Van/Westfalia life checklist

I'm not a van-lifer. I'm not even a very good blogger, you'll notice my last post was... waaaaaaaaaay to long ago. However, I love the idea of blogging and the idea of van life (in theory). So for anyone who is actually going to make this a reality, I've created a quick checklist.

Getting a Van

• Buy a van
• Get the title and bill of sale
• Get the van checked out by a reputable mechanic
• Get the tires checked, rotated, and maybe even replaced
• Register/title transfer the vehicle within 30 days of the purchase
• Clean the van

Packing

Van Essentials

• Toilet
• Air compressor
• Hatchet
• Shovel
• RV Fire Extinguisher
• Emergency Kit
• First Aid
• Co2 Detector
• Jump starter
• Car charger
• Lantern
• Mattress topper
• Fridge
• Umbrella
• Windshield scrapper
• ID
• Ubbi trash can

Van Wishlist

• Solar
• Upholstery
• Lithium Battery
• Wifi / Cellular Range Extender
• Bose wireless sound
• Headlamp
• Battery bank
• Hammock
• GPS
• Bike rack
• Roof rack
• Ladder
• Spare tire holder
• GPS Tracker for the van

Van Safety

• Bear spray
• Safe

Bathroom Essentials

• Toothbrush
• Women's sanitary items
• Shampoo
• Conditioner
• Soap
• Razor
• Nail clippers
• Towels
• Tooth paste
• Hair dryer
• Bug spray
• Sun screen
• Ear cleaner
• Multivitamin
• Makeup

Baby/Kid's Stuff

• Diapers
• Milk
• Wet wipes
• Stroller
• Car seat
• Bottles/Sippy
• Jammies
• Nasal aspirator
• Thermometer
• Vitamin D
• Pants
• Hat
• Shirts

Clothing

• Walking shoes
• Detergent
• Organizer cubes
• Flip flops
• Swim suit
• Underwear
• Bra
• Rain jacket
• Sweater
• T-shirt
• Pants
• Belt
• Yoga pants
• Socks
• Hat
• Sun glasses
• Glasses
• Wallet
• Gloves

Work Essentials

• Laptop
• Computer bag
• Notebook
• Whiteboard
• Planner
• Pens
• Headphones
• Mouse
• Keyboard
• Phone
• Computer and electronic cables

Fun stuff 

• Playing Cards
• Camera
• Chinese checkers
• Camping chairs
• Fishing supplies
• Bikes
• Hammock

Food

• Coffee
• La Croix
• Beer
• Wine
• Grocery bags

Sleeping

• Bed sheets
• Pillows
• Blankets

Kitchen

• Fridge or cooler
• Cutting board
• Knives
• Bottle opener
• Coffee maker
• Strainer
• Utensils
• Plates
• Cups
• Cast iron pan

Defining Success

I recently asked someone close to me what they considered success. I'm not sure what I was expecting the answer to be, in fact I don't think I set any expectations. The answer could have been money, cars, some feel of happiness, power, a title, or the ability to do whatever they wanted. In short, the answer could have been very materialistic.

Interview Questions - Getting to Know Me

Interview questions for Desarae

I’d like to start off, by thanking you for taking the time to put this together. I was thrilled to have a fellow HCI student reach out to me online, but your genuine interest in our friendship and learning experience is refreshing. You are a wonderful person, Holly, and I’m glad to be getting to know you. I’m sure a decade from now we will look back on this interview with fun smiles.

SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY: Losing Helium

It's too bad dirigibles never really became in-style, but this article does make me wonder what other uses we might have for helium. With space travel and the eventuality of potentially colonizing another planet like Mars on the horizon, is it an issue?

Artistic Anguish

In a country that is predominantly modeled around a nine to sixteen hour work day how do we separate ourselves from the path of struggling success? Let me rephrase that, how do you separate your personal goals and happiness from your daily struggle with work success?

louvre - working for success, artistic anguish

Traveling (Flash back)

Today is the first day I’ve reconsidered traveling. I was told my apartment was suppose to be showed yesterday, so made a point to leave the house two hours early and head to a wine tasting. They showed up today at 5:30, I was still in my pjs working on my computer. Needless to say I don’t want to leave my house just yet but don’t want to awkwardly sit here while people wander through my home.

