Whilst bumbling around Macworld.com this morning, I came across an article titled, What's Up Dock? by Phllip Michaels.

This article pulled me in immediately because I simply can't get enough of tweaking, customizing, and beautifying my system, and I find it equally captivating to see how others choose to tweak, customize and beautify theirs. Just this morning alone in fact, I spent nearly 3 hours on creating my newest wallpaper and scouring my favourite sites for new icons. This has become quite an important ritual for me. I do this at least once a month.

I wholeheartedly agree that as core component of any mac, the dock is a window to it's user's soul. There are few things so (nerdily) revealing as the collection of items people choose to place here; the items they rank as among their most oft used programs, apps and tools. It says so much about how they use their machine and what takes precedence in their day-to-day life (both professional and personal). Even further, I believe the icons they choose offer an even deeper insight into their personality. Be it for better, or for ugly.

Now, even though you'll never catch me EVER saying that Apple does anything halfway, I do have to sorta admit that the dock doesn't quite perform in all the ways that I personally wish it would. So, about a year ago now, I downloaded Workstrip. And though it resembles a dock, it's serves as much more, allowing me to organize workspaces, quickly retrieve and instantly view my most relied upon documents and files without having to launch their respective native programs. It was a little tricky toget the hang of, and I'm quite sure I still am not using it to it's full capacity, but it's proven itself useful enough that I have chosen to use it instead of my system's Dock.

With that being said, what do I choose to keep here? What icons represent my precious collection of programs and folders? Allow me to bare all:


(from left to right)


1. Workstrip file (containing recent apps, items and documents, and Workstip prefs)
2. Finder (well, hello happy mac!)
3. Home (I've attempted to switch up this icon, but always revert back to the original)
4. Adobe Creative Suite 2 folder (housing all CS2 program folders)
5. Illustrator CS2 (yes, they're also inside my CS2 folder, but the icons are so pretty!)
6. Photoshop CS2 (used almost daily)
7. my Bridge Collective folder (contains my design work, hence the pantone book)
8. my W.D. folder (my "day job" involves dealing w/$$$, therefore, a calculator icon)
9. the not-so-sweet suite that is a necessary evil: Microsoft Office
10. personal folder: holds passwords, icons, reading, writing... ergo Moleskine)
11. tools-that-help-when-i'm-busy-as-a-bee folder: (iSnip, snapNdrag, minuteur etc)
12. Preview (kept handy to drag files to featuring an everso attractive loupe)
13. Text Edit (for personal writing mostly... anything to keep from opening Word)
14. my music folder w/ iTunes, Limewire, Audio Hijack Pro, and so on
15. my movies folder holds torrents, movies and tv shows (loving my VHS tape icon!)
16. my pictures folder (don't you just love the little polaroids?)
17. iPhoto (with an alternative, cheery green icon)
18. Safari (I still use it periodically for viewing RSS feeds only)
19. Address Book (never was crazy about the original icon so I switched to this one)
20. Mail (why have a postage stamp when you can have this jolly-good red mailbox?)
21. my IM folder holds iChat, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL (but I really only launch Adium)
22. FireFox (was NOT a fan of the orange & blue fox-around-the-world icon)

(My fabulous icons are courtesy of a variety of talented icon designers, and can be downloaded at such rockin' sites as: pixelgirlpresents, interfaceLIFT, pixelpress media design, the icon factory.)



Some people are born bloggers. They're naturals at it, and don't even know it. And worse, there are those who do know they'd be good at it, but are reluctant. And that pains me. More than you can imagine. Because in a world full of souls who are unable to articulate themselves or simply unwilling to communicate their thought and opinions for whatever reason, there are those who truly need, deserve, and DAMMIT, have a DUTY to author a blog. So pick a name already, V, and let's get it set up for you. I can no longer stand by and see these GEMS that you call simple EMAILS go to waste. Pleeze. But for now, allow me to be your shadow blogger, you reluctant blogger you! (hey, maybe that's what you should call it: The Reluctant Blogger.)

"Okay, so I was perusing your blog and came across the STUCK IN THE 80's link.

I cried, I laughed, I cursed. I wasted 4 precious working hours clicking and reading.

Seriously, they don't make movies like that anymore. I really hate growing up. I don't care if the hair was bad and the fashion was worse, they were the best of times. Whether you were a nerd, punk, prep, prom queen, poor - it was all about love. Even the "spend the summer trying to get laid" movies were in the end, about finding love.

Damn it! Why has John Hughes not made more movies? And why has John Cusack become an adult?

OMG, even movies I forgot: ABOUT LAST NIGHT, BETTER OFF DEAD, VALLEY GIRL... seriously I think my Heart actually hurts.

So many memories flooding my brain, I think I need to lie down. NO, I think I need a drink.

Remember HEATHER'S? How about SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL? Seriously, I cried at the end... I'm not ashamed. That's right. I cried while the soundtrack played and it faded to black. I can't even look at diamond studs without thinking of fingerless leather gloves. Maybe it was puberty, or the hormones, or the fact I was sans-girlfriend at the time... and who HASN'T devised plans to kill off the in-crowd???

And SIXTEEN CANDLES. Good lord, my head is spinning. And of course THE BREAKFAST CLUB. I think I would have been in a very dark place without that movie. Finally someone who understands us popular kids hadserious parental issues too. God, I could use a joint.

ST. ELMO's FIRE - seriously I sooo thought that's what happens to you after college. When I would pick up my friend on the way to school, she would blast that song all morning while she dried her hair and I waited for her on the steps to her bedroom.

PRETTY IN PINK. Prom was soo much better with your friends instead of significant others, that's why we banned couples at our table. How else would you end up in bed with the wrong person? (but secretly someone you wanted to bag anyway).

SAY ANYTHING... that Ione Sky defined bitch for all of us heart broken boys who listened to The Cure and wore flasher-guy rain coats.

And remember how long we waited for Rob Lowe and Demi Moore to make a movie together? OMG, when ABOUT LAST NIGHT arrived, we totally skipped school and watched it seven times in one day, because in those days no one checked the theatres to make sure you left.

I am so overdosing on nostalgia I have to go home and burn through like 7 albums off the top of my head. I have to get all these DVD's and CD's for the children... how else are they going to know how it really is in the real world?"


sunday scribblings - yummy

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Yummy is having the place all to yourself
already in your PJ's even though it's just 7 o'clock
stirring your favorite yummy pasta sauce
while sipping yummy, buttery cognac
and listening to Favela played by Barney Kessel.

Yummy is taking that dinner into bed with you
something you so rarely get to do
feeling blissfully cosy on yummy jersey sheets
propped up on pillows, cross legged,
with the cognac resting against your knee
watching Shopgirl yet another time
and realizing that when you last saw Mirabelle
it was on a night just like this one,
when you had the house all to yourself
and ate your dinner in bed...

Yummy is this feeling
of being happy and content in the moment
knowing tomorrow he will be here and
feeling that for tonight all is right with your world
understanding that you are so fortunate
fortunate to have such yummy times
alone but far from lonely
in the place that you call home.

visit sunday scribblings



Last night I watched the movie Copote and was quite taken with it. Before I knew it, Capote led to an extensive click-fest about Wikipedia, Wikipedia led me to Breakfast at Tiffany's, Breakfast at Tiffany's led me to pictures of Audrey Hepburn a.k.a Holly Golightly, and voila! My newest desktop. Took quite a bit of day-wasting tweaking to the original image I pilfered from Google, but now I am oh so smitten with it. Adequately girly-meets-stylish-retro-cool to stay put through Valentines Day.


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