Have yourself a merry little Christmas

I hope you and your family are having a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas!

On Consumer Technology

The feeling of productivity, to some, is exhilarating. I'm unashamedly one of those people. And because doing one thing at a time just isn't good enough, we've redefined the concept of multitasking.

Now you can chat with a friend, catch up on the news, and write your English essay all at the same time. Why bother flying to visit relatives when you can save time (and money) by Skyping?

Not to mention all the new verbs that have stemmed out of this new technology. Nowadays, we can Skype, Google, IM, text, and Tweet. And it's a testament to the rapid growth of the young technology industry -- one that has been around for only 50 or so years -- that terms like "IM" and "GameBoy" have already gone out of vogue, and companies like MySpace have crashed and burned in a matter of a few short years.

Things move fast in the Internet world. News travels at the speed of light. If you're not enlightened within a few hours, you're already behind. The world runs on "Internet time."

Multitasking is the new modus vivendi. If your brain isn't wired to move a million miles an hour and juggle five different things at once, life in modern society is going to be tough for you.

For our generation, that's life going on as normal. The idea of a world without iPods and iPads, video games and smartphones, Windows and Xbox is an unfathomable, archaic one. To me, there's no better indication of the frightening power of technology that, when we lost our power in December 2006 to a storm, we were utterly lost and bored without our computers and cell phones. After all, what is there to life if you don't know what every one of your friends is doing every second of the day?

November PAD Challenge!

Hello poem-ers!

I completely forgot about the November Poem-a-Day Challenge until I happened to visit Poetic Asides and realized that it was in full swing. So I've jumped on the bandwagon!

I won't be posting my poems here because I won't be able to submit them to journals, magazines, and the like, but I would encourage everyone to jump in headfirst. (Especially if you didn't do the poem-a-day challenge in April or weren't pleased with your April results.)

I must say, although both of my poems thus far have been about the Halloween aftermath, it has still been very fun getting back into the swing of writing a poem a day for a month. Do come and join in!

Poetry in Letterpress

I have always loved the look of letterpress -- it has such a beautiful crispness to it. So of course I was thrilled to find one of my favorite lines of poetry ever ("Do I dare / Disturb the universe? / In a minute there is time / For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.") printed on letterpress here. Heaven!

{photo credit}

Fire on Her Tongue

Here's a sneak peek at something I've been very lucky to be a part of. Fire on Her Tongue: An eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women's Poetry is an anthology containing work from over 70 amazing contemporary female poets.

Kelli Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy, the talented editors behind Crab Creek Review, are in charge of this project, which looks to be really wonderful. You can see more information and a full lineup of the women featured in the anthology at twosylviaspress.com.

As an e-Book, Fire on Her Tongue was produced with zero carbon footprint. Every part of it was done electronically in a commendable effort to save trees. Slated for e-Book release in late fall.

Watch TEDxRedmond on Livestream

Hello!

Since many of you don't live in or near the Seattle area, we've created a way for you to still watch TEDxRedmond 2011 (www.tedxredmond.com) even though you can't be here in person.

We'll be streaming the event live tomorrow (in pretty good quality) at www.tedxredmond.com/live/.

The livestream begins at 1 PM PST sharp, so be sure to log on! :) And, of course, let me know what you thought of it at the end.

Hope you all can make it to the livestream tomorrow!

Sign up to attend TEDxRedmond

If you'll be in the Seattle/Redmond area on September 10th, TEDxRedmond is an event you won't want to miss. Click the button below to register to attend. (You MUST register in order to attend.) P.S. Priya and I will be co-hosting!



If you can't be there in person, watching it via livestream is the next-best thing. Click HERE to access the livestreaming page. Currently, there's a placeholder video, but on September 10th at 1 PM PST, the livestream will begin.

Let me know if you'll be there (or will be watching via livestream)!

August firsts

We just got back from our Cancun vacation just a few days ago. It's an absolutely beautiful place, and there is so much to do there. It was a memorable trip for me because it was the first time I...

• went parasailing.
• touched (and kissed) a dolphin.
• saw and played on a white sand beach.
• went in a submarine.
• saw stingrays and sea turtles.
• went to Mexico.
• heard a Michael Jackson song (yes, shame on me).
• tasted saltwater.
• set foot in the ocean.
• went to a restaurant where there were no prices on the menu.
• stayed at an all-inclusive hotel (which explains the previous statement).
• drank a Shirley Temple (and lots of them, might I add).
• sat under a beach umbrella.
• held a baby sea turtle (and released it into the ocean).
• swam with a life jacket on.
• went to a water theme park outside the U.S.
• tried a habanero pepper salsa (bad decision).
• and rode the Mexican public bus.

 Did you travel anywhere this summer? How was it?

Happy Birthday!

Happy sixteenth birthday to my amazing sister! She is the funniest, sweetest, and most talented person I know, and I hope her sixteenth year (and every year to come) is incredible for her.

