stellargirl returns

vacation all i ever wanted

I've been singing the lines to that Go-Go's song all summer, but it wasn't until the very last gasps of summer until I finally took the plunge and got the hell out of Dodge.  For those of you who don't live in Philadelphia, it's probably one of the worst places to be during the month of August and I really thought I was going to lose it this year.

Thankfully, my very old and dear friend Christine convinced me to visit her in Los Angeles, California for a few days to get some good old fashioned sun and fun. She was looking for a reason to take a staycation, so it was a win-win situation!

We spent every single day in LA either hitting the beach or hiking up mountains and through chapparals.  We drank pints of Guinness at a pretty damn near authentic English pub, drank margaritas on Marina del Ray, and sipped lattes (soy chai for me) in some of the coolest coffee shops around.

My favorite parts of the trip centered around staring out into the horizon of the Pacific ocean, looking out into the mountains and valley and seeing for miles, thinking about life, thinking about nothing. Never before have I been so grateful to just unplug.

Our big night out was seeing Pink Martini play at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night. Their music is a blend of jazz, vintage, lounge and really, just a plain old good time. The Hollywood Bowl is all outdoors and pretty huge. We sat way way way far back, the concert shell seemed a million miles away, but it didn't matter. There were moments that I couldn't believe I was really there, tucked away in the Hollywood hills among thousands of people, perfect southern California weather, the outline of mountains against the night sky.

Sometimes I forget about that nature stuff, here in this dirty old town.

It was an awesome trip and a HUGE reminder and kick in the pants that it's really important to get away if you can. 

You might be surprised what you find.

i'm feasting, are you?

I had a great week off between Christmas and New Year's this year. I didn't make any plans at all. I wanted to let the week unfold as it was intended to. I slept in a few mornings, finally started back up at the gym, did a big shop at Whole Foods and cooked lots of meals all week long.

I also unplugged a bit, so chances are my twitters were probably heavy on the feastings.  Some of you are confused right now, others are not.  My friend Randy Schmidt of isepta fame recently launched isFeasting, the website that lets you share what you are eating with the world!

Here is how it works: I take a picture with my iphone, email it to my isfeasting account, where it also posts to twitter, which also posts to my Facebook profile. People I know from all over the place are commenting on my meals, asking for recipes, remembering a favorite food or restaurant, perhaps noticing my love of sriracha sauce!

I'm getting addicted to sharing my favorite meals and I'm actually cooking a lot more, too.  Have you created your isFeasting account? Join today!

2008: the year of awesome

In no particular order, some cool things that happened this year:

• I experienced year one of home ownership. I made it through without any major incidents. I made a few small improvements here and there, mostly of the wall painting variety, but as 2008 comes to a close, I am now in the possession of a brand spanking new water heater. It's so nice to own a piece of Philadelphia and have my own space to roam and hide out. I've also gotten much more involved with my neighborhood civic association and helped organize our fall tree planting this year. Sadly, I can't have a tree in front of my house due to underground utilities, but I played a part in getting about 40 more trees planted in the neighborhood.

• I lost 15lbs. I feel kinda weird putting it all out there like that, but it was kind of a big deal to me! I moved back to Philly from NYC just over 3 years ago and had a hard time adjusting and finding a good fitness routine that I enjoyed, thus I packed on some good old fashioned Philly beer poundage. I'm still working on it, and December has actually been a really lazy month, but overall, I feel so much BETTER. I really think that physical activity is one of the keys to happiness. It affects your life in so many positive ways, and it's also something that you can share with others. I shared my love of fitness by organizing two 5K teams, one in the spring and one in the fall. It was fun training to improve my own pace as well as encourage friends to run their first race. I also discovered dailymile - a great way to train socially!

• I went to SXSW for the first time. I've wanted to go to SXSW for at least 5 years now but there has always been some reason why I wasn't able to make it. I have to give a special shout-out to my friend Joshua Lane for hooking me up with a free registration, he's totally the reason I decided to make the leap this year. I met so many awesome people at SXSW and heard amazing talks from many people who have inspired me for years. I find myself referring to Kathy Sierra's keynote over and over again, I want to make users (people!!) feel like they kick ass. Thanks, Kathy! I hope to make it back again in 2009.

• I helped put on BarCamp Philly. This was a pretty life-changing experience for me! My friend JP Toto and I started talking about BarCamp over the summer. He had recently attended BarCamp Orlando and I kept wondering, why hasn't Philly had a BarCamp? JP and I put our heads together and pulled it off without a hitch this past November. I learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of (a long overdue experience) and met the most awesome people along the way. I am so STOKED to do BarCamp Philly 2009, I think it will completely ROCK. I am also extremely excited for other fun projects on the horizon like Geeks Who Give and Refresh Philly.

