Anne 2.0 - Anne Zelenka

Anne writes:

I'm going to take another self-indulgent moment as I continue to populate the Who Is Anne list in my sidebar. Doing it this way, by making a Blogger post, means that my bio area will always be formatted just like the rest of the site. This is the beauty of content management, a beauty I didn't recognize until Blogger ate my first template.

I'm a computer programmer, and I have been since I was maybe 13. That's when my dad bought our family an Apple II and I drew horses out of big blocks on the screen using BASIC. I didn't think to major in computer science when I attended Stanford as an undergrad. I was too fascinated by other subjects and the CS students seemed very geeky. I hadn't gotten in touch with my inner geek at that point.

She also writes at The Barely Attentive Mother so if you choose, you can add two blogs to your reader today!

Skip on! - Kim

I believe that the world will be a much happier place when skipping becomes a more acceptable thing for adults to do.

This blog is about my (and others') efforts to make the world a happier place one skip a time.

I am in agreement. I run and usually begin my running with some warm up exercises and as part of that, I love to skip. It is part of the fun in running.

To find this site on skipping, well, I am almost in heaven.

Read the blog on skipping!

Patti Digh

Patti Digh has tossed out a real good challenge.

If you follow her writing, she carefully crafts a post per week. I visualized her posting process like this.

For the next 37 days, however, she is going to just wing it.
Do shorter posts, less complete, more single thought and potentially reuse them later for the longer posts.

You will find these shorter posts here.

Extreme Teaching - Dan Steinberg

When tragedy strikes, it creates a host of feelings. Out of those feelings can come goodness. Via Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users, I learned of the sudden death of Dan Steinberg's daughter Elena.

With two daughters myself, one away at college, the other preparing to go, partings are always fraught with angst.

Dan had already started a blog about a new book he was working on. Now he has another one to write about how he is dealing with the death of Elena.

Read Dan!

One Pot Meal

In how to make friends with robots he writes:

The first time the robots came they surprised me, and were able to make off with most of my stuff.

But the second time I was expecting them, and not only did I get back my own stuff but I was also able to take some of the robots’ stuff.

You'll need to click through to complete the story, it is too good to spoil the ending!

In Job Interview, he writes:

I dreamt I went to a job interview at what I though was a paper supply company (too much Dunder Mifflin, perhaps?); I don’t know what job I had applied for, but apparently it involved an office and a tie. The interview began with the company’s owner and his wife asking me about my favorite books, and a discussion of Peter Carey. The questions got a little bit stranger—Who’s your favorite writer from Greenland? Do you speak Inuktitut?—but I thought, Hey, this isn’t so bad—questions about literature and the Arctic? This is the job for me!

It will take some more detective work (i.e. reading) to find out more about this writer but he posts as Steve (not a bad name) and knows about the Charliecard so he must be in the Boston area somewhere.

It will be worth reading to find out more about him!

Mike

In Blogging Meta - Revised, Mike Warot writes:

There is a subtle yet profound difference between blogs and previous methods of communicating on the net. Blogs are anchored to a location, which requires ownership. This difference is the major factor which lead to it's current popularity. Unlike email, you can't forge entries from a blog. This allows trusted relationships. When you read a blog for the first time, you're deciding if you like the author or not. This uses our natural instincts for deciding who we want to build relationships with. It grows over time. You'll develop a set of favorites that you read over time.

He goes on to describe the manual process of creating blogrolls and inherently trusting them versus selecting a search engine to provide data via an RSS feed and having to shift through the chaff to find the wheat.

Read the full posting here.

With this one post, I already found something that should graduate Mike's blog to my own blogroll.

Check in on Mike and maybe you'll find something to keep coming back as well!

Oblivio - Michael Barrish

Borrowing liberally from the About section:

Michael Barrish is a writer and freelance web developer. He lives in Brooklyn. Previously he did other things in other places. He has a bag and a mantra.

What is Oblivio?

Oblivio is Latin. Often translated as “forgetfulness,” it suggests a profound lostness, something akin to the English word oblivion but more oblivious.

He pays homage to Whitman with his "Song of My Professional Self":

I celebrate myself, and sing myself. I develop and maintain smart, standards-compliant websites. I collaborate with design shops needing expert XHTML/CSS coding. Clear and sweet is my soul.

So add this site to your reader and enjoy the journey!

