nonpretentious

3 Niches Not Yet Tapped in Online Dating

I started thinking about niche dating sites a few years back when I wrote a story about J4J4J4J.com, a dating site exclusively for Jews for Jesus.  As I sit, tapping my fingers, waiting for someone to launch that goldmine (and, yes, J4J4J4J.com will be a goldmine), I decided to brainstorm about other potential niche dating sites.¹

Here are three niche dating sites that (surprisingly!) have not yet launched:

1.  PhishKiss2LoveChild.com: This site is perfect for anyone who didn’t meet the love of their dreams while tripping out on mushrooms in the parking lot of a jam band show.  Site is ad supported by unemployed musicians teaching hacky sack moves and the art of drum circling.  To help you find your patchouli-smelling soul mate, the site recommends answering a few questions about yourself.  Examples include: how many times per week do you shower; rank The Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band, The String Cheese Incident, Medeski Martin & Wood, and moe. based on their talents; and, Y/N section about whether you’re down with cigarettes, marijuana, mushrooms, hippie flipping, candy flipping, or other.  Successful couples send in videos that usually include footage of hippie dancing at the wedding party or toddlers with baby dreadlocks.

Continue reading…

Music is Electronic

The latest trend in the musical stylings of the world has been decided.

It’s something that we’re all familiar with. We just don’t associate it with bands, groups or even artists.

It’s called synthpop.

Owl City has become an internet sensation overnight after the release of Fireflies on the record label, Universal. Owl City is a musical project by Adam Young, a young American artist who previously published his albums under self-release.

Now, he has a tour of fifty dates and the song ‘Fireflies’ is being remixed, redubbed and replayed across the globe. It is on the playlist of every mainstream listener and every good night out has this played at least once.

Is this new sensation just a man with a beat-board and a talent for discovering beats and rhythms in songs?

Search Owl City on YouTube and one of the top results will be a featured video which was one of his first live tours and he has talents. His voice isn’t the same as the album but he is unique and that’s unusual in the musical world.

Praise where praise is due.

This sensation could mark a new passage in music.

Dear Mila,

I guess instead of penpal they should call it pen-yourself. Ha! You know, because I’m writing to myself. But that’s not entirely true either. I’m writing to you, you being my ideal imagined audience. And who is reading it in actuality is 50% a mystery to me. Which is kind of exciting, but mostly predictable. And predictability is something we seem to mostly underestimate, or ignore completely. I am more and more convinced that much of my life is completely predictable. Pushing the obvious aside, like that I will set my alarm for 8:30am tomorrow but won’t wake up till around 11am, eat a bowl of oatmeal while watching something I’ve already seen on HBO. Continue reading…

A Broad Abroad

Most college students studying abroad start blogs so that they can keep in touch with friends, journal their travels, and remember the details of their experience.

Around four months ago, right after I turned in my abroad application, I decided that I wouldn’t blog when I was abroad. Despite my sister being a professional blogger (hi Melissa!) and my participation here, I knew I wouldn’t always have enough time, energy, motivation, and wit to write in a blog daily. I couldn’t and I wouldn’t. When my friends set-up their new virtual homes, picked original URLs and publishing platforms, I steadfastly stuck to my decision.

After approximately 7 days in Spain, I’ve decided that a blog is necessary to let others know what I’ve been up to and what I’m planning on doing (by others I mean, my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother (he doesn’t read so he’s not actually included), Bari, and any of you). Therefore, I will try to update this series as much as possible. *Disclaimer: Please don’t be surprised if my blog is just a compilation of all my other Seville-traveling friends’ blogs.

Until next time…here’s a quick recap of the past 7 days:

I know that’s not very interesting, but that’s all I can write for now. I’m overexhausted from the amount of walking I do daily and I must nurse my feet back to health.

Adios! Besos.

Brownstein Crashes The Superbowl

One of our most creative friends, Mr. Alec Brownstein (sound alert!), has created a video for the Doritos Crash the Superbowl Contest (sound alert!).

