I love wandering into a random [somewhat, as I'd searched online for reviews first] place and finding something that just triggers happy feelings. Ian and RV were meeting up for their monthly [every-so-often, but should be more often than that] drinks. I tagged along after suggesting the place and fell in like. It’s not love yet because I haven’t seen it at other hours, but for a Sunday afternoon, it was nice.

My friend, Kara, recently started a blog called “I Love It, SF.” In it, she explores the great things about San Francisco and documents with brilliant photos and of course, writing. I’d really like to get back into that as well, capturing the moments that truly make life fantastic [superduperly so]. I recently replaced my point-and-shoot camera with the assistance of some friends on which one to pick out. This Canon SD780 IS is on its way to me now, so I’ll have photos to go along with stories!

Yes, it’s RED!

The latest internet craze is purchasing in groups. There are quite a few websites out there that offer location-based deals in bulk. To name a few, Joffer, Groupon, TownHog, LivingSocial. I could go on since they seem to be popping up everywhere.

Anyway, the latest offer I “took advantage” of was with LivingSocial. $10 for $20 of desserts at Creations, a Hong Kong-style dessert place. Unfortunately, the fine print is that the entire value must be used in one visit. While the desserts at Creations tend to be on the pricier side, they are not $20 pricey. To fully take advantage of this deal, I need to sit there and eat four or five desserts.

*grumble*

Considering that I’ve been on a liquid diet for so long, perhaps I could actually sit there and consume all those in one sitting. But to be realistic, I can invite also invite a few friends and have a night out to enjoy desserts.

Lesson learned – Read the fine print.

So who’s in for dessert night?

Not too long ago, a friend sent out this article on luck. It’s a pretty awesome read. Basically, it says that luck can be learned. Dr. Richard Wiseman’s research reveals that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles:

* Creating and noticing chance opportunities.
* Making lucky decisions by listening to intuition.
* Creating self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations.
* Adopting a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

I totally agree. It’s a matter of perspective. Rather than playing the victim when something happens, one should take things into their own hands. LIVE, rather than let life happen to you. His research is actually pretty interesting, so read the article! But in case you don’t, it ends with three techniques that can help to maximize one’s fortune:

* Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. Lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation.

* Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. They tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. For example, one person described how he thought of a color before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that color. This kind of behavior boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.

* Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse.

The flights are booked. It was not difficult at all. I did searches for my flights online and then called Jet Blue with my requests. I didn’t have to wait long each time, except for the most recent itinerary change. Must’ve gotten popular! Had a few changes to make, but cancellation was an easy process too. My accommodations have, for the most part, been figured out. Thanks to my friends who’ll be hosting over the course of the month. I can’t wait to see you guys!

Here’s the plan:
09/08-09/11 – AUSTIN
09/14-09/14 – ORLANDO [w/ #12hrs]
09/14-09/18 – BURLINGTON* [w/ #12hrs] / MONTREAL*
09/18-09/22 – WASHINGTON DC
09/22-09/25 – NEW YORK CITY
09/25-09/29 – CHICAGO* / MILWAUKEE*
09/29-10/02 – BUFFALO* / NIAGARA FALLS* / TORONTO*
10/04-10/07 – BOSTON*

* = never been! Suggestions on what not to miss at these destinations? I’d love to hear ‘em!

I’ve gotten mixed responses from people. Most are excited about this opportunity for me and have basically expressed that they’d go if they had the time. I’ve got the time, so I’m doing it. Then there are those who send me links to various online articles about whether or not this is really a deal. I’ve read ‘em all. It IS a deal for me. I get to visit the people I’ve been meaning to see, go to the places I’ve been wanting to go. Sticking to the domestic destinations still puts me way over the cost of the flights and the cost of making reservations over phone. Jet Blue has a separate department handling these All-You-Can-Jet passes. By the way, passes are all sold out!

