My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Yes, You Can! And Freeze and Dry It, Too: The Modern Step-By-Step Guide to Preserving Food

I heard about this book from the writer, who is a regular attendee of the weekly #gardenchat Twitter chat. His handle is @cityslipper. The book is chock-full of great ideas on how to preserve the bounty of your garden for those cold, dark, Winter days.

From Amazon.com…

“Preserving food is hot! The local food movement gains even more popularity as consumers return to vegetable gardening to grow their own food. They increasingly have become interested in the techniques for “putting up” their bounty. Driven by the recession; the need for healthier, chemical-free food,and taste, people everywhere are preserving the abundance of fruits, vegetables, and herbs harvested from their garden (or someone else’s). You don’t even have to grow your own to preserve freshness; non-gardeners too are learning to preserve with locally grown produce bought from local markets. Targeted at anyone who wants to capture the flavor of freshness, whether it’s from making tomato sauce, drying herbs, or preserving jams and jellies.”

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini
40. The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
41. Cucina Rustica
42. The Great Potato Book
43. Rode Podcaster Microphone
44. High-Tech Fitness Monitors
45. Books by Douglas E. Welch
46. Tribes by Seth Godin
47. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
48. The Italian Slow Cooker cookbook
49. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need
50. Classes from The Institute of Domestic Technology
51. Olympus PEN E-P1 12 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera
52. Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Susan Warren
53. Cocoon GRID-IT Organizer Packs
54. Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
55. Podcast Solutions by Dan Klass and Michael Geoghegan
56. The Craft and Business of Songwriting by John Braheny
57. Dexim Visible Green Smart Charge & Sync Cable
58. Wells Lamont Wet and Muddy Latex Coated Gardening Glove
59. Rosanne’s Top 5 Books for Film Buffs
60. Bon-Aire HN-10C Original Ultimate Hose Nozzle
61. Microphones from Giant Squid Audio Labs
62. Re-Imagine by Tom Peters
63. Razer Gaming Mice
64. Garden Hod harvest carrier
65. Nest Learning Thermostat
66. Aha! 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas

Wells Lamont Wet and Muddy Latex Coated Gardening Glove

It is always great to have a pair of these latex-coated gloves around for those wet tasks in the garden. I use them for mixing up potting soil, harvest compost and working in the garden after a recent rain. Sure, we all like to get our hands dirty on occasion, but there are also times we don’t want to have to scrub forever just so we can go back inside. 

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini
40. The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
41. Cucina Rustica
42. The Great Potato Book
43. Rode Podcaster Microphone
44. High-Tech Fitness Monitors
45. Books by Douglas E. Welch
46. Tribes by Seth Godin
47. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
48. The Italian Slow Cooker cookbook
49. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need
50. Classes from The Institute of Domestic Technology
51. Olympus PEN E-P1 12 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera
52. Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Susan Warren
53. Cocoon GRID-IT Organizer Packs
54. Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
55. Podcast Solutions by Dan Klass and Michael Geoghegan
56. The Craft and Business of Songwriting by John Braheny
57. Dexim Visible Green Smart Charge & Sync Cable

Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

With interests in both art and business, it seems only natural to combine them in my mind. “Art & Fear” addresses the all-to-common issues with creating art and I believe there are a lot of parallels to any career. Most art is about overcoming fear and it is the same with your career. You need to work through the fear in order to create something wonderful, not matter what you do.

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini
40. The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
41. Cucina Rustica
42. The Great Potato Book
43. Rode Podcaster Microphone
44. High-Tech Fitness Monitors
45. Books by Douglas E. Welch
46. Tribes by Seth Godin
47. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
48. The Italian Slow Cooker cookbook
49. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need
50. Classes from The Institute of Domestic Technology
51. Olympus PEN E-P1 12 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera
52. Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Susan Warren
53. Cocoon GRID-IT Organizer Packs

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need

Yes, a graphic novel that also happens to be a career guide. What a great idea! This is an easy read, but offers some good career advice in an engaging form. Well worth picking up at your local library or bookstore.

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini
40. The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
41. Cucina Rustica
42. The Great Potato Book
43. Rode Podcaster Microphone
44. High-Tech Fitness Monitors
45. Books by Douglas E. Welch
46. Tribes by Seth Godin
47. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
48. The Italian Slow Cooker cookbook

The Great Potato Book

A serendipitous look though the sorting shelves at my local library led me to The Great Potato Book, which can only be described as raising food fetishism to a new height. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing.

Beautifully photographed and printed on glossy stock, The Great Potato Book presents the humble potato’s history, recipes and an index of potato varieties you have probably never seen. Each description offers appropriate users for the particular variety as well as possible substitutions if you can’t find a certain type in your area. Several recipes caught my eye immediately, including the Italian Potato Pie, Potato-Onion Focaccua and Bacon-Potato Cake.

