Just some thoughts I wanted to share. 

Google Doodle Nemo

Here on Speaking Up, we’ll look at a woman born on this day, October 7th, in 1948, who, like Bohr, tries to uncover nature, but via a very different approach: Diane Ackerman.

Ackerman’s work blends science, art, and communication together; she is an author and poet but also a naturalist. She has a background in English and writing as a fine art, but also completed her PhD at Cornell under the supervision of a doctoral committee that included Carl Sagan. At the time, Ackerman knew that she didn’t want to be a scientist, but felt that the arts and sciences reinforced one another and that the world could best be understood by combining the two perspectives.

Ackerman’s work ranges from poetry and non-fiction dealing with the natural world and our place as humans within it. Her best-known work is The Zookeeper’s Wife, a non-fiction account of the Warsaw Zoo’s role in saving hundreds of lives during the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II. Ackerman’s popular science book examining each of the five human senses and its role in the human social and cultural experience, A Natural History of the Senses, formed the basis for a five-part PBS NOVA series (which Ackerman hosted).

Diane Ackerman, photographed in 2007 by Larry D. Moore (via Creative Commons licensing BY-SA 3.0).

Her work has been honored in both of the realms it covers. Ackerman is a past recipient of the John Burroughs Nature Award, the Lavan Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim fellowship, and the Orion Book Award. An active writer who continues to probe into the meshed perspectives of the human and natural worlds, Ackerman maintains a blog at her website.

Continuing our monthly tradition here at Speaking Up, here are three more Doodle-Worthy Women born in the month of September:

– Lili’uokalani, born September 2, 1838, and also known as Lydia, was the first queen to reign over the Kingdom of Hawai’i but also the last monarch of that kingdom. Lili’uokalani was also an author and songwriter, and played many instruments. She was deposed when business and governmental powers from the United States invaded and set up their own government in Hawaii. Lili’uokalani spent much of the rest of her life protesting this illegal maneuver and advocating for Hawaiian sovereignty and culture.

Portrait of Queen Lili’uokalani.

– Zelia Nuttall, born September 6, 1857, was an archaeologist, linguist, and anthropologist whose work focused on the ancient civilizations in the region that is now Mexico. She was widely traveled, spending time in Europe and Asia in addition to Central America, eventually settling in Mexico permanently. Nuttall served as the Peabody Museum’s Mexican archaeologist for forty-seven years; her work was wide-ranging, from her studies of Aztec pottery to her tracings and transcriptions of ancient manuscripts to her studies of pre-Columbian relics.

Zelia Nuttall.

– Anna Mary “Grandma” Moses, born September 7, 1860, was a well-known American folk artist of the mid-twentieth century. She’s particularly known for her late start in an artistic career, which earned her the nickname “Grandma Moses.” Moses only began painting on canvas in her 70s, though she lived until she was 101 years old and thus enjoyed a long period of success. She was an extraordinarily prolific painter, creating more than 1500 canvas paintings in this time. In the 1940s, she had her first exhibitions as a solo artist in New York City. Soon, her work was shown all over the world and broke attendance records.

Grandma Moses, photographed in 1953.

Schumann is the 4th woman honored with a Google Doodle in the United States this year (all between July 24 and today), so in this country and this year, women make up about 20% of the Doodle honorees. That’s the largest portion of the total that women have ever held in any year; additionally, this ties 2012 with 2011 for the year in which the most Doodles honored women (4 women were honored in 2011, and 24 men, so women made up only 14% in that year). Only time will tell whether Doodles will keep up the good work and improve these statistics even more.

Clara Schumann’s Google Doodle, posted September 13th, 2012.

Clara Schumann was a distinguished and well-known concert pianist during her lifetime, though her talent and body of work as a composer was recognized only later. She was a childhood prodigy, traveling Europe and performing throughout her home country of Germany before she was even a teenager. Schumann is also known for her early decision to perform concert pieces entirely from memory, starting when she was just 13 years old, which became the trend and standard in her industry. When she was 21 years old, she married the composer Robert Schumann; Clara took advantage of her reputation and influence to become a champion of Robert’s work as well as that of Johannes Brahms.

Clara Schumann.

