Surround Yourself With Plants to Keep Nature in Mind
When we rounded up our staff’s weekly updates last Friday , our editors made long distance messaging easier, exercised more, and tracked our habits and calorie intake.
This week, we’re bringing plant life to our jobs, dropping long-term habits, and strategizing on how we can kill them with our Halloween costumes next year.
What updates have you made this week? Let us know in the comments.
Become Your Own Halloween Doppelganger
I learned the last minute Halloween costume trick: if you’ve ever thought, heard, or read an Instagram comment mentioning some celebrity you look like, dress like them. Especially if you’ve noticed a similarity thanks to a particular outfit. The night before Halloween, I was stuck without a costume. But in a summer hat, jacket, scarf and bandage on my ear, I became Van Gogh. Since I already had his reddish face with a beard, it was easy for people to connect.
Nick Douglas, staff writer
Get a new, improved and cheaper cosmetic procedure
I have a better eyebrow tint – it’s just Ulta eyebrow tint. It’s super pigmented, and for only $ 10. I like this more than what I have used. I also started using lip liner every time I use lipstick. This is a game changer. I can’t believe it took me 31 years to realize how important a lip liner is.
Claire Lowe, Food and Beverage Editor
Surround yourself with greenery
There are more processors around me than plants. I decided to fix this with some low maintenance plants. I bought not one, but two succulents (one for home, one for work). Sure, they’re not going to revitalize my habitat or supply me with tons of oxygen, but adding a little green makes me acknowledge the presence of a world filled with trees, leaves and real nature, as opposed to the green virtual meadows from my latest Breath of the Wild obsession.
Patrick Austin, staff writer
Don’t need to have this Java
I hate to report it, but my update this week is no coffee. I don’t have a particularly sudden addiction to caffeine – I probably drank 2-3 cups a day, maximum – but in my ongoing efforts to improve my acid reflux, I very reluctantly decided it was time to take a break. For the past few days I have been drinking green tea (UGH) in the morning and it seems to be helping. I have been drinking coffee regularly, maybe since seventh grade, so this is a pretty radical change for me. Let’s see how things go.
Virginia K. Smith, Editor-in-Chief
Split browsers to stay tidy
This is just a little chrome tabbed trick. I’m one of those 99 tabs open and I always have Slack in a pinned tab on the left. If I’m trying to work on a writing project, it’s usually in google docs, so I can still see the Slack tab light up. Some people open their browser full screen so the tabs are not visible, but I need them for research: maybe I have interview notes in one tab, reference materials in another, and I keep opening new ones for specific Google points. Here’s a hell of a solution: Control-click only the tabs you are working on and you can drag them to open them in a new window dedicated to this project.
Beth Squarecki, health editor
Use your plane to catch up on watching
I am constantly lagging behind the films, but this week on the plane, I saw two really great ones: “The Big Sick” and “The Lion . “ In case you haven’t seen them, The Big Sick is a whimsical modern romantic comedy based on a true love story, while Lion is about a lost boy in India also based on true events. I highly recommend both films, as well as plane travel, so you don’t miss out on all the media you missed.
Michelle Wu, parenting editor