There is no doubt that a great outfit can boost your confidence; that is why I like to dress like I'm going to a party when I go to write an exam.

I compiled some of my favourite songs of the year for you to download if you're interested.

Mellow:

Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes - Home

José González - Heartbeats (The Knife cover)

The xx - Islands

Fun:

Animal Collective - Daily Routine (Phaseone Remix)

Dragonette - Fixin' To Thrill (Cavaliers of Fun + Anagramme Remix)

La Roux - In For The Kill

La Roux - I'm Not Your Toy (Data Remix)

La Roux - Bulletproof (Y A L L Remix)

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (Hercules & Love Affair Mix)

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (Grum Remix)

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (Chew Fu H1N1 Club Mix)

Lioness - You're My Heart (Pilotpriest Remix)

Lykke Li - Little Bit (Villains Remix)

Major Lazer - Hold The Line (Golden Gloves Wobble n Shake Remix)

Miike Snow - Animal (Peter Bjorn and John Remix)

Peaches - Downtown (Simian Mobile Disco Remix)

Plastiscines - Barcelona (Lifelike Remix)

Santogold - Lights Out (Tepr Emo Remix)

School of Seven Bells - Half Asleep (Alternate Version)

Sebastian Tellier - Kilometer (A-Trak Dub)

Shakira - She Wolf (Deeplick Radio Edit)

Shakira feat. Kid Cudi - Did It Again

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)

Yelle - Qui Est Cette Fille

Three different versions of Bad Romance may seem like a lot but they sound completely different and each is sublime. Anyway, I hope there's at least one song that makes the download worth it! :)

By the way, this would be the CD cover:

Voice in Fire (2005-6) by Erika Somogyi

Golden Hook

I just visited Le Blog de Betty and read her latest post about buying a scarf from Golden Hook. Golden Hook presents an innovative concept: you choose what kind of accessory you want, the pattern, colour, stitch, etc...and then you choose which grandmother you want to knit your item! I perused the site and thought the picture gallery of the grandmas was really hilarious. Check it out here. :)

Colour, sugar, fun

I had some sprinkles left over from making fairy bread, so I put them in a Nutella jar. Oh, and I also had a spare pig lying around so I put it in there too.

The light reflecting off my disco lamp produced an ethereal effect.

Apparently Pez is one of the essential experiences of childhood that I never had. D received this as a Christmas gift but generously gave it to me because I told her that I had never had it before, and probably also because she heard that the Bee Movie was subpar. The insipidly themed Pez dispenser did little to dampen my Pez experience, though, as it smoothly and efficiently proffered fruit-flavoured candies to my delight. Overall rating: A-

Orlan

She is creating an image in order to destroy it.

A point of concern

It was revealed during a game at last night's Christmas party that many people think that I am very concerned about clothing. I was a bit embarrassed. I'm somewhat uncomfortable with being perceived in this way because I don't want to be regarded as materialistic or superficial. I am not saying that I think people see me in this way or even that anyone thinks about it, but it does tend to be a subconscious association. There isn't really anything I can do about what other people think about me in this regard; nevertheless, it is a point of concern from time to time.

Living poorly

I have just now acknowledged that there is a great disconnect between my perceptions of self and how I really am. I have always thought of myself as a positive person who rarely complains. I don't know if I ever even was this person, but if I was, somewhere along the line I became a negative person who is too critical and skeptical and doesn't like that many people. How did this happen? I need to undergo a self-transformation before I end up old and miserable and cats won't even want to be my friends. All this negativity and discontent must be related to the broader spiritual crisis that I'm currently experiencing, which is too overwhelming to overcome on my own. What am I supposed to do?

Charlie Engman

Pun of the day

What a mist-ical atmosphere.

Secret Santa

My amazing Secret Santa bought me a Woody keychain (which perfectly complements my laptop case), a Buzz Lightyear figure, and Opi Siberian Nights nail polish, the gloss of which is so extreme that I can see my own reflection in my nails. A-mazing! Thanks again, Nat! :)

Jak & Jil

One of my favourite style blog photos of all time.

Often when my mom is speaking to me over the phone about eating fruit, drinking milk, going to bed early, smiling more, being nice to my roommates, etc., my dad will repeatedly yell "TARAAAAAAAAAAA" in the background. I'm not sure why he does it -- and I don't think he knows either -- but he doesn't stop until my mom gets really annoyed and tells him to stop making so much noise. It is hysterical.

Snow (sux) balls

Léon Gimpel

Today was the first snow. I only like snow in pictures, not in real life.

I wish my entire wardrobe was based on this image.

National Geographic

I love cows

National Geographic

I've really wanted to take pictures of cows for a while now because they are insanely cool. This is the most beautiful cow picture I've ever seen!!! I agree with the judge's comment that the cow looks sophisticated. But look at that tuft of hair at the top of its head that screams 'rebel'! This cow is so cool.

Adventures of a gallery monitor

A guy came into the museum today with earphones on. He proceeded into the main gallery and I went in after him for monitoring purposes. He spontaneously began to ramble loudly in an aggressive yet monotonous tone that echoed throughout the gallery space. My intuition told me that he was a crazy person. Soon, however, I realized that he was singing along to a song, seemingly of the metal genre. I put on a friendly smile as if to say, "I'm not judgmental in any way and appreciate all types of unusual behaviour." But as he passed me by he gave me a sideways glance and a half-smile as if to say, "I WILL succeed in creeping you out." And he did.

I think some people derive perverse satisfaction from creeping out other people.

David Bowie

We hung out at S's place before heading to Absinthe for Motown night. At one point someone mentioned David Bowie and then suddenly everyone was enthusiastically declaring their undying devotion for him. S turned on her record player and David's lush voice began to seduce our senses...

S said it was the perfect moment to do what she had always dreamt of: reading aloud to us the liner notes on David's Space Oddity record. She grabbed the record and, standing before us, read the following with a kind of drunken passion:

Words cannot speak of music: they cannot elucidate nor illuminate. Both sounds enter

through the ears, but only music travels throughout and animates the whole body. David

Bowie has always known this.

Space Oddity, which opens this album, and which in 1968 brought David Bowie into music's

world arena as one to be reckoned with, inhabits and charges the whole being. As with all of

Bowie's music, it is both ecstatic and uncomfortable—discomforting. It dates early in the

mutable yet paradoxically consistent Bowie odyssey and remains archetypal. Its

achievement, and this is so of Bowie's music in general, is that it was NOW then, and it still is

now NOW: personal and universal, perhaps galactic, microcosmic and macrocosmic.

My life hasn't been the same since.