Natala la la la ... ... ...

formspring.me

2010-03-19T08:42:00.001-07:00

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/natala007

On the Road

2010-02-24T00:48:00.000-08:00

I'll be travelling for the next 5 weeks! I'm going to relocate to San Francisco as my "home-base" during my travels, along with my pup Abbey Road. Here's the plan:
Wed Feb 24: Fly to CA, relocate to San Francisco & Silicon Valley
Sat Feb 27: Fly to New Orleans, LA for Rachel & Chris' wedding!
Mon Mar 01: Fly back to CA
Wed Mar 03: Fly SFO-CDG(Paris)-TelAviv! In Jerusalem for ~4 days.
Mon Mar 08: Fly to Amman, Jordan. In Jordan for ~5 days
Sat Mar 13: Fly to Cairo, Egypt. 1.5 days in Cairo = Pyramids! Camels! Oh My!
Mon Mar 15: Fly to Paris - 1 day in Paris
Tue Mar 16: Fly to CA, in CA for ~3 days hopefully skiing one day!
Sat Mar 20: Fly to Kona, HI - 7 day yoga retreat, followed by 2 days of beach.
Mon Mar 29: Fly to SFO
Wed Mar 31: Fly to SEA - back to sea!!

This really should be in a tube -- maybe i'll update it.

I'm really excited for some adventures, relaxation and mind-clearing!

crazy funk

2009-08-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

so for the last few weeks i have been in a crazy, dark, sad, funk. a bunch of things have just gone awry and my birthday is coming up (which is when i do my annual plan and get all reflective)...and well, this year has been kind of whack. the result of this funk is that i've been reclusive and lonely -- and angsty. like a kid i want things to be different, but i'm not doing things differently.

I am officially declaring war on my funk. And so, in the words of Jay Z, "I got my mojo back, baby, oh behave."

30 days...

2009-08-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

i've decided to do a 30-day food challenge. i like challenges, and i've been eating less ideally than i would like. the challenge is pretty simple -- in fact the point is simplicity. I can only eat basic ingredient foods. This means if it is chicken - then it should just be chicken - it can have spices and oil etc, but NO processing. No xantham, no preservatives, no things I don't recognize as whole foods. For basic foods like salads and meats, I think this will be pretty easy. But for things like grains or pasta - simplicity is probably going to cut most of them out. I'm excited for it. The challenge begins tomorrow and ends 30-days later -- on my birthday, Sept 19th.

Happy Dad's Day!

2009-06-21T08:50:00.001-07:00

My dad is awesome! so I decided to trek him out for father's day -- esp since he saw the movie 3 times: once on his own, once with my sister and once with me.

Happy Father's day Dad!

Lent 2009

2009-02-26T23:33:00.001-08:00

I'm not catholic (i was raised episcopalian) but i do celebrate / honor lent. it's one of my favorite religious practices because it provides an opportunity to reflect for a lengthy period of time about something in particular. Plus it ends with easter whcih has all these great "rebirth" overtones (plus bunnies & chocolate!) Over the years I've given up lots of things for lent - sweets being the most popular choice.

This year I have decided to give up "non-whole grains." What does that mean? Basically I'm not eating processed grains. The grains I eat need to have the whole kernel with the wheat germ and all the fiber from the outer bran layer of the wheat, and all the protein from the inner endosperm.

In general, as I restructure my diet, I want to focus on local, whole, and organic foods. I love breads (and carbs) but I don't think they always serve me well...and since i'm good with rules, I've decided that this would be a good way to try life without processed carbs for a meaningful period of time.

So what can I eat?
- whole wheat bread (i'm going to check on this as i may need to go to whole grain not whole wheat)
- steel-cut oats
- stoneground things (like corn) or organic farina (i.e. stone ground wheat berries)
- barley, buckwheat, quinoa, millet
- brown rice

things i can't eat (and will miss):
- french bread!
- cupcakes
- any kind of instant cereal
- granola (i think -- i'm checking on this one)
- luna bars

There are many more things I can't eat...

I do have two exceptions planned -- i hadn't realized lent started so soon!
(1) Dinner at the corson building (where i went tonight -- and it was awesome)
(2) Dinner in CA with my family at some Indian restaurant tomorrow night.

Outside of these two identified exceptions, i'm going to rigorously keep to this lent commitment. i'm excited!

Hai-Cuba

2009-02-25T22:01:00.001-08:00

My good friend wrote a haiku for my dog, Cuba, who passed away in December. She shared it at the memorial we had for Cubes. It's awesome.

Hai-Cuba

Small, grey, and fuzzy.
Her size not matching her heart.
Beloved by all.

It's a funny thing ...
how something so darn tiny
can mean everything.

Onward she frolicks
in fields and gardens above.
Down here, we miss her.

my little dog, cuba: 2006-2008

2008-12-20T09:43:00.000-08:00

my little dog, cuba, died on weds dec 10th. she died from complications from an emergency surgery she had on monday. she ate a rock -- i will never know or understand why -- and she had to have it removed. unfortunately the surgeon made a mistake and didn't close her intestines completely causing her body to go septic over the next 48 hours. i was there when she died and i think a part of me - a cuba-sized - part of me died too.

cuba was a 5 lb morkie -- a maltease yorkie mix. I got her when she was 6-weeks old. she completely changed my life - she had a frolicky, whimsical spirit that brightened every room. over the last 2+ years we spent a lot of time together - she traveled with me, she went shopping with me, in many ways she has been my closest and dearest companion. now that she is gone, i'm a little bit lost and i'm lonely. I feel that gap in my life and i miss her cheerful, sprite-like greetings when i came home. i miss snuggling in the morning and going on our exploratory walks all over queen anne. she may have been little, but her favorite thing was to go on walks and check-in on the neighbors.

Someone wrote to me that cuba represented a sweet and disarming part of me. I think that's true, she often acted as my ambassador - providing sweet joy to those around with little licks and some of her cute moves (downward dog stretches, over the shoulder winks, running around for toys, jumping with glee). She had a lot of cuteness to her. She would eat her food one piece at time -- i'd line it up in a row and she would eat each one bit by bit. it was adorable and silly.

i'm so sad by the tragic circumstances and i feel that time was stolen because of human error. losing a pet is always hard, the unexpectedness of it, i think, has made it a bit harder for me. i am incredibly grateful for my friends and family (and my co-workers). they have all been amazing. i'm not a very emotional person, but this has broken me and i'm deeply sad. my friends have come and taken care of me - cooked me food, taken me out, saved me from complete loneliness. my dad has come up to stay with me for a few days. it's been great and the connectedness i've felt from all the support has been a blessing.

i don't yet know how to commemorate my little one properly. the nearness of her is still close - i woke up this morning expecting her little self to be in bed with me.

all i can say is this: cuba, my little morkie, was awesome. i cherished my time with her -- and i loved her completely. i will miss you little one.

Below are some cuba pictures -- for more go here.

WOOOHOOO! Obama!

2008-11-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

Last night, at the War Room in Seattle, I watched as Barack Obama was elected president. I am so excited! Change has come to America and wooohooo i am ready to do my part!

Here's a pic from last night -- what's missing is the champagne and the cheering.

I was glad to be in seattle, a city that is quickly growing on me now that I actually admit to living here :) At the same time, my people back in CA are having a rough morning as it looks like Prop 8 will pass. It provides a bittersweet reminder that we have a lot of work to do.

sunny in seattle

2008-07-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

i am so happy with this weather forecast:

it's a little bit geeky ...

2008-06-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

a couple of weekends ago David and I went to San Juan island for a mini-break. It was awesome (as you can see from the pics). We did hit one snag -- we decided to play a board game (Scavenger Hunt -- there's more strategy to it than one would think!) but the game required a pair of dice...which were no where to be found...and we didn't have the internet...So, david wrote some code and voila we had dice. See below (the formatting is a little off because of my blog -- sorry david!):

0
0

UPDATE: hrm i seem to have broken the code. it worked wonderfully on vacation :)
Update: 6.6.09 Amitp helped me fix the code so now it works!

SMX Advanced Presentation

2008-06-09T00:54:00.000-07:00

Last week I gave a presentation on adCenter during the "Amazing PPC Tactics" session at SMX Advanced. My presentation focused on three things: Keywords, Bulk Tools & Tricks -- check out the presentation below for the details. It was a really fun session with lots of interesting information -- if I get links to the other presentations i'll post them.

This conference was a particularly exciting one for me as a product I've been working on shipped in Beta -- adCenter Desktop. Here's a link to an article on the launch. If you are interested in trying out the bulk management application, fill out this form and let us know.

| View | Upload your own

Going on Vacation: Australia & New Zealand

2008-03-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

I'm flying out to Brisbane Australia for a few weeks of much needed vacationing. Below is my schedule. It's an interesting vacation for me as I've been to all the places I'm going to sometime before ... usually i try to break out and do something completely new. However, this will be my first multi-day-week bike trip...so that should be interesting. Yes, I plan to blog...

ok, so i haven't blogged in a long time.

2008-03-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

Note: It's been ~6 months since i last blogged. Lots has happened. really. I think though that the thing most people want to know about are the triathlons. So I will write about that.

Yes, i did 6 triathlons last summer -- 3 sprint and 3 olympic. It was honestly one of the hardest and most insane things i have ever committed to doing and i don't think i would do it again without being in considerably better shape and having a lot more free time. It was hard on me mentally as well as physically. I would never have done the last triathlon -- where the water was BELOW 60 degrees and the temperature outside was just above -- if it wasn't the last olympic i had signed up for and not doing it would mean I would have to do 6 more triathlons the next season in order to finish my 3-3-tri challenge.

"Triathlons seemed easy enough"
Initially I thought that doing 6 tri's would be fun, interesting and not so tough. I had done 2 sprints before. The distances of an olympic are very approachable: 2K swim, 40k bike, 10k run. And, since I'm typically one of those over-achiever types, Triathlons seemed easy enough: get from A to B, quickly and efficiently. It turns out that when you travel pretty regularly, have some shoulder issues, don't like wearing a wetsuit and probably have a reasonable amount of extra weight to carry around that getting from A to B is often harder than it would seem and may be in conflict with my usual "win" mentality. This was probably the best thing about doing a bunch of tri's: i lost all the time. I never won. I was never even able to compete to win. I just had to focus on what i was doing, what my race was and what I wanted to get out of it.

"I hate wet suits"
Initially, when i first evaluated my triathlon goals they were pretty simple. Get in better shape and don't be last. Well, these goals came to an end during my 2nd Olympic Triathlon. I wore a wet suit for the first time in a race and it was horrible. I had a panic attack. I have issues with things touching my neck. I actually get a little bit uncomfortable when people wear turtle necks around me. Well, it turns out wetsuits touch your neck -- and need to so that your chest doesn't scoop water when you swim. This was a problem. A big problem.

Of course, I did try on a wetsuit before my race. We splashed around in our wetsuits the day before the race for like 3 minutes and although it seemed like it would annoy me, I thought it would probably be ok. This was not the case on race day. On race day we had a mass start. I dove in and started to swim and the neck part of my suit started to rub my neck and i FREAKED out. I had one of my only panic attacks ever. I tried to get over it, then i tried to loosen my suit and get it off. Funny how you can't really do that when you are in a race situation in the water. The result was that i struggled a lot during my swim (and burned my neck with the suits edge) and when i finally got out of the water i was right behind someone else, but i was last. Which meant i was last in the race.

