Pursuit eighty nine: HAPPY FRIDAY

Following my pursuits,

Price

Pursuit eighty eight: Smells of Holiday Cheer

Every holiday season, there is one tradition that I look forward to in my household. For as long as I can remember, every year when the weather starts to get a little cooler outside, and the days become shorter, my mom always starts putting out her infamous potpourri. This light scent of cinnamon, cloves, and orange enveloping our household has now come to represent the holiday season for me. 

                                                                                 Ingredients:

                                                                      -The peelings of 1 orange

                                                                      -2 to 3 cinnamon sticks

                                                                      -A dash of whole cloves 

                                                                      -1.5 to 2 cups of water

                                                                      -Small cooking pot

This smell of holiday cheer has the perfect balance of aroma - a light dash of senseful delight to peak ones fancy. Now you might be asking yourself, "How does one make this holiday cheer?". It is very simple you see. Take one of your small cooking pots and add about roughly 1.5 to 2 cups of water into the pot. Then, peel an orange and place the peelings into the pot. After this take two to three cinnamon sticks and a handful of whole cloves and place them into the pot. Turn the heat on low and let the magical smell of holiday cheer begin to envelope your olfactory senses.

Happy holidays!

Following my pursuits,

Price

Pursuit eighty seven: Design in Progress

 If you have taken away anything about me through this blog, I hope that you have learned that I enjoy design. Whether it is appreciating the design talents of others, or expressing myself through my own attempts of creation, I am all for design. My recent move to Austin has given me a blank canvas to play with- this canvas being my new apartment. Having brought some pieces from school as well as my parents' home, I have had some items to start off my design fun. 

Decorating my apartment will be a work in progress, and is definitely something that will not happen over night. For me this is great because it allows me time to explore the city to find the right stores that will give me design inspiration, and it also allows me time to figure out how it really is that I want my apartment to be decorated. 

Here are some snapshots of my design in progress. 

Following my pursuits,

Price

Pursuit eighty six: Settling in

As you all may have noticed, my "hiatus" from The Pursuits of Price lasted a wee bit longer than two weeks... more like two months. Over the course of these past months I have been settling in to a variety of new environments. The first major change is that I now live in Austin, Texas due to a job that I acquired earlier this fall. I now work for a tech company called VMware as their Social Recruiting Community Manager. My job allows me to oversee the VMware Careers and VMware University Relations social sites. Pretty nifty I must say! 

Moving to Austin and starting a new job has been quite the whirlwind. I hit the nail on the head with my preconceived notions of Austin... it is freaking amazing (yes, freaking amazing)! If I could mold aspects of different cities that I like (i.e. their geographical makeup), this would be it. I have a little bit of the "city vibe", and a little bit of the "outdoor vibe". The best of both worlds for me! 

"City vibe"

"Outdoor vibe"

Starting my job at VMware has changed up the day-to-day schedule that I was rolling with as a youthful student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. No longer am I debating what to do with the copious amounts of time I had between classes (I kid, I kid-You all know I was studying my guts out while I was at college). I am now working (which I like). Adjusting to this change in pace and schedule put a minor halt on The Pursuits of Price. But no more, The Pursuits of Price is back! 

As with all of my pursuits, and my life in general, this pursuit of blogging for me is an evolution (or so I hope). I have many aspirations for this blog. Evolving the design scheme of the blog, expanding the content, and writing more posts of substance are just a few hopes I have for my relationship with The Pursuits of Price. 

Only time will tell where The Pursuits of Price will go... I hope you will join me to find out.

Following my pursuits,

Price

Pursuit eighty five: Hiatus

Hello blogger pals,

I have decided to take a two week hiatus from The Pursuits of Price to enjoy life, think up some new creative pursuits to discuss, and much more!

Stay tuned :)

P.S. Here is one of my favorite first photos of my booger Smith when I adopted him. If you are a dog lover drool over this until The Pursuits of Price comes back.

Following my pursuits,

Price

Pursuit eighty four: HAPPY FRIDAY

Following my pursuits,

Price

Pursuit eighty three: Learning From the Pursuit of Another ~ Thomas Robinson

First of all I want to say thanks to Price for inviting me to share my insights/words/pursuits with her and her readers. Second, I want to apologize in advance for my crazy style of writing/photography/video posting. I just can't help it.


It feels like a big responsibility to share your pursuits with others, especially an audience that you might not be familiar with. But as I thought about this task, I realized that life is about sharing your pursuits with those around you, both known and unknown. This sharing happens all the time.


When I think about the word pursuit, it makes me think of a combination of what I'm doing, where I'm going, and what I'm trying to become. I guess the best pursuits are those that all work in concert, so that what you do and where you go are all part of what you are becoming. So, here’s what mine are all about.


The Pursuit of Happiness

Cudi says he’ll be fine once he gets it, but it is all about the journey.

For me, the best pursuits are those that benefit more than just me. I find that I get great joy by being a part of a team and by helping others. So, I guess where I try to go and what I try to become are the same and that is being a better person that makes things around him better.

The good legit life

Fortunately I have made a couple of choices that have allowed me a lot of opportunity to work on these pursuits every day. Every day I leave a house and a family (1 lady friend, 2 dogs) that I want to come home to everyday. Having a crew like that makes me want to be a better person, both for them and for those around us. For me it is key to have solid people around me (friends and family) that serve as reminders about why we are here. It helps to also have some people that can put up with my mild insanity and insistence on using words like “legit” and “jibberjabber” all the time.



The Pursuit of a Better Memphis



When I go to work at MIFA* in downtown Memphis, every day I get to work for the betterment of the community by serving people that face true need in their lives, something that I have never really faced. I get to be a part of a team that is dedicated to pushing each other to be better, both at what we do and in who we are. It is a pretty awesome experience to look around the table in a meeting and know that everyone may have different specific reasons for being there, but that they are all there to give back in some way.



The Pursuit of Better Food



One of my great hobbies is the blog that I write in my spare time. Eat Local Memphis is my little spot on the internet that allows me to put my mouth where my money is and talk up the people and places that make Memphis a food community that I love. I started this little blog after my lady friend, Kat, started her fantastic business, Muddy's Bake Shop. I watched/listened/experienced (and maybe helped a little) as Muddy's went from a wild idea to a wild reality. In the process of seeing all the work and effort that goes into making a place that values their product, values their employees, values their customers, values their community, I began to realize that most of us normal folks don't value restaurants and their people the way we should. Creating meals and experiences takes the same kind of dedication to excellence that it takes to succeed at anything.


-Thomas




*Just wanted to point out that Price spent a good part of her summer a couple years ago volunteering as an intern in my department at MIFA. That she would give of herself like that shows someone that really cares about giving back.