| Best of 2009, #7) Blog |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|01:43 pm] |
That gem of a blog you can't believe you didn't know about until this year.
A sort of disappointing year in blogs, wasn't it? I've moved away from being obsessed with particular people to being obsessed with certain blog topics. Like blogs on cognitive behavioral psychology. Or blogs by authors of books I like to read. Or blogs about pregnancy or parenting. Or blogs about funny things. Or whatever people on Twitter are linking to. Nothing worth linking to, really.
Without explicitly opting in, I suppose I'm on that same "real-time web" train that everyone else is on. The evolution from blogroll to whatever-makes-it-past-my-bored-attention's-defenses bottom-up approach is a survival tactic more than anything else. I can't read everything. I'm like an agent that gets 3.8 million transcripts a day, forced to reject without reading all but a dozen, which either got forwarded by multiple people, or that a trusted friend walked in the door for me particularly.
I suppose neurons had a similar battle when they started organizing into a brain. Listen only for electrical impulses from a few select neurons, or let impulses come in from hundreds if not thousands of different neighboring and variously-trusted sources, and deal with the overall trend.
Is the Twitter stream a blog? Is Google Reader a blog? Is the Facebook newsfeed a blog? Cause that's what I'm reading more than anything else in 2009. Information overload to the max. |
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| Best of 2009, #6) Workshop or conference |
[Dec. 6th, 2009|11:50 am] |
Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?
Let's see, did I go to any conferences this year? Not unless you count that one that I felt obligated to go to because I was newly self-employed and sort of thinking about stretching my networking skills and trying to ignore the fact that I dislike conferences and workshops in general unless there's a speaker that I specifically want to see (or an open bar). I think it was MindCamp. In any case, I got my lanyard name tag, put it around my neck, and stood there for about 1.2 minutes until deciding to leave before anyone saw me. I made it about halfway to the bus stop when a friend saw me and asked where I saw going. I said, "To take a phone call" not explaining why the phone call had to be taken at the bus stop. I stood there for a minute, and, deciding not to be a liar liar I walked back to the conference after what I thought was a good "phone-call" amount of time, and said hi to said friend, and also said hi to some of his friends and other acquaintances that were around. This was one of those conferences where people propose their own panels, and people go to them, and they are more about discussions than actually having a real prepared panel of any sort. They're supposed to be more conversational. I don't know why they make me so uncomfortable. But, after about 10 more minutes of standing around the panels were announced and I made my get-away.
I feel like a social retard when it comes to those kinds of things. I should work on that. I guess that's what I learned from this conference, which was in Fremont. |
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| Best of 2009, #5) Night out |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|01:23 pm] |
Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?
Uh oh. This is a tough one. So many fun nights this year. Was it New Year's Eve at LoFi? My bingo birthday? Katie's Bathazar birthday? Kellianne's dance birthday? Ingo's Zombie birthday? Any of the weddings? Our anniversary? Easter, the zoo, or the fake wedding? The one where we all dressed up like Chris Jones? The one that led to a pregnancy?
I'm going to go with one that seemed to randomly surprise me with its awesomeness... Bastille Day.
It was the first time we tested our photo mirror out in the wild, and I think it ended up getting some of the best pictures so far. There were chicken races, spin art bicycles, crepes, dancing, an amazing garden, great people, and lots of fun. We got their early (3pm-ish) and stayed til the last person left (2am-ish). It was the height of summer.
Close second: all of the other ones mentioned above |
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| Best of 2009, #4) Book |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|12:56 pm] |
What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?
Infinite Jest: A Novel . The caveat being that I'm still stuck in Infinite Summer (about halfway through) due to being side-railed by a shelf full of pregnancy, midwifery, brain development, and parenting books, I still think this is the book that has taken over the most of my subconscious. The slow reveal. The entertainment. The fact that sentences grab me as much as the story. I hope I never finish.
Close second: Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care , because it was the defining moment that convinced us follow the trail of midwives over the doctors. |
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| Best of 2009, #3) Article |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|12:47 pm] |
What's an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you shared and referenced throughout the year.
It would definitely have to be this article:
What Makes Us Happy?Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant.
