December 2008

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Entrepreneurship: An in your face view

December 22, 2008 in Workin' Girl by Rebecca | No comments

If your transgender and unemployed, or just plain old unemployed regardless of who you are, sometimes things can look pretty bleak.  That’s especially true given today’s job market.  John Buckman has an answer: Start your own company.   And he’s got some very in your face advice as well.

John’s bio is interesting.  He is the founder of Magnatune, a Berkeley, California-based record label he founded in 2003 and which is known for its commercial application of Creative Commons licensing and overtly artist-friendly business practices.  He’s been profiled by Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and The Economist. You can read his full profile at Wikipedia here.

John gave a talk at LeWeb 08 about entrepreneurship which was provocative, simple and poweful.   If your on the fence about starting your own firm, John’s presentation may help you re-think what you are doing.  You can view his talk recorded at Le Web at UStream TV here.   If you just want to check out his slide deck, you can download it from Slide Share here.

The doll not to buy during Christmas

December 21, 2008 in Coffee Chat by Rebecca | No comments

Dolla are still a rage with girls, in fact here is the list of the top 7 from 2007 from the NY Times, About.com site

  • Karito Kids Doll
  • Only Hearts Club Doll
  • Barbie as Princess Rosella
  • Corolle Dolls Baby Lia
  • Disney High School Musical Dolls
  • Hannah Montana Singing Dolls and Pop Star Stage
  • Bratz Fashion Stylistz Dolls

I think the doll I hope I never have to buy over Christmas though is the patented, peeing doll….what a joy that would be!   Read all about the pee doll at her patent at Google’s patent site, “Doll having delayed wetting and crying action“.

A Pinch of Christmas Humor

December 8, 2008 in Funny Bone by Rebecca | 1 comment

The Christmas Shopping rush is upon us!  Now’s the time to give your funny bone a tuneup and make sure you take a little humor with you into the fray.   In the immortal words of my hero, Mary Poppins,  “Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medecine go down, in the most delightful way”.

In the supermarket was a man pushing a cart which contained a screaming, bellowing baby.

The gentleman kept repeating softly, “Don’t get excited, Albert; don’t scream, Albert; don’t yell, Albert; keep calm, Albert.”

A woman standing next to him said, “You certainly are to be commended for trying to soothe your son, Albert.”

The man looked at her and said, “Lady, I’m Albert.”

“Cash, check or charge?” I asked after folding items the woman wished to purchase. As she fumbled for her wallet I notice a remote control for a television set in her purse.

“Do you always carry your TV remote?” I asked.

“No,” she replied. “But my husband refused to come shopping with me, so I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him.”

It was Christmas and the judge was in a merry mood as he asked the prisoner, “What are you charged with?”

“Doing my Christmas shopping early,” replied the defendant.

“That’s no offense,” said the judge. “How early were you doing this shopping?”

“Before the store opened,” countered the prisoner.

As a little girl climbed onto Santa’s lap, Santa asked the usual, “And what would you like for Christmas?”
The child stared at him open mouthed and horrified for a minute, then gasped: “Didn’t you get my E-mail?”

Why does Santa have 3 gardens? ….. So he can ho-ho-ho.

You might be a scrooge if…..
* Your only contact with three spirits on Christmas Eve is gin, vodka and bourbon.

* Your favorite Christmas movie is Jurassic Park.

* You turn on the lawn sprinklers on Christmas Eve to keep carolers away.

(Photo courtesy of Billaday’s Photos and used here under Creative Commons License)

$20 raised in our Salvation Army Kettle

December 6, 2008 in Social Justice by Rebecca | No comments

Many thanks to the anonymous donor who plunked in $20 for our Salvation Army Kettle! Only $105.00 to go!

Remember the Milk: Online todo and reminder system

December 6, 2008 in Frugal Tech by Rebecca | No comments

I used to be uber-organized. Daytimer in hand, I would insure all my actions were lined up, set down, calendered in and then checked off as accomplished. Frankly it was all good. Ah then we have…

today’s reality….

Post it notes, very cool Palm Tungsten, phone with alarms, business cards stuffed into my purse, nice engineering pad, email, twitter….Certainly one of those has my todo list for today so I don’t get undone??

Well as you can see I’m less organized than I wish I were. So, thinking on what to do I read a booky called, “Getting Things Done” which was truly helpful for me. But what about a system to put my new book learnin’ to work? That’s when I stumbled on Remember The Milk.

Remember The Milk (or RTM for short) helps! In their own words:

Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. We created Remember The Milk so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand. Remember The Milk makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience.

At first I was a little worried keeping my todo list on the web. Then I found out they have a secure connection and I choose what I make public or not so my stuff is safe. I have a list of articles I am writing for Beck’s Cafe, todo’s I have to get done for a thriving non-profit I’m on the board of, birthdays, work stuff (yeah my paying gig) and many other items. It’s terrific. Let me tell you how I used it and maybe you’ll be inspired if you aren’t organized already.

I enter todo’s in tabs, and each tab is for a specific subject area. Because Remember The Milk (RTM) lets you label any part of their system so it works for you as you can name things so they make the most sense for you. I have todo’s for work, for family, for Beck’s Cafe and so on. Once I enter an item in my todo list I then “tag” it. A tag is a special label that allows someone to group like items together. So, for Beck’s Cafe I have a tab for my article ideas and I tag all my articles for “workin’ girl” or for “frugal tech”. This grouping let’s me see all my ideas of the same tag so I can understand what I might write next. Oh and if you prefer not to use tags, you don’t have to. Early on I didn’t use them as I thought they were a bother and slowed me down, but, tags are a very helpful part. you can also color code which tasks to do before others. While this organizational process is helpful, phone text and email reminders are brilliant.

