Standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, I experienced a flood of emotions I didn’t expect. The chasm is enormous – it stretches 277 miles, runs about 1 mile deep, and an average of 10 miles across – but it seemed to signify something much more for me.
I recently visited Tucson, but I basically hunkered down and used the city for a work retreat. I worked on client projects, blogged and made progress on my own creative stuff. Still, the one thing I won’t neglect in any city is the coffee scene. I visited nearly ten coffee shops in my 11 days in Tucson and yet one stood out. Batch Cafe & Bar actually stood head and shoulders above the rest.
It’s really important to test all aspects of your website, especially if you work for a non-profit with a donation page. Because what if I told you that one change could provide 72% more revenue? Or another change could double the conversion rate of your Give page compared to other options?
These types of experiments and possibilities made me very curious at a non-profit I worked for. This is a case study of A/B testing I did on our Give page there.
As I made my way into the vast expanse of Big Bend National Park, I felt I was on another planet. I was totally unfamiliar with this landscape: the heat, the sun, the prickly plants, and, of course, the sand and stone.
At times, I felt the beautiful expansiveness of this protected area. At other times, death became a pervasive thought. As a pale-skinned Yankee, I couldn’t keep myself from thinking how dangerous this landscape seemed and how awful (and easy) it would be to die here.
How do I even begin to describe my recent visit to Big Bend National Park? The experience was a story of contrasts and expansion.
To start, let me say that I’m a Midwesterner (born and raised in Detroit, Michigan) who went to college and lived in western Kentucky and Tennessee (Murray, Kentucky and Paris, Tennessee). And I’ve lived in Vermont since 2003. I’m used to a few environments: cement, sprawling farmland, and mountainous greenery. Big Bend was really my first experience with a desert landscape.
I knew I would like Austin, Texas, but I had no idea how much I enjoy the city nor for what reasons. Everyone knows Austin as the live music capital of the world, but I soon discovered a mind-blowing food and coffee scene in the Texas capital as well. Apparently, I’m not alone in appreciating the city. Austin Demographer Ryan Robinson has document 150 people moving to Austin each day and 40 leaving each day, for a net gain of 110. Can you imagine the U-Haul business?
I started using Sleep Cycle just because I like having stats on and analyzing my life. I even thought I was a good sleeper, so I didn’t anticipate how much this app would change my sleep patterns. (I hesitate to say “change my life” because I’m not an alarmist type of blogger. But I’m thisclose to saying that phrase, just so you know.)