February 2012
7 posts
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vintage emily: fun with the wayback machine
Inspired by my friend Ashima’s recent finds on the Wayback Machine, I searched for one of the first websites I built. It was 1996 or 1997. I was 12 and obsessed with online zines and AOL message boards. I had created my own zine, which focused on advice for and by kids. It was called Problems & Solutions (so creative), and it was the very vanilla precursor to my edgier zine in high...
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Just backed > MATTER — Kickstarter →
I just backed this project on Kickstarter… love the new ideas/efforts popping up to address the need for more in-depth, critical thinking in online publishing. (Just hope the team behind Matter is more diverse than what the video suggests…)
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“Physicists are changing how we think of empty space, i.e. a vacuum, to explain...”
– How the Universe Came from Nothing | IdeaFeed | Big Think
Carl and I were just pondering this last night. I was trying to make sense of how there can be galaxies that give the appearance (to our human eyes) of being contained and having edges, yet that confinedness might also suggest that there is...
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confession tuesday: i know the secret to inbox...
I confess that I really do know the secret (for me). And it’s decidedly simple:
1. Sign up for the most well-designed to do list ever: Teux Deux. Get the iPhone app while you’re at it.
2. Marvel at the beauty of dragging and dropping your to do list items and prioritizing your life with a swipe of your precious little fingertip.
3. Discover that you keep most emails in your inbox...
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confession tuesday: travel and birthdays and...
Hello Tuesday. It’s been awhile since I’ve stopped by to confess all my deepest, darkest secrets. So let’s get to it —
On travel
Paris and Rome were something special. I saw a nun flash mob in front of Notre Dame. I’m still riding the happy wave from that. I confess that I have a deep admiration for nuns. There was a time I was discerning whether that was the path...
January 2012
10 posts
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WatchOur second day in Paris, and not likely to be topped. We were visiting Notre Dame, which had been converged upon by hundreds of nuns of all orders, backgrounds, and ages. It was a bubbly and happy crowd. I have a soft spot for nuns, so I was already in my people-watching glory being surrounded by them.
As we got closer to the entrance of the cathedral, music began playing… and it only took...
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away we go
We are a few hours into our journey to Paris and Rome, hanging out at the Minneapolis airport before our flight leaves. I have decided the Delta Sky Lounge is today’s closest equivalent to Ten Forward, with a bar and furniture that attempts to be hip-modern and everything, but unfortunately no Guinan. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with her all day. (Look it up, kids.)
So far my biggest...
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“Perhaps the ‘I don’t have time to read’ line is just a cover. A way...”
– In the Land of the Non-Reader « The Bygone Bureau
I’ve been reading much more lately and wondering about this excuse as well. Elsewhere in this post, the writer talks about reading in terms of empathy and new ideas. The irony for me has been that the more I read, the less alone I feel....
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“Just as companies create pop-up stores during the holidays or during certain...”
– Pop-Up Human Capital: A New Employment Model? | Endless Innovation | Big Think
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I confess that I wish every Tuesday could begin with breakfast with my best friends and end with a pedicure with my sister-in-law, with pizza and wine with the hubby as the epilogue. Tuesday is not typically so much fun (especially considering that I actually worked, too). And so rarely does it end with my toes sporting a happy pink-red shade, this one in particular called California Raspberry....
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this is how nerds say i love you
Seriously. I love this guy SO MUCH.
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so... i'm going to paris. and rome. in 15 days.
A few days into the year, I decided my mantra for 2012 would be: Honor what’s essential. Do what energizes.
It’s not a resolution. It’s an intention. And it’s already making this year feel like a time of magic. I’m not a huge fan of the word magic — it seems a little too sentimental even for me — but I feel like I discredit the energy that’s taking...
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“Any business that ignores these transformations does so at its own peril....”
– This Is Generation Flux: Meet The Pioneers Of The New (And Chaotic) Frontier Of Business | Fast Company
So many things I could quote from this article. A very good read. (Except for the introduction of yet another generational term… the whole “generation this” and...
