I have been largely neglecting this blog for about a year, because it was always meant to be a place for random thoughts, and I was working on a more focused idea over at Not So Basic Black.  However, I struggled to get through the end of last year on that blog, and since then, have only written the post saying that I was taking a hiatus from the blog. (UPDATE: I did write a few future posts over the weekend. Nothing significant though.)

I find myself largely avoiding the computer at night as of late, and the only thing I can assume is that it’s finally catching up with me that being online all day, writing blog posts for work, tweeting and interacting with customers on Facebook, all of this is coming together and making me completely uninterested in creating more content at night.

Oh this is me a little bit. Hilarious.

It’s good in a way, since my focus is on my job and I’ve been creating more content there as of late, which is my favorite part of this job.  Check out my Elvis Presley post!

So, right now, I have the following projects in motion.

• Work blog: The Noritake Dish
• This blog: JamieSanford.com (not very active though)
• Shopping/Fashion/Pop Culture/etc blog: Not So Basic Black
• New project: Magnets And Stuff
• Podcast

Should I list the full-time job there as well, or is it assumed?

So I’m busy, and I think something has to go.  The podcast takes the least amount of work, it’s mostly just me and one of my best friends having a blast talking about many different topics, while being wildly inappropriate. We even have a tentative “yes” on an interview for the show that I am REALLY excited about.

I’ve thought about moving most of the Not So Basic Black content to JamieSanford.com and just having my site be a home base for “things I want to talk about,” whether it be me talking about business and marketing or reviewing a movie.  It would probably be easier to handle, and would take me down to 4 projects instead of 5. Magnets and Stuff is very embryonic and needs a lot of work, work that I haven’t found the time for yet. I need to finish my judging for The Communicator Awards and I have some other things happening right now.

January has been a month of stewing on a lot of things, which I think I needed, at least for my personal projects. I’m ready for February, and the rest of 2012, to be more productive and leave me feeling accomplished and fulfilled (as opposed to overwhelmed and feeling like I’m not getting enough done) at the beginning of next year.

How is everyone doing with their 2012 so far?

Since I am back a little bit, I decided to share my Top 5 posts from this blog to remind me of what should inspire future writing.

1. There’s a penis in your subject line.

2. Quality retweeting is the new #followfriday.

3. When is social media necessary?

4. Product Review: Aura Paint by Benjamin Moore (because it is STILL the post that gets the most visits)

5. Progressive Insurance: Making the Micro-Interactions Work.

I forgot about some of these!

Cooper at Christmas. Cooper is my brother's dog.

I haven’t written a post here since April.  I have been busy with writing at Not So Basic Black (formerly The Daily Wishlist), and I ended up watching 95 of the 100 planned films in 2011.  Not too shabby.

Of course, I am having a bit of a crisis now with Not So Basic Black.  Things haven’t gone as I expected and I’m not as excited about it as I once was.  I took away the daily requirement but still feel like posting is important, and it isn’t holding the same appeal.  I have considered moving a lot of the content over to this blog and shutting NSBB down altogether.

Naturally, I have a new project in mind, and I am more excited about it than I’ve been about anything else I’ve done online in a long time. It isn’t ready for a debut yet, but it’s coming.  I hope to get a little more active over here too, if I bring over the movie content, all hell is going to break loose with any sort of content direction.

I’ve got a number of things cooking right now so I’m hoping they will all work themselves out. Happy New Year!

This site continues to have activity, largely because of the Benjamin Moore post.  However, my energy is focused on The Daily Wishlist, which I’m more excited about than ever because I’m having fun over there.  I watch movies and write about them, I watch TV and write about it, and I still shop online and write about that too.  Lots of fun.

Anyway, this post is just to put something new at the top, and to share this picture I took a while back after one of our big snowpocalypse storms.

I hope everyone is well!  Come visit The Daily Wishlist!

Photo of the week, my sneaky photo from the Trent Reznor interview for the New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend. Trent just won a Golden Globe!

Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts and their poisons of choice. (Life)

30 Best Ever Collections of Website Design Tutorials. (Smashing Buzz)

What Font Should I Use? Five Principles for Choosing and Using Typefaces. (Smashing Magazine)

Intel sponsored a short film about Scott Schuman, aka The Sartorialist.

All of my cameras are Sony – so I’m sort of obligated to give this story about 3D cameras some love. (Pop Photo)

51 Films from 2010 That  You Really Shouldn’t Have Missed. (Bleeding Cool)

Another photo, this from the collection of Vivian Maier:

…and an article on Ms. Maier. (Pop Photo)

Chloe makes cookiemaking look like way more fun than I’ve ever seen it. (Shoplifting in a Ghost Town)

Let’s close it out with the gorgeous Christina Hendricks, who should make every girl on earth love her curves.

The 2010 recap posts continue!  This one is video-heavy, I suggest visiting the original post for ease in watching the videos if you’re reading the feed.