This was a horrible place to be. The swim -- until then -- was kind of my strongest bit. Since it was a mass start, there was no one behind me to "beat" and as i got on the bike i was completely mentally off my game. I was consumed by being last. By failing at my objective. By hating my wetsuit. I was clumsy and cold. I was angry and disappointed. More than anything, I was mad. I dropped my chain on the bike -- a beautiful ride btw -- 3 times. I never drop my chain.

What does being last mean?
I did the run and finished the race last. I started crying as soon as I crossed the finish line and got a private moment. My friend Diedre (who had also done the race with me) came over. She was so excited. I was a total mess. Overachievers aren't last! What did this mean for me? Was I now a failure? A loser? My self-image was a mess. It turns out it didn't mean as much as I thought. The huge significance I had put on myself -- and the wasted energy being frustrated with the race and mentally being off my game, wasn't worth it. I'm not going to say that it didn't suck -- but now months later, I can say that this was one of the most important failures in my life. It's made me more human, more relaxed. I am more comfortable in my own skin.

I did eventually get better at swimming in a wet suit -- i still don't love it but i now see the value. I'm planning to do some more triathlons this summer -- but easy ones that I don't have to stress about -- i.e. all sprints! I'm also going to focus on cycling. I really love cycling now. Doing 6 triathlons was definitely insane (for me) but it was also great -- as I did them all and proved to myself that yes, I can set some specific health goals and achieve them. Maybe not how i dreamed but successfully none-the-less. I also proved to myself that i can stay focused on a ridiculous challenge just to persevere. Which proved to be a useless victory, but it's good to know.

Race Report: Triathlon #2 = sprints are fun

2007-07-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I completed my 1^st of 3 Sprint triathlons and a week later I finished my 2^nd of 3 Olympic triathlons. This brings me to the mid-point of my 3-3 triathlon challenge. Now that I know what I’ve gotten myself into, I’m alternatively freaked out or excited. Below is the race report on the sprint tri.

Benaroya Research Institute Triathlon at Seafair (Sprint) – July 14
.5 mile swim, 12-mile bike and 3.1-mile run.

This triathlon was a ton of fun – there were over 2,200 participants and the energy was really good. There were lots of fast people and lots of first-time triathlon people. I ran into a bunch of people from team in training, it was nice to see familiar faces.

Since it was a local race, I got to sleep in my own bed. This was tough! I hit the snooze button many times – and only left for the race at 5:55 am after brushing my teeth and packing my tri-bag (a timbuk2 messenger bag) in a flurry. I was lucky I didn’t forget anything – like my bike! I arrived at the race site ~20 minutes before they closed the transition area. Which basically gave me enough time to find a location for bike + gear and lay things out and check the air pressure on my tires.

Swim:The swim was not warm, but it was short enough that the temperature didn’t slow me down. I had that initial “ohh, it’s cold I can’t breathe” feeling for about 50 yards and then I warmed up and it was fine. The hard part of the swim was the milfoil. This is a water plant that basically grabs onto you while swimming. It was scratchy and a little unnerving.

Bike:The bike was shorter than I thought and when I got to the turnaround I was surprised. That’s it? Oh man, I should have pushed harder!

Run: I think this may have been my best run all month. Even with walking up part of the steep hill at mile 2, stopping for water and needing to go to the bathroom…I ran my fastest 5K time in the recent past. I think it was partially adrenaline and partially just the realization that it was going to be quickly over..and hey, that wasn’t so bad.

Things I learned:

There are mistakes you can make in a sprint distance that you might not be able to get away with at longer distances. In this race the biggest mistake was probably nutrition. I ran out of the door so fast I didn’t have time for breakfast. In an Olympic or a long bike ride, I’d be recovering from that throughout the race…not so in this case as the race was over before I got hungry!

Taking the time to prepare your stuff the night before makes a lot of sense. During my transition from swim to bike I had to attach my race number to my tri-top. Having to open up teeny-weeny little pins and attach them to yourself when your hands are a little bit stiff from the cold water is, uhm, not so easy. I also forgot to untie my shoelaces on my running shoes…so before the run I had to untie them before I could start running. These are the kinds of things I could have skipped with a little preparation.

Triathlons don’t require a lot of “stuff.” Before this race I pretty much believed that in order to be in the right mind set I needed to have the perfect towel, a bunch of water bottles for rinsing post swim and lots of extra foods (i.e. alternate flavors of gu and shot bloks) and general stuff in order to be prepared for the “worst case scenario.” This time I had the bare minimum: some basic nutrition, 2 water bottles on my bike (only one with Nuun, the other got multi-purposed for rinsing), my running shoes, my clip-in bike shoes, socks, a towel and suntan lotion. That’s it.

I like races with lots of people. Since I’m slow I’m not in the “pack” and can sometimes be out on my own (esp on the run!). This race was crowded the whole time – and I loved it. I was in the third wave, of I think 12. This meant that there were lots of fast people after me – and it was fun to see them zoom by and it made me run faster to have them next to me on the run.

I highly recommend this race and definitely plan to do it again next year. Just, you know, faster.

travel tune hell

2007-06-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

right now, i am buying music on iTunes that i already own.

Well, ok, some of it is new -- specificaly this new order/ bizarre love triangle/ remix is new -- but the other songs, i so own them!

THE STORY...

So why am I doing this? Well, my ipod nano died.
So i i went to the apple store to get it replaced, since it's new and it should work but it doesn't. My appointment with the guy at the "genuis bar" starts out fabulous. They can replace it. No charge! But.... they don't have any in stock. So i need to have one shipped. But they can only ship to the store. oh, and i'm in chicago.. and the nano will arrive "3-4 business days from now" when i'll be in NY. They can't have it sent to NY or Seattle. I have to call Apple Care. Because, apple clearly cares.

Well, I still need music.
I mean I HAVE TO RUN! I have a freaking triahtlon on the 15th of July and another on the 22nd and I have been a total lazy bones since I completed my first olympic tri earlier this month. So. I need NEED music. I mean if I had music, I'd be working out all the time right? It's the lack of music that's keeping me lazy. really. So. I left the apple store with a lime green ipod shuffle. I really had NO choice! Well, I considered the orange one (aka the little mandarin).

So now i'm downloading music to "Swish".
Swish is the name of my lime green shiny ipod shuffle. Music downloading hit a predictable snag: I'm on my PC. All my music is on my Mac. At home. In Seattle. Yep. So here I am. I need music. I have Swish. I download, repurchasing songs I have so already bought on iTunes -- but never transferred to my PC because, well who has the time to copy them to CD and reburn them here? i hate this DRM stuff. I hate transferring. I hate paperwork (yes, just for good measure i'm throwing that one in!)

...
Somehow, even with all this apple evil-ness, i'm still sorta thinking about those "june 29th: The wait is almost over" t-shirts all the apple employees were wearing at the store. i know. i know.

Race Report: Olympic Distance Triathlon #1 - Complete

2007-06-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

I hope to update this entry with a longer, more detailed post on the King's Trail triathlon -- but for now here are the highlights:
(1) it was hot and humid
(2) I almost bumped into a sea turtle on my swim
(3) I biked all of the bike
(4) I ran more of the run than i expected, but i was still slower than i expected
(5) i feel fantastic!

I'm excited that this first triathlon is over. I now have all this data and information and I can't wait to make HUGE improvements on my next 5. WooHoo.

3 - 3 Triathlon Mania

2007-05-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do 6 triathlons this summer. Below is my schedule. I'm still kinda in shock that i'm really doing this...but here i go.

Date Distance Race Location
10-Jun Olympic King's Trail Maui, HI
15-Jul Sprint Sea Fair Seattle, WA
22-Jul Olympic ChelanMan Lake Chelan, WA
26-Aug Sprint SB Tri Santa Barbara, CA
16-Sep Sprint Kirkland Tri Kirkland, WA
23-Sep Olympic Black Diamond Enumclaw, WA

Additional Races
28-May 40 mi (bike) 7 Hills Kirkland, WA
24-Jun 10K (run) Pacific Crest Sunriver, OR

whirlwind weekend

2007-04-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

some weekends are just "one of those" weekends -- and this weekend was one of them.

(1) Minnie came to visit! It was just awesome to have her in town and visiting - even if she was here for less than 24 hours. It's just really nice to get to hang out with someone I've known for so long and to get to show them around seattle and all my new habitats.

(2) I got a flat tire on the first leg of the multi-brick workout on Sat. Yep. full on blow-out. We pulled over to the side of the road and luckily i had an extra tire in my bike-pack. Phew. This was the good news. The bad news is that it was the back wheel and changing the tire was hard! Thankfully "jason" -- a friendly seattle rider stopped and helped us switch out the tires and get going. Unfortunately my back tire just wouldn't fully pump up... so i rode it slightly less inflated than ideal back to base camp. I ended up doing 3 of the bike sprints and 3 runs (instead of the 5 I was supposed to do). I really need to focus on triathlon training. Also, see #6.

(3) KT and I went to see "The Queen" -- at this random theatre in northern seattle. I say "northern seattle" because i really have no idea where we went. We were practically in shoreline. But get this -- the movie was only THREE DOLLARS! I didn't know you could see a movie at a non-matinee time slot for under $5. We got some candy which brought the total entertainment bill to $4. I loved it. The movie was good to. But i didn't love it as much as JB or my mum.

(4) My dog got LOST. She's in California with my mum and step dad. Apparently when the meter-guy came by he left the gate open. Cuba, being an escape artist, ran away this morning. My mom called me after they had been looking for her for an hour and couldn't find her. I, uhm, FREAKED out. Seriously. My dog is super precious and losing her -- particularly when I'm so far away -- completely freaked me out. I booked my flights home so i could help with the search -- or be at the hospital should she be injured. Luckily, 4 hours later she was found at the next door neighbors. She'd been hanging out there while the lady tried to figure out who she belonged to. She came back home to us safe and relaxed after her morning adventure. PHEW. Thanks to KT for coming over and consoling me while i was, well, a wreck.

(5) Boys. I finally called one of the 4 boys I've been flirting with and asked him if he had a crush on me or not. This was NOT an easy thing for me to do since, well, I avoid intimacy and vulnerability at all costs. I am also pretty judicious about how i spend my time -- and who i spend my time with -- and this thing had just gone on long enough. Sadly, there's no mutual love-connection. I felt good about the conversation though -- it's important to be up front about one's emotions -- even if they aren't reciprocated. I can definitely relate to this post by eric.

(6) I learned to be true. My bike had been making a sound ever since the blow out. This sound made me nervous. I decided to check it out and made a make shift bike holder to play with the mechanics of my bike and figure out what's going on. Turns out that I seem to have bent my back wheel -- so I now have to get it "re-trued" -- i.e. aligned. *sigh* i love my bike! i am pretty sure with some spoke adjusting it will be just fine, but i'd hate to have to buy a new wheel.

(7) I forgot my dad's birthday. Seriously. And I called him this morning (his-b-day was yesterday) freaking out about the missing micro-mutt (see #4 above) and still completely forgot. I think my family thinks i'm insane.