Blogaholics - Arieanna & Ianiv

In the About section, they write:

We created this blog so we could talk about and share all the things that interest us. We both share interests in great food, great taste, and new technology. These are the things we want to share, be it news, reviews, or recipes. We have been a couple for more than 4 years now and have taken up a joint interest in several things, from hiking to coffee to blogging. We both work downtown, live in Kitsilano, and have 2 cats named Nala and Guinness.

They want to get into CoComment.

They write on the Olympics.

They are making wedding plans.

Add them to your blogroll, or bloglines, or RSS reader to keep up with this couple of Blogaholics!

Adam Richardson

design.business.technology.culture

thus reads the tag line of Adam's blog home page.

In "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" you can find this wonderful curve:


In Understanding the User Experience/Expectation gap, he writes:

... few companies have the resources, expertise, budget or time to develop every element themselves - interfaces, controls, web applications, operating systems, retail integration, etc. So you have to make decisions about what you're going to do custom, and what you're going to get off-the-shelf.

These decisions have major impacts on not just how customers will perceive you, but also your future flexibility and growth path as a company. They also have a dramatic effect on profit margins.

User experiences go through lifecycles of improvement. Understanding the lifecycle for your industry is critical to smart development choices.

This is an excellent analysis. Another set of charts is used convincingly to explain the situation. If you wondered about this, wonder no more, follow the link to understand it.

Read more of Adam here.

The Wisdom of Improv - Patricia Ryan Madson

Tom Peter's new Cool Friend is Patricia Ryan Madson, author of Improv Wisdom; Don't Prepare, Just Show Up.

You can read her interview with Cathy Mosca at TomPeters here.

You can check out her own blog here.

Being highlighted on Tom's page will give her plenty of exposure.

Showing her here simply means I agree with Tom's exposure.

What she says is worth reading and talking about.

Google Maps Mania

By now, you are familiar with Google Maps but are you aware of the many ways these maps are being used?

If not, but you are interested, then this blog is the one for you: Google Maps Mania highlights the new stuff being done in this area.

For example, I found mapmyrun.com and then heard about two other route mapping tools using Google maps. On this site both are listed, and guess what, they are not alone. There are more! Favorite Run Walk, Jog, Run

Maybe you are a fan of 24. Would you like to see where Jack moves from and to during the hour? Try the jack-tracker.

Maybe you need a pizza in NYC, try this.

Or maybe you just need an idea, come to Google Map Mania and feast your senses.

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Compact

From the headline of this group blog:

1) to go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of U.S. consumer culture, to resist global corporatism, and to support local businesses, farms, etc. -- a step, we hope, inherits the revolutionary impulse of the Mayflower Compact; 2) to reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er); 3) to simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)

From their principles:

First principle - don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.)

Second principle - borrow or buy used.

Could you follow these principles? (These are just the first two.)

I think I'll follow this group blog and see how it goes.

That will be a first step. Check out Compact!

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MOMster - Irene

Irene writes in her profile section:

... I am an almost thirty, neat freak, writer, wife and mother of two.

my parents are a first generation Koreans. They immigrated to France soon after they got married in 1975. I was born and grew up in France. I graduated from a film school, married my soul mate, and after working for several film and advertising companies, I've decided to stay home to take care of my twin boys, Sean and Will, born in 2002.

we live in Paris with our dog, a Maltese named Finn.

I love knitting, chai tea latte, good writing, CSI: Vegas, art and Jamie Cullum. I am a pretty good an unpredictable driver, I make a mean carrot cake, I can't wear thongs underwear or walk in heels. I know how to edit a movie, the old-fashioned way. I have a weakness for super heroes. And I really love food.

In Self-portrait Tuesday - all of me, she writes:

and my husband says I'm not funny.

ah the path to self-acceptance.

PS - you need to see the picture to make sense of this... click through here. You'll be glad you did!

Susan's Blog

She writes in her About Me section:

Through my essays, articles, and book, I am trying to make sense of autism and find a way to my oldest son, and help others with this challenge of autism at the same time. This diagnosis does not mean the end of the world, but it is the end of some things. It is also the beginning of a very long road. If you can accept that this person is different, but a person nonetheless, you are halfway there. For the rest of the way, you need a few great friends, a lot of information, and a sense of humor. As Ned Batchelder, my husband of 21 years, says, “Learn to declare victory and get the hell out!” Throw away expectation, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

In Idiot Wind she writes:

No, this is not a post about the President's State of the Union Address or strange false alarm in Los Angeles, his denial of being tied to Jack Abramoff, or his godawful budget proposal. It could be, but it is not.

