Lower Your Anxiety by Looking At These Pics
I'm a big advocate for having and using whatever tools you need in your bag for anxiety. Whether it's a mixed bag of medication, deep breathing, or yoga, those of us who suffer from anxiety need a whole arsenal to get by.
And sometimes all you need is a moment to pause your racing mind. Sometimes a nice visual can do this for you.
Do you ever have a moment where you make a friend and you realize their talents for the first time? Ashton and I met through a mutual friend at a nerdy gaming con. It was all fun and games once I learned he was a photographer. Then I realized that he takes pics LIKE THIS.
In case y'all don't know, I'm a nerd for stars. But something about this pic just made me feel so...calm? Serene? Unlike the way that I feel in my daily life? XD
I came away impressed. The quality of these photos were amazing and I couldn't help how some of them helped me to...focus on something else other than my stress.
So I thought I would take the best of these pics and share them with you guys. Tell me if they make you feel the way they made me feel!
I actually HATE fireworks with a passion. With a passionate passion. But in this pic, you can actually see the silent beauty of a firework.
DO NOT sing that damn Katy Perry song!
I've thought about living in a lighthouse once. An impractical dream, I know. But when life is very stressful, I can bring myself back to the moment where I thought living in a lighthouse would be just like the above picture, every single day.
You live a million sunsets and get used to them. But every once in a while, you'll see one like this and can't stop staring*
*yes I know don't look directly in the sun, got it.
The moon. Enough said.
What calms me here is staring at the lines in the bark on the split trees.
Also, let me just add Yosemite National Park to my bucket list
Ok, not going to lie, this pic made me think of "Kiss the Girl" in The Little Mermaid. But honestly? I can imagine sitting here, by myself, with a cool breeze (maybe a snack or two cause I stay hungry) and just...being
I don't...I don't even know HOW... but I'll just keep looking. This is amazing.
That lavender purple has got to be one of my favorite colors. Not really on clothes but when you see that color in nature it's like "MY GOD THIS BEAUTY"
Of course I ended this with a picture of a cat by a window. Look at this furry little ball of fluff. Just one look makes you feel like all is right with the world.
What do YOU think of these pics? Do you feel less anxious? What pic was your favorite? Leave a comment below now that you're super duper calm and cozy 🙂
Like the pics you've seen and want to see more? Check out Ashton Silva Photagraphy on their good ol' website and Instagram. Feel free to message him and let him know you like his stuff.
Wish List Friday
We are going to try a out a new post here at Geeky Girl's Guide to Life! Wish List Friday!
Now Les and myself are huge geeks, but unfortunately we can't always have everything we want. We can always wish for it! Every Friday we will feature something that we wish we could have and a brief reason for why. I invite you, the readers to send us some things that you would love to have, and we would love to feature them.
Today is my something from my wish list, and something that is slowly starting to grow into an obsession. I can't help it they are soooo cute. Then they had to go and do my all time favorite TV show. I just found out that the good people of Funko Pop have made a Buffy the Vampire Slayer line.
While I would love to have them all and am bummed that Xander didn't make the cut, I would settle for a Buffy and Angel. Yes, I am a Buffy/Angel shipper. I love Spike, but that's not her man.
My own current Funko Pop collection at the office has grown from my original She-Ra and Phoenix, but I think my boss would kill me if I brought in anymore. I will just have to buy shelves for the apartment like any other good nerd.
What are your thoughts? Do you want them also?
Magnificent Manicure by BruisedUpDollie
When I was but a young girl on the interwebz, I came across a site called Cybersocieties. It was a site similar to hot or not,with points that meant absolutely nothing. It also had a slew of characters. While CS still exists, it is a shell of its former self. We have a small group on Facebook that posts information, and a lot of us are friends on there. One of my dearest friends from that time is Lo. She is here today to show you how to put together a simple and cute manicure. Take it away Lo!