She was a prolific composer, and the publication dates of her works span from the 1830s to the 1890s. As a widely known performer, Schumann was also able to promote the careers of many other composers through her piano interpretations of the work of Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert. Clara also supported her family through her concerts (her husband Robert composed but did not perform); it was unusual enough for a woman in Schumann’s time to perform publicly, much less to make a living through a profession.

I’ll admit, I’m not sure I’m completely on board with the content of the Doodle itself. Clara and Robert Schumann had 8 children together, and apparently the figures shown in this Doodle are meant to represent them. I’m not able to think of another Doodle that showed the honoree (typically a man) with his children or family. In every other case I can think of, the Doodle has been designed to highlight the profession and achievements of the selected individuals, not their personal lives. Reading about the depth and breadth of Clara Schumann’s talent, I find the choices made in designing the Doodle to be puzzling, at best, and potentially disappointing.

If there’s one company that fully understands and takes advantage of visual call to action design, it’s Google.

There were a lot of different color iterations”, says Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo. “We ended up with the primary colors, but instead of having the pattern go in order, we put a secondary color on the L, which brought back the idea that Google doesn’t follow the rules.”

When competing in the web browser space, Google was up against the reigning Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. One of the first things Google had to do was “to be different”. The fact that both companies use primary colors in their logo did not make this job any easier for Google designers to relay a unique message for Google Chrome.

Instead of changing the colors, Google changed the design and the way people perceive the colors to the point where there seems to be nothing in common between the two company logos. Google took Microsoft’s squareness and did what Google knows how to do best; they designed outside the box.

Within a very short time Google succeeded in branding their name and design as a fun, free and a ‘ think outside the box’ kind of company.

Then came the next step for Google to engage their users. In 1998 Larry Page and Sergey Brin put pen to paper and designed the first Google Doodle in honor of the Burning Man festival.

From 1998 till 2010 Google Doodles were designed to commemorate everything from the first day of school, holidays, major sporting events and birthdays of famous scientists and artists including: Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci.

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Google Doodle designs continued to flourish till 2010 when Google took the Doodle to the next level.

The Google Challenge:

How to turn the Google logo into an interactive visual call to action? How to convince users to click and interact with the Google logo?

The Google Goal:

Get as many users as possible to respond to Google’s call to action.

(QR Code people are you paying attention?)

On May 21, 2010. Google designed the first ever interactive logo design to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the famous Pac-Man video game.

Click here and play the Google Pac-Man game

The amount of traffic Google received in response to their interactive Pac-Man logo design was astronomical. Several sites concluded that the amount of time “wasted” playing with the Google Pac-Man logo was valued at 120 million dollars of wasted work time!

Google received plenty of negative reaction from blogs such as PC magazine and Mashable as they reported the amount of time and money wasted while playing with the Google logo.

How Did Google React To Negative Doodle Heat?

Considering the amount of interactive Google Doodles that were popping up at every opportunity, I would say Google was loving every click.

Then came the Olympics and Google had a field day. Every couple of days Google released a new interactive Doodle for users to interact with.

While I haven’t succeeded in finding real numbers as to how many people actually played with the London Olympics Google Doodle games, if you are a Chrome user and you claim you didn’t click on the Google logo during the 2012 Olympics, you lie!

What Does All This Have To Do With QR Codes?

A Google Doodle is a QR Code without the code. Google’s goal was to engage users and transform the Google brand into a visual call to action. QR Codes offer the same kind of interaction and yet have not enjoyed the same amount of success as Google Doodles. While Google Doodles are fun, they don’t offer any value. QR Codes allow businesses and designers to interact with users and actually offer them value. So why is it that we can’t wait to see the next Doodle but can’t stand seeing another QR Code.

Why aren’t users and customers interacting with QR Codes at least as much as people are wasting time with Google Doodles?

Stay tuned….

Tomorrows part 2: How to turn a QR Code into a Doodle success? (Here’s a teaser. Yes it actually works!)

Please share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where I am always listening.

Scan any of the Social Visual QR Codes with your mobile device and instantly connect.

To design your own visual QR Code and give any design the power of a standard QR Code, click here.

Google’s doodle today is especially awesome today, paying homage to Star Trek’s original series through a sequence of interactive animations.  If you miss it, you can still check it out at Google’s Doodles page.