This is about nothing. My own Idiot Wind. The wintry weather, which I hate, has inspired a blank, cold breeze blowing around in my head. I've run out of things to do with myself, I feel stuck indoors and stuck in time.

Idiot Wind is one of my alltime favorite Bob Dylan songs, a paean of pain about a love whom he now hates (apparently his wife of eight years, Sara). I'm been playing it on my guitar quite a bit, having found a site that gives you the lyrics and the chords to just about any song you want.

In Island in my Storm she writes:

Then he surprised me: he reached up and wrapped my hair around his hands, very gently, and pulled it to his nose, breathing deeply. Breathing me in.

"Natty, do you like that? You like my hair like that, in your face?"
"Yes," he said, a big grin stretching across his face.
"I didn't know, Honey." I felt a quick stab of pain as I realized that here was something easy I could have been doing with him for all this time, some happy thing I could have given to him so easily had I known. Had I tried sooner.

I sighed, and looked at his long fingers, clutching at my hair so gently but also so definitely. He wanted me. He still loved me, I was still Mommy. The wonder of it spread through me, soothing my heart.

This is a challenged life written well, poignant, intelligent, and worthwhile!

Read more of Susan's Blog.

If not now, when?

As the Hitchhiker Team continues to travel the world, we arrive today in Italy to meet Viaggiatore and learn from her profile that:

You probably already know this, but I'm passionate, opinionated, resourceful, determined ... fed up with stupid people, anguished with bureaucracy, on a bit of a soul search or rather, just a readjustment of what I've always known about myself. A gypsy spirit (in the positive connotation of the word) and a bit of a child-of-the-world, willing to take a swing at whatever pitch comes my way.

In So Close, and yet so far she writes:

It's the same reason that I watched Katie Couric's 'pre-Olympic tour', broadcasting from my newly-adopted Firenze, through slightly teary eyes - missing being there, as I sat in a hotel room bed in Louisville, Kentucky.

I really hope that GiaGina and Laurie and all my other new friends from Torino are having an amazing Olympic experience. But I'm on the road, sadly far from Italy and the Olympic spirit.

Because sitting in the sun drinking Chianti doesn't pay the bills, baby. And work means travel this time of year.

And you will be delighted by her Ode to Peperoncino.

Read more of Viaggiatore here.

Kat's Paws

Kat writes in her one line Bio:

29 year old artist, training to be a massage therapist, living with my boyfriend and our four cats near Boston.

She is part of the group Blogging the Artist's Way:

To all creative souls (we are all creative souls): I invite you to journey along with a group of people connected by the wild world of the internet. This journey is a twelve week process following Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. I will be posting about the process along the way with advice, suggestions, and comments on my own experience. As a participant, I encourage your comments here on this blog and if you desire, in posts on your blog (if you have one.) The first week of January will be a week of preparation, during which you should read the introductory chapters up to week 1. And then Saturday, January 7th we will jump in. I encourage you to give it your all (you'll get out of it what you put in), but this will be a no pressure environment. The list of participants is below and if you'd like you can save the logo above and post it on your blog. For more details check out these posts. Here are the Sacred Circle Rules.

Kat writes:

Week 6 is all about recovering a sense of abundance, looking at a dreaded topic for many: money, but it's also about looking at what it means to feel abundance in our lives, what does luxury mean, what brings you true joy?

Read more of Kat here!

maigh

Yes, this is another find in the wonderful blogosphere world we partake in.

Well, you must otherwise you wouldn't be reading this.

I followed a link from Jennifer, Inc. to read about her sister.
Had I ever been to Atlanta, I'd wonder how I missed her.

Hey now, don't get too cute just 'cause she bares all doesn't mean you can go rhyming.

Maigh writes:

Needless to say half of the Things You Must Do To Make Me Happy pad by Knock Knock will live at the office (I plan to mark "Acknowledge I'm right" and "Stop saying um" immediately and hang it in a prominent place) and half will travel with me everywhere I go.

and writes:

Question: why do women with who run with ponytails seem to do everything possible to make it swing back and forth, tempting me to pull over and chase after them with the pruning sheers I keep next to the drivers seat in the Jeep? Don't ask why they're there, just answer the question.

and writes:

For giggles (and to get my feet wet) yesterday I was looking at jobs in Ireland. After flipping through a couple of ads I decided I'd send my resume in response to one of them, but I kept stalling out on what to say in the cover letter - not only because it's been a few years since I had to play that game, but also because of the whole "American" misconception.