Music
Kanye West – no one is denying how great his new album is. My favorite song from the album is “Monster” and here’s an unedited version of the video. NSFW!

Civil Twilight – a recent discovery, here’s the video for “Letters From The Sky” which I really like.

How To Destroy Angels – Trent Reznor’s new band with his wife Mariqueen Reznor and previous collaborator Atticus Ross. This is the video for “The Space In Between,” which is really fantastic.

Lady Gaga – she killed it all year. I love her because I dig the music, I love how she is running her own show the whole way. Here’s the “Telephone” video with Beyonce.

80s pop – I’m always in the mood for 80s pop. You know you want to watch the “Take On Me” video.

Nine Inch Nails – 2010 was the first year in a while that I didn’t attend at least one NIN show, since the big “Wave Goodbye” tour of 2009. NIN.com gave us this video from that last set of shows on Christmas. I can’t wait to see more.

Florence + The Machine is another 2010 creation. Here’s the video for “Heavy in Your Arms” from the Eclipse soundtrack.

David Usher – who brought out a fantastic acoustic album this year. I’m still hoping to find my way up to Canada to see a show in 2011. Here’s a video of “Black Black Heart” from a recent live performance in Toronto.

Barcelona – I was introduced to this band with that video of the giant aquarium, and the song from that video is so good. Here is that video featuring “Please Don’t Go.”

Japanese Aquarium

Had a bit of an obsession with Cream more recently. Here’s an audio-only video of “White Room.”

Movies
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Big Lebowski, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Whip It, Clerks 2, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Jaws. I watch random movies that are old and don’t go to the movie theatre very often.

Here’s one of the opening scenes from The Big Lebowski. Very NSFW!

Television
Vampire Diaries, Mythbusters, Dancing With The Stars, 30 Rock, Hoarders. Also had massive marathons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Bones.

The Vampire Diaries - Is It Bad To Want All Three?

Hot, right?  This show is so good – and is currently one of the only things my husband and I sit together on the couch to watch together, faithfully.  They don’t mess around at all, people show up and kill people and die on a regular basis.  There are no throwaway episodes.  I want to watch less TV in 2011, but I won’t be giving up this show.

Next post coming soon.

I love to photograph things that are old, decrepit, abandoned – whatever you want to call it.  One of my favorite photographic excursions was to a random abandoned motel on the side of a road in Florida that we stopped at in 2008.  Here are two shots from that trip to the Underwood Motel – click through to reach the entire set.

Where I am going with this is that there are massive groups of photographers who love this stuff as well – and some with much more talent than myself.

The most recent addition to the collection of documentation of these abandoned places is a spectacular video documenting the abandoned Six Flags in New Orleans, LA.  It closed due to Hurricane Katrina, and never reopened.  It will be demolished in January.  The video is a bit long but is beautifully shot.

There are a lot of websites covering abandoned places:

• Lost Destinations
• Abandoned But Not Forgotten
• Opacity

Photo of the week, from our trip to Bern’s Steakhouse – these are some ornate banisters.

Info from Unplggd on maximizing your laptop battery charge.

What is perhaps my favorite album ever, Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine, is being re-released.

Kelly Osbourne did a Closet Confessions video for Bluefly, and I love it. I’m quite charmed by her.

Anne Hathaway is on the cover of November’s Vogue. Red Carpet Fashion Awards covers it and I am in love. She’s fabulous.

Great post on optimizing reach through the secrets of the Facebook news feed.

5 simple Google Analytics tricks you should be using, from SEOmoz.

All Lacquered Up is my new favorite beauty blog, focus on nail polish – which is my current obsession.

I’m sure that the Mythbusters will try this out, but I might have to try it at my next party.

Harry Potter in less than a month! I’m so excited.

Photo by Svenwerk on Flickr. Image is clickable.

I’ve never actually done one of these, but I figured why not.  I am slightly disappointed that over time, the most popular posts have been ones that I never really expected to perform well, but isn’t that always the way?

Product Review: Aura Paint by Benjamin Moore

Cosmopolitan magazine: good marketers, or an audience full of sheep?

Flickr Stats: Better, But Still Room for Improvement

Photo: Brahma Shrine at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater has a terrible photo policy.

(Part 2 of 2)

Thursday (9-23) was another early morning, as we got up to head to Florida’s east coast. We got into the yellow muscle car and made our first stop at Cracker Barrel, a road trip staple. After some hashbrown casserole, fried apples, bacon, coffee, more shopping, etc, we got back in the car and headed to Kennedy Space Center.

