a girl in the world

finding beauty, pleasure and grace on the road less traveled

My dog ate chocolate

I was at a YouTube conference a few years ago, before it went super mainstream. And one of the founders talked about his vision for the site: a platform where people can upload relevant content that would otherwise never be accessible to the public. The key word here is relevant. He specifically said that a video of “a cute puppy running around in the kitchen” is the kind of crap that he does NOT want propagating online.

Well. Oops. That’s exactly what I’ve been uploading to YouTube for years.

Today, Bear ate chocolate. And two caramel lollipops. I found the trail of wrappers this morning, that led to a very satiated and food-coma’d dog. Is she alive?! Yes, thank goodness. She didn’t eat enough to put her in danger. Does she look guilty?!?! Yes! Because SHE IS! She’ll be feeling the consequences of her actions in a few hours.

Silly. Fat. Bear.

And that, my friends, is my contribution to today’s volume of Internet spam. Thanks for tuning in.

A place for the mind

I’ve been home in the Bay for a few weeks now and have slowly started catching up with old friends. It feels great.

This place stretches your brain. It is intellectual, driven, innovative. People care about what they’re doing, they care about making an impact in their work, and they believe that change is possible.

I’ve met with fellow ex-Googlers, old girl friends and colleagues. And I’ve realized that place isn’t what makes a home. It’s the people. There are millions of places in the world, each with their different flavours and offerings. But if you can find a few good people to share experiences with, place doesn’t matter. It’s the sense of community that brings a lasting sense of happiness and belonging.

Being here reminds me of all the possibilities. This is where dreams and ideas are born. Life changing companies are incubated here. It is powerful and inspiring to see it in action, through the eyes of good friends and old colleagues.

Perspective, perspective.

Science is cool

Imagine Pitbull’s Calle Ocho blasting throughout a 400,000 square foot building in the middle of Golden Gate park, on a normal Thursday night in San Francisco. Alcohol, low lighting and otter skull dissections. It’s NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences. Here, Science is Cool. Super Cool.

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We learned about baleen and grizzly bear teeth, traveled 100,000 light years from earth, and got drunk off whiskey and coke – all in one night’s outing in the world’s largest green certified building to date (I love hippie SF!). There’s a living roof and a Philippine reef tank. A tidal petting pool and a 15 year-old albino alligator named Claude. And of course, the planetarium – a time machine into the future, where we learned about our galaxy and the millions of others out there. Did you know that earth is the 3rd rock from the sun? And that it’s in the “comfortable zone” for life to form? My mind stretched so much that my head still hurts (or maybe that was the whiskey?).

Last night banks 3 day’s worth of new things learnt. =)

Hi, I'm Denise. I'm a writer, artist and photographer. This is where I share what I'm seeing, learning and making.
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