Twitter Year in Review 2013

Twitter remains my favorite social network. I came across this fun service, Vizify, last week that created some visuals to recap 2013. The first is a little movie. Unfortunately, you can't embed it but you can view it by clicking on the tweet below or by clicking here.

Just made a movie of my #2013memories on Twitter: https://t.co/bTScQrP3PF What's yours look like? #Vizify
— Amy Z (@amy_z) January 6, 2014

The other fun creation is my top tweets from 2013. Again, this is a screenshot, so it's not interactive, but you can click here or below the image to visit the actual page on the web. There you can view the original tweets and also follow links included in them. I think they are all fairly self-explanatory except for the one from Nov 30 - that was my reaction to the Auburn touchdown at the end of the Iron Bowl. 

https://twitter.com/amy_z/timelines/420166366545465344

What were your favorite moments on twitter in 2013? 

Our Field Trip to the Sweet Grass Dairy Cheese Shop

photo credit: Britain

Friday night a big group of us drove up to the Sweet Grass Dairy Cheese Shop in downtown Thomasville. We started the evening by gathering at our house so we could carpool/caravan for the half hour drive. From the SGD website:

Our goal is source the highest quality products and take care to showcase the finest Southern producers whenever and wherever we can. We believe that every product has a story and by offering a limited selection, we are better able to share those unique elements with you. We present a never static menu with a variety of options to suit all of your needs. A small sampling of our menu includes cheese and charcuterie boards, hand crafted sandwiches, salads, small plates, and desserts.

As usual I will start with the food photos and then share pics of some of the friends who were with us.

The Traveler Platter

"Featuring some of our favorite meats and cheeses from near and far!

Psychadillic, Georgia Gouda with pecans, Smokey Blue with American Spoon Strawberry preserves, and Salame Nostrano" with whole grain mustard. Love the slate platter, too.

photo credit: Britain

Devilish Eggs

House made pimento cheese deviled eggs

"Kinda spicy and fun" reports Britain.

photo credit: Jessica

Top:  The Big Cheese Sandwich
Thomasville Tomme, Georgia Gouda, and Beechers Cheddar on a grilled ciabatta
Bottom: Taste of Thomasville Platter
"Featuring Sweet Grass Dairy! Lil Moo with Strawberry Fig preserves, Thomasville Tomme, Asher Blue, local pecans and SGD wildflower honey. [I love that Asher Blue!]

Adrea toasting the cows! What dairy would be complete without cows? 

photo credit: Britain
B and Tara! (and the cows again!)

The Cheese Shop was a great place to go with a large group because the servers seemed completely unfazed by us all mingling and moving around... which we did a lot! The food was great as were the wine and beer selections. Many of us came home with snacks for later - honey, pecans, and of course, cheese. 

Sweet Grass Dairy Cheese Shop

106 N. Broad Street

Thomasville, GA 31792

http://sweetgrassdairy.com/cheeseshop

Happy Twitter-versary

As of tomorrow, July 13, 2012, I've been on Twitter 4 years. Wow, how times flies. Twitter continues to be for me a source of grace, beauty, laughter and friendship.

This video is an example of grace and beauty, found via Twitter, in an airport of all places. In the departure hall in Terminal 1 of the Singapore Airport, this brand new kinetic sculpture greets visitors. Motors in the ceiling control two sets of 608 copper-covered aluminum raindrops, suspended on wire, that perform a 15-minute long choreographed dance.

"Kinetic Rain" Changi Airport Singapore from ART+COM on Vimeo.

Twitter Dinner out at Sahara

Our monthly Twitter local food gathering was May 31st at Sahara Greek and Lebanese Cafe. I'll share some food first, and then pictures of friends.

My dinner - Chicken Shawarma and Gyro plate with Greek salad, hummus and pita. I gotta tell you, this is not my favorite combination. The gyro meat is so flavorful in comparison to the chicken that it makes the chicken seem bland, when it really isn't. I recommend eating one then the other. And don't miss the tzatziki sauce, it's really good! 

Abe's Chicken Shawarma with the Greek garlic fries everyone raves about.

Barb's Kufta

The gang (thanks Paula!). We missed Jenn and  Marc (Jenn had to work). #sadface

the gang take 2 (thanks, Paula!)