• I made even more amazing friends. Living in Philly has its perks. There are so many great events going on, particularly in the tech space, where I have met tons of new people: Junto, Ignite Philly, BarCamp Philly, DrupalCamp, Tweetups, Meetups, not to mention the proximity to the awesomeness of NYC and its denizens. I feel pretty lucky to walk into 2009 with new people to be inspired by, learn from and have good times with.

All in all, 2008 was an exciting and fun year. It feels good to step back and reflect on some of the highlights. I am hoping 2009 is off the charts amazing. I hope the same for all of you. Let's make it happen.

BarCamp Philly = AWESOME

When I signed on to help plan BarCamp Philly this past summer, I couldn't have possibly known the huge impact it would have on my life.  I've been talking about this recap post to friends, and realizing that there's not much more I can say about how great the event actually went (it was AWESOME) because I have already said it all on the BarCamp Philly blog.  What I did want to write about was how I went into this event as one person and came out another. 

I've always considered myself very much of a team player, someone who likes to collaborate, build something together, stay behind the scenes.  I am still that person, but in doing BarCamp, I had the opportunity to take a greater responsibility for the outcome by being a leader of the project (I shared that role with JP Toto, who thankfully let me run wild with all of my crazy ideas and plans).  I hope it doesn't sound like I am tooting my own horn here, but for the last month, almost every minute of every day was consumed with a persistent thought, "What can I do to make this event completely AWESOME?"  I hope that came across to people who attended.

So how am I different? I guess because I saw a shred of what I am capable of.  Those of you that know me well, hopefully think of me as your biggest cheerleader, always trying to be supportive of your projects and endeavors.  I'll do anything to help my friends become aware of their potential, and I'm not afraid to place my foot firmly in your a$$ to remind you of the path to happiness that lies before you.  I don't always believe in myself enough, however, and this event served as one of those reminders to JUST EFFING DO IT.  And now, on the other side of things, I'm ready to DO a lot more. So watch out.

BarCamp really is about community and we couldn't possibly have gotten anywhere without the help of all of the superb volunteers and of course all of the people who attended this user-driven event.

I am especially grateful to my dear friend Geoff DiMasi for believing in me and always encouraging me to swim in deeper waters. I'd also like to thank the amazing Kelani Nichole for working side by side with me on so many aspects of the event, from shirts to signs to incredible superpowers (possessing them, that is).  To Matt Knell, for not only rallying the NYC crew, but for constantly brimming with enthusiasm towards BarCamp Philly, every step of the way.

To Gloria Bell and Melissa Thiessen, who signed every single person into BarCamp and completely held down the fort while we ran around attending sessions and managing the event. To Dave Konopka for offering indispensable WordPress knowledge and firing up the BarCamp Philly wiki. To Marion Summerville, for assembling the most beautiful grid of index cards for the analog schedule. To Carl Leiby for creating the famous digital schedule (which is now open source for all future BarCamps). To Arpit Murtha, Jim Cavanagh and Aaron Held for providing and designing video content for the 13th floor lobby.  To Kendall Schoenrock and Carsten Petzold of LTLprints.com for donating stickers for our sponsor wall. To Dana Vachon and Katie Regenye for baking us the most delicious Open Source Cupcakes.  To the CIM crew for representing in force, and for offering a helping hand wherever possible.

To UArts for donating a dynamic and inspirational environment for learning and sharing. To Indy Hall for letting us host several planning meetings and for being a major catalyst in the Philly tech community. To P'unk Ave, home of the Junto, for hosting a welcoming pre-party on Friday night. To National Mechanics for letting us throw it down like rockstars (complete with RockBand) and for chipping in a massive amount towards our rapidly diminishing bar tab.

To all of our generous sponsors for contributing to the costs associated with BarCamp Philly.  To all of the speakers, who brought knowledge and passion to each of their sessions. To all of the attendees who came with an open mind and a positive attitude. 

And finally, to all of the new friends I have made as a result of this event. I'm thrilled to know you all and look forward to many interesting collaborations and enjoyable moments in the future.

Thank you EVERYONE for making BarCamp Philly AWESOME.

vote for Obama and for Alex...

My friend Alex(andra) has been a tireless volunteer for Obama over the last year, but as it turns out, she is unable to vote tomorrow!

Here is what she has to say:

I am Roz's friend Alex, an American who has voted in every presidential election since I turned 18. I am also a dedicated Democrat. Due to some really ridiculous residency laws (I live in Puerto Rico now) I am not allowed to vote in this election. I want to urge everyone to vote and to vote for Obama, but mostly I want to convince someone to go vote who otherwise wouldn't have, so I feel like I voted. Please vote and let me or Roz know if you voted for Obama for me!

Let Alex know you voted by commenting on this post! Thank you!

(Photo by Jean Vidal Font)

team tweet FTW!

