The presentation itself was short and basically he just gave us some tips on fashion, most of which I consider common sense. But hearing it again from Tim Gunn just makes it seem so much more awesome and authorative, since after all, it’s coming from him. Most of the time he opened up the floor for people to ask questions, and of all the questions asked, the following two were the most memorable:

Who were your favorite designers from each season of Project Runway?

Tim Gun told us that he really liked each of the designers on the show and developed a close relationship with them as filming went on, so it was hard to pinpoint which ones exactly. However, he said he could tell us which ones he would send on to a desert island. I don’t remember who he said for seasons 1-4, but for season 5, those of you who watched the show should be able to guess this. Kenley. As a matter of fact, Tim Gunn even went on to say that he’d row her there in a boat himself, but then she’d probably complain that he was rowing in the wrong direction! The whole room (about 1000 people I’d say) just cracked up at hearing that because that’s probably what would happen!

What do you think of the typical college girl’s outfit: long shirt, leggings, uggs, and a northface jacket?

At first Tim was confused about what types of leggings the girl was referring to, but once he understood the general idea, he said it was fabulous and that the only thing which could look better would be replacing the uggs with crocs! Of course, we all knew he was being sarcastic and that he thought the outfit was heinous, because he had that expression on his face (you know what expression I’m talking about), and quite frankly, I agree. I never thought uggs were good looking to begin with, though I can’t deny that they are as warm and comfortable as anything, but seriously. Some people just don’t have the body built for this kind of outfit, and they just end up looking worse.

I wasn’t planning to post (as a matter of fact I should be in class right now, but I think I’m coming down with something), but something really irritates me, and I need to let it out.

I hate it when people, for no apparent reason, replies to everyone’s facebook wall post except yours.

This is the second time it’s happened to me, and those “people” both happened to be good friends of mine. Or at least it seemed like we were good friends, until for no apparent reason, they decided that they’ll just be assholes and ignore my “Happy Birthday!!! :D” posts and reply to everyone else’s. Seriously, what the hell. People need to grow some fucking manners.

I like the new look, but I heard that they are still working on the final layout, though I believe that the general structure of it all is set to stay. I look forward to using 2.7

I’ve always been one to go for the idea that you should just be yourself, and people will like you or they won’t. Guides to how to act so that others will like you just seem demeaning.

Not to say that there’s something wrong with etiquette, as that’s different. This just seems so fake.

I’m 100% for “being yourself” and not pretending you’re someone else, because that would just make you look shallow and superficial. And she’s right, if you act yourself, people will either like you, or they don’t, but at least you know that when they like you, they like you for who you are.

This “being yourself” concept applies to friendship and romantic relationships, especially the latter, since the closer you become with someone, the more of the real you gets revealed due to lack of inhibitions. So now I’m just going to talk about “being yourself” in a romantic relationship, and I’m going to use myself as an example. Yay :D

I used to think in the exact same way Stephanie did: you either like me for who I am, or you don’t. So in my past relationships, I never held back from being “me”. And being a typical Aries, that means my poor boyfriends saw more than their fair shares of my short and many times irrational temper tantrums, my impatiences, my dominating personality, my childishness, and my impulsiveness. Of course, I had my cute sides too, don’t worry. Anyways, they could tolerate my Aries-ness at the beginning, but as time goes on, it can get too much. But hey, you either like me for who I am, or you don’t. Obviously, the smart guy would be like “hell, then I maybe I don’t like you so much and I’ll move on!”. As a matter of fact, I’d probably do the same if I were the poor guy.

After all, when we first meet someone, especially if it’s someone we’re attracted to, we always put our best face forward and hide our flaws. So really, the initial attraction is based on our best sides, and then of course it’d be easy to like someone who’s cute, fun-loving, sweet, bubbly, witty, funny, and optimistic (those would be my good points, according to past boyfriends :)). 

I agree that some tips given in the previous post can seem a little out-of-the-way and come off as manipulative, but the author is simply saying “Hey, if you wanna make your guy even more hopeless in love with you, this is what makes them tick. In a good way.” The rest of the tips are just like relationship etiquettes, and they can be applied to both guys and girls. The author isn’t telling you to go out of your way to change into a completely different person (unless, God forbid, that you’re doing the exact opposite of everything he listed), but to take a different approach in what you’re already doing.

He mentions in a lot of examples girls who actually care and love their boyfriends very much, but it’s just that their way of showing it doesn’t quite click with the guy. The author goes on to say that most guys are all about “feelings”. If it feels right, then even the smallest things will make his day. If it doesn’t feel right (doesn’t connect with him I guess), then you can take a bullet for him and he could still care less. Obviously that last statement was exaggerated, but the point of the whole book was trying to help girls understand how guys think and feel.

I personally think that a lot of the tips are common sense, and I don’t think it’s fake. It’s just making an effort to make someone you love feel better, and if doing these things will make my boyfriend/fiance/significant other happier, then I think it’s worth it.

