A less traditional Christmas

Not necessarily the type of Christmas you'd see in a snow globe, but, never the less, we had a really nice holiday in Thailand with our friends, Amrita & Akshay, who just moved back to India from San Francisco.

We started in Khao Lak (the less touristy cousin of Phuket), then headed to the Similan Islands on a live aboard boat and finally spent Christmas day back on land playing on a water slide + diving board at a resort like children (I guess the Christmas spirit hit?)

Happy holidays from the tropics.

My (very short) life as a vegan

Source: Photopin

Confession: I've always found vegans insufferable -- holier-than-thou types that have a bent for ruining fun and making every dinner outing an impossible feat (except maybe in San Francisco).  In my mind, I've grouped vegans in the same pile as folks that talk incessantly about their mother, divulge details of their latest doctor's appointment (a colonoscopy, please do tell me more) or use strings of business words that, in fact, mean nothing.

Well, after all this vegan-hating, my boyfriend and I tried it out for 3 weeks in December leading up to Christmas (note: yes, it got a bit mental with christmas cookies).  It wasn't completely new since I've been a vegetarian and pescetarian before.  Each stint lasts between 6 months to 2 years and undoubtedly ends due to one food -- bacon.  Let's face it -- meat tastes really good.

So, why did we decide to go vegan?

Bite-sized challenges are interesting

Matt Cutts, a notorious engineer inside of Google, gave a Ted talk about his 30 days challenges -- ranging from biking to work to writing a novel to cutting sugar to climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.  These challenges expanded his life to accomplishments outside engineering and also built up his self-confidence.  

In a similar vein, Tim Ferriss, the king of self-experiments, encourages a similar, one-goal-at-a-time approach to change: 

"The problem with New Year's resolutions - and resolutions to 'get in better shape' in general, which are very amorphous - is that people try to adopt too many behavioral changes at once. It doesn't work. I don't care if you're a world-class CEO - you'll quit."

Eating animal products is very bad

According to the UN, cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gas than transportation.  Despite being car-less, I'm a major culprit for pollution due to my obsession with collecting passport stamps (52 countries to date).  I like the idea of neutralizing my emissions by skipping the hamburger.

I also read David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster" & Rolling Stone's "In the Belly of the Beast," which convinced me that animals do feel pain and its death may very well be the best part of its life.  Here's one especially sad excerpt from the Rolling Stone's article:

"You are a typical egg-laying chicken in America, and this is your life: You’re trapped in a cage with six to eight hens, each given less than a square foot of space to roost and sleep in. The cages rise five high and run thousands long in a warehouse without windows or skylights. You see and smell nothing from the moment of your birth but the shit coming down through the open slats of the battery cages above you. It coats your feathers and becomes a second skin; by the time you’re plucked from your cage for slaughter, your bones and wings breaking in the grasp of harried workers, you look less like a hen than an oil-spill duck, blackened by years of droppings. Your eyes tear constantly from the fumes of your own urine, you wheeze and gasp like a retired miner, and you’re beset every second of the waking day by mice and plaguelike clouds of flies." 

So, what did I learn from the challenge?

It's very hard

I've gone meatless before, but vegan life was a whole new ballgame.  I missed eggs and cheese a lot.  They are just so good in the morning.   

I also had some really pathetic meals in Malaysia (white toast followed by white rice with soy sauce, ugh).  In fact, I actually had to leave a restaurant post-seating because I couldn't eat anything on the menu.

I felt better and discovered a yummy salad

After a week, I felt better.  I had more energy in the afternoon because I skipped my daily 2 PM cookie(s) intake and therefore, also missed the sugar coma.  I lost the weight I put on while gorging myself in the Maldives and also discovered that warm, olive-oil roasted brussels sprouts taste excellent on a spinach salad.

I quickly jumped back to my meat-eating ways

After 3 weeks, I was convinced that vegan-life was a much better way to live -- I even (annoyingly) recited the benefits to my co-workers.   

Regardless, I went right back into my meat, egg and butter eating ways.  We've even been making homemade pate today for a New Years Eve gathering at our apartment.  To be exact, I hand-cleaned chicken livers for an hour without flinching -- what happened to the vegan-version of me?  Per usual, it seems that cognitive dissonance is behind it all, explaining just why my behavior often falls short of my attitudes and beliefs.   

It looks like I'll be a meatatarian for awhile longer -- but, I want my eggs cage-free and my meat not raised in a factory.  I also think it's a good practice to go meat-free a few days per week.

Thanksgiving in the Maldives

I'm usually a prolific blogger (well at least since I started blogging a few months ago), but I've gone mum this month.  Maybe that's a good thing -- I'm not sure if chronicling your life for public record is good or just one more outlet for narcissism and self-indulgence.  At some point, I'll dissect my motivations, but for now, I'm back.

The reason for going mum: I started a new role at Google this month and have been traveling a lot.

