When I flew home from the World Domination Summit (WDS) in Portland, Oregon, I brought a new friend along with me—and I didn’t even need to buy her a plane ticket. She’s a Brave Bot. She has big eyes and no legs and is the size of a domino tile. And when I need bravery, she’s supposed to give me…
Relationship status between yoga and me: It’s complicated. Bitter even. Tempestuous. So why the hell did I stand on a yoga mat with 807 people in a public square in Portland, Oregon? It has something to do with smiley-face socks. I first practiced yoga in the B.L., P.M. era: Before Lululemon, Pre-Madonna. In 1973. I was 15, and I learned…
I will get to the lovesick goat, but not yet. First, let’s talk about cat videos. A few years ago, I attended a conference on using technology for good. At a session about promoting citizenship through the use of the Internet, someone asked the speaker about YouTube. The man said, despondently, that half of YouTube was videos of cats flushing…
When I tell people that my husband and I honeymooned at a chimpanzee habitat—the home of Washoe, the first chimpanzee to learn American Sign Language (ASL)—the reactions fall into two camps: Seriously. What did you really do for a honeymoon? Or: When can I go? I’ve been thinking a lot about Washoe (who, sadly, died a few years ago) and…
I am in the middle of programming my jack-o’-lantern when I begin to really miss my dad. The jack-o’-lantern is made of the usual hollowed-out pumpkin, but this is just the beginning. I am hacking this pumpkin. I am taking a “Halloween hack-o’-lantern” class at a hackerspace at the Hoboken MakerBar. It’s a place where you can learn to make a…
Before ubiquitous frozen yogurt, before the Internet everywhere all the time, before my crazy new puppy, I knew how to do this. Eat an apple. Mindfully. Eat an apple. One bite at a time. Chew slowly. Put it down between bites. Think about where it came from, who grew it, how it got to my table, why it’s going in…
