She moves in mysterious ways...

Today is Ada Lovelace Day... an opportunity to blog about a woman in technology and computing whom you admire. Back when this project was announced, I vowed to blog about my favorite woman in computing. What they didn't know was, lucky me... I have two!

Way back in October 2001, I met Alice. I have written about her before... She is my business partner with HostingParis.com and LetsBounceBack.com, and the best friend I could ever have.

We met at the American University of Paris. We both signed up for the Web Design and Site Management course... it was two nights a week for several months and covered 90 hours of instruction. We started with basic html coding and learned the intricacies of forms the hard way and, in the end, produced working websites. I convinced her to take the follow-up Flash course and also roped her into a digital photography course at Parson's Paris. (We love to learn!)

We built our little web business slowly, word of mouth within the Anglo/Non-profit orgs/Artist community in Paris; and we are still growing. Our turning point came when we learned about Mambo, an open source content management system, which has since taken us to Joomla!, also an open source content management system.

Alice is my techno-geek chica. She loves the tech side of things... where she can spend hours Googling and figuring out something in PHP and MySQL, I can can spend hours making it look pretty with CSS and graphics. We have a mind meld that works. Our mantra has always been "two heads are better than one". We have another mantra: The Circle of Love. The Circle of Love is composed of those folks who impress us so much with their love of what they do: their passion, their intensity with which they give and their downright goodness. Which brings me to Alice's daughter, Catherine... who, might I say, is AWESOMENESS extraordinaire! Believe me, I smile when I say AWESOME! :-)

I am going to pull text from a proud mom's blog... (also posted on our recent project: LetsBounceBack.com, take a look!

"...Catherine is a first year PhD student in Computer Science. Her specialty: Human and Computer Interaction (HCI) and User Experience (UX).
She was a Computer Science major at a small, all-female liberal arts college, and her combined research experiences, and the mentorship of a family friend who is also an HCI matriarch, amongst others.
Despite her young age, she has numerous research experiences under her belt, has attended and presented papers at many conferences (including Grace Hopper and CHI), and continuously forges a broad and strong network in her field. She holds her own in this highly male-dominated sector, and is an enthusiastic advocate for women in computing, never missing an opportunity to encourage women to consider a career in technology.
Last summer Catherine was a contributor on the G-Nome Surfer project, a genomic information visualization program for a table top interface."

Woof! May I say again, WOOF!!

Catherine was very patient one evening around the kitchen table as she tried to teach me and her mom basic java scripting... frustrating for her, I am sure, but a fond memory for me! Her patience and her Eureka! moment as she figured out something she was working on made the evening. Catherine is a woman to watch. I am honored to know her, and her mom. Two special women worthy of Ada Lovelace's admiration.

It's all right, it's all right, all right...

Blue moon...

The new decade was brought in with a blue moon and a partial eclipse, how special is that?

A wish for the new year and this new decade... May it bring you true joy and contentment, all you hope for and all you dream of...

And when I looked my moon had turned to gold...

Not fade away...

This has been a year of many realizations and discoveries. Of letting go and moving on. Of finding joy and for once, reveling in it. Completely.

In these last few days of this decade let us hope for better things; for peace, for positive change and happiness. Simple gestures... make it better.

Love is real, not fade away...

To build a home...

This photo brings back memories... it was taken at my aunt and uncle's mountain house in North Carolina following my mother's death, in December 2000.

We spent Christmas week there, and although the mood was not festive, it was still joyful. We had snow, we had a great hill, a couple of sleds and each other. A warm fireplace at night, no interruptions from TV, internet, phones... just peace. A chance to reflect and remember.

I recently wrote of the cloud of witnesses on CaringBridge.com... the people who participated and shared their thoughts during Alice's father's journey. The love and support expressed was open, loving and honest. For me, it was reliving my mother's journey, but it also gave me a lot of perspective and, after nine years, has allowed me to find my own inner peace.

There has been a lot of building, and rebuilding, in these past few months. One such project is a new website that Alice and I are pleased to announce: LetsBounceBack.com, an online community for members to share their experiences of coping with and overcoming adversity.