About my apartment

I have a gorgeous apartment in the Lyndale area of uptown Minneapolis. Uptown Minneapolis is gorgeous from March to November and my apartment is in the heart of it all. It’s a spacious modern one bedroom overlooking the street from the third floor. I get plenty of light and love the interior design. I can walk to Calhoun square from here within ten minutes. Basically this apartment is to die for and is fairly reasonably priced, it’s not suburb pricing but for the considering it’s pretty good. Plus it comes with one parking spot and street parking is free. It’s a gem on the edge of the nice neighborhoods and what I what consider the precipice of the ghetto. Any further East of my place and everyone only speaks Spanish or Somalian. To the West is Fujiya (the delicious little sushi spot) and more of the upscale living. For me it’s perfect, minus the fact that I hate winter and it’s in the middle of one of the coldest states in the United States.

If you’re interested in the apartment let me know. You can just leave a note in the comments and I’ll get ahold of you.

My Bike Arrived at Northtowne Cycling!

Kalkhoff Impulse

NorthTowne Cycling and Fitness

My Rating: 5 Stars

Des Moines has a fair sized biking community and multiple bikes shops. Unfortunately not very many of those bike shops carry electric bikes. So I called around. That is when I met Derek, the owner of NorthTowne Cycling in Cedar Rapids. NorthTowne does carry electric bikes.

Choosing a Bike

Derek is a busy guy, especially in the spring, but took a lot of time to correspond with me via email and multiple phone calls to discuss what I wanted in a bike. I did my research before ever calling Derek and had narrowed down my search by talking to a few California bike shops. In fact, by the time Derek and I spoke for the first time I'd probably called over twenty bike shops and watched dozens of videos on Electric Bike Review. At that point, Derek was my last hope before ordering the bike I wanted from California and hoping it fit.

I've been wanting an electric bike for over a year. My research began in ernest fall of 2014, but really ramped up after I discovered Electric Bike Review. That's when I realized everything I wanted in an electric bike would not really suit me. Highly recommend checking out the Electric Bike Review community before even considering an electric bike. My original top 2 picks where immediately squashed by bad reviews and the amazing competition.

Product Review: St. Ives, Fresh Skin Apricot Scrub

St. Ives, Fresh Skin Apricot Scrub, 6oz

Overall

My little brother first introduced me to St. Ives' scrubs. He has been overseas for a number of years in areas that are not kind to on skin. So, he started using scrubs and face masks to maintain healthy skin and moisturize. One time, when he was home to visit we did face masks and he introduced me to St. Ives. 

Actually, long before the face mask story he had asked my father and I to mail him some of this stuff. Anyway one way or another, my brother introduced me to this product.

I've always enjoyed using clean and clear products to prevent acne and clear out any unwanted goop from inside my pours. I still use it, but every few days or so I also use St. Ives. I highly recommend the product as a nice scrub to remove dead skin and to clean up. I do not recommend it as a daily scrub or stand alone product, however, my brother might say differently.

I buy most of my household goods on Amazon, because I hate shopping. I have this on auto subscribe. If you are interested, you can purchase St. Ives for around $5-8 on Amazon.

Please note: At the time of this review St. Ives has never sent me free products, paid me to write a review, or given me discount codes. If I'm sent freebies or money I will disclose it in my reviews. I do however receive a few pennies if you click on the images or links provided to help you find this product and purchase it on Amazon. I only get that money if you click the links and then make a purchase. It's not a lot of money and if you like this blog, I hope that doesn't put you off simply because it helps support this bloggers writing habits.

Happy online shopping and enjoy your clean, fresh, scrubbed skin!

Happy Birthday Dad! @gveit

Happy Birthday to the Best Guy I Know

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday dear Dad.

A happy happy birthday to you!

Love you a lot! You're a great father and I'm very lucky to have you as my father.

xox

Love,

Your little girl

Diary: Spring is finally Here

Happy St. Patricks

 

Warm Weather!!!

