A girl, her dog, & the world
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2008.
I found this Wordle chart of John McCain’s nomination acceptance speech at the RNC on Many Eyes. The way the chart is made is that words are mapped and are sized by the frequency of use. Therefore the more times a word was used the larger it is. Common words such as “the” and “her” are taken out in general.
Thought I’d share. You can check it out in more detail here.
End of a busy weekend and heading into a busy week. I start my internship tomorrow afternoon (!!!) at the Blood Centers of the Pacific, have plenty of work to be done at BBI, head to court on Tuesday afternoon for CASA, and welcome the start of a new month. It’s hard to believe we are already into Fall. And two weeks away from my trip to Texas. It’ll be so good to be home – can’t believe it’s been since May!
I had some time this weekend to reflect on my life and whether or not I am purposefully living it. I feel as if sometimes I get stuck into the day to day tasks of living and don’t take time to think about if the things I am doing in my life are done purposefully rather than a way to check things off of my giant “to-do list”.
I feel as though whenever I go through any emotional turmoil or emotional upheaval of sorts it takes me a day to be irrationally emotional – to just say and think and feel what comes first. Maybe this isn’t the best first step when other people are involved but let’s face it – it is natural. And then it is interesting to see how my understanding of my own emotions progresses in the days following. I often wind up having much greater clarity and sense of satisfaction in where I am in my life in those moments, although it is generally painful in the few days between the upheaval and the calm.
I am in a place currently in my life where things are changing and uncertain, where moving forward is a direction with a lot of unknowns both professionally and personally. I think I have had the habit of planning the long term and then becoming inflexible when the near term required changes in the long term plans. I also think that sometimes envisioning up long term plans too far in advance lends itself to a bit of setting yourself up for disappointment. I think I have finally gotten to the point where I can focus on the near term without having to lose the future plans altogether. Hence the calm.
Also my laundry is all clean and folded so I am at peace. Bring it on Monday.
It was a long week due to the persistent cold that snuck in on me but happy Friday and I’m glad for the weekend. I got to spend the evening with Sarah and Nico at Sarah’s parents house down in Menlo Park. It was just so great to get out of the city and shed a layer of stress. Plus there’s nothing like being in a parent’s house; even if it’s not my parent’s house it still has that safe and comforting atmosphere that was just what I needed. And yummy cherry pie and good people – a nice combination!
Beginning my internship at the Blood Centers of the Pacific means that I get to start thinking about all sorts of fun things, like social media strategy, Tweetups, community involvement, and cell phone charms. That’s right – cell phone charms.
In Japan – where cell phones take on an even greater level of importance than here in the USA – it is become popular to add these nifty little cell phone charms of a blood bag listing your blood type. Not only does it help in the case of an emergency but apparently there are connections between blood type and romanic compatability. Basically it’s like keeping your astrological sign on a necklace. Ok well a little creepier. SB and TJ – maybe this would fit in well with your Twlight book series?
I didn’t watch the debates this evening, as I think my emotional state was not in a spot to take added stress. I just finished reading about them and the additional commentary online. I will say though that if the night would have been right it would have been a pleasure to play debate Bingo with these handy cards.
Oh the joy of the political seasons. Time for bed so I can spend the day hiking with teenagers tomorrow – that is something that definitely requires a lot of energy!
Despite the sore throat, congestion, and full on aches and pains that decided to show up in the past few days, I have managed to not let my life fall to pieces. Ok well I do have about twenty unread blog posts in my Google Reader that are driving me crazy – my Reader as with my Gmail are things I like to have read and categorized before the end of the day. But I did manage to finish the second draft of my court report for CASA and start a few chapters of my latest book Groundswell. That and print some Race for the Cure pictures to send in a thank you card to Gma and her friends (look for it in the mail). Of course this was all only accomplished after taking a four hour nap but still.
Part of my productivity today was unfounded also because I found out I am the proud new social media intern for the Blood Centers of the Pacific. This of course made me feel like I did something even though all I really did today was answer my phone and hear the happy news from Lisa and put some dates on the calendar to meet. I will say though that it made me super excited for all the work I will begin for them soon so even if it was a little early, undeserved boost in my productivity scale I will take it. I also already have two people offering to go give blood with me so I won’t take on the needle alone! Lisa did you pick up this mention of BCP with a Google alert 
Just curious.
Now I am off to take a shower to clear my head a bit (literally) before heading to bed. Hopefully this cold will be gone in the morning …. or at least soon.
Ok maybe that is a little dramatic. But it is really not fitting in with my early bedtime. For example the premiere of Law and Order: SVU is on tonight. From 10 to 11 pm. Way too late to fit with my quarter to five in the morning wake-up. I mean the Olympics was one thing but now my Law and Order. Thankfully it is the one show that finds itself in rerun more often than not so I think I will survive.
I am redoing the bulletin boards for youth group at Cornerstone so I got to go to Target today to buy some supplies. Although not necessarily high art, while browsing the scrapbooking and glue stick aisles I remembered how much I miss doing such tactile creative projects. I was thinking about my Spring semester sophomore year where I took three studio classes in one semester – life drawing, 3D, and time-based media. A little background:
Youth boards won’t be quite as exciting but they also hopefully won’t take up 24 hours a week for a semester so I think it’s an even trade-off. Maybe at the end I’ll start some watercolor painting. Ok or just work on my Flickr account.
Sore throat today so not much left to blog since I need to rest up. I hate gargling salt water so I’d rather avoid it if I can.
