I would like to take a few minutes and apologize that this blog has been a failure.

I have been distracted by other things and have not had the time to get other 20 somethings to blog for the site. While it might have been a collective failure; I will bear the blame, as it was my idea — the one that brought into fruition and ultimately did not motivate those already listed to follow up on their word and commitment.

With that said, I am going to take some time and see if there is anything that I can do to remedy this failed blog. I will evaluate and see if there needs to be new bloggers, new admins, editors, etc. Or, if there just needs to be an end and shut down of the site.

While the last option is a bit harsh, I need to recognize when things are over my head. This could very much be one of those things.
I do not have as much time as I originally hoped for when I started this side project. Taking online classes, working and trying to learn new skills on the side, while still trying to have a social life is difficult, not to mention trying to fit in some decent sleep from time to time. Maybe handing the project to someone else that could handle, manage and nurture the project would be best.

If you are reading this and would like to contribute in any way and are in your 20 somethings, you can contact me at kenn@20somethings.me.

This year I have set a few goals for myself this year. I understand that a lot people do this; some, but not all, fail at keeping annual goals. I want to share them to have some type of accountability and try to ensure keeping my goals.

I have an interest in taking an actual Photoshop class to develop  my skill in the program and to become better at it. The second goal is to learn Object-C, the programming language that is the foundation of Cocoa for the Mac OS X platform and Cocoa Touch for the iPhone/iPod Touch. With this knowledge, I hope to develop an application for the iPhone platform and maybe for Mac.

This is a very big undertaking as I am not very knowledgeable in this type programming language: HTML — somewhat, PHP — a little. Compile code, once in a while with step-by-step guide but to build something. This will be a big undertaking. To compile things from scratch is not as easy at it seems. I understand that it’s not going to be easy, but a part of me really wants to do this even though I might not succeed.

This is something I’ve wanted to do, to develop an app, since the original SDK was announced in 2008 but never got around to it. I think what has changed since then is not that I more knowledgeable about the platform or anything, but that I have accepted that I will fail… a lot.

This is not to boost or brag about how smart or awesome I am in order to build an application but to learn new skills and adding hobbies. This is to challenge myself by doing something different and breaking routines.

I try not to create routines. Creating routines leads to being a rut, being predictable. While that makes some people happy… it makes me mundane and miserable.

For the time being, I am considering attending SXSW in March and WWDC in June in order to accomplish my goals. I’m going to try to take this fairly serious and go for it. It seems like I’m becoming a bit of a modern renaissance man, well-rounded. I might actually have to thank my parents in instilling so much of it unto me.

Although the term Renaissance man is taken from a past period in history where men were knowledgeable and good at many things of their time including the arts, the sciences, philosophies, war craft, and other labors of the mind, I attempt to become something of a modern day Renaissance man completing myself with the knowledge of a digital world.

May you spend this time with loved ones, friends and family.

I don’t know about you but this holiday season has not felt like so. Let me explain a bit.

Around this time of year my parents throw a little Christmas party with some of their friends and some relatives. But I have found out it didn’t happen because this was a thing my father planned each year. For those that unaware, my father has been away since late June, after I decided not to go through an arranged marriage. I don’t know where he is, but I have some belief that he has some contact with my sister and mother.

Some of my friends are Jewish and for the past few years I’ve been invited over to Hanukah (Chanukah) for food and celebration, that has been this year. I understand that I might not share the same belief, but that has not been impedance in our friendship before. Maybe we’re just all drifting apart. I don’t know.. it could have been that they where going for a more intimate setting.

It’s been a hard year, not just for me, talking to a lot of people, that seems to be the consensus. This year I have nothing to give my mother for Christmas. It’s rather hard to get my mother something like jewelry when your father has designed and made a ring for her. It’s difficult to get her something because she can usually afford anything she wants. It’s also a bit of a blow to me because last year I was able to give them a bottle 1945 Bordeaux, this year… that will not be the case.

The weather has not helped. Last week it was in the low 80 high 70 and not until yesterday or the day before has it been a bit colder. It’s kinda hard to think about Christmas in such warm weather. Well, at least in my case.

I didn’t even put a tree. In my parents home we alway used to buy the tallest tree possible and cut the top as to make seem like it went through the roof. That didn’t happen this year. It seems like traditions are starting to unravel and no one, including myself, is trying to make Christmas special.