I couldn't be happier to see the sun. Warm weather finally arrived this March. I'm writing this on Tuesday, March 17th. Sunday was my first day getting out. I went for a nice long bike ride. The next day I felt the burn. The sun got to me. The bike burned out my muscles. Still, I couldn't be happier that the weather is turning.

Happy St. Patricks. Hope it was fun for you! I missed all the green beer this year.

Book Update

Currently going through books faster than I can make hot cakes, that is to say, I'm not a very good cook and I really like books. Writing reviews however, is time consuming, but I have a slew of them on the way!

Business Diary: Experience Summary of DesaraeV

Diary

Senior Web Developer specializing in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design. Desarae is responsible for solving complex design and development problems while connecting clients’ to their target audience. It is her job to oversee design, development, and strategic direction for projects or campaigns. She has over 14 years of marketing and brand promotion experience; and 10+ years of design and development experience working for clients like Best Buy, Lawry's, P.B.Loco, Premier Mounts, Proctor and Gamble, National Geographic, 3M, Disney, Vogue, The Occasions Group, and Express Handymen.

A graduate of Iowa State University with a major in Art and Design and a minor in Military Science, Desarae's greatest asset is her enthusiasm to work and a love for working with advertising, design, new media and affiliates with a broad range of media, marketing, design and selling experience that has given her the opportunity to wear many hats, while developing presentation and collaborative skills.

Diary: Live Healthy Iowa and Weight Loss

Trying To Get Fit (again)

My work participates in a 10 week initiative to encourage employees to exercise and lose weight. It’s called Live Healthy Iowa. The competition involves either setting up a device to track your workouts on your behalf or manually entering your time and weight. I've setup a Jawbone to do most of the work for me, unfortunately I regularly forget to wear my Jawbone Up. So, I logged in today to check how things were going and realized that it missed tracking quite a bit.

The system doesn't allow you to back track, so I’m stuck with two weeks that haven’t been recorded. I haven’t made as much of an effort this year as I would have liked anyway. So we are 6^th out of 7^th place in weight loss and 3/7^th in fitness. Not bad considering I've done a poor job of tracking. I’m on a team with 4 other co-workers and can’t speak for them.

There are four weeks of the competition left, I’d like to say I’m going to bight the proverbial bullet and get motivated, but who knows.

Stay tuned.

DIARY Day 2 of Corsets: Before and After Pictures

After

A few months ago, I was contacted by Orchard Corsets We had a great chat about social media and fashion, they offered me $200 in store credits in exchange for a UX review of their site. I didn't have a lot of time to do a thorough review, but did create a 3 page document of suggestions. In return, I purchased about $320 worth of corsets (4 corsets). This is my second day wearing the corsets, they are incredibly comfortable. I'm still breaking them in, so I'm wearing them pretty loosely right now but you can see a pretty obvious before and after difference.

I had not intended to blog about this experience, but have had quite a few people ask about it. No, I will not be sending anyone pictures of me in lingerie or only in the corset. Don't bother asking, it's not happening.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS - A few Suggestions and A Couple Interviews Coming Soon #author #writing #books

Exciting News! Interviews Coming Soon...

As you may know from reading this blog, I have teamed up with a publishing company and book promotion company to get free books in exchange for honest reviews. Thanks to this relationship, I have an opportunity to speak with the publisher and share ideas for blog posts. 

You may wonder how authors start writing or why a book has a certain character, I know I do! So, I requested time for an interview with a couple of the authors whose books I'm reading. This opportunity will give you and me insight into the thoughts and background of published authors. 

I don't want to spoil too much, but figured other bloggers may be interested in what kinds of questions to write when prepping for an interview. My prep time for this was under ten minutes with a note pad and pen. I just started jotting down questions I had about writing, the author, their book, and how to contact them. These are the general questions. Then, I did a little research on my own. With a quick Google search you can read biographies from social networks, see other books the author wrote, and maybe skim their twitter feed to learn more about them.

