So Pinterested

If you haven't heard of Pinterest by now, you've either been living under a rock or you're quite new to this thing called the internet. Or, you're what is known as a 'web-hipster' -- you're too cool and 'over it' to spend hours browsing online every day like the rest of the free world. You're probably the same kind of person who deletes or deactivates their facebook account (yes, there are two of you I'm talking about in particular, haha).

So anyway, imagine a website where you are given an unlimited amount of imaginary bulletin boards, and as you find things you like you 'pin' them to individual boards. Its up to you what you boards to be about, and you pin pictures and videos accordingly.


For some reason, the Pinterest bigwigs decreed that you must be 'invited' to use Pinterest, so either you get one of your pin-friends to invite you or you can request an invite.

But trust me, once you start... you just can't stop!! (Pinterest addiction is so widespread, there's now funnies made about it, look below for examples.)



















































So anyway, now that all the pinners have said 'true story' for every single funny pic, here's my boards if you want to check them out. And by 'if you want to' I really mean 'check them out NOW and then tell me how awesome and amazing and pinteresting I am'. No, for real.

Food

Coolest

OMG WTF

Dream House stuff

Artists are Amazing

Zombie Love

Emotional

Kid Stuff

WLJ Inspiration

Kool Kitchen

Cute - Want

Hottest Man Alive: Paul Marron

DIY Ideas

Life Mottos

The 'Hey Girl' Meme

From Wikipedia: An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated through the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase, such as intentionally misspelling the word "more" as "moar" or "the" as "teh". The meme may spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, news sources, or other web-based services. An Internet meme may stay the same or may evolve over time, by chance or through commentary, imitations, parody, or by incorporating news accounts about itself. Internet memes can evolve and spread extremely rapidly, sometimes reaching world-wide popularity within a few days. Internet memes usually are formed from some social interaction (Rage comic or reaction faces), pop culture reference (Xzibit in "Yo Dawg" or Bear Grylls in "Better drink my own piss"), or situation people often find themselves in (Socially Awkward Penguin or Futurama Fry / Not Sure If X). Many memes also come from video games (such as the "arrow in the knee" from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). For researchers it's hard to track down the birthplace of memes due to their viral nature, as well as the high chance of the meme spreading to the major websites nearly instantly.

Their rapid growth and impact has caught the attention of both researchers and industry. Academically, researchers model how they evolve and predict which memes will survive and spread throughout the Web. Commercially, they are used in viral marketing where they are an inexpensive form of mass advertising.

Okay so now you know what a meme is. There is a Ryan Gosling 'Hey Girl' meme that started in 2009, at one point it reached such popularity that Mr Gosling himself read and acted out some of them.

There are so many out there now (seriously, do a google image search), people have started creating their own, some are way better than others, but here a few of my favorites:

The Rom

I recently read a series of books by Lisa Kleypas that follow the Hathaway family of four daughters and one son, set in Regency England (1800s), as each one finds their true love and HEA. What was so interesting about this particular series is that two of the daughters fall in love with Gypsy men. The daughters were not upper-crust, or part of the ton, as they would say, they lived simply in the country and were brought up with liberal, progressive-minded parents who raised them to think independently; the girls were brought up discussing politics, religion, astronomy, philosophy, science, etc. And so these girls became strong, independent, well-versed, intelligent women (known as bluestockings) who were unafraid to speak their mind and were knowledgeable on "men's" matters. Anyway... the oldest daughter fell in love with a Gypsy man (with long hair and a diamond earring! Quite shocking in those days, lol) and he became the head of their household. A few years later, the family 'adopted' a wild, dangerous Gypsy boy (really, he was about 14) that they found beaten black and blue in the woods. He became part of their family and eventually married the second daughter (their story was my favorite as he fell in love with her at first sight and through their many trials and tribulations, finally came to believe he was worthy and deserving of her).


What was so interesting and captivating about these books was the way the family adopted many of the Rom beliefs and its culture (living off the land, knowledge of herbs, plants, etc, Romany sayings and customs, etc). 


One such belief concerned death itself, in particular ghosts. The Rom believe that after death, a person may grieve for a set amount of time but then it is imperative to let the person go, as strong emotions as grief, sorrow, etc actually bind the deceased's soul to earth, and to the grieving individual. If such grieving continues for a lengthy amount of time, the deceased soul actually becomes a ghost and will haunt that person. (In the son's book, his prolonged grief for his childhood sweetheart sets him on a dark path of self-destruction and he is haunted by memories, grief and regret, to such an extent that he literally does become haunted by her ghost.  Finally he lets her go and her soul is released; he then moves on and finds his own HEA.)