Half joking, I solicited my friend "Codie the party boy" for help and the results are freaking hi-lar-i-ous. I added a picture I had laying around and now I think I might actually hurt myself. This morning I was literally laughing so hard tears were streaming and my face is sore. Of course the downside is I'm stuck wondering what my eulogy might sound like.

Moving on...edited lightly, this is what he came up with:

You'll need to read the rest here.

And then go back often to find out what Maigh is up to!

anoniblog - anonymous blogging wiki

Across the globe, countries that discourage free speech have followed their citizens into the blogosphere. According to one count, in the last two years at least 30 bloggers (and there are no doubt more) have been interrogated, arrested, tortured and sentenced to long prison terms for the "crime" of speaking critically about their governments. Regardless of your culture, your country, your politics or religion, we believe you deserve to speak your mind without falling afoul of state power. Unfortunately, what you deserve and what you get are not always the same thing. So, for those of you who wish to speak out on your blogs, but who do not wish to risk imprisonment or worse for doing so, we have prepared guides that will help you to blog more safely by blogging more anonymously.

But please note: Blogging can never be completely anonymous. With enough time, resources and political will, a group or government can discover who you are. We cannot guarantee that even if you follow the instructions on these guides to the letter that you will run no risk. You always take a chance when you speak your mind to people who cannot tolerate dissent. But we hope that these guides will enable you to minimize those risks, or at least be more aware of them.

This is an important site to be aware of.

Diabetes Mine

A gold mine of straight talk and encouragement for people living with diabetes…

Read Diabetes Mine

The Petrelis Files

From San Franciso, advocate Michael Petrelis reports stories the mainstream media choose to ignore. Michael has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, CNN, ABC News, and National Public Radio. He has been quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Raw Story, The Chicago Tribune, The New Republic, and Stars & Stripes.

Read The Petrelis Files

The Cool Hunter

The Cool Hunter is on the bleeding edge. A professional reporting service teemed with a global network of trendspotters, The Cool Hunter reports on fashion, music, urban living, designer and cultural trends.

"The essence of the Cool Hunter is the ethos of 'global information channelling' that is not regionally specific, but rather based on worldwide relevance."

In a world chaotic and obsessed with the material, shiny and new, The Cool Hunter has become the reference point of choice for the latest in what's hot tomorrow.

Read The Cool Hunter!

Boxes and Arrows

Launched in 2001, Boxes and Arrows is a fearlessly informative, peer-written journal about graphic design.

If you’re interested in improving the way information architecture is done, if you find yourself sparking provocative conversation on interaction design topics in your spare time, and if you go out of your way to help everyone in your office think differently about everything from the design process to software, Boxes and Arrows want to work with you.

All stories should be written following Boxes and Arrows' house styleguide. All content should be original, which means that if it appeared on your blog first, Boxes and Arrows won’t publish it.

Who has written for Boxes and Arrows.

Read Boxes and Arrows!

Moving at the Speed of Creativity - Wesley Fryer

In the About section, Wesley writes:

Wesley Fryer is an educator, author, digital storyteller, technology integration pioneer, husband and father. He serves as an international and national presenter and speaker, addressing a range of topics related to education, technology integration, distance learning, and twenty-first century literacy.

Need a recommendation on anti-virus software?

Need an inspiration?

Need info on the $100 laptop project?

This is the kind of information you can find here when you keep up with Wesley who is Moving at the Speed of Creativity!

Paul Graham

In the Bio section we find out that:

Paul Graham is an essayist, programmer, and programming language designer. In 1995 he developed with Robert Morris the first web-based application, Viaweb, which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998. In 2002 he described a simple Bayesian spam filter that inspired most current filters. He's currently working on a new programming language called Arc, a new book (probably) for O'Reilly, and is one of the partners in Y Combinator.

His essays are well thought out and well written.

Check out:
How to Do What You Love
What I Did This Summer
What You'll Wish You had Known

and then keep an eye out for Paul's next essay. It will be a good read!

3 Blogs for one choice - The Partain's

Ken writes in the About section:

My name is Ken Partain (learn more about me and my services here) and I am here to learn to be prosperous and to teach others the same. This site is dedicated to all of the people who strive daily to increase their knowledge and prosperity.

