Room to Think

I have a confession: I've been putting off writing. Over the past 5 years, writing has become less and less a part of my life, and I'm realizing more and more that it's something I need.  I used to be an extremely reflective person. I prided myself on my introspection and as a result, I was more intellectual, patient, empathetic, open, and relaxed. I think I was a better person because of it. Now I'm impatient, with little time for wasted minutes, and feeling like I'm pressed for all the time. You know how people recommend meditation for health? To slow down in a sped-up world? That's what writing is to me. Mental yoga. And I do it about as often as I do yoga. Not often enough. There was a simple question in my  Spark Notebook  yesterday, and it made me think--as it should. That's what I paid for. It asked: What have you been putting off lately? Inexplicably, it made me sad. And, I had a rare amount of time that I had time to reflect on why.  ...

Guess what? It's TUESDAY. And I'm here. Granted, it has taken me twenty days since my last post, and I'm about to go to volleyball, but I have managed to make time for this, and all of you. So, I watched a couple TEDtalks in my quest to find one to bring to you today. One was "Why Google Glass?" by Sergey Brin. He's a Google co-founder, and now the leader of their Special Projects. The other was "How do you get your ideas to spread?" by Seth Godin. Personally, I don't think Sergey's talk was all that spectacular--not really something I would originally consider as "worthy" of the TEDtalk title. Many other people agreed with me that his talk was somewhat lacking...It was really just a commercial that introduced Google Glass, which then launched an interesting philosophical discussion in the comments. I wasn't originally going to post this as my blog topic, but then I found myself asking all sorts of questions...about...

Why hellllooooo there. I haven't seen you  in a while...or rather, you haven't seen me. It always surprises me how you can go from having all the time in the world, to being very, very busy in such a short span of time. For example, I've been busy since January 3rd, doing the internship thing, complaining about zombie-hour wake up times and whatnot. Now that it's over, I seem to have all the time in the world... EXCEPT that I'm now spending that time applying to big kid jobs. Zombie hours are now a regular thing for me. I wake up at about 6:30 every morning practically dying  of thirst. Not being able to sleep through something like that must be an adult thing. That, or I'm starting to sleep with my mouth open again. Hrm. In summary, I've been busy. But I'm alive, and semi-well. I'm a tad bit anxious about filling my bank account again so I can start saving for Italy... again (and NOT dip into the savings I've already got for it), but other ...

I suppose I should post something  tonight. I've been feeling kinda bad the last couple weeks because of how sparse and lacking in quality my posts have been. Especially  because I keep seeing my pageview count continuously increasing. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing that. But I love it more when I know I've posted something good recently, and frankly, I don't think I have written anything worthy of the number of pageviews I've gotten since my last post. On the other hand, I'm so glad you like my blog! I'm so glad you keep coming back, and I really wish I had more time and energy to keep up with it like I used to. On Tuesday this week, I happened to watch this TEDtalk by iO Tillet Wright. It came up in my facebook feed because of course  I follow ted.com on facebook. To be honest, I wasn't that interested in the content to begin with. If you follow me regularly at all, you'll notice that the TEDtalks I tend to cover involve design, vide...

So...this guy is Bill Ford...Henry Ford's great-grandson, and also distant relation of someone with the last name of "Firestone" (coincidentally). To be honest, he kinda rambles a bit, and sounds a bit like he's reciting a speech. If you're looking for the bit about traffic, I'd just go ahead and skip to about 7 minutes in. For now, I'll leave this here (because I've had a long day and it's 1am already and because tomorrow is going to be a long day too), and do a small review before I have to come up with more content for Florence Friday. Maybe I'll just do THAT at work.  =) Also, someone did a kinectic typography thing that makes the beginning of this talk WAYYYY more interesting: Happy TEDtalk Thursday!

Given that this is a new year, I think I should be allowed to dictate a new schedule! I officially decree that we're going to do an experiment. TEDtalk tuesdays will now be on Thursdays...and fingers crossed that this will allow me to keep up with things. This is only temporary! (unless it works, of course) I've added about 9 hrs a week of vball to my new schedule, and usually there are team dinners afterwards, and therefore I've begun a new crazy habit of coming home around 11:30 on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (my vball days). And while I would normally be fine doing a late (and typical!) blogsfrombed post, I just can't handle 3am mornings when I have to play hard later on (and get up for the internship...please note the new internship zombie hours). SO, without further time or sleep wasted, please expect this week's TEDtalk Tuesday...on Thursday.  =) Happy frigid Tuesday, everyone! Cross your fingers that we get snow soon, or all this cold is SO not worth...

You know, it's pretty impressive when you can manage to create a 7 letter word with 5 vowels in it. I don't know about you, but many-voweled words remind me of lost lands in fantasy stories where magic still exists and mystical creatures thrive. I'm probably wrong about this, but I can't be proven wrong until I see for myself. I must visit the Aeolian Islands to find a dragon. or a will-o-the-wisp. or a wizard. or beautiful elusive maidens washing their hair in waterfalls or something. Or maybe I just want to go because of this: and this: and this: So....it's true they're the touristy islands. They're the hot vacation spots. But I think next friday I'll go into more detail about which island holds which secrets...should be fun.  =) But I feel bad for making you read so much yesterday, so this post is strictly for looking. Happy Florence Friday!