actually april

This April, I broke in my new Moleskine notebook:

A car got driven into my apartment building:

We had Dim Sum in the park:

Reading, obviously:

I enjoyed the views:

And getting spoiled:

The first cheesecake I haven't wanted to spit out since being introduced to the Doughty cheesecake recipe. This was amazing:

I walked by a few protests while working:

And I got terrified by these statues that suddenly appeared one day:

FORTUNE CATE BRINGS YOU FORTUNE:

I got a side-hug from one of my childhood heroes when he was emceeing a dog show while wearing a hat that said "Nasty Girl" on it:

We joined the dog costume contest at DogFest:

We went on hikes with Addie and her backpack:

Then we all got freaked out at discovering that people can suffer reactions from poison oak anywhere from 2 hours to 5 days after exposure:

Then our friends took us to eat amazing sandwiches:

Nick and Addie teamed up to catch a moth:

I finally finished this knitting project. At the warmest season out here:

I started reading a new book while drinking wine from a teacup because I'm an adult:

Addie likes to make sure I don't forget about her even when I can't see her:

San Francisco is always stunning:

Seriously, how does it do this?:

I did some dog-sitting, but I'm still not entirely convinced this is a dog:

In an attempt to try every ice cream place out here, we trekked to Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous. It was seriously good stuff:

We met up with Nick's sister and visited the Weird Festival:

I guess it was weird, but it just felt like a super condensed version of what the city already is like--high people and naked elderly men:

We got a few accent walls painted to match my Buster Keaton poster:

And I got to dog-sit more:

Addie enjoyed hogging the pillows:

 
We got some rain:

This is what Easter with Nick's family looks like:

<3:

much love,
hedgie

in cold blood review

Last week, I finished reading In Cold Blood.

In almost every bookstore I have ever been in, In Cold Blood has been set aside on the special shelf of staff recommended reading accompanied by a small, hand-written note stating that they wish they could unload the book from their minds just so they could read it for the first time again.
I always put off reading this book because I thought there was no way one book could live up to this much hype. 
In Cold Blood tells the story of a wheat farmer in Kansas who was murdered in his home along with his wife, his son, and his daughter. Few clues were left behind, the the novel follows the events that lead up to the mass murder and runs to 5-years after the crime has been solved.
One of the impressive things about this book was that is was one of the first of its kind. It is now a blueprint for almost any true crime or nonfiction novel that has followed. It is this nonfiction label that has often made a lot of people wonder how much creative license the author took with this book. Despite the 8,000 pages of notes Capote took during his five years researching for this novel, a lot of critics take the stance that the book is not as factual as the author claims. There are pages of dialogue that seem to clean and clever for people to say naturally during interviews and scenes that the people involved claimed never happened.
But on the other hand, this book captivated me. Even when I knew the fate of everyone involved, I kept staying up late to keep reading to see just how it all fell into place.
Capote goes into such depth in his details of the people and daily life of the town that it feels like he spent his whole life there out there on the dusty plains, working a tractor and swapping gossip at the cafe. The book goes so far into the backgrounds of his villains that, despite their monstrous deeds, you can't help be see that they are human. It would have been so easy to make them flat characters, just demons that wreck havoc, but Capote shows a lot of empathy for their lives--especially with Perry Smith.
A number of times, I read a sentence that struck me by how perfectly phrased it was or how it turned a mundane, everyday thing and made it seem new, such as: "He had merely fallen face down across the bed, as though sleep were a weapon that had struck him from behind."
I was very much impressed by this book. 




much love,
hedgie

camera angles

Camera angles can make a huge difference in how flattering the subject looks in a photo. That is why all selfie photos are taken with the person stretching their arm up and as far away as possible. The high angle makes eyes look bigger while while helping to avoid a double chin.

Addie recently helped me see how big a difference can be made between two shots taken seconds apart while we went to the dog beach this week.

Certain angles and make you look like this:

And other angles can make you look like this:

That's my girl.




much love,
hedgie

words, words, words

I just found out that the definition of "literally" was altered two years ago to fit modern usage.

Merriam-Websters:

Cambridge:

It can now mean both literally and figuratively, which just makes no sense at all. How am I supposed to annoy all my friends by correcting their grammar and make them regret talking to me?

I will literally punch everyone in the face that I hear using this new version of literally.
Have fun figuring that one out, Internet.




much love,
hedgie