I just bought this camera...because it was really cheap and lovely and in a burgundy leather case and basically I couldn't resist.



It's very heavy...and it had a roll of film in it that I am going to get developed. It's also in basically perfect condition. Some dust, but no scratches that I can see. It looks brand new.

My basic research tells me it is a Kodak Retinette IB.
The text on that page makes no sense to me. I am completely unqualified and Mya is across the country :(

Help? How do I take pictures with it? What settings do I need to know about? Is there anything special you have to do for old cameras?

Yours faithfully,

Ignoramus camerus

what is your opinion on giving people presents from the thrift store?

I gave my little brother this awesome, squishy green velvet armchair for his birthday last year from the thrift store, and my boyfriend a record player/speakers. Sometimes it IS about being cheap -- sorry, I can't afford a brand new record player -- but sometimes you just find really cool stuff.
I've given other gifts from thrift stores. I don't buy anything that's stained or smelly, obviously...I never thought it was weird until I overheard a conversation in the store today.
Do you object? Would you be insulted if somebody gave you a Christmas present from the thrift store?


sidenote: today in the thrift store I found a jar of glass animal eyes like these

so exciting!

What does "script" mean in design?
As in, a design that acts as a script? I can't remember for the life of me and I can't find anything that explains it more fully. I remember vaguely that it means that a design demands people behave in a certain way...I think...but if anybody has an example that would help me so much.

I'm listening to my little radio here on my desk, set to the good 'ol CBC as always...except there's suddenly a fairly clear undercurrent of Bollywood music underneath everything. It's staticky enough that I'm pretty sure it's a different channel, and isn't coming from the CBC signal.
I've played with the tuning a bit and it's definitely right underneath the CBC. I've never heard it before and I've been listening to the CBC on this radio for several hours a day for years.

Conclusion: I have discovered a secret underground Bollywood radio signal.

yes you, mystery stp-er




thank yooou

Have you read this book? Do you recommend it?


This summer I went back to Peru and was talking to my fourth grade teacher from there and he said I should read it. This is the conversation:

Teacher: "Oh yeah, it's really good. It's pretty racy, but it's good."
Me: "Racy? How racy? Racy like Charles Bukowski racy?"
Teacher: "Haha, no dude, that's racy like smoke-a-cigarette-after racy. This isn't that bad. Racy. But you should read it."


The fourth grade was pretty awesome.

a) I am consumed with the desire to have a chicken.
Not to eat (I am vegetarian)...but to love.

Cute little hens to raise in the backyard and build a sweet coop for and refer to as "the girls" and to get eggs from, re Backyard Chickens.com
like for example silkies! my aunt had these when I was a kid and I loved 'em to bits


I know they smell and are hard to protect from predators but I love chickens so much, and the eggs from the grocery store are so bad in so many ways.

b) I played Magic: the Gathering tonight and it was awesome. I won twice. The first time, 28 to 0.
If this makes me a loser I don't care.


Discuss. And feel free to discuss what you did today/what you want.

no for serious guys, I need advice.


okay, I am extremely awkward and I find social situations to be awkward, even painfully so. I have accepted general awkwardness as part of my personality but now that I actually have IRL friends that I have known for several years I'm finding that it's not getting easier to hang out with them/talk to them.

I used to spend most of my free time on here talking to people and then when I actually met friends at school I sort of eased off of Threadless because I thought that only interacting online was impairing my conversational/social skills and I wanted to focus on face-to-face stuff.
But two years after that, I still basically dread seeing my friends even though I love them to bits and they are amazing people. It varies, but in the worst cases I say very little and end up regretting what I do say. The overwhelming feeling, and the one that I want to get rid of, is this suspicion that I've somehow offended whoever I'm talking to. No matter what the conversation was about or their reactions, when I walk away I feel like I've offended them and need to apologize or should feel guilty.
I'm pretty sure my friends like me, and I even halfway believe that I do not actually offend them every time I open my mouth. But I still feel a lot of anxiety when I hang out with them or leading up to me hanging out with them.

Last week I spent an evening with some friends and we drank a bit -- I don't usually (ahem, ever) drink and thus am a total lightweight. I definitely wasn't drunk, wasn't slurring, wasn't staggering, but I was more talkative and mostly I stopped being scared about everything I said. It might have helped that they were all a bit tipsy too, heh heh. Anyways, that was overall a really good night and I felt pretty good (even the morning after!) and had a lot of fun. And concluded that I should never be sober again.
Luckily I realize that is not exactly healthy but I do want help (outside of alcohol) because I want to have fun like that. Often after seeing friends I feel sad because I feel like I wasted an evening worrying, and frankly it sucks.

I try and give myself pep talks and I try and tell myself to snap out of it but...I've been doing this for two years and it's not getting better (if anything it's getting worse.)

I'm sorry for this long and potentially self-pitying blog but...I want to be a better friend and stop torturing myself. Why are some people completely at ease in every social situation and some (me) can't even relax with their best friends? Do you have any advice? Have you ever been in a similar situation?

How old were you when you moved out?
Where did you move to? (residence, an apartment, a basement, a house of the law)
Who did you move in with? (Friends, roommates from craigslist, strangers, squatters, other felons, significant other, family?)


(your psychiatrist?)

I am so in love.
I'd never heard of her or seen any of her photographs but I was watching tv one night, very very late at night, with my dog...and we found this:


and it was amazing. It was an excellent documentary and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes photography, or art or dogs or people.