1. You can lie to men, but don’t treat them like idiots.
2. You can spend his money, but don’t treat him like your sugar daddy.
3. You can give up everything for him, but don’t expect him to be grateful.
4. Be his secretary, not his boss.
5. If he doesn’t pick up after 2 calls, don’t call a third time.
6. Disappear from his presence for at least 2 hours each day.
7. When there’s nothing to benefit from an argument, limit yourself to 3 words or less.
8. Look up to him with adoration, and he’ll willingly become your slave.
9. Your business card is for doing business, not for dating.
10. When he has unrealistic dreams, praise him first, then question him about it the next day.
11. You can point out his mistakes, but don’t go digging up and reciting his whole dirty history.
12. You can ask him to buy you food at 2 in the morning, but let him do it willingly.
13. You can reason with him, but don’t talk like a supreme court justice.
14. Men don’t care if you’re manipulative, they just care about your motive.
15. If you must mention the ex, make sure you make the current one sound like your savior.
16. Use words to express your concerns, but don’t nag.
17. Brag about his taste, not the price of the said item.
18. When gossiping with him, don’t play A off against B and purposely hurt others.
19. You can let him join you on a girl’s night out, but don’t try to turn him into your butt buddy.
20. You can dress up, but don’t look like a call girl.
21. You can have pets, but don’t treat him like one.
22. If he is hiding something from you, let him be the one to fess it up.
23. Learn how to say no the right way, and they’ll go crazy for you.
24. Men’s pet peeves are like balloons, and our ignorance would be the pin.
25. When he’s being stubborn, don’t ask too much from him.
26. When you two are in a passionate kiss, for the love of God, please refrain from laughing out loud.
27. Be an independent, but don’t try be manly.
28. You can throw a tantrum in your backyard, but when in public, sweet and submissive is the key.
29. You can get a nose job, but don’t turn your whole face into Jessica Alba’s.
30. When he’s still being fickle with his ex, don’t let him treat you like Dominoe’s Pizza.
31. You can do the chasing in the relationship, but don’t act like an animal in heat.
32. Don’t tell him EVERYTHING about yourself on the first date.
33. When talking about each other’s dreams, don’t force yours onto him.

So what do you all think? Accurate? Some of the titles can seem a bit vague or exaggerated, but the author does go into detail and explain his reasoning for why he thinks that. Any ones in particular you’d like me to share in future entries? Comments, suggestions, questions, debates, all welcome! :D

—– Forwarded Message —-
From: Jenny W <j******5@hotmail.com>
To: j*******7@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 5:55:33 PM
Subject: RE: hiya

lol, yeah, blame isaac for everything. xD i dunno how tina found out though…maybe she’s psychic. xD
i was so worried about my anatomy, but it turns out i did ok, so yeah, PRAISE GOD! xD
oh and we realized that afternoon that gwen’s birthday is on the 15th. we wrote her a card and everything, but she wasn’t there, so i guess we’ll celebrate next week?

sure, i’ll record the tapes for dora, i got the first part of the sermon thing, and i was so excited while listening to it. it felt like i was back at the retreat again! 
and yes, even though i DID practice those songs, you’re still gonna have to sing. don’t try to back out of it and get me to replace you. lol
oh and much to my surprise, my dad wasn’t mad about the mission thing. he just said i was lucky my chinese is already pretty good, so i don’t have to learn it again. yeah, i wasn’t expecting him to say that, but it’s better than i hoped for. THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR ME! :D i’ll continue to pray for you and your parents too.

and don’t worry, i won’t forget about friday. i thought YOU forgot last week! lol

If you noticed the date, this email was all the way back in 2005, my junior year in hish school. Reading this brought 2 verses to my mind:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
- Matthew 5:8

And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 18:3

A part of me wishes that I could go back to being the way I was before, but the truth is, we can never go back to the way we used to be. However, we can make changes so that we become the someone we have always dreamed of being.

So in search of a plugin that would give the commentors a choice of whether or not to receive an email reply from the author (in addition to having the reply on the site), which obviously failed, I decided to come up with something myself. If you’re interested in implementing this awesome feature in your blog, you’ll need to several things:

• Firefox for the Greasemonkey which is needed for the Wordpress Comment Ninja
• Extra Comment Fields plugin for Wordpress

Follow the instructions on Wordpress Comment Ninja on how to setup and use. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but basically, it gives you the options of emailing the reply + replying on site, only emailing the reply, or only replying on site when you go to the comment section of your Wordpress admin panel through Firefox.

Now, follow the instructions for Extra Comment Fields by installing the plugin and activating it. Then, instead of creating an text type input field (unless you insist), create a check box field. Give it a name and id, but make sure those two are the same and they shouldn’t contain any spaces or special symbols. For the value of the check box, set it to “yes”. Remember to label the check box so the commentors know what they are checking off. This is what mine looks like:

<input id="email_reply" name="email_reply" type="checkbox" value="yes" /> <label for="email_reply"><small>Receive email replies from author?</small></label>

Add the new input field somewhere in your comment form, found on comment.php in your theme directory. Now insert the following code to where the comments show up. I inserted mine right after <?php comment_text() ?>:

<?php print $comment->your_name_here; ?>

Replace the your_name_here with the name you gave your extra comment field. So in my case, my code would look like: <?php print $comment->email_reply; ?>. This input field won’t show up in the actual comments, but you will be able to see it in the comment section of your admin panel. That way you’ll know whether or not the commentor wishes to receive email replies!

Don’t forget to go in the your Wordpress admin panel >> Settings >> Extra Comment Fields and enter in the name of the input field! Hope this helps, and any questions, comments, or suggestions, leave a comment!

I’m not saying that Stephanie meant anything by her comment, but it did get me thinking about the other side of this issue: What if some people didn’t want these email replies? They might consider it spam or an invasion of their privacy, I don’t know. But I do know that I don’t want to cause any unnecessary misunderstandings and problems because of something as harmless as an email reply.

My question for you guys (ok, so I ask a lot of questions, but I like to hear opinions, whether they agree with me or not) is: Would you want to receive email replies to your comments? Why or why not? I actually use a Grease Monkey (a Firefox plugin) script called Wordpress Ninja to reply to your comments, and it gives me the option to email the reply directly to you, post it as a reply comment, or do both. Usually I try to do both, but if your comment was something like “Nice layout! Great work!”, then I’d feel a little silly emailing you “Thanks.” Also, um, I’m scared of emailing some people in case they go *wtfspamdeletesandblocks* on me, which would be the last thing I want.

Comments much loved and appreciated.