soup's on

I got totally derailed after I went to SXSW Interactive this...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 11:43:00 -0400

I got totally derailed after I went to SXSW Interactive this year. Here’s a clip from one of my favorite speakers, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, Tesla and Paypal - on thinking big and dedicating his life’s work for the greater good of humanity, whether it be through space, electric vehicles or the Internet. Yes, he’s worried about whether or not we are going to move a colony to Mars in his lifetime, and he’s going to beat NASA too it by building his own private rocketships, because the sun is going to explode soon!

My other big takeaways from SXSW this year:

Rise of the Physical/Digital to Analog/Makers of Hardware - Brooklyn’s Makerbot leading the charge towards self-replication
Big Data, Big Problems - Nate Silver on data + insights, and the rise of privacy/intimacy in the face of too much data (like Path)
The Message, Not the Messenger - It’s not about the next Myspace, it’s about the utility of social media and how it actually improves your life
The Science of Virality - loved Jonah Berger’s talk on his new book “Contagious”

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

bookshelfporn: The NoMad Hotel, NYC My new personal project is...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:39:42 -0400

bookshelfporn:

The NoMad Hotel, NYC

My new personal project is the 21st century library. Stay tuned.

laughingsquid: Olympic Gold Medalist in Tumblring Ha! Too...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:33:49 -0400

laughingsquid:

Olympic Gold Medalist in Tumblring

Ha! Too cute.

"To be lucky, you have to believe in luck."

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:48:03 -0400

““To be lucky, you have to believe in luck.””

- Jacques Arpels, Van Cleef & Arpels “Days of Luck” Calendar

This made me smile all day long. anderson: Anderson meets Meow,...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:49:06 -0400

This made me smile all day long.

anderson:

Anderson meets Meow, the 37-lb cat (the equivalent of a 600-lb person), today on “Anderson.”

The cherry blossoms really smelled like cherries.

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:17:53 -0400

The cherry blossoms really smelled like cherries.

obitoftheday: Obit of the Day (Historical): RMS Titanic...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:53:46 -0400

obitoftheday:

Obit of the Day (Historical): RMS Titanic (1912)

At 11:40 p.m. (ship’s time) on April 14, 1912 the Titanic scraped its hull against an iceberg. By 2:20 a.m. on April 15, the stern disappeared from view. When it was all said and done 1,513 passengers and crew lost their lives. (There were 2,224 aboard the ship, which means a survival rate of less than 32%.)

Obit of the Day will not go into the details regarding the tragic events of April 14-15, 1912 but I do recommend the following stories about the most famous ship disaster in history:

Why Women and Children Were Saved on the Titanic, but Not on the Lusitania (Daily Mail)

Experts Split on Possibility of Remains at Titanic Site (NY Times)

Titanic’s Sinking: Was It More Than Human Folly? (Huffington Post)

Remembering the Titanic’s Intrepid Bandleader (NPR)

History Lost and Found: A Letter From Titanic (NPR)

Arrival of Titanic Survivors in NYC Sets Off Free-For-All (WNYC)

The images above are various front pages from newspapers in the United States, and one from the United Kingdom, announcing the sinking of the Titanic and its tremendous loss of life. All images copyright of the paper listed, unless noted.

Top Left: New York Times, April 16, 1912; courtesy of KTAR.com

Top Right: The Daily Oklahoman, April 16, 1912; courtesy of newsok.com

Center Left: Owensboro (KY) Daily Messenger (now the Messenger-Inquirer), April 17, 1912; courtesy of commercialappeal.com

Center: Franklin Repository (Chambersburg, PA), April 16, 1912; courtesy of publicopiniononline.com

Center Right: Chicago Daily Tribune, April 16, 1912; courtesy of CORBIS.com

Bottom Left: Houston Chronicle and Herald, April 16, 1912; courtesy of chron.com

Bottom Right: Daily Mirror (London, England), April 16, 1912; courtesy of cliff1066™’s Flickr account

My love for this photoset of cats upon iconic architecture runs...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:37:00 -0400

My love for this photoset of cats upon iconic architecture runs so deep. Especially the last one, of the Kitty about to pounce on the Salk Institute, which I sent to my former beau in San Diego and predictably heard no response back. But it is a wonderful picture.

architizer:

Architecture LOLCATS from furrrocious forms.

oldsaigon: These apartments are located on the corner of Chau...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:34:58 -0400

oldsaigon:

These apartments are located on the corner of Chau Van Liem Street and Tran Hung Dao Street in District 5. As you can see at the front of the flats, there are high “gates,” typical of the old style of historic buildings in Saigon.

ilovecharts: lionphantom: This is a very helpful chart. Also,...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:34:35 -0500

ilovecharts:

lionphantom:

This is a very helpful chart. Also, now I can know their names.

Percentage of conversations I’ve had since I moved to New York that included Downton Abby: 100%

Spinach Pie

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:39:00 -0500

There’s this place on the corner where I go to get $5 gyros, Greek salads with feta cheese and white onion rings up the wazoo, and hunks of warm spinach pie. On my fifteenth trip for spanakopita I finally said to the Greek man, “Your food is so very good,” and he replied, “Arigato,” very solemnly. Given it was Astoria, I suppose it all made sense.

Getting My School On

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:10:49 -0400

Getting My School On:

A blog post I very much enjoyed reading and resonates with me. Here’s to a new era of learning.

marksbirch:

I am going back to school this Monday. I applied to a new certification program at General Assembly for front-end web development where we get to delve into the world of HTML, CSS and JavaScript for ten weeks. I was lucky enough to get the thumbs up last week, so I will be “hitting the…

hot yoga

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:34:00 -0500

It’s already been a year of firsts. On a day as cold as today — 18 degrees? with single digits forecasted for next week — I knew I had to try hot yoga and sweat it out. I went to Yoga to the People’s Hot Vinyasa class on 38th Street and most ladies were as flexible as this person above.

The room was steamy like a sauna and we were warned to not keep the door open as the heat would escape. The changing room’s bare lightbulb felt something akin to a prison camp, with profusely sweaty, clammy women crammed into a small space, but we dealt. I always find it interesting that Yoga to the People’s trainers don’t demonstrate any moves and just talk the talk, but I still had a great workout and enjoyed the sweat pouring down my sticky mat.

Doing yoga really keeps me in the present moment and focuses my attention on the task at hand. I can’t worry about what I’ll do the next day or the next hour — all I can do is hold the pose, breathe, expand and channel my physical energy.

I made another resolution tonight: to work out at least twice a week, once yoga, and once cardio/strength-training. This is going to be a good year.

new year's resolutions: the year 2011

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 01:33:00 -0500

Cut back on soda.
Go on a yoga retreat.
Sleep more.
Stress less.
Eat better.
Do nothing more often.

Last year was a doozy. I finished my fellowship, I was unemployed for a week, I got a new job, I dated, I organized fundraisers, I joined a board, I spent hours, weeks and months dwelling on my future.

It just seems like it’s time for a banana break (according to my MailChimp dashboard).

I took a few Anusara yoga classes last year. The teacher would intonate, “Expand your heart into the space to be fully yourself. Allow yourself to be imperfect. Forgive yourself.”

I’m going to take that to be the theme of this year. Yes, I want to be my best, as always — I’m driven, ambitious, motivated, want to kick-ass 24/7, but some days, I just want to learn how to rest and know that it’s OK to do so. To not be driven by guilt.

So, red rocks Sedona, Hudson Valley retreat, here I come.