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“Living Social is likely the fastest growing technology business in Washington,...”
– Information Diet | Why Hungry Academy Matters
This is brilliant. And another sign that higher education is not only overpriced, but increasingly out of touch. Rack up student loan debt for a degree that may not even teach you the real world of programming, or earn a living while learning from...
“I don’t like this expression ‘First World problems.’ It is false and it is...”
– Nigerian author and artist Teju Cole (via xkimberlyx)
BOOM
YOU JUST GOT KNOWLEDGE’D
(via noitemsfoxonlyfinaldestination)
December 2011
15 posts
wonderonawhim asked: I love you. The end. Lets write beautiful poetry together for the rest of our lives.
“A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a...”
– Dylan Thomas (via aquaticuss)
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convincing my mom to get a cell phone: the...
No better way to end the day than with a text fest with my mom. Always a good time. Tonight we made up Polish words (the trick is adding “iewski” or “wskievc” or other jumbles of consonants to words whenever possible). I recently had the opportunity to teach her what “wtf” means. And you can always be sure you’ll get at least three texts that include...
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confession tuesday: thoughts on christmas,...
I confess that I had written a different confession. But then I began to prepare it for this blog and realized it was too heavy and too squared at the edges. So I started over.
I confess that Christmas is a big deal in my family. Much of Stoddard family lore is rooted in Christmas traditions. For instance, ever since my grandparents were newlyweds, the family has gone to a tree farm and cut down...
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The Kernel →
Well this looks intriguing — The Kernel is an online mag recently launched with the angle of “new technology for enquiring minds.” I’m in. A couple posts of interest: We Don’t Need No Education and Wanderers in the Fog.
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“The bottom line is that aside from its obvious physical benefits, yoga is great...”
– Penetrating Postures, Part II: The Psychology of Yoga - Forbes
And this is why I am eagerly awaiting my 4 pm yoga class today, in the wake of a week that has felt like a runaway train.
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“In the midst of this frenzy for innovation, we may be ignoring a simple...”
– Jessica Stillman, Do You Secretly Fear Creativity? (via incmagazine)
This reminds me of many organizations I’ve seen that purposefully design their space in an open, organic fashion because they supposedly value collaboration and the energy of diverse ideas colliding… when in practice...
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dear tuesday
Today I confess that I think it is silly that this whole “be honest on Tuesday” thing is called “true confession Tuesday” when “Truthful Tuesday” is a much nicer alliteration.
I confess that I missed last week’s confession. I was busy with new and interesting things, like my new nephew and becoming an aunt and discovering what babies look like when they...
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“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it....”
– Howard Thurman | The values-driven startup (via courtenaybird)
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I am missing Carl to the point of distraction. All I’ve had to eat today is one piece of pizza, and I can’t imagine what might be worth eating for dinner. Apparently I’m like a dog who starves herself when she loses her mate. And in this case the loss is three days to San Francisco. Three stupid days. Love is ridiculous, people.
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Social or Cultural Entrepreneurship: An Argument... →
As social entrepreneurship has come of age as a field, it’s become more and more apparent to us that a new distinction must be made between innovations that focus on changing markets and systems and those that change hearts and minds.
I am digging this distinction — I’ve always struggled with the fact that social entrepreneurship *should* speak to and encompass the work we do at...
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confession tuesday: breakfast, workshop anxiety &...
I confess that the only foods I ate today were breakfast foods. Toast and jam for breakfast-breakfast. Cereal for lunch-breakfast. Pancakes and bacon for dinner-breakfast. I didn’t plan it that way, but it’s the way I would have it every day if I could.
I confess that I am only talking about what I ate earlier because I am avoiding the anxiety of what I am about to do. Tonight I am...
November 2011
11 posts
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“Understanding meaning is grounded in observing and understanding culture. Culture represents the agreed upon meanings and behaviors that groups of people develop and share over time.”
- From Innovation as a Learning Process: Embedding Design Thinking, by Sara L. Beckman and Michael Barry, California Management Review, Fall 2007. Originally found via this post from Stowe Boyd.
