It’s been seven days since I was laid off from my magazine gig and I am bored.

Like really, really, really bored. And while I’ve been trying to fill my time with trips to the gym (working on the beach bod), jaunts into the city for coffee (love Porto Rico), and the occasional lunch with pals who feel sorry for me (fabulous), I’m still pretty bored.

So, when I found this wild article in The Guardian today about boredom, I had to share it with SMITH.

First, some points from the piece:

Some surveys put the percentage of people who yearn for more novelty in their lives at around 70% and rising.

Until at least the 17th century being bored was an elite privilege, bragged about by princes and the nobility.

The paradox is that boredom seems to have become democratised in exact proportion to the explosion of reasons not to be bored: books, affordable international travel, and the mass media.

OK, so what does this mean? Well, the more bored we are as a species, the more likely we are to create really boring websites for the increasingly dull masses. Check it: There’s one site called Cheddarvision, which invites VERY bored voyeurs to watch cheese mature, and there’s another site called watching-paint-dry.com. Wow. That’s really depressing.

Bored at work or been laid off? You can read more about the explosion of boring websites here.

As I was skimming through today’s news stories, one caught my attention. The LA Daily News featured a story—yes, an entire story–about Yaakov Horowitz, the chief Rabbi at Manischewitz—you know, the place that makes matzoh.

Well, besides being a fan of matzoh (especially when it’s dipped in chocolate), I’m fascinated by folks who work unconventional gigs—and if you can earn a buck doing what you love, better yet.

So I confess–I think Horowitz’s job qualifies as being off the beaten path, but in a really cool way.

Horowitz lives, eats, breathes, and sleeps matzoh. He not only oversees the production of more than 75 million sheets of matzoh (that’s a lot of matzoh), he used to travel around the globe in the name of matzoh. Now he’s designing new ovens (the first in almost 70 years) for Manischewitz!

You can read more about matzoh and Horowitz here.

I was never the cool kid in school (big glasses, a unibrow, and a barely noticeable mustache might have been part of the problem), and it seems, thanks to my lame area code, I will never be an It girl, which is too bad since I now have two eyebrows and no mustache. So what’s the deal you ask?

Well, I have a 646 area code. According to an article that appeared in The Christian Science Monitor today, a person can literally have a better life if they have a 212 area code.

Man, imagine being able to rewrite your personal story.

Example.

With my current 646 prefix: “Hi, my name is Kathy and I live in Queens and I like to watch Paula Deen and The Hills.” Boring.

Now, if I had a 212: (more…)

Here’s a cool way to start the day. The New York Times is giving readers a chance to have a say in its upcoming Book Review.

Got a favorite quote from a recent book? Post it on the paper’s blog site.

FYI: Quotes should be from writers born in 1950 or later.

Man, there are so many great lines from books… To Be Continued.

During the last presidential election, it was Diddy’s “Vote or Die” campaign… this time, it’s MySpace’s The Impact Channel, which it just launched in hopes of getting young Americans to the polls in 2008.

That 18-34 demo is really a pot of gold—if you can get us to care.

Says Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace: “By empowering our users with easy-to-find information, offered in a way they can relate to it, Impact will ignite their involvement in the political process.”

When users click on a candidate’s pic (you know who they are: Hillary, Barack, John M., Rudy, John E., Mitt, and a few others), they’re directed to the person’s MySpace profile. Impact users can also watch videos on the channel, donate cash, find a job, and register to vote.

Knowledge is power, baby. Be sure to check it out.

Can a story improve with the help of booze? Well, that’s the question Esquire set out to answer in its April issue—not a bad question to ask, I might add. Let’s face it: we’ve all hit that roadblock when writing only to turn to a glass of wine (or four) in hopes of finding an ounce of inspiration. In my case, that end result usually requires a re-write—but that’s neither here nor there. Still, a little nip never hurt anyone (as I enjoy my first glass of white). (more…)

Man, ya gotta love Tori Spelling. This girl is workin’ it from all angles—TV show, garage sale, you name it. These days, Tori and hubby Dean McDermott are bloggers/reality TV show stars (airing March 20th on the Oxygen channel). Oh yeah, and parents-to-be.