In this moment

A suitcase is
a temporary beginning.
I listen to you fold
your clothes in,
stacking piles of armor.

TEDxRedmond 2011 Trailer!

I'm so excited to share this with you! As you may or may not know, I'm helping organize a youth event called TEDxRedmond. This will be our second year, and last year's event was incredibly successful -- we had over 700 people in attendance.

We've been working hard to get the word out for this year's event on September 10th. This year's theme, coined by Priya, is "The Spark in All of Us"! The event is organized entirely by youth and targeted towards youth, but adults are still welcome.

We just finished the promotional trailer for TEDxRedmond 2011, and I personally think it looks amazing! Of course, I'm a little biased, but I think you'll really enjoy it. It's only a minute long, so it won't take too long to watch...

so sit back and enjoy!

What I loved about July

Independence Day fireworks. Quirky passengers on the public buses. Walking around a beautiful college campus. Whipping out turtlenecks and jeans while the rest of the country is sizzling hot. Planning a vacation. Laughing with my mom. Playing Kinect for hours on end with my sister. Biking on a river trail. Sunsets. Sleeping late and waking up late. Obsessively cleaning up my room. Wandering around downtown Seattle. Eating up to six nectarines a day. Writing a story. Watching the final Harry Potter. Rereading and rereading the Harry Potter books. Reminding myself irresistibly of Petunia Dursley when I wipe down the bathroom counter twice a day. Loving my family. Laughing so hard I cry. Living.

credit where credit's due: photo credit.

those stars burn like diamonds.

Here are some snapshots of what I've been seeing around for the past couple of months. The weather has been gorgeous! Hope you're having a wonderful summer.

 

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July. Hope it's a good one!

Flight

*poof*

I am planning to take this one down in a couple of days. Just wanted to put it up for your critique. :)

Manhattan

Mindrelic - Manhattan in motion from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

I saw this on someone else's blog and was captivated! It is so beautiful and I think it's worth the four minutes. It makes me want to visit!

Happy (almost) summer!

Hello there! It's starting to feel quite a bit like summer over where I'm at. Although, being a Washington girl inside and out, the seventy-five degree weather is a little too warm for my liking, it's still beautiful. I have a handful of pictures that I'd like to post when I have more free time (after all my final exams are over).

In other news, I'm blogging for the TEDxRedmond site! Feel free to stop by and check it out! The event takes place on September 10, 2011. If you'll be in the area, you can register at www.tedxredmond.com.

Here's to sunshine and beautiful summer days! 

A question

Do you participate in the world or do you simply observe it?

Hogwarts, everybody.

WHAT. Somebody please get me on the next plane to India.

A day in Paris

A day in PARIS from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.

I love this video! It's so whimsical and beautiful! Everything about it is so lovely...I absolutely love sweet little clips like this.

On college degrees...

Reading this post (and also hearing about the corresponding Newsweek article from my sister) made me upset. It's one thing to rank college majors based on availability of jobs and how much these degrees pay on average, but to call them "useless"?

Apparently the top 10 majors that don't pay are, in order:

1. Journalism
2. Horticulture
3. Agriculture
4. Advertising
5. Fashion design
6. Child and family studies
7. Music
8. Mechanical-engineering technology
9. Chemistry
10. Nutrition

I'm sorry. I was under the impression that in order to survive and live a healthy and happy life, it was necessary to eat right, grow crops, and have clothes on your body. Apparently, these are the most "useless" college degrees. Oh, and let's not forget the chemists, the writers, and the engineers.

Another thing that upset me about this article was the fact that these are the top 10 lowest-paying jobs. WHY? These are some of the most important jobs. Some of the most critical ones to our survival. Yet they're some of the lowest-paying ones.

It's food for thought (no pun intended).

A few goodies

Hello! It's been a while since I've swung by. I hope everything's all right with you; things have been pretty smooth for me, with some pretty sun-breaks in between.

These past few weeks I stumbled across some memorable videos that I thought I'd share with you, if you haven't seen them yet.

I can't do a video post without this trailer, being the little Potter fanatic that I am. This trailer is incredible in so many ways I can't even begin to explain. Although I must admit that seeing it makes me very sad that such a fundamental part of my childhood is coming to a close.




I may not be Christian, but you don't even have to be religious to fall in love with this performance. I'm truly in awe of her...what a voice.



And there you have it. Have a good weekend, everybody!

A note

Dear schools,

Please don't give us an assignment, put a hundred thousand restrictions and rules on it, and still call it "creative writing." And grade it.

Most sincerely,
Someone who enjoys actual creative writing

on insomnia.

the things of the night
are more beautiful than the things
of the day.

genevieve.