Either way, I will be spending “Christmas” (Christmas Eve) with my mother and sister. I’m sure there will be more rum in the nog that anything else. Maybe it’ll feel more like Christmas when I finally get to Rochester.

I think some people say that they don’t like Twitter because they don’t understand how to use it. I would define successful use of Twitter as how a person can become both a consumer and producer within the network personalized and created by that same person. I am particularly attracted to Twitter’s versatility.

Twitter

Because of Twitter, I have become acquainted with numerous educational researchers and in-service teachers that are on the cutting-edge of incorporating digital literacies in the classroom. I both produce and consume related to education and studies. Educators participate in education chats every Tuesday that are separated and traceable through #hashtags  of #edchat on Twitter. Without actually “knowing” these teachers in the traditional sense (as in, meeting physically), I feel as though I know these teachers. We share links of lesson plans and our own blogs about curriculum and literacy practices. We challenge each other to think differently.

Howard Rheingold, the author of Smart Mobs (a fascinating, but somewhat outdated book), has issued an editoral in the SanFransicso Times about Twitter literacies: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rheingold/detail?entry_id=39948.

As Rheingold argues, I produce and consume on a personal level using Twitter. I tweet about school, people, church, food, and some witticisms thrown in for good measure. My iPhone affords me the ability to post pictures, sign into locations using BrightKite, post what I am listening to using Blip.fm, etc. With this technology on the go, I am able to share the information that I want to about my own life.

Just yesterday, I saw a tweet on my Tweetie app stream that mentioned a restaurant on the street where I live. I @replied back to this person and asked if it was any good. In a few short minutes, I had an exchange with a person that I don’t know through anywhere except for Twitter that highly recommended this scary-looking hot dog place to me, saying that is quite good.

I have come to believe that Twitter is a social network that can be personalized to emphasize the importance and ability to give and receive information, both professionally and personally depending on your own choices through the personalization of your network. It has become much more than What are you doing? Instead, it has become How can I change your life?

Things in the Christmas department this year are looking pretty dim. I called my mom today to let her know that I am still struggling away at finishing up my semester at school. I got a lot of “bah humbugs” and grumbles about how this year’s Christmas is just not going to be the same. My mom is busy. She is working overtime at work. I’ll only be home for a couple of days, and she doesn’t have any time off from work. She told me that she hasn’t even put up the Christmas trees this year. I was shocked.

Usually, she loves to put them up. We usually do two. One in the family room and one in the living room. We have this pretty fake white one that she decorates solely with REAL vintage ornaments. I love looking at that tree. In the living room, she puts the other tree — golden and brown hues. Its really very pretty. I have my own christmas tree and ornaments I have put up too. I decorate my tree with clear, silver, gold, red, and green ornaments. I like having ones of every shape and size. I have a few pretty ball ornaments, but most of mine tell a story. If you can pick the ornament out, I can tell you why it is meaningful to me. Anyway, putting up my christmas tree hasn’t happened in, hm, two years. Everything is packed away in storage. That is a story for an entirely different day.

I want a White Christmas

Anyway, I have been looking forward to going home for Christmas. I wanted to leave by today, but looking back, that was quite an unrealistic goal. I emailed my professors this morning and let them know that my papers aren’t done yet, but that I would have them to them this weekend because I don’t want to drag this semester out any more than it already has been. I just want to go home for Christmas.

But there is something different about Christmas this year. It just doesn’t seem as… magical… this year. By magical, I mean that it doesn’t feel sparkly and bright. There just doesn’t seem to be that warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling wrapped all around this time of year. I know Christmas isn’t about material things. But it is a tradition. I haven’t had time to go and purchase gifts for my family. I ended up buying everything online. Not to mention that I just don’t have the money this year to do things for my family either. I bought my aunt and mom engraved bracelets. I also bought my mom something from Sephora. I am going to get my dad something from the apple store. And a CD, maybe. Because he loves music. And maybe I’ll bake him something. What do you buy your parents who have plenty of money and you have none? The best I can really do is help around the house while I am at home. I might cook my parents dinner one night to help out. Kenn and I agreed to not buy anything for each other for Christmas this year because just seeing each other will be the best present we could ask for. Plus, we’re both broke. I am so looking forward to picking him up from the airport on Christmas day.