Besides, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of such a deal. Cathay Pacific has an All-Asia Pass during the summer months where you can jet around its Asian destinations for a set price. I’d do that if I didn’t think I would want to spend at least a few weeks in each location! I’m the girl who spent her entire 3-week vacation in one country rather than move across a handful in that time. I travel to experience and to absorb. Perhaps I am just a slow sponge…

And of course, my plan of action is not as crazy as others out there. There’s the guy who is traveling to 10 flights within 60 hours [Source: Time.Com]. He’ll go from airport to airport and only spend time touching the ground of Portland. I’m not sure that’s the best way to go about making use of the deal if you can’t even experience the cities you’re traveling to.

Then there’s Joe and Clark who went so far as to set up Twelve Hours in A City – 31 Days of Jet Travel, 12 Hours between Flights. They’re going all out with a site, sponsors, and swag. That’s a little more manageable, in my opinion. Since I have a few gaps [mainly 09/12-09/17], I might look into plan on meeting up with Joe and Clark for part of their travels!, depending on if the time matches up. There’s a bunch of others taking advantage of the deal – many of whom are tracking their whereabouts at WhereWeJet.

I haven’t updated in about a week, but I feel as though there is a lot of catching up to do. While the market is still in the shape that its in, I’ve dived in head first in a few personal projects.

1) Slightly Delightful – This is a domain that I’ve used in the past for my personal blog. Since I switched over to this SuperDuperFantastic, it’s sat there in silence. I’ve always liked the name, so I couldn’t bear to part with it just yet.

I am now using it as a shopping blog to document all my neat finds!

I decided on gearing it towards items that cost $50 or less since that still remains an amount that I might be willing to splurge now and again. I was, of course, inspired by a lot of the shopping blogs I’ve come across on the internet and just really wanted to start my own. RV helped me out with the graphic design, and I altered a Wordpress template to get what I wanted.

The site was born on the first of this month. It’s slow going for now, but I’m hoping it will grow!

2) #2 on the 101 in 1001 – Go on a week long camping trip.

RV’s father’s family is having a reunion up at a campground along the Oregon coast, and I’ve been invited. It’s a week-long trip up in the RV [hahaha]. It’s not really camping though because this RV is decked out. His dad basically likes to travel with his entire house.

3) #90 on the 101 in 1001 – Attend Burning Man – just to check it out.

With more time this year than the past, we’ve decided to borrow the RV and join in on the Burning Man fun. We have our tickets and bicycles, so I guess that means we’re going. Sure, driving an RV in won’t exactly be roughing it, but when you’re in that amount of heat in the middle of nowhere, a little comfort should be okay. I don’t think we will be joining a specific camp, which I think will work out just fine as long as we have everything we need. A friend of ours is joining us too and plans on creating t-shirt art to be distributed to the people we meet. Should be fun!

4) In conjunction with the item above, we’ve bought bicycles! So guess what? I’m crossing #1 on the 101 in 1001 off the list – Buy a bicycle. Ride it. as soon as I’ve assembled the bike and rode it around a bit.

5) I’m helping out with Twestival SF this year. They were looking for a Merchandise Manager, so I volunteered. This year’s beneficiary will be 140 Smiles. Operation Smile is a private not-for-profit medical services organization providing reconstructive surgery and related health care to indigent children and young adults in developing countries. Medical volunteers travel on medical missions to repair of cleft lips, palates and facial reconstructive surgery in 34 countries around the world.

It’s going to be a busy few months. I hope that by the time I resurface, the market will have changed in my favor… Who knows? I remain optimistic as always!

RV has started a blog. He’s always wanted to about this particular subject, but he never got to doing it until he realized just how easy it would be. In terms of the tools used, everything’s easy with Wordpress. There are plugins for just about anything, and if not, you can make your own. I’m not so skilled, but the option is there.

http://www.thegermaphobe.net

It’s called “The Germaphobe Blog.” It’s pretty hilarious, but also informational! If you’re a germaphobe or even have experiences where you’re just grossed out by the thought of germs, well it’s quite the read. He only started it up in the last week or two. So far, there’s survival tips on public restrooms and handling money. There will be survival tips, product reviews, stories about personal experiences with being a germaphobe too! There are plans for having guest bloggers as well, so if you’re against the germs, feel free to get in contact to contribute.