I normally do a quick search of books and authors for most of my book reviews to give readers a lazy way of connecting with the books, purchasing them, and finding their new favorite author online. Heck some of the authors I've blogged about are now friends and have some of the best social profiles I know of. When I'm bored, Brian Rathbone's dragon jokes never fail. 

Without further ado, here are a few basic questions to use when interviewing an author. I would suggest including a few specific questions about the book, characters, plot, and their hobbies or recent accomplishments. 

JOURNAL DIARY ENTRY: Reconnecting with long lost friends + Inkly by Sincerely Review

The attached picture shows friends I met in first grade. My father has gone to Japan to see them. I traveled to Paris once and stayed with them. Thanks to Facebook, I can easily stay in touch with many, many people from around the world. Lately I've been trying to think of more ways to stay in touch with friends from around the world, to personalize it. Facebook is starting to become a lot like email, impersonal. Social media has introduced me to hundreds, if not thousands of people whose paths I may not have otherwise crossed. So I like it for that, but it's also addictive and impersonal.

VIDEO Diary: Bored, Cold, and Tired + Book Review of The Godling Chronicles & Trylle Series

F%$# Winter

I'm bored and tired. No sleep again. So blogging, yes that is what I do when I should be on the treadmill and don't want to go outside. I blog and wish I could be outside without freezing my face off, or losing a toe to frost bite. Bike/running/mud season where are you?

Yeah, I could take a nap but I have things I could do. They may not be fun things, but there is always something to do. I could probably go out, but truthfully my one night at the bar this week was probably enough to last me six months. I wouldn't mind listening to Jazz, going to see an art museum, or eating sushi but other than the sushi I can't thing of anywhere I could do that. The art center doesn't have an exhibit right now, I already know my own art inside out, and well a quiet music venue on my own.. I'm not sure I know of anything.

So yes, I'm being lame and pessimistic but I continue to miss spring/summer/fall. I hate winter.

Review: Home Automation Wish List

Smart Home Automation

Overview
Some of the following wish list items already exist, in one form or another. Most items on this wish list currently require some additional level of work to integrate into home automation or do not exist in the United States and/or may not easily purchased from a trusted source like SmartThings, Home Depot, or Amazon. For items that do not exist, a use case has been provided.

This list & the case study is not complete, more updates will be made later. Just got tired of writing. Stay tuned.

Download or View Google Doc with Home Automation Case Study

Wish List


1. Outdoor Home Automation Products

• Solar Powered
• Outdoor lights
• Watering system for garden
• Parrot integration
• Fence monitoring (motion, laser)
• Driveway monitoring (motion, underground car detection)

‪#‎geekriddle‬ Who am I?

Geek Riddle

My kin have many names 

and we are known by all people.

Sonnets and tales of me are centuries old, 

but new ones are being written.

My kin may be beautiful, graceful, and lithe; 

sometimes they are sturdy, strong, and mature. 

You may guess who my kin are but I am known as the greatest of my kind.

I am so great that even the underworld reveres me.

My consciousness and being are beyond that of a mere man or woman, 

but I may offer them wisdom.

I am known to keep company with a messenger squirrel, 

a gnarly dragon,

 and a fierce eagle.

Who am I?

Journal Diary Entry: Make A Wish ... or Else.

Birthday Greetings

Today is my birthday. I've opted to not make plans this year. I'm terrible at party planning and generally find trying disappointing. I'm also writing this in advance because I assume I will be spending it with Charles freezing my butt off wishing I was on a beach somewhere. I'm a day older. Maybe a bit worldlier than last year. I've gained a few pounds. Settled into a house. Trained Charles to do many more tricks. Over the past year, I've seen new places, traveled, made new friends, run many races, and gardened. It's been a good year, a bad year, a dull year, a happy year, and some days where amazing. Most in fact where pretty great, with a few exceptions. I hope 2015 is even better.

On this day, I wish myself and all my friends happiness. Have a great day.

Review: Book Look Blogging #bookblogger

Great News! I'm a BookLook Blogger!

This really doesn't change my blog much, but last night I stumbled upon Book Look and signed up to be a Book Look Blogger. All that means is that some of the books I review will be coming from Book Look, in exchange I will write honest reviews.