Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Blogs’ Category

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog!  It’s been an extremely busy summer with lots of traveling, special occasions, and activities!

Recently, I’ve been helping my friend Sarah get ready for her wedding that is two weeks from tomorrow, but once things calm down some and the slow and relaxing air of autumn is here, I will share all of my adventures!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I’ve had blogger’s block (or writer’s block for the traditionalists out there).

I’ve also been contemplating starting a new blog.  Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean that Texas Lou will be retired.  This blog will continue to be my personal blog.  But I’d like to start more of a professional blog dealing with a specific topic or project.  Deciding on that topic is the hard part, but I’ve been letting a few ideas marinate.

I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July and a great long weekend!  Just 4 days until I get to go to the beach!

I now subscribe to 280 blogs through Google Reader!

I think my hobby of blog following may be turning into an obsession!

As a blogger, I am always wanting to subscribe to other people’s blogs and support my fellow bloggers out there on the interwebz!

I’ve been meaning to write about my friend Dana and her blog for a while, but I kept forgetting.  Well Dana just posted a new entry on her blog, Dana’s Garden, and with it being the first day of summer and all, I thought it might be the perfect time to share with yall!

Dana’s blogs combines two of my favorites things: blogging and gardening!  She has rented out a space in a community garden here in Charlottesville and built it from a pile of dirt and weeds into a beautiful and productive garden!  I wish I could do what Dana is doing, but I don’t have much of a green thumb and I think my self-determination is lacking too.  On top of working a full time job, being involved in softball and kickball leagues, and working part time as a Pampered Chef consultant (click here if you’re in need of some AMAZING kitchen utensils), Dana has managed to bring her garden to life with broccoli, peas, green beans, cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos, zucchini, and much more!  Dana is the inspiration that I might just need to take a stab at my own garden next year!

You should definitely check out Dana’s blog, especially if you are in to gardening!  She’s also a photographer so she’s got some spectacular pictures of her progress in the garden!

I now subscribe to 125 blogs.  It is absolutely impossible for me to keep up with them all so I have to pick and choose what I skim and what I actually read.

Lucky for me, a great deal of those blogs are mostly comprised of pictures!  🙂

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. 

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.

This year, I am blogging about my friend Nita Collier.  Nita is one of the strongest, smartest, and most amazing women I know and she is one of the people who inspired me to further my career in technology.

I first met Nita when I was 22 and right out of college.  I was working my first real job as the Help Desk Associate for Albemarle County Schools and Nita was one of the Technology Support Specialists.  She was only 4 years older than me, but she had a husband, 2 beautiful children, a house, and a successful career supporting technology in education.  At first, the Help Desk work satisfied me, but soon I found myself wanting to learn and do more.  I saw what Nita and my other co-workers were doing and I wanted to do the same thing.  I wanted that challenge and even though it was scary to think of jumping into something that I was not confident about doing, I knew that I could do it because Nita did and I knew she could teach me alot.

Over the 3 years that I worked forAlbemarle County, I became good friends with Nita and learned sooooo much from her.  She taught me everything she could about the profession.  Now a mother of three beautiful little ones, Nita supports the entire division, consisting of more than 26 schools and sites, by helping teachers to integrate technology into education and providing a more engaging learning environment for the students of the 21st century.  She continues to inspire me to be all that I can be in technology.

It’s because of strong and intellegent women like Ada Lovelace and my friend, Nita Collier, that women like myself continue to enter and succeed in the technology field!

I love you Nita and thank you for everything!

I want to thank my friend Heather from college for writing about a new social networking site out there on her blog.

Heather wrote about a website called foursquare where you can check-in to different places with your cell phone and earn badges and achievements for trying out new venues in the city where you reside.  I had no idea these types of social networking sites existed and now that I do, I am totally addicted.  I absolutely love this site and its agenda because I am always looking out for new places to visit and new restaurants or breweries to try!  Even though I’ve been living in Charlottesville for over four years now, it still seems that there are so many places I’ve never been to and never even heard about, and foursquare is opening my eyes to many of these locations.

The ease of checking-in with a smartphone or mobile web device is also motivating me to finally trade in my three and a half year old flip phone for something a little more technologically advanced especially since I’ve been craving a data plan and GPS but have been putting off the upgrade because of the extra money it costs.

A similar website, Gowalla, was also brought to my attention by my friend Danielle.  I haven’t played with this site as much yet, but I definitely plan on doing so, especially because the site is designed and developed in my own home sweet home, Texas!  Once I get a newer phone, being active on both of these sites will be alot easier and much more fun!

I definitely recommend giving both websites a try and make sure to add me as your friend!

Update:  I am now subscribed to 97 blogs.  Scary!

It’s been a while since I’ve written.  I always feel like there is so much I want to write about.  Everywhere I go and everything I do, I tend to make a mental note (and sometimes take pictures) of things I want to blog about.  Lately I’ve been really busy.  With the end of the year upon us and the holidays flying by, there is so much traveling, shopping, working, and responsibilities to take care of. 

I flew home less than a month ago for my dad’s 60th birthday, and I’m going home again this weekend for my brother’s graduation from the University of Texas.  Then two weeks later, I turn around and go home again for Christmas.  Three weeks after the new year, I fly to Vegas for the annual Vegas trip with the girls.  All of this, and I didn’t even go home for Thanksgiving. 

Then I’ve got to find time somewhere in between all of those trips to do Christmas shopping (and birthday shopping for the unusual amount of December/January birthdays among my family and friends), keep up with laundry, bill paying, and the usual daily responsibilities, and finish a very difficult project at work.  All of this while trying to train for the half marathon I’ll be running in March and meeting with my Computers 4 Kids mentee once a week is just stressing me out.

So, the goal of this post is not to complain.  I’m well aware of the very lucky life I lead and wouldn’t trade it for anything.  I just want to let everyone out there (if there is anyone that actually reads this blog) know why I’ve been slacking.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hopefully I’ll be posting again before Christmas!

That’s how many blogs I’m subscribed to on Google Reader.  A bit much, no?