Wow, I almost feel like a TWiT! I got an invitation to the Newsvine Private Beta. Looks cool. I heard it’s supposed to launch in a couple of weeks, but I’ve got a few invites to give out if you don’t want to wait. Email me if you’re interested.
Monthly Archive for January, 2006
One of the first things I did after I left my job was to get a new email account. Sure I have our home Comcast account, and I have a personal one through Yahoo. But the former is full of sports news, ZDNet, and MSN emails sent to my husband (I use a PowerBook G4, if you don’t know). And the latter has become so full of scam spam (you know, “claim your $3 million, new car, pool table, video iPod” – you name it) that I hated the thought of using it for my “official” business account.
So Lori set me up with an invite to Gmail, which, now that I’m used to it, I like just fine. It’s webmail, so I can access it easily from anywhere. I don’t have to bother with sorting or filing correspondence, since all conversations are threaded and Gmail is very searchable. There’s virtually no spam in my inbox. Even the advertising can be helpful, as it turns out.
I have to admit that at first I didn’t pay attention to the ads being served up to me. I’ve become essentially blind to GoogleAds and I almost NEVER click on them at ANY website. So oblivious am I to this kind of advertising that it took me awhile to realize that the ads in the sidebar of my email had to do with a subject in the message I was looking at. (I know — duh, c’mon, it’s Google!)
Which brings me to the point of this post. I finally started paying attention to those ads, and now I have Google to thank for pointing me to a website that has managed to turn my head (slightly) from the tech, political, new media, sex and mainstream media sites that fill my newsreader (105 feeds and counting in NetNewswireLite) to a subject that’s also near and dear to my heart (and my expanding waistline) – food!
101 Cookbooks is a beautiful thing. The site itself is clean and white, with gorgeous photography (I’m thinking that foodie/photog Lori would love it just for that feature). I’m just digging into the information there, but it seems full of everything good and upscale and nouveau when it comes to food: trends, products, recipes.
For instance, in a post on the recent Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, I read about new-trend "superfoods" like pomegranate, acai, green tea and herbal infusions. Now I gotta find out more!
This is stuff I absoulutely love to read, look at and learn about, just like with some of my favorite mags, Cooking Light, Gourmet, Food & Wine. Stuff I might not actually make or eat, but stuff I love to know about as part of a lifestyle I like to imagine.
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I’ve got more commentary on Google at Coit Avenue.
You wouldn’t know it by today’s weather — raining, dull, nearly 50 degrees — but it is still winter here. We got a glimpse of it last week …
I just blogged this from my Flickr account, which is why it looks a little different than usual. Not bad — had to give it a try, anyway.
Tip: if you want to see a larger version of the photo, click on it and you’ll go to my Flickr page, where — TaDa! — you can also view all of my photos. Fun!
Woo hoo!
A grand total of 4 of you (5 counting me) have voted in my poll asking about a GR blogger meetup. So far you’re overwhelmingly sort of in favor of it:
YEE-HA! (that’s yes) = 3 votes
Not sure = 2 votes
Now, in case any of you really wanted to register your enthusiasm for this but didn’t get a chance, I’m leaving the poll up for about another week. So go vote (please).
If you all are still leaning yesward, watch for me to get something set up. [Anybody wanna help? 
]
I love being read to. So I loved finding the podcast Writer’s Block (link is to one episode/story), where writers read from their own work. It’s from KQED radio in San Francisco. Good stuff.
Writer’s Block is a category in KQED’s scene and unseen blog, which is devoted to "recording and reviewing art in Northern California." The podcast is available on the site, although I don’t particularly recommend going there, since I found it slow and difficult to search. I’m subscribed through iTunes.
Emily Chang’s ehub is a cool, continually updated site that samples the newest web applications and more. From the site:
eHub is a constantly updated list of web applications, services, resources, blogs or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing.
I’ve got a post on Coit Avenue about a possible area blogger meetup. Go take the poll if you’re interested. Or if you’re not. (Sorry it looks like crap. What do you want for free?).
Update 1/12, 2:35 p.m.: The poll is working now. Go ahead and try it.
The question is so two years ago, I know. But I just got my nano for Christmas. (Jeez it’s tiny. I love it.) So it’s all new to me. And more than music right now, I’m listening to podcasts. Here are some of ‘em.
Diggnation. The week’s most-dugg tech stories from digg (rated Explicit)
This WEEK in TECH. Leo LaPorte must be the podcasting-est dude on the ‘net.
The Engadget Podcast. Newest in electronics and technology. Weekly
On the Media from NPR. Now I don’t have to remember to tune in on Sundays.
Slate’s Daily Podcasts. Articles from the online mag Slate.
Slate’s Explainer Podcasts. Listen daily for something you didn’t know you wondered about.
Inside the Net. Leo and Amber talk about what’s new and cool. Weekly
Insomnia Radio. Great music you’ve never heard before. Weekly (rated Explicit)
All are free, of course, from iTunes, of course. What are your podcast favorites?
That’s Matt and Margie in back; Clay, Me, Loraine and Jeff in front.
Yeah kids, this is how the over-40 crowd whoops it up on New Year’s eve. We did our usual delectable standing rib roast dinner. Jeff was sick this year, but he still did a fabulous job, with a little more help from us than he’s used to.
Afterwards we played a colossally stupid DVD game called "Scene it" (sorry Lor!) for which I never did understand the rules. But I did come to understand that I caused the women to lose the game by blurting out — during guys’ turn, mind you — the only answer I even came close to knowing. (Did you guess? It is a movie trivia game. Not exactly my forte, shall we say?)
Midnight came and went and we watched Monty Python‘s Flying Circus DVDs (it’s becoming another tradition) until most everyone trailed off to bed. Jeff (the sick one?), Clay and I stayed up another hour or so watching old b&w movies on A&E (or was it TCM?)
No excessive eating or drinking, no hangovers, no indigestion. Yes we may be boring but we sure felt fine in the morning.
Update: Like a dork, I posted the the above photo twice instead of including the first one I just added, below. Oh, and those photos will pop up to full size if you click on them.
Keash is a local freelance writer and a friend of mine who finally, after talking about it for months, has started a blog. Her intent is to talk about freelancing from a practical, experiential point of view.
"I get asked all the time how I got started writing," she told me. "So I wanted to get that out there for people to read," along with some real-life stories about the not-so-glamorous life of a freelancer. (Remind me again about why I want to do this freelance thing?) The blog is called writer’s blog, and she’s got two posts so far. Check it out.