Heeey! I hope everyone is well. I'm super excited to be able to share a simple mani known as the dotticure. A manicure filled with polka dots! For this look I used I used a dotting tool but if you don't own one you can use a bobby pin, the end of a paintbrush or even a tooth pick. You'll also need two or more polish colors. I chose a white and a teal.Â
I layered some of my dots with a smaller dot of my original base color to make O's while leaving some smaller dots just as they were. I think it came out pretty cute for being insanely simple. I hope you enjoyed this super simple dotticure! And I hope you try one out sometime. Also I want to thank Leslie for having me! Thanks doll you're awesome!Â
Do any of you do nail art? Lo is amazing, and as a matter of fact, she designed a manicure for me to use on my cruise. However the nail shop I went to failed horribly at it. I didn't even bother taking a pic of the one the manicurist did. Like I had to come home and redo my own nails, it was that bad. Â Here is the one Lo did for me:
More of Lo's manicures can be found on Facebook and Instagram!
Sharing the Geeky Fun with Toddlers
It’s an understatement saying that parenting isn’t easy these days. Sharing the things we loved as a kid with children just isn’t as simple. Sometimes our excitement for sharing these things that we loved when we were younger overshadows our judgment for what the children may and may not be ready for. The littlest kids are always the hardest to share with. While they may not always be able to determine the difference between reality and fiction, they still want to enjoy things like comic book heroes and robots in disguise.
My nephew is creeping closer and closer to the giant age of five and is a big Marvel and Transformers fan. He has been a big fan since he was three. This excited both my brother and I greatly, because we are big fans as well. The problem was that my nephew was not quite ready for the live action motion picture versions then and isn’t quite ready for that now. We did manage to find something for the little guy to enjoy, The Super Hero Squad Show and Transformers: Rescue Bots.
The Super Hero Squad Show
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Super-Hero-Squad-DVD-Plans/13366
Marvel has several animated television shows and films out, but most of them were and still are a little too mature for my nephew. It is usually due to either too violent content he is not ready to be exposed to or complex story lines that he cannot understand or relate too. Then Marvel came out with Super Hero Squad Show in 2009. The show is a toned down version of the Marvel world focused around Super Hero City which houses all of Marvel’s beloved comic book heroes. The heroes come off as silly and simpler versions of themselves while they battle even sillier versions of Marvel’s villains. My nephew just loves it. He gets to root for his favorite heroes like Captain America, the Hulk, and Iron Man. We don’t mind watching the show with him, because Marvel understood that parents would be watching the show along with the kids. There are several jokes littered throughout the entire show that fans of the comics and movies would find entertaining. I personally love watching it with my nephew, because I think it’s hilarious.
The best part of my nephew having a marvel outlet is that we can go out and buy the costumes and some of the toys from the shows and movies and now he understands what they are. The unfortunate thing is that there were only two seasons made of the show. That being said, the entire series is currently on Netflix, and I think it still runs on The Hub from time to time. The show may be gone, but they still make toys and video games for tots to enjoy as well.
Transformers: Rescue Bots
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Rescue_Bots_(cartoon)
This Transformers show is extremely toned down compared to the rest of the family. It is has no Decepticons. Before you freak out over that, please understand that this show was made for a specific market, and it needed to be comparable to that market. The market is toddlers and they didn’t want bots tearing and blowing one another up. Instead we have a small group of Transformers that have taken the forms of the main public service vehicles in a small town. They were sent to help out the community and learn about humanity by Optimus Prime himself. The city believes that the Transformers are just experimental robots that also turn into rescue vehicles. The fact that they are alien beings is only know to a family that tends to the rescue and public needs of the town. Yes, it does have Optimus Prime and even Bumblebee in a few episodes, but they are not featured. The bots pretty much help out with whatever mystery or shenanigans is going on with the town at that time. It is a specifically toddler focused show. As an adult watching it with my nephew, it is not any more entertaining than the Nick Jr and Disney Jr shows, but the little guy loves it. He adores the theme song as well and sings it all of the time.