(8) I realized I'd never survive seattle without KT. Friends are so important, and this girl just rocks. She's been here for me and all my crazy drama this weekend -- with laughter, insight, and just generally being a great friend. I have lots of friends that helped me this weekend -- all of them so special, and some of them such long-time friends (V, JB, kyle). But, it's super nice to have someone local, and I'm lucky to have KT.

rob lowe

2007-04-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

i love that rob lowe is playing a candidate for president on brothers & sisters. Maybe he should really run for president. the next Reagan!

dating rule #1 "don't date the coffee guy"

2007-03-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

My friend adam recently posted an entry to his Blog yesterday about the "levels of a relationship." His post has images from ppt! this is a guy after my own heart and as a result of his post we've been bantering back and forth about different relationship thoughts. I shared my spreadsheet and some of my core philosophies. He challenged me to blog them -- and before he went to he bed he gave me a 400 word challenge! so here i am blogging about my first dating rule ever.

Rule: Don't date your coffee guy.

History: I came up with this one in High School when my coffee guy had a crush on me (he was very cute too! and a good tennis player...) and i realized that I was going to have to make some tough choices. Do i go for the cute boy? or do i keep the coffee shop where i spend an inordinate amount of time?

How it works: Essentially, my reasoning was that if you date your coffee guy (or in college, your bartender) you have to be willing to give up going to the coffeeshop / bar if you break up. This means I had to evaluate which was more important to me -- keeping my coffeeshop or a new boy. In most cases, at least for me, it seemed that the boys who were interesting tended to work at the places i frequented. I attribute this to having more interaction and so I could see their coolness... This lead, in most cases, to me determining that the shop was more important than the boy.

Bear Down Wildcats!

2007-03-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

As many loyal readers know, i LOVE my wildcats. And it's that time of year again. They are playing right now...and I haven't been channeling my love.

Go Wildcats!

back from vacation

2007-03-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

I'm back from a lovely vacation in maui.
Check out my twitter log from that time:http://twitter.com/natala
Kelly's Pictures: http://kellyannthomas.spaces.live.com/
My fuzzy phone pics on flickr.

What did we do in maui?
kayak, swim, surf, suntan, drink, eat (particularly pineapple), more surfing, boy-watching, sunset-watching, mai tais, pina coladas, bike ride, running and more running, grilling, sunrise watching. it was good times.

On another note, i'm in the full swing of triathlon training -- thanks to a great kick-off in maui. I'm about to go out for a run -- and thanks to JB I'm now completely addicted to the gmaps-pedometer. I just mapped the route i typically run from my house to the water view and back. It's 2.8 miles (not long enough!) and the route that I walk cuba every morning (somewhere between .5 and 2 miles depending on how far we go).

I'm absolutely in love with pedomaps! No wi need to map out a 6 mile run to get in tri-shape...

on vacation

2007-02-27T22:49:00.000-08:00

thanks for checking out my blog. i'm on vacation through most of next week in Wailea, Maui. I'll be snorkeling, biking, hiking and of course - spa-ing! I won't be checking e-mail and I probably won't blog (although I will twitter...).

anyways, ma halo!

it's raining, it's pouring...

2007-02-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

As mentioned previously, I'm doing the King's Trail Olympic Distance triathlon in Maui on June 10th. I've been fussing around trying to be focused on getting back into shape and, being goal oriented, i knew a triathlotn would do the trick. Well, I'm now realizing exactly what I've gotten myself into. It is 7:30 AM on a Saturday and it is RAINING and yet here i am getting ready to go on a 20 mile or something bike ride on bainbridge island called "Chilly Hilly" -- who is this person? what am i doing? it's cold. I could be snuggled in bed. where it is warm. and cozy. Instead i'm trying to decide if maybe i really do need toe covers for my bike shoes because my feet might really get that cold. really.

Ok, i've got to go catch the ferry. wish me luck!

holiday cards...

2007-02-15T18:08:00.000-08:00

I usually send out holiday cards for new years...however, the last couple of year's have been busy - travel, work, moving etc. So i decided that this year I just had to send out cards... however I missed the new year holiday ... so this meant i had to send out valentine's day cards! It has been so much fun. In the past, I had designed my own cards -- but i knew that this year I just couldn't do it so I contacted one of my favorite local artists, Todd Karam to see if he could design my card -- and he said yes.

I met Todd at our December ArtReach event -- he also designed the new artReach logo and was one of our December artists. The picture below is of him with one of his pieces that I purchased (the one with the birds on it right next to his shoulder).

Todd was just a dream to work with -- we actually got this card designed with one sample - he just nailed the concept from the get-go. We then did a round of reviews on text and color and things like that. I think it took 3 weeks to go from our first conversation to printed product.

Below is the card he designed (along with some of my notes) -- I absolutely LOVE it - -i think it captured the sentiment of good vibes but not too much romance that I wanted (i mean afterall i am just a little bit of cynic right? i can't be all warm fuzzies! - i must have some edginess -- even if it is wrapped up in morkie cuteness).

So what was the core concept? Well, I wanted "love birds" -- i have just been into birds lately -- three of my new pieces of art have birds on them...! And I wanted something that reflected the northwest -- and had some color and cheer to it. I didn't want a card that was sappy -- it needed to be fun. Todd captured this with a "Northwest rock-and-roll screen print" and wazzam we had a model to go from. We based the front cover text on the Beatles song "All we need is love..." but i was worried it would be sappy...

I really loved the sun setting in the back. Originally it was a darker color but i wanted something brighter and more cheery.

Figuring out the text inside the card was HARD. I have to give mad props to my cousin, Jasmine, who was a huge help sharing her wit and charm to come up with the right text. The addition of chocolate was key.

The back of the card might be my favorite because of the cuba-cut-out. This was all Todd's invention and it is just perfect. Cuba is a 4 lb. dog. She's nothing but ridiculous -- and the cut-out just nailed that silliness.

Ok, i'm in London and it is close to 3 am. I need to sleep! Happy Valentine's Day to all my beloved readers! Email me if you want your own Cuba cut-out!

blackjack

2007-02-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

People! we have entered a new era. The rumours ARE true! I have upgraded and am now off of Sprint and on Cingular with a Windows Mobile BlackJack.

More details to come (you know on thursday, when i blog for reals)...

long tail discussion group + blogging

2007-02-08T22:48:00.000-08:00

Image from: hinchcliffe.org

Last night we met for the long tails DG. I was also supposed to blog! I'm realizing that i can't pack my Thursday's if I want to blog on Thursday OR i have to blog in advance and *post* on Thursday. This has been a good reminder of the value of preparation. I'm going to raise the bar on my Thursday blogs by actually getting them done on Wednesday so i can blog them Thursday. we shall see how this works with my currently hectic schedule of triathlon training, work and socail life (what social life, i know...).

As for Long Tail -- it was interesting - our focus was to think about how to access the long tail. From a search perspective, we often think of the LT as the location where you get long-multi-word queries like [9.5 blue stripe adidas runners] that narrow down to a very specific result. It made me realize that these types of queries are expressions of uniqueness and desire. It's also when people are further down their search path -- they might have started at [shoes] but they now know exactly what they want and if they can find it, they will buy it -- and likely at a premium price. But we also talked about the Long Tail as the function of personalization. Imagine if you went in to the doctor and instead of prescribing a generic drug he took a look at your symptoms, your genetic profile and history and had a custom drug made for you? It would probably be more effective as it was designed specifically with you in mind. The problem here is that today this type of drug-making is prohibitively expensive. This then got us thinking about the economics of plenty - are these conditions required for long tail access? Do the distribution costs have to be minimized to such an extent that distributing along the tail becomes nominal - some sort of up front work to customize for the tail but no additional (or very minimal) cost to support it. This seems to be the case - the industry has to flip from economics of scarcity to those of plenty. Once this occurs, the long tail within that industry becomes accessible.

What do you think?

Also - here's a link to out readings:
http://bluedot.us/users/mndoci?st=tag%3aLongTail

i heart my 1997 honda civic

2007-02-01T23:21:00.000-08:00

In November 1996 I bought (with help from my dad) my first brand new car. A 1997 Honda Civic EX Sedan. Flash-forward 10+ years and here I am with the same car, now with over 175,000 miles! I've been trying to decide what to do with my car lately... as every now and then those shiny new Volvo CX 90's and those Audi A6's just seem damn appealing...

The Pro's:
- it's paid for, the only costs are maintenance (oil changes, new tires and brakes as needed).
- it's mostly fuel efficient. On average about 27 mpg.
- it's silver. i named it firefly.
- it already has a few bumps and scratches so when a new one comes along...
- it has history. roadtrips roadtrips roadtrips.

The Con's:
- no seat warmers
- that little rattling noise in the air conditioning (but i could fix it!)
- it's not "cool" in terms of style but it's "respectable" in terms of value.
- it's not exactly a speed demon (which is probably good as one speeding ticket is enough)

After careful consideration, I've decided to recommit to my car for at least another year. I'm tempted to commit to getting us to 200,000 miles. But right now, I realize i have too many things to figure out beyond my vehicle so i'm just saying, this will work for another year.

Updated: Yes, I meant November 1996...oh how time flies!

ala mid-winter

2007-01-26T00:30:00.000-08:00

My mom was in town last weekend for the American Library Association (ALA) mid-winter conference in Seattle. It was SO MUCH FUN! Primarily because I got to hang out with my mom -- but also because I got to meet all these cool librarians and get a little peak inside of their world and the world of information management. It was fascinating. Librarians are true activists. I was a little surprised by their constant activism -- it seems so natural to them that most didn't notice they were being activists! But every single one I talked to (and granted this was a skewed set as they were hanging out with my mum and she's always been an activist) was up to something to protect their library users' rights to information. They were concerned about censorship, about access to literature in book format or digital format. Across the board people were frustrated by internet laws that were trying to prohibit the content users could access.

There were a number of interesting trends:
(1) The Card Catalog is dead. Just knowing what one is dates you!
(2) Lots of questions around how to validate the source and credibility of online content. Can the internet be a resource of validated, citeable, information? There was a lot of discussion around this process of information validation online -- how do you know the quality of a source?
(3) Book length for kids has increased. This was interesting -- I heard repeatedly that kids are reading longer books post-Harry Potter. Apparently JK rowling's books showed readers that 400+ pages can be interesting!
(4) Science Fiction was huge at the conference. Everyone was talking about how they were expanding their shelf space to accomodate Sci-Fi. Particularly for teen readers. They love Sci-Fi, more so than fantasy.
(5) My Space - I met about 5 librarians who were putting their libraries up on myspace. They told me that their young readers use my space and if they can get them to use the library via my space, they have to be there. Fascinating.

The other fun thing we did? Crash parties. As with any good conference there are also a number of parties to go to! We went to one at the EMP -- the experience music project sponosored by Wiley Publishers. It was fun , I got to walk through a "history of hip hop" exhibit with my mum. The next party we went to was at the top of the space needle. However, it turned out that we had the wrong invite! They let us in anyways (it was supposed to be the Innovative party but instead we were at the Thomson Scientific party). Thomason was completely wonderful and the views from the top of the space needle were great.

All in all, I have to say that hanging out with Librarians was good times. I'd like to do it more often!

