It's a beautiful life....
Friday, 01 January 2010
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Ahhh, my first cup of 2010 =)
For the past 15+ years I've 'given up' something. For the entire year, Jan 1 - Dec 31st. Somehow giving something up knowing it's only for a finite time period makes it more achievable to me. Some years it's sugar, some years it's chocolate, sometimes candy. (Yep, I have a crazy mad sweet tooth! Usually, if I enjoy something, I WAY overdo it!). One year it was giving up eating anything in the car. Another year it was drinking any soda. Soda was a wimpy year because I'm not a big soda drinker anyway, and it isn't much of a challenge to give up something you don't care about. Every year I have succeeded, except for one. About 10 years ago I gave up coffee for the year. I am an admitted coffee junkie, and I knew it would be difficult. That year I only made it to August, and then wimped out on the way home from a family renunion held in the Black Hills, South Dakota. So, this year I wanted to try again, and succeed this time.
Yes, I am Catholic, and yes, I also give up something else for Lent *in addition* to the yearly giving up. Last spring it was chocolate. Giving up chocolate while also giving up coffee while being female is just plain masochistic, in retrospect.
Part of my motivation to try giving up coffee again was that I knew it was time to kick my artificial sweetener habit. I like strong coffee (Espresso or Obsidian Blend beans from Caribou Coffee, specifically) and then would sweeten it with Splenda. Only Splenda. I don't like the taste of the others - the blue the pink, the whatever's - just my yellow packets of Splenda. And never sugar - a girl can't waste calories on something you drink, right? How dumb was that!. And I used fake creamer - the powdered type. Not flavored, just regular. I justified it by buying the 'Lite' version. And the thing is - I LIKE MY COFFEE THAT WAY. But I would often finish one pot of coffee that way, and many days have a second pot. I knew over time this was a LOT of bad stuff going in to my body, and had to be bad at a cellular level, and at some point would have to be changed, but there's always 'later' - right?Then my daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy 3 years ago, at the age of 20, just suddenly out of the blue. In doing hours of research on it, because dang, that was almost the only power over the situation I had, I discovered that (although controversial) there is some correlation between artificial sweeteners and seizures. My awareness of what I was putting in my body increased after that. Let me qualify this by reminding you that I am not a health nut (wish I was!) and have a horrid sweet tooth, but at some point you just have to take responsibility for the consequences of your own choices. So, after much contemplating I made the decision to give up coffee for 2009. My family knows my dependence on coffee, and my youngest son, the one I refer to as The Rockstar, asked politely if I could just give up something else and wait till he moved out again to give up coffee. Nope. So I did it.I was literally sick for several weeks at first while my body protested, and the headaches were awful. I think the whole month of January was spent feeling like I was waiting for the fog to lift coupled with nasea. February was not much easier. All year I watched people posting about coffee, and on one site I belong to, there is a gentleman who works at a coffee shop and would often post the most decadent photos of coffee drinks, with art in the foam - I am going to make a point of visiting it now... Also, being in the design and social media industry, many meetings with clients and peers to collaborate are held in coffee shops. But, I'm happy to say I did it. The whole year.My original intention was to have a pot of coffee brewing at midnight New Years Eve and have my first sip, photographed of course, at 12:01am 1/1/2010. That sort of fell thru as I'm more fatigued right now than I recall ever being, even when the kids were all babies. At Thanksgiving my dad was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in a very advanced stage, and is too weak for chemo. He is living with me now and I am acting as his primary caregiver 'for the duration' - whatever that ends up looking like. For now his treatment consists of daily aggressive radiation treatments. This disease is a fast moving train, ya'll, and each day brings a new medication, a new condition, a new side effect, a new panic, more phone calls, another piece of home equipment, another trip to the Emergency Room, constant supervision of him, and wishing I had a frequent shopper punch card at the pharmacy. And very, very little sleep. In the last few weeks I *almost* convinced myself that I'd earned the coffee back, but I didn't cave. However, at midnight last night, having coffee and staying awake was the farthest thing from my mind. And good thing, because at 4am we were up again heading once again into the ER. So, I didnt actually have my first cup of coffee for the new year until about 3pm today, and didnt even finish a second cup. I am banning myself from artificial sweeteners in my coffee going forward, and will deal with the calories from honey or a more natural sugar. And milk or half-and-half instead of the powdered stuff. I know what you are thinking, and nope, I don't like it black.So now, friends, who'd like to meet for coffee? For those of you far away, I lift my cup to you virtually! =)
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
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Beginning of the Christmas '09 storm
Driving back from the hospital tonight, which has quickly become a trip that my car could almost do by itself. The snow from the impending storm has just started. My sister from Texas arrived yesterday, and was driving back with me, so I went extra slow to keep her feeling safe =)
Tomorrow's trip to the hospital, and to the airport to retrieve more guests (if their flights are not cancelled) will be much more treacherous. Hoping my Dad can be home with us for Christmas. If now, we'll brave the snow hopefully and move the party to Abbott Northwestern Hospital.
