How To Public Speaking
1 comment // announcing, media, thought provoking
Have you all heard of Ignite? An Ignite evening is made up of short talks on interesting subjects. Each speaker has 5 minutes (and 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds) to tell you about something they’re passionate about. Here in Charlotte, we’re getting ready for Ignite Charlotte 5 and I’m honored to be one of the speakers! I’ll be giving you tips on How To Get Pretty Much Anyone To Do Pretty Much Anything.
I’m launching the battle early with my ENFP inclinations, and making myself begin working on my talk now in the hopes of finishing strong and avoiding stage shame. Part of my early work is hanging out watching other people’s successful and less successful Ignite talks. I figure if I can watch what enough people do right and what enough people do wrong, I can make sure I’m in the “right” category. But I can also easily get carried away with this “research” and forget that writing and practicing the talk is really what I need to be doing.
So I jumped over to Facebook for one last hit before I got down to business and started writing. And then I stumbled upon this. And it’s exactly what I needed. Ze Frank giving us an honest (yet still funny) batch of public speaking tips. If you ever have to stand up and speak publicly, I recommend watching this video right here. It’s brilliant.
Once you watch it, however. Get to work! That talk isn’t going to write itself.
Hope I see you at Ignite Charlotte on September 25 at the Neighborhood Theatre. You can RSVP (it’s free) starting August 25.
Wish me luck!
(Thanks for sharing, Celeste!
And here’s a link in case the embedded video doesn’t work for you.)
Branding the Presidents
2 comments // clever, design, history, thought provoking
Here’s a cool personal project from designer Meg Jannot – a Tumblr called Branding the Presidents. She’s designing each of the 44 presidents over the course of 44 days. A great exercise for any designer, and especially great for this breathless, rough-and-tumble election year. Nice work Meg!
I especially love how different they all are. Here are a few highlights. Click here to see the whole set on Tumblr. Which ones are your favorites?
Thanks Ilina!
Old New York
2 comments // ephemera, history, photography
Oh my heavens. Hundreds of gorgeous photos of old New York. Shots you’ve never seen before. Like the one above of painters on the Brooklyn Bridge. With no safety harnesses or anything! I could look at these all day. In fact, I just did.
The New York City Municipal Archives has just released a database of over 870,000 photos from its collection of more than 2 million images of New York throughout the 20th century.
Here are just a few of the great ones, curated by Alan Taylor from The Atlantic.
(Click images to enlarge.)
To see more (and there are SO MANY MORE), go to The Atlantic, or go directly to the NYC Municipal Archives Gallery. You’ll lose half your day there. But you’ll thank me.
Vote Against!
4 comments // save the world
If you are in North Carolina and you haven’t voted yet, please PLEASE go vote tomorrow. And please consider voting AGAINST Amendment One — a referendum so offensive to me that I am stunned that we have to even entertain this nonsense.
The idea that my home state — the place I was born and where I have spent the majority of my life — believes it acceptable for us to consider adding discrimination to our Constitution is such a disappointment. I feel as if North Carolina has been cast back into the worst part of our past: The part where hate was an acceptable value to teach our children; and the part where love was something to guard and reserve rather than something to spread equally, wildly, and comprehensively.
I have always been grateful to have grown up in a largely post-discrimination era. One where we had already learned the hard lessons and were working hard to right our past wrongs; one where my high school and college can have a woman head of school; one where my city and my country can have a black leader; one where all my friends are allowed to marry and have children; one where “bigot” is an insult.
And yet now here we are. It’s 2012. This year North Carolina will host the Democratic National Convention. And at the same time, North Carolina may also show the world that we believe in prejudice.
Don’t try to convince me no-one is watching. Everyone is watching. And I’m afraid we’re about to make fools of ourselves.
Please let’s don’t. Go vote. And when you do, VOTE AGAINST.
Thanks for listening.
Happy LEAP Day
4 comments // design, happy, list, play
It’s February 29, y’all! LEAP Year!
In honor of our special day, we at LEAP Design would like to give you a gift. Are you ready for it? It’s really big. Bigger than a Big Mac. Bigger than a Big Gulp. Bigger, even, than Big Ben.
It’s big.
You guys, it’s a day.
A whole day. Your very own day to do WHATEVER YOU WANT with. So go. Put your phone down, get up from your computer, and go do something unexpected, something inspiring, something that you wouldn’t do on any normal Wednesday.