Natala

frozen tankini's and some other things about 2007

2007-01-18T23:03:00.000-08:00

I promised to blog on thursday's. I'm going to add to that promise: I won't blog about the weather or my dog on thursdays after today. They are easy back-up posts -- as we all saw, Cuba is incredibly cute and ridiculous ( you should see the videos...) and well, I can talk about the weather for hours. Really. Now mind you, seattle has been having some interesting weather this season...but even so, linking to photos of snow, wind and power outages aren't the best blog fodder.. so on that note, here's my final thursday blog post with a bit on the weather.

So...I decided to do a Triathlon. Not just any triathlon, but an olympic-distance triathlon in Maui at the beginning of June. I'm *so excited*! I've done two sprint tri's before ... but i was honestly not sure I was in the right shape to do an olympic distance triathlon. Which, being a goal-oriented person, meant i had to do it. So I signed up via Team In Training and I start officially training in February. In order to prep, I've been swimming twice a week at the pro club. It's so much fun to be back in the pool. On Monday, I pulled my tankini out of my swim bag. I guess it had been a little bit wet from the last time I had swam. And it has been cold. Very cold. Well. My tankini was now FROZEN! Yep. What's a girl to do but swim in her frozen tankini? I had to shake out frozen bits from my swim cap too. Ah, the fun of training in a non-temperate weather zone.

Triathlon's weren't the only thing I've decided to tackle in 2007. I don't really make new year's resolutions, but i do pick focus areas. So what are my focus areas? Well, one is going to be my diet. I'm not going raw or any of those crazy things, I just want to eat good combinations of mostly organic, whole grain real foods. And lots of avocados. And blueberries. Maybe some papaya. And bacon. Always bacon... I'm also focused on optimizing my living spaces. My house is great. But now I want to tackle the outdoors. I'm going to completely revamp my yard space. I'm soooo excited. Expect at least one post on gardening. Finally, I'm going to launch at least one of my side projects this year. I can't wait. I'm so excited for 2007. So far, it's been awesome. Best year ever!

cuba libre

2007-01-11T23:56:00.000-08:00

So, last June I got a dog. And by dog I really mean a micro-dog. A morkie to be exact. What is a morkie…well, let the Cuba FAQ explain it all!

Cuba?
Yes, that’s her name. We have a history in my family of naming our pets after locations. And she’s small, so a small name seemed appropriate. But she’s tough. So this one really fit. As far as I know, she isn’t a communist…but when she’s bad, I call her Fidel. Boys tend to call her Cuba Libre. Lately I’ve been calling her muffin. My family calls her “the morkie” and my office mate called her the “micro-dog.”

Morkie?
Yes, she’s a morkie. That’s a Maltese – Yorkshire terrier mix. Which means she’s a scruffy little mutt.

How big is she?
Well, she’s small. Really small. When I got her she was barely 2 lbs. She’s since DOUBLED in size since then to almost 4 lbs! She’s pretty much going to stay this size. It’s like she’ll be a puppy forever.

Does she have a job?
Yes. She’s the official morale generator for my team. She loves coming into the office and provides joy and humor for everyone.

What’s it like having a micro-dog?
It’s ridiculous. She has hair – not fur, so she actually gets cold and needs sweaters. She loves to go on long walks – but she’s slow. She sniffs everything. And she doesn’t really walk, she kinda hops and traipses and frolics. She provides constant amusement. And she never really barks or yaps – she’s not that kind of dog. The best part is that because of her size she can travel with me pretty much anywhere. We’ve been to California 4 times already. She loves brizzie. Everything brizzie does, she wants to do. It’s hilarious.

Net-net: she’s awesome. She may be small, but she’s all love and sweetness and a lot of cuteness.

me + weather

2007-01-04T21:50:00.000-08:00

So, sometimes I forget that I now live in Seattle and that it might be raining or possibly *snowing* outside. Like today. I dressed as I would in California in January -- a light sweater, cute skirt and heels. I grabbed a scarf, because well, it is Seattle and out the door I went. 5 minutes later it was *SNOWING*! Yes, really. I had no idea that this could be possible. It didn't even cross my mind. I guess I am still in my Californian mindset that, on average, the weather will be pretty good and I can pretty much wear anything. This is soooo not the case in seattle. *sigh*...by the time I adapt i'll probably be back in CA!

On another note, one of my new year's resolutions is to blog every Thursday. Woohoo. I can blog on other days, of course, but i'm going to commit to Thursdays. Happy reading!

escape to CA

2006-12-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

According to King 5, there are about 500,000 people in the puget sound area still without power. I have found the likely source of my power outage -- a set of downed trees and electrical wires on 3rd Ave. I'll flickr the picture later. It's complete madness. Apparently the east side is a complete mess. Campus may not be open on Monday. People may be without power for 3-5 days more across Putget Sound. I'm powered by Seattle City Light which has some good information on their site about the outage -- and the impact to Seattlites. Like this quote:

"Currently, City Light has approximately 57,188 customers without power, down from a high of 175,000 earlier Friday morning when approximately 50% of our customers were without service. A total of 65 feeders in our above-ground system went off line. Currently, 33 feeders have been restored, or partially restored. Feeders are the lines that bring electricity from substations to neighborhoods. Feeders can carry 2,000 to 4,000 customers each. As City Light works to restore service, be advised that some customers could be without power for as much as 48 - 72 hours.

Restoration of the main distribution lines in the northern and southern parts of our system continues, with the southern end having sustained more damage. As the backbone distribution lines are repaired the utility will shift efforts to restoration of the lateral feeds off the main distribution lines. There is significant lateral feeder work to do on both the northern and southern parts of our system, and lateral damage usually takes longer to repair.

Restoration Priorities (Order of restoring power)
1. Critical Infrastructure – Hospitals, etc.
2. Main distribution backbone (Feeders)
3. Largest Customer Count
4. Longest Duration of outage "

yeah, it's nasty stuff, so....I am escaping to CA for 22 hours on a pre-scheduled trip* to drop off Cuba for a few days and meet up with a slew of family members before we disperse for the holidays. I am sooo looking forward to a warm shower and hot curry. I can only hope that my home will have power restored by the time I return tomorrow.

* yes, this was pre-scheduled so i could get to the next status level on my mileage program.

seattle storms = wind party

2006-12-15T11:04:00.000-08:00

so, we are in the midst of one of the most severe wind / rain storms to hit seattle ever. King 5 is all over the storm. I can't accurately describe the madness. There are trees blown over. There are loose electrical wires. There is rain. About 1 Million people don't have power. I'm one of them. It really has been madness.

It started yesterday, around 2:00 pm. I decided to avoid the traffic madness (some people were in traffic driving from redomd to seattle -- 14 miles -- for 3 hours). and go to a friend's house in redmond. While i was there the lights went out (luckily they have a generator) but then the trees started to fall down so I decided to head home before there was greater havoc and the 520 bridge closed! Yes! They closed the bridge!! Driving across it was pretty eerie. First, it was raining buckets. Second, no one was there! I guess everyone tried to avoid the traffic and went home early so for once i really benefitted from leaving work late. I picked up cuba from Sam and Steve (her god-dog parents). She loves them. Anyways, we camped out in the living room to watch the storm. At about 2 am my power went out (Cuba was pretty excited by this and barked at the lightning). It's almost noon and I'm still without power but my friend and co-worker Jenn has power so I'm over at her place. Cuba is loving it because she can play with Jenn's micro-dog tobey and their cat, Sam. They closed the microsoft campus so we are testing out the impromptu seattle office concept. My co-worker Gabe is at Tully's grabbing internet and power. Apparently they are doing brisk business while the starbucks across the street sits in darkness.

Anyways, i've got to get *some* work done. There's three of us here now - Jen, Leslee and me -- plus the menagerie. It's pretty cozy.

Here are some links to other bloggers chiming in on the seattle madness:
Impromptu Three Day Weekend - That Kid in the Corner
Windpocalypse 2006: The Aftermath - Seattle Metroblogging
The Morning after the storm - Phil Holden
Crazy Seattle Windstorm - Jasmine Park (A Clean Well-lighted space).

Update: They are now saying that it might snow.

Update2: Some pictures (via King 5):

snap!

2006-12-15T00:06:00.000-08:00

I just added snap previews to my blog. Now when you hover over a link you'll get a preview of the web page that the link will take you to. I love these! Here are some links to enjoy!

cuteness
vitamins
snowflakes

it's december already?

2006-12-03T12:17:00.000-08:00

how did that happen? Things have been crazy!!! Let's see:
- i got a micro-dog (look for an upcoming blog post titled the Cuba FAQ). She's awesome.
- i've been travelling like crazy: DC, NYC, CA, Vegas and more vegas...
- i hosted my entire family and then some (14 poeple and 3 dogs!) for thanksgiving. it was awesome. I learned a lot. My family is pretty cool.

I'm now sick with what seems to be my annual winter cold. I actually can't talk -- which is pretty hillarious for those who know me. My cousin is here and she finds it funny. I'm passing her notecards. yep.

Ok, we're off to brunch. I promise to blog soon!

green bellies

2006-10-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

ok, sooooo way back in August I went to guatemala to visit JB. It was a BLAST!!! Ever since then i've been meaning (and promising) to blog about our trip...and so finally, here I am.

Highlights:
- RUINS!!! There are ruins all over antigua. It's amazing. This one church had a main section with three domes, each dome top was gone but had been covered by tarp. There was something romantic and broken about the whole scene.
- VOLCANOES!!! Antigua is surrounded by them -- which was pretty cool. But what was absolutely fantastic was Lago Atitlan - which is a wonderful lake ringed by three volcanoes. I could see them from my bedroom window. It was uber neat.
- LIGHTNING! Phenomenal. On our first night at the little resort we stayed at on Lago Atitlan we hung out on the porch talking, telling pirate jokes (yarr!) and watching the lightning. It was soo relaxing. Our second night we hung out in the outdoor hot tub (literally a pool with a heating stove in the middle). When the lightning got 10 counts away JB made us come in. Something about water + electricity = bad...
- AMEX RULE. This was key. The water in Central America just isn't that good, which typically means no fresh fruit or salads. However, JB decided that any restaurant that accepts American Express credit cards is probably going to serve water/foods that are american tummy safe. So far, it's proved to be a good rule!
- TV. Tela Novella's are a riot. Really too much fun! Camerone. Caliente. Corazon.
- JB = Jote-Be. This was probably my favorite new thing. His name in Spanish is "Jote-Be" (Hota-bay). It's hilarious to me.
- HOTELS -- ok, we stayed in two awesome hotels. In antigua, Panza Verde. This hotel was just gorgeous. The food was delicious. The atmosphere was cool. Buena Vista Social Club plays there on Thursday and Friday nights. Sweet. At the lake we stayed at La Casa Del Mundo. To get there you have to take a boat. We had grand plans of kayaking, visiting the other towns on the lake and relaxing by the water on one of the terraces. The last one was pretty much all we did. The sunrise and sunsets were just amazing.

Check out the rest of the pictures:
Antigua
Lago Atitlan

P.S. Thank you JB for kicking-off birth-month celebrations (in september!!) with the wodnerful cube-photo-gift!! and congrats on running your 1/2 marathon today. You ROCK.
P.P.S. Why green bellies?? Avocados!! Yummy. yummy. yummy. Legend says the guatemalan's have green bellies from eating so many.

vacation!

