Now don’t get me wrong, I think its great that in many places there are botanical gardens that safeguard space for the enjoyment of nature… I just think we’re all missing the boat.  Why don’t we make botanics more commonplace in our daily lives? Why aren’t we funding the creation of walking trails through nature and safeguarding what we already have instead of commercializing natural undeveloped land and building small single serving gardens for our enjoyment?  Thoughts?

Essentials

Akismet – Awesome spam blocker.
Google XML Sitemaps – For search engine optimization.
Greg’s High Performance SEO – For search engine optimization.
WP Super Cache - Make pages load faster.
WPtouch – Make your site mobile.
XML Sitemap Feed – For search engine optimization.
Fast Secure Contact Form – Add a contact form to your website.
Jetpack by WordPress.com - A bunch of social features and add-ons.

Good but not necessary

Mingle Forum – Create a full featured forum.
GD Star Rating - Enable star ratings on posts.
Q and A - Create an FAQ

This quick shot of ultra concentrated totally natural ice tea is tasty, earthy, and convenient.  It comes in multiple types of teas (although this one is green tea) and is a convenient solution for an on-the-go tea enthusiast.  The only downside is that it costs nearly $1.50 and wastes an aluminum can for every drink (recycleable of course).  Found it at the local New Pioneer Food co-op.  If you’re a tea fan like I am, take it for a spin… At least once.

“The event will present the work of more than 200 artists utilizing a downtown city street as a canvas and more than a half-ton of chalk. This year’s event will be a juried art festival, and will include awards for 22 artists totaling $1,250 in cash prizes. One artist will be given a $250 cash prize, and will be asked to return to the 2012 Chalk the Walk festival for a paid spot as the 2012 Chalk the Walk featured artist.

Chalk the Walk is based on an original art form that began in Italy in the 16th century. Called Madonnari, this form of public art was originally done by street artists hoping to collect coins from passersby. Images back then were based on religious themes, and as the Madonna was a popular subject, the artists became known as the “Madonnari.”

“Chalk the Walk always takes place the first Saturday and Sunday in May,” says Scott Rose, Chair of the Chalk the Walk Committee. “This year, that happens to be Mother’s Day weekend. What better way to spend Mother’s Day 2011 than at Iowa’s largest Madonnari festival. Imagine a beautiful spring day in Iowa with hundreds of community members and visitors from all walks of life, gathering together to work on a single collaborative piece of art. That is Mount Vernon’s Chalk the Walk.”

This year’s large collaborative piece of art is a 22’ by 37’ recreation of a colorful, large map of Iowa. For a $10 donation to the festival, participants are given a set of pure pastel chalk sticks and will be asked to color a single 2’ by 2’ section of the State map of Iowa, and when finished, the chalk drawing will appear on Mount Vernon’s Main Street as a giant Iowa quilt, colored with pastel chalk by artists of all ages and abilities.

More information is available through the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development’s Web site at www.vistmvl.com.

About Mount Vernon

Historic Mount Vernon, Iowa, is home to 4500 residents, including1200 college students enrolled at Cornell College. Located in Eastern Iowa at the intersection of Highways 30 and 1, 20 miles north of Iowa City and 15 miles east of Cedar Rapids, it boasts a vibrant uptown business community with numerous antique and specialty stores, restaurants, coffee houses, commercial art galleries, and three National Historic Districts.”

Tips are not expected

I saw this sign at Diary Queen one day and thought it was awesome enough to take a picture of.  It mirrors my sentiment completely when it comes to gratuity.

I believe that tipping is only meant for rewarding excellent service, not to be an expected wage augmentation.  Tipping makes sense in service industries such as bars and restaurants in order to motivate employees to offer superior service… I get it… but it doesn’t have to be EVERY restaurant or EVERY business.

For instance, does it make any sense that there is sometimes a tip jar at Subway?  Granted, there are some employees that may do better or worse at assembling your favorite veggie delight,  however, Subway is similar to McDonald’s in that consistent quality is supposed to come standard.

What about the clothing store that doesn’t take tips?  Some employees at clothing stores go out of their way to help you try on the latest fashions and make sure you walk out with a properly coordinated outfit.  Does that mean that there should be a tip jar on the desk?  Certainly that would be a little odd… but allowing a customer to provide some sort of positive reward for a job well done would certainly be an interesting addition that might motivate.

But these are just what-ifs.  I don’t see department stores encouraging gratuity any time soon, and fast food joints that pay their employees below what it takes to pay their rent every month will certainly always see their employees ‘hustling’ to make a little extra cash (full disclosure here, I used to work at Subway, and yes, we had a tip jar).

I just feel like it has gotten a little out of hand.  The truth is, many businesses depend on the customer to help their employees make ends meet.  I suppose that’s why there’s high turnover in service industries (would there be less turnover if employees felt more rewarded for their work?).

It’s unfortunate because if food workers, waitstaff, and other service oriented employees were compensated better,  they might not come to expect gratuity as much, and really feel excited and rewarded when someone offered them a token for an above-and-beyond job well done.  I’ve worked service jobs doing anything from assembling sandwiches to delivering groceries.  The truth is, when you’re paid below minimum wage, and you don’t get reimbursed for gas, you really ARE at the mercy of every customer’s generosity…

Do you agree? Disagree? Tell me in the comments below if you have an opinion.

While Walmart might be great for your late night arts and crafts fix, remember that if you don’t buy name brand, you might get what you pay for.

We were able to satisfy our childish appetite, but Walmart ‘melty beads’ are no substitute for brand name Hama Beads.

Enjoy pictures of our creations.  My favorite is the one in the picture to the right.  What do you think it is?

The basic idea of the app is that, when you receive a text message, email, or phone call, you don’t always want to have to dive all the way into the apps on your phone to get a quick idea of the nature of the communication.  Executive Assistant solves the problem by allowing you to create a ‘dashboard’ on your ‘lock screen’ customized with social streams, tasks, appointments, alarms, weather, text messages, and many other items.

You can also opt to display the ‘dashboard’ after you unlock your phone as a ‘splash screen’, or just display the titles of messages.  Limiting the display of information helps to hide personal information if you happen to lose your phone.

The app works great, but set aside 20-30 minutes to get it set up.  There are many settings, and not all of the settings are super easy to understand.  You’ll also need to have all of your account credentials for Twitter, Facebook, Google, and any other email services handy.

Overall though, I’d say download the app if you are continuously unlocking your phone just to look at simple information like missed call logs and text messages.