What a difference a year makes

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This time last year I was driving a moving van halfway across the country. The days before were dedicated to packing up our home in Columbia, for the second time in a matter of months. The first packing up occurred May 2010 as I moved out of my precious District apartment in the Fredrick.

My beloved apartment in the Fredrick

My beloved apartment in the Fredrick

It was my first apartment without a roommate. Leaving that home and moving in with Ryan was an exciting time for me. We’d been living between two homes for three years. Ending my time at the place that brought me so much independence and growth was intense. Continue reading →

Kanto Yaro speaker review

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So you took advantage of Black Friday and picked up a sweet 50 inch HDTV, a Angry Birds-toting Roku 2 XS and a great Xbox bundle. But what good are all these new toys if the audio coming out of them is flat, boring and anemic?

In November, I received an email from the people at Kanto Speakers asking me if I would be interested in reviewing their new speaker system. It’s called the Kanto Yaro, a two-channel audio system, made especially for owners of streaming setup boxes like the Apple TV, utilizing audio technology by the venerable Bang & Olufsen (the makers of beautiful speaker systems I could never dream of affording). I of course said “YES!”

Kanto Yaro digital stereo system
Kanto Yaro digital stereo system

The Yaro is a breeze to setup, dramatically improves on the stock audio from your television and does it with panache. But does its performance match the $330 price tag?

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Rick Perry disgusts me

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I try not to make it a habit of writing purely political posts but the new Rick Perry YouTube video threw me over the edge. If you like the video, you probably won’t like this post.

There is no shortage of reasons I don’t think Perry should be a presidential candidate for the Republican party. I don’t even think he should be the Governor of Texas. It’s not just because he’s a goof who embarrases most people from Texas, like myself, it’s the way he markets himself as a candidate.

For whatever reason, the loud, far right conservative politicians on the scene these days treat culture and intelligence as negative attributes. They forget that Christian law, much like Sharia law, is not United States law. They forget that smart people create solutions where others can’t. They forget a lot of things, many of which were their founding principles. I’m not talking about all Republicans, I’m talking about people like Rick Perry.

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Check out the video of my Ignite Talk

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A few weeks ago the good people at O’Reilly Media uploaded my five minute Ignite Sebastopol 6 talk. I have been hesitant to share it with you guys because I have near crippling glossophobia that apparently continues on to the weeks after walking off the stage. Perhaps I’m just a little self-conscious.

But you know what? The reason I jumped at the opportunity to give an Ignite talk was an effort to conquer my fear of public speaking. So here’s to conquering another fear! The talk is about serendipity and how it brought me from a high school in Houston to the Ignite stage in Sebastopol.

Also, shoutout to my friend Lauren Kilberg who was probably the first person in the world to see the video on YouTube. In fact, Lauren was the first person to tell me it was on YouTube and she’s tweeting from Korea! True friends :D

As of this posting I STILL haven’t watched the video which has 90 views so far. Can’t believe I’m sharing this with you guys haha. Cheers and don’t be too mean in the comments! No promises but if I get enough positive comments here to convince me it isn’t a totally embarrassing train wreck, I’ll totally consider watching it.

It’s Time to End Marriage Inequality

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My Twitter friend Gabe retweeted a link tonight from @Padbury that simply read, “Please watch this, ‘It’s Time’”. I stopped what I was doing and decided to click the YouTube link. What followed was one of the best marriage equality videos I have ever seen. Zero dialog, remarkably real and absolutely magical. This is what matters.

Please share this post, this video, this message with the people in your life. Also, check out http://www.getup.org.au/marriagematters. There are half a dozen ways below this video to share this with all of your friends. Take this step for marriage equality.

That is all, thanks so much.