Oodles of Charm

I Will Teach You To Be Rich 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
Oodles of Charm At last, for a generation that’s materially ambitious yet financially clueless comes I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit Sethi’s 6-week personal finance program for 20-to-35-year-olds. A completely practical approach delivered with a nonjudgmental style that makes readers want to do what Sethi says, it is based around the four pillars of personal finance— … Con...
Mon, May 29 2017

Lab Girl Paperback
Oodles of Charm National Bestseller Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Film Prize for Excellence in Science Books Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award One of the Best Books of the Year: … Continue reading L...
Sun, May 28 2017

Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the...
Oodles of Charm In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind’s first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space … Continue reading Apollo 8: T...
Thu, May 25 2017

A New WordPress App Update, Designed for the iPad
Oodles of Charm We’ve redesigned the iOS app to work even better for publishing right from your tablet.
Fri, Mar 24 2017

Field Notes: Grow Leadership Academy 2016
Oodles of Charm Grow Leadership Academy equips recent South African high school grads with skills for a tight job market.
Fri, Jun 03 2016

WordPressers Making a Splash
Oodles of Charm Bloggers are leaving their marks everywhere, online and in print.
Wed, Jul 29 2015

August in Blogging U: Blogging 101
Oodles of Charm Our popular get-started course, Blogging 101, returns in August! Learn more and register.
Tue, Jul 28 2015

Five Themes for Writers and Readers
Oodles of Charm Five elegant themes for a smooth writing and reading experience.
Fri, Feb 06 2015

Press Publish Tickets
Oodles of Charm Interested in our Press Publish conference series? Buy tickets for the Portland and Phoenix events now!
Fri, Feb 06 2015

Google Analytics for WordPress.com Business sites
Oodles of Charm The Stats on WordPress.com are a special favorite of many site owners — it’s our second-most visited screen. At a glance, you can see when you get the most traffic, which posts are making the biggest impact, who your most frequent commenters are, and more. It’s a great way to gain …
Fri, Feb 06 2015

Five Themes for Writers and Readers
Oodles of Charm Five elegant themes for a smooth writing and reading experience.
Fri, Feb 06 2015

Press Publish Tickets
Oodles of Charm Interested in our Press Publish conference series? Buy tickets for the Portland and Phoenix events now!
Fri, Feb 06 2015

Google Analytics for WordPress.com Business sites
Oodles of Charm The Stats on WordPress.com are a special favorite of many site owners — it’s our second-most visited screen. At a glance, you can see when you get the most traffic, which posts are making the biggest impact, who your most frequent commenters are, and more. It’s a great way to gain …
Fri, Feb 06 2015

The Relax Inn
Oodles of Charm I write this from a motel room in Babylon, New York. Outside, droplets of rain fall into puddles that reflect the tires of pickup trucks. There are fourteen units and six guests, all lone males, except for me. I am a lone female. Outside, the Sunrise Highway howls and sprays as weekenders hightail back to…
Thu, Jan 08 2015

Hearing Aid Selfie
Oodles of Charm I once knew a woman who wrote a great blog that was part of the “fatosphere,” the internet community of bloggers who challenge status quo perceptions of fat people and encourage each other to accept their bodies as they are…no easy task in this country. A reader asked her for tips on how to get used to looking…
Thu, Jan 08 2015

In the Mood
Oodles of Charm Lots of rain, many gray days. Brooklyn is dissolved asunder. I’ve been locked away most of the week finishing up an academic paper, with two others,  that will hopefully be accepted by an esteemed journal. This is unlikely…but the dregs of hope linger. I’ve quit sugar but taken up smoking. I stand out on my…
Thu, Jan 08 2015

The Relax Inn
Oodles of Charm I write this from a motel room in Babylon, New York. Outside, droplets of rain fall into puddles that reflect the tires of pickup trucks. There are fourteen units and six guests, all lone males, except for me. I am a lone female. Outside, the Sunrise Highway howls and sprays as weekenders hightail back to…
Mon, Jun 09 2014