This whole year I've been on a bit of a longitudinal study obsession, and it mostly started with this article. Studying people over time, on the scope of years and decades rather than hours and days is fascinating to me. Mostly because we can barely see the big picture while we're in it. This led me to the Up series of documentaries that has tracked the same 15 or so people over 5 decades, coming back every 7 years to interview them. It's also what inspires the 8:36pm project, and things like this "best of 2009" project.
Close second: How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect |
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| Best of 2009, #2) Restaurant moment |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|12:38 pm] |
Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?
The fanciest meal we've had together for sure. We were too scared to take pictures of our food since the menu told us is was illegal and they'd send us to jail if we did. But the micro-gastronomy tasting menu experience of WD-50 blew us away with its creativity and novel tastiness. |
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| Best of 2009, #1) Trip |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|12:33 pm] |
What was your best trip in 2009?
New York City, for sure. Our 1-year anniversary, Ben & Marci's wedding, Katie's 30th bday, Rick Webb's amazing loft, Mischa and dB's lovely apartment, lots of good downtime and friend time, time to process the fact of my own self-employment, etc. |
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| 31 days of reflection on 2009 |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|11:46 am] |
Here are the questions and the rules:
This is The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge... which I learned about via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) skamille, capricornia, smapple, alicetiara, and labrujah (in reverse order). Apparently it started here.
How to participate:
- Write on one or all thirty-one of the prompts below for the month of December
- A post can be a sentence, photo or 3,000 word essay
- Tag your posts and photos #best09. Follow others sharing their stories from the year. There's a widget at the bottom of the post aggregating mentions of the tag on Twitter
Share your best moments of 2009over the course of December. Don't get hung up on details or length -if there's an aspect of the question that doesn't resonate, change it to meet your needs.
- December 1 Trip. What was your best trip in 2009?
- December 2 Restaurant moment. Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?
- December 3 Article. What's an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious'd and reference throughout the year.
- December 4 Book. What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it?Have you bought and given away multiple copies?
- December 5 Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?
- December 6 Workshop or conference. Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?
- December 7 Blog find of the year. That gem of a blog you can't believe you didn't know about until this year.
- December 8 Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?
- December 9 Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?
- December 10 Album of the year. What's rocking your world?
- December 11 The best place. A coffee shop? A pub? A retreat center? A cubicle? A nook?
- December 12 New food. You're now in love with Lebanese food and you didn't even know what it was in January of this year.
- December 13 What's the best change you made to the place you live?
- December 14 Rush. When did you get your best rush of the year?
- December15 Best packaging. Did your headphones come in a sweet case? See a bottle of tea in another country that stood off the shelves?
- December 16 Tea of the year. I can taste my favorite tea right now. What's yours?
- December 17 Word or phrase. A word that encapsulates your year. "2009 was _____."
- December 18 Shop. Online or offline, where did you spend most of your mad money this year?
- December 19 Car ride. What did you see? How did it smell? Did you eat anything as you drove there? Who were you with?
- December20 New person. She came into your life and turned it upside down. He went out of his way to provide incredible customer service. Who is your unsung hero of 2009?
- December 21 Project. What did you start this year that you're proud of?
- December 22 Startup. What's a business that you found this year that you love? Who thought it up? What makes it special?
- December23 Web tool. It came into your work flow this year and now you couldn't live without it. It has simplified or improved your online experience.
- December 24 Learning experience. What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?
- December 25 Gift. What's a gift you gave yourself this year that has kept on giving?
- December 26 Insight or aha! moment. What was your epiphany of the year?
- December 27 Social web moment. Did you meet someone you used to only know from her blog? Did you discover Twitter?
- December28 Stationery. When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find of the year?
- December 29 Laugh. What was your biggest belly laugh of the year?
- December 30 Ad. What advertisement made you think this year?
- December 31 Resolution you wish you'd stuck with. (You know, there's always next year...)
Answers coming shortly. |
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| Awesome Things My Friends Do: Sleigh Ride in Bora Bora |
[Dec. 2nd, 2009|03:53 pm] |
Originally published at The Many Hats of Jason Specland. Please leave any comments there. We got back from Virginia on Monday afternoon, and I’ve been procrastinating writing and posting the photos about it. However, an incredibly delightful Christmas-wrapped bag of awesome has just been dropped into my lap, and I can not let another moment go by without telling you about it.
