Room to Think

Cinque Terre! NOT the Amalfi Coast! Whoops! I've never posted here about the Amalfi Coast (Costiera Amalfitana), but it's one of my favorite places to post on my Italy Tumblr . I love the colors of this place...granted, this particular picture is edited to increase vibrance, but I'd love to take a picture like this for myself one day. The Amalfi Coast is in Southern Italy, actually at the Southern tip of the Sorrentine Peninsula. It's actually listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site . Most of their commerce is related to tourism, since there's only one road in and out of the area. Because they're listed on a coastal cliff there isn't much room for agriculture, unlike the rolling vineyards of Florence's Tuscany. However, they are known for their limoncello liqueur--because they can grow lemons, known as "sfusato amalfitano" in terraced gardens along the coast. More exciting than booze, though, I found out that the Amalfi people ...

As requested, I'm going to make an attempt at bringing Florence Friday back. I was running out of pictures and the energy to research more, so I just let myself fall out of it. Unfortunately, I lost a good chunk of you dear readers, and I want to bring you back too! In the last few weeks, I heard a story about a woman from Milan who was visiting the States. When she was asked what her favorite Italian food was, she kinda squirmed a little and said, "Well, I'm from Milan. We're right on the border. But I actually really like pizza." "Great!" we said. "What kind?" And here, she sort of blushed a little and said, "Well...being so close to the border of Switzerland and Austria and all...you're going to think this is weird, but, my favorite pizza has hot dogs on it." Yep. The exotic Milan woman likes HOT DOG PIZZA. I couldn't believe it. So, like any good internet fiend, I turned to my good friend GOOgle(images). ...

I've been out of the house on a scavenger hunt for men's jeans today, but when I got home and checked my email, guess what I had in my inbox???? a priority invite to TEDxVancouver!!! Okay, so I did  sign up for priority registration notifications....and everyone who clicked that button gets one of these...but...but...it's exciting anyway. I sent a request to be an intern for TEDxVancouver back when I lived in Bellingham, and I'm kinda wondering if they'll contact me for volunteers now. Either way, this is almost as good as getting an email from Chris Anderson himself, although he won't be present at this one. I also don't know if I"ll be attending.  It's very soon, and this ticket reservation I got expires in three days, and $100 is a lot of money for an unemployed potential technical writer, especially when gas is over $4 again.  =( But if any of you are interested in driving up to Vancouver to check out the whole day, just clic...

Hello everyone, I've had a busy day and my legs are aching with that not-enough-sleep feeling. Lately, I've been having nightmares with spiders infesting my room.  At least when I dream, no one is chasing me down a street calling me a failure (That would mean you have Nightmare disorder). I originally wanted to find a TEDtalk for one of my best friends, Donelyn, who is starting her own blog about engineering and design and activism. She's a wonderful writer, and she's starting to figure out what she's doing in life and I'm all for it. Originally I had wanted to do today's post on a TEDtalk relating to her. That TEDtalk will have to wait for next week. I have several in mind, but I don't have the time to write and reflect on them right now, given that I forgot it was Tuesday and spent 4 hours at a Starbucks caught up in conversation with a fellow writer. Now it's after midnight and it's not even Tuesday anymore. You know my rules, tho...

The time has come again for another post about my brilliant sister's artistic nail talents. The other ones I had about her were some of my more popular posts, so I guess I'll give you more of what you want. You would not believe how many times Kae has painted her nails since my last post about her nail designs....pretty much every week, people.  Yeesh. Also, I think our --- her --- nail polish collection has doubled just over the summer. We even threw out a bunch of my super old colors.  On average, I'd say she buys a new color every week (that's factoring in the weeks she doesn't buy one AND the weeks she decides to splurge on multiple). It doesn't help that I'm home, either. I just give her more opportunities to spend money. You should have seen her face when I handed her two coupons for nail polish the other day. Her new thing now is the super thin brushes that you -- assuming your hand doesn't shake like an old lady -- can use to creat...

Hi everyone! My page-view counter is increasing again, thanks to you loyal readers, whoever you are. (*hint hint* there's a comment bar at the bottom!) And, in celebration, I'm actually going to post on-time for you. The TEDtalk above is given by Eli Pariser, the ex-Executive Director of MoveOn.org . I feel like I should have blogged about the content of his Talk before because I've been mulling it over my head for a long time. The observation is that "personal search" is changing the way the internet works. Those of you who took my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) workshop during Nicole Brown's class last spring know what I'm talking about. But if you aren't aware of it, it just means that Google no longer has standardized search results. It means that if you and I type the same thing into Google's search bar, we won't see the same results page. That this same phenomenon is going on on pretty much every site you visit; most notably...

Quite frankly, I feel like I'm making a miracle right now just by starting this post. Blogging has dropped out of my life in the past couple months, and I have to apologize. Just so you know, about 30% of that apology goes out to you guys, my few and faithful readers.  The other 70% is an apology to the academic, driven part of myself that has been neglected in favor of lazing around playing Skyrim, not finding a job, not updating my resume, and generally enjoying not having to go back to school.  That said, I'm not a fan of my brain turning to mush, and with all this free time, I can either start writing again, or continue doing craft projects until my graduation money runs out. I'll do another post just for the reading and crafting I've been up to. (I promise.) For now, I think it's appropriate, that since it's Tuesday, that I should reintroduce TEDtalk Tuesdays.  So...this is where my brain is at. I'm learning about my favorite animal--the ...