Consumable Gifting

As kids, we worked super hard for our parents every year at the Arlington County Fair -- for fourteen years -- selling fried rice, spring rolls, egg rolls, and our best selling grilled lemon chicken kabobs among other things. We were even photographed in 1982 in the Washington Post.

Since I've been on the road for a few years, this coveted consumable is really the best gift I could offer my friends and clients this winter. Friends have scrambled for them, I have many standing requests for the marinade, and I'm reminded by childhood friends just how complete our childhood memories are with our family meals as a part of their lives.

These were made with a lot of love, and in a rather direct way, shape who I am; my work ethic, and the gourmand in me.

Happy holidays everyone!

Vote.

Export iPhoto Folders to Back Up Drive

About a month ago, I wrote a post about how to transfer your iPhoto albums while keeping your folders since iPhoto export options don't help. Now, I have an easier method.

• Do a FILE SEARCH on the name of any image file that is in your iPhoto, for example, "IMG_8321" or just "IMG_" or "jack.jpg". ***see note at bottom of post

• In the finder window, select the image. The full path in your iPhoto library appears at the bottom. In a regular finder window, iPhoto does not allow you to see your full path. If the full path does not show, go to FINDER > VIEW > SHOW FULL PATH

The folder path will be ...iPhotoLibrary > ORIGINALS > 2008 > ALBUM > FILENAME.JPG as seen in this screen capture.

There are also modified photos: ...iPhotoLibrary > MODIFIED > 2008 > ALBUM > FILENAME.JPG

• If you want your full, original library, you must choose the 2008 (or whatever year) folder in your ORIGINALS folder. If you want all of your originals and modified photos, follow through this process twice - first with originals, and again with modified (search for a vertical photo to pull up the MODIFIED folder). If you don't edit photos in iphoto, and don't care about rotation, you can ignore your modified folder.



Double click 2008 (or whatever year) for the photos that you want to transfer. A new finder window opens with the albums in your iPhoto. Select your folders, and drag to an external hard drive or burn to DVD for export. That's it.



***Nate, a reader, posted a quick tip in the comments below that is VERY useful. Instead of the search, simply go to your iPhotoLibrary folder in your Pictures folder. RIGHT CLICK [or hold down "CTRL"+click (on Mac)] and select "Show Package Contents." This will open a new Finder window with both the Originals & Modified folders mentioned above. Originals are your original imports. Modified will ONLY contain images that were modified. I save both. Thanks Nate!

To COPY folders and not MOVE them out of your iPhotoLibrary, hold down "ALT"+click+drag (you will see the green "+" icon with your pointer); drag all the way to your backup drive.

(a french forum post links here, so hopefully these words will help you find this easier: Exporter l'arborescence Dossier - Album d'iPhoto)

Tag 5. You're It.

Google is working to help centralize voter information, and posted this on their blog.

Get out and vote. But you have to register first, and you'll have to do it soon. Voter registration deadlines are coming up quickly



Find out where to vote at http://maps.google.com/vote

And pass this on to five people you know.

Wearable Works of Art

At the beginning of this year, my friend and I launched Fierce Hugs Organic Baby Clothing to the world.

Fierce Hugs packs imagination, sustainability, and an eco-friendly lifestyle into remarkably soft organic baby clothes. These fair labor onesies and cool baby tees feature unique graphics by international indie illustrators from Italy and the Netherlands and come packaged in an adorable gift box, perfect for baby showers.

In our first year, we sponsored the Silver Spoon Celebrity baby event, and the incredible first annual Feel Good Film Festival in our continued pursuit to support independent artists. All the movies have happy endings and inspirational themes, and Rainn Wilson from "The Office" MC'ed the gala.

We've been lucky enough to get a lot of great press and celebrity exposure. Fierce Hugs baby clothing is worn by many celebrities' babies including the children of Sex and the City's Evan Handler, Oscar nominee Jason Reitman, 90210's Tori Spelling, Oscar winner Halle Berry, Hairspray's Tony Award winner Marissa Jaret Winokur, Scott & Renee Baio, Entourage's Constance Zimmer & many more.

Fierce Hugs has appeared in gift sets for People, X17, Life & Style, Extra! and US Weekly.

Buy one for the coolest baby you know at www.FierceHugs.com. Fierce Hugs is a member of the Organic Trade Association.

Election 2008 | powered by Twitter

This is just so cool. Twitter added a separate election feed. And people are tweeting.

Election 2008 | powered by Twitter

To Eat or Not to Eat

Export iPhoto Albums to Folders

After loads of searching on the web, I finally found the software I need to export my iPhoto albums or events into separate folders. Yes, it can be done, it's super simple, and best, the software is free.