Friday, 04 December 2009
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Family comes first - learning a new workflow
This is my Dad. My hero really. He can be a little rough around the edges in a Walter Matthau 'Grumpy Old Men' sort of way, but he's simply a wonderful soul. This week he was diagnosed with lung cancer. We are in the 'waiting period' between tests to really determine which type, how far/if it has spread, and what the next course of action/treatment will be. He'll be staying with me here in my home. Right now I feel very blessed that I work from home the majority of the time, and can work in my PJ's late at night, and will be able to do this with him. I'm thankful to live in an age of digital communication in all of it's forms, and that by nature I am a night owl who really does my best work late at night.
Crossing my fingers and praying for the best!
Thursday, 03 December 2009
Sunday, 22 November 2009
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HTML5, CSS3, Ban Helvetica, and more... recap of #minnebar
Attended the 2009 MinneBar (un)Conference today, held at Best Buy's World Headquarters - quite an impressive place. The conference is a day long event with several rooms running concurrent sessions on tech, design, business, and general interest topics. You were free to come and go between these sessions as your interest dictated. As far as 'design' goes, I'd have to say the emphasis on most of the sessions offered in that category were focused more on 'development', but since many of us designers do both, at least to some degree, they were still beneficial and I enjoyed them. Here is a sampling of the sessions I attended:
- HTML5 & CSS3 - Mike Bollinger from livefront.com did a great job introducing many of the new API's and Structural tags, and a new doctype coming. Loved this presentation. Didn't have enough time to dig into CSS3 much, but really, stay tuned because COOL stuff coming, ya'll!!!!
- Ban Helvetica - Garrick VanBuren dissected the diagram above in a discussion about not worrying so much about 'web-safe' fonts. Great session!
- Intro to BuddyPress - Toby Cryns demonstrated how BuddyPress - a plug in for MultiUser WordPress - can allow your multi user WP sites to have internal Facebook or Ning-like social networking capabilities. Toby knows his WP!
- Assholes are Killing Your Project - Coming from a strong management background myself, I found this to be Management Skills 101, but helpful for those without that background.
- TopTrends in the Application World - Interesting statistics in this one. I have both iPhone and Droid envy..... *sigh* 1.5 years left on my BB contract.
- Job Search=SUCKS: 12 Tips to Make the Process Less Painful - Great job searching tips for today's market from Paul DeBettignies. The audience seemed pretty engaged - timely topic for many.
- Refresh Twin Cities: A Community of Designers & Developers - This was an intro session basically gathering interest in this cities chapter of Refresh. First meeting is actually Dec 7th (? dang, cant find the date in my notes, will have to look it up). This seems very, very similar to a monthly meeting I've attended for a few years with a group I belong to called TC Web Pros (Twin Cities Web Professionals). They are planning a similar format, with user input on what the areas of interest are, presentations by members and guests, and roundtable discussion time. I'll attend and check it out.
- Drupal - Samir Nassar gave a great presentation. He intended this to be an intro to Drupal, but I still get benefits every time I attend an 'intro to Drupal' session. Yep. Some things I just need to hear more than once apparently. But I felt better about this when I saw some people that are Drupal Gods/Goddesses unabashedly in there also!
- Is that a Hospital in your Pocket? - **Huge sigh** very sad to have missed this session, LOTS of forward movement happening in this area. An incoming phone call kept me from that one.
There were so many more wonderful offerings. Many of them, quite frankly, were way over my head, but perhaps by osmosis I'll absorb little bits here and there... There was great networking, food, beverages, and even beer at the end was provided. I'll be back for the next one, without question!
Also, I was able to say hello and introduce myself to Robert Stevens, founder of GeekSquad. A million years ago, when he had recently started it, I worked for a home/office furnishings company in this city, and used to sell him office furniture. Did he remember me? Of course not, nor did I expect him to. Still he made a point to chat for a moment, and was very gracious and humble, and went out of his way to greet and talk with a lot of the attendees all day and thanked them for coming.Great day!
Monday, 16 November 2009
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Everything needs upgrading eventually~
I watched a video today showing some astounding statistics on how fast social media, technology and communication is changing. I'd recommend for ALL to view it, and pass it along to others who are still insisting that social media is just a bunch of useless babble and a waste of time. Haven't figured out how to embed the video here yet, so this is the link:
A few hours later I found myself wrestling with my sewing machine, which is about 24 years old. It was cool and swoopy at the time when it was new, and I got miles and miles out of it. I sewed clothes for the kids when they were llittle, dresses and clothing for myself for work, and costumes for my daughters entire danceline for the 13 years she danced competitively, and lots and lots of gifts and home items. But tonight I'm just doing the basics. Hemming 5 pairs of slacks for my 96 year old great aunt, and putting new elastic in 2 other pairs. And NONE of them are the same color. So I have to switch thread each time to a new color, and put a new bobbin in. However, this machine is too old to purchase new bobbins for, and I'm down to one. So I have to reload it with a new color each time. Pain in the tush. And the pin that the bobbin sits on has long ago broken off. The light bulbs for the machine are not produced anymore. Instead of lamenting on how flippin old I must be to be in this situation, I'm deciding it's simply time to upgrade the machine. We upgrade our websites, upgrade our software, upgrade our cars, (many upgrade relationships), upgrade our careers, so it stands to reason that the problem is simply the machine being old, not me - I'm just the user =)Now, if I could just find a machine with CSS-esque features, so I dont have to change the thread and settings each and every time. Just program a <div> setting for things like "polyester old woman pants" or "sequin costumes" and <class> settings for "red" or "black" ..... might be asking too much.What will you upgrade in the next year?
