April Favorites

April has been full of little joys and big excitements.

Little joys like being bowled over with cleverness (see #3). Or eating my FAVORITE sugar cookies (pre-whole30, of course). Or becoming more intimately acquainted with an author I love through his diaries. Or a friend sharing his view on our place in the world, and saying something much more important in the process.

As for big excitements, I can’t share juuuuust yet, but it won’t be far now, hobbitses. Not far. Not far.

So here’s to joys and excitements big and small, and a glass of sparkling water (darn you whole30!!) raised to my April Faves.

1) 8tracks

I discovered 8tracks through Kacie’s blog this month, and am loving it! I know everyone is so into Spotify right now, but it hasn’t wooed me. And when I sampled 8tracks I discovered why. It’s because I’m a music moron, that’s why.  I go to Spotify and have no idea what to listen to and am so overwhelmed by choices. I need a radio station that will introduce me to new bands and songs, without me having to do the decision-making.

Enter 8tracks. As far as I can tell, it’s the infinite mix-tape collection of the interwebs. Anyone can put together a mix, which is then listenable in its entirety. For free. Kacie linked to this playlist which is an example of the perfect antedote to my moronitry. I loved the mix, but would have never found these bands otherwise.

And now I know what to do with Spotify. Double win!

2) Ideabox

It sounds like a mind-mapping technique but is actually a pre-fab home manufacturer in Salem, Oregon. The dude and I are considering options for places to land when we’re stateside, and these environmentally friendly homes arrive with everything installed and ready to drop on your lot. Or in the backyard of a friend’s lot. Hypothetically.

I was turned off by them at first, for sure. Every model looked like a mobile home, which isn’t exactly what we’re going for when escaping the barrenness of the desert.

But the more I looked, the more I couldn’t stop looking. I perused the new concepts and customizations on the facebook page. I read nearly every word on the website. And I found myself hooked.

Ideabox homes are created with mega-energy-efficiency in mind, and the shotgun shape means big views from every room. And on a nice day? Just open the sliding doors on the parallel walls and fill your home with fresh air.

And mosquitos. But still.

I have plentiful ideas for ideabox. Too bad I’m not stateside to execute them.

3) Survivor. And its fans.

Yes, “that show” is still on the air. And it’s still fantastic. It’s brilliant concept of politicizing people who only just met keeps delivering season after season. New surprises happen every season, even though the concept has stayed the same for 26 seasons. This reality show outlasts them all.

Because of the casting choices, season 26 hasn’t been my favorite. But April’s episodes brought a few pretty fantastic moments, one which inspired this musical number with Lego choreography:

Am I the only one who hasn’t seen something choreographed in Legos before? Because this. was. awesome. it’s probably only really great if you’ve been watching Survivor, but any parody-fiend is bound to enjoy it.

Megathanks, Lisa Ferreira, for immortalizing this Surivivor moment.

4) Asana

Asana is an online project management application that enables groups of any size to collaborate on projects.

I first tried Asana a year or two ago as a personal task management option, and it just didn’t work for me. It still doesn’t work for me in that capacity, actually. But recently I’ve needed to coordinate with other people more extensively on a few projects, and I returned to Asana to see if it might be able to help.

Cue knight in shining sans-serif.

Asana is organized into workspaces (think spheres-of-activity or teams), projects (projects within said spheres), and tasks (tasks toward completing said projects). You can grow the team for any workspace or project independently and can make projects private (your eyes only) as well.

But the sweetness is in the execution. Any member of a project can tweak any element: creating tasks, assigning them to members, commenting on tasks, marking them complete, etc. And files can be uploaded to tasks, too. (Real handy when I have an explanatory screencast to share.) Tasks also have comment threads to track discussions, which means all communications are self contained within the application. (No more hunting through a slew of emails!!!)

On top of all of that, Asana will send you email notifications reminders of new things assigned to you, upcoming deadlines and others’ activity on shared projects. So you get notified, but can freely delete the email because it’s all saved in Asana anyway.

It has its limitations, for sure. But it’s a fantastic tool for collaborating. Next time you have an event to plan or are working on a project with a friend, try it out and let me know how it goes!

5) Zach Braff’s Kickstarter Project

I love Zach Braff, and I love Kickstarter, so Zach Braff + Kickstarter? Ummmm… falling all over myself. Let’s just say I’ve read the Kickstarter page more than a time or two. There are lots of large “rewards” like movie premiers and such, and the $10 option gets you weekly insider bits from the set as the movie progresses. I mean that’s just good fun, right?

My favorite part, though, is the terms of the Voice Greeting “reward”:

If you’re a Zach Braff fan, be sure to check it out. And of course I’ll help get you started.

 But enough about me.

What did you love in April?