Archive for ‘Think Kit

Think Kit: New Skills

Posted by lydia
Dec
28
2011

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Filed Under: Culture Think Kit

One of my favorite things about SmallBox are the conversations we have with each other that aren’t related to the work we do every day. Don’t get me wrong, conversations and discussions about our work are fun and rewarding. But it’s these side conversations that provide insight into the passions that help make us well-rounded people. I love learning about what my workmates love to do in their spare time.

Many times these conversations steer toward food. We have many talented cooks on the team (as evidenced by the number of tasty chills we sampled during our Chili Cookoff). Many of us randomly bring in cookies or other baked good experiments to share with the group, and we regularly share stories of our latest culinary adventures at home or a dinner out that was just delightful. Because of these conversations, I have learned new ways to prepare quinoa, made my first reduction sauce with great success, and become aware of the joy of thumbprint cookies and their infinite possibilities of variation.

Inspired by my workmates and our food chats, my goal this year is to learn to cook in a cuisine I don’t normally cook. Choosing what cuisine was easy: for Christmas, my sister gave me Madhur Jaffrey’s At Home with Madhur Jaffrey, and I’ve always wanted to learn to cook Indian food (having enjoyed it the past few years, courtesy of India Garden). Jaffrey’s book is recommended by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table and a woman (and food genius) I have long admired, so I figured it’s a good place to start. My goal is to dive in, study and explore Indian food and learn all I can about the history and culture of food in India. Over the course of 2012, I’ll prepare every recipe in the book (supplementing it with the previously mentioned history and culture explorations) and hopefully (very likely) find a few dishes I can add to my regular cooking repertoire. I’m really excited for this new adventure! (And if you want updates over the year, I’ll definitely blog about it over at my personal blog: wanderlydia.com.)

So, anyone have advice in the world of Indian cooking?

This post is part of Think Kit 2011.

 

Think Kit: If you could meet someone new in 2012, who would it be?

Posted by Justin Shimp
Dec
27
2011

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Filed Under: Culture Think Kit

This question is another one of those questions that I have so many different answers for and they all change depending on the day or what I am currently pursuing hobby-wise. So instead of a particular person I am just going to describe the type of new person I would like to meet in 2012.

In 2012, I would like to meet someone who will challenge me to think, question my beliefs, and inspire me to keep creating new goals for myself and staying on track with them. I am easily distracted at times because of my wide interest in many subjects. I have found myself reading a wikipedia article and then 3 hours later looking up from reading and seeing that I have 50+ tabs open for reading more into the original subject that I was looking at. Just last night, I went from trying to find out when a particular movie I had seen recently came out to reading the inner traditions of Hanukkah and its various traditions I have never been exposed to.

Emett Otter's Jugband Christmas

Emett Otter's Jugband Christmas is my favorite christmas movie

So in 2012 I would love to meet someone that I could share my interests with but also someone that could help me focus more on some of the other things that I want to accomplish. Some of those things include recording more music, drawing more, and helping out in my community.

Lots of my friends already fill this role but I say the more the merrier!

This post is part of Think Kit 2011.

Think Kit: Tradition

Posted by sara
Dec
25
2011

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Filed Under: Everything Else Think Kit

Many, many moons ago, I received a Christmas ornament from a woman named Annie. I was fresh out of college and working as a barista in a busy coffee shop in Chicago. Annie became a regular customer for a few months, though she never once ordered coffee.

Annie's ornamentShe visited for the sole purpose of dropping off gifts for anyone working behind the counter. Didn’t matter who, she just liked to give presents. Sometimes it was a pack of ramen noodles or a stack of literature picked up in a hotel lobby. One day near Christmas, she gave me this glass ornament she’d bought on clearance at neighboring Anthropologie.

By most accounts, she was a crazy lady. Her husband had passed away, and she shuffled the streets of Chicago in his old clothes, her petite frame swallowed up by an extra large tweed overcoat, boat-sized leather loafers she could barely keep on her feet clopping with each step. Aside from gifting random things to complete strangers, she also burst into unexpected shouting, often of the profane sort. These other things got her cast out of most the businesses in the neighborhood, my old workplace included.

All of her craziness aside, I get inspired by her zest for gift-giving every year. It’s become an annual tree-trimming tradition that the first ornament to go up is Annie’s. I have no idea what became of her.

This post is part of Think Kit 2011.

 

Think Kit: Handwritten Notes

Posted by sara
Dec
24
2011

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Filed Under: Everything Else Social Media Think Kit

handwritten notesSeveral times this year I got handwritten thank you notes in the mail from my good friend Micki. A couple of the notes were expressing gratitude for small favors many people would have marked with a simple spoken “Thank you.” Perhaps because getting handwritten notes has become so rare for me, her cards made a big impact. When most communication happens via text, email and Facebook, there’s something intimate and cozy about recognizing someone’s handwriting.

Handwritten notes shouldn’t be so scarce.
On any given day this time of year, I know I might find a holiday card in the mailbox. Wouldn’t it be great if checking the mail was this exciting throughout the year? Thanks to Micki I’ve been making it more of a habit to spread random mailbox cheer.

If you’d also like to send more personal notes, but don’t have the addresses of family and friends, check out Jenny Banner’s new app, Addy Me for quick, easy collecting of your contacts’ mailing addresses.

This post is part of Think Kit 2011.

Think Kit: Unwinding

Posted by Justin Lacey
Dec
23
2011

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Filed Under: Think Kit

The beginning of autumn is always a crazy time for me. Work seems to ramp up as well as my personal hobbies and family events. I find myself asking for a break but never having time for one. It’s also incredibly stressful for my girlfriend who every year is trying to stay ahead on planning for Oranje, the Indianapolis art and music exposition that takes place every September. Each year everything seems to come to a head for both of us leading up to the event, but for me, once the event starts I find the entire experience to be one of my favorite escapes of the year.

Oranje

Oranje is full of all kinds of music and art across every medium imaginable. For someone like me who lives and breathes digital art and technology, going hands on with local art opens my mind to a lot of new ideas. I just relax and take it all in as a spectator and this year, like others, I found a couple of artists that made my night and in turn was able to support. The combination of so much different art and music going on simultaneously can overwhelm your senses at first, but it ends up powerful and inspiring sensation.

I’m definitely underselling the experience because it’s much bigger than just being an escape for someone like me, but I’ve come to count on Oranje to recharge my creativity at the end of each year. I can’t recommend enough for everyone to attend at least once.

This post is part of Think Kit 2011.

 

 

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