Having not been there for probably 20 years, I didn’t remember anything about KSC. Will was really excited to go since he loves things of this nature. We arrived and booked ourselves into the more in-depth of the tour options, which takes you closer to the shuttle launch pad. Afterwards, we walked around the Exploration Space exhibit, which was really enjoyable and interesting. We then went to get in line for the bus tour and then spent the next 2 hours driving around the KSC complex, seeing all of the administration buildings, the vehicle assembly building, and the shuttle launch pad where the Space Shuttle Discovery will launch from on November 1 – the next-to-last shuttle launch before the program is shut down. We got great views of the launch pad and the VAB and were then dropped off at the Apollo/Saturn-V Center. You get to experience a launch from inside the control room, which was great, and then you walk into a giant space with a Saturn V Rocket staring you in the face.  Also in that building are a moon rock that you can touch, the Apollo Treasures Gallery, an astronaut transport vehicle, and more.  We walked around for a bit, had a late lunch, did some shopping and then took the bus back to the main KSC area.

We went on the Shuttle Launch Experience ride, which was way cooler than I expected. It’s a simulator of the first 2 minutes or so of a shuttle launch, complete with g-forces and whatnot. It was great.  We flew out of there and then were very close to closing time.  We crossed over to the Rocket Garden, a very cool area of the complex.  I didn’t stay as long as Will, I went back to check out the gift shop situation while he was taking more pictures. He eventually found me and we headed back to Orlando.

Some photos from our trip to KSC. Click on the image to visit the full set on Flickr.

We used Ted (my trusty GPS) to locate a Publix before we went back to the hotel. Side note:  If I am in Florida, I try to eat the following 3 things that I do not get here in New Jersey:

• Publix Subs
• Chick-Fil-A
• Steak ‘n Shake

I worked for Publix in high school and I really don’t know many people that don’t react the same way I do when “Publix subs” are mentioned.  I can get amazing and authentic subs here in New Jersey, but there is something about the Publix bread etc that just makes for a delicious sub.  We have a Chick-Fil-A that isn’t too far from my house, but it is in the mall and therefore doesn’t really count.  Steak ‘n Shake came into my life in college, and since I started taking Will there, we both love getting a burger and a shake. I really enjoy it because we have fun going to our standard eating locations while we are on trips together. It really is about the little things.

Friday was set for Harry Potter time! We met up with my sister and nephews at Universal Islands of Adventure.  We immediately went on the Hulk roller coaster, which was amazing – love the 0 to 60 in 3 seconds burst at the beginning. After that, we walked around and skipped Dr. Seuss Land and The Lost Continent to head straight to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Anyone who enjoys the Potter-verse at all should make a trip to see this.  It is like walking into the movies, which I absolutely love. There are shops from the books/movies and butterbeer and I got a wand at Ollivander’s and Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey is one of the greatest rides I’ve ever been on, it was so well done and we were all about going on more than once.  The only downside is that it was crazy hot, but that ended up being sort of remedied later in the day.  After spending the biggest portion of the day in the world of HP, and having a fantastic lunch at The Three Broomsticks, we moved on to go on the Jurassic Park ride.  I skipped round 1, leaving it to Will and my older nephew Phil to do that while I sat with my sister and watched my younger nephew Steven climb a rock wall.  They came back and Will said that he wanted to go again and that it was fun so I should go too.  Naturally, as soon as we were stuck underneath a big black safety bar, the rain started.  A lot.  We were soaked by the time the ride got to the exciting part that was indoors.  The rest of the day was spent working our way through the rest of the park, riding the Spider Man ride (which we all enjoyed together) and all having fun in the arcade on Superhero Island.  We parted ways and headed back to the crazy sexy yellow sportscar to drive the 2 hours back to my parents’ house.

Photos from Islands of Adventure. Click the image for the whole set of photos on Flickr.

So after some heinous traffic (and some more Steak ‘n Shake on the road), we made it back to Mom and Dad’s house.  My brother and his girlfriend was there, and soon enough, we got into some dramatic competition while playing Sequence.  This competition continued all weekend with the girls eventually emerging victorious.

The rest of the weekend was a bit calmer.  On Saturday, we slept in, and then I went out with my mom to get manicures and pedicures.  I picked my current favorite nail polish for both my hands and feet, Catch Me In Your Net by OPI.  We had a great time together and my nails looked great.  This was all in preparation for a dinner that was 10 years in the making. No, seriously. I have been telling my husband about Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa for the 10 years that we’ve been together, and we finally managed to schedule a reservation while we were in town.  Sorry vegetarians, but this is the best steak I’ve ever had. The whole meal is an experience though, the meal is incredibly drawn out, it’s fabulous.  After finishing the meal, you take a tour of the kitchen and the wine cellar (which contains the largest private collection of wine the world), and then you head upstairs to the Harry Waugh Dessert Room.  During this particular visit, Mom and Dad had coffee while Will and I ordered Bananas Foster for 2, Will had an armagnac and I had a glass of sauternes that was older than me. It was great.

Sunday was our last full day in Florida, and we spent it with family, watching my nephew’s confirmation, and then ending up back at my parents’ house, playing more Sequence. We flew back the next day, which brings me to the end of this massive recap.

Next week, the real link party returns.