Adversity can come at you in many ways... job loss, depression, the loss of a loved one... Sharing the experience can be a healing process, and others, in turn, can gain insight and lend support.

Sometimes, all it takes is a kind word to see you through... sometimes, that kind word leads to friendship, and isn't the world a better place when you are among friends?

This is a place where I feel at home...

Give a little bit...

My resolution at the beginning of this year was to "make it better"... whatever it was or in whatever small way that I could. I'm not sure how well I stuck to that resolution, but I'd like to introduce you to some folks who are "making it better" right now.

A little bit of history; the above photo was taken in Sri Lanka, I was there in November 2007 for a work related project. We had the opportunity to see the island and spent an amazing 12 days there. This photo was taken at Kotdoowa Raja Maha Vihara, Madu Ganga, an island temple located in the middle of a lagoon in southern Sri Lanka. This day changed my life forever. We arrived at about noon... we were given a tour and took quite a lot of photos... the boys were very interested in all that we were doing. It was wonderful to see their joy as we showed them the images...

I recently met someone through Twitter who is doing something I can only dream of for the moment. His name is Jeff Speigner, he is a graphic designer and the founder of Design4Kids.org, "...an opportunity for creative professionals to experience international travel and make a real difference in the fight to end the cycle of poverty. Design4Kids helps talented but underprivileged teens in developing countries learn the technical and business skills needed to establish and operate successful design studios."

Right now, they are beginning their third workshop in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. You can learn more and follow their progress by visiting the Design4Kids.org website. You can also follow Jeff on Twitter at http://twitter.com/inspiritu.

As this year comes to a close, I am wondering where next year will take me. I do know there will be changes, that is inevitable. It is my hope that I will be in a situation to be able to give something back and "make it better"...

Now's the time that we need to share...

Don’t look back...

... always look forward, and never quit...

This was the advice given to me by my hero, Mr. Ivan Chermayeff, whom I had the great pleasure and honor to meet at the home of a friend here in Paris this evening. What a wonderful man!

I brought some of my work with me and asked him for an honest critique.... and he gave it. Overall, my work is good, he shared some tips and advice with me that I have taken to heart and will remember for future projects. He was sweet enough to let me ramble a bit and he was very open with what he was working on. This is a man who is passionate about his work and he said he could never think of retiring... Amen for that!

I grew up with his work, we all have... when you look at the scope of what he has done in his lifetime... and you'll know it when you see it... it's coming from him. NBC, National Geographic, Mobil... the list goes on... I told him that what I love about your work is that it is so basic in its shape and form, and yet so simple and so symmetric. He said that is very hard to do... to keep it simple, yet keep it to the obvious.

What have I learned from this? I will quote the man himself, "Draw a lot. Work hard and be as self critical about what it is that you are doing. Don't be put down by not doing something. Don't let it stop you from going further."

I want to thank my dear friend, Barbara, for her hospitality and generosity... gros bisous et merci beaucoup!

Oh, I see myself in a brand new way...

Clouds...

These past months, and more particularly, these past few days, I, and many others, have had the honor and very special privilege of being witness to an amazing man's life, Alice's dad, The Reverend G. Daniel Little.

I only had the opportunity to meet him once, at Christmas dinner with Alice's family. He immediately embraced both Christopher and me, with a warm hug and welcome. His obvious joy at spending time with his family was matched by his wit and laughter. It was a wonderful evening, one that I will cherish.

Over the past year and a half, but especially during these final hours the family has been able to stay in constant touch with each other and their many friends and colleagues through several social networking sites: CaringBridge.org, Facebook, and Skype. The outpouring of love and support has been uplifting, not only for the family, but also for those of us who have been caring from afar.

His grand-daughter, an awesome woman in her own right, wrote the following as her FB status:

When the cloud of Witnesses becomes the witnesses on the Cloud, their power is so much more tangible. If only virtual hugs could be real...

If only they could be. My thoughts and prayers are with the entire family. Thank you for sharing this very inspiring and touching moment, and for allowing us to give back the love we have all benefited from throughout Dan's journey.

...something's lost, but something's gained, in living every day...