So, I guess I’ll be home for Christmas this year. I don’t understand why Christmas isn’t like it used to be. Is it the economy? Is it just a fluke this year? I am wondering, does Christmas hold less of a significance when you get older? It is just a sign that I am now twenty three and an adult. We don’t go to Christmas services any more. Christmas presents get less. Cards from family members get fewer and fewer each year. Baking cookies with my mom is nearly non-existent. As an aside, I am going to make Kolaczkis (also known as Grandma’s slovakian cookies)

Kolaczki

to take home with me. These cookies are actually polish, but they are really just an eastern european cookie that has been passed down from my great-grandmother. They are a bit labor intensive, but so worth it. My mouth is just watering thinking about them. I will probably make them in cherry, raspberry, fig, almond, and maybe something else — I haven’t decided. Some people make these — but they aren’t as good as mine. I am just sayin’.

I even feel in a giving mood. My recipe is nearly the same as this one on About.com: Eastern European Food. Go ahead and try them. My tips for you:

• You must roll out dough to paper thin and cut into 1″ by 1″ or 2″ by 2″ squares.
• You MUST bake using cold/frozen dough, which means you have to work FAST.
• I roll them entirely in regular sugar before baking. Not just sprinkling confectioner’s sugar on them.
• And MMMMMMMMM.

*Mmmmmmmm*

So anyway, that is about it for my Christmas this year. I am looking forward to three things: Going home, Making cookies, and Seeing Kenn.

Being an adult. It is hard. I think it doesn’t start to hit you until you are in your twenties. Maybe closer to mid-twenties. You start to have that quarter-life crisis and well, things go downhill from there. I have to say, I am really excited to be writing for this blog. I want to chronicle my twenties and what better way than to do that with friends, colleagues, and acquaintances.

I have been in school for awhile. I graduated with a B.A. in English literature from the State University of New York at Cortland in the summer of 2008.

SUNY Cortland Graduate

Since then, I have been working on my M.S. in Adolescent Inclusive English Education at the University of Rochester. Right now, I am immersed in my life as a student and… well, a teacher. I am about to answer the question my students ask of me all the time. “How old are you Ms. Moraites?” Well, folks, I am half-way through being twenty-three.

University of Rochester Warner Graduate School

I hope to share some of those things that I have learned along the way. One of the biggest lessons for me right now is that it is difficult being an adult. It is hard to grow up. All of the sudden — it is like, BAM. Life hits you smack dab in the middle of the face. Phone bills. Electric bills. RENT. Internet bills. Car bills. Groceries. Credit card bills. Student loan bills. Bills, bill, and more bills! Not to mention all of the sudden you have to make your own dentist and doctor appointments. Eye exams are no longer paid by your parents and you start making decisions based on “hmm, how many weeks of groceries will this cost??”

All I can say is this, being an adult is, well, kind of hard. There are a lot of responsibilities. I still run to my parents in desperation. And they are pretty supportive of me, but when I look back, how did I become an adult all of the sudden? I am suddenly a graduate student?  I am going to graduate in May, and then I have to look for a real job? *gasp* How did this happen? Well, it does and it did. In what seems to me — OVERNIGHT! Welcome to the real world, Bekah. And welcome to 20Somethings.

Welcome to 20Somethings. Before I begin I would like to share the back story of how it came to be.

A few weeks ago I started using AdSense my personal blog (I have since stopped for aesthetic reasons) thinking of making some extra cash. The more I thought about it I noticed hadn’t written something in some time. While thinking of what I could do to write more to make money the idea about asking a few friends to guest write and so forth came up. That would have been acceptable, but the more I dwelled on the notion, the more I disagreed with it. It’s my personal journal… it would have weird to ask someone to write were I have written for the past few years. Yet, it lead me to this.

To help solve that problem I decided that there should be another site base around community, people that know each other and others not so much. To this end I tapped on the shoulders of a few friends. They agreed that it would be a great idea, not only would we be writing in the same place but would make us closer as friends by sharing what going on in our lives. Most of us are in our 20′s but have different upbringings, some of us are in different parts of the country/world. I hope that this will be not just about us writing about our lives but open discussion for people in our age group.

This may have started as a way to make money but became something completely different. I am happy how this has turned out. I really am excited that this will be more focus on sharing and community that anything else.

So I think that introductions are in order, and will let each author introduce themselves.

I’m Kenn. I’m from Southern California and currently working as freelance, basically in any type of creative work.

You can read my short bio in the About Me section on the Navigation Bar up top.

So, I have no real clue where this is headed but like all things… just hope to write and share experiences and aspirations.