The light combed through her hair, the reddish-brown of each strand glimmering and fluttering. It was a spring-but-it-feels-like-summer kind of day, the sun barely brushing the top layer of her skin. The dash of chill that wrinkled the air (taut with warmth) rippled and fell away: the world moved slowly past, not knowing, not wondering, beautifully ignorant.

This Afternoon

Yesterday's rain trickles down the sides
of the windowpane.
The sky thunders past.
The minutes tick, tick, tick.

Happy Weekend!

Sometimes you just need a little reminder. (image via)

Chariot

The Rugby Poets Club Presents: "Chariot" by Joshua Bennett from Ralph Lauren on Vimeo.

Someone sent me this video today, from Ralph Lauren's Rugby Poets Club (such an awesome idea, by the way!) and I absolutely love it. Everything about it is so incredible, the poem is just perfection. I've just found my new favorite poem, ever.

Happy Monday!

My poem 'Negative Four Hundred' [a title I've always loved, by the way] has found a home! More to come on that later.

And in other weekend news, I saw Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never" for the second time yesterday and loved it!

Hope you all have a lovely week! How was your weekend?

Snowflakes

Here are a few snapshots of the snow from just a few minutes ago. We have had on-and-off flurries for the past few days but nothing really major until yesterday evening and early this morning. It's been melting all day but it's still beautiful. 

Live the Language: Paris

EF - Live The Language - Paris from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

This Paris clip [for EF's Live the Language campaign] is so quaint and sweet and everything about it is just perfection! See the other clips for London, Beijing, and Barcelona here (they are all so lovely!).

2 years!

I can't believe I forgot to post about the 2-year anniversary of "Apologies to an Apple"! It was released on February 7, 2009, and I could not be more thankful for the opportunities it's brought me. 150% of my effort is represented in that volume, and I'm so proud of the final product. It's available for purchase here. (A portion of the sales will be donated to charity.)

Priya and I also were the featured guests on the Bit by Bit educators' podcast on Thursday night. We had a blast and feel very lucky to have had such a wonderful opportunity! Click here to listen to it.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Happy February

Happy February, everybody! I know there's some cough/cold stuff going around that's pretty nasty, and some of you have potentially-record-setting blizzards coming through your neighborhoods, so here are a few things to cheer you up and make today just a bit less depressing:

• I wish every house were as awesome as this one. (I know you do, too.)
• Blueberries are back in-stores again! Aside from being nutritionally amazing, they're also so delicious I could live off them. (No, really.)
• The Stuttgarter Kammerorchester & Karl Munchinger version of "Canon in D" is heavenly.
• Speaking of music, you haven't truly listened to "Hallelujah" until you've heard Kate Voegele's rendition.
• This might just be the coolest street ever.
• Sometimes you just need a little inspiration.
• This is kind of an old post, but it's still lovely eye candy.

And there you have it! Here's to a wonderful month!

that rebel moon is shining

I feel the pulse of breath under

my collarbone, steady --

like the pulse of my steps, tracing a circle in

the grass where I can't find an exit.

Fall down the rabbit hole and I know I'll find you

when you land.

and the time is now



image credit: http://www.democracycellproject.org/

After doing a sliver of research yesterday for a Spanish essay, all I can say is: thank you to the American Congress for dedicating a holiday to such an inspirational man, and it's an honor to live in a county dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(on a side note: Similar to what my sister wrote a handful of days ago, I won't be blogging for about a week. Studying for and taking seven finals in the course of five days will really wipe a person out, I expect.)

just like a dream to me.

the old wicker chairs out on the back porch
sing sweet home louisiana,
catching and filtering sticky-sweet sunlight.
you throw a few wilted roses back out into the yard
-- the same color as the tomatoes
growing by the side of the house --
and turn to the window,
you watch the light catch in the colors
of the empty mason jars on the windowsill and
turn red and blue and orange.
laughter and a smile drift by, darting
like fireflies.

2011.

I hope you all are having an incredible new year. I know that for me, the starting of 2011 has been more than just the change of a digit at the end of the date. It has meant something so much more: a new beginning, a new opportunity, a world of chances.

I'm hoping to share my poetry a lot more this year, something I think I did miserably on in 2010. I'll try to post more "snapshots" and more of my own poetry on this blog as well as submit to online journals and magazines, something I've struggled with a lot in the past because of my perfectionism when it comes to my poems.

I also just want to stick to the resolution I've tried to keep for the past two years: be happy. That's all there really is to life, if you think about it -- everything traces back to happiness. If you're happy, that's all you'll ever need. I'm putting on a positive attitude and taking things in stride. I've learned life's not long enough for you to get worked up or upset about anything. Even if something might seem life-shattering, it's just a test of how strong you are. (Think about it that way. :) ) So, if you will, join me this year in staying happy. As long as you know God's on your side and you're alive, you should be happy.

And that's it for my goals for this year. What are some of your thoughts and hopes for the double-one?