It is “Sleigh Ride in Bora Bora” by my wonderful friends Melissa Axel and James Jacoby. (And some of their friends who I’m sure are actually wonderful themselves, but I’ve never actually met.)
Get the song now. No, seriously. Do it.
It’s kitschy and delightful, and I double-dog-dare you not to smile while listening to it. It is immediately jumping head-first into our family Christmas music rotation. Not that we really had one before, but thanks to this song, we’re totally starting one. |
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| Sleigh Ride In Bora Bora - behind the scenes! |
[Dec. 2nd, 2009|12:45 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | bora bora, boulder acoustic society, christmas, fiddle, french polynesia, holiday, kailin yong peace project, melissa axel, music, sleigh ride in bora bora, songs, tahiti, tuba, ukulele, ukulele loki, videos, violin, weissenborn, youtube | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Denver, CO | ] |
| [ | Listening to |
| | "Sleigh Ride In Bora Bora" by Melissa Axel, Modern Tuba & Friends | ] |
This is a silly behind-the-scenes video filmed during the recording of "Sleigh Ride In Bora Bora" last January. I hope you enjoy it!
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| Sleigh Ride In Bora Bora |
[Dec. 2nd, 2009|03:20 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | bora bora, boulder acoustic society, christmas, fiddle, french polynesia, holiday, kailin yong peace project, melissa axel, music, sleigh ride in bora bora, songs, tahiti, tuba, ukulele loki, violin, weissenborn | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Denver | ] |
| [ | Feeling |
| |  excited | ] |
| [ | Listening to |
| | "Sleigh Ride In Bora Bora" | ] |
You know something epic must be happening if I'm posting to my livejournal ...
Tired of the old Christmas tunes being recycled again and again and again? Longing to recapture the wonder and delight of experiencing magical tunes like "Mele Kalikimaka," "Christmas Island," and "Snow" (from White Christmas) for the first time?
Well then, I've got the song for you! "Sleigh Ride In Bora Bora" is the needed tonic to the onslaught of overplayed holiday pablum. This is '50s throwback musical kitsch at its best - the best novelty holiday song since your grandma got run over by that reindeer!
Written by my darling wife Melissa and myself during Thanksgiving 2008, and recorded in Boulder in January 2009, this song features some incredible musicians doing what they do best: musicianalizing!
( The cast of Sleigh Ride In Bora Bora )
Words and music by Melissa and yours truly.
We're incredibly excited to be releasing this song in time for the holidays this year. Please download it, love it, and spread the word to everyone you can! Link to it, re-tweet it, post it on Facebook and "like" it, wave at it on google, and do all those other ingenious social-media things you can. I totally appreciate any support you might be able to give.
If you enjoy the song half as much as I enjoyed making it, then it will all be worth it. (Although, I hope you enjoy it 100% as much or more!)
This is available now as a FREE DOWNLOAD, although donations will always be appreciated. Just click on the picture! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 1st, 2009|07:45 pm] |
feeling cruddy
Since I got home from work my throat feels a little closed, my head hurts and I'm really tired. I've started taking Zicam and will take Nyquil before bed. Not gonna succumb.
audiophile
I listened to Turn Coat, the 11th Dresden Novel read by James Marsters. It was awesome. Now I want to listen to them all. However, I went through it faster than I can afford to make a hobby, even with Audible's into offer. Only one or two books a month? What the hell is that? I'll get my audio fiction from the library for now, when I can go through a book a week and it won't cost $100+/month. Sadly, my local does not have any other Dresden novels. Plenty of classics available to download online though.
After listening to this, my first audio book, I realize how ridiculous critics of the Kindle's text-to-voice feature are. These books are performed. The Kindle just renders text out loud. No WAY that's going to replace an audio book. And anyone it would replace an audio book for is getting ripped off by audio books since they always cost more than the print version. If someone who can't read is willing to pay for the text and to listen to it in a single (computerized) voice, then fine. They get what thay've paid for, I say.
tea's ready. Intermission
knitting
I've completed knitting on two shawls. Each is currently a 4-skein rectangle. The multi-colored one will get matching fringe. The black one will get silver-grey embroidered something on it and fringe in black and silver-grey where the embroidered design touches the ends.
