Grandma North

Yesterday my Grandma died.

Marion North was one of the sweetest, kindest people I'll ever know. Most of my happiest childhood memories took place at grandma's house. Christmases with all our extended family, Saturday nights watching britcoms with our cousins in grandma's living room, even just getting a snack at grandma's like some sharp cheddar cheese and grape juice, or just a cup of plain ice cubes. She had the best snacks.

Grandma lived right next door, so when I was a kid, I used to love going over there to visit, for no particular reason. Usually I would just sit with her and watch Bob Ross, or Julia Child, or some other cooking show on PBS. She also used to love watching golf for some reason, which I thought was so boring, but when that's what she wanted to watch, I would sit with her anyway, and read her Reminisce and Country Magazines. I know it probably doesn't sound that exciting, but I wasn't a particularly excitable kid, and I loved just sitting quietly with grandma.

Living in Ames now, I haven't gotten to see her much lately, but every time I was home I would stop in to see her, or if she felt up to it, take her out to go get coffee. My cousins and I would try to convince her to go out at least once if we were having warm weather. These past few years Grandma hasn't really liked getting out to too many places, but she did enjoy getting coffee and a muffin at the little coffee shop in town. We hadn't done that in awhile, but those trips to the coffee shop with Grandma, Sarah, and Shaina, will be some of my favorite memories from these past few years.

The last couple of times I was home for the weekend, I made sure to go see her as I was leaving for Ames. Both times our final words to each other were exactly the same.

"I love you, Jonathan."
"I love you too, Grandma."

Goodbye, Grandma. I'm going to miss you so much. Say hi to Grandma Lillian for me. I love you.

Catch Up 3: Everything Else

So, the past two days I covered everything from the holidays that I'd missed, today, I'm just going to finish it off with everything that happened between January and May.

First up: I learned to knit!

On my way back to Ames for the Spring semester, I stopped at a Barnes & Nobel, where I found a really cheap knitting kit on clearance. I had been talking to a couple people about how I'd kind of wanted to learn, so I impulse bought it on sight.

And I made a scarf!

After I started knitting grandma found this (very) old skein of yarn in a desk and gave it to me. I took me well over an hour, maybe two, to untangle it. :p

Then I started buying more stuff and started a new scarf.

It was done in just a couple of weeks!

I was pretty happy with it!

Then I got some ring looms to help me knit hats.

These were for Shaina, and she loved them. :)

There was a flock of Canada geese on central campus one day!

They just made themselves at home.

There was a lot of melting happening, so maybe they thought it was a lake?

In late January I came home for a family get together, (where I took no pictures) but since I was going to be home, and since we'd had so much fun at the last one, and since we'd already been planning to binge watch the brand new Netflix Series of Unfortunate Events, my cousins decided to throw another themed tea party.

It was not quite as themed as before. No real decorations or costumes.

A lot of it was just stuff they wanted an excuse to make. Like more scones. :p

And eat. :p

Some of the sandwiches had mushrooms on them.

And some had horseradish.

If you've read book 11, then you know why these things are appropriate. :p

I don't think the tea was themed. I just wanted a picture of my cup. :)

Peppermint cream cheese bon bons.

Peppermint being the themed ingredient. Book 3, the Baudelaires were allergic. :)

We also had cold soup. (See book 3 again. :p)

These were basically Little Debbie cakes with gummy snakes frosting'd on.

A nod to the Incredibly Deadly Viper from book 2. (And 13!)

And that was that event. Like I said before, I didn't take any picture at the family thing I'd come home for, but Jackson was with us too, and I did get a couple pictures of him. :p

He was getting swaddled. :)

So cute! :p

The next big thing might be news to you if you haven't seen me in awhile: I got contacts!

I've had glasses since I was 6, so this is kind of a big deal.

This was a picture I took to text to Shaina when I first got them.

The next event was another trip to Minnesota. I was doing a job shadow at my cousin Kyle's workplace, and Shaina and Sasha came along for the ride so we could visit Mandi and Co. Sadly, I again neglected to take many pictures. :( I did take a bunch this one night though. :)

Trinity decided to bury Shaina alive. :p

She wanted me to document it.

Shaina found it hilarious. :)

Then Trinity decided that wasn't enough.

She wanted to model.

And then she wanted my phone. :p

And proceeded to take pictures of everyone and everything.

Most of them were of the floor and halves of faces, so I pruned before posting. :p

Mandi knows what kind of kids she's raising: Goofballs. :p

Awesome goofballs. :)

My last big event was another job shadow, and I did take a few at this one. I was applying for an internship at IPTV. (PBS) I didn't get it, but I had fun that day anyway. :)

I sat in on two episodes of Iowa Press.

