— Jenny Neill

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Tag "inspiration"

Blogging (almost) every day while juggling the demands of volunteer work, keeping the freelance life afloat, and having time for non-work activities started to wear on me last week. For the first time in what felt like too long a time, I “tuned in” to one of my favorite online gathering places today to discover the topic was a perfect fit for my work attitude. Drew Marshall stepped up to the challenge of framing a topic for us to discuss when inspiration failed him.

uninspired

Photo courtesy of bornazombie. Some rights reserved.

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Jumping into a chat on Twitter can be a little bit like being in a hive mind. Many Twitter chats exist to allow people from all over the world to connect with others who share a common hobby, educational, or business interest. These online discussions can sometimes simply amplify an existing media echo chamber. Good ones, though, serve to elevate a conversation beyond merely the dissemination of information.

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Some understanding can only be developed by crossing boundaries or shifting context. For example, imagine studying a foreign language. You come across a word that doesn’t have a direct translation. What process do you go through to figure out what it means?

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Flavors intrigue me. That’s what got me into restaurant work in the first place. I’ve spent much of the past decade learning about and tasting wine in order to pair it with food. It took a little longer for that interest to spur me to experiment with cooking in my own kitchen.

The idea of making something as simple as a salad used to paralyze me with uncertainty. Some of my early forays into making up my own recipes were disasters: mushy pasta, broken sauces and dressings, or entrees with serious seasoning problems. Being around chefs taught me some valuable lessons.

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