Love at PechaKucha

Love was in the air that the last Pechakucha (say: pah-shaw-kah-shaw).  At least that was what the theme was, in celebration of it being near Valentine’s Day.  @David_Alecock talked about the importance of being present for love. Susan Rienzo talked about her love of color and making whimsical quilts. Emily Empel, a futurist, talked about her love of Orlando and why we should use the hashtag #futrlando when talking about it (this has actually inspired me to dedicate a page on my site to why I love Orlando so much, too… coming soon).  Thomas Thorspecken, Analog Artist Digital World blogger, also talked about his love of Orlando, but in the present tense and how he posts a picture a day of the City Beautiful.  And Mike Van den  Abbeel talked about his love for the petition process and how he set out to help get legalizing medical marijuana on the upcoming Florida legislature discussions.

Below are some of the ones that I really, really enjoyed and wanted to share more of with you.

Love of Data

Joe Tankersly talked about his love of data and how he’s always excited about the next thing to measure his steps, his heart beat, his sleep patterns, etc.  He was being a little sarcastic but his point about why are we worrying about the NSA so much when we are so accustomed to sharing our waking moments (and sleeping moments) with the world through social media.   This reminded me of a funny graphic I saw about Buzzfeed from Funny Or Die: http://www.funnyordie.com/lists/34aae013f6/if-buzzfeed-was-your-text-happy-friend

Love and the Human Brain

Max Jackson, now one of the smartest people I’ve ever heard, talked about how love acts on the human brain and the neuroscience behind it.  It was incredibly interesting and for 6 minutes and 40 seconds, he was able to cram in a lot of info because he spoke really fast.  His talk reminded me of a scene from one of my favorite movie/documentaries, What the Bleep Do We Know, about being addicted to different emotions.  Take a look:

A Modern Love Story

Carolyn Moor talked about the love of her life and how she lost him at an early age and what she has done with herself to help support other young widows in Orlando.  Her story was sad, but inspiring and beautiful.  She has a community Facebook page called Living A Goosebump Life which I’m now going to follow.  You should check it out, too.