In the first episode they were interviewing former governor of Iowa and former US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack.

It was so interesting learning a lot of behind the scenes stuff!

They had these guys standing in the offices.

I think I remember them from PBS pledge drives when I was a kid!

And that's pretty much it. I didn't photograph much else. I am however photographing a LOT of things this summer as I am building a portfolio of my work, photography and otherwise. To do that I'm going to lots of different places and taking a ton of pictures, hoping I'll get just a few awesome ones I can show off in a portfolio. But that means I have tons of other pictures that don't quite make the cut that I can just post on my blog for fun! So stay tuned! I've got lots of stuff coming! I'll leave you with this one picture I took after I got back to Harlan this summer. :)

Shari & Mallory Lewis

Yesterday I put together a blog post I called "Digital Zoloft." I filled it with videos that just made me happy; all different sorts of clips and music, but everything had in common the fact that they were just feel-good videos. I was going to add the video in this post to it, but as I wrote the introduction to it, I decided that it deserved a post all of its own. It was longer than any of the other videos, and in a way, this video meant a lot more to me than all the others.

This is a video from Mallory Lewis, the daughter of one of my childhood heroes, Shari Lewis. I loved watching Lamb Chop's Play-Along every day on PBS, it was one of my favorite shows when I was little, and one I still think of from time to time. There were plenty of other shows I watched around that time, some I have very vague memories of, but Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop were two people who have just stuck with me all these years. I realize that I just referred to a sock as a person, but she practically is! The way Shari performed Lamb Chop was so good, you'd never know she wasn't alive!

Shari died in 1998, and I still remember cutting out and saving her obituary. I was 12. I'd never done something like that before, and I haven't since. Now I couldn't tell you where that newspaper clip is today, but I just wanted you to get an idea of how much she meant to me as a kid.

A few years ago I came across a YouTube channel from Shari's daughter, Mallory Lewis. I hadn't realized that she had even taken up the character, but as I learned from watching the videos, she still makes public appearances with Lamb Chop on a semi-regular basis! A couple weeks ago an interview with Mallory and Lamb Chop was uploaded to the channel and it was so good that I just had to share it.



As I wrote this post I kind of fell down a rabbit hole of old Shari Lewis videos. I hadn't realized how incredibly 90's the show was! I mean, I know it was a 90's show, but everything about the show now just shouts that it's from the 90's. And I don't mean that as a bad thing. That's when I grew up, so at this point it's just drenched with nostalgia for me.

I'm not going to share all the videos I found, but I am going to share the theme song. I had all but forgotten it, but when I watched it the memories just came flooding back, and I could pretty much sing the entire thing along with them. You can see, even in the theme song how very 90's the show was.



It's only fitting to end this post they way Shari ended every episode. With a song. But not just any song. :) Far more iconic than the theme song, the song from this show that everyone remembers, (and many can't stand) was the song that played over the end credits. The Song That Never Ends. Shari's reaction to everything here is what makes the whole thing work. She was just brilliant.

Digital Zoloft

This video post is going to be a bit different than my past ones, all these videos are ones that I have chosed because they just made me feel good. Whether I had a bad day and a video lifted me out of it, or it was just a video that made me smile and feel better about the world, these are all the videos I've watched recently that just made me happy.

I thought of the idea for this post the other day and I liked it so much that I decided it was worth making a logo for. I might even turn this into a series.

This first video just happened a couple days ago. I watched it, I loved it, I almost died. In a good way! This little girl is the physical incarnation of everything that is good and pure and innocent in this cold, dark, brutal world. Who knew a broken water heater could bring one so much joy?



This is a music video from the group World Order. I've liked them for years, but this video, a team-up with fellow J-Pop group SKE48, just totally brightened my who day when I watched it. It's just so infectiously upbeat!



This next video is just a clip of an adorable dog getting a new toy, but it's just so cute that I can't help but melt. It also doesn't hurt that the new toy is one one of my favorite characters from childhood. :p



Lindsey Stirling always brings a smile to my face, but this month it seems like she's been working overtime! She has put out two videos in a row that are just pure happiness.

The first one is a medley of songs from Beauty and the Beast, but the simple way that she chose to put it together, just filming herself and her crew as they set up while they were on tour, and then just completely goofed around, just set it apart. I especially love her costume choice for the end. Who else would choose a giant puffy teapot costume over Belle's iconic yellow ballgown? It was just too brilliant. :p



The second video made me smile just because of how brilliantly silly it is. For years Lindsey has played this weird character named Phelba on her second channel. Phelba is supposed to be the lead Stirlingite, Lindsey's biggest fan who is completely obsessed with her. She's always just been something she did for fun, like in vlogs and goofy videos, nothing serious, but in this video, her oddball alter ego makes her music video debut, and I loved every second of it.

