• 3/4 of the computer screen just for the writing
• 1 pair of headphones
• 1-3 favorite songs (Can be substituted for favorite playlist or radio station)
• 29 + operational keys on a keyboard (A-z, shift, period and enter are the minimum) *
• 1 Place to submit blog post online

*If this is a video or audio post,  less keys are acceptable.

Directions:

Preheat brain anywhere from 1 day to 5 minutes before writing the post.   Mix headphones, computer screen and favorite songs in a mixing container.  After these ingredients have been mixed, add keys as appropriate to create the post.

Let mixture sit for 2 minutes.

In a separate container prepare to submit the blog post online.

Go back to mixture.  End result should be a clear and concise post about your chosen topic.  If the mix is not clear,  remove and add keys as necessary.  Add the mix to the blog post.

Publish the mix  and serve fresh.

Listen.

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognized. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, we want to celebrate her achievements.

On March 24, 2009  I wrote a blog post about Barabara Liskov, the first U.S. woman to earn a PhD from a computer science department. Liskov also won a Turing Award “for her pioneering work in the design of computer programming languages”.

Currently I’m on the hunt for who to acknowledge this year and I’d love your suggestions!  Who is your female tech role model?

Presently on my mind is the Gorillaz’s new album, “Plastic Beach” streaming in full at NPR.

Secondly on my mind is kindness.  This afternoon I tweeted, “If the world doesn’t run on kindness,  then I’ll change it so it does.”.

This morning before work I received a text from a friend that her car needed a jump.  I rushed to grab my things and headed over.  After trying to jump her car we came to the conclusion that it was the starter.

While we were putting the jumper cables away, I made a decision.  I handed her the keys to my beautiful new car and told her it was hers for the day.  She dropped me off at my job and headed out to hers.

We both got off of work in the early afternoon, and she swung by, picked me up and we headed to her place.  It was only a matter of minutes before a new task was before us; she discovered not only did her car not start this morning but there was no more toilet paper in the house.  Off we go to the grocery store.

I stuck around and helped her make dinner for her and her husband.  Right before dinner was ready I left heading out for work tonight.  I was glad to hear that the dinner was well enjoyed.

And if anyone even reads this blog anymore,  I have one thing to say to you.

Don’t ever hesitate about giving your time and resources to those who need it.

She needed my car more than I did.  And as for making a dinner I didn’t eat, this couple has fed me more times than I can count. It was nice to finally be able to return the favor!

Besides, who can resist cooking while listening to great music?

And I end March 1st wanting to lie next to someone warm,  gazing at the stars through this cold, crisp air and breathing like tomorrow will never arrive.

Sometimes you just have to take time in life to be absolutely ridiculous.   After all, it’s the spontaneous, unplanned moments in our life that bring about the best stories and warmest memories.

For the past couple of weekends my friends and I have been making pancakes together.  We’ve made the usual blueberry,  banana and chocolate chip,  but we’ve also made rainbow pancakes and Oreo pancakes as well.  Our next adventure will be to make pancakes that go with Reese’s peanut butter cups.

So, that’s just one bit of mischief  I’ve been up to on this unintentional hiatus from my wordpress blog.  You’ll be reading, seeing and hearing from me a lot in the month of March – I promise to post something each day, whether it be fun, academic or personal.

And it does.  But will that have people clamoring for privacy?  For some, yes.  For others, not.  It seems society has a laissez-faire approach to privacy on social networks.  I’ve heard stories of persons losing their job, or a job opportunity because of  Facebook indiscretions.  Politicians and celebrities have faced criticisms because of a Facebook or Twitter status.  Even the latest “Facebook scandal” – it now has your status updates indexed by Google – doesn’t have people leaving that social network.

So if you Googled me,  what would you find?  Too much, I’m sure.  But what is privacy to this social networking world?  How can we set privacy settings without people being offended? It seems our thirst for instant knowledge has begun to be a ravenous consumption of personal information.   If you don’t tweet enough, “it’s just not worth it”.  Whether it is tweeting about the weather or reading about the latest economic movements,  we consume it as supplementary information.

But then, how does one in this Public Era keep things private? It is the popular thing to tell the world all your thoughts.  What does it mean if you keep some of those thoughts to yourself?

