Red

Dec11

I stopped in for Pho Tai Chin tonight at Pho Saigon in the Chinatown Center in North Austin. As usual, the Pho hit the spot on a cold, wet night. They have decorated a Christmas Tree in front of the complex, so I took a few photos to share.

Domain Christmas Tree

Dec9

Take a gander at the Christmas Tree in the Domain. Yep, it looks like a tree.

Invincible Czars

Dec6

And the winner for the most fun band of the night is the Invincible Czars! They played the best renditions of songs from The Nutcracker. Check them out as they are super fun to watch.

Capitol Tree Lighting

Dec6

This evening was the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the Texas State Capitol. It involved caroling, Santa photos, hot chocolate, kettle corn, art, a small farmer’s market, and live music. Austin people were out in force, having a great time in some beautiful December weather.

Texas State Capitol – Tyler Rose Garden

Dec6

Yes, it is December in Austin. Yes, the Tyler Rose Garden at the Texas State Capitol is still in full bloom. These roses were too beautiful to pass by without some photos.

Capitol Reflection

Dec6

I caught these lovely views this evening. 🙂

Sunflowers

Nov27

There is an Electric Garden in Austin with fifteen solar collecting Sunflowers. The solar photovoltaic panels collect energy throughout the day and provide a unique display of art. At night, the stems light up and use a portion of the energy collected to make the Electric Sunflower Garden look really cool.

Crowdsourcing

Nov12

The conference I went to last week got me thinking a little bit about crowdsourcing. By a Merriam Webster definition found in a Wikipedia article, “crowdsourcing is the process of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.”

One of my favorite speakers at the conference was Jessica Jackley . Back in 2005, she founded a company called Kiva, which is a “non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.”

The concept is a bit hard to understand at first, so if you have time, check out this YouTube video of Jessica’s Ted Talk in 2010.

I was amazed by her story as well as her ability to share her passion for helping others. To be honest, I am not sure if this will inspire me to be a better person or to use the Kiva website to help out someone in need, but I thought I would share the information with you so you can make your own decision.