Source: http://www.google.com

http://dev.dlvr.it/2Fht

Today,‎ Tuesday, ‎September ‎04, ‎2012, is the birthday of Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī. Though Wikipedia is saying it is in the 5th.

Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (born 5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm, now region in Uzbekistan, died 13 December 1048 in Ghazni), known as Alberonius in Latin and Al-Biruni in English, was a Persian-Chorasmian Muslim scholar and polymath of the 11th century.

أبوالريحان محمد بن أحمد بيروني ( 5 سبتمبر 973 – 13 ديسمبر 1048) عالم مسلم أوزبكي ولد في ضاحية كاث عاصمة خوارزم (أوزبكستان حاليا) في شهر سبتمبر حوالي سنة (362هـ،973م رحل إلى جرجان في سن ال25 حوالي 388هـ 999 م حيث التحق ببلاط السلطان أبو الحسن قابوس بن وشمجير شمس المعالي ونشر هناك أولى كتبه وهو الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية وحين عاد إلى موطنه الحق بحاشية الأمير ابي العباس مأمون بن مأمون خوارزمشاه الذي عهد إليه ببعض المهام السياسية نظرا لطلاقة لسانه وعند سقوط الإمارة بيد محمود بن سبكتكين حاكم عزنة عام407هـ الحقه مع طائفة من العلماء إلى بلاطه ونشر ثاني مؤلفته الكبرى تحقيق ما للهند من مقولة مقبولة في العقل أو مرذولة كما كتب مؤلفين آخرين كبيرين هما القانون المسعودي التفهيم لأوائل صناعة التنجيم توفي سنة 440هـ،1048م) وأطلق عليه المستشرقون تسمية بطليموس العرب.

Today, a Doodle celebrates the 142nd anniversary of the birth of Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori. Montessori’s Doodle is only the tenth ever displayed in the United States that recognizes a female creator or innovator; it’s the third such Doodle in the United States in 2012 (compared to 17 Doodles honoring men, so women are making up 15% of the 2012 candidates at this point). And counting up all the logos shown around the entire world, this is the tenth female-focused Doodle of 2012.

Maria Montessori’s Google Doodle, posted August 31st, 2012.

Montessori is, of course, known for her educational approach, featured in Montessori schools around the globe. The Montessori philosophy encourages students to learn independently and to have some choice and freedom in their education.

I didn’t know, though, that she was also Italy’s first female doctor, attending medical classes at the University of Rome despite strong gender-based resistance and discouragement. Her medical specialties were pediatrics and psychiatry, giving her the background and the insight that would later lead to the Montessori educational philosophy. She developed this approach while serving as director of a school for children with disabilities, and came to see her ideas as powerful tools for education more broadly. Montessori had the opportunity to test, adjust, adapt, and refine these ideas when, in the early 1900s, she was appointed to oversee a “Children’s House” for children of low-income working parents.

Maria Montessori.

By the 1910s, Montessori’s approach was spreading beyond Rome into more Italian cities and international locations. At this point, she left medical practice behind to create training materials and coursework for others interested in adopting the Montessori philosophy. She, along with her ideas, traveled the world.

In reading and learning more about Montessori this morning, I was impressed by her apparently unending passion and energy for her own education. She attended a technical institute, earning a certificate in physics and mathematics, and intended to go on to pursue engineering before medicine caught her eye. Even after she earned her medical degree and was a practicing physician, Montessori began a self-study of pedagogy before returning to the University of Rome to study philosophy, psychology, and anthropology.

As in every month, there were plenty of amazing Doodle-Worthy Women born in the month of August, and I had a very difficult time whittling this down to a short list. Here are this month’s picks:

– Meena Kumari, born August 1, 1932, was an Indian poet and an actress in Hindi movies, taking starring roles in almost a hundred films over a three-decade career. Kumari is known as one of the most famous, prolific, and accomplished stars of the Hindi film industry. She made her first appearance in film when she was just 7 years old, but rose to prominence in her 20s. She was the nominee and winner of many Filmfare Best Actress and Bengal Film Journalist Association awards.

– Henrietta Lacks was born August 1, 1920, but in some sense she still lives on — through a cell line, used for medical research to this day, known as HeLa. Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951, and during her treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital, tissue samples were taken from her body without her consent.