If I haven’t already blasted you enough with tweets about it, please check it out. I am biased. I help edit the blog, but that’s just so everyone else out there doesn’t know how poorly his sentences are structured. I kid! :) He’s awesome. The blog is awesome.

Please leave comments. It will encourage him to write more. Thanks!

On July 11, 2009 [Saturday], a bunch of us are throwing a BBQ at Lake Merced to benefit the SF Food Bank. We’re calling it “PigEat Fest – Eugeapalooza IV: A New Hope.” We = a group of people who met through Yelp.com, you know, that site for writing reviews of restaurants. What can I say? We love to eat, or maybe I should say, “We live to eat.” In the past, it’s always been just a group of our friends getting together, enjoying food, and raising money for the food bank. We’re trying to make it bigger this year, so the invitation is open to all!

In addition to the normal goodies, Clark Summit Farm in Tomales, CA has provided one of their heritage breed, livin’-the-good-life, and seriously tasty pigs for the festivities!

Remember, for every $1 donated to the SF Food Bank, $9 of food is distributed! From our last three events, we’ve raised about $9K, which is $81K in food. That’s a lot, but we can do better.

Tickets will be $20 until July 6th, and $30 from then to the day of. For information on how to purchase tickets, visit the Facebook Event page, the Yelp Event page, or email pigeatfest @ gmail. Also all those interested in volunteering should contact us through that same email address!

Hope you can make it! If not, feel free to donate to the SF Food Bank anyway and spread the word! I’ll attach our logo as soon as RV gets to designing it.

For those retweeting on Twitter, please use #pigeatfest!

Another year, another WordCamp. Once again, I was a volunteer. Woke up early on a Saturday morning to sign volunteers and Automatticians in. I think the day went well overall. I knew more people this year than last, which was very nice. Similar to last year, only some of the talks were relevant to me.

I think there were many [myself included] who wished that there were at least two-sentence descriptions on what the talks would be about. You’d find yourself in one spot because of an interesting title, and then five or ten minutes in, you wish you’d been at the other talk instead. Luckily, all the sessions will be made available on Wordpress.tv! So if you missed WordCamp, didn’t take enough notes, or were hanging out at the wrong session, no worries. I can’t wait to watch some of the early sessions that I missed while registering the volunteers.

Sadly, I couldn’t make it to the Automattic anniversary party in the evening. But it wasn’t without a very good reason. We went to Asian Rock Fest instead, where Festizio [below - middle], Johnny Hi-Fi [below - right], United High [below - left], and Burning Tree Project [above - left] tore it up. It was great!

More iPhone-quality photos from the concert: here!

#140conf (aka “140 Characters Conference”) brought to you by Jeff Pulver will be taking place in NYC on June 16-17. It’s the place to be for those passionate about Twitter and its role in business, communications, EVERYTHING. The cast of characters [some presenting, others just making an appearance] consists of many big names in the Twitterverse and across social media. It’s not to be missed [if you can help it]!

And fortunately for those who are currently experiencing financial constraints and cannot justify the costs of attending, there are thirty scholarships that Jeff is making available. Details about the #140conf Scholarship here. I am applying for one of them, as are a few others I know, so hopefully we’ll be able to attend!

So the Radar store is finally up, and my torso is now internet-famous! Yup, that’s me and my unusually long arms. The best part is that everything is priced at cost [the clothing, not my arms - hah!].

So what’s Radar? A photo-sharing community. You post photos by emailing them in or through the various phone applications [I use their iPhone app!] out there. It links to Twitter and Facebook, but I prefer it over Yfrog and TwitPic because 1) it looks a lot nicer, and 2) there’s a community there. You can hold conversations about the shared content. After all, the main reason you share photos on Twitter is to get some kind of response from people who follow you, yeah?

Last week, RV and I made a surprise appearance on Radar Live, a weekly Justin.tv broadcast where the community manager of Radar.net [Hi Morgan!] discusses Radar news and answers questions.