...
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confession tuesday, in which i consider becoming...
We meet again, Tuesday. Although today you feel like a Wednesday or Thursday, because you have been a rather energetic day, like a culmination of activity before the week lets go.
I confess that I just stopped what I was doing to turn on some jazz. Jazz is my new favorite thing. I told Carl the other night that nothing screams D.I.N.K. like jazz and a glass of wine in front of the fireplace by...
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four steps to a great Monday night
1. Make the perfect cup of cocoa in a mug that sets the mood for a creative evening. (See this important piece of writing if you don’t know why such a mug exists.)
2. Enjoy said cocoa while reading in front of the fireplace. Watch Nikky Finney’s acceptance speech at the National Book Awards and feel incredibly grateful for the language and minds of poets, who carve out space we...
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reading 32 Poems & exploring perspective in poetry
I picked up a subscription to 32 Poems earlier this year and finally had the chance to spend time with the latest issue tonight. As the name suggests, there are 32 poems in each issue, with a straightforward presentation. Of those 32, I marked five for re-reading and deeper processing (heavy emphasis on processing, as my notes below are not meant to be “reviews” by any stretch):
...
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grateful
1. For a husband who has opened up my understanding of partnership beyond what I ever expected, and for the second chances that brought us together.
2. For friends who speak the same language spiritually, energetically, socially.
3. For family that loves intensely and gives selflessly.
4. For a dog who is truly another part of our family. When I first met her, I knew she had the sweetest...
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confession tuesday: the whole self -- in a snuggie
Another Tuesday. Wow.
I confess that I am wearing a snuggie right now. An Eight West snuggie. It was procured for me through methods I cannot divulge. I love it. In part because it’s Eight West, West Michigan’s very own version of Hoda and Kathie Lee, and well — just watch this clip for a taste of the awesome. Segway tours — so intense. So West.
And I especially love it...
the chance to fail
I’ve been noodling about what two friends shared with me recently (on top of Carl’s question on Tuesday about how I felt about this year). They explained how when they first met me, I came across as put-together and polished, someone who always has a plan. And other adjectives and qualities that are very embarrassing to have explained in a weird kind of third person conversation to...
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“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still...”
– Carl Sagan, Cosmos (via bookoasis)
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confession tuesday: financial strategery, travel,...
I confess that my husband has been playing Skyrim with a devotion I did not know existed.
Oh, I can’t confess for him?
Ok. Then I can confess that I could match his love of this new video game with my love of financial planning. I got to looking at the spreadsheets again tonight. I can’t help myself from pausing to replay the numbers. We’ve never been this close to paying off...
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it's the little things
Deciding on the perfect shade of blue for the new living room paint after choosing between five.
Painting the entire room in an afternoon because my mom is the queen of cutting in and I am a maniac with a roller.
Admiring how lovely a red chair is against the perfect blue. Too bad the dog has claimed the red chair as her own.
Settling in to working at home, celebrating the freedom of...
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true confession tuesday (my first)
After reading other Tuesday confessions for quite awhile now, I’ve decided to try it out myself. Let me first confess that the worst promise I make to myself is that lack of a good structure (like confessing something every Tuesday) is the only thing keeping me from writing more freely and more frequently. I confess to believing that structure will be enough to overcome the lack of...
October 2011
4 posts
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#amwriting: in which the essence pulls me toward...
Worked on three poems tonight — a very rough/bad/”free write” draft of one, the beginning threads and connected concepts of another, and finally an initial and workable draft of the third. By the third poem, I was starting to realize why I may avoid this. It’s always more emotional than I expect, and always in the spots where I don’t expect it. I’m still...
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September 2011
6 posts
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fun keywords to use in twitter management
This year, I’ve decided to keep my following count on Twitter to no more than 500 people, in an effort to simplify my social media use. Being an active Twitter user since 2007 means I eagerly followed hundreds of people who have either morphed into Twitter abusers (read: “Buy my product. Buy my product. Read my blog. Buy my product NOW.”), are no longer relevant to me, or are...
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