Bill caught smiling. Nice work, Britain

Our server was very accommodating of all our questions and our different arrival times (some of us were late due to a crazy thunderstorm late Thursday afternoon that knocked down trees and closed Thomasville Road). It was a yummy dinner - many of us are already regulars at this Tallahassee institution but I have a feeling more of us will become regulars after our good experience this week.

Last month I mentioned some places opening soon that we are looking forward to trying. Backwoods Bistro  did not open around June 1st but they're currently hiring so perhaps by July 1. According to Urban Tallahassee, Vertigo Burgers & Fries remains on track for a July 1 opening. Added to our list to visit is Sweet Grass Dairy, which now has a retail shop in Thomasville with beer, wine, snacks and, of course, their wonderful cheese.

Sahara Greek and Lebanese Cafe

1241 East Lafayette Street

Tallahassee, FL 

http://www.saharagreek.com

Cash Mobs

I heard about cash mobs this spring but didn't realize until now that they started in Cleveland! The idea of a cash mob is that everyone shows up on a certain date and time at a local business to support the role that shop plays in the local community. Andrew Samtoy does a great job explaining the concept in this video from my favorite weekly email from Cool Cleveland:


I love that the purpose is social as much as it is about spending money and highlighting local gems. I also love that since launching this in December 2011 the idea has spread all around the world! That is pretty awesome. We even have one in Tallahassee - they haven't tweeted yet but I'm following @CMTallahassee

Learn more --
http://cashmobs.wordpress.com
http://www.twitter.com/cashmobs

Brunch with the Twitter Local Food Gang

Sunday morning we enjoyed a great brunch with our friends from our Twitter localtarian food group at Kool Beanz Cafe. 

everyone there (except Jenn who took the picture, thanks Jenn!)

 I forgot to take pictures of our food before we ate it but left overs are good too, right?

Grilled andouille sausage, fried grit cake, poached eggs, hollandaise 

 

Buttermilk-tabasco fried chicken, sweet potato-pecan waffle, honey-chile syrup

I've been seriously slacking on the friends photos the last few months so I might have gone a little overboard this time. Bill, John and Abe.

 Marc and Jenn with Jenn's prize. John and Bill brought a bottle of wine they won at a fundraiser Saturday. Jenn won for coming the closest in guessing the population of the city of Tallahassee in the 2010 census. She guessed 180,000 and the answer was 181,000.

 Britain and Chris

Paula and Jon, we missed you both! For our upcoming get togethers, we talked about Backwoods Bistro (opening around May 1st on Tennessee Street, a new location for the Sopchoppy eatery) and Cypress' new burger joint, Vertigo, which is slated for a June opening in the original Loopers location on Lafayette Street.

Leymah Gbowee: Unlock the intelligence, passion, greatness of girls

I learned about Room to Read via my friend Nikki, who is a long-time supporter. They recently shared this video which I found inspiring, on Twitter.



Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee has two powerful stories to tell -- of her own life's transformation, and of the untapped potential of girls around the world. Can we transform the world by unlocking the greatness of girls?

Leymah Gbowee is a peace activist in Liberia. She led a women's movement that was pivotal in ending the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003, and now speaks on behalf of women and girls around the world.

Panhellenic Cakes

I was the winner of not one but two cakes this year at the Tallahassee Alumnae Panhellenic Scholarship Auction.

The first, Chocolate Blackout Cake was baked by (Panhellenic and twitter) friend Barbara:

inside it has homemade dark chocolate pudding between the layers of cake!

We are also enjoying our traditional auction treat, Key Lime Sour Cream Pound Cake (baked by an Alpha Chi Omega friend also named Barbara): 

Yummmm

Sweet Pea Cafe - Review

Our 'localtarian' group of Twitter friends met for dinner Thursday at a vegan restaurant that opened last year, Sweet Pea Cafe. It's a little place that sources many of its ingredients locally and specializes in sandwiches and brunch items. After you order at the counter, your food is delivered to your table. Extra points if you bring your own water glass or coffee mug (or take out container, if your order is to go).

Cute, right? Photo from the restaurant's blog

There are a few tables inside and a large patio with covered seating outside. It was a cool night so I doubled up on my hoodies and wore my coziest scarf and was able to share my scarf with a chilly friend. 

