Best Labor Day Weekend *Ever*!

Warning – lots of photos after the jump! Hope you had a fun Labor Day Weekend too.

*Reactionary Workflow/Attention Management*

…if total focus on the known important stuff in your life has to battle with a never-ending doorbell attached to your brain, it’s hard for me to imagine how your work, or your family, or your sense of who you are, alone in a room without the ringing, can possibly thrive. (via -43folders.com)

I’ve written about multi-tasking in the past, tried mono-tasking, liked it for a brief moment in time, then got right back into the swing of doing a million things at once.

I guess it’s something I’ve always done. When I was younger, it was ballet, swim, Sunday school, piano lessons. When I was in high school, it was marching band, concert band (also multi-tasking within band: flute, trumpet, mellophone), the literary club, National Honor Society, speech and debate, California Scholastic Federation, The Key Club, Asian Pacific Club, AP classes, beach cleanups, feeding the homeless, boyfriend, family, friends.

College was all about communications and theatre: playwriting, set design, essays, essays, essays, internships at Channel 933 and Virgin Records. Then there was all the partying – lots of multi-tasking there.

These past couple of years have been no different. Training for two half marathons, many work-related social media webinars, roundtables and conferences, coordinating and leading San Diego’s United Nations Charter Day event, coordinating and attending events as Marketing Coordinator for the Young Professionals for International Cooperation, participating in international art shows and submitting art to magazines, blogging, reading books, collaborating with SuperFood Drive, volunteering with the Special Olympics, the San Diego Food Bank, Operation Stand Down, Father Joe’s, Heart Walks, Scleroderma and Lupus Walks, boyfriend, family, friends, traveling, baking, socializing. Oh, can’t forget – tweet and update my Facebook status.

I was even able to run my own company, create products, sell them in boutiques across the country and do local designer and fashion shows for a few years while holding down a full-time job.

I thrive on multi-tasking.

Lately, particularly with Twitter, I feel like I’m in information overload world. It’s like the more I learn, the more I want to learn. The more people I follow, the more I learn about new people I want to follow. Then there are that many more tweets I need to read, every day, in order to be caught up.

It’s exhausting.

I was just having this very conversation today at work. There are so many emails, phone calls and Yammer messages that it gets harder to get things done because we’re busy answering emails, answering calls and responding to Yammer messages.

In his book “Making Ideas Happen,” Scott Belsky describes this reactionary work flow as “the state of always responding to what comes in to us. However through windows of nonstimulation you will reclaim the power to focus on what you believe is most important.”

How does one organize?

One way to think about getting your projects done:

Make it, release it, and make more. And never apologize to anyone for demanding the respect for your attention that you, your work, and the people who enjoy it each deserves. Make the time. (via -43folders.com)

Another way to plan, as suggested by Belsky in his book, is The Action Method. Although this feels like another interruption to the focus, I feel like there’s value in this. I created an account, downloaded the app and started a new project.

If you feel the way I do, I encourage you to read Merlin Mann’s essay, “Better.” Here’s an excerpt:

What makes you feel less bored soon makes you into an addict. What makes you feel less vulnerable can easily turn you into a dick. And the things that are meant to make you feel more connected today often turn out to be insubstantial time sinks – empty, programmatic encouragements to groom and refine your personality while sitting alone at a screen.

I need to prioritize and I need to figure out what my most important projects are. I need to turn off that Outlook popup mail notification feature.

I need to power off the laptop at 11:13 pm!

Scott Belsky, I hope this works.

Image from Flickr

5 Things to do Every Day to Make You Happier

Nic Marks is a happiness expert and researcher. He spoke at today’s TEDGlobal program, discussing the Happy Planet Index and offered 5 things to do each day to make yourself happier:

• Connect with those important to you. Social relationships are cornerstone of happiness.
• Be Active. Fastest way out of bad mood: Walk, go outside, turn on radio & dance.
• Notice seasons, changes, and also what’s happening with YOU.
• Keep learning. The word “keep” is important. it’s a life-long endeavor and it keeps us happy.
• Give: People who spend on others are happier than those who spend on themselves.

*Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Rolando Jimenez*

Most of my memories of Uncle Rollie are from my earlier years — pre-teenage years. He used to drive me to school. After school, I hung out at the Jimenez house with my cousins, playing video games and watching TV until my parents picked me up. He never seemed bothered by all the weird things my cousins and I got into (like making “magic love potions,” using the plastic floor cover as a Super Slide or jumping off the bunk bed).

I remember the way he played the piano and the way he sang. He had so much musical talent! The entire family goes karaoke nuts at holiday parties, but his voice always projected above everyone else’s.

