Positively Positive

Les and I swung by our local Tower Records to check out the sales tonight. If you haven’t heard, Tower Records is going out of business, liquidating all their stock, and closing all their stores (maybe except for one or two). It’s a sad state of affairs. But it is an opportunity to find some unusual things for a very good deal, so we as gawkers went in to see what there was to see.

Les picked up a couple of good CD deals at 75% off, and I browsed through magazines, which were 80% off. Most of the magazines just didn’t fit my personal interests (Atlanta rap, tattoo artists, Tulsa skateboarding, Ford truck customization, etc.), but one title caught my attention -– Ode. Although I have never heard of it, I was roped in by the subtitle, “For intelligent optimists.” Honestly, I don’t count myself in the world group of exceptionally intelligent people and I struggle to maintain even a façade of optimism sometimes, but I thought, “Now, that’s [an intelligent optimist] someone I’d like to become. Maybe this magazine will show me how!”

I haven’t read through all of it yet, but I’m enjoying it so far. I think the thing that is most stimulating to me in what I’ve read is that it is truly an international magazine (yet conveniently in English, for me), with all sorts of interesting stories from around the world. Six of the 17 Letters to the Editor (my favorite section in any magazine) were from the Netherlands, and 8 were from the US, with the rest being from England, India, and Chile. Interestingly, there were no letters from Canada, making me wonder whether they're keeping up with their letter-writing reputation these days or just slacking off up there. Maybe their computers are snowed in? Three of the letters were from Portland, OR, once again reminding me that this must be one of the coolest cities in the US and why have I not been there yet?

I saw an advert in Ode for www.zaadz.com (the word for “seeds” in Dutch) and decided to check it out. It appears to be a more grown-up, intelligent, and activism-driven version of MySpace, so of course it totally peaked my interest (often on MySpace I feel like I'm one of the few people who isn't just about drinking, partying, taking internet quizzes [even though I do love them], and trying to collect as many "friends" as possible). I just started my profile today, under my now-common moniker of "It's Lisa, y'all" (which is leading me to wonder what I'll do if I ever move out of the South!). I haven't added much of anything in there, but I'm working on it. After writing up profiles for Blogger and MySpace, I have to find a quiet moment to compose if I want this one to be anything more than a cut-and-paste from the other sites. And, as you can imagine, this is a bit challenging during the holiday season. New year, new Zaadz profile?