Is Email Dead?

"Who uses e-mail anymore?" I was surprised to hear myself say this when a friend offered to send me an address. After all, an email meant that I would have to retrieve the message and copy and paste the info into my address book...OH! THE EFFORT INVOLVED! At least with a text, the message would just pop right up for me--no signing in or buttons to tap to retrieve it--and who knows what I could accomplish with those extra milliseconds!

Frankly, I can't remember the last time I signed into Yahoo! to actually write a letter-y email to a friend because:

• I already know the answer to "How are you?" and more! I've been following friends' status updates for the past two years and I know that Allison's cat kept her up all night. She's tired! (She didn't have the heart to kick him out of bed.)
• If you need info and you need it quick, it's less of a burden on everyone if you just text it. Society has finally accepted that no niceties are needed.
• Again, I already know how they're doing. And those pictures from last night are already online.

Point is, people are texting. People are instant messaging. People are "facebooking" (yes, it's a verb now too) or tweeting their statuses all over the place. IF I do send a letter-y type email it's actually through Facebook, which is technically a "direct message." Facebook has become my "email client" replacing both Yahoo! and Gmail for the social emails I once sent. The other two now function as inboxes for my business transactions and professional correspondences.

This begs the question, is email as we once knew it dead? Or social niceties? 

f.lux Tool

I'm skeptical because, oh I don't know, the f.lux computer lighting tool won't change that I have light blazing into my eyeballs at all odd hours of the day/night...and that's the point. Light (no matter what kind/color) at 3 a.m. = messed up circadian rhythm.

The only surefire way to get on a true circadian rhythm is to avoid all electricity after dusk. Of course the reality of that happening? Zilch. So if I'm going to do it anyway, maybe f.lux will protect my circadian rhythm a little more--not 100%, but more beneficial than not using f.lux.

Weird. This is starting to sound like the whole abstinence conversation.

Conflict Minerals

Ever since Blood Diamond, everyone's been somewhat conscious of conflict diamonds, but it looks like we should give some attention to this much bigger market:

Holy Land 2010

I'm officially in vacation mode and ready to hit the holy land with my fam for two weeks. Yes, it's been a while since I blogged, but putting waypoints on a map made it seem worth it. Behold, the upcoming itinerary:


View Holy Land 2010 in a larger map

Mediterranean Cruise 2009

View Mediterranean 2009 in a larger map

Just got back from our western Mediterranean cruise that my mom took us on with my bro, sister-in-law, aunt, and cousin and it didn't disappoint. I was excited for my mom and Ryan to see one of my favorite areas: the South of France and to my delight, they loved it and got a firsthand taste of what made me fall in love with France.

I was a little worried about going back--I wasn't sure if I had overly idealized the South of France in my mind after all these years and I was certain I wouldn't have the same experience as a bona fide tourist as opposed to a student studying there, but the instant we set foot in Villefranche, I was instantly on cloud nine...I mean really happy. Plus it turns out German hasn't ruined my French--I had great interactions that were mostly seamless and even had one instance where I switched between French and German without mixing them up (when both nationalities were present). That separation never happened for my brain.

I've got to retire to the French Riviera or spend another chunk of my life there at some point. I mean, GOD, I'm in my element there. And it's cheaper than San Diego.

Homemade Yogurt

R and I consume a lot of yogurt. So the next logical DIY project seemed to be "Make yogurt" especially after we went on a culinary shopping spree when my uncle was in town and I spotted a yogurt maker.

Here are the results:

Using the Salton YM9 1-Quart Yogurt Maker
manual directions yielded:

• Liquid
• Lumps
• That gross watery stuff on the top of yogurt that everyone pours out

Every yogurt-making read emphasizes that there are a billion different variations on how to perfect yogurt to your taste, so I guess it was good to know that 2% milk, mixed with yogurt starter packets, and incubated for 5 hours was basically what I would imagine drinking cancer would be like.
Using the 101 Cookbooks yogurt recipe yielded:

• Very thick
• Tart
• I mean so thick that it's a terrible combination if you're having problems with your mucus membranes
• Great yogurt

Leave it to my new favorite food blog, Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks...this stuff is good especially when you combine it with the homemade muesli recipe and drizzle it with agave nectar. The difference here? 2% milk, milk powder, and incubation for 9 hours. Now I need to figure out how to get the silky factor in...otherwise YU-UM.

WeFollow

WeFollow has usurped most of my internet surfing attention in the last 2 days. It's a directory of Twitter "power" users so it's a lot of celebrity-types and gurus who have gotten on the Web 2.0 train.

It's been interesting to see who's tapped in, but mostly it's boring. The problem with celebrities/experts on twitter is that their feed is 90% @replies to threads you didn't see from the beginning or it's plainly not them (it's their manager or publicist pushing their shows or schwag). The shopping feeds could be potentially useful, though--lots of discounts.

Paula Poundstone has been a great find, though. Probably her own manager or publicist pushed her into Twitter since she's a self-proclaimed luddite, but the luddite factor works to her advantage--she doesn't know how to @reply or include links, so it's just this clean page of her humor (which is why I'd want to follow her in the first place).

If only Eddie Izzard would get on twitter...