Thursday, 12 November 2009
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What is YOUR story? Care to share?
What a cool project this is! Via Twitter, I came across a project-in-the-works by Don Shapiro. He's writing a book called 'Life is a Fork in the Road', and is wondering this:"Ever made a choice by following your inner voice or feelings with surprising results? Share your story and offer comments to help discover more about how our inner wisdom works"The stories he'd like us to share could be about parenting, business, life in general, something big, something small. Anything. Spell check not required. I'm going to give this some thought over the next few days, and share one of my stories there. I encourage you to do the same - contribute and be a part of this wonderful project. Read about the book and author Don Shapiro here:and follow him on twitter @DonShapiro1 -
On Being Thankful...
I met Amy at a Social Media Breakfast event, when we had both just walked into a location neither of us had been to, and discovered that walking in heels across a cobblestone courtyard was less than graceful. I liked her immediately. She's bright and beautiful and happy and just has this contagious effervescence about her that makes your want to know her more and more. She has a natural power of influence and a sense of humility at the same time, and is working toward big things in her life, and for the lives of others.This morning I woke to find a private message from her stating she'd put up a new blog post, and that I was in it. Her post was so much fun to read, and it is inspiring me to be thinking more presently about the people that I am thankful for. I'll be working on my list, and may even get brave enough to post it. I challenge you all to do the same!!!You can read her post from 11/12/09 here:
Monday, 10 August 2009
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CAUTION:
Dangerous Curves Ahead...........
Sometimes the most beautiful destinations require the most perilous journeys.
Monday, 13 April 2009
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Here it is tax time, 2 days before THE DUE DAY and instead of finishing the last details of my taxes, I decide that right at this moment in time I better blog, even though I haven't done so since November, and surely a few more days would not matter. Ahhh the life of a master procrastinator. =)
I'm taking a trip very soon, where I will be visiting my mom's siblings, spreading her ashes, and spending a large amount of solo time on a road trip. I need this, and am looking forward to it. Much has happened since my last blog post, and this is just a brief re-"hello" and a means to hold myself accountable to blogging the trip as I go, and taking some photos to post as well.
Have been very busy with work, though it is slowing down now considerably, and my partner and I are brainstorming venues to look for projects. It's been a great process and I feel somewhat renewed. Or maybe just more back to normal, I'm not sure which.
Another work related thing: Recently I was invited to do an Executive Read for the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper. On March 8th, the following article was printed in Business Section:
Robyn Flach
Vice President of Design & Development
Excellanz Graphic and Web Design
Rosemount, MN
“Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide” by Amy Shuen
"When you hear the term Web 2.0 do you have a clear idea of what it means and the role you are probably already playing in it? The term was first coined by Tim O’Reilly in 2004/2005 to describe the shift away from the web as a collection of static websites to a new age where the web is used as a platform where users will gather and interact, collectively contributing and building on each others ideas and knowledge. In the book “Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide”, author Amy Shuen takes us thru a series of case studies using companies we are familiar with and illustrates the strategies behind their success in the Web 2.0 arena.
Beginning with Flickr, the popular photo sharing site, we are shown how users create value for both Flickr and themselves by contributing and interacting with other users. This is contrasted against another more complex, but successful model for Netflix. Next we are shown how Google’s strategies have harnessed positive network effects and gone on to redefine the way many of us use the web each day.
Shuen illuminates the importance and value of social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and others, showing how these values are measured. Increasingly, people get their first impressions from online, rather than offline meetings. Business networking has gone from face to face relationships to online relationships with people we may never meet, but are equally as important to our networks. Social influence can make even the smallest event go viral and grow exponentially.
The book continues with Amazon, IBM, Apple and more showing how collaboration with others, and combining old with new ideas for interaction and globalization is shaping the way business is being done. Each chapter closes with a clear recap of lessons learned, as well as a thought provoking set of both strategic and tactical questions to apply to your own situation. An extensive list of supporting material and suggestions for further reading is also included.
Companies and startups of all sizes wanting to re-assess their strategies for competing in a connected, web savvy era, will find this an invaluable starting place for strategy.
Author Amy Shuen is an internationally recognized authority on Silicon Valley business models and innovation economics."
Ok, till next time, which hopefully will be a very short time :)
Blessings to you all!