This morning I joined the other lovely Babes for Boobs (and one Boy for Boobs?) to run the San Francisco Race for the Cure. Thankfully at church last night the sermon was on friendship and how it can help you through painful times so I was well prepared. I managed to run the whole thing, even though at some points I am pretty sure my running was slow enough to be considered a walk. I am proud though to say that our team raised over $1200 for the Komen Foundation. Plus we got to join a wonderful group that turned out of many men, women, and children (and dogs) to wear pink and show our support this morning.
And then I got a Noah’s bagel with pumpkin cream cheese to reward myself.
I can’t believe it has been so many years now since my grandma had breast cancer. Go Grandma my Survivor! I am so blessed and incredibly glad to have been able to wear the “In honor of…” on my shirt instead of the “In memory of…”
It was also such a great opportunity in these past few months to get to spend purposeful time with two wonderful girlfriends out here as we talked and jogged and got to know one another better. I can definitely say that although I am not sad the race itself is over (ouch 5K) I am sad to not have the goal for us to all share together. There are talks of a 7K in the works, although I will only be the “pacer” this time around since I’m not quite into the competitive running. Go girls though!
Time for bed before another busy week. My muscle definitely need their sleep. Pictures to come soon.
It’s funny that after dating someone for almost four years you can still find out something new and exciting about them.
Yesterday Jon and Glory and I were sitting in Jon’s bed watching The Office on Hulu on Jon’s computer. All of the sudden Glory started with the awful pre-throw up noises that only dogs and cats can make. Unable to get her off the bed quickly enough (or really anywhere for that matter) Jon resorted to shoving her head into the garbage can and making her puke there. Now getting Glory to do something she doesn’t want to do at any time is a challenge but especially when she is about to puke. It was a true display of talent and sport. And made for easier clean-up. Good job hun.
Time for ROCK volunteer orientation and then heading out to Blue Light in a bit to catch the Horns kick some Owl butt. Hooty-hoo you are going down.
Avast matey. T’day be Talk like a Pirate Day. Shiver me timbers me needs some grog.
Thanks to Facebook Pirate I spent the day (well at least the time I spend on FB) in pirate land. That and during our staff meeting I kept saying “Arrr” and warning people to help our nonprofits plunder the booty. It also happens to be National Board Retreat Day – coincidence? I think not.
It’s also Friday which means that the weekend is upon us. This is going to be a busy (but fun!) weekend.
I was reading today a bit about the beginnings of Wikipedia and the idea behind collarborative information. Did you know that Wikipedia has almost 2.5 million articles in its English Wiki? Fr those visual learners – if the info was put into traditional books here’s what it might look like on the bookshelf:
Talk about trying to buy one of those from a door-to-door salesperson.
It’s pretty incredible that Wikis actually work. I mean it makes sense that the general public is as good an editor and page managers as anyone. Is it nerdy to say that this helps boost my confidence in humanity that we are honest enough to self-maintain a source of knowledge (with only a few bad apples)?
Off to bowl with ROCK and then arrr down some grog with me maties. Yo-ho-ho.
Augustana/Maroon 5/Counting Crows concert last night. Ok so to be fair we missed Augustana. I’m not quite sure why when they say the concert begins at 8 pm they don’t say “oh ya but the opening act is actually going to come on before then”. Humm. At least we had seen Augustana at The Fillmore a few months ago and then they came out at the end and encored Rain King with CC so it worked out again. I knew more Maroon 5 songs than I thought I did. And Counting Crows were amazing of course; Adam was of course very odd but awesome. Still no Mr. Jones though but at least they played Long December so I was happy. Plus even though it was freezing Shoreline reminded me of the Woodlands Pavillion and of the place in San Antonio where we saw CC last time so it was just like home. But cold.
Drive down there and back was good too because Jon and I got to have some good chats about life and issues. Plus we actually were able to discuss something we disagreed upon and leave it at “agree to disagree”. Miracle. Ha but it was no “car camping” argument so I guess I shouldn’t speak too soon.
The other day I began making a list in my Google docs of all of the places I am online. I began thinking about how many sites I’m on and how many logins I have here and there and figured it might be interesting (and helpful) to make a list of my online presence. Ridiculous to say the least.
On that note though I started playing with an interesting site/service called Friend Feed that allows you to have a bunch of your “online presence” sites in one spot and you can keep track of your own updates and those of friends. I’m still figuring out how to use it yet but it is sorta interesting how sometimes just when you are thinking about “humm it would be great if they had a service that would do XYZ” and then all of the sudden you stumble upon it. Kinda like how today I was complaining to Jon that Twitter doesn’t make it easy to see who @replies to you and then an hour later they introduced a new design with a tab for you to see all of your @replies. It’s like the internet can read my mind. Scary.
Super glad tomorrow is Friday and then it’s the weekend. Bowling tomorrow night with ROCK, Coffee Talk on Saturday morning, ROCK volunteer training Saturday afternoon, church and drinks (weird combo) with my ladies on Saturday night, Race for the Cure Sunday morning … it is shaping up to be a busy weekend. Oh ya and the UT vs. Rice game on Saturday afternoon/evening. Hooty Hoo sister love.
p.s. ever seen a ninja cat?
Thinking tonight about being part of the Millenials aka Gen Y. Way too tired to write much about it but I read a couple of great articles detailing who we are, and there are several ideas:
And apparently as the largest, most diverse, and well educated generation to step on the planet, we are taking over the world. Until (a) our parents ground us (we are by the way closer to our parents generally speaking than any other previous generation) or (b) we are squished by the next generation – Gen Z will be nipping at our heels before we know it. Either way it is certainly interesting to think of who we are as a generation, why we are this way, and what we can do with it collectively.
The “MyPod” generation.
p.s. best find of the day: John Mayer cover of Freefalling.