If Alec wins, he receives $5 million.

So, nonpretentious readers – assuming that Alec makes it to the finalist rounds (which he will!) – make sure you get your vote on starting January 5th, 2010 and maybe, *just maybe*, Alec will send us some free Doritos.

Hard Choices: Shower Curtain or Glass Door

Throughout life, people have to make a variety of tough decisions.

• Grad school or 9-5?
• Children or pets?
• Shower curtain or glass door?

Think about it.

Choosing between a shower curtain and a glass door isn’t as easy as it seems. Sure, there are functional benefits to a glass door – water doesn’t leak as much, the floor doesn’t get wet, and you can write your name on the wall when the doors steam up. But….how can someone just say no to a cute shower curtain with rubber duckys on it? It’s quite impossible. But, I guess that’s the challenge we face each day – function or beauty? Writing your name in steam or duckys.

Then I got to thinking – why can’t we invent a glass door that has a shower curtain?!

That way you are guarded from bathroom dwellers…unless you’re showering with them.

You get to write notes…that disappear after a few moments.

And, you can accessorize with cute animals!

It’s time for function to meet beauty head on.  Nothing could be better.

Marketers Love Me

If only I had the perfect scent, maybe I’d do my laundry.

Oh wait.

No more excuses.

Well, if my scent wins….

Vote for me! Help me get my laundry done!

Some WordPress Tips

• 14 Essential Wordpress Development and Design Cheat Sheets
• 13 Essential Wordpress related Firefox Extensions (make blogging easy)

3 Things Not To Do at a Tweetup

1.  Pick a fistfight over which application is better: Tweetdeck or Tweetie.

2.  Insist on prefacing your sentences with “@ [name of the person to whom you are speaking].”

3.  Say, “Whoa, you are way cuter in your avatar.”

* Thr33s is a column created by slackers inspired by 5ives. Feel free to post your thr33s.

Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover

Many people know that popular, yet cliche saying, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” In most cases, I live my life by this saying. If I see a boy who might not be my cup of tea, I still give him a chance. Maybe he’ll win me over with his charisma and charm? Maybe he’ll be a billionaire? Maybe he’s a famous soap opera actor? (You never know….).

Though, I can’t say that I’ve always lived my life this way. When I was younger, I used to judge everything. Books with ugly covers never got read, fruits with ugly skins got thrown away, and scary, barking dogs were avoided at all costs. Then, my brother got a pitbull and she moved into my house. I guess this was the point when I started following that cliché motto.

Her name is Bella. For those of you who live under a rock (or just don’t have common Italian knowledge), Bella means beautiful. Now, I don’t think Bella is beautiful. I think she is the most adorable living specimen on Earth. Like, the type of adorable that draws you in and you just can’t pull your eyes away.

However, it takes about 5 minutes to realize that despite her cute puppy-dog eyes, Bella has inherited the aggressive/mean/scary/killer/biting gene from her long-lost ancestors. This means, when Bella and I play with one of her toys – I hold onto it and she tries to pull it from my hand – I fall onto the ground and get scratched. When I try to get up, Bella jumps on top of me, only to continue to rip the chew toy out of my hand. Finally, when I get to my feet, I scream “down, Bella!” and she listens. She looks at me with those puppy-dog eyes and I forget about my bleeding leg, my hurt toe, or the fact that she won the battle over the chew toy.

Now, I know these stories don’t really persuade you to change your opinion about the vicious Pitbull. I know it takes more than puppy-dog eyes to persuade most people (I’m so weak!). So, I say one thing – play with a pitbull. Give them a chance. You may find that you love them so much that you’ll want to buy one. And, if you already have a dog and you’re scared that the Pitbull might, let’s say, eat it, know this: a small, white, bichon frise survived in house-o’-pitbull for 11 months. Now you have no excuses!