Happy Birthdays...

Today is the birthday of two of my dear friends: Emily and Summer. Happy birthday, love you both.
Also, the 17th was the birthday of two of my other dear friends: Niki, as well as Shalyce and Nick's new baby boy Rilus. I love you both too.

Some Favorite Things: part 2

Traveling, pocket journals, foreign currency that looks like monopoly money.

Charles Dickens, Barnes and Nobles with two floors.

Eastern things: an indiansummer blogspot

Origami

My family. miss you Brett. xoxoxo.

Oh Germany

I could watch this all day.

Also, what's up with my banner? Will someone please help me (cough: shalyce.)

No Sleep + Studying =

Finals are driving me completely crazy.

I Love You, but...

Well said. Alex Holder and Ross Neil: a collection of "I love you buts..."
First found on: SwissMiss

Please...

...stop honking at bikers. It startles them. Then they crash.

Corpse Bride Piano Duet

...performed solo.

A New Jo

I always love finding people with the same name as me. Usually I come across "Joanne"s or "Jo Anna"s, but rarely do I discover just "Joanna"s. So here we go:

Joanna Newsom: Outstanding musician- plays the harp, sings, and writes. Recently, my friend Landry sent me this picture saying, "Jo, I think someone's stalking you and secretly painted your picture." Really, it is just a beautiful painting of Ms. Joanna Newsom done by Etsy artist theblackapple. I don't really etsy much, so I'm not sure if I cited her properly, but the picture was really good, and if it wasn't sold out already, I might have even purchased a copy for myself. Though perhaps that is slightly narcissistic of me.

The Best Part of Panda Express

...is the fortune cookie.

Uzbekistan Rolls Deep

Here are some pictures of a few metro stations around the globe. I saved my favorite station for last. The picture above is the entrance of The Porte Dauphine station in Paris.

Stockholm, T-Centralen Station

Tashkent, Mustaqilik Maidoni Station

Out of these three, I've only been to the metro station in Paris. But maybe someday, if I'm terribly lucky, I will meander over to Sweden and Uzbekistan as well.
Postscript: Yes, Summer Holm, I have a blog. GUILTY. whatever.

I Normally Feel Like This

Sike. I'm UNEMPLOYED.

Festival of Colors (Holi)

Class: World Religions
Subject: Festival of Colors
Student: Joanna Christine
Class Participation: "I've been to that! I've been to that!"
Professor: "Oh wonderful, tell us about it."
Joanna Christine: "It was fun; people threw paint in my face and months later I was still scrubbing the chemical saturated dye out of my scalp. Oh, and I felt really exotic." (see above)

Attention Jim & Pam Fans

If you like The Office, then you might also enjoy this:

Penmanship 101

I took a handwriting analysis online, obviously. It was really hard using a track pad instead of a mouse, (or maybe I just have room for some serious improvement) but even still it was some what interesting. I guess my signatures say that I am a.) too afraid to use my own name,
b.) obsessed with Charles Darnay, a fictional character in A Tale of Two Cities and c.) an introvert who is rather shy in social settings.... In summary, no surprises really.

Auf Wiedersehen Emily and Jonathan

Emily and Jonathan are going back to Germany today. I stole this picture from Emily's blog and wrote the informal way to say goodbye in German, which is actually spelled: "tschüs", but sounds like "chusse", I think. Anyway, goodbye Emily (and Jonathan); we will miss you.
Postscript: Say hello to my favorite place for me.
xoxo,
jo

My Favorite Ligature

The evolution of the ampersand (or "and sign"): the letters of the Latin word et (definition: and) fusing together as early as the first century A.D. see above, E +T = ampersand.

picture found here.

Shirts by Design by Humans.

picture found here.

How exciting, a blog about my favorite ligature, the ampersand. (that's also the name of the blog and I promise it isn't as boring as it sounds.)

Germany, I Miss You.

xoxo Deutschland. (photo found here.)

Comic Sans: It's Never Ok.

I fully support this movement- the ban comic sans movement, that is. I don't necessarily hate the font comic sans, I just think it is incredibly ugly (and by ugly I mean repulsive). In the 7th grade, one of my teachers insisted on typing EVERYTHING in comic sans, claiming that this font was the best because it was the most creative. Quite honestly, there is nothing creative about it- unless of course, you collect beanie babies or fast food coupons. Let's take a look at a few reasons why you should never use this awful font.

Reason #1: A Hardees fast food (similar to Arbys, but not. (?)) customer appreciation survey written in, of course, comic sans = It is a fast food favorite.

Reason #2: Interesting, a fun bus tour to Yosemite = It is vile, and bad for tourism. Would you want to ride on this bus? Neither would I.

Reason #3: The Declaration of Independence OFFENSIVELY written in comic sans = It makes everything look stupid.

Reason #4: Authentic Indian cuisine... probably not so authentic = It is bad for the digestive track and will probably give you shingles.

Reason #5: A very fine award certificate = It will cause addictions and alcoholism.

Reason #6: A pro-life campaign advertisement crafted in Wisconsin = If you use comic sans, you are probably from Wisconsin, will probably have a horrible spring break, and will probably never be taken seriously on any of your political opinions. (Honestly WHAT were they thinking with this one?)

The bottom line is, when you use comic sans, you are only hurting the people you care about most. Additionally, if comic sans were a person, he would probably be a pedophile, and live in his parent's basement at age 42. Is this really the message you want to send to your friends and family? Let's hope not.

Typophyle Film Festival 4

This makes me smile/cry every single time I watch it.