[UPDATE: Since I last wrote this, I have found an easier way that requires NO software download. You just get to the files in your drive and copy them over.]

Apple's current iPhoto only allows export of individual .jpg files to a single folder that you create. If you're like me, with literally tens of thousands of photos (my flickr stream has 47,000+) and hundreds of photo albums and events, then the option of creating individual folders, renaming them, and figuring out which jpgs go where is about as appealing as picking your friend's nose.



The latest download version is here: Version 0.94: Mac OS X Image.

Proper credit and lots of thanks go to the creators of this software:

iPhoto to JAlbum Exporter is written by Felix Fischer. Please contact him about bugs, enhancement ideas, or any other suggestions.

License
iPhoto to JAlbum Exporter is Freeware. You may use this software at your own risk. The author is not responsible for any damages caused by direct or indirect use of this software.
This product includes software developed by

* JGoodies Karsten Lentzsch (http://looks.dev.java.net, http://forms.dev.java.net).
* David Ekholm, Datadosen (http://jalbum.net).
* Gregory Guerin (MacBinary Toolkit 2 for Java)

Originally created for Jalbum, I simply use it to export my photos into folders for storage on my external hard drive. The only problem is that you can't go above your apple's hard drive level. I have 30GB of images at the moment, and only 9GB available on my ibook's hard drive. I can't export to a folder on my external hard drive because of this limitation, so I ended up exporting in batches of folders and transferring those batches to the external. Then, of course, secure deleting all the newly created files on the ibook. Still, this has saved me a lot of time and frustration.

The creation of events into folders is key for backing up your photos onto external drives, burning to cds or dvds, or just plain organizing or distributing your jpg files without all the iPhoto mumbo jumbo support files.

Ubiquity for Firefox on Vimeo

I'm such a geek. This is so cool.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Environmental Impact and Carbon Footprint Calculator at Low Impact Living

So I calculated my low-impact living and I came in at an index of 41 (the average being 100). I think my impact is even lower since I had to say I lived in a 500sf space (that's the smallest they go).

Calculate your own LILI here.

The Greatest City on Earth

Having been housed in multiple cities from Saigon, Columbus, Ohio, Arlington (VA), Harrisonburg, Alexandria, Brooklyn, Manhattan, a 400 year old medieval village in Umbria, Santa Monica, Dupont Circle in downtown D.C., Pentagon City, and a host of other posts, I'm often attuned to what my cities are saying.

This is an interesting article by Paul Graham that ties in with a recurring conversation I have with friends about Great Cities.

He starts with this:

Great cities attract ambitious people. You can sense it when you walk around one. In a hundred subtle ways, the city sends you a message: you could do more; you should try harder.

I love that.

The Girl Effect

First, watch this:


Then visit the site, The Girl Effect and do something now!

Charles and Ray Eames on a Letter Near You

The new Charles and Ray Eames postage stamps are out. Beautiful.

National Gallery of Art - Jazz Programs

Free music in the very cool sculpture garden of the National Gallery of Art all summer every Friday for the National Gallery of Art Jazz Programs. Plus, $17 pitchers of Sangria that you enjoy on the park grounds!

I Heart Technology

I love high tech and super powers, and this brings the two together. I imagine uses beyond military, like sporting (think REI) and as they mention, a replacement for wheelchair use.

Cool.
New Exoskeletons!

The 1-litre car.

Guess I'll skip the Smart Car and go for this!
The future is here. The 1-liter car by Volkswagen gets 235 miles per gallon. That is not a typo.

Currently in California, as of March 19.
Spent yesterday in yin yoga.
Eating well. No new reports.

On the Road Again

The old schedule changed, and the new one is, as usual, non-committal.

Now through March 5: Arlington, VA
March 12ish - 19ish: Brooklyn & Manhattan, NY
March 19ish - 22ndish: Washington, DC/Arlington, VA
March 22nd - April 21: Orlando, FL
April 22nd - May 21: Santa Monica, CA
May 23rd - May 26: Richmond, VA
May 27 - June 19: Undecided, but thinking about Greece or Spain. Or CA again. Or Seattle or somewhere else, any ideas?
June 19 - 22: Virginia Beach, VA
after that is anyone's guess, and as it seems, all of it is anyone's guess.

SIGEP

I extended my trip in Europe an extra week -- for good reason. Delicious, in fact. I was invited to SIGEP, the Salone Internazionale Gelateria, Pasticceria e Panificazione Artigianali -- International Exhibition of Artisanal Gelato, Pastry, Confectionery and Bakery. Nearly one million square feet of show space (90,000 square meters). Over 95,000 attendees. Seriously? Si.

So much eye candy.