sarah friedlander

Imperfect perfectionist living life to its fullest.

  1. My 7 Links: Jumping Back in Time

    I’ve been tagged in the latest internet meme, “My 7 Links” which Tripbase started.  Okay, I lied I wasn’t exactly tagged but rather requested Rob from South America ME to include me.  But it’s all the same, right?

    The last few years have really housed a lot of personal growth for me and it seems fitting to go back in time and dig up some posts that are worth sharing (again).  It’s also amazing that I now have an archive of over 8 years of blog posts – wow!  While most of my posts aren’t focused around travel like Tripbase, I still think this is a general enough Internet meme that is beneficial despite the category.  So without further ado here are my chosen posts:

    Most Beautiful Post

    In April 2009 I spent a little under a week in Oahu, Hawaii.  It was the perfect time of year with fantastic weather and I was really happy with some of the beautiful panoramas I took.  I posted them in my blog post, Hawaii and Life Updates.

    Most Popular Post

    This post, Interior Design in Chile & IKEA Hemnes Shoe Cabinet popularity still blows me away receiving about 33-50% of the traffic that my homepage gets every day.  In Chile, affordable modern furniture is difficult (or impossible to find).  Most expats that move to Chile long for one store in particular: IKEA.  While IKEA won’t be coming to Chile anytime soon (thanks HOMY/Homecenter) there are great alternatives.  I really need to write another blog post soon showing off some of the other IKEA-like furniture I have had made.

    Most Controversial Post

    I wrote this post after being frustrated by many expats people living in Chile that continually complain about how awful it is to live here.  My point was simple: if you don’t like it leave, thus the name of my post, Don’t Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out.  Just scroll down to the comments to witness its’ controversy.

    Most Helpful Post

    While this isn’t really a post (it’s a page) it still deserves a call-out.  The footer of my Chile page in general is extremely helpful for anyone that lives or is thinking of moving to Chile.  I spent a lot of time compiling these lists of favorite places to eat, shop, general resources, expat blogs, must-haves and of course some shameless ads.  Make sure to check it out!

    A Post Whose Success Have Surprised Me

    For anyone that knows me I’m a HUGE interior decorating nerd but it wasn’t always that way.  I remember hating shopping for home goods and finding it the most boring activity ever.  I think part of my passion for interior decorating started thanks to Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan and his books and website, “Apartment Therapy.”  Thus, my blog post, Interior Decorating, Apartment Therpay and How it Changed My Life is well worth the read.  Many others seemed like this post as well, which surprised me.

    A Post Didn’t Get the Attention it Deserved

    I’m going to lump this into a sum of posts from #reverb10:

    I participated in #Reverb10 this past year which is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next.  Requiring a post a day in December (okay, I was late to the party and only started on the 14th) I was pretty awful at keeping up with blogging consistently and instead wrote all of my posts way past their ‘due date’.  However, I think I wrote a lot of meaningful things that are worth reading.

    Post I am Most Proud Of

    I didn’t tell many people this, but almost chickened out before my big move to Chile.  For a few weeks before to my move it seemed like my days were so packed with relocation bits and pieces that I forgot to have this, “holy crap I’m moving where?!?!” moment.  This eventually did come, complete with buckets of tears.  Writing the post, My Vida took a lot of guts and was the most rewarding.  I was so proud to put my feelings and life out there in such an honest way.  More surprising was the response I got: people reached out to me through my blog, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, phone and text messages offering words of encouragement.  That encouragement confirmed to me that I was making the right decision.

  2. Site Revisions, Updates, Etc…

    I should have posted this about 1-2 months ago when most of the work was done.  This blog has undergone some revisions, while staying on the same theme and layout.  Most importantly, colors and header image were changed now highlighting Chile and having this blog focusing mainly on expat life (or rather, my life but in another country).

    Other things added of interest:

    • Added WebFonts which makes the blog look a lot snazzier (at least I think so!)
    • Home page is now synonymous with /blog.  It seemed a bit redundant and annoying to have to constantly redirect people to /blog so now when you go to sarah.cl there are my posts.  No more clicking.
    • Social Buttons – if you scroll to the footer, you will now see a bunch of fancy social buttons for my pages on Del.icio.us, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, LinkedIn and Twitter.
    • About content updated a bit.
    • My super cute dog used to have his own website – in order to remove redundancy he now has a page on my blog – which still pulls in the same content including cute pictures, his Twitter and Facebook account and also lots of great links for dog places in Santiago.
    • Chile now has a page!  Since my blog does focus now a lot on expat life, I thought it would be nice to have a page devoted to all my Chile blog posts (if you just want to read them).  Also if you scroll to the bottom of this page there’s a great list of other blogging gringas and lots of resources for surviving if not excelling in Santiago as a foreigner.
    • Integration of Disqus global commenting system.

    I think that’s it for now.

  3. CSS Naked Day 2008

    Today my site is participating in CSS Naked Day.  You can see this by visiting my site (today on 4/9/08) or the image below:

     

    Taken from http://naked.dustindiaz.com/:

    Where did my Design go?

    The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words. It’s time to show off your <body>.

    How to participate

    Fill out the naked day signup form, then your website will be included in the official list within the next hour.

    Then on April 9th, simply remove all CSS from your website, stripping it entirely of its design.

    (Optional): Insert the following snippet of markup at the top of your page on the day of.

    <h3>What happened to the design?</h3>
<p>To know more about why styles are disabled on this website visit the
<a href="http://naked.dustindiaz.com" title="Web Standards Naked Day Host Website">
Annual CSS Naked Day</a> website for more information.</p>
This option for those who feel a need to give their visitors a reference as to what's going on. This is not about getting traffic or making money. There are no ads on this site, nor will there ever be. This is about you, the people; getting naked.

    When is it again?

    A few folks were curious about the date of CSS Naked Day. Here’s a few reasons why it’s on April 9th this year.

    • The date should always be on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday (most highly trafficked days)
    • It should be near the first week of April
    • It should never be on April 1st (international prank day)
    • There should be at least five days ahead of time before the announcement

     

  4. Rsdoherty.com

    I spent tonight being generally dorky alongside Ryan and working on revamping rsdoherty.com which is a site Ryan and I registered some time ago mostly for e-mail and to host our wedding website.

    A few years ago thrown up a really bad looking iWeb template that just told people where they could find our blogs, but I wanted something that looked a lot more professional and would have a social aspect to it.  The site is built on WordPress and uses a modified version of the Textback theme made by Amy & Pink.

    Although this site really isn’t someplace you would want to bookmark (unless you are fascinated with seeing where we we are on the social web) it makes for a great landing page, and a beautiful clean design. Enjoy!

  5. Just Upgraded to WordPress 2.5RC1

    I just upgraded to WordPress 2.5RC1. The administrative interface and dashboard are amazing and everything just seems so much faster. If you have the ability to upgrade to WordPress 2.5 definitely do it!

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