Back to the blog. You can read about Tori’s Lamaze classes, her recent baby shower, and the B & B this happy couple are planning to open—yep, Tori and Dean are opening their own Bed & Breakfast and Tori will make your bed and bake you muffins if you stay (so she alleges on the blog. I have every intention of visiting—if and when it opens. A full report on that to come).

Check out Tori and Dean’s blog here.

DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES!

I recently met a woman in my yoga class who quit her day gig and was embarking on a new professional journey: yoga studio business manager/yoga teacher. A great move she tells me. She’s on her way to one day owning her own wellness center. I tell her how thrilled I am to hear that she’s going to be doing something that she loves for a living. Imagine that. This, of course, begs the question: how did she do it? Her reply: The Secret.

Now, ever since this woman at the yoga studio uttered those two words I have been hearing and seeing The Secret all over the place—a colleague at work talked about it, People had a blurb on The Secret, Oprah dedicated an entire show to The Secret, and there’s a blog that’s all about The Secret. Natch. Even Newsweek featured a review of the The Secret by Rhonda Byrne—of course, the mag gave up some of the secrets.

So what is The Secret? Well, according to Byrne (who’s life changed after uncovering the secret), you can transform your life by visualizing a new life. She calls it the “law of attraction.” Yep. If you ask, the universe shall answer. It’s kind of a “you reap what you sow” deal.

OK. I confess. I started to wonder if this was some sort of sign (think The Celestine Prophecy—there are no coincidences). Maybe the Universe was trying to reach out to me through my colleague and Oprah. Maybe this book would help me discover my true potential.

Think I’m off my rocker? Well, almost 2 million copies of the book are projected to be in print by today and 1.5 million DVDs have been sold (says Newsweek).

So what are you projecting into the Universe?

Remember that rush you got when the babysitter let you watch something rated R? Well, call me a geek, but I totally got that feeling when I read a brief description about the book, Literature from the Axis of Evil and Other Enemy Nations, published last fall by Words Without Borders and The New Press.

So why does this warrant a blog? Well, a couple of reasons…

First, Americans really haven’t had the chance to read many works from those states that make up President Bush’s Axis of Evil because, until recently, a publisher could have faced serious penalties, including fines and even jail time for “translating such works or ‘enhancing their value’ by editing them.”

Luckily, the government decided to take a chill pill (much to my delight) and the book, which contains 35 translated works from writers living countries like Iran, Syria, and Cuba is now available online.

Second, according to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, which refers to both Literature from the Axis of Evil and Other Enemy Nations and Words Without Borders, there’s a growing effort to bring “more global literature” to our shores—pretty sweet since the same article notes that “less than 3 percent of all books published in English worldwide are translations.”

Talk about a literary revolution. Looks like we’ll be getting more stories to share on SMITH sooner rather than later.

Imagine a workspace where you can wear your PJs to the office, make your own hours, and actually enjoy good coffee without paying $3.00. Well, for some Americans that’s already a reality thanks to telecommuting. Sadly, most of us aren’t allowed that luxury except when blogging for SMITH (currently sipping my yummy Porto Rico coffee with jammies on). But according to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, Congress (believe it or not) is actually devoting some time to this idea.

Recent hearings in Congress focused on telecommuting as a way to deal with traffic, terrorism, oil dependency, and global warming. Some participants noted that remote employees make it possible for offices to operate during a serious storm, terrorist attack, or other emergency.

I’m slightly suspicious here because why would our government want its citizens to work from home. Evidentially, they haven’t taken man’s laziness into account.

So, seriously, what are they thinking?

Some points from the story: (more…)