Ellie's Blog

A Tale of Moving Day - Told in Ikea Instruction Manual Cartoons

Another "Sixth Photo" (Just For Fun)

After my last post about the Sixth Photo Meme, I was all excited about going through my old photos again. So I went back to my Facebook photos and this time looked at the sixth photo of my sixth album (rather than the sixth photo on the sixth page). Here's what I found:

This is a photo of me and my friend Hannah (who I also tag in my last post) in Quebec City a few years back during Winter Carnival. Winter Carnival is the funnest - and coldest - time to be in Quebec City. At the carnival, there are tons of amazing wintery things going on, including a snow sculpture show. There were some pretty incredible creations, but in addition, there was one group allowing Carnival-goers to contribute to the making of a snow sculpture. And that's what we're doing here - we've grabbed a few shovels and picks and started hacking away at the lump of snow.

Can you tell what it is?

My First - Correction: Sixth - Photo Meme

I've officially been tagged in my first (correction: sixth - see below) photo meme by Mike Volpe.

The meme concept is kind of an interesting one (though probably gets annoying to those who are tagged all the time) because, although I sit across from Mike all day every work day, I was pleasantly surprised to get an alert about being tagged in his recent blog post.

As Mike explains in his post, "bloggers and social media folks like to play funny Internet games" (so true) and these memes (this particular meme is one of many chains) are one incarnation. What happens is a blogger will "tag" a fellow blogger by naming and linking to them in a blog post, and, because most bloggers track mentions and inbound links, they'll notice the post and continue the meme.

So this meme is the "Sixth Photo Meme" in which you look at the sixth photo on the sixth page of your Flickr stream and share it with the crowd, then tag six more bloggers to do the same. The only issue for me, of course, is that I'm a new user of Flickr and don't have more than one page of photos! So instead I'll share what is essentially the sixth photo on the sixth page of photos on my Facebook profile.

This is a photo from my trip to Europe last summer - I went to Prague, Vienna, and Berlin. Absolutely amazing trip. In any case, this is a photo of the Maisel Synagogue in Prague. There are six synagogues in Prague and each of them are completely different and absolutely historically and architecturally amazing. I should revisit my notes from my trip and blog about it at some point. In the meantime, there's more info about the synagogues and other places of interest in Prague here. Or, if you want to see more photos from my trip, you can check them out in my Europe Trip Highlights photo album.

Now, to keep the meme going, here are six of my blogger friends:

• Chelpixie - Because she's an awesome social mediaphile who, unfortunately, I haven't gotten to see in a while!
• Karen Rubin - Because she's a fellow HubSpotter who wishes she was on the Marketing Team. She's also one of the brilliant co-stars of our weekly HubSpot TV show and has her own delicious-looking food blog.
  
• Kyle James - One of our most recent (official) additions to the HubSpot team, and will soon be moving to the cold north to help us have even more fun.
• Rachel Levy - Another local marketer who is embracing social media and is really excited about learning about new marketing techniques and applying it to business.
• Tamara Garvey - As of today, I am a big Tamara Garvey fan - check out her etsy page for some cool ink drawings.
• Hannah White - A non-twitterer (yet) but happy blogger and close, close friend. She also takes some pretty awesome photos, regardless of the camera :)

 

The Return of My Personal Blog: Hanging Out in San Francisco

I am shamefully returning to my loyal dozen or so readers who I know have been anxiously awaiting my next blog post. My absence is definitely a good sign I'd say - I've been busy traveling and working and doing all sorts of fun and exciting things. But I am committed to making a return. I've wondered what exactly I would blog about here, since really most of my blogging efforts are focused on the HubSpot blog and the Inbound Marketing Summit blog and, of course, all my microblogging on twitter.

I decided to try a pseudo live blogging post relaying my visit to San Francisco, where I was last week for the MarketingSherpa B2B Demand Gen Summit. Too often I am inspired at a given moment to write, but by the time I sit down to the computer, the words escape me. I actually took some notes on my BlackBerry as I did my sightseeing and now I'll make sense of it all to relay a bit of my travels. Perhaps if you plan on visiting San Francisco anytime soon, you can get some tips here on where to go!

Yerba Buena Gardens

I arrived Friday afternoon, and once I caught up on some email, went out to grab a bite to eat. I picked something up at a local Mexican type place, and went out to Yerba Buena Gardens to sit outside and eat my quesadilla. The gardens are gorgeous. There are fountains, benches, lots of beautiful flowering trees... The next day I got up and made sure to bring my camera and took lots of photos as I walked all around the garden. You can see the photos here on facebook.