Did I mention that Team Tweet totally kicked ass at the Parkway Run 5K this past Sunday?  Well we did. Even in the rain! There are a ton more 5K races this fall, please reply in the comments if you are interested in signing up for one!

need new threads? have a clothing swap!

If you're anything like me, you've probably got a closet full of clothes that you look at every day and say, "I have nothing to wear!" One of the best ways to deal with this is to go through all of your stuff and edit, removing anything that you haven't worn for a season, doesn't fit, etc. You can store some of it if you think your size might change or if it's off season, etc.

As for the rest of it, chances are that some clothing you may no longer like for yourself might look smashing on a friend of yours. That's why it's great to have a clothing swap!  I've been having clothing swaps, aka Naked Lady Parties, ever since I lived in Brooklyn, when all my crafty friends would come over and dump all their fashion treasures on my living room floor.

My clothing swap style is to separate all the items into piles: shirts, shoes, pants, skirts, dresses, accessories, etc. Then someone takes the emcee role, holds the item up and describes it, and whoever is interested shouts "me me me!" or something similar.You can also have a free-for-all sample sale style event, where everyone can just have at it. I prefer the former. According to my friends at Tiny Choices, the two different styles are East Coast and West Coast!! Who knew?

When the day is done, have a friend help you take all the leftovers to the Goodwill or a similar local thrift store.

So, your closet is leaner and cleaner, you've scored some great new threads, you had a super fun day and you've given a healthy donation to those less fortunate. Sounds like a win to me!

Check out pics from my last swap >>

NEWSFLASH! Mark your calendars! The Philly Sewing Collective is having a Swap-o-Rama-Rama on Sunday October 19th from 1 to 5pm.

Founded by Wendy Tremayne, Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a clothing swap and series of DIY workshops in which participants explore creative reuse from recycled clothing. Basically, you bring a bag of clothes and they get sorted into piles by volunteers. You get to sort through all the clothes and work at the various DIY stations and sewing stations to create new clothes!

a house obsession is born

A while back, I profiled my amazing friend Leah Shirey on get to know my blogroll.  At the time, she was rocking out on her blog of many years, Only Partially Insane.  If you try to visit her site today you will see that it redirects to her new and fabulous blog: House Obsession!

Leah has been a super-homey gal for quite a long time, sprucing up every house she has ever lived in to places of design, creativity and organization that many of us can only dream of.  Now you can learn and be inspired by Leah anytime you want by checking out House Obsession.  She's also available as a consultant to come to your home and work her magic!!!

Here is a photo from Leah's big Kitchen Remodel of 2008! It's an amazing and beautiful transformation and has made it's way all over some really fab home blogs.  I hope I can invest in her services one day. I'm sure I'll be pleased with the results!

all about the beer

Last night, P'unk Ave hosted another fantastic Junto.  This month's topic was Free Beer. And yes, there was plenty of free beer!  In bottles we had the Chris Matta wheat brew, and from Grain Star Brewery, a nice keg of luscious porter. 

The panel discussion centered around the Open Source movement.  The 3 panelists included: Howard Ross (homebrewer and web developer), Robert Hall (Adobe Community Expert and Flash master), and Tom Boutell (Open Source maniac).  The moderators were Kelani Nichole and Alex Gilbert. The panel discussion focused on the Open Source movement vs. proprietary software development and wandered into the maze of patents (a future Junto) and even touched on recipes: from the very microbrews we were drinking to food recipes.  Engaging conversation all around.  If you couldn't make it last night, check out this photoset on Flickr.

If you are now feeling crazy thirsty for some beer, you're in luck! A new Two Guys on Beer episode came out today!  Drink up!

girls' night with the DS lite

Check out my new Nintendo DS Lite!  I attended "A Girlfriend's Guide to Gaming" party on Friday night, hosted by my pal Marisa and sponsored by Nintendo.  Nintendo really wants to tap into the female market and works with the lovely ladies at Brand About Town to host parties in cities all across the country.

Our party was held in a beautiful loft space in Old City, complete with fancy furnishings, food, candles, candy, and lots of DS Lites stacked on little tables at each station for us to play.  Upon arrival, we were each given a charm bracelet and were told that once we completed each game, we'd receive a charm for our bracelet. Once we collected all of the charms, we got a special surprise!

There were 4 games in total: Nintendogs (my niece has this and loves it), Mario Kart (very fun), a crossword puzzle game (I guess I wasn't that into it, because I totally don't remember what it was called), and my personal favorite Brain Age.  Brain Age was the last game I played, and I was hooked.  It's pretty nerdy, but I was thinking that my brain could use a little exercise.  Guess it was my lucky night because that game turned out to be a special surprise along with my very own DS Lite! Yay!

As you can see, I haven't even opened it up yet... I am a little afraid that I might get addicted.

DS Lite party pics on Flickr >>