Here's some photos from Thanksgiving in the Maldives with Alan and our friends Rebecca & Tom.  It was beautiful and hideously expensive (yet, probably cheaper than a round-trip flight to the US during holiday season).  We were likely the only people not on their honeymoon, and like all the rest, it was a glorious, once-in-a-lifetime treat.

Note: I actually didn't realize it was Thanksgiving until I was at the airport.  That's what living on an island with weather like this does to your brain:

Okay, now, here's the photos.

This will make you smile

I love Rion Holcombe's reaction to his college acceptance letter.... so genuine.

It made me tear up a bit :)

[Advertising Technique] Sympathizing with the audience

Photopin

As a general rule, people hate commercials (unless it's the Superbowl, which is the one permutation folks dig).  

Well, Burger King decided to launch 64 pre-roll YouTube ads.  That's a lot.

To get more people to hate them?  Nope.

To sympathize with the viewer.  

Check out the video below describing the campaign. It's humorous, endearing and targeted.  It makes me want to visit Burger King (which, would be the first time I've thought that in my life).

[Cool Chicks] Some Epic Poetry Slamming

I started a new role at Google this week, so I've been extra busy (re: sorry, for ignoring you, blog).

I ran into these 3 AMAZING college women, slamming some good, feminist truth.

Definitely worth spending the 7 minutes watching.

This is Awesome: Design Matters Podcast

Lately, I've been bored by the internet.  Let down.  

Yes, I know it contains more information than I could ever dream of reading, even if singularity actually happened, and my brain was taken over by robots.

You know why?  

Everything seems to be the same (this article explains it well).

My twitter feed looks like the XKCD comic below, and apparently, all paragraphs have vanished and been replaced with lists that read like "15 Facebook couples you should totally block" and "9 photos of Taylor Hanson looking like a celebrity fangirl" (okay, maybe I just need to block Buzzfeed).




















Luckily, the internet has been redeemed. 

During my recent drought, I stumbled across an awesome Podcast series, Design Matters, by Debbie Millman (archives here & here).

I learned that Dan Pink keeps a design journal where he writes downs examples of good and bad design in order to strengthen his "right brain."  He also wrote a career guide in the form of a graphic novel (i.e., a comic) called "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko" (it became the first, and likely only, comic to make the BusinessWeek bestseller list).  The podcast was FULL of interesting facts, including the size of the self-storage industry in the US ($17B & growing) and the percentage of printed material in Japan that's also a comic (22%).

I also listened to Milton Glaser, the designer of the "I heart NY" logo, contemplate ethics in the brand & design world (something I've becoming increasingly interested in since working with brand clients advertising with Google).  I also discovered his manifesto, "The 12 Ways to Designer Hell," which is animated in the video below (yes, I realize it's a list, but it has nothing to do with Taylor Hansen or Facebook couples). 

My faith in the internet has now been restored.

Thank you, Design Matters.

[Mental Health Break] Time-Lapse Graffiti

Pretty awesome.

Slinging Mud

The Daily Show

Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

I basically remember two things from the 2012 election:

1. Incredible Jon Stewart fodder (man, was I sad when the election was over for that alone) 
2. Lots of mudslinging by both parties

I've come to predict this in politics, yet this technic is less expected in conventional advertising.  

Therefore, I was a bit surprised that Microsoft ramped up it's "Scroogled" campaign this quarter, slinging more mud at Google.

They've launched shirts that you can buy at Microsoft.com

And, a new set of videos (that are ironically being run on YouTube, a Google property)

I'm totally fine with a company bringing to light potential flaws in a competitor's product.

But, has Microsoft gone too far to the point of "desperate"?

No comment. 

Wiki Pledge: It worked on me

I've seen the Wiki Pledge before.  

Typically, I look at it, feel a bit guilty and then move on down a wiki-hole.  

Note: I'd like to say my wiki-holes involved incredibly intellectual things like thermodynamics or 18th century Russian literature.  In reality, I just dig really deep into famous people's personal lives and / or known controversies.  It's basically my dorkier version of People magazine.

But today, I donated.

Why?

Two reasons based on social psychology:

1. Social Exchange: 
In a social exchange, both parties take responsibility for one another and depend on each other.  This pledge reminded me that I have taken more than I have given back, and therefore, made me feel very guilty.

I mean, they are "just a small non-profit that runs the #5 website in the world"

2. The Foot-in-the-Door Technique:
They asked for the smallest donation -- just $3 USD.  And, they made it so easy with a button that led directly to Paypal.

I just couldn't say no without feeling like a complete asshole.

Therefore, I donated, but I'm fully aware I'll likely be on their eDM list forever with suggestions on "bigger and better ways" to contribute (which, I probably should).  

Regardless, for the time being, Wikipedia has taken down the banner ad on my wiki searches (pretty clever functionality).  

Now, off to "research" Rob Ford.  Phew.