Henrietta Lacks, photographed circa 1945.

For reasons that are still not clear, Henrietta’s cells could be cultured and grown indefinitely (compared to other cell cultures that only multiplied and survived for a few days). The cells descended from her original tissue sample make up what is known as an “immortal” cell line. Lacks’ cancer metastasized and she passed away at 31 years old, but her remarkable cell line was used, and continues to be used, in many biomedical research projects, from investigations into AIDS and cancer to the development of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine. You can learn more about Lacks, her family, her cell line, and the ethical, racial, and scientific implications of the research done using her body in a recent acclaimed book by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

– Paola Massarenghi, born August 5th, 1565, was an Italian vocal composer. Only one of her works has survived to today, and little is known about her. It is presumed that she came from a wealthy family and that, given the time in which she lived, she was unable to continue publishing her work after she was married. When I’m researching these posts, I’m always especially thrilled and impressed to find someone to write about who was born before 1700!

– Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, born August 9, 1952, is a Thai children’s rights activist, educator, and politician who works primarily with children living in Thailand’s slums. She is the founder and leader of the Duang Prateep Foundation and the Foundation for Slum Child Care, which provide support and access to education for impoverished children in Thailand.

Prateep Ungsongtham Hata.

Prateep has been awarded the John D. Rockefeller Youth Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mankind and the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, and currently serves in Thailand’s Senate.

– Margaret Murie, born August 18, 1902, was an American environmental conservationist. She worked as a researcher, alongside her husband Olaus Murie, in Alaska, and as an advocate for protecting the area that is now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is this work that earned her the nickname “Grandmother of the Conservation Movement.” Murie has been honored with the Audobon Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Margaret Murie, photographed in 1953 by Edith English of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The first doodle in 1998.

And the team behind it all!

Enjoy!

Basketball 2012

Play This

A cool game to enjoy for the basketball lovers. I like the  design of the game very much. The small girl just throw the balls into the baskets. remember there is a time limit for this game. you must throw the as much as balls to the basket for hitting a good score. The more you do the more score you get. It could be difficult to play for the first time players but as you will try it 2 to 3 times i am sure you will get the right way how to score.

Hurdles 2012

Play This

Another good one from google, The man is looking very tall in the game and i like the graphics too.  You need to run the man fast and jump the stands on the road.  You can jump by pressing the space bar and to run you need to press the arrows buttons continuously. it is very difficult to hit a good score for this game. i already achieved 10 sec and stars after 2 days practise. remember practise makes a man perfect.

Soccer 2012

Play This

The cool soccer is just made for soccer fans. Save the goals to hit a good score. The player is very sharp he will continuously send goals that you need to save by pressing the arrows buttons and sometimes you need to jump. Overall i like this game but not the best for me.

I hope you will like these new games that are very popular in these days. its play time trey them now.

The Google Doodle honoring Julia Child, August 14, 2012.

Julia Child was a famed American chef who became well-known after the publication of her encyclopedic work Mastering the Art of French Cooking with her co-authors (and friends) Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. She went on to work on many cooking-related television programs and books, and was the recipient of the Peabody Award, several Emmy and Daytime Emmy Awards, and the U.S. National Book Award. She was also a recipient of the French Legion of Honor and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. I think she, however, would simply describe herself as someone who loved food and thus loved cooking and teaching the culinary arts.

Child learned to appreciate, and then to create, French cuisine after moving to France in 1948 with her husband, Paul. She had met Paul when she was working as a top-secret intelligence research assistant for the Office of Strategic Services, a U.S. World War II-era intelligence agency. Julia had taken this position because, at 6 feet 2 inches tall, she was too tall to enlist in the Army or Navy’s female corps, but she thrived in her career and received an Emblem of Meritorious Civil Service for her OSS work in Sri Lanka and China. After their marriage, Paul continued his work in the United States Foreign Service in France, Germany, and Norway before the two returned to the United States in 1961. It was during this time that Julia became serious about cooking, attending Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, starting a small cooking school with friends, and working on a cookbook that would become the standard of French cooking for American audiences.

