I launched my blog in 2009 when I was wrestling with a midlife crisis. Since then, the digital world has changed so much. I was new to both Facebook and Twitter when I started blogging, and I was still rocking the BlackBerry for email. Instagram hadn’t launched yet. Podcasting and short videos are what the cool kids do these days, blogging is considered old fashioned. But I still find it the best way to share my thoughts and to profile people who inspire me.
I hope you’ll find something here that inspires you, or at least sparks a conversation. Some of my favorite posts are pinned to the top, scroll down a bit more to find the most recent, or check out the categories in the sidebar.
If you have been on the Web at all in the last few weeks, chances are you’ve had at least one friend share the dancing baby YouTube video with you. Maybe dozens? It’s become such a hit that MSNBC reports the baby’s dad started getting 10 e-mails a minute. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q] Why has baby Cory Elliott gotten about 2.5 million views…
While I do confess a weakness for costume jewelry and flashy shoes, I am, in my heart, a practical girl. Whenever I’m considering a significant purchase, I ponder “Do I really need this? Can I make do without it?” The answers were “No” and “Yes” for all three of these kitchen purchases we’ve made. But I stand behind all three.…
Editor’s note: This is a fairly lengthy post. I suggest you fire up Preservation Hall’s live performance on World Cafe, maybe mix yourself a hurricane, and settle in. Ben Jaffe grew up with dreams of becoming a modern jazz musician, “really hell bent on moving to New York.” Family responsibility and appreciation of where he’d come from put him on…
As you might recall, I’m newly obsessed with the idea of making my own pickles. I haven’t actually done it but I like to think I will so I’ve bought equipment and reading material, which is practically the same as doing it, right? By this same logic, taking my gym bag to the office equals a work out, by the…
Apparently the topic of going to bed with your mate generates a lot of interest — and truly, I’m just talking about sleeping. The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Momania blog quoted my blog post about Lucy and Ricky beds maybe being good for your marriage. Check out Theresa’s post — and the dozens of passionate comments — here. Then Information House…
What do you think when you watch re-runs of old TV shows where married couples retire to a bedroom with two twin beds a very safe distance from one another? You might make a joke about how Lucy got pregnant with Ricky way over there — remember, it was a time when you couldn’t even say “pregnant” on TV —…
More magazine, which bills itself as a “comprehensive resource and community for women over 40,” is hosting a Reinvention Convention Oct. 5 in New York. The Web site says: Are you ready to revamp your career? Tackle money management questions? Rev up your style, health and maybe your sex life, too? Then join the editors of More, top experts and…
Today, election season kicked off in Grand Rapids, Mich. Not to choose a mayor, but to decide who will win about $450,000 in prize money up for grabs in ArtPrize. ArtPrize bills itself as a radically open art contest — some 1,200 artists have their work on display, competing for first prize of $250,000, which is chosen by votes from…
For the three readers who’ve gotten used to the rhthyms of Newvine Growing, you’ve noticed that I often do shorter posts during the week and a longer, more in depth piece on the weekend. I had one ready to go Saturday but we’re having some Internet connectivity issues at home. Time Warner’s customer service was outstanding — patient, clear, almost no…
Rick Field, founder of New York pickle concern Rick’s Picks, recently taught a dill pickle making class at farmers market in Prospect Park. As he waited for the brine to heat up in a kettle on a propane burner, Field talked about his unlikely transition from television producer to artisanal pickle maker. As the New York Press reported: Field wasn’t…
Keith Ferrazzi, author of Who’s Got Your Back and Never Eat Lunch Alone, recently tweeted: Over time, we will be within 10 % of income of our closest friends. Similar for weight, health. A story in this weekend’s New York Times magazine, headlined Is Happiness Catching?, went deeper than 140 characters on the influence of our friends. The story about…
Jennifer Worick Jennifer Worick, a crafty Seattle gal with a slew of published books and a couple of blogs, recently wrote a blog post about letting go of rigid expectations and learning to roll with life’s unpredictable nature. It starts: Until a few years ago, I thought I was just a logical person with high standards for myself and others.…
Thanks to Twitter, I learned about the Slow Money conference — I hadn’t heard of it until I saw Stowe Boyd’s 140-character updates Thursday. BusinessWeek writes: There’s a conference going on in Santa Fe this week about Slow Money. The idea behind slow money, modeled on the 20-year-old slow food movement, is to create an infrastructure for investing in local…
John and I have just started watching This American Life via Netflix. Since John worked at an NPR affiliate for eight years, we’re well acquainted with the wonderful radio version but we’ve just gotten the first disc of the Showtime TV series. Ira Glass is a spectacular story teller. I don’t know if his approach is the same for television,…
I met Rob Pasick years ago, when I was business editor at the Ann Arbor News and he was an interesting local character — a psychologist and executive coach and who was working the media not about his day job but about his book “Conversations with My Old Dog.” We’ve stayed in touch off and on over the years, and…
When I first met Sarah Endline at a Michigan alumni event, she had the kind of job lots of MBA students envy, working at Yahoo as the major search engines were really coming into power. When she told me she was leaving the corporate world to start a premium chocolate company, I was surprised. She didn’t have a background in…
While I am a long way from dethroning Oprah’s media empire, I am still excited — August was Newvine Growing’s best month yet for visits. Thank you so much for spending time reading, and thanks especially to those of you who have shared your thoughts and feedback in comments. I find my August numbers especially satisfying because I expected people…
Much has been written since Michael Jackson’s death about his huge influence on pop culture. Don’t get me wrong, I listened to Thriller on the cheap little turntable in my bedroom nonstop, but I think John Hughes got overshadowed because he had a heart attack while everyone was still fixated on the King of Pop. John Hughes transformed my teenage…
My post earlier this week, “Is it true you can’t work harder than your clients?” got people talking — but since some of that conversation happened over on Facebook, I thought I’d copy it into the blog so more people can benefit from the commenters’ wisdom. Julia Collins, owner of Fitness Chick personal training service, said: I want my clients…
Some people don’t pursue their dreams for very practical reasons — they have to pay the rent and they worry that being a musician, artist, filmmaker or writer won’t make any money. A story in the New York Times this week introduced me to Kickstarter, based in our back yard here in Brooklyn. Earl Scioneaux III is not a famous music…
MediaPost recently had an article about a Florida guy named Jason Sadler who is making money from a simple but compelling idea: The idea was simple, if sartorially limiting: Sadler, 27, decided that on Jan. 1, 2009, he would wear a company’s logo t-shirt all day, broadcasting video and photos of himself on various social media, including ustream.tv and Twitter…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a blog post I stumbled onto headlined You can’t work harder than your clients. Diane Sieg, an emergency room nurse turned author and life coach, writes on her blog: As I start my second month of Life Coaching at the Wellness Treatment Center, I am reminded of a very important concept: You can’t…
I grew up in an agricultural state. Michigan grows cherries, apples and sugar beets, among other things, and to live in Michigan is to know the mantra “knee high by the Fourth of July” is a growth measure for the huge expanses of corn fields all over the state.
But I don’t think I’d even heard the phrase “farmers’ market” until I was out of college. Ironically, it’s in super urban New York City where farmers’ markets have transformed both how we shop and how we eat, in both cases for the better.
Believe it or not, the Internet is good for more than watching videos of skateboarding dogs — you can find loads of help on your journey to become a better person. One consistently great site is called Zen Habits. Articles on their Web site include: 20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life Simple Living Manifesto:…