Hearing Aid Selfie
Oodles of Charm I once knew a woman who wrote a great blog that was part of the “fatosphere,” the internet community of bloggers who challenge status quo perceptions of fat people and encourage each other to accept their bodies as they are…no easy task in this country. A reader asked her for tips on how to get used to looking…
Sat, May 24 2014

In the Mood
Oodles of Charm Lots of rain, many gray days. Brooklyn is dissolved asunder. I’ve been locked away most of the week finishing up an academic paper, with two others,  that will hopefully be accepted by an esteemed journal. This is unlikely…but the dregs of hope linger. I’ve quite sugar but taken up smoking. I stand out on my…
Sat, May 17 2014

Tasha in Action
Oodles of Charm On today’s walk, I wanted to work on getting some high-speed shots of Tasha doing what she does best: jumping. My goal was to minimize the blur of motion while retaining a rich, gray landscape with deep black shadows. But judging light sensitivity against shutter speed in an instance is no joke. Fifty-seven photos taken…
Sun, Apr 27 2014

Tasha in Action
Oodles of Charm On today’s walk, I wanted to work on getting some high-speed shots of Tasha doing what she does best: jumping. My goal was to minimize the blur of motion while retaining a rich, gray landscape with deep black shadows. But judging light sensitivity against shutter speed in an instance is no joke. Fifty-seven photos taken in…
Sun, Apr 27 2014

Cherry Blossoms at Ronald McNair Park
Oodles of Charm The cherry blossom trees at Ronald McNair Park turned white over the weekend. When I checked them out with my dog on our walk, dusk was honing in. My ISO here is 800 with shutter speed of 1/125 to compensate for the low light. I kept the F-stop at 3.5 and I think this has something…
Fri, Apr 25 2014

Spring in Crown Heights
Oodles of Charm Through some luck, I recently acquired a Canon Rebel EOS T3 SLR camera. Dog walks have become workshops for black and white photography. I’ve dumped hundreds of photos trying to figure out the perfect combination of ISO, F-STOP, shutter speed and Photoshop to tune contrast and grayscale to achieve the effect of…what, exactly? Nostalgia probably.…
Thu, Apr 24 2014

dead horse bay
Oodles of Charm I took this photo back in November of 2013, when a friend came to visit us from Kansas City. An urban explorer who regularly trespasses into abandon buildings, the only place in all of NYC she was really hot too see was Dead Horse Bay, a sandy cove on the way to Rockaway Beach infamously littered…
Thu, Jan 30 2014

shrine
Oodles of Charm This is what I have been looking at for days and days and days. This lamp. This stuffed deer. This twelve year old copy of “Random House Word Menu.” My journal, the last twenty pages empty. I’ve written nothing of note for months, but man, how I’ve written, endlessly, uselessly; words and phrases that only…
Thu, Jan 30 2014

at a bar without a poem
Oodles of Charm I went to a staged reading with my friend A. Afterwards, we drank at Houndstooth Pub with the playwright, his wife, and all the actors.  It was loud in the bar and all I could hear was my self-esteem crumbling before flashing smiles and unheard jokes. I impaled a few conversations with an ill-timed interjections…
Thu, Jan 30 2014

harvest
Oodles of Charm Harvest moon. That happened last month, didn’t it? Everybody was shrieking about it on the social network. They posted their pixellated odes and emoted their sensory overloads (overodes?). I missed it. I was even out on my balcony that night and still missed it. I couldn’t be bothered to strain my neck around the corner […]
Sun, Jul 07 2013

still a shithole at the end of the world, but maybe not...
Oodles of Charm I am in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, a shithole town at the end of the world that contains the remnants of my racist family. My father picked me up at the airport, alone, as usual, and at the gate, slumped like a small, sad bear that had fallen into a bucket of paint the color