How do you live a private life while fully participating in this Public Era? Or do you set a proactive standard of privacy and understand you’re not “all in” when it comes to social network immersion?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here is the list of attendees.

• Sarah  – @hidama
• Jordan – @swirlee
• Roxy – @roxychan
• Amanda – @MdmeAlbertine
• Cecelia – @youlookthesame
• Jake!  @jake_nolan
• Sam, Jake’s friend.
• Reid - @pancheros
• Emily – @ohmnom
• Matt – @bldngnerd
• Chris – @ccurtland
• Brittney – @brittneyw
• Sophie – @smswitzer

And anyone can plan a tweetup!  If you’re too shy to plan one, but have an idea for the gathering, feel free to tweet me!

Also, keep your eye out for the Daily Iowan article!

We feel forgotten; smothered between the ever prolonging and popular baby boomers and the marvel the baby boomers have of the tech savvy children born in the mid 90s on.

Some say we’re just run by media or don’t care.  It’s not true. We worry about the future.

Our friends and family went to war.  Some of them died. We talk about how our children might not see a Panda, or cities be lost in a global warming related incident.  We grow frustrated that we aren’t conserving our resources.

We grew up in the 90s. Everything we wanted was reasonably affordable.  We were told to dream!  Create new jobs!

We come out as independents when the youth face the lowest unemployment rate since WWII. We’re harassed about our dreams and are chastised for not choosing something far more practical. We don’t go into the field we studied for. Experience outweighs intellect.  We thrive to be independent but the economy slows us. We were told to be book smart – but now we suddenly need to be street smart. Our institutions are going away.

There is no Berlin Wall,  no Woodstock,  no walk on the moon.  We don’t have a great adventure or a milestone in our generation.

It’s not a clean slate – it’s a broken foundation.

So, what will my generation build? What will be our cry?  Who will speak?  What will be our cause?

Why is there tape over our mouths?  Why are our hands tied?  Why are people speaking for us?  Those are not our words.

We are thought to be separate and silent.  But we’re together.

Struggle.  Fight.  Find a way to speak. Find a way to work with our own hands.

Our Silent Generation…  let us be the noise…   let us be the song.  Let us be the Generation of Unity.

• Some people are narcissists.
• Social media is not an evil that creates narcissism.
• There are social people.

Over the past few months,  research after research has interpreted social media as a flourishing oasis for narcissists. People guffaw at apparent simpletons who regurgitate mundane information into the social online realm –  a favorite, boisterous joke being made about updating people on the contents of the day’s meals.

Social Media is blamed for it’s evil narcissism via marketing. “Just tons of businesses trying to advertise for free – there aren’t any valuable conversations out there,”  I imagine someone in a lab coat proudly announcing to the press.

There are social businesses. There are social individuals. You can promote and be social – and not narcissistic.

There are people who are social on social networking sites.  If not, how do we have tweetups,  plan events on Facebook,  interact with bands on Myspace and make new business connections on LinkedIn?

We’re not all narcissists, nor does the use of social media turn us into narcissists.

Social Media and the Need for Community

• We’ve redrawn our neighborhood lines to no longer be geographical, but digital.

I often think about the past, when neighborhoods weren’t urban planning  and drawn lines, but communities.

Neighbors would get together and talk about the weather, how work was,  the latest science fair their daughter won and their nephew’s favorite superhero costume.

We lost that community.

And then regained it – online.

A good example of online community was GeoCities - users created digital neighborhoods based on interests. And Twitter – surprisingly successful – fills some of the need of “everyday” communication.  We’re talking to a community about our day,  about our daughter’s science fair,  about the boring class lecture and just how much it cost us to fix that car.

There’s no other place in town where you can sit in an old, leather auditorium seat while listening to Regina Spektor and enjoying a delicious cup of brew.

Brewed Awakenings is the eclectic coffee shop across from Coe College that is rated Cedar Rapids’ best coffee and boasts a community atmosphere.

Leta Keane, a Coe College student and employee at Brewed Awakenings says, “It’s a perfect environment – squashy couches, warm lamps, good music, good drinks and food – in which to get some studying and socializing done.”