John's photo he tweeted to Paula from dinner (she was in Orlando for work)
clockwise from bottom left - Jenn, Marc, Chris, Britain, Barbara, Jon, Bill, me, Abe (and Sara)

For dinner, I had a salad and the soup of the day which was Potato Bisque. The salad was great, very fresh with homemade croutons. The soup was warm and cozy and interesting - different from any potato soup I've had before. The secret ingredient may have been tahini. 

my soup and salad

A friend had the Buffalo Fried Tofu (Panko fried tofu tossed in buffalo sauce with lettuce and tomato on multigrain oat bread) with poutine on the side (fries with chz and gravy). The fries are hand-cut and were delicious. Even the gravy and cheese tasted like they should (pretty impressive considering there are no dairy or meat products in either). 

buffalo fried tofu

Chris R had the quesadillas (Cheddar chz in a whole wheat, white, or gluten-free tortilla, w/ salsa & sour crm) with poutine on the side:

Bill had the Reuben (Sautéed tempeh (Artie's- Gainesville, Fl), house ruby sauerkraut, melted mozzarella chz & million island dressing on toasted Rye) and really enjoyed it. He is a big Reuben fan and said that once you let go of the fact that it had no meat that the textures and flavors were really great together. (Sorry no pic of that one but it was pretty with red sauerkraut.)

One of the highlights of the evening (besides the great company) was the amazing carrot cake. It was so good I asked if it was really vegan! Chock full of carrots and raisins - and the slices are giant.

yummmm. photo from the restaurant's facebook page.

Besides encouraging their customers to bring their own cups, Sweet Pea Cafe also composts pretty much all of its garbage. The farm that delivers their produce picks up the compost while they're there! 

My first thought was, "Thomas will love this!" Thanks Abe for the photo!

The owners/chefs were lovely and answered all our questions with patience and good humor. I definitely recommend this not only for our vegan and vegetarian friends but for everyone who wants a good meal in a friendly atmosphere. 

Sweet Pea Cafe 

832 West Tharpe Street

Tallahasseee, FL 32303

http://sweetpeacafetallahassee.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/spctally

The Year in GOOD Things

Last month, when I voted for Crescent City Cafe* to win a $5000 grant from GOOD, I signed up for the daily email. I've really enjoyed their positive messages.

Our once-a-day email, The Daily GOOD, explores and amplifies the best in grassroots initiatives, up-and-coming organizations, and inspiring ideas making small steps toward a big impact—if you haven't signed up yet, you're missing out. This year, The Daily GOOD unearthed hundreds of "good" things, but we've scaled that down to a few favorites on a variety of topics we love—like food, design, and giving back to the community.

I wish I could embed their "top good things of 2011" slideshow (which you can see here). Since I can't here's an example of the goodness:

This year saw the sustainable food movement taken more seriously than ever by big players in the private sector, most notably supermarkets. One rising star in the industry is BrightFarms, a startup that plans to open three greenhouses on the rooftops of chain supermarkets by the end of next year. The greatest part of this concept? Food miles are reduced to zero when you buy produce where it's grown.

See also:
In.gredients, one of the world's only packaging-free grocery stores, opening soon in Austin, Texas.
Photo courtesy of BrightFarms

See the full slideshow here.
Sign up for The Daily GOOD at http://www.good.is/

*I learned about Crescent City Cafe on Twitter. One of the founders is an Alpha Chi Omega sister from Loyola University in New Orleans. And, yes, they won the contest and the $5000 grant!

The mission of the Crescent City Cafe is to serve breakfast to New Orleans’ homeless and low-income residents with dignity and to connect young adults together in service to our community.... Founded in February 2009, the cafe simulates a restaurant, complete with breakfast specials that change each month.... The Crescent City Café serves people who are homeless with dignity. We greet them, seat them and request their food and beverage order. We demonstrate respect. We transfer hope. And we hope that through our actions, homeless stops being a brand and starts being a circumstance – a real crisis that a real person is currently experiencing.

http://www.crescentcitycafe.com/cafe/

Twitter-versary

Happy third Twitter-versary to me!
I joined twitter on 13 July 2008 - http://whendidyoujointwitter.com ? #wdyjt

I'm grateful to Twitter for the things I've learned, the laughter it's brought me, and the many many friends I've found... all in 140 characters or less!