The book, coming in at 734 pages, was originally a tough sell to publishers, who weren’t sure how the American public would respond to such an imposing, encyclopedic volume. But Mastering the Art of French Cooking became a sensation, as did Child herself. She went on to leverage her expertise in cooking shows like The French Chef which ran from 1963 to 1973.

I didn’t know much about Julia Child, though of course I had heard of her and seen some of her television shows, until a few years ago. My mother passed on a copy of Child’s memoir, published after her death in 2006, entitled My Life in France. After reading this account of Child’s life in her own words, I had a truer sense of the joie de vivre that made her so beloved and so successful. Along with her recollections of a life well lived and a career well-earned, Child shares challenges and difficult times, becoming a sort of mentor on-the-page. Her determination to achieve her goals in gastronomy, and to share her pleasure with others, is especially impressive given the male-dominated industries in which she worked.

I was also impressed by Julia’s inquisitive, curious, and empirical approach to French cooking that ultimately led to her not only mastering it herself, but teaching it to so many others. In the book, she describes spending hours upon hours repeating experiments, slightly altering ingredients, techniques, temperatures, and ratios to ultimately produce the perfect roast chicken or pastry (or, as she describes, the ideal amount of gelatin to be added to a from-scratch mayonnaise recipe in order to make “pretty mayo curlicues” on a plate). She wanted to be able to write recipes with such accuracy and precision that any home cook could make a version just like her own, painstakingly perfected, version. As a scientist, I can strongly relate to that!

I’ll close with a quotation from near the end of her memoir, that captures, for me, her approach to her career and her life:

. . . I learned why good French food is an art, and why it makes such sublime eating: nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should. Good results require that one take time and care.

Here is a look at my favourite  Google Doodles from the 2012 London Olympic Games.

OPENING CEREMONY:  I really love how they tried to show not only a number of sports but various ethnicities  with the athletes!

ARCHERY: What I love is how border of the doodle resembles and arrow.

DIVING: One of my favourite sports to watch and I was so pleased Google did a doodle of this one! Once again love the border that resembles ripples in the pool.

FENCING: This one actually uses the Google letters! I love how the head of the first fencer makes up the second ‘O’ and the second fencer has the ‘L’ as his fencing sword.  Also, look at the little bum on that first fencer!

POLE VAULT: What I liked about this one is how the Google colours are shown as the border of the stadium.

 SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING:  Once again,  thew way the border has the ripples of a pool was something that made me smile. Then came the women making the second ‘O’ and look at their reflections as well as the reflection of the rest of the letters in the pool. That is some attention to detail!

BASKETBALL: This was the only interactive one that I played (very badly I might add) What I liked about it was the way the Google letters were spread out among the bleachers.

RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS: I am not even a huge fan of this sport but for some reason I found this doodle adorable. Maybe it is the expression on the athletes face or the way her ribbon makes both the Google ‘O’s

CLOSING CEREMONY: What is great about this is that it incorporates all the athletes from the previous Google doodles. I am sure you can spot some of the ones from the above doodles.

^ Very funny! Sounds familiar :-B

Hey guys! Louise here.

So I was just reading this Blog Post, and I was just reading along, admiring the quality of the photos and then I saw guinea pigs as food.

D: I first I thought it was a rat, yesh, both are rodents, but it wasn’t, I read the Caption…

Here is the Post: http://whileoutriding.com/2012/08/08/one-for-the-family-peru/

Now, I know that I should not be surprised and shocked as I am, or horrified, because people in other places eat like dogs and horse meat? and turtles and all that… it just shocked me because you don’t see Canadians eating that, right?

Peru people eat this, I totally understand, it’s a delicacy of theirs, so I won’t delve into it anymore. I don’t really want to :S

On other news, I was watching some of PD2 and it was hilarious, of course, I’ve watched it a a few or a number of times… Princess Diaries 2 is definitely a movie to watch if you enjoy humour, romance, family-moments… and if you liked or watched the first movie as well :-B

^ Maybe I should review this movie on my Movie Blog! I have not began it yet D: but I hope to create a Post soon.

For the record my Movie Blog is http://louisecritiques.wordpress.com/ :) haha I like that Domain name :-B

Anywhoos, back to PD2…

Chris Pine! That was the first time I ever saw him, I think. In PD2.