2006-08-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

i'm going on vacation. yes! vacation. I plan to be offline at this cool little resort in central america where all we'll get to do is kayak, read, suntan, play pool and enjoy a fruity cocktail or two. i can't wait...now let's just hope airport security keeps it sane.

While i'm gone, check out these cool pics:

Click the bear to see what happen's next!

2006-08-08T00:06:00.000-07:00

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

A while back I posted the original OK Go video...well here's their latest video -- and this time they rock it on treadmills. gotta love it! Now go watch.

iTunes - Features please!!!

2006-07-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

SEARCH
- ability to search for a song and find it not only in my library but also in any mix i have created. Seriously the search in tunes sucks! i should be able to build a search query "artist = legend" "song=people" and it should say "are you looking for John Legend - Ordinary People?" I should be able to find songs I own by typing in a snippet of the lyrics. I should have lyric search *integrated* into my music experience.

COMMUNITY
- sometimes i find an imix by a user i really like. often i'll click and see what other imixes they have made. often i buy ALL their imixes! really! But you know what i can't do? Select a user as a favorite and then get an alert whenever that user makes a new imix. i really don't get this!! it seems like such a great feature that would totally lead to more buying from me.
I'm just asking for the ability to track users or select "influencers" and buy from them! Maybe they should get an influencer rev-share or something...
The other thing I'd love is recommendations based upon what I'm listening to or my friends are listening to. Seriously. They need Last.Fm.

PURCHASES
Give me a discount if i've already bought a song on an album from you. When you tell me that I've already purchased part of an album -- tell me what I already have!

There's more. but that's all my rant can capture *right now*

(note - original rant was on 5/9/06 ...but time stamp is from when i actually posted it to my blog)

P.S. And please don't tell me they are coming zune...

Update: DC reminded me last night of another feature request: The ability to link to songs in iTunes. I want to find a song and then put a link to that song on my blog or send it to a friend or have my away messagee in iChat or Jabber or Gtalk link to the song in iTunes. Again, this seems like a good way to drive purchases...and community referrals. There is a way to do this today, but its complex and not cut & paste. I want cut & paste links dammit.

personal responsibility

2006-07-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

I've recently been thinking a lot about personal responsibility -- and trying to define for myself what it means to me, where I have control in my life and where i truly lack control or impact. This has been an interesting and at times intense exercise -- and the results of my analysis have shown that pretty much I'm responsible for it all. :) That's both the good news and the bad news. It's the good news because I'm pretty proud of a lot of my accomplishments to date -- I've worked for some amazing companies, done great work, built cool things. Personally, I'm extremely lucky to be so well-loved -- I have incredible friends and family and i'm surrounded by special, unique and not-so-unique people who bring joy, intellectual challenge and love into my life daily. I've also got a great home and enough material possessions to never want again. Although, shamelessly, I do.

These are the upsides. The downside is that i have to own my failures, my distractions, my bad decisions. And that's been where the thinking and analysis began. I think we all struggle with life, with achieving our goals. I'm at point lately where a lot of things that I had wanted to accomplish, I've done. Travel the world? Well, it's always going to be a work in progress (I still have to go to Africa and Antartica!!!) but i've traisped across chunks of it. Buy a home? Done that. Get my dream job? Yep. Be in love? Yes and awww. Then there all of the things I didn't plan for, that have caused me unneeded pain. Making bad choices at work or in relationships, not being focused and generally living my life on a chaotic edge of cyclical successes and failures. It's been like a roller coaster. Which has been exciting, but not always satisfying, and the down bits have caused the high's of the up-bits to feel extreme at times. These days I'm aiming for more balance, and that's brought me to thinking about personal responsibility. I think i've been scapegoating the fact that I own my destiny. That there may be no such thing as destiny --- and whether there is or isn't, doesn't matter. It's fundamentally up to me to make good choices, and correct the bad ones -- not just by taking ownership of their negativity, but by correcting them by changing course. This has been hard, because, well, a change in direction usually requires some sort of idea on where you want to go and be...

anyways, that's what's on my mind. right now. so i'm going to be responsible. That's my 2006 theme. It's a mid-year NYE resolution. I promise.

Truth or Dare - quick recap

2006-07-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

2006-7 Board: Ruthie, Phil, Natala (Me), Steve, Sam, Jason

On Tuesday night we held our first ArtReach Seattle event with the new board. It was a total blast!!! Over 200 people came to the event and our wonderful artists sold many, many pieces. I'm really proud to be a part of such an interesting and fun organization. Pictures from the event are here.

Learn more about artreach here: http://www.artreachseattle.org

pirates of the caribbean....

2006-07-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

Don't go!
We went to a special preview of this movie last night...i was pysched. Really. I loved the first movie, think Johnny Depp in all forms is hot and enjoy Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly as well...however this movie wasn't worth it. Seriously, it ends up being a 2+ hour *trailer* for the next movie! As a result, the story was incomplete -- no component has resolution and the ending is a cliffhanger meant to get you excited for movie #3. Blech.

Of course, I'll go see #3....but this movie you can seriously skip.

stars are blind.

2006-06-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

ok. i'll admit. this song is catchy. even if it is by Paris Hilton of Heiress Records. Seriously, we're all going to be humming this tune at the beach. And when they remix it for the dance version, yep, we're going to shake our booty to this tune at da club. You heard it heir first.

Here's a link to the official site: "Stars are blind"

Updated with additional wittiness courtesy of Matt.

truth or dare: call for artists...

2006-06-14T23:48:00.000-07:00

This spring I joined the board of ArtReach Seattle, a non-profit project of the Shunpike. It's a great organization and, in order to engage our primary audience of young professionals, we showcase art in a social atmosphere combined with a one-night art show. Our primary goal is to increase demand for high-quality, original art by making it more approachable (aka affordable). As a result a key tenet of our shows (outside of a fabulous party with a rockin DJ) is to have a chunk of the art available for under $200.

We are having our next show on July 22nd at the See Sound Lounge. It's going to be a blast. The theme is "truth or dare" and it promises to be a daring evening complete with signature cocktails and truth or dare challenges...If you are in Seattle on the 22nd, you have to come!

Right now we are seeking artists to participate in the show. If you are interested, check out the call for artists on our website -- or send me a note via the comments link below.

Seattle Startups...

2006-05-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

I went to the the TechCrunch Seattle party last night. It was sooo much fun. Seattle has a great and growing startup community. Highlights below...

First, I got to chat with Michael Arrington -- and he remembered me from Mix06! That was a party highlight, now i need to follow-up with that e-mail on our demos :)

I ran into a ton of people I met at MindCamp 2.0. I'm so glad that I went to mindcamp -- even though I'm not a coder, the people I met were great and they are doing really interesting things. One of the sessions I went to (at mindcamp - back to the party in a second) was about building a startup - led by the folks from BillMonk.com...Gaurav has since become one of my favorite people. My big take away from that session was that keeping your startup concept secret isn't worth it. Their point was that if you are working on it and passionate, sharing the idea will get you feedback and ideas -- and in reality people can't just steal your idea. You're working on the execution and others typically have interest but aren't motivated enough or driven by the depths of the passion you have in your idea to drive it. Net-Net: Super secret startups should be a thing of the past. I saw that reflected last night. People were excited to talk about what they were working on, and wanted to share ideas and think about how to tackle the big problems (genetic algorithms anyone?)

Some Cool Seattle Startups:
billmonk.com - remeber to pay your friends back. They are targeting college students and have figured out that early adopter techy people aren't their target market. :) Gaurav promises that cool schwag is on its way (will they follow the trend and have their t-shirts printed on american apparel?). Perhaps it will find its way into the next valleyschwag?
farecast - they are still in private beta, but from what i can tell it looks like a neat concept - basically you put in information on a flight you'd like to purchase today and it forecasts whether the price is likely to go up or down tomorrow/next week -- so you can purchase when it is at the lowest price. I only got to play with it for a minute, but i'm hoping it has time specifity built in because the probability of a flight on Friday night from Seatac to SFO going up is likely (since they sell out), but the mid-day flights are probably likely to stay the same. So the day-time relationship is key.
wishlisting.com - wishlists that build upon individual asks and mass user data to predict gifting (i think). hmm. Sounded like wishlist.com. Personally, i still like the amazon wishlist function. Not that anyone buys from my very outdated wishlist! If they can get the predictability stuff done that would be cool -- it would be great to say "i need a gift for my best friend - she's 29, a mom and likes gadgets - what do you recommend?" And then they'd find cool stuff for me to get her given her demographic. Right now i just browse mightygoods and bookmark any possibly cool item that maggie finds.

redfin.com - they sponsored the party - thanks for the pizza and hefeweizen! Redfin is also about figuring out ways to sell your house leveraging online marketing. They charge 1% (as opposed to 3%) of the cost or a flat $2K fee depending on the services you want (i think).The idea is neat here, but i'm still not sure how the costs work out...They also just launched in the SF Bay Area housing market...so i'm gonna watch that...definitely filing them under my "this could be useful soon category"

What would a dot.com 2.0 party be without competition? Zillow.com was there in full-force. I still love how they price my house and their tools are so easy to use.

Of course there were loads of microsoft people - from vista, from live (did you know live is evil backwards? kinda funny right? i don't know how i missed that. we should so have a LIVEEVIL t-shirt.) And a smattering of Amazon peeps and I think one Google person (where are the google people? they must be coding their beta software ;-)

I also got to hang with Chris Pirillo. I love chris - he's so passionate and I think he's convinced me to go to Gnomedex. He's pretty frustrated with the lack of "fit & finish" in Vista right now... and to see him provide live feedback to the members of the vista team was great. Fit & Finish is one of the things we've really got to focus on at MS, definitely one of my frustrations. Lately I think the challenge is around converting "data and function" into "information and utility" ... more on that to come ...

The only downside to the party was the heat in the room. It was steamy hot. And not in a good way.

Flickr pics are here.

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Lustig!!

2006-05-18T13:38:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I was home in CA for my friend Chris' wedding to the beautiful Alyse. It was AWESOME. First, chris is one of my all time favorite people - witty, charming and sarcastic as all hell. But you have to listen in order to get the jokes. He's that kind of funny. If you aren't paying attention you could miss the magic. Sad for you.

So the wedding...OMG. Such Fun. Highlights below.

Dancing:

The really good pictures are in a password protected gallery. sorry. but you can imagine the arms above the head rocking can't you?

Reconnecting with trouble-making friends:

Y&G may just live forever. Chip for Chaplain. You heard it here first. last. well a long time ago.

Seeing the boys continue to be boys:

Check out this picture of them from the 90's when they were young and pretending to be innocent: Boys @ the H20 Temple

Sean being sean:

He's so suave. He changed his tux. Yes, the jacket is velvet. A little gem he picked up in Paris. Really. You can't make this stuff up.

Check out the "public" gallery for more fun:
Chris & Alyse's Wedding

lastWEEKthisWEEK

2006-05-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

So, big news last week was that we launched the product i've been working on since I started at Microsoft:

Microsoft adCenter - go check it out and sign up!

