Maria Diaz lady business. pop culture. whatever.

Puppies & Kittens

The amount of ugliness on the Internet this week really got to me, starting with the insane level of ignorance surrounding the coverage of the Spitzer case (thank god for Amber Rhea for being a source of sanity) and ending with an incident involving a friend of mine. My friend got her picture posted on a blog and ended up getting shitty troll comments in return on shit like the state of her bathroom and on the fact that she dare take a picture with her iPhone. I'm as snarky as the next bitch, but have we reached a point in which we can't communicate without saying anything mean? Even I have a limit with this - which is why I don't read comments on Consumerist and why I limit my consumption of Gawker and Ohnotheydidnt, because even I can not stand to participate in this culture of non stop bitchiness 24 hours a day.

In any case, this entry is about nice things, partly inspired by the above and by the discovery of Mindy Kaling's (better known as Kelly from The Office) adorable blog. So, here is a list of things I enjoy, without irony and without subtext.

1. Listening to This American Life

I broke my ankle last summer and it pretty much changed my life in a variety of ways. For one, I finally got on the Ira Glass bandwagon. I devoured most of the archives in one month, which are all wonderfully available on their site. . Right now I subscribe to the podcast and what I like to do is not listen to it for a month and then go on a TAL binge and listen to them all over the course of an evening. It's so satisfying. The only contributor I skip through is Sarah Vowell, because I can not stand the sound of her voice. I've tried. I can't do it. My favorite contributor is Scott Carrier.

2. Look up hideously expensive bags on neimanmarcus.com like this one, which, at 940.00 is not THAT expensive (for a designer bag, I guess), but is truly, delightfully fugs:

Check out that tiger!!!

3. American Apparel hoodies. No article of clothing gives me as much joy as a hoodie from American Apparel. They are wonderful because they are comfortable but because it is AA and everything is in the hoochie cut, a girl can wear them and not look like all shapeless. Here, I will demonstrate:

4. Quorn patties!

I'm an omnivore but I absolutely hate cooking meat. It's expensive and tedious and takes forever and I'd rather pay someone else to do it. So when I eat at home, I basically live off of vegetarian convenience food. I will murder a bitch for a Quorn patty, which is some kind of weird fungus that makes really awesome fake chicken patties (read more here), much better than that crap Morningstar Farms I lived on when I was in college. I like to eat them with a pound of avocado on top and some Alexia fries on the side or maybe some sweet potatoes. Or, if I'm feeling creative, with some stir fried mushrooms. And if I am lucky enough to be graced with its presence, some Wildwood Garlic Aioli.

5. Coffee

(Photo snagged from Flickr user Inapond )

A few weeks ago, I got a cup of coffee after dinner at Ad Hoc, where they serve you your very own French Press. I poured the coffee and immediately pulled out my phone to photograph the crema that had appeared on the top. A guy at our table seemed totally perplexed as to why I was attempting to capture the coffee and not say, any of the four course meal we had just had. He asked me why I was taking a picture, and I said: "because this is the most beautiful thing in the world."

What are things you think are the most beautiful thing in the world?