#toolongtotweet

[chedddarcheeze-blog]

So was about to share a facebook memory thing of a picture of my mom and me about how she misses/loves me, when it shows up that she “chose a specific audience for this post.” So that “Only people in that audience will be able to see this when you share it,” cause she was actually super embarrassed about my hair and the way I looked L O L. oh mom.

[weienw]

Something New

For a confidence boost, try something new, that is also these two things:

Something that appeals to you

Something you never thought you could do

I've been doodling faces and figures during church for a couple years now. I think it originated as doodles inspired by Vi Hart's old videos, like this one. These doodles were kinda Zentangle-ish, so I didn't realize that I was actually drawing, for a while.

For the longest time I never thought I could draw; my sister was the artsy one in the family. But now I think I'm getting the hang of it, enough to participate in #inktober this year. And it's really fun.

I think cooking can be great for this feeling, too. For example, I learned how to whip cream from this video, and it's so easy despite somehow feeling advanced.

And then, today, I made a sourdough bread using just flour, water, salt, and some "starter" (wild yeast) imparted to me by Micah, who also provided advice and encouragement to get going. I'd been feeding the starter for a few weeks before I got the nerve to try this scary-looking recipe.

But it turned out to be fun, delightful to eat (as well as give away), and put me in a rather jaunty mood. If I can bake an artisan-style bread, why should I be afraid to, say, make a computer game? Or put work towards a future career in writing? Or ask a creative hero of mine if I can work with them?

[weienw]

I pulled into the emissions testing bay, and was greeted by a cheery, stubbly smiler.

"C'mon out," he said, and when I reached for my laptop bag, he added, "Just leave it, I ain't gonna touch anything!" "I'm gonna work on it," I said, trying to paste a smile over my nervousness. He seemed to have some kind of speech impediment. "You ain't gonna have time to! Now c'mon, yah slowin' me down."

(And he did, impressively, finish the vehicle emissions testing process in probably just a minute from that point.)

As he plugged in the scan tool, he asked me what I did for a living, and then replied:

"Programming? Me, too! I studied it at DeVry -- Java, C languages, allathat. And COBOL, you probably don't even know COBOL!" "Well, I've heard of--" "Sure, sure, that's good stuff. Good ol' DeVry. I tellya though, it's been 10 years since I've done computer programming. But I gotta do this, gotta make money somehow. I wish I could make hundreds of thousands doing programming, but..." "Ah, sure, maybe sometime you'll be able to, again." "Actually, I hear it's comin' back around." "Yeah, I known that Mobile's pretty big." "Yeah? Hmm," he said, gesturing for me to return to my vehicle ("Fire her up!").

"Looks like you passed!" he said, a moment later, handing me the printout. "And if you ever need help coding, come back here and find me." "Okay," I said, and pulled away, and thought of this Anil Dash post, and felt bummed.

[sperte]

Facebook should get back to their roots and focus on being the world’s address book – a platform for social graphing and networking. Imagine if developers could create their own user networks for their apps, sandboxed on Facebook’s platform.

[astrochiron]

Losing a Friend

I never really realized how much losing a friend would hurt… Until I started to. And no they didn’t die or whatever… We just don’t talk that much anymore. And I think that hurts worse. I didn’t lose them by the force of death but by the choice of indifference. I mean I guess they’re busy with stuff but I’m busy too… But I’m not too busy for someone I love. But it’s fine. I get it. It’s better to gracefully bow out than to struggle and fight to force it to happen… Right?

[weienw]

As long as we're talking about the state of the iOS app store, I encourage folks to make liberal use of Apple's "Gift This App" feature. It's an ideal random act of kindness for someone you care about. After all, 1. Many are reluctant to spend money on apps, however 2. We know that most of our favorite apps are pretty affordable, plus 3. The gifting process is super easy (even using mobile iTunes store) -- the hardest part is knowing the recipient's email address. You also get to choose from a variety of fun gift "wrapping."

I have trouble thinking of a gift with better value. Hand-pick a better calendar or shopping list experience for someone today!

[oddblondeout]

I hope my crush knows that when I text them about some random inane thing, it's because I just wanted an excuse to talk to them and not because I'm really considering cutting my hair like Miley Cyrus, and I needed a second opinion.