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January 18, 2010

Metal

2010 is the year of photography, colour, pretty dresses and raw food. I plan on having more of all four in my life this year.

-gg (is happy)

Posted by gadgetgirl at 08:15 PM

January 16, 2010

Craft Hope for Haiti

If you are like me you have been seeing all of the heart breaking images from Haiti and been wanting to help, but it didn't know where to start Etsy has the answer. Etsy, in case you don't know, is the grass roots alternative to the local shopping mall.

Etsy have set up a Craft Hope, a shop where crafters can donate their wares and the 'proceeds of the Craft Hope Etsy shop will benefit Doctors Without Borders'.
So it is a win, win, win situation. You win by getting some cool stuff, the artisan wins by selling something handmade and the people of Haiti win by getting some much needed medical support.

This is not the first time the wonderful people at Etsy has done something like this. They raised over $18K for the Victoria Bush Fire Appeal all with people power.
How awesome is that?

So come on people, there are only 342 sleeps till Christmas!

-gg (who is hopefully buying this for work)

Posted by gadgetgirl at 07:47 PM

January 13, 2010

Tweet of the Week

'Just watched one of David Tennant’s CBeebies bedtime stories. I think I just spontaneously ovulated.'

by Jacinta via Liz regarding this:

Right on Jacinta!

-gg (le sigh)

Posted by gadgetgirl at 04:31 PM

January 12, 2010

To Blog or Not to Blog

I started blogging back in 2003 because when we moved from Chicago to Sydney and I thought it would be an easy way to communicate with friends and family back home. I figured I could post photos and stories, share updates on projects, drop hints about Christmas presents, etc. It was such an adventure moving to the other side of the world and I wanted to share it with our family back in the States. I figured I’d get 5, maybe 10 readers.

Well, as time went on this blog became so much more. I shared not just with my family but with the whole world. Through my blog I’ve reconnected with old friends, made new ones, learned heaps, shared more than I thought I would and even got Boing Boinged! I’ve really grown to love the experience of it. I became part of this group of seemingly anonymous breed of online folk. I once saw a t-shirt that read, ‘I’m totally blogging this’. Every blogger has had that moment where they’ve been in the middle of something and have mentally started writing the post they would put up later. I’ve done it too. There I was, having a euphoric time at a Flaming Lips concert and in my head I couldn’t wait to get home, rip open my laptop and get online. We are a disjointed bunch, we citizens of the blogosphere.

When my Mom passed away a year and a half ago I completely lost my mojo. I just couldn’t think of anything to say. Those who know me IRL will know what a feat that is!

Then I discovered Facebook. I used to use my blog to share a links with a friend, now I just post it on Facebook. I also used my blog to post random thoughts on the state of the world; again, Facebook became my go to place for those things. Some news I want to share with the world? Facebook. Give a shout out to a friend? Yup, you guessed it, Facebook. Facebook is the monster that ate my blogging momentum.

But really, why does anyone blog anyway? Why not just write in a journal and keep it to yourself? Why put it out there for god any everyone to read? Some do it for profit, some to raise their profile, some for popularity or to hopefully be discovered ala ‘Julie and Julia’. But most of us do it because we all have something we want to share with the world. We want to open our mouths (or keyboards), expose some part of ourselves and maybe connect with someone out there. And maybe, just maybe that someone will find it (and us) interesting.

I feel like in the last few years so much has changed for me. I bought a house in a whole new part of Sydney, changed jobs, been through my Mom’s cancer, made peace with parts of my past, reconnected with some long lost (and long missed) friends and now, as I get ready to turn 40, I am going back to University. Crazy stuff.

So how does this blog fit into all of this? That’s the $40 question. I’ve been pondering it for a while now. I don’t feel I need this space to share a link with a particular friend or find a friend or keep a cool link for later or drop a hint or make my first million. Starting this year I’m going to use this space to motivate myself. To keep moving forward. To have a space to reflect on things that I find useful, inspiring, interesting, funny, whatever. And hey, if someone out there likes it too, well that’s cool. I’ll probably write a lot about libraries and studying and studying libraries. Hopefully some more creative stuff will creep in there. (all work and no play makes jack drive an axe through a door) I also want to use this space to practice my writing. The one thing that scares me about going back to University this year is all the writing I’ll be doing. The last few years I’ve written some media releases and really that’s about it. So there might be some loooong posts (case in point) I’m thinking I’ll need to add some more categories and tags and I’ll probably try to play with some newer and emerging technologies (for research purposes of course).

So I guess in the end not much is changing around here. I’ll be posting, some might be reading, a few might even reply. I just wanted to recommit myself to my little corner of the internet.

So…Hi there Blogosphere, I’m back.

-gg (who is quietly optimistic)

Posted by gadgetgirl at 05:05 PM

January 10, 2010

2010= new direction

Posted by gadgetgirl at 07:04 AM