I also remember how loved he was by our family. My mom drove all the way to Hemet just to hang out, chis-mis, eat and sing karaoke with her older brother. The Jimenez brothers and sisters are a tight bunch. His kids loved him so much and always looked up to him. He was such a loving father, always looking out for his children, and always wanting the best for them.

The last time I saw Uncle Rollie was last Christmas. He looked quite dashing in his black suit and button-up shirt I told him that he looked really good and he laughed it off. I remember hugging him too. He looked happy, surrounded by love.

Rest in peace, Uncle Rollie. We all miss and love you so very much.

Book Review *WHAT THE DOG SAW* by Malcolm Gladwell

I love Malcolm Gladwell. I have all of his books. Most recently I read “What the Dog Saw.”

I love how his words force me to think about things. Things like:

• The difference between panicking and choking and what it had to do with JFK Jr.’s plane crash (chapter titled “The Art of Failure”)
• The women behind the L’Oréal ”Because I’m worth it” and Clairol “Does she or doesn’t she?” advertisements and their connection to “the politics of assimilation and feminism and self-esteem” as well as the “relationship we have to the products we buy” (chapter titled “True Colors”)
• The similarity between songs and whether that similarity should be considered plagiarism (chapter titled “Something Borrowed”)

I Googled all the songs mentioned in the “Something Borrowed” chapter because I wanted so badly to listen and compare the riffs and melodies of these songs:

• “Angel” by Shaggy and “The Joker” by the Steve Miller band
• “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin and “You Need Love” by Muddy Waters
• “Can’t Smile Without You” by Barry Manilow and “Last Christmas” by Wham! and “Joanna” by Kool and the Gang
• “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana and “More Than a Feeling” by Boston

Now listen to this. It’s “Taj Mahal” by Jorge Ben Jor. The familiar part comes around 1:15. What does it sound like? This maybe?

I dunno. There’s something about the things that Gladwell writes about that makes me feel super enlightened and excited. He makes me think about things like why planes crash and what late bloomers need in order to succeed.

I remember reading about “Project Implicit” in Gladwell’s book “Blink.” It’s an online test that takes about 10 minutes. You’re shown black and white faces and you need to associate those faces with good and bad words that are shown on the other side of the screen. The goal of the test is to “examine thoughts and feelings that exist either outside of conscious awareness or outside of conscious control.”

Besides forcing me to think, Gladwell makes me Google things. I want to know more. I want to know the whole story. I think curious people are perfect Gladwell readers.

If you enjoyed “The Tipping Point” and “Outliers,” you will surely like “What the Dog Saw.” I don’t think it’s my favorite Gladwell book (that would be “The Tipping Point”), but I definitely had favorite chapters.

Time to cross this off my list. I have a buttload more books to read.

Book Review *HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY* by Audrey Niffenegger

(I wrote this during Thanksgiving ’09 weekend. I’ve been blog-lazy. Forgive me.)

Last month, as I sat in my best friend’s tiny living room in Brooklyn, I noticed a shiny, teal-colored book on her shelf. “It’s the new one by the woman who wrote ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife.’” She handed me the book and I read the jacket. I was so intrigued by what I read that I decided to read more on Amazon.com where a several page teaser was provided.

(A little fact about me: I love reading and I love books. Books make me happy. I once tweeted that I would spend money on books over clothes any day. I won a bunch of reading contests when I was in grade school back in Virginia. I owe a lot of my interest in reading to my mom, who bought me tons of books when I was younger (remember Scholastic Book Club?) and always read to me. When I was a little bit older, I read to her.

There’s a room in my house that is filled with my books. No bookcases—the books are stacked on the floor. All over the floor.)

The teaser teased me so much that I was tempted to buy the book but debated the purchase—You need to finish reading “In Defense of Food” for goodness sake!—so I held back, only to be pleasantly surprised by a box in my room that contained not only the teal-colored book, but Malcolm Gladwell’s latest, “What the Dog Saw.”

Yay! Thank you. I love presents.

I finished “In Defense of Food” (oh, did I not write a review of that? Adding it to my to-do blog list…) and started “Her Fearful Symmetry,” the latest book by Audrey Niffenegger.

I’ve been hanging out, snowed in, inside of our Big Bear condo for the past couple of days and was able to finish all 406 pages while drinking hot chocolate by the fireplace. Cozy, huh?

The book was my introduction to Niffenegger—I have not seen or read “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” I think of “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and my mind instantly thinks of Rachel McAdams which makes me think of “The Notebook,” and then it’s like, time-traveler who? I cannot imagine anyone else with Rachel McAdams except Ryan Gosling. I wrote you every day for a year!

I liked “Her Fearful Symmetry.” I tend to rate my books based on how well I can visualize the story in my head and whether that story can easily be translated into a film—Dakota Fanning as both of the 21-year old twins from Lake Forest, Illinois, Valentina and Julia?