It's been an interesting, winding, fun, inspiring road getting this product shipped...and to hear the team that's been on the product for the entire cycle reminisce about the original scrap of paper that started this project has been pretty fun. It's an important milestone for us, and I'm really proud of the work that the teams have done to launch! Now we jump into the next phase - continuing to respond to user needs, improving the product and delivering on our promise of next generation advertising. If you've got an idea, a gripe or just something you want to share about the product -- let us know. We're listening -- user feedback is an important part of our development process. You can get the lastest news on our team blog: adCenter411

Onto other news...I'm going to be back in California this week (starting weds) for a friend's wedding. I can't wait!!! Chris is marrying his sweetheart Alyse. awwww. I remember when we met Alyse in, of all glamourous places, Bakersfield, CA for a Youth & Government conference. Sometimes my wingette skills have a lasting result!

Plans for my trip are somewhat indeterminate at this point (i know! where have my over-planning skills gone?) but it looks like i'll be going to Lunch 2.0 , stopping by the plex on weds night, a benefit on Thursday night and likely in SF on Friday night. Yes, i'll be at the spa on Friday.... Ping me if you'd like to participate in some calendar magic.

other notes & favorites:
- the weather is great lately. seattle can be so pretty. I am wearing my all time favorite outfit -- sleeves rolled up on plaid button-down shirt (blue and grey), jeans, and my reef black flip flops. hair is twisted up. comfort is key.

- i've been listening to lots of new music - some of my faves:
Wraith pinned to the mist and other games - The sunlandic twins -- this song is on repeat! "let’s pretend we’re in Antartica"
Gotta Have you - The Weepies - i love the bridge in this song "no amount of coffee, no amount of whiskey..."
Could be Anything - The Eames Era - yes, it could be anything
Je Reviens - Autour De Lucie - love me some frenchy
All of these things that I have done - the Killers -- i never, ever get sick of this song. "i've got a soul, but i'm not a solider"
sascha - jolie holland -- you have to appreciate a folk song with a waltz beat. seriously.

home for 18 days!

2006-04-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

It is so good to be home - esp. with all this sunshine! The above picture is from one of the nights out in DC, at the beginning of the trip (ok so not the best picture of JB...). I still need to upload pics from this weekend. I'm very happy to be homeand I intend to blog about it all... dinner with old friends in DC, easter brunch at the Smith's, the WMW conference, an amazing baseball game at Fenway, catching up with friends in Boston and then the weekend in Chicago with my best friend. awww. i miss everyone already!

but for now, sleep calls.

through rain and snow...

2006-04-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Did you know you can have your mail held at the post office? Yep, they just stop delivering it for you for a certain period of time. Last year I created an account on USPS.com in order to buy some stamps...and lately i've been travelling a ton...and the mail just piles up. It's horrible. Well, today I finally went to check and see if I could have my mail held via an online form... And i can! And you can do it anytime online and it can start as early as tomorrow! It was sooo easy - login, select "hold mail" fill out the *start* and *end* dates and voila! your mail is held and delivered when you want. This may become my new favorite free service.

update: adding the USPS unofficial moto:
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

mindcamp

2006-04-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

well, it's official. i've decided to go to mindcamp 2.0.

What is it? I'm not quite sure, but after a couple of people suggested it, and I read this description, “It’s an overnight party-time fun-house for smarty-pants types.” How could i resist?

If you are planning to go, lmk.

dining room v3

2006-04-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my mum's visit, I finally bought a dining room table. I liked the japanese style floor seating i've had for the last year...but i really just needed a table to do projects on and, well, to eat with guests ... after much seeking and long debates over the correct size (i wanted 6 feet, one long smooth topped trestle table) and shape (round or square or rectangle) we finally decided to just buy a dang table. My biggest concern was getting a table that was too big and wouldn't fit into a smaller house should I ever have to downsize (aka move back to CA). We went to the antique store (this store is amazing -- 3 floors of wonderful stuff, hundreds of chairs, tables, buffets, thing-a-ma-bobbers) and tested out 5 tables and finally settled on a classic 3 foot square table with two 1 foot leaves (so 5 x 3) oak table. It has jacobian swirly legs that match the table from JB's mom. I still feel that it is a little bit smaller then i wanted, but i am really loving the practicality of it. What I really love are the chairs that we got to go with the table. They are "coordinated" (aka not matching) chairs in an art deco-ish style. Also oak, with these little circles on the top -- i love them. Plust they are sooo comfy.

Three phases of my dining room:
Empty:

v2:

v3:

(yes, i'll update with a picture that includes the arch.)

one shining moment - 2006

2006-04-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to the 2006 video on You Tube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WAtX7PuNjpg

Also - just want to give a shout out to George Mason. They were amazing during the tourney and deserve lots of props.

Photo: CBS Sportsline

numbers

2006-04-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

I like numbers...palindromes, you name it. In the morning I typically set my alarm to 6:33 am or 7:07 AM. This wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning it will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06

how cool is that? Thanks to Feld and 2-Speed for the tip.

one shining moment

2006-04-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

The ball is tipped
and there you are
you're running for your life
you're a shooting star ....

Tonight was the last night of the tourney (the Gators won btw)...and I just watched my favorite sporting tradition -- The One Shining Moment Video Montage at the end of the Tourney. I swear it brings tears to my eyes.

Here's a link to the 2005 Montage on You Tube -- check it out:

Lyrics can be found here.

Of some note, I started blogging just over three years ago, right after Google acquired Blogger, when I was convinced by Evan and the Jason's that blogging was where it was at...My first post was about my beloved Wildcats and the NCAA tournament: http://natala.blogspot.com/2003/03/wildcats-wildcats-wildcats.html

family wisdom

2006-04-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

My uncle eric has been sending me little ericisms...spots of wisdom that are both slightly cheesy and super helpful. Yesterday he told me "If you aren't living on the edge, then you are taking up too much space!" and today he sent me this list from General Colin Powell:

13 Rules:

1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone
else make yours.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

funicular

2006-03-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

5 days in mexico can restore your soul.

How?
- good margarita's
- boca bento -- yes, that's asian-latin fusion
- sunshine sunshine sunshine
- boat rides on blue ocean water with fishies and pelicans
- great friends (thank you alexia, kathy, laurel, dulcy and gavin)
- IM's with mum and sheils and jb
- a pink & green funicular transport thing to take us to our mountain villa
- crazy taxi drivers taking us back and forth from the pool to dinner
- watching the NCAA tournament with Spanish commentary

Before I went to mexico I had been caught in a wind tunnel. I truly couldn't see top from bottom. My heart was broken from my recent breakup. I had pretty much flipped out from the pain and intensity of it all. I had lost my sense of self. In mexico, thanks to all that sunshine, I was able to get recentered and forgive myself. I figured out that it is irrelevent if you forgive the other person or if they forgive you -- if you can't honor yourself. We've all got demons to slay, and I feel like i was finally able to slay a couple of mine. Breakups are hard things, and as this was with someone I had fallen in love with, I took it hard. But I'm ok, and next time I'll be that much better...in fact next time, I'm going to immediately hop a plane to France (where I at least speak the language) for my R&R. :)

gada be

2006-03-21T03:40:00.000-08:00

ooooh - robert scoble pointed me to this cool search tool (taggregator): Gada.be!

Check out the results for Mix06:
http://gada.be/d/mix06

britney spears + kevin federline !!!

2006-03-20T21:37:00.000-08:00

**breaking news**

Just got back from a fabu dinner at Valentino at the Venetian. Fabu because the food was great, the wine amazing and i saw Britney Spears + Kevin Federline!! No kidding.

Here's the scoop:
- In walks this guy with a not-so-recently shaved face, loose jeans, half-smile and that direct, "yeah, I know you want me" (but you don't) swagger.
- My table mates and I are in the midst of a fascinating discussion about religion, but i'm looking at this guy going, who is it? who is it? and then it hits me!! Kevin Federline. And i start to wonder, who's he with???
- Then he passes and right behind him is BRITNEY!! She looked so cute. Her hair a mass of short golden curls, she's smiling and happy, and she's got that life is good swagger going on. She was wearing a fitted brown sweater, tight jeans, makeup and hair that had to be done by stylist.
- They were followed by a bodyguard who took them to a private dining room and then left. Awww -- looks like they were having a romantic dinner.

Net-Net: Clearly they are together, figuring it out, "staying in the room" as my sis likes to say and enjoying each other. Good deal.

And did I mention that britney looked great?? She did!!!

getting into the mix

2006-03-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

I'm at Mix06 this week...

What is Mix06?
"a 72 hour conversation with Microsoft"....but what does that mean you ask?
- Demos like crazy
- softies around to answer your questions and listen to your ideas
- information on our product lines that impact your web experience -- Atlas, IE etc.
- developer centric, with access to tools for you to demo, test and experience
- msft's version of web 2.0
- fun, fun, fun

Check out photos from mix06 on Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/mix06/

Or the latest news on Technorati:
http://technorati.com/search/mix06

or attend virtually @ virtual mix:
http://blog.mix06.com/virtualmix/

how sweet it is!

2006-03-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

Photos: Associated Press

Bradley! Bradley! Bradley!! George Mason!

There's our cinderella story. Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.

win or lose, it's how you play the game

2006-03-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

(Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)

So, of course i'm sad that Arizona lost. But they played well, more together then they had been all year, and it was a great game! They were super scrappy, and i love scrappy. Hassan. Mustafa. Marcus! And he's only a freshman!!

mad love to the wildcats. mad love. and I can't wait to watch them play next year. Next year, they are gonna be tough.

congratulations wade and alexia!

2006-03-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

Two of my favorite people just got engaged -- and I can't be happier for them!! Relationships like theirs -- where there is so much fun, companionship and love -- truly make me believe in the wonder of the world. Congrats Wade & Alexia (.com ;) -- wishing you all the best!!

5-12

2006-03-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

Photos courtesy of CBS Sportsline.

There's nothing quite like the first day of the NCAA tournament. No matter how distracted I am, no matter what else is going on, when the tournament begins...there's a smile on my face. In the past I've worked from home on the 1st Thursday & Friday of the tourney -- i mean 32 games over two days??? Pure beautiful delicious goodness. Today, I tracked the games when I could via CBS Sportline and it has been fabulous:
- Boston College winning (woohooo! JB's screaming eagles!) in double overtime? Oh my.
- The classic 5-12 matchup loss with Nevada losing to Montana. I mean really, MT over NV. uh huh. you betcha.
- and those Vols! TN came through, but it was rough...
- Zig! Zag -- comes back in the last two minutes to WIN over Xavier -- phew! I'm sure there were a lot of relieved sighs on that victory...i know my bracket needed it!
- UCLA holding up the Pac-10 pride with a crushing victory over Belmont. Yes, Belmont? Who are they? Same folks who play with Southern is my guess ;-)

It's almost 7:00...and i've got to run to dinner and then a slumber party...but there's still the Washington game to see and the Duke game...it's gonna be a good, good night...and tomorrow it starts with another 16 games including my beloved wildcats at 9:30 AM PST. BearDown Wildcats, BearDown! and of course, mad love to the Golden Bears. Grrr!

it is that time of year...

2006-03-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

MARCH MADNESS!!!

24 hours!!

sweet.

JB is trying to convince me that JJ Redick is hot, but well, he's a duke player...and you'all know how i feel about duke...