“Our early slogan was, ‘We’re so not corporate,’” says Richard Marsceau, the father of the family who owns Brewed Awakenings. “We had a chance to pay for a designer to come in and we realized that would be a very corporate feel, and a lot of money, and so we all just put our heads together and said, ‘so what do you want to do?’”

The family got decorative inspiration from visiting other coffee shops, especially ones on the West Coast. After one adventure to California for a coffee buyer’s conference, the group saw a shop with lofts. The Marsceaus liked the idea and imitated it by raising a section of Brewed Awakenings.

Much of the furniture of the shop was found at consignment stores and with new additions each year, the coffee shop slowly morphed into its current design.

“We want to champion local artists,” explains Marsceau when asked about the decorations at Brewed Awakenings.  Most of the wall art are from employees at the shop.  Other hand crafted items by artists, including aprons, jewelry and homemade cards,  are on display and for sale as well.

Marsceau says his wife Nancy and his son Josh were the ones “with a good eye,” who made most of the final decisions in the layout of the cafe.

Josh is also accredited with the Marsceau’s success with coffee. Josh pursued coffee conferences, taste testing, and tried new roasts and found the current roast for Brewed Awakenings. Josh selected PT’s Coffee, which was recently named Roaster of the Year in Roast Magazine.

How did this cafe get it’s clever name? Brewed Awakenings is actually the name of a pub in Western Europe. Deb Witt took the name of the pub and started up her own coffee shop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and ran the coffee shop as hobby.

But the corner of 1st Ave and 13th Street SE has not always been a coffee shop. The Corridor Business Journal reports the shop had been a variety of businesses, ranging from “a Domino’s Pizza shop, a Harley Davidson dealership and a drug store with a soda fountain counter in the 1950s.”

The Marsceaus came across Brewed Awakenings in Fall of 2003 and finalized the purchase from Witt in January of 2004.  “We saw the potential,” says Marsceau, “and we wanted to build it for a sense of openness for students and faculty.”

“It has a sense of camaraderie, too,” says Keane, when asked why students, staff and faculty are drawn to the cafe. “There are nooks in which you can have a private conversation, and larger spaces for larger discussions. The fact that the lunches, baked goods, and drinks are all fantastic, in addition to the art and merchandise by local artists that’s for sale around the shop, also doesn’t hurt.”

Richard Marsceau and his wife Nancy were first inspired to own a business while traveling in Italy and visiting coffee shops. Recalls Marsceau, “we just loved that aspect of neighborhood.”

Richard and Nancy Marsceau also travelled to Breckenridge, Colorado and was once again attracted to the community nature of coffee shops.

The Marsceau family created “neighborhood” with their coffee shop.  Brewed Awakenings draws in people from all walks of life. The shop is populated with retirees, high school and college students, mothers and fathers with children, professors, business people and local community members.

The popular shop became even more crowded after the summer flood of 2008 took out its downtown competitors.  Safe from the flood waters, Brewed Awakenings remained open.

“We saw a good quarter,” says Marsceau when asked about how the recession affected the coffee shop, “the comfort business is still good… still staying steady because people can spend a buck fifty on coffee.”

The good quarter was due to the increase of traffic and Marsceau expects a slight decrease in sales as the recession deepens and more coffee shops downtown reopen. Brewed Awakenings started a Happy Hour from 3-6pm in response to the recession, offering favorite drinks and shots and low prices.

Brewed Awakenings is open Monday through Friday at 6:30am and Saturday at 8:30am. It is closed Sundays. Lunch is served every day from 11pm-2pm; Marsceau says his wife Nancy has influenced the kitchen, demanding only fresh, homemade dishes are served to the customers.

“I actually do love working at Brewed,” says Keane, “there are few days when I don’t look forward to my shifts.  It’s rare that you find a work environment in which the employees genuinely enjoy each others’ company and are passionate about what they do.”

The Marsceau family continues to foster good conversation and community. Many of the retirees at the coffee shop know Marsceau by name and feel free to talk to him.

Also, the local college students frequent the shop for student organization meetings, like German Club, and a few professors have loved the coffee shop enough that they’ve held small classes there.

Brewed Awakenings also hosts a Conversation Cafe on Thursday evenings, where community members gather to discuss issues ranging from politics to local farming and religion to world economics.

“Our goals from the very beginning, was basically our motto – Great coffee, good conversation [and] community,” said Marsceau.