Man, you’ve gotta love that guy :”) He’s just adorable and he reminds me of someone I know, someone I like haha, I like both :-B

I saw the trailer for “People Like Us” today and I would really like to watch it… hopefully I can!

Here’s the trailer, doesn’t it look really good?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seQmJ4sWx-E&feature=related

HE’S SO ADORABLE and he even kinda sounds like the guy I like :O Deeper voiced, though, of course.

Now I shall give you all a lotta links that I found interesting.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/videos/move-beat/watch/move-the-beat-day-32492.html

Move to Beat. Should be Canada’s Soccer. I apologize if it is not because I cannot view the video but I saw in on CTV and I think this may be it.

Brilliant video!

and in the mood of the Olympics…

CONGRATULATIONS TO RICHARD WEINBERGER (22 years old) OF VICTORIA FOR WINNING CANADA A BRONZE MEDAL TODAY! I missed it, but literally just heard, so CONGRATS! Nice job!

It was the Men’s 10km Marathon, Time - 1:50:00.3 sec .

Richard Weinberger of Victoria’s Results in the London 2012 Olympics on Day 14, August. 10th, 2012.

To any other Medal winners and other Canadian athletes today like Ryan Cochrane and his partner in Kayaking? and the Freestyle Wrestling? GOOD JOB and GOOD LUCK to those who made it to the Finals and GOOD EFFORT AND JOB to those who didn’t!

How did everyone do in the Google Doodle today? :-B lol actually did okay :-B 2 stars! Hoorays! Saved 14 Soccer Balls?

Erms… haha wasn’t on my laptop during that time but I took a screenshot of what I just did…

… alrighty never mind the Google Doodle just changed to Rhythmic Gymnastics, here is what I screenshotted earlier today on my laptop…

… actually never mind I changed my mind it’s too embarrassing I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING AT THE TIME DON’T THINK BADLY OF ME D: I won’t show it lol bad results, worse than the one not on my laptop :-B

awhs Richard just yelled out, “I LOVE YOU MOM!” :’) That’s adorable.

Okays, here are some more links:

I rather like this magazine, although I haven’t purchased it in ages… it’s GL (Girl’s Life).

http://www.girlslife.com/post/2012/08/08/Get-fit-before-the-bell-ringswithout-hitting-the-gym.aspx <– Cools!

http://www.girlslife.com/damon <– Teeth.

http://www.girlslife.com/post/2011/08/05/5-ways-to-make-your-school-lunch-yummy.aspx <– I like lunch ! : )

http://www.girlslife.com/post/2012/07/11/In-the-News-Should-McDonalds-be-banned-from-the-Olympics.aspx <– You see, I thought that too… odd that McDonalds was a sponsor (well, they are very popular) and the Cocoa-Cola, I mean, those aren’t exactly healthy for ze athletes… :S

https://skyid.sky.com/signup <– Maybe.

Arightys this Post is already really long, I’ll end here.

Check out the links, no matter how old youkayakin are! You could find something interesting in there!

No, I didn’t forget, thank-you guys SO so much for 4 HITS today, making 98 HITS IN TOTAL! :’) Thank-you SO so much for reading my Blog! :’) It really does mean a lot, so THANK-YOU <3 :’)

Thanks for reading guys, and once again, good job to all the teams of the Olympics! I wonder what the Closing Ceremony will look like! :O On Sunday, don’t miss it!

IT’S ALMOST OVER.

WOWZAS. :O :O :O

- Louise =]

Not to brag, but I’ve scored a couple gold medals in quite a few Google sports. And speaking of gold medals, Cathy-on-a-Stick earned one, too. But you’ll have to go visit her at her own little blog if you want to see how she managed that Olympic feat. (Not nearly as enthralling as some athletes, but I hear her photographer is pretty amazing.)

{Airplane clouds}

. Be green, be chic

. August snuck up on me (you, too?) but there are some things to love about this sneaky month.

. Peachy keen.

. Fall essential numero uno (and dos, and tres…)

. I am all Olympics, all the time, and I’m not the only one.

. I LOVE Le Pliage bag by Longchamp, and so does someone else…

People. This week brought sun, sand, a quick trip to Los Angeles. This weekend is all about baseball, dinner with friends, and a long-awaited trip to Stern Grove to get our picnic on. What are you up to?