Category Archives: stuff i like

Steve Jobs Makes My Ears Hurt

Posted by katie ett on October 6, 2011 – 11:00 am
Filed under good times at everyone else's expense, music is my boyfriend, stuff i like
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The only sad part about Steve Jobs being dead is that now I’ll never get to tell him personally how awful the iPod earbuds are.

Seriously, is there anyone out there who regularly uses his or her iPod or iPhone and hasn’t bought separate in-ear earbuds for it? And if you haven’t, is it only because you’re cheap and don’t believe that you should have to purchase new ones when you already paid for the sucky ones that come with every Apple purchase?

Kamran bought me some of the in-ear ones a couple of years ago, and the moment I put them in, I was like, “HOW HAVE I SPENT THE LAST THREE YEARS IN MISERY WHEN THESE EXIST?” Because the Apple earbuds are miserable. When my earbuds from Kamran started only half-functioning last week, I pulled the crappy Apple ones out of my old Nano box–I had clearly hung onto them because I anticipated wanting to punish myself for something later in life (maybe this post?)–and was immediately reminded that they almost seem engineered to suck.

Not only are they way too huge for my delicate, feminine ears, but because they don’t actually fill my ear canal, I now have to actually, like, hear children talking about the nonsense they always do to their parents on the bus. I had to listen to a kid complaining about wanting her hair brushed for TEN ENTIRE MINUTES the other day. Why are you not brushing your kid’s hair, mothers? And why are you letting them audibly complain about it during my morning rush hour commute? AND WHY DID YOU THINK THE WORLD NEEDED YOUR SPAWN IN IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Anyway.

Apple earbuds are the very worst, and here are ten much better alternatives I found in five minutes of Googling:


bullets


Jelly Bellys


rubber ducks, which Tracey bought for me, because rubber ducks are of course my favourite animal


Care Bears


Mickey Mouse


Mario


Domo


Superman


M&Ms


cupcakes

I win this one, Jobs.

What Will You Pay for Art?

Posted by katie ett on September 23, 2011 – 4:35 pm
Filed under stuff i like
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The price of art is a funny, funny thing. I remember seeing a macro photograph of some water for $900 at a museum in Southern California when we were there last month and thinking, “Kamran’s 3-year-old niece could’ve accidentally shot that if we handed her a camera.” I think the venerable OOF painting is wonderful . . . but wouldn’t pay more than the cost of materials for it. I appreciate that our society values art, but I just don’t know how you determine what any of it’s worth.

I guess it’s worth whatever someone will pay for it, right? Well, so, my friend Anthony has been making these decorative picture frames lately. I know that decorative picture frames are going to put you in the mind of, like, wood painted magenta and covered in plastic fairy princess hats and the words Daddy’s Little Future Golddigger or something, so let me just show you some examples:

Not lame, right? The project kind of started as an accident, but now he’s really enjoying it, and I’m really encouraging him to make some money off of it. Neither of us has any idea what you charge for something like that, though.

These window frames were free, but it’s unlikely that future ones always will be. He has about $50 worth of copper in the background of the third frame, and the others all have fabric and matting costs. There’s the time spent burning the edges of the frame or weathering the paint. And if he uses his own pictures, there’s the effort it takes to edit and print each photo. Plus, there’s also the “am I willing to make this myself?” factor, and no, I’m not willing to make this myself.

So, how much would you pay for it? If you saw it on Etsy or eBay, what price would get you interested? Is there a price that would turn you away?

I told Anthony not to read this post so you’ll feel free to be more honest, but you can also comment anonymously, if you like. (Just use katie @ unapologeticallymundane.com for the e-mail address, since my comment system requires one.)

Boys Don’t Make Passes at Girls in Grandma Glasses

Posted by katie ett on September 20, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Filed under narcissism, stuff i like
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I’ve been wearing the same pair of glasses since, like, forever. I still like them, the prescription still works for me, and I don’t wear glasses that often, anyway. Also I am cheap. So when my vision insurance offers to pay for either my contacts or my glasses, I always go with the contacts.

And then I found out that you can buy glasses online for ridiculously cheap. Like, ridiculously. I’d been thinking about clear glasses for a while and how they would look so freaking good on me, so I called my Ohio eye doctor for my prescription tout de suite. (I felt a little bad not buying my glasses straight from him, but then I remembered that clear glasses don’t exist in Ohio.) I picked out a pair and showed them to Kamran, who promptly told me that only grandmas wear clear glasses.

Well, if that’s true, then I’m one foxy grandma, right?

Clear Glasses

j/k. One of my friends actually called them “BCs” in the Hamptons this weekend. When I asked her what that means, she said, “Birth control glasses. Nobody’s gonna get you pregnant in those.”

I was like, “If I went to Williamsburg in these, I’d get raped in a second.” Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Not Colonial Williamsburg. You know what I mean. But yeah, I really do look like a grandma here, right?

Clear Glasses

But a really sweet grandma who makes cookies and crochets and doesn’t call anybody a whore, though.

If you want some (non-grandma) glasses of your own, I recommended EyeBuyDirect.com, and if you use code IF5Q63MJE6, you get 15% off your first order, and I get some dollars to help me buy another pair that will actually make boys like me!

Pass Me the Black Eyeliner

Posted by katie ett on September 8, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Filed under narcissism, stuff i like
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When I wore my insanely rad FableAndFury two-headed deer necklace the other day, multiple people commented that they’re pretty sure it’s just two deer standing beside each other:

It’s not two deer, people! It’s not cutesy! It’s dark! DON’T YOU KNOW HOW INCREDIBLY EMO I AM?!

Maybe I need to upgrade to the REDRUM necklace so people will take me seriously.

Favourite Finds from The Old Barn Antique Mall

Posted by plumpdumpling on August 23, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Filed under just pictures, stuff i like, travels
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While visiting Kamran’s parents this year and last, we visited The Old Barn Antique Mall in nearby San Juan Capistrano, a nearly block-long building split into themed rooms and stuffed with oddities and antiques from flapper dresses to cowboys’ cast iron cookpots to, well, whatever these things are:


Groin!


Really? You thought Penetrene was much better than Penorub?

Everything’s fairly overpriced for anyone used to “antiquing” at the thrift store, but really, where else are you going to find your holographic posters that morph from babies into skeletons depending on how you look at them?