I also consider the satisfaction of an ending in my rating process, which is not to say that an ending that doesn’t have closure is not satisfying—it just has to satisfy me, and sometimes things that are left open to interpretation are very satisfying because it gives me the chance to think about things. It’s like marinating my brain in book stew at a low simmer.

A great book draws me in quickly. Wait. I take that back. Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” was pretty slow for me initially, but I loved it, loved it, loved it. Loved the ending, loved the last sentence.

“Her Fearful Symmetry” drew me in as I sat in my friend’s 300 square foot New York apartment reading the book flap:

Audrey Niffenegger’s spectacularly compelling second novel opens with a letter that alters the fate of every character. Julia and Valentina Poole are semi-normal American twenty-year-olds with seemingly little interest in college or finding jobs. Their attachment to one another is intense. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. From a London solicitor, the enclosed letter informs Valentina and Julia that their English aunt, Elspeth Noblin, whom they never knew, has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions to this inheritance: that they live in it for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the estranged Espeth and Edie, their mother.

Reasons why I like this book:

1. Lake Forest, Illinois. Part of this book takes place in a location that I am quite familiar with. In fact, an ex-boyfriend of mine attended the same high school that Valentina and Julia did.

2. London. I love the accents, I love the culture and the history. I love the city. Oh, that same ex-boyfriend also had parents from London. He also had the accent.

3. Highgate Cemetery. Call me creepy, but I love cemeteries. There is something quite romantic about cemeteries, especially the ones in Europe. Maybe it’s the quiet, maybe it’s the way the leaves fall over tombs and mausoleums, maybe it’s the way all these people who led crazy lives all now live silently under the ground. I’ve never been to Highgate but now have a reason to visit London again. I had to Google Highgate.

4. Death. I’m totally fascinated by it. I know, totally macabre, but I’ve always been this way. Maybe it’s why I’m such an anxious person, but I’ve always been fully aware of not only my own mortality, but everyone else’s.

5. The visual/book-into-film factor.

6. The short chapters. Definitely makes the book go by faster.

7. The story. The twist at the end. Actually, there are two twists that I didn’t see coming.

8. The mix of old and new. There’s so much history in this book, particularly with the cemetery and the lives of the inhabitants of the grounds, but Niffenegger throws in a bunch of things—Justin Timberlake, hoodies with fur, online purchases and Wilco—that bring the reader back to present-day London.

I am torn because although I have a clear vibe about everything in this book—the locations, the characters, the accents and the mood—I’m not sure how I feel about the ending to this book. It’s not as satisfying as I wished it were. I turned the last page, expecting another chapter, but got the Acknowledgements instead.

If you’re looking for something simultaneously spooky, romantic, tragic, young- and old-feeling, I recommend this book.

I can’t wait for the movie.

Holiday Tradition *JULIAN PIE COMPANY*

Every Thanksgiving, my family and I make a trip out to Julian, Ca. to buy some awesome apple pie. Julian seriously has the best apples—its climate is ideal for growing them. Julian apples are the perfect balance of sweet and tart.

We always order a bunch of pies for Thanksgiving day. But, we also eat a slice at the shop. My favorite? Dutch apple pie with sharp cheddar cheese melted on top. Mmmmmm. Be sure to try the creamy hot chocolate (“It’s like hot melted ice cream”) and the Apple Memories.

Julian’s a fun place to ride on a carriage pulled by a mini-horse (I actually thought this was kind of sad—such a small horse!)…

…check out the pretty trees…enjoy the cool, crisp air…

…or check out the Julian Book Store (one of my favs—LOVE the way the floor creaks, LOVE the old book smell). This book is OBVIOUSLY not about me.

What’s your holiday tradition?

*New Moon* NOT ENOUGH SHIRTLESS SCENES

I’ve never been in a theatre with so much giddiness. You could feel the amped up energy before the movie even started. Lots of giggling and swooning when the shirts came off (me included). After the the jump—the best shirtless New Moon shots (and possible spoilers).

*2000′s* Which Song Sums Up The Decade For You?

NPR’s Monitor Mix Blog’s Question of The Day was this: Which Song Sums Up The Decade For You?

{omg. we’re gonna start a new decade!!}

I can’t just choose one. My life has always revolved around music, especially in the early 2000′s when I interned at Virgin Records and a local radio station. I was in college when this decade began, holy crap!

Here’s a list I’ve compiled of the top songs that will always make me think of the 2000′s. These aren’t necessarily the top hits of the decade; these are songs that are reflective of the memories I had and the life I lived from 2000-2009. In no particular order, here are the songs that sum up the 2000′s for me:

Dessert Places in San Diego

I’m sad. Why? Because all that’s left of this lovely box of Laduree macarons…

…is a box of Fruity Pebbles-looking crumbs