I also loved that Lindsey chose to include four of her best friends in the video including a few other people from YouTube that I enjoy watching. I'm not that familiar with Blogilates, but I do watch Lilly Singh from time to time, and I my cousins and I usually end up binge watching iJustine and Rosanna Pansino videos every time we get together. It was just a lot of fun to see them all make cameo appearances. :)



This next video I'm sure you've seen, I shared on Facebook the day after it hit the internet, and it absolutely blew up. I know it sounds like I'm a hipster, but I am proud to say I say it when it only had a few thousand views and I said that it was going to go viral. I was so completely right. The video currently has over 23 million views, and these interrupting kids, their deadpan dad, and their frantic mother are pretty much internet sensations at this point.



Lastly we have a couple of videos from Cookie Monster and friends. They've been making a few appearances around the internet lately, and these videos were just so hilarious. Especially Cookie Monster. I loved how upset he got when people kept asking the dreaded "Veggie Monster" question.





I really enjoyed putting this post together, it even inspired a spin off post that I will publish tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that. Digital Zoloft will not replace my Internet Awesome posts, but I think I will bring it back occasionally, especially if I suddenly collect a whole bunch of videos that made me really happy like I did this month. :)

600! 2017! 1st!

This is my first post of the year! And it's also my 600th post! I don't really have much more to say than that, I just like marking my milestone posts.

If you've read my blog long enough, you may remember that I've marked other posting milestones on blog with videos of Cookie Monster. No reason for this, other than the fact that one of the things I first shared on my blog was a Cookie Monster video. Well, I don't have a REAL Cookie Monster video, but the other day Studio C released a sketch with a very fake Cookie Monster puppet, but despite its fake-ness, it was still hilarious, so, I guess to commemorate this posting milestone, here is Studio C's very fake, but very hilarious, Cookie Monster sketch.

Mr. Rogers

John Green recently did a Mental Floss video about Mr. Rogers, and I thought I'd share it here. Mr. Rogers was a big part of my childhood, so I'll always have a soft spot for him and his show. :)



And just because I still love this video, the PBS remix video of Mr. Rogers.



Mr. Rogers was one in a million. The world would be a better place if more people lived life like he did.

Reading Rainbow Remix

PBS just released another remix, and it is just as good as the previous 3. :)



Reading Rainbow was one of the main shows I watched as a little kid. I was always a reader, but this show reinforced not just my love of reading but learning as well. I was exposed to so much more information about that world thanks to this show. I hope kids today have a show this good to spark their imaginations, and foster a love of learning.

Julia Child

I knew this was coming!

After the Mr. Rodgers and Bob Ross videos, I thought to myself, what other PBS icons did I grow up watching that would make for a good remix video? The FIRST one that popped into my head was Julia Child. Lo and behold, that was the very next one. :)



Julia Child was another person I loved to watch when I was little. She was just so friendly, and she seemed to have a similar outlook on life as Bob Ross. Always positive and encouraging. Shows like hers are what made me love to cook.

So, what might PBS remix next? What I REALLY want to see is a Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop video. Marty Stouffer's Wild America would also be awesome. Whatever they do I'm sure it will be great. Hopefully it will be something that will bring back good childhood memories. :)

Bob Ross

You might recall about 2 months ago when I shared THIS video on my blog.

I posted that because it was just a perfect little bit of childhood nostalgia, and I loved the message in the song. Today that channel, PBS Digital Studios, released a second video. This one is just as full of nostalgia as the previous video.



When I was little, Bob Ross was scheduled viewing at Grandma's house. Every Saturday we knew that she'd be watching Bob Ross, and we'd be right there watching with her.

I'm not an expert on psychology, or any sort of analysis of the mind, but if I had to guess, I would say that Bob Ross is at least one of the reasons that I love art so much. His consistent message that "Anyone Can Paint," is something that I firmly believe in. Bob Ross showed me that anyone can be an artist. You just need to take the time to learn, and develop your skills.

The people who claim to not be able to draw, or paint, or whatever, simply don't take the time to learn. Their lives would be so much richer if they just tried.

Bob Ross may not be considered a "Master" on the scale of DaVinci, or Michelangelo, but to me, he is one of the greatest artists of the last century. Not just for his works, but for his inspiring attitude, not just about art, but about life itself.

6 / 26

When I was 6, life was simple.

When I was 6, people were nice.

When I was 6, life was easy.

When I was 6, everything was amazing.

When I was 6, Mr. Rogers was awesome.

I'm 26. Life is complicated.

I'm 26. Not everyone is nice.

I'm 26. Life is hard

I'm 26. Most things are still amazing.

I'm 26, and Mr. Rogers is still awesome. :)