Interest Me

1. A great light-hearted article from the NY Times about the Lessons of Love, By Way of Economics.

2. I like to-do lists because they help me organize. I do not like, however, that I rarely follow them. They tend to be long, and I’m not the kind of person who finds pleasure in crossing something off a list. So alas, they stay in my purse or on my notebook, sometimes neglected. I am, however, a fan of now do this, mainly because it has a clean design, and when I reach the end of my list, it says “all done!” I feel a great sense of accomplishment. It only works with sequential lists, because you might get stuck on an item.

3. Sometimes I want a piece of graph paper, but I don’t want to buy a pad of it at Staples. I’m also the kind of person that often has loose dvds and cds floating around, and as much as I hate it, I don’t keep those jeweled cases nearby and I’m always afraid I’m going to scratch my dvds/cds. I got super excited when I ran into this, which is a list of the “Top 10 Printable Paper Prodcutivity Tools.” So now I can print one piece of graph paper, and I can make fun colorful paper cd cases.

4. The company I work for does not have IT restrictions. But in case your company does, this is a pretty great guide to break out of IT jail and finally check your gmail.

5. I talked about pidgin once as an instant messenger tool, and now that I’ve implemented it and worked out all the kinks, I absolutely love it. Tabbed conversations, no blinking windows or sounds (instead a discreet icon that changes colors), and the fact I can connect my Sametime, aim, gchat, msn all in once place. Let me know if you need any help setting up the Sametime (it took a little bit of work to get that one running), but yes, I give Pidgin 2 thumbs up.

1. Who is Brandon Hein? For a tragedy that occurred in my hometown over 10 years ago, three boys were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Brandon is truly a victim of injustice, with a fate that seems to hold little hope. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and although he did not partake in the stabbing that killed a boy, or even know that it occurred, he has suffered 12 years in prison so far, with a lifetime more ahead of him. I don’t know what lies in his future, and I don’t know how to rally troops to support him and help his appeal, and I don’t know how to effectively bring this to the attention of the CA Governor (who can pardon him), but hopefully if just one person reads this and does a little about it, a lot of a little might just turn into positive successful action to help him. It’s the kind of case about injustice that sociology classes study. Read about it here.

2. Ask yourself: Are you dreaming big and taking risks? Are you living the life you imagined? In light of all the emails I’ve been getting from friends and colleagues who have moved to Japan, Germany, and Greece, plus the emails from co-workers bidding farewell to public accounting, I think it’s important to think about taking risks while young and relatively commitment-free. Maybe you’ll realize your life isn’t heading the direction you want it to, or maybe you’re set on a destination, but instead of taking the freeway you decide to explore the scenic route.

3. Free wake up calls at wakerupper.com, and you can even have customized messages.

4. Some tricks for google searches: to get to websites blocked by your company try “cache: site.com“, to compare items use “better than _keyword_”, find related items with “~_keyword_”. More tips here.

5. Try some new instant messenger applications like digsby.com and pidgin.im (pidgin even includes lotus note’s sametime) but meebo’s still my favorite.