Blog
Olivia Allen: I have a character who has a cameo in almost every story that I write. She sometimes changes her name and moves around a lot, but she is still the same person. I have spent a lot of time with her, and I still think she is keeping...
  Book: The Night Circus Author: Erin Morgenstern Summary: We watch the magical development of two destined competitors, set against the growth of a unique and dreamlike circus.     “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards,...
“They’re like that on social media, but are they like that in real life?” “Oh, people can make that on Pinterest but not in real life.” “Nobody’s hair looks that good in real life.” We say this kind of stuff all the time, as though there is a way access...
 Book: Turtles All The Way Down Author: John Green Summary: We follow the mystery of missing billionaire, Russell Picket, through the eyes of young Aza Holmes, struggling keep herself afloat in the stifling grasp of intense anxiety.    '"But the really scary thing is not turning and...
Model and toy trains have fascinated adults and children since the early 1900’s. While most of today’s kids spend much of their time playing videos games and with toys that have video screens, trains are still enjoyed and played with kids of all ages. I received my first Lionel train...
 Book: Ficciones, “The Garden of Forking Paths” Author: Jorge Luis Borges Translators: Helen Temple and Ruthven Todd Summary: Yu Tsun is being hunted down by Captain Richard Madden. He knows the name of a city that is to be bombed and must communicate this to the Chief, without getting...
I am not a qualified cultural anthropologist, but I’m going out on a limb and suggesting that we live, perhaps more than ever, in a culture drunk on increasingly transient notions of celebrity. These days, star status goes well beyond the latest actor, musician, author or 7 second political Tweet repost-winner....
Disclaimer: I’m a writer, not a scientist, but I try. There are at least 200 billion stars in our galaxy. Can you even wrap your head around that number? I can’t. I go outside at night and watch the few that are visible through the Disney-Area light pollution. There’s Orion,...
Our team has had the distinct pleasure of branding yet another workforce, and this time, it was in Virginia. Our team had a blast creating the Virginia Career Works brand, and we are sure that it will help ignite the workforce and connect employers and job-seekers with the resources they...
With a fresh batch of New Year’s resolutions on the way, I thought I would share a personal observation of mine developed over my half century plus stomping around this part of the galaxy about how I’ve come to view the way people approach life. Here at IDEAS, we’ve worked...
“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old...
