The Luckiest » feature | quick hit

#238; re-discovering

atlimbo — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:45:28 +0000

It felt great yesterday to transfer a bunch of my favorite music from my home computer to my work computer. This morning to celebrate I’m driving my coworkers up the wall with non-stop Mates of State and Hot Chip.

Other old obsessions that have come up lately have been Billy Joel (The Stranger is still one of the best albums ever), Paramore, Panic!at the Disco, and The Killers. Florence + The Machine’s new Ceremonials is possibly my favorite album of 2011, but I hadn’t really listened to them in ages, not until they were featured on Gossip Girl this spring, at least. Apparently I’m feeling 16-years-old these days.

What bands and albums have you ‘re-discovered’ recently? Any old favorites you’ve been missing?

#230; wait, what? It’s October?

atlimbo — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:03:35 +0000

How is it already nearly that glorious time of year known as NaNoWriMo?

I’ve struggled in recent jaunts, including Camp NaNo this summer, but I’m feeling excited and motivated, and most importantly, inspired!

The official site has just been relaunched, I’ve got my super-loose premise set (see the summary under the jump, I’d love you’re thoughts!), and we’re less than four weeks away!

So, do you NaNo?

And baby I know you got your radio on, so this is my my bad, come back song.
	Meet Leann. Call her Lee, please.Leann Tucker, 22, born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina. She moved to Boston when she was 18, for Berklee (styled herself a songwriter) but never applied. Ended up a receptionist and lives in a house in Allston with 5 friends. Spends her free time playing with a guitar & singing karaoke; drinks more than she should. Girl meets boy. Girl wrongs boy. Girl needs to get back to her country roots to win boy back & in doing so becomes a major popular artist. You know the old story, a song, a sincere look, and then the curtain.

Drew Sampson	The CastDrew: The Boy. 28. Musician, Colette’s older brother, works at a coffeeshop to pay the bills, Boston-born. Justin: 30, Lee’s best friend, lawyer, helps her with music & the rest of life, too, loves her like a little sister. Toni & Colette: 26/21, newest housemates, girlfriends, share the fifth bedroom. Gavin: 27, from San Diego, been in Boston 3 years, a trust fund baby writing for a bunch of blogs and smoking a lot of pot. Sean: Joins Gavin in the smoking, 28, office worker downtown, from Dorchester, surprisingly considers himself super religious.
Gavin Morse Housemate	Justin Allen Housemate	Toni Canning Housemate	Colette Sampson Housemate	Sean Manson Housemate

*Click on the icon for the maker!

#228; to battle seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

atlimbo — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:34:06 +0000

I love the idea of BATTLING THE SAD (by SAD, of course, I mean seasonal affective disorder, but it still sounds pretty great) and in this sudden turn for the grey, dismal, and freezing here in Boston (seriously, Labor Day hit and it was like the actual, physical end of summer instead of the arbitrary, social end) I seem to be surrounded by SAD (my own included). But SAD is not what we do here at The Luckiest, we do the opposite, and so in my effort to BATTLE THE SAD (I swear, every time I write/read that in caps, it’s He-Man shouting it), I bring you ways to carry a little sunshine and attitude around with you (inspired by the Tips of the Week Wednesday over at The Happiness Project).

↳ I cannot help but hit up tumblr when I’m feeling emo (and no, I’m not secretly fifteen years old). Something about being curled up cozy, checking out awesome homemade art and fell0w Harry Potter obsessed crazies just cheers me up. And if that doesn’t work? I can always take my mind off the SAD by practicing some graphic design of my own. Also, reading celeb sighting sites (Just Jared and GoFugYourself being my favorites) or advice columns (you should all be reading Dear Wendy, she’s brilliant and fun).

↳ It sounds silly, but spending a rainy afternoon watching Family Guy/Archer/The Simpsons/Bob’s Burgers/American Dad (so many silly-fantastic cartoons out there these days!) re-runs always does the trick. Hulu is a beautiful thing. If cartoons aren’t your thing, youtube some =3 or old school Steve Martin stand up.

↳ Putting my favorite Broadway/show-tunes on, loud, and dancing around our bedroom singing along. Uh, yeah. This. (You can’t be in a bad mood singing La Vie Boheme or You Gotta Get a Gimmick).

↳ Going for a run. Or, if I’m at work, I hit one of the back stairwells and run up and down a few flights of stairs. It gets my blood pumping, warms me up (I’m a cold person, nearly always), wakes me up, and gets me out of my desk chair for a few minutes!

↳ Call a long distance friend. Someone you have hilarious inside jokes with and haven’t seen in months (someone who’s voice makes you grin, because it’s not the same via facebook!). Get some belly-holding, rolling on the floor laughing in rehashing ridiculous nights out, catching up on the insanity of your current lives, and remind yourself that there are people out there who love you, and whom you love. I can’t imagine feeling blue when that’s at the forefront of my mind.

Tell me: What do you do to BATTLE THE SAD?

#225; blogging is –

atlimbo — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:26:21 +0000

It’s Friday, and today I’m in love with, you guessed it, Blogging! It’s been too long since I’ve been active at writing of any sort, and this is my (hopeful) launch back into it.