Show has one season under its belt, which can be found on Netflix also. It has just started its second season and has no plans as of yet to finish. It currently airs on The Hub as well. The show has spawned several toy lines that are specifically geared to toddlers with simple and easy transformations that won’t discourage the little ones. Because he now has a point of reference, I always joke with my nephew that I see Bumblebee at my work. He gets really excited about why Bumblebee was there, and it can get really fun thinking of stories to explain it. I joke with his parents that the day he gets old enough to watch the live action movies his poor little mind is just going to overload the first time he sees the very real car turn into a giant robot. It will be a fun day.
I really hope other companies and franchises like DC Comics hone in on this niche and add to this market. There is a lot of potential here since honestly these are the only two shows of its kind that I know of. I believe that not only having these types of shows can be entertaining for these age groups and exciting for parents, but it can be quite the lucrative market for these companies to roll into. I really hope that Marvel comes back with something like The Super Hero Show Squad especially in light of all of the recent film adaptation success. Finally, I hope that these two shows help you share some nerdy love to the sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews in your life.
Happy Birthday, MrsCKugs!
Though it is a few days early. I wanted to spread some birthday love to my partner in crime, Les. I thought a great way to do it was by telling a few stories about our friendship and how we met.
Les and I met back in 2006, and she hated me. I don’t take offense to this now, because when it came to our job at the time, she hated anyone that was new. It also didn’t help that I didn’t show up on the first day I was scheduled to come in. I had a horrible cold and didn’t sleep at all the night before, so I was given the weekend to heal up which was extremely generous. I would be temping at a medical office, and unbeknownst to me, I was not the first temp that the office had received. I apparently was the last of a couple of doozies.
I started that job as I do all of my jobs, really quiet and suspiciously sweet. I like to understand the playing field to know what is acceptable and what is not. I was not aware at the time that Les hated me, because she was really nice to me. The ice began to break over the next month and a half. I remember her rolling into the parking lot on Halloween that year blaring “Thriller,” and thinking I might be able to hang with this girl. There were a few boundaries crossed that day that opened up a lot of possibilities for our impending friendship. Later that same day, we had a coworker who was precious and a bit off that dressed up as a gypsy. I sat between this woman and Les. I remember at one point looking over at Les and seeing her holding a stick of about five highlighters that she had connected together and slowly and strategically moving them around me. Our neighbor got up to do something else allowing me to ask what in the world Les was doing. She replied simply that she was attempting to touch her fake mole, which prompted me to immediately fall out. As icebreaking as that event was, our friendship did not become official until about late November when during a reflective moment on the job I asked, “You know what I really want to hear right now?” Les replied, “The Chipmunks Christmas Album?” My response was “Yes, that’s exactly what I want to hear right now.” We’ve been tight ever since then, fully embracing and rejoicing in the fact that we are both extremely random.
I think it was my birthday party that December that she really became comfortable with me. She loved me, yes, but I don’t think she was ready to let everything out. I had invited a few friends over and made baked spaghetti for everyone. We all enjoyed the She-Ra ice cream cake I had made for myself, furthering Les’s impression of my nerdyness. After food we played the DVD Scene It game, where Les ended up beating the hell out of my little brother Eddie with a pillow as she screamed “Eat the cake, Anna Mae!” In all fairness she was answering a question. She was just very exuberant about it. She felt bad about it later, but I told her Eddie was used to it being around his pseudo sisters and me. It was good times.
Our friendship grew and grew from there. We introduced each other to our nerdy favorites. Les created actual race cards for us to throw down. Me being white, I didn’t have to throw mine down as much, but I am half Swedish. Anytime I would tell people I’m an ABBA fan, I got to throw it down so no one would question me. Les got a lot more use out of hers. I am happy to tell you, Les, that I still have it. It is in my important papers file right next to my social security card.
We were both voracious readers and shared books all of the time. That is definitely one of the biggest things I miss about being in close proximity with Les. I remember when the seventh Harry Potter book came out. We both had preordered it at the local book store. They had a midnight release party to which we were drafted into houses and spent most of the time playing Uno in one of the isles with the Disney Princess deck I just purchased while the book store randomly engaged the patrons with shouts of “Gryffindors say Hey!” or whatever house they were trying to rouse. Thank god it was a Friday and neither of us had to work the next day. We went home and got what sleep we could manage. Les drove out the next day where we alternated between outside and inside to read with no interruptions.