Contemporary Jewish Museum

This was the real highlight of my first day in San Fran. Here's where I really started to scribble down notes on my BlackBerry because I just couldn't handle not sharing and discussing the exhibits with someone. I originally had scratched this site from my list, thinking that I wouldn't have time to go to the museum. But I was sitting in Yerba Buena Gardens, enjoying my quesadilla, and realized that the museum was staring me right in the face! Just across the street, right next to my hotel, was the museum, nestled in a nice little nook between a cafe and a church.

The museum is very new - just opened in June 2008. The museum only has four exhibits, but at least three of the exhibits were incredibly interesting and I could have spent all day there reading every single caption and exhibit detail (which I never do).

The first exhibit that caught my attention was the "John Zorn's Aleph Bet Sound Project" which is a musical exhibit consisting of musical pieces commissioned for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. I personally found this so interesting because I have a bit of an obsession with language and also symbolism tied to letters and interpretations of words and discussion of these things is actually quite common in Judaism / Hebrew. It was great to read how some of the musical pieces were developed to express interpretations of different letters. And to even hear about the construction of the gallery itself, dubbed the "yud" gallery after the Hebrew letter "yud" (it is shaped as the letter and pulled on the symbolism tied to that letter). So interesting.

The next exhibit was "In the Beginning: Artists Respond to Genesis" - a collection of artistic representations of the creation of the world as told in the Book of Genesis. It was amazing to see artists' completely different interpretations of the birth of the world. Jacob Lawrence's depictions, for example, were staged with an audience within a temple or church with the different phases of creation showing through the windows. It was interesting enough to have such a "stage" set up, but also to see how the reactions and expressions of those inside the building changed in each step (days 0 through 7). I could go on and one about each print and the details of the symbols and expressions of the audience or the priest... What was also great was the diversity of mediums used across the different exhibits. Ben Rubin created a sound sculpture that actually called out a sound - that of "God's Breath Hovering Over the Waters (His Master's Voice)." The sound came from within the sculpture, and as I peered inside, I had that religious moment where I thought I might be overwhelmed by what I saw. There were all sorts of sounds mixing in the exhibit space and it was really incredibly to hear how they came together, echoed and mixed... There were so many more pieces in that exhibit, paintings and prints and sculptures and video commentaries. I could have spent all day just in that exhibit, reading and listening to every single piece.

The third exhibit was Andy Warhol's 10 Portraits of Jews from the 20th Century. I had no idea that Andy Warhol had done such a project. Warhol was a practicing Catholic and there was a lot of discussion at the time that he created these prints about why he was doing it and how he chose his subjects. When asked, he simply said, he liked the faces. In many cases I was right there with him. Those faces were so different (and often recognizable). They were the classic Warhol 80s silk screen prints, but the subjects were notable Jews of the 20th century, like Golda Meir, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, the Marx Brothers, and others. What I also liked about the exhibit was that it was not simply the final prints, but also explained a bit about Warhol's silk screening process, and included some of his sketches of the faces and different early variations of a few of them.

Like I said, incredible exhibits and I could have spent all day there. But I only had about an hour and a half. The building, too, was incredible in and of itself. When I first walked in, and as I walked around, my mind went to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, which not only is an incredible museum for its content, but also an incredible building. What I was amazed to find out is that the two museums were actually designed by the same architect. The building is very unique and has much symbolism built into its structure, with the yud gallery, strategically placed windows to spell "pardes", and more...

I absolutely recommend you visit the Contemporary Jewish Museum if you are in San Francisco.

Golden Gate Bridge & The Presidio

I didn't have a lot of time to explore the city, but gladly, on my last day there I did make it out to the Golden Gate Bridge and the Presidio, which is known for having the best views in the city. I didn't have my camera on me, but I was able to snap a photo or two on my trusty BlackBerry. The city looked like it was glowing in the distance - a little freaky how heavenly it looked. The Golden Gate Bridge, on the other hand, was completely covered in fog. When we first got there, we could see just a bit of it, but after about a half hour there was no chance we could see beyond the little garden we stood in.

To see the rest of my photos, view the album here.

The World Doesn't Slow Down

One of the big turning points in my life was in 10th grade when I went on a 6-week trip to Israel on an amazing youth Israel trip with an organization called Nesiya ("Journey" in Hebrew). For now I won't go into my experience on the trip or how it changed me, but I was just reminded of the essay I wrote to get into the program: I was supposed to write about a song or book that really spoke to me in some way. I chose the song "The World Ain't Slowin' Down" by Ellis Paul.

I was really into self-reflection and great, meaningful experiences, doing something with my life, and amazingly beautiful music (all this stands true today of course) and so this song was a perfect fit for me.