Treasures

I am not married or engaged, and I don't have a boyfriend; but, it's comforting to know that some day when I do get married, things like this really do exist:


At first glance I thought that only the groom was on his cell phone; but, upon further examination it would appear that the bride is on an important business call as well. Aside from cell phones and modern technology, wedding star has also considered those couples with a love for all terrain vehicles- quads, four wheelers, or whatever you call them, and diet pepsi.

Happy Birthday Shalycee!

Today is a good day.

Have You Seen Me?

Not anymore! My i-pod is officially missing. We've had a long 4 year relationship, and I can't imagine having to replace it. SOS. Where are you?
******
Edit: My i-pod was recovered at approximately 10 am, this morning.

Happy Saturday

Too great to keep to myself

Please enjoy an excerpt from one of my recent g-chat conversations:

Anonymous:Do you ever use the computers in the public library?
Me: um no... i think i have once. are you on one right now? make sure to sneeze all over your hands and then smear it on the keyboard.

Also, this guy is simply outstanding...

For those of you who like shopping:

Apparently this is just like a mini mall...

What software did he use to produce this advertisement gem? I must have it.

My new favorite

is Matthew Curry. I found him via the chalkboard blog and immediately fell in love (the platonic kind...) with his awesome illustrations and creative layering. More of his work, if anyone cares, can be found from his design studio here.



On a more bizarre note, has anyone heard of the stiletto race in Moscow? Wow, these girls are crazy, and maybe, my new heroes. They inspire me- even more so than the women from the Cuban volleyball team.

Buy Me All of These Things for my Birthday

1.) The ampersand t-shirt. (see above)
2.) The exhile of comic sans. Yes, I really hate it.
3.) A telegram. Did you know that currently, telegrams are no longer in use. Instead of sending me a birthday card, I'd be truly impressed with a telegram.
4.) A globe lamp. I'm not really sure where you can find them, but I love them and ever since the movie "While You Were Sleeping", I've always wanted one.
5.) A name necklace! My name necklace, that is. Obviously I would want it to read either "Boji" or "Joanna".

6.) Boca Jr. jersey/apparrell- preferably Requelime; but, I would love just about any CABJ paraphanalia that I received. Please note: this in no way includes River Plate. I hate them.
7.) Graffitti. Well, not really- I want to see the LA wall mural, it's the longest in the world!
8.) "Escape to Witch Mountain". I'm not really sure why, but I feel like watching this movie the day before my birthday would really help set the mood.

There's Not Enough Time for Your Liver; Sorry.

Here's the thing... I like shots and vaccinations just as much as the next person; however, I lack the maturity and time management skills necessary to safeguard myself from a.) myself, and b.) disease, more specifically: HEPATITIS B. So I'm going to Ghana. It's been confirmed- I leave in less than 48 hours. I first fly into Germany and will be hanging out with my dearly missed Emily Anderson, and technically, I won't actually step foot in Africa until May 8th, but even still, "THERE JUST ISN'T TIME," says the burly haired clinician who wouldn't administer all of my HepB vaccination. "You should have come in sooner." Honestly who says that... "hi, there just isn't time for your liver. Better luck next time?"
I don't understand what this means. All I really know is that after about 600$ and 6 painful injections, I am still not 100% clear on hepatitis. Now, please refer to the map above. For those of you who are unclear, Ghana is on the central west coast of Africa. Note the darkly shaded green "high risk" shading in the region. I am not exactly sure how one goes about contracting the HPVB, as I have heard so many people affectionately refer to it as, but my mother has just about scared me into an early grave about it. I think, by her descriptions, that by breathing, eating, or even sleeping over there, I am at "high risk"... This is frightening. I can't really hold my breath for longer than a minute or so and while I can probably go longer than that without food or rest, it is unlikely that I can survive 5 weeks without at least one of the two. Pray for me. I love you all, but the question is: will you still love me when my eyes turn yellow?

We Were Really Cool.

Out of respect and admiration for my dearest cousin Jenna Toronto Rammell, I have decided to treat my fan base of approximately three readers, to a brand new post!  Actually, today is a very special day as it is the birthday of my brother, Adam Toronto.  I would like to just bore everyone for a moment with a favorite memory from my childhood with Adam. 

Precocious, indigenous, and utterly abstract,  Adam and I used to collect a farrago of trash assortments.  No really- migrating from one room to another, we would crawl to each trash can in our house and hoard away several different treasures from each basket.  Then, without really knowing why, we would tuck our newly gathered waste into our shirts, handling them the way a hen handles her baby chicks, and begin our sojourn to Jesse's room.  On our hands and knees, careful to not let any of our waste spill out, we would ritualistically chant, "Litter bugs, litter bugs, litter bugs...".  Like insects on all fours, we would somehow fester our way into his room.  A look of anger would fill his eyes just as quickly as surges of excitement and sheer trepidation would wield through our veins.  Knowing that we were about to get our lives handed to us never stopped us from throwing our troves of filthy oddities at him while simultaneously crooning our anthem, "Litter bugs, litter bugs...".  Instead of standing up and running away like any other self-respecting criminal would do, we refused to surrender our insect like characteristics, and would try to escape the fury of Jesse (approximately 16 times my size and 8 times Adam's) by squirming away as quickly as our elbows could drag us.  It did not take long for Jesse to catch up with us but, for fear of sounding too morose, I will let the reader contrive their own ending from here.  Keep in mind, Adam and I usually practiced this ordinance at least twice a week. 
I love you Adam.  I wish it was still okay for people to throw trash at other people- maybe for us it still is. Next time we are in New York City together, we should give it a go. New Yorkers wouldn't notice a difference anyway.  Happy Birthday. 
P.s. I realize this is a decade or two overdue, but sorry Jesse?