Les was going to school in these days and I would often let her come over to do her school work and steal our Wi-Fi. I think a part of her loved it just as much to see my mother, who she adored. I will never forget the first time she came over and met my mother. Les and I were working at my dining room table, she doing schoolwork and I uploading CD’s. My mom comes out with a traditional Swedish snack of buttered hard bread and cheese on a tray with plastic food gloves on. See, my mother, who is the sweetest person in the world, is a retired lunch lady. One thing she took from her lunchin’ days is sanitation. She takes that seriously, regardless how I take every opportunity to make fun of her for it. When me mum came in with the offering, I could see Les’s eyes fall onto the food, then the gloves, and then to my mother. She took the food and my mom left. As soon as my mom was gone, Les looked at me and stated very seriously, “I love your, Mom.” The Lady has that effect.
We would continue this friendship with long serious talks, mutual introductions to Doctor Who and Twilight, and just flat out fun. There were plenty of shopping runs to other bigger cities, movie runs, and quite a few near death experiences. Our weekend trip to Chicago nearly encompasses all of that. There was the time my windshield wipers decided to stop working in the middle of a torrential downpour on the interstate. I didn’t think we were going to make it out of that one. Thanks to some healthy application of Rain-X we were able to make it back home, ignoring the fact that we had to take an alternate route back home that led us through Elwood, and I made Les lay down in the back seat until we were well out of city limits. Elwood isn’t exactly known for its love of the African American race. I can laugh about it now, but I was scared to death for her at the time. I realize I overacted, but I loved her and didn’t want her to get hurt.
We have definitely had some good times. Crazy office Christmas parties, crushes on boys, and slight stalker tendencies towards some of the boys. Sorry, Jeff, it was before you. We will always have those crazy work stories that I can’t even tell here. Even though I know I wouldn’t be giving any specific patient information away, the HIPAA laws scare the crap out of me. I remember the time you got stuck in that ditch on the way to my house. I remember the time you flipped off this jerk driver on our way to see Hot Fuzz and the jackass behind him thought you were flipping him off and chased us down for like four and a half miles in the country. I absolutely and fondly remember you randomly busting out of in “No One” by Alicia Keys. I still can’t help, but think about you when that song comes on. Remember those times we would get into trouble for singing “White Lines” at the checkout desk? Good times. I guess I should take the opportunity to thank you for introducing me to Fubar, it’s changed my life.
I was honored to be there for your graduation. I was honored to be there at your wedding. But most of all, I am honored to be your friend. I hope this post made you smile, Les. I wish you the Happiest of Birthdays this Wednesday. To my fellow Geeky Girl readers and family show this awesome lady some love this Wednesday and know that just as Les and I embraced each other for our geeky tendencies with love and open arms we are here to do the same for you. Happy Birthday, Les!
Bad Day, Cute Kid
Be Yourself, Be Beautiful
First off, I hope everyone had a joyous and happy Thanksgiving. My was wonderful.
Yesterday caught me looking adorable. My hair was poofed, I had on a cute top, skinny jeans and my Uggs. I felt great and I knew I looked good. Â Yesterday's holiday was spent at the in-laws, so I just talked to my family on the phone. When talking to my mom I told her how adorable I looked, and she just laughed and told me I was silly.
You see this a lot with people. They don't compliment themselves, they wait for someone to validate their adorableness. Thing is, I don't need that. I know when I am cute. I also know when I look a hot mess (like, uh, right now lol). I don't need anyone to tell me how cute I look. Yes, it is nice that you have noticed that I look good, and thank you for the compliment. But I don't dress nice just to please you. I dress nice because I feel good dressing up.
So, all of you out there, who are looking flyy, being yourself, being smexy, and just feeling great. Tell yourself you are adorable. Make sure you mean it. Love you. Love being you!