Alpha Chi Omega Recruitment Weekend

I spent the weekend in Atlanta helping Alpha Chi Omega with a fantastic Recruitment Training. This was the first of three workshops that will be held this summer and it was jammed packed full of valuable information and real life skills we hope chapters will help their members develop. I thought it would be fun to share all the photos tweeted from the event, so here they are in chronological order. 

Thursday, we had training for the Recruitment Specialists, facilitators, and other volunteers. Here are Bonnie and Jenn taking a minute away from their lunch to pose for a picture: 

Here I am, explaining how to use one of my favorite tools, survey monkey, to handle large quantities of data:

"The Jens" taking care of the registration desk - from left to right: Jenny, Jenn and Jen

A small group session in action:

A whole group session in action. That's Allison presenting on Leadership and Change

Door prizes were chosen from among the attendees who tweeted about the event and those who checked in on foursquare. Nicole from Iota Psi chapter won this great Alpha Chi Omega tiara from Sorority Spirit:

Recruitment Specialists relaxing after a long day of volunteering - left to right: Elise, Jenn, Jodi and Katie

And finally (at the airport on their way home) our amazing Alpha Chi Omega Headquarters staff who planned and executed an incredible weekend!! Thank you all so much! From left to right: Jen, Amber, Allison and Jenny

Check out all the weekend's tweets at #AXORT2011 and be sure to follow @AXORecruitment on Twitter!

Chocolate Tweetup for Refuge House Recap

What a great fun event we had yesterday for Refuge House! LeRoc Bistro Cafe was a great location with its funky decor and delicious food (I had the pressed Tuscan sandwich - yum - and large enough that I could save half for later). They are also very lucky to have a creative pastry chef who prepared this platter of chocolate goodies for us:

We had such an awesome group for the event - we even overflowed the section that the restaurant had set aside for us! We added extra chairs and had space for all nineteen of us.

Much of the credit for the success of the day goes to Danielle (on the left, below). Not only was having a tweetup for Refuge House her idea, but she also helped organize, and recruited lots of friends and co-workers to attend! It was great to meet some of the people she works with at the Florida Chamber.

Thanks to the generosity of author Elin Waldal, we had a signed copy of her book Tornado Warning: A Memoir of Teen Dating Violence and Its Effect on a Woman's Life as a door prize. (Danielle and I didn't take part in the drawing; I held the bag of entries while Danielle picked the winning ticket... and here she is: Jessica was our lucky winner. 

Altogether we raised $125 in cash donations for Refuge House and collected 4 towel sets, a twin sheet set, 2 pillows, 2 bean bags chairs and 2 bins full of gently-used bed linens. Amazing! Here is my attempt to fit it all in one photo:

I want to thank everyone who came out, supported Refuge House, and helped us have such fun! A special thanks to Nicole for bringing her favorite chocolates (Dove, milk and dark) to share and thanks to her and and to Tara for helping take photos. My attempt to embed Nicole's photo aren't working but you can view it at http://plixi.com/p/94553863. Though they weren't with us in person, Alicia and Jennifer helped behind the scenes and were with us in spirit. And Paula is the mother of tweeting up for a cause in Tallahassee - thank you for your support and for the great chocolate twitter icon for the event!

Related posts: http://twtvite.com/chocotally, Chocolate Tweetup preview post and my review of Tornado Warning.

Tweetup friends to follow on Twitter:
@AleciaDaNay
@biggreenpen
@bmds99
@CWRiley01
@Danielle_Gulasa
@_Living_Light_
@lyonsdigital
@MeaganDougherty
@penguintrax
@saraannhart

@RefugeHouse
@LeRocBistroHD

Chocolate Tweetup for Refuge House

Hope you'll join us Thursday April 21st at Lunch for Refuge House with a Chocolate Tweetup. We're meeting at LeRoc Bistro Cafe inside Hotel Duval, from 11:30am - 1:30pm (you can arrive as your schedule allows). The pastry chef is creating special chocolate items on the dessert menu for our event! The first 20 people to RSVP and attend will get a chocolate gift to take home! RSVP at http://twtvite.com/chocotally Everyone is welcome (whether you are on Twitter or not).

All we ask is you chip in $5 for Refuge House or bring a twin sheet set, pillow or towels to donate to Refuge House. "Refuge House, Inc. provides direct services to battered women, their children and sexual assault survivors, as well as to works to eliminate the conditions in society that allow such violence to continue." If you'd like to make your monetary donation online, you can do so here.

 

See you Thursday!!!