If you're interested, the books are, in order (click on the link for an excerpt):


Mine Til Midnight, Amelia's story
Amelia is the eldest of the eccentric Hathaway family who have unexpectedly joined the ranks of the aristocracy.  In this excerpt, Cam Rohan, a sexy half-gypsy, saves Amelia from the thing she fears most . . .


Seduce Me at Sunrise, Win's story
Win has been an invalid ever since she suffered a near-fatal case of scarlet fever. Merripen, a Romany Gypsy taken in by the Hathaway family when he was a boy, has always kept his fierce passion for Win a secret . . . 


Tempt Me at Twilight, Poppy's story
Poppy Hathaway, who has always longed for an ordinary life, has been abandoned by her true love and has only one way to avoid scandal—to marry Harry Rutledge, a mysterious hotel owner and man of many secrets . . . 


Married by Morning, Leo's story

Leo, Lord Ramsay, makes the unwelcome discovery that he and the other Hathaways may lose their beloved Ramsay House . . . unless he marries immediately and sires a son within a year.

Love in the Afternoon, Beatrix's story

Captain Christopher Phelan has been corresponding with beautiful Prudence Mercer while he was away fighting. What he doesn't know is that Prudence's letters were written by her best friend, Beatrix Hathaway. 

Okay, so, setting the books aside for a moment, I was so intrigued by the Rom's beliefs concerning death, grief and ghosts, that I did a little research...


- the Gypsy dislike of ghosts, and of the continuing identity of the dead as entities which may wish to continue relationships with the living 


- It was a great fear among the survivors that the dead might return in some supernatural form to haunt the living. It is for this reason that the name of the dead should not be mentioned,even if as it was traditional to pass on the names from father to son or mother to daughter, they would spell it different or use a nickname, so as not to anger the spirit of their dead relative.


- It is believed that after one year the deceased soul is released to raio, heaven. Called 'opening the road', the ritual consists of placing a lighted candle on a small raft and sending it downstream to light the way to the other world. Anniversaries of a person's death are commemorated in a ceremony called and'o vas, literally 'out of the hand'. Through such observances the line between past generations and the present is blurred, and the belief that, despite the loss of individual members, the Romania will continue is reinforced in the minds of those left behind. 


- Many centuries in the past, the Roma were some of the last Goddess-worshipers in Europe. Their Goddess, Kali, was viewed as a trinity. Her symbol was a triangle. A male Horned God also played a prominent role. The similarities between ancient Roma belief and that of Wicca are obvious. These beliefs have long been abandoned by the Roma.


- An antic belief among Roma - still surprisingly common nowadays - is that the dead have the freedom of travelling back and forth between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Many Roma are extremely afraid of the dead. These "living dead" are called čoxano or čovaxano - simply ghosts. Ghosts are those dead whose soul, for one reason or another remained trapped in this world. 


- They believe that a person can be reincarnated as another human or animal. Alternatively, they might appear as a muló or "living dead", seeking revenge on anyone who harmed him during his life on earth.

THE LIST: A new #1... Paul Marron

Sorry Adam Lambert, my love, my obsession, its time to move over and make way... there's a new #1 on The List and his name is Paul Marron. I am so obsessed with this guy, its not even funny. What is funny is how it all came about. 


I was on the Kresley Cole website, checking out the message boards for her newest IAD novel, Lothaire. Someone mentioned in a thread the name of the cover model, the Enemy of Old, Lothaire himself, Paul Marron. 

Isn't he beautiful, in a scary-evil-dangerous way? Just how I like em!

So I clicked on the link to his website and sat there for half an hour, browsing through all his pics and drooling heavily. Then one particular picture caught my eye and I realized in that pic, he looked amazingly similar to the cover model for the IAD novel featuring Cadeon Woede, Dark Desires After Dusk. That's when I realized, holy shit it WAS him! Cadeon is my absolute favorite IAD character, and I'll admit that a large part is due to how freakin' hot he is on the cover of the book. Okay, his personality and charm are awesome too, but check out that clenched jaw, *swoon* just wanna lick it (and maybe some other things, heh).

Back to the message boards I went, to create my very own thread about Mr. Hotness himself, Paul Marron. Another reader replied that he's been on many, many book covers, started listing them and I was like, 'Holy crap, that was him? I OWN those books, they're my favorites, I have lusty dreams about those super-hotties all the time!' So here, my favorite covers have all featured Paul! He has a unique, changeable quality to him that makes each character on each cover look different, and yet if you KNOW its him and take a closer look, you can recognize him. 


