Blog

AIGA, The Professional Association for Design, is the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design. With 70 chapters and more than 2,5000 members, AIGA advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. But, when I started attending AIGA events, many years ago, I had no...

Now live online, The AlabamaWorks Career SUCCESS Guides website helps Alabama students, their parents and anyone preparing for a new career learn more about high-demand careers and salary ranges, the steps students need to take to reach their career goals, and where to get the resources available to help them...

  Emily McDeed is a young storyteller IDEAS has worked with in the past, she's written fiction for the past 10 years and enjoys analyzing animated films. You can follow Emily on her on her portfolio and new blog, Films, Falls, and Free-For-Alls.   When I was 12, I was...

Our 11-year old child loves musical theater and has developed a plan for getting on Broadway by the age of 25. She is very passionate about preparing for auditions, being part of the cast, and being a consummate performer at shows. This means that I have become a “Theater Parent”...

We have all been there. Either sitting at the table waiting … or worse, watching, as a well-intentioned host or hostess tries to carve the Thanksgiving Day turkey at the head of the dining room table a la Norman Rockwell and ends up mutilating the family meal. Kudos to the...

There are lots of ways to smoke a turkey. One is to beat them badly in a race. Another involves rolling papers and possible harm to yourself. My favorite way to smoke a turkey is on Thanksgiving Day. For anyone interested in doing something different on our national day of...

I adore music. I love listening to it, I love singing it. I don’t think I necessarily listen to the music that most people listen to, but that doesn’t matter to me. Because of that, though, it will often seem that I am quite ignorant about it. And okay, sure,...

Let me be clear first-the traumatic brain injury that we now know happens in contact sports-specifically football-cannot be left as a silent issue. It deserves the very best attention we can give it to change the outcome. That said, I want to talk about a different side of the sport....

As we move into November, in which some people participate in National Novel Writing Month(NaNoWriMo), and try to write a novel in a month(Oh god how, how, how!?), I thought some musings on writing would be appropriate. I myself will be participating in an event of my own creation, NaNoWoOMoIMeCoOOliYoNeTFoAlThiIGeRi...

I had a great moment last week. After waiting in line for technical difficulties to be solved (see end of blog for punch line), me and some friends attended a fantastic lecture by America’s most beloved astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Now, I am a nerd’s nerd and he had me...

I didn't do the high school or college reunion thing. I have often been just the faintest bit envious of people for whom touching that part of their past was interesting and nourishing. It’s not that my school years weren’t good, but I didn't really build roots then and there....

I have been interested in Home Automation since childhood. It started with adding timers to Christmas decorations. Nearly every room had a timer that turned on something; trees, candy canes, candles and even a Cassette recorder with a Christmas Mix Tape set to play endlessly. For outside lights, the nativity...