Need some help? No sweat — we’ve got you covered. Here’s a list of 29 things to do with your extra day:
1. Learn how to juggle.
2. Bake some bread.
3. Get a puppy.
4. Eat dessert for every meal.
5. Call someone you haven’t spoken with in a long time and tell them you miss them.
6. Go to the beach.
7. Go to the mountains.
8. Take a nap.
9. Take a yoga class.
10. Take a walk.
11. Take a friend out to lunch. Your treat.
12. Paint a mural in your house.
13. Volunteer your time.
14. Climb up on your roof and look at your street from a new angle.
15. Bring a picnic (and a friend) to the airport and watch the planes take off and land.
16. Invite friends for dinner; cook something you’ve never cooked before.
17. Write a letter to a friend and mail it.
18. Send a real birthday card (made of paper) in time for a friend’s birthday.
19. Take a long, hot, bath.
20. Read a book you’ve been wanting to read.
21. Fix something you’ve been meaning to fix for a while.
22. Ride a bike.
23. Bake a cake and bring it to a friend.
24. Take a hot air balloon ride.
25. Go skiing.
26. Go to the zoo.
27. Go hear a band.
28. Get a kitten.
29. Sing a song. Out loud. Loudly. Over and over again.
Happy LEAP Year, friends. Go enjoy your free day!
Twenty Twelve’s a Comin’
0 comments // design, eat + drink
Well. Here we are again. The new year approaches. And quickly. It’s time for fresh starts. Renewed energy. High hopes. Our annual New Year’s Day bash (back after taking a reluctant year off). And most importantly: Collard Greens.
And as my annual gift to you, the awesome people who live in my computer, I bring you once again my recipe for Collards, which, along with Black Eyed Peas and Pork (hog jowls, ham, bacon, whatever), are the law down here in the South. They’re supposed to bring you luck and fortune, which you can’t say you don’t want at least some of. And, bonus! these collards are crazy good. So go for it — make yourself a mess o’ greens and bring on the luck. Happy new year, friends.
Braised Collards of Deliciousness
- 4 bunches of collards, long stems and tough ribs removed
- Salt
- 1/4 cup brown butter (recipe included)
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1/2 chipotle chile en adobo, all chopped up (to taste — it’s intended to add smoky, not spicy)
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Pepper vinegar (recipe follows)
Wash the greens thoroughly in a whole lotta water (I fill my sink and wash them in there). Place the dripping wet leaves in a pot of water, add salt (to taste). Cook the greens for about 10 minutes (until they”re all wilted and reduced down quite a bit). Remove to a bowl. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
Heat 1/4 cup unsalted butter on medium-low until it turns brown and nutty. Strain off the milk-fat solids. (This is something I make a big batch of ahead-of-time and keep in the fridge.) Increase the heat to medium. Add the onion, garlic, pepper flakes and chipotle, stirring occasionally until the garlic is lightly colored and onion is soft. Add the greens, their reserved cooking water, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook for 30 minutes and taste again for salt (they can use a lot). You can continue cooking until the greens are “within an inch of their life” or you can stop here. The longer they cook, the better they”ll taste.
Serve with pepper vinegar on the side.
Recipe for Pepper Vinegar: 1 cup white vinegar + 4 oz serrano chiles. Drop the washed and dried chiles into a bottle that has been freshly washed in hot, soapy water. (A narrow neck bottle is preferable so the vinegar can be drizzled rather than poured, but it doesn”t really matter.) Bring the vinegar to a boil in a small pan, then transfer to the bottle (via a measuring cup or some other easy-pouring device). Let it sit uncapped until cool. The peppers will absorb some of the vinegar. Add more vinegar to fill the bottle, then cap and set aside in the cupboard. The vinegar will be best if you make this ahead. But you can speed the process by including one pepper sliced into “coins.” Plus, the discs look cool floating around all the whole peppers.
(Thanks to Deborah Madison for the original base recipe, and especially for the brown butter secret. You have been helping me for many years to make people’s New Years just that much luckier and fortunier.)
Beloved Street Art
5 comments // caught my eye, color, happy, nature, photography
This is making the rounds on Facebook right now — if you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s a collection of amazing street art from 2011, curated by Street Art Utopia. Their site’s tagline is We declare the world as our canvas, which just makes me happy. And so grateful that these folks are out there forcing us to look at the world differently.
Here are a few of my favorites, but really — go look at them all. You won’t be sorry.
(Thanks for the link, Bo!)
Interiors at Night
2 comments // color, photography Gorgeous new tumblr featuring interiors shot at night. Created by Lauren Schoonover from Champagne and Marshmallows. I would very much like to visit all of these rooms.
She also has another tumblr: Exteriors at Night. Here’s one of my favorites:
(Great find, Alisa!)