He is Rydstrom Woede on the cover of yet another IAD book, Kiss of a Demon King (my 2nd favorite IAD book); it just so happens Cadeon and Rydstrom are brothers. 




He's Rehvenge on JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Lover Avenged.

He's been on countless Harlequin covers, historical romance novels, you name it. In my obsessive stalking, I mean research, I learned he's even been on a few of the raunchier e-books I own, only its been his body or back that was the focus, not his face.

There's WAY more, these are just a few.

The man is a GOD. I am in serious lust here. Could be because Hubs has been away for like ever but still, you can't deny it. 

So, back to Lothaire... Paul went on a book tour with author Kresley Cole across the US, visiting bookstores for meet & greets; ladies have been posting pics of themselves standing next to Paul (in full Lothaire character, down to the red contacts and black leather coat, yummmm). And they have their greedy, grasping hands and arms all over him, grrrr! That's MY man. I'm so jealous. Why can't KC come to Red Deer, Canada? Anyway, the consensus on Paul was that he was extremely nice and sweet, kinda shy (he blushed when KC's editor told him to open his leather coat and show everyone his abs, awwww), smelled amazing, was really tall, and took the time to talk to each lady and make her feel special. Now THAT definitely deserves the #1 spot on my List. Not many uber-hot male cover models would be so down-to-earth and kind. 

His career is not limited to romance covers though, oh no. My Paul is also the face of Undergear underwear for men (and omg how lucky are we that is a freaking Underwear Model), he does tons of magazines, he's even been in a movie! Ok, so it was one of those straight-to-dvd movies that the average person has never heard of (unless you're obsessed and happen to see some of the stills from the movie --- which I have posted below --- and become even more obsessed because oh-holy-freakin-god he's naked in parts of the movie, doing some chick, and where-oh-where can I get my pervy hands on that movie). 

BUT OMG YOU GUYS, GET THIS... to make my obsession even more fanatical, I mean fantastical, I learned that he created his own facebook page, after much prompting from fans and KC herself -- after his Lothaire cover -- and became a 'fan'. When I happened across his movie stills (the movie is called Playroom, I guess its pretty hardcore and not in the good sex-way, google it), I made a comment on his board, to the effect of: "Paul, you bad bad boy. Just saw the stills from your movie and uh, wow, where can I get a copy, wowza". A whole bunch of lady-fans 'liked' my comment and one in particular replied, we had a conversation, she said you can get the movie on amazon but I might want to fast-forward through the gruesome parts to get to naked Paul. Haha. SO THEN (and here's where I start hyperventilating)... I made another comment a few days later, asking if he ever modeled for Ellora's Cave books, but that they're pretty risque, not NYT Bestseller List fodder, def not mainstream, but that I'd love to see his face on the next EC book I download and, oh holy mother... HE RESPONDED TO MY COMMENT!!!

He said, "Negative, they are steamy tho... LOL"

This god of lust and washboard abs and rock-hard thighs and male perfection actually took the time out from his busy day to respond to MY comment. Little ole me. Maybe that means he even checked out my fb picture (which I have to admit, is pretty sweet). 

So I figure that him replying to my comment is like one degree of separation from us actually doing it, right? Haha. Shut up, that's what I'm going with. 

He's not just a pretty face, though. I feel I've gotten to know Paul (lol, I'm a loser) and by the videos he chooses to post on his fb page, he seems a very deep, introspective guy. And he likes Lamb of God, he's a self-professed metal-head. Which is cool. A person tends to think that super-hot male models are into techno and gay bars, right? 

Anyway, here's some more pics to make your day nice and steamy... and feel free to right-click-and-save for your very own fap-folder (haha, don't judge)...

Now for the really steamy ones, the ones that might give you heart palpitations...

Purple is my favorite color, how did he KNOW?! lol

I see a treasure-trail!

I wanna be invited to THIS slumber party! Who cares about the other lame pretty boys, I'm just lookin' at my boy's beautiful thighs and face (he's on the far left).

WARNING: the next few pics from his movie Playroom may cause the following reactions: dizziness, excessive drooling, racing heart, dirty thoughts, sweaty palms, feeling faint and lightheaded, a need for sudden and immediate privacy...

And now for the absolute show-stopper... brace yourselves, ladies...