Okay, so I’ve just discovered the world’s most entertaining time waster – the new Photo Booth software that comes with the built-in iSight camera on a Mac.
More photos here.
Category Archives: Fun things to do
Hundertwasser and Quixote Winery
See more photos in the Flickr photoset
Tucked away at the end of a long private road at the base of the jagged edges of Stags’ Leap cliffs in Napa Valley is the first, last, and only building in North America designed by Austrian artist Frederick Hundertwasser, the Quixote Winery. As a participant of the Taste3 conference, I recently had the privilege of touring this architectural delight. Here are a few highlights.
Hundertwasser was a singularly unusual man. An environmentalist, a nudist (he gave a press conference in the nude on at least one occasion), a ladies man (he died in his 70s on the QE2 on route back from Asia with his 20-something Japanese girlfriend), Hundertwasser was a wildly distinctive artist (think of mash-up of Klimt and Gaudi), whose works spanned from prints to public housing to postage stamps.
BlogHer Business 2007
Last week I was in NYC participating in the first BlogHer Business Conference. Since its inaugural conference in the summer of 2005, BlogHer has been a focal point for women’s voices in the blogosphere, both in its conferences and on the BlogHer website, an effort which I am proud to be part of.
As a business woman and a woman with a blog that has evolved into a business, what better place to meet peers and share ideas than at a women’s conference devoted to the more professional aspects of blogging. Diva Marketing‘s Toby Bloomberg and I have been to all the conferences so far, and we shared a moment or two of awe at how far things have come, since July 05.
Bull Fest 2006 – Mutton Busting
Cody Upton, age 8, of Yuba City, California hangs on for the longest ride of the day
Mutton busting? That’s bull riding for little kids, on sheep. Pictured above, Cody Upton, age 8, has been mutton busting since he was 4. He’ll have to retire soon, though, as he is out-growing the sheep. You can find mutton busting events at many rodeos; this one was at the California State Fair Bull Fest event. (See more Bull Fest photos on my Flickr slideshow.)
BlogHer 2006
Arianna Huffington after the closing panel at BlogHer06. Photo by Elise Bauer.
Well, a week has passed since BlogHer06, and I have finally recovered my voice, worn hoarse by two days and 3 nights of almost non-stop interaction with the hundreds of intelligent, interesting, expressive, and opinionated people, mostly women, who made up the conference. Why do I love the BlogHer conference? The reason is similar to the epiphany I had the first time I attended a women-in-business conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where I received my MBA. Having worked in the technology field for twenty years, and having attended countless professional conferences, my world, at least in work, has been almost entirely made up of men, and with it men’s interests and attitudes about the world. Sitting in the classrooms which are usually occupied mostly by men, it was almost magical to look around the room and see bright, open, intelligent faces of women, women more concerned with contributing to the discussion and connecting with others than sounding smarter than everyone else.
I have four younger brothers, I have worked in technology, and I have trained in martial arts (mostly with men), for most of my adult life. I enjoy the company of men. But sometimes, it’s just more fun to hang out with women. We tend to be more supportive of each other, and therefore more willing to take risks, e.g. display more vulnerability, in front of each other.
So this is the appeal of BlogHer for me – relaxing, engaging, and talking about subjects that interest me profoundly, with women. Every other conference geared toward the web, blogging, internet technology, etc. is top-heavy with men. And often the same men too, doing the speaking rounds at all the conferences.
“Here, fishy fishy”
Deck-hand Jeff on how not to reel in a fish
This last weekend was the Honniball annual salmon-fishing excursion, upon the Butchie B. If you’ve never tried ocean fishing, the steps are pretty basic. First you get up at 4 am to get dressed up (dress for Alaska in the winter), caffeinated, fed, doped up with dramamine, bonine, or anything you can to help with sea sickness, and to the boat by 5:30 am. You pick a rod and stake your claim on a rod-holder along the boat’s railing. Then there is a 2 hour ride out to the fishing grounds. You bait up and wait. If you are lucky, the boat won’t rock that much. But don’t count on luck. Better to eat a light breakfast (yogurt) and lose it early in the day, than to feel nauseous all day. When a salmon bites, the rod jerks down and you have to carefully give it some line and then follow the fish around the boat over and under everyone else’s rods, slowly reeling it in. If you are like some people, you do what ever you can to get leverage against the boat to keep from being pulled overboard by the fish. This of course, I learned from observation as I didn’t get a single bite all day. But that’s okay. Jim and Beth both did, so we got our fish. More photos…