Adventures in Candyland

So, even though it’s 2008 (where has the time gone?!) I am going to sound very early ’90s right now. Here goes…The Internet is the coolest invention ever!!! I think most people hold that belief in some form, but now we take it for granted as it has become so embedded in almost every society and we’ve already even moved past it in its purest sense. But truly, it allows for such amazing information sharing that sometimes I just get newly excited by its concept. I think we should take a second to remember how hard it was to get information before we had this unbelievable global source available to us 24 hours a day. Of course, some people may believe that this has created a societal decline in a number of ways, mais pas moi.

Anyway - I only bring this up because today, I became overly enthused by three things I bumped into.

1) I have always loved metromint water - so refreshing - been buying it at Whole Foods since the first day I saw it (along with my favority energy drink, Inkos White Tea - so good!). Yes, it’s only spearmint and water and , yes, I could make it on my own or drink it hot (Isreali-style), but of course I often choose the convenience path and pay the price. During the last few years, they have extended their product line with peppermint, orange and lemon, but OMG - I have no idea what to say about this next iteration. If you know me or even read my yelp reviews, you might realize I have a strong predilection for chocolate and mint, together that is — since I was a little girl. To me it’s one of the most refreshing and luscious pairings. Today, I come to find out that MetroMint is launching ChocolateMint water. Yes, chocolate water may sound a little scary, but I’ll be trying it as soon as I can get my hands on it at my mecca, Whole Foods. I mean no sugar, no preservatives, no CALORIES - this is January 3rd - so I will take my dessert calorie-free thank you - at least for this month that is (well, let’s be honest, maybe this week).

2) Okay, along the same vein, if you like food, if you like cooking, if you like pairing flavors, but sometimes you feel like you don’t know what would compliment what, you must check out Foodpairing. Yes, we all know that gruyere is phenomenal in potatoes, but did you know it also can pair with licorice? Not being trained at le Cordon Bleu shouldn’t prevent you from trying unique flavor combinations for friends and family, but it also might be good to have a the pizza menu handy — sometimes experimenting with weird stuff can end up, well, weird, so it’s a good idea to have a back-up plan. In any case, I think this is so cool and I will definitely be a frequent visitor here.

3)Now, this one doesn’t have to do with food (I know, shock), but it does have to do with two of my other obsessions - Japanese minimalism and architecture. Toyo Ito is one of my most favorite architects and Sendai Mediateque is such a unique and breathtaking structure. I can’t wait till the day when I get to experience it in person. Here is my newest fave -Kengo Kuma. Check out the Lotus House…..amazing.

See why I love the Internet.

Update..got to add one more - this one from Danielle, but I had to include it as belongs in the same Asian modern minimalism/nature category as the above, is beautifully subtle yet exquisite and one of the collaborators is another amazing Japanese architect, Tadao Ando. Check it out…

I’ll admit it - every once in awhile I need a distraction during the day.  We all do it - read our fave blog that has nothing to do with work (in my case Notes from the Trenches), browse Zappos, IM our friends, etc.  In fact, if you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for a distraction yourself.

A few weeks ago, Lauren had a bad distraction.  She had borrowed her father’s Nintendo Brain Age and was totally addicted.  For two day I heard that beeping little game.  Well today I found my newest addiction - and it couldn’t be more perfect for us!  FreeRice is an online vocabulary game - you guess vocabulary definitions and every time you answer correctly, ten grains of rice are donated to starving children.  As writers, expanding our vocab is always fun for us…and when you put a good cause behind it, how can we resist?  

So how does it work?  Throughout the game, sponsors are listed on the page and the sponsors donate money to the UN World Food Program.  When FreeRice launched on October 7th, they donated 830 grains of rice.  Since then, they have donated 165,000,000 grains of rice. 

Today I donated 1,100 grains of rice and learned three new words.  Now that’s a worthwhile distraction.

Did you know that there are over 15 billion web pages?  I learned that today from Common Craft, a consultancy which offers probably one the best services on the Internet today.  I was watching their video on “Social Bookmarking in Plain English.”  They know how to boil a topic down to base understanding and use illustrations and simple language to make it completely understandable.  Seriously, how could I ever describe del.icio.us to my mom - I’m sure I would lose my patience in .5 seconds (if anyone has a solution for impatience, please contact me ASAP).  I think Limor may have blogged about the true neccessity of Common Craft a while ago.  Check it out.

And though I may be a little late to jump on the bandwagon, del.icio.us is my current love.  Because there are over 15 billion pages, there is no end to the information you can take in.  And being an information junkie, I contracted a horrendous bookmarking disease very early on.  But in that ridiculous format, it’s impossible to see what your’ve bookmarked so I never go back to what I wanted to remember in the first place.  So for me, del.icio.us is a god send.  It even helps me truly understand and narrow down my interests. Architecture, Food, Design, Marketing, Trends have the most tags, but my page is growing quickly because I love seeing what other people who love what I love are bookmarking - it’s total genuis. Just think how lost I would be with out my daily dose of Tokyo Street Style or Streetsy.      

In this complex and over-informationed society of ours, there’s nothing yummier or more del.iciou.us than simplification.