This morning in my Trove email was a link to AZSpot’s post about what blogging is to him. I thought I’d give it a go, too. Let’s have at it: why do you blog? Why do you read blogs? What are you favorite blogs and why? I love going straight to a site (I’m a typography and coding dork deep down) and have never been able to get into a reader (what else are bookmarks for, right?) – what about you? Do you use an RSS feed? An e-reader with wifi? How do you read blogs? Why do you love them? (And is anyone out there still using Trove?)

For me… Blogging is connection. Blogging is keeping up with friends, family, favorite authors, and fun celebrities. Blogging is organized thought. Blogging is artistic and emotional release. Blogging is challenging. Blogging is design and coding bliss. Blogging is practicing my crafts (journalism, design, photography, prose and poetry) as often and openly as possible. Blogging is asking tough questions. Blogging is participation. Blogging is exploration. Blogging is new technology and happy hours. Blogging is getting to know a city and a community. Blogging is thinking about complex topics, personal growth, and totally rad pop culture. Blogging is gabbing away with you all.
Blogging is fun! What is it for you…?

#212; 4th of July!

atlimbo — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:35:05 +0000

Happy Fourth of July, from Boston!

#206; welcome to Titletown

atlimbo — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:09:45 +0000

Yeah, you know what we’re all about today. Boston, baby! We got the Cup!

#201; why I love writers

atlimbo — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:35:06 +0000

“A writer is someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second being inside him, and the world that makes him who he is: when I speak of writing, what comes first to my mind is not a novel, a poem, or literary tradition, it is a person who shuts himself up in a room, sits down at a table, and alone, turns inward; amid its shadows, he builds a new world with words. This man—or this woman—may use a typewriter, profit from the ease of a computer, or write with a pen on paper, as I have done for 30 years. As he writes, he can drink tea or coffee, or smoke cigarettes. From time to time he may rise from his table to look out through the window at the children playing in the street, and, if he is lucky, at trees and a view, or he can gaze out at a black wall. He can write poems, plays, or novels, as I do. All these differences come after the crucial task of sitting down at the table and patiently turning inwards. To write is to turn this inward gaze into words, to study the world into which that person passes when he retires into himself, and to do so with patience, obstinacy, and joy. As I sit at my table, for days, months, years, slowly adding new words to the empty page, I feel as if I am creating a new world, as if I am bringing into being that other person inside me, in the same way someone might build a bridge or a dome, stone by stone. The stones we writers use are words. As we hold them in our hands, sensing the ways in which each of them is connected to the others, looking at them sometimes from afar, sometimes almost caressing them with our fingers and the tips of our pens, weighing them, moving them around, year in and year out, patiently and hopefully, we create new worlds.”

- Orhan Pamuk in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature

#198; hump day blues

atlimbo — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:32:17 +0000

As cliched as it is, I always find that this phrase is
the key to getting through a particularly rough Wednesday.
What are your mantras on gray,
middle-of-the-week no-weekend-in-sight days?

#195; it’s friday and I’m in love with a comfy bed

atlimbo — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:09:13 +0000

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve had one heck of a busy week. I intend to do little more than nap for the next two days. Perhaps waking up every so often to put in a new Gossip Girl DVD or change whatever Decemberists album I have running on my phone.

I’m sure this weekend there will be much pontificating online about the NFL Draft (which I was sorely disspointed in, but had a blast watching with friends in Allston), maybe some royal wedding snark, but that’s about it. I can’t wait.

What about you? Seeing as I’m just plain wiped out from this week of craziness, full grown morons, and political hoopla – how about you do some of the limbo lifting for a bit! Tell me in the comments what you’ve been loving this week and how you’re planning to spend the next two lazy Spring days…

#190; staying connected

atlimbo — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:19:11 +0000

I spent the long weekend completely cut off from the world wide web. I checked out a live venue dive bar in my neighborhood (Great Scott, which I’m in lust with), spent an evening out with coworkers (two bachelorette parties at once, this involved bar hopping for five hours Downtown), caught up on my sleep, and watched the Boston Marathon (for the first time) in Brighton! I’m diving in to getting to know my a-little-bit-too-far-from-anything neighborhood and setting my roots down here in Boston even deeper as I go.

However, I realize that as I get crazy!busy with the whole ‘new life’ thing, I may not be the best at keeping up with the rest of the world. I’ve been missing my friends and family (shout out to the PPM in DC!) a ton lately, an ache in the pit of my stomach sort of missing, and so I thought I’d take a moment to reconnect.

I’ve spent the morning catching up with friends online, going through journals and blogs and Twitter feeds and tumblrs. I’m tackling email and text messages next. Maybe tonight. I’m catching up on my latest partnered writing projects, trying to get inspired by checking out new followers on Twitter, new books to keep me busy on the train ride in the gray morning.

And so, here I am, reconnecting with you as well. I’d love to get to know you better. So find me! Twitter. Tumblr. Graphics. YouTube. Last.fm. Flickr.