It's funny to hear this song again now, 8 years later (woo! I feel young), and reassess my reaction to the song in relation to my current stage in life. I am happy to say that I feel like I did get in on the carnival of life (oh dear could I be any mushier?)

The World Ain't Slowin' Down - Ellis Paul

I found you sitting on a suitcase crying
Beneath my feet I feel the rumble of a subway train
And I laugh out loud
'Cause it's the one thing I hadn't been trying
The train came in breathless
The passenger's restless
You say, "Baby, you'll never change"

You gotta get gone
You gotta get going
Hey, the world ain't slowin' down
For no one
It's a carnival calling out to you
And it sounds like a song
It hits you like scripture
You paint the picture
With colors squeezed from your hand
Weren't you the kid
Who just climbed on a merry-go-round
Hey, look, the world ain't slowin' down

Out on the sidewalk
The pigeons do the moonwalk
I'll be dancing like Fred Astaire
The lampposts are rockin'
The whole town is talking
Like a fool in a barber's chair
And I get the sensation
It's joy and frustration
Like getting caught by a drop of cold rain
Freedom can numb you
When there's no place to run to
It feels just like Novocain

You gotta get gone...

You packed up all your handbags
You're throwing off the sandbags
I let go when you stepped free
I didn't want to lose you
You said, "You didn't choose to --
It's just how your karma came"
But thanks for the vision,
And the twenty-twenty wisdom
It hit me like a south-bound train

You gotta get gone...

Memories of a Warm Vacation: Highlights from Israel

Hello my dear blog readers! I am finally back in this (not so) cold home of mine, complete with a nasty cold and ridiculous jetlag (it's not even 5 am as I write this). I thought now would be a perfect time to post a little report with a few highlights from my trip.

First off, amazing trip. How could it not be? This was my third trip to Israel and each has been wonderful in different ways. This one in particular was special because I traveled with 7 of my family members, which turned out to be incredibly fun. Also this was my first time traveling to Israel "as an adult" - the previous times I had been a child and then a teenager - which I think affects the experience of the country. Since most of us had been before, we made a special effort to do and see new things, although having not been there for so long and being with a new group of travel companions made it unique already. OK, now for some highlights (with pictures, of course, because we all love pictures).

Highlight 1: Nature, nature, and more nature!

I'm not a big nature person, or so I thought, until I returned to the Negev desert in the south of Israel and also the northern hills of the Galilee. I think over half of my pictures are from those parts of the trip.

View of the Ramon crater.  Credit: Ellie Mirman

In Machtesh Ramon. You can see me crouching to take a photo there to get a sense of scale. Credit: Dan Mirman

Gorgeous little waterfall in Ein Avdat. Credit: Ellie Mirman

Reflection of cliffs near the waterfall. Credit: Ellie Mirman

Highlight 2: History

Also, not a big thing for me usually. But we went to a bunch of archeological sites and they were all amazing.

Partial view of the Roman theater at Bet Shean. Credit: Michael Mirman

Me among the remains of the city (what a great sense of scale). Credit: Dan Mirman

Hightlight 3: Amazing hotels, amazing food

We stayed at incredible places, ate incredible food (way too much of it), and had an incredible time. Yes, incredible.

This is actually a photo from the place we stayed in the north. Incredible. Credit: Ellie Mirman

Highlight 4: Family + New experiences = Ridiculous fun

Really the best part of the trip was the people I traveled with and how much fun we had together.

One of our unique stops was at an army base, where we got to climb on tanks and even go inside. Here's me sitting on top. Credit: Ilya Mirman

Eugene riding a camel on the Mount of Olives - quite the adventure. Credit: Ilya Mirman

One of many cool photo opps. This was at the Supreme Court building - very cool place. Credit: Ellie Mirman

Yes. Credit: Dan Mirman

And I can't leave you without at least one classic (or at least my take on a classic) view:

View of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Credit: Ellie Mirman

Vacation While Working at a Startup?!?

Yes, it's true - I'm taking off for vacation in a couple days. And that's a real vacation. Not just going out to western Mass for the night after working till 9pm. No, I'm going on vacation - to a different country, crossing an ocean even - and it's for a damn long time. I'm off to Israel in a few days and I'm so psyched to have a break from this awful New England weather (I still love you, New England, don't worry). I don't know if I'll be able to blog while I'm gone, so this may be my last entry for another 2 or 2 1/2 weeks. So to all my readers: have a happy new year and enjoy the beautiful snow and I promise not to rub in the fact that I'll be out and about in the warm Israeli sun.