I bought two knitting magazines (one for me and one for Dumbledore, I told myself). One came with two shawl pins, which are like hair sticks with large decorative wooden bits at the end to keep the pin from slipping through the knitting. They're hard to find casually, so I bought some bits to make my own. They won't be as nice as this one, but they'll be all mine, and made for less than a few dollars in materials. Woot for crafts.
I found a sweater pattern in one of the magazines. Two, in fact. One is a loose turtleneck and the other is a kimono-style jacket. I can make these. But it will require buying more yarn, which means it will wait. I have too many other projects and the yarn for them already: at least three hats and 4 scarves. Two sweaters and all the socks I want to knit will just have to wait. Le sigh.
Florida-bound
Next week we're going to Florida. It felt like a long time in the future until today. Than blammo, time to by cat food and all the other things we need to get in place before we travel. Like presents, It turns out we'll be there for Hanukkah. That means presents, at least for the kids. Charging ht camera, packing, things like that. And we need to find restaurants to go to with people. I don't know restaurants in the area anymore, not really. Is that Thai place John and I used to go to still there? Is Sara's? Who on Earth would go to Sublime with us? Why isn't the whole world just vegan?
But aside from restaurants and presents everything should go smoothly. We're staying with Charlie, which is awfully nice of him. We're renting a car. We've scheduled time to see everyone in appropriate combinations. Aside from Chandra and Charlie, we won't see anyone twice. It's gonna be busy and full, I think. |
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| Grattis på födelsedag älskling! |
[Dec. 1st, 2009|04:34 pm] |
Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
Björn adds a year to his age today. He is approximately totally absolutely without a doubt the most wonderful man in the entire world, on the whole planet, in the vast universe. I've got a small crush on him, you know.
Anyway, I have celebrated his birthday with him seven times and I hope to see approximately seventy more birthdays with this marvelous hunk of Swedish person. At a minimum.
Grattis på födelsedag! Du är (ungefär helt absolut utan tvivel) (fan) bäst! |
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| New idea: Big Checkin |
[Nov. 30th, 2009|10:33 pm] |
So I have this new idea that's something I can work on in my spare time. The idea is to make it easier and more interesting to do those end-of-year "this is what happened in the past year" checkin sorta reflections. And, to turn it into a longitudinal study, something that people can return to every year to compare, reflect, and add on to.
Particularly useful this year as it's the end of a decade as well. It might be interesting to reflect on the whole decade to see what progress we've made, what setbacks we've had, what friends and family were the most meaningful, etc. Secondarily interesting to capture thoughts on big general topics like politics, love, family, career, and recreation. Thirdly potentially interesting to compare your own general place in the world with everyone else in the world, or just people your age, or your friends.
I like the idea of having a place to capture the long arc of life, the big picture.
I got the idea when thinking about Kellianne and my first episode of the "holiday newsletter".
Anyone else also interested in this idea and want to help me brainstorm it out? I don't have much time, but I also don't think it's a huge project. |
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| I might have to create a new tag |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|09:37 pm] |
Last night I made dinner. It was truly horrible. Undercooked, oversalty, hardly edible.
This morning I made myself some oatmeal. The kind that comes in a big bag that you have to cook on the stove in water and pay attention to it so that it doesn't burn. It was good, really good. I cannot remember ever in my whole life having successfully made real oatmeal before today. Can you believe that I raised a child all the way to adulthood without once having Child Protective Services involved in our lives?
The good oatmeal gave me enough confidence to make a pot of chili for dinner. It too was good, really good, and not burned. Björn gave me a tip of something I could add to it that suddenly made my chili the very best chili you have ever ever eaten in all of your life and I think I will keep my new little secret to myself just a little bit longer.
So THIS is what it feels like to have a good cooking day? |
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| It's That Time of Year Again |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|07:40 am] |
As you head out to feast and celebrate with family and friends please reserve at least a piece of your heart as a place of sorrow and remembrance. And may the attitude of gratitude be strong EVERY day.
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| NonDual Highlights today..... |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|09:00 am] |
"When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of the still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
- Wendell Berry
...Love always, to you all.... &hearts |
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