barely see it when it's in a ponytail. Yes, my hair is so poofy that sometimes a ponytail covers it. Anyways, this might be the last crazy thing I do with my hair. We'll see. Like I said, I have no idea.

Okay, so hi. Hey. What's up? I've missed everyone! Except I've still been religiously keeping up with everyone's blogs and I'm just the worst at commenting. Yes, I Lauren was that creepy blog reader that made you wonder why you were getting a billion views on your post. It was me. I can't promise I'll be better at that, but you should follow me on instagram because I'm way better there anyways. Okay, I'm gonna stop rambling because it's actually past my bedtime now. So I'll write soon? Maybe? ;D