If I were a collector of food books, The Great Potato Book would certainly find its way onto my bookshelves, or more likely, onto my coffee table, since it is so beautifully designed. Of course, owning this book would make it clear to all your friends that your truly are a “foodie” to the highest degree. For the gardener’s among us, the book gives us images of perfection to strive for in your own garden. You may never reach such heights, but it is always good to have something for which to strive.

Despite its glossiness, the book brought back some pleasant memories of planting and harvesting potatoes with my grandma, many years ago. She planted a half-acre of garden until she was well into her 70’s and taught me most everything I know about gardening.

Each year we would take seed potatoes left over from the previous year and cut them into sections, each containing an eye, These were loaded into peck baskets made of wicker and carried out to the back of her property, where the garden existed. The soil would have been prepared until it was deep and soft, and a dark, chocolate brown. We would then create a long straight row, using the ancient hand cultivator that seemed to belong to a previous century. It looked like a miniature plow with a large metal wheel at the front and wheelbarrow-like handles at the rear. Each of us would then heft a basket and begin walking down the row, dropping potatoes at regular intervals, then stepping on each one to seat it in the soil. Then we would carefully “hill up” each row, giving the new potatoes plenty of room to grow.

Later in the Summer, and into the cold Fall, we would make regular trips out to the garden to gather potatoes for our usual Sunday family supper. It was always amazing to put the garden fork into a seemingly dead part of the garden and turn up a hidden bounty.
Despite the typical attacks of potato bugs, dry weather, wet weather and more, I have no memory of Grandma ever buying potatoes. I guess her garden, and her gardening knowledge, made it relatively easy to provide more than enough for everyone.

Food as fetish, food as art and food as memory. Any book that can serve in all these ways is certainly worth a look.

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini
40. The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
41. Cucina Rustica

Tribes by Seth Godin

Seth Godin’s newest book, Tribes, touches a concept near and dear to me…organizing groups, or Tribes, and helping them get things done. This is not to say I have been terribly successful at this activity, but I love helping people achieve things and doing it any way I can.

I was interested in Tribes for exactly this reason. I wanted to see what Godin had to say about organizing people and creating “movement” to see if there was anything I could be doing better. Of course, there is always something more you can be doing, so I took away a few good ideas from the book. He does admit, though, that there aren’t any hard and fast rubrics for he can give you for working with Tribes. You need passion and a vision and an ability to understand and care about people, but you can’t break it down into 5 easy steps that anyone can do.

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini
40. The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
41. Cucina Rustica
42. The Great Potato Book
43. Rode Podcaster Microphone
44. High-Tech Fitness Monitors
45. Books by Douglas E. Welch

The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam

I tend to think and teach visually in most cases already, but when I saw this book I knew I needed to pick it up. I wanted to see if there were some new and interesting ways I might improve my visual thinking. Dan Roam lays out the basics of visual problem solving and provides a framework to help make your work more useful and more importantly, presents a clearer communication of your vision to others.

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini

Over the years I have often wondered if maybe nice guys really do finish last. I am not the most competitive person in the world and sometimes think it has held me back. That makes “The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness” a good read for me. It is made up of short essays which use hard science to tease out the existence, need and desire for compassion in all its forms. There are essays on hope, empathy, forgiveness and the whole continuum of compassionate behaviors in all primates, including humans.

The essay-based format allows for quick dives into the content, so you don’t feel you have to swallow the entire book at one sitting. Time spent thinking about what you have read is important, and almost required, as you delve into some of the deepest aspects of what makes us human.

I first head about this book from an interview with the two of the editors onTech Nation with Moira Gunn. You can listen to the program using the link below.

The Science of Human Goodness
Dacher Keltner, Jason Marsh
Psychology Professor and Editor, Greater Good magazine

Dr. Moira Gunn talks with UC Berkeley Psychology Professor, Dacher Keltner and the editor of Greater Good magazine, Jason Marsh, about how humans are naturally programmed to be good and what separates those who are from those who are not.

Listen to Tech Nation: The Science of Human Goodness

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games

Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas

by Dan Zarrella

Want to learn how to maximize social media? When to do it, what words to use, who to tweet at? Look no further than Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design and Engineering of Contagious Ideas. Social media master Dan Zarrella has amassed years of experience helping people negotiate the often mystical place of social media marketing. Now, he has condensed those well-tried ideas into this concise and conversational book. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness demystifies and deconstructs how social media works, who it benefits and why we all depend upon it to help our good ideas spread.

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

In any career, it is almost assured that you will be called on to make presentations to your peers, your managers and executives, outside clients and perhaps even at large industry conferences. As we all know, presenting is an art and a skill and most presenters fall woefully short of the mark. In many cases, it is not the presenter who is failing so much as their presentation. Presentation Zen seeks to help you understand and use a better way of a presenting, a better way of building your presentation so you don’t face the disheartening snores of your audience.

Presentation Zen presents a number of ways of escaping the bullet point nature of most presentations and using presentation visuals to support your words rather than simply re-stating them (or even worsen, having you read the words directly off the slides!?!?)

If you want to dramatically improve your presentations and your presentation skills, check out Presentation Zen immediately. The career you save could be your own.

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)