There are many ways to be prosperous. You can have good health, good relationships, enjoy life, enjoy work and earn a good living. Whatever your goals, you can achieve them. Through this site I will pass along bits of information and lessons that have been a benefit to me. I am putting this site together with the hopes of creating a community of like-minded people, those who want to learn and share their experiences.

My mentor taught me that the wise people learn from their own experiences, and the super-wise learn from the experiences of others. With this in mind, we would like to create an atmosphere where we can exchange ideas.

You can choose amongst the following:

Daily Choices (Ken)

Happiness Now (Ann)

Prosperity for You (Ken)

You just hit the jackpot! Three for one!

Richard's Notes - Richard

In the About page, Richard has this to say:

This site is an ongoing experiment in the collection, organization and sharing of a growing list of things that are of interest to me. As such you could and probably should call it a weblog or “blog” (ugh, I hate that word).

I’m an advanced beginner at web design and almost everything I do for that matter, but I love the process of learning and improving so keep plodding on. Hopefully whatever it is I’m doing will be useful and/or enjoyable to you.

You get pictures of grandchildren.

You get pictures of see through buildings.

You get a link to Searching for the Holy Grail of web designs

Read more of Richard's Notes!

Jaffe Juice

Today at Jaffe Juice: Quick Super Bowl Links, My Interview on NPR's WHYY, Big just got bigger, Ole Ole Puma Puma.

Yesterday at Jaffe Juice: Handing the feed that bites you, jaffe on NPR/WHYY-FM/Sirius, The Virtual Treasure Hunt.

Wow. That was refreshing. Well, perhaps not refreshing. I mean, I am not saying Jaffe isn't refreshing. I mean, refreshing is not the word I was looking for. Cool is a good word. I dig the Jaffe Juice.

Where the hell am I going with this?

What is Jaffe Juice? Jaffe Juice is the reincarnation of a weekly op-ed article series, authored by Joseph Jaffe, which debuted on imediaconnection.com in June of 2002.

Jaffe Juice is your daily dose of fresh, uncensored and unedited commentary and perspective on the words of "new marketing", media and creativity (or the lack thereof) in advertising.

Fresh? Yes, absolutely.

On blogging, Jaffe writes, "BLOGS will play an indelible role in the future of publishing. The non-linear, byte-sized dialogue is inextricably a part of the way businesses will talk to fellow businesses and of course their consumers. My hope is to play my part as an agent of change and narrator in this story. "

Read Jaffe Juice and enjoy. I do.

Media Influencer

[What media? What influence? I don't know. But! She writes! Well! And she writes about real stuff. To her.]

Who is she? This is what we know. Her name is Adriana. She likes food, wine, and travel. She is reflective. She writes well. She has a very nice smile. She will influence you if you let her.

Here are two examples...

"In a comment on my previous post Lloyd suspected me of dewy-eyed romanticism based on my choice of films. I shuddered and then thought about why I like those films. I realised that each film reminds me of things that I want to be reminded about."

"While hunting for a quick snack in the kitchen earlier today, I came across some overripe bananas overlooked in the haste of the last week. Their particular aroma brought memories of things I thought I had forgotten. When I was growing up bananas used to be rare (note: I grew up during communism not WWII to avoid confusion :-)) - supplied to the shops occassionally and obtained by queueing for a long time unless you knew someone from the shop who would put some aside for you. This was buying under the counter, as we used to call the widespread practice of getting hold of both staples and luxury items, a rather dubious and fluid distinction due the vagaries of socialist economics (and economies)."

Gypsy Jr.

A real blog written by a real person. His links include: Air America, Dark Horizons, United Universalists, Vegan.com, VHEMT, Stop the NRA, Save Disney, Neopagan.net, 525 Reasons, and Liberal Forum. His posts average 20-30 words. It's a LiveJournal think.

So, what can we conclude? He has more important things to do.

But I added him to my blogroll anyway. There is something to be learned from everyone, right?

Geek Girl Blonde

Click here for the caffeine-induced ramblings of a fledgling blogging wannabe pundit. She digs little green footballs, vodka martinis, and Malkin milk shakes. She writes about politics, religion, bellydancing, coffee, love, science fiction, cats and habanero peppers. Bellydancing! Habanero peppers! You have my attention. She claims to be a real geek and a real blonde, but you'll have to judge for yourself.

So far, I have found no bellydancing photos.