Every action item can have a due date and a reminder date and time. The reminders can be set for sending you a phone text message or sending you an email, or both! RTM’s reminders are worth the time to use their system. Yes, there are other text and email reminder systems on the web, but RTM’s tie in with your todo list makes this tool very helpful. Since using RTM I haven’t missed a single appointment for hair styling, hair removal, or those special hot dates I have … to go food shopping or get my oil changed. Pretty nifty!

You know that the Frugal Tech likes her deals so what’s the economic skinny here? Well RTM is FREE or you can pitch in $25 and get a few extra features and support their great tool. RTM can play nice with Google Docs, iCalendar tools and even is an application for your iPhone. And for free, or the $25.00 uptick you can’t go wrong. They have over 1 million users worldwide now so you won’t be a guinea pig when you try RTM.

So stop forgetting the milk and start remembering it with Remember the Milk today.

Oasis Coffee House Refreshes

December 5, 2008 in Local Buzz by Rebecca | No comments

Oasis, from Google’s word definitions search page, it means:

  • a fertile tract in a desert (where the water table approaches the surface)
  • haven: a shelter serving as a place of safety or sanctuary
  • In geography, an oasis (plural: oases) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough.

Oasis is also an amazing coffee house with live music right in the heart or Waltham MA!

Housed in First Presbyterian Church of Waltham, Oasis is, in their own words:

is a welcoming community where you can enjoy an evening of affordable entertainment by local, national and international performers including singer-songwriters, folk musicians, blues, jazz and other genres.

Located in the art gallery of the First Presbyterian Church of Waltham, the space is intimate, safe, inclusive and alcohol-free. This not-for-profit coffee house, run by volunteers, offers a lounge area where baked goods and fair-trade coffee and tea are available along with free wi-fi. Proceeds go to support the coffee house and its performers.

And welcoming and warm they are! When a friend and I visited Oasis for the firs time in August, we were greeted at the door by some of the nicest people we had ever met. We were welcomed in, paid our admission ($12) and took a seat. The acoustics were terrific and the group we saw that night, Gretel, was amazing. During the band break, there was plenty of people to meet and chat with.

Gretel, a local Boston area folk group, is well worth tracking down to see. They have passion, strong musical skills and excellent words. Their songs are more stories than the simple drivel served up as music today. And powerful stories they are. Songs like “Heart Shaped Heart”, moved me to tears with words of how both love and pain leave hollow spaces in our hearts…sometimes so hollow they drive us to reassess our relationship. “Wolves” was a haunting tune that forebode some terror drawing ever closer as the song moves forward. Gretel’s lead singer, Reva Willimans’ voice and strong emotional content with each song remind me of Amy Mann but far more engaged. Reva is living through her music, not singing about a topic.

Oasis Coffee House features New England and National acts, is inexpensive, is warm and friendly. What’s not to like? For some local buzz, you can’t beat their offering.

Transgender Africa

December 4, 2008 in Gender by Rebecca | No comments

I never cease to be amazed at how good we have it in the U.S. being both citizens and transgender.   Certainly many of us are not doing as well as we could no question.  And certainly the U.S. could come further along in terms of rights and safety for those of us who are transgender.    But other countries have it far worse.

I happened on Juliet Victor Mukasa from Jay Sennett’s blog.   Juliett is transgender, works for human rights and LGBT rights and does it all in Uganda.  I can’t even imagine how hard it must be.   But maybe there really is nothing better than being who you are.   You can learn about Juliett Victor and what is going on in Ugandad by visiting the article, “On Transgender Human Rights Issues in Africa“

Alton Brown’s Roasted Turkey Recipe

December 3, 2008 in In my Kitchen by Rebecca | No comments

Roasted Turkey Photo Well another Thanksgiving induced tryptophan coma has come and gone. At Beck’s Cafe we usually get ours by getting up at 5AM, ripping out the gizzards of our turkey, washing with cold water, season thusly and slipping our bird into a Reynolds oven bag then slide our bagged bird into our oven. Without a doubt, this is the easiest way to cook a Turkey we know.

But the fine patrons of Beck’s Cafe wanted something different this year. At 5AM I don’t do different. I do coffee. However, Mary Poppins being my idol I set out, spit spot, to determine a fresh approach for our old bird.

Google is my choice of search engine for recipes rather than going right to the Food Network, but, in typically Googley-Goodness The Food Network came up first anyway. And, surprisingly, the mad scientist of food, Alton Brown’s Roast Turkey recipe was feature. I’ve tried Alton’s recipes before in our kitchen, see my brief review coupled with a review of Laurel’s Kitchen Pancake recipe here at Beck’s Cafe at our article, Pancakes.

So about Alton’s recipe and our adventure making it.

My bird had not been frozen so I skipped the part on thawing it but in the process completely missed the brine soak that seems to a crucial part of this recipe. So we’ll have to try Alton’s brine soak next time.

The rest of Alton’s recipe was a snap to prepare. The surprising combination of apple, onion and cinnamon stick proved outstanding. Lacking sage, I bounced over to my neighbor’s and borrowed her Poultry Seasoning. Poultry Seasoning? “Well, Becki, it has Sage in it afterall” my neighbor explained to me. While it was the last ingredient in the list it did indeed have Sage in it. I also missed liberally coating the outside of our turkey with canola oil. Guess I needed more coffee or a Bloody Mary. Roasting the bird at 500 F for the first 30 minutes s was key to locking in the flavor and in creating ultra yummy skin (for which my neighbor felt was outstandingly good).

Beck’s Cafe recommends Alton Brown’s Roast Turkey recipe as a winner not a turkey. Your taste buds and noses will be delighted with your results.