I Believe In Soulmates

As it should be: Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling

I don't know why, but seeing this photo made me really happy. Maybe working for a magazine has gotten to me -- or maybe, just maybe there are two people that are just meant to be together and it makes the world right when they are. Or maybe I think "The Notebook" is real and based on a true story. Either way, it works.

LeRoi Moore

"It's always easier to leave than be left." - Dave Matthews

"She Can Talk Through That Smile"

Bizarro interview with Christie Brinkley in this week's New York Magazine. I always felt badly for her, because she seems so -- nice(?) -- from all her smiling photos. (Also, as noted previously, I'm a Billy Joel fan and love that "Uptown Girl" was written about her.) However, this interview is just strange. Brinkley sounds like a caricature of a person on some seriously strong uppers -- completely exaggerated and simply not real.

Below, an excerpt from the article to give you a taste of the crazy:

"The only moment [Brinkley] drops her smile is when John Edwards comes up. 'Devastating,' she says. 'Devastating. I’ve met him, and I’ve met his lovely wife, and this is devastating news. But I don’t want to go there!' And the smile is back. A man in a tiny white dinghy is rowing past her house. 'Isn’t that cool?' she exclaims. 'Isn’t that great? God. It’s so beautiful.'"

When the Olympics Lose Their Spark

"One of [the gymnasts], Yang Yilin, finished third and later told a reporter she had nothing to say to her parents and didn't know if they were watching her." -- AP

I Can't Say I'm not Jealous

"Nick Lachey, playing around in the pool while vacationing with girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo at the LG Villa Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, over the weekend." - Us

Is it just me, or are Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo professional vacationers?

Something I'll Never Understand

The lines at Yorganic for the free fro-yo giveaway.

I'm definitely not known for my thrifty spending, so I'm not sure how others feel about this, but what is the deal with free food giveaways? People in New York wait in long, boring and hot lines for a free scoop of fro-yo that would probably cost them $3 on a regular day. I understand that when it's free it always tastes better, but seriously? Waiting in line for more than two minutes because something is free just doesn't make sense. I'd understand if it were a steak dinner they were waiting for, but it was a sample size of fake ice cream.

I mean, at least wait in line for the real thing.

Bush Doesn't Lay Off the Sauce

"Formaldehyde in beer is A-OK!"

Great Gawker slide show, paired with great captions, of Bush looking drunk at the Olympics. My personal favorite is the Mitt Romney jab.

Oopma Loopas in the Office

Literally no one at Us Weekly or Rolling Stone knows why the Oompa Loopas were in our office today. But they were. And they brought us candy. And it was awesome.

The Dinner Party

I'm not a frequent New Yorker reader, but "The Dinner Party," a short essay by Joshua Ferris, literally gave me chills.

Take the time to read through the entire story. A writer who can create tension that builds so much throughout a piece you want to scream for it to end, to me, is a true artist.

Let's Get Rid of August

Slate presents an article today about why we could do without the month of August. I'm inclined to agree. They state:

"August is the Mississippi of the calendar. It's beastly hot and muggy. It has a dismal history. Nothing good ever happens in it. And the United States would be better off without it."

Let the countdown to September begin.

Read the full article here.

Facebook's Got a Brand New Bag

Been on Facebook lately? Of course not. You're too cool for that. But on the off chance you have, you might have noticed the "The new Facebook is here. Try it now" link in the upper-right hand corner of the page. If you click on it, your page is redirected to a new URL -- www.new.facebook.com

Facebook is going through a redesign -- a huge one. On the company's website, they position the site change as follows:

This July, Facebook will be launching a redesigned profile aimed at making things simpler, cleaner, and more relevant, while still giving you control over your own profile. We want profiles to be a destination to learn about and interact with your friends.

The new site debuts a wider page design that focuses on the Wall (that has been combined with the mini feed), which serves as a place for full updates on your profile. Not only do messages from friends appear, but so does your status message, newly added photos/videos (that you post or are posted/tagged of you), updates to your profile and now RSS feeds from your personal blog, or sites like Picasa, Yelp and Hulu. Your personal info is no longer front and center -- your activity on the site is. Your profile page can now be a hub for a lot of the web properties that you manage -- and a great way to notify your hundreds of "friends" of what you're doing online.

Some see this redesign as an improvement -- a "coming of age" for facebook. As it's users grow up, so should the site, right? This design is asking to be taken more seriously -- but loses a little bit of it's old flavor. Part of having the "personal information" front and center on the old site was intriguing. You could get a little taste of a person just by reading a little bit about their interests - especially the way they were written and the amount they were willing to divulge. Are they in a relationship? What are their favorite activities? Do they listen to good music? Are their quotes sappy or funny? A lot can be revealed that will now be hidden by a giant wall. In fact, the new design reminds me a lot of Twitter. Updates from the user and their friends is the main event. Is that what Facebook is aiming for? Another addition to the profile page that I do like is the area right below the profile picture where you have the option to "Write something about yourself." I like this feature on Tumblr, so I'm sure I'll like it here.

From my name-dropping above, it's obvious that Facebook has been taking queues from some of our new favorite web properties to keep up with what's gaining popularity today. To me the site not only takes ideas from favorites like Twitter and Tumblr -- but resembles standard blog designs that you might see from WordPress and others believe it looks a lot like FriendFeed.

It's going to be interesting to see what backlash follows this huge overhaul. Angry groups full of hundreds of thousands of Facebook devotees fired back at the company when it first made adjustments to the site, which included adding a now much-loved news feed. I'm thinking they'll be a lot of "We Hate the New Facebook" groups created -- that will eventually be deleted from pages once everyone embraces the new design. Why do I think so? Because they have to. No one is going to give up on one of the most widely used social networks simply because it changed its stripes -- they'll just adapt to what's in front of them.

Random Thoughts: Reno 911! is Funny

I was watching the end of the "Reno 911!: Miami" movie the other night (yes, this is going to be a random post) and I noticed that some of my favorite comedic actors make some amazing cameos in this flick.

For those of us who worship the cast of "Wet Hot American Summer," -- The Reno 911! movie is a god-send. Below is a list of the Wet Hot/Reno crossover:

Daivd Wain
Michael Ian Black
Michael Showalter
Paul Rudd
Ken Marino
Joe Lo Truglio

I know this movie was released a while ago (specifically 2007) and I'm not sure how much attention it received, but it definitely deserves more. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I thought "Reno 911!: Miami" was funny. Watch it when you're home with the flu and high on sudafed -- guaranteed entertainment.

Zing!

"I've been asked again and again for my response to the now infamous McCain celebrity ad. I actually have three responses: It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States."

-- Kathy Hilton, who has donated several thousand dollars to the McCain campaign, gave this quote to the Huffington Post to express her opinion on the republican senator's presidential campaign ads which compare Barack Obama to her daughter, Paris.