Photo Credit: nbadraft.net profiles

mad love to lute and the wildcats of course:

Photo Credit: Arizona Wildcat Online

Courtesy: Associated Press

Courtsey ESPN

friends rock

2006-03-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

i have come to realize that friends (and family) are the most precious asset. and that, quite frankly, my friends rock. thank you.

natala

Lent Day 2: Bacon & Snow

2006-03-02T07:20:00.000-08:00

Bacon is soo good! I am having yogurt + berries + side of bacon for breakfast. Yumm.

Also it is SNOWING in NYC! SNOW! I'm on the 23rd floor and i woke up to snow flurries. Sooooo cool.

Lent Day 1.5: music & vino

2006-03-02T06:52:00.000-08:00

Last night I met up with my friend Baratunde for dinner and a show -- his girlfriend Mieka Pauley was playing at Joe's Pub with Brendan James. Baratunde and I met about 8 years ago at a Philosophy Camp at Rutgers. Yes, I am that geeky. Anyways, we've kept up over the years and finally got to hang out again ** 8 years later **! It was a blast. He's such good people. He is also funny people. Seriously - i highly recommend checking him out on YouTube or his podcasts on iTunes...(find it all at baratunde.com)

The show was amazing! Mieka is awesome. Seriously everyone, Listen to her! She has a soulful voice that's both enchanting and fun. I personally thought she was better then Brendan James -- who also has this amazing voice -- but his songs were too romantic and sad for me.

Speaking of sad romance, I made an amendment to my lent committments: I'm allowed to have red wine.

Lent Day 1: are pretzels bread?

2006-03-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

I am now fully in the swing of lent. Except that I'm at Search Conference which provides us with not-so-delicious lunches. The lunch consisted of turkey sandwiches, pretzels and a brownie. I ate the turkey and cheese not the BREAD. But i toyed with the pretzels. Are they bread? Are they on the list? Off the list? I decided to have a couple. Then i started to think -- if i were buying one of those warm pretzels -- i would totally identify them as bread! these little hard pretzels -- duh! they are just stale bread. So to clarify for myself. YES! Pretzels are bread! So they are on the "off" list.

lent

2006-02-26T20:32:00.000-08:00

I am committed to giving up the following for Lent:

1 - no drinking: no wine. no beer. no cosmos.
2 - no desserts: no cookies, no chocolate, none of that yummy gooey sweetness.

may the lord help me!

Update 2/27/06:
Julie and I went to dinner at Five Points - and met this lovely older man who eats out in NYC every night! We asked him how he does it and he said:
- no rice
- no potato
- no bread

So, in that spirit, i'm adding these three items to my "given up for Lent" list.

happy 85th grandma!

2006-02-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

My grandmother turned 85 today! and she's still cooking up trouble! My sister and i both sent her birthday greetings (well my sis sent her's first and reminded me to send mine!). Here's the screen captures:
#1 - Sheila (pic via isight?)

#2 - Me (sent via MSN Messenger, i went the full video interactive route -- to which my grandma said "oh but sheila sent me a picture" and i said "but i'm talking to you LIVE!")

Since my mom is the big blogger these days...you should probably check out her blog for the updates:
joychase.blogspot.com (aka moi and mine)...

note: <-- picture not taken by ichat removed 2/7/06 per comment below, and re-posted w/ permision per eml and updated as possibly from isight-->

silverscreen

2006-01-10T01:31:00.000-08:00

so, i'm really behind on my blogging and internet going's on and my bloglines feeds because i've been on vacation (and yes i do intend to back-blog the details of my trip)...but i've just discovered Nordstrom's Silverscreen (that the rest of the blogosphere discovered about 35 days ago).

So here's the deal -- nordstrom's silverscreen is going to release a new remixed 80's video EVERY month for the next 12 months. and the video's are good!

check it out:
Culture Club - I'll tumble 4 ya
Go-Go's - Our lips are sealed

The hitch? The video's are remixed with a fashion show of clothes you can actually BUY. I'm serious, i think this is great. I mean, so many video's are a fashion show of clothes you *can't* ever dream of owning.

So, net-net...I'm totally into this.

On another random note -- isn't this the worst outfit ever?
amber tamblyn

Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com --> eonline.com Fashion Police

taxi + bus + boat + taxi = beach

2005-12-27T18:56:00.000-08:00

We are finally on the beach in Koh Phangan!! It is lovely, although the rainy season is still trailing a little bit so the water isn't perfectly clear...but the weather is warm and there's nothing to do but beach relaxation...

It was, however, an adventure to get here from bangkok:
- 2 hour taxi ride in HORRIBLE bangkok traffic. We are lucky we didn't get the train tickets we wanted because we surely would have missed our train and been stuck in bangkok. Since we took a bus, they waited for us! Very very nice of them.
- 11 hours bus ride. This was hard. The seats were uncomfortable and the most comfy ones were downstairs but they smelled like diesel! so they just weren't manageable. The bus had one stop at a series of markets in the middle of nowhere. I got a snack of watermelon which was perfectly refreshing at midnight.
- 2 hour wait at the river dock. At this point i was cranky from the contorted sleeping and missing my bed back home deeply. I don't miss the beds at the Shangri-La, or Le Meredien or the Davis because frankly beds in Thailand are hard and low to the ground and i much prefer my high, soft bed.
- 3 hour boat ride to Koh Samui and then to Koh Phangan. The boat ride was really quite nice.
- 45 minute taxi ride across the island to get to Thong Nai Pan Beach. This was a fun taxi - it was an open bed truck. We sat in the back. It started to pour! we got sooo wet. We moved inside the cab. Which was a good move because the ride was very bumpy.

After all of this, we arrived to our nice, very rustic, beach bungalows. We are literally on the beach! Yesterday we walked around, got in the water and ate delicious meals. Today I think we are going to kayak and I am definitely going to get my first Thai massage.

i will eventually post pictures of all of this to flickr...

happy christmas!

2005-12-24T18:02:00.000-08:00

Another christmas, another year of wonderful adventures. Here's wishing you all of the best. I'm in Thailand now (great shopping in bangkok let me tell you) and lots of fun chaos as all of us (jasmine, joslyn and sheils) have arrived....adventures to be tracked online soon...

ads in gmail...

2005-12-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

so i've been noticing lately that the ads in gmail are getting really good -- and by good i mean useful, relevant and things i just want to click on for more information.

This may in part be to seasonality - right now a lot of my e-mails deal with shopping (gifts for the holidays, my mother's birthday) and travel (i'm going to thailand and my sister and I are writing back and forth about where to stay and what to do)....

The other thing I've noticed is that the number of ads changes. Sometimes I get 3, sometimes 4, sometimes 3 on the rail and one in the web-clip. Sometimes I get a search link. Sometimes not. Hmm. Those google kids are definitely getting crafty!

There are of course those really, really irrelevent links...like the link to buy sushi at Target:
Sushi
Sushi online Shop Target.com
www.Target.com

Sushi? at Target? I love target but not for fresh fish.

I'm curious, are others finding the links to be better? More useful?

snow!!

2005-12-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

It is snowing *right now* in seattle/redmond/washington. YEAH!!! SNOW!!!!

big puffy wet sticky lovely snowflakes.

I am totally delighted. I've been IMing people all day to let them know. Most of them are in CA and their response has been pretty much the same: "it's raining here!" "no, it's raining!!!" " We are getting rain." "lucky lucky It's just raining out here."

apparently, it is raining in SF. but it is SNOWING! in seattle! w00t!

home (in CA) for 39 hours

2005-11-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

i'm in the midst of a travel whirl...LAX-SFO-SEA-ORD-SEA-LVS-SEA-SFO-SEA... and I just got to my mum's house in Mountain View. There is something so special and wonderful about coming home that reminds me that (a) I am so very much a californian at heart and (b) that i love my mum's home.

Perhaps it is that I walk into the house and get covered in enthusiastic kisses from the world's best dog -- Brizzie -- and then get treated with vague indifferency by MY cat (tuvi). But i think it is more the comfort and that special feeling of being somewhere so familiar, so loved that reminds me how good life is and just how lucky I am. Plus, I just love my mum's house -- there's always something new (they are constantly remodeling and changing things about) and yet the place is always the same to me. There's never food in the fridge that I would choose to eat, yet there are always yummy leftovers to nibble on. The plants are always alive and thriving and getting special mum-care. The computer always has a new virus that needs to be dealt with. Walking down the great hall I see memories, friends and family. It makes me all warm inside. Even though I am home for such a brief time, and with a packed schedule, i feel rested just being here. awwww.

new wheels!

2005-10-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

I finally got new tires. These have been a long time coming...in fact, i have to say ... perhaps too long.

Mike and I went to costco to buy them as I had been hearing about how price efficient they are and at this point i just *needed* new tires. This is the third set of new tires I've bought for my car -- I have about 160,000 miles on my very trusty Honda -- and i decided that this time I wasn't going to go all zany trying to find the best tires for the price. I've done that before, and from what i can tell, tires are pretty much tires - if you buy good ones and rotate them regularly. All i wanted was a nice all-weather, rain-handling set of wheels. I ended up with Michelin, since they had a deal.

While costco installed my tires, mike and i shopped at costco. Oh my. We spent about 2 hours going religiously through every aisle. We looked at everything..."oooh, a new dyson!" "oooh, candy for halloween" "ooooh, 500 bajillion onions for a $1." Mike had also mentioned that we were going to eat lunch at costco. I was skeptical. I mean who goes to costco to eat food? Wow, was I wrong. Clearly everyone there is there for the food samples. On every aisle, in every nook, in every section there are people handing out food of all types and varities. Cheesy gooey things. Toasted things. Blended things. It was too much. The only thing they weren't handing out was water. Which is exactly what you need when you are snacking on an assortment of salty Costco samples.

When we were finally done I went to get my car so we could load it up with all our goodies. My tires looked so nice and shiny! Except for one thing. Green Caps! Costco fills their tires with Nitrogen. Which is apparently better than air -- more fuel efficiency and the pressure is more stable and longer lasting. (Read more about it here) All of this is great, but green caps on my wheels? on my silver car? no no no. Costco was nice and gave me replacement black caps. Me along with another couple who didn't want green caps. They use these caps to identify that the tires are filled with nitrogen. I asked if this was a safety issue and they said no, so i switched. It seems that most people switch. Maybe they should have a green stripe on a black cap instead of a green cap? As no one seems to like the green caps. We are really a fashion conscious people. ha!

jb in da house!

2005-10-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

My very good friend JB is visiting from Washington DC for the weekend. We've known each other for almost 15 years and he's not only one of my favorite people, but one of the best wine drinkers and chefs i know. Right now he's prepping for our dinner -- halibut with some sort of walnut olive tapenade, fingerling potatoes and yummy brussel sprouts -- with BACON! i love bacon! It is so wonderful to have him here visiting.

Also, it is his birthday today! wooohooo! Happy Birthday JB! Get back in the kitchen! (don't worry -- he is getting spoiled, i'm taking him to Zoe tomorrow night for a celbratory dinner).

Adding a picture of us at Zoe on Sunday. We had such fun! and He loved the restaurant :)

lost

2005-09-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

for some horrible reason my comcast dvr did not tape tonight's episode of Lost. I'm totally devasted. seriously. do i read the forums? do i try and download it? i just don't know. :(

almost off the grid...

2005-09-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

something wierd is happening with my internet. I can't access my gmail account AND i can't access bloglines! Given that probably 50% of my online time is spent between these two locations (the other 50% spent searching, del.icio.us'ing or tadalist-ing...and excluding time spent IMing)...i'm feeling pretty out of the loop. at least i can blog.

what is wierder is the message i am getting from the bloglines plumber:

Hi,
I'm the Bloglines Plumber. Bloglines is down for scheduled maintenance. We will be back at 10:15Pm Pacific Time, Friday Sept 9, 2005. Bloglines will be all better when I'm done with it.
Thanks,
The Bloglines Plumber

September 9th?? am i in some time warp?

Gmail is giving me the standard, annoyingly cute:

Server Error

Gmail is temporarily unavailable. Cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes. We're sorry for the inconvenience.

Given that it has been two hours, i'm thinking there is something afoot...

don't press the button.

2005-09-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

i am sooo addicted to Lost. Seriously, that was one of the best season premiere's ever. I've been reading the forums -- and i love that so many others are also addicted...and that someone actually recorded what walt said and then played it backwards to discover what he actually said.

Here's a link to the clip:
lost.cubit.net/audio/walt_audio.wav

4 8 15 16 23 42

today...

2005-09-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

is my birthday..it is also international talk like a pirate day. hard to know which one deserves greater celebration. ahem! eventually i will post pics from my birthday dinner (at la bodeguita, of course!)...

in the interim check out the flickr pics for talk like a pirate day...

upside down

2005-09-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

so. it looks like my mac died. completely. like no recovery, everything is gone. i have one last hope - sending my computer to DriveSavers.com -- for about $800+. I'm going to do it...as I just can't wrap my mind around actually losing all my data. I haven't cried yet, but i know it is close. the worst part is I have an external back-up drive, that i just don't use. I've been lazy with the move. ugh. lesson learned.

going to go cry now...

labor day productivity

2005-09-05T23:29:00.000-07:00

My sister came out for the weekend and we had a great time -- it is sooo nice to have family come and visit. She provided much needed perspective, comfort and fun. We were also insanely productive. Check out our tadalist: http://natala.tadalist.com/lists/public/103412

Here's the quick rundown:
Friday - she got into town late, dinner at 5 spot then went to her friend's magazine launch party at the War Room. I bailed on the war room due to sleepiness, but sheils got to see her friend and check out the seattle scene. The Donna's were spinning -- plus her friends new zine - illicit - is HOT!

Saturday: Lazy morning, walked to Macrina Bakery around noon for brunch. Sheils then reorganized my study! It was awesome. That night about 14 people came over for a BBQ to celebrate that we didn't go camping...we cooked up smores, drank 8 bottles of wine and talked until 2am. It was lovely. Maya and Oliver brought their friends, Tonya & Jon, from the SF comedy/film group Killing My Lobster. If you are in SF, you have to check them out. Mike and Buddy put up lanterns in my tree -- something i've been wanting to do forever. It wasn't quite camping...but we were outside and there were marshmallows...I took a ton of pictures, which i intend to upload to flickr...but well, read the monday section.

Sunday: After a slighly hungover start, we went for brunch at the 5 spot with Matt and his wife (friends of my sis) and my very cool neighbors, Dave and Diane. Then it was off to bumbershoot and finally to dinner with the other Sheila in my life -- my friend Sheila Talwar. It was fun to have the two sheilas meet! We went out for ethopian at Queen Sheba. It was yummy. We then got lost trying to find the movie theatre to see Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (the remake) and ended up watching Born Rich at home. You've got to see this HBO edition of America Undercover.

Monday: Woke up and my mac was, uhm, dead. It wouldn't start. So we grabbed some bagels, and headed over to the apple store. There were 8 people in line with us and the store wasn't opening for another 30 minutes! Eventually we got to see a "Genius" and it turns out I need to have my hard drive revamped...so my little powerbook is getting some R&R for the next fews days at the store while i try not to completely freak out about potential data loss. Then a quick walk around greenlake, cupckaes at Cupcake royale, a trip to Office Depot and Fred Meyer for more office supplies to complete the organization adventure. Finally, we hung up all the stuff in my bathroom that needed to be put up (like the towel ring and tissue holder...) and knocked a couple of holes in the wall before watching a few episodes of Sex and the City and finally dropping off my sis at the airport.

In the midst of all this, we talked a lot about New Orleans and the hurricane. We were and continue to be glued to CNN...and the grief, sadness and disappointment around this tragic situation. I think this pretty much sums up a chunk of our thinking.

ok go

2005-08-31T16:04:00.000-07:00

i'm going to see OK GO tonight at the Crocodile. *sweet*.

Check out their hot dance video.

me, bill & maya - 5w337!

2005-08-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

On Friday MSN had a 10 year anniversary party...and Bill Gates spoke about the last 10 years and the next. He was great -- so nerdy cool and enthusiastic.

Afterwards, I grabbed maya and said: "We have to get a picture with Bill!" She said, "but I'm shy..." and I said, "this is no time for shyness!" and we went over and asked him if we could get a picture together. We introduced ourselves and a co-worker snapped the picture. Bill was great - and I think the picture turned out pretty well too.

celebrity blogs: worth a read

2005-08-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

eonline has an article on celebrity blogs (because you know, everyone and their dog blogs now...) the article is pretty amusing - esp if you like pop culture / celebrities. I particularly like the format:
- his / her space - which is a link to their blog, interesting that they call it a space...
- his / her thing - what they blog about
- why you must read it - synopsis of the juicy bits
- why you might hate yourself after - how reading this blog will make you think about things you never ever wished you were exposed to, you know the really juicy bits that you'll love to hate.
- quote - an actual snippet from their blog.

Celebrities covered: Pam Anderson, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbara, Tom Green, Bruce Willis etc.

the only thing that would have made this article better? a nice little orange RSS box so you could subscribe to each blog. :)

heard via my sis...

2005-08-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

Ezra Sun Wallace (2-1/2 years old) while in the kitchen with his mama...
"Oh look, a spider mommy! Where'd it's website go?

going on vacation

2005-08-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

i'm off to Echo Lake which is near Lake Tahoe for a family reunion that will involve a lot of rest, kayaking and curry. I can't wait. This is my third summer going to echo and i know exactly what to expect: sunshine, cool water, beautiful hikes and really mangy people coming off of the Muir Trail as they hike along destination wilderness.

Good times to all!

do you see what you see?

2005-07-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

check out this link on visual perception:
http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/colourPerception/colourPerception.html

I'm still stuck on illusion #1 -- seriously, spooky!

Thanks amit for the tip!

maybe it is carma?

2005-07-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

yes car-ma... i've been super busy lately and over the last 24 hours my car has forced me to take it a step slower. I thought I was having the most ridiculous 24 hours, but in fact, the end result has been a slightly more relaxed me.

here's the deal:
yesterday i left work a bit early to carpool home with my friend julie and to get home early to prepare for my dinner guests (mike and buddy were coming over for bbq so i could thank them for putting my grill together!). We got down to my car and i push my alarm clicker to turn off the alarm on my car and unlock the doors. the clicker is DEAD. hmmm. So, I open the door with the key (which felt really novel, you know to actually unlock the door...i haven't done that in years) and the alarm goes off, but i'm thinking that I can put the key in the ignition and the alarm will recognize that I have THE key and turn off. Not so. In fact, quite the opposite. My car turns itself completely off. I guess I had one of those alarms that when it is going off and someone trys to start the car it thinks it is being stolen so it turns off the starter. Which is, uhm great as an anti-theft device...but well, not so good for me at this particular moment. It turns out I need to turn the car alarm off using some switch that I can't find and tapping some combination... i have no recollection of EVER being trained on this part of my car alarm....as we quickly realize we aren't getting home in my car, we bum a ride from our saviour, Morgan! The upside is that we were legally able to drive in the HOV lane all the way home! yeah! and i didn't have to drive in traffic! double yeah! Dinner with smuga and buddy was great, we chatted, walked around the neighborhood and imagined all sorts of things....

So on sat, after walking to breakfast, Julie (saviour #2) drove me back out to Redmond to pick up my car -- thankfully I have a second set of keys with a working alarm clicker. With all the car stuff settled, I decided to get some errands done.

One of the fun things I get to do as a result of my remodel is laundry at the *laundromat*! yes! My washer and dryer are out of commission for the entire summer as my basement is completely revamped. Did you know that the laundromat doesn't take quarters anymore? You have to buy a special debit card with a smartcard chip. Seriously for $3! Anyways, so i am doing my laundry and I go back out to my car to get my lavendar softner and realize that I have LOST my car key! Really. This means I have to walk home, get my other car key and then walk back. My home is about 1.5 miles from the laundromat -- downhill home and uphill back. It is 85 degrees outside. ick! But alas, I make the walk home, get my keys and Kinsey (the dog who's with me for the weekend) and trek back uphill to my laundry and to retrieve my car....

net-net: as a result of not having the car for 20 hours I did a lot more walking. My body is tired, but I feel good. I would like to say that I am considering giving up my car, but i'm not. but i do think that adopting more walking would be a good idea. hmmm.

weather 98119 = rainy

2005-07-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

i've been complaining to JB about the crap weather we've been having in seattle. Where is this sunshine people keep talking about??? He sent me the images below, which did completely brighten my day. I particularly enjoyed that it was overcast and hot and humid in his zipcode (DC).

weather in 98119 =

happy birthday sheila!

2005-07-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

today is my sister's birthday. yippee. my mum is throwing her a suburbanite party tomorrow at their house complete with an ice-cream cake. I sent her the picture below as a well wishing..we've been suspicious about our cat's origin for some time and this picture defintely prooves his foreign origins.

MIT blogger survey....

2005-06-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

i wished they had a free comment / feedback section so that i could add some texture to my answers! Maybe they will have focus groups...

anyways...

i do recommend completing the survey.

Blog on.

phew!

2005-06-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a comment from Stephen i figured out how to fix my blog format woes -- just when blogger buzz posted a fix.

This means i won't have to update my blog format immediately, but it did get me thinking that perhaps that would be fun. So right now i'm sort of doodling redesign options. I found this page of color schemes (via Amitp) ... what do you'all think of Blix and Sevenest?

formatting gone haywire...

2005-06-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

For those of you actually visiting my blog (i.e. not reading it via bloglines/RSS) you might notice that the formatting has gone a little bit screwy. It looks like, according to a post on the Blogger Status Blog and on Blogger Buzz, that the new blogger release of image hosting has caused some blog formats to go askew -- and mine was one of them. Now, all things considered my blog template is pretty much a hacked piece of code mangled further by me :) ... but i've sent an e-mail on to blogger support and so hopefully we'll be able to save my format...if not, i may actually have to re-do my blog format which i've been considering doing for months...but need something to get me to actually *have to* do it...

If you feel the need to see what my blog used to look like, check out the wayback machine :)

43 places - ideas

2005-06-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

43 places is cool -- the site lets users post informaiton on places they've been and tag places they want to visit. What I particularly like is that they have a page where users can suggest ways to improve their product -- and we can "vote" on product improvements by clicking the "43T should do this" button. neato.

blogging from WMW on spaces

2005-06-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

I'm in New Orleans for the week at the WebMaster World conference. I'm planning to blog on the sessions I attend on my spaces blog:
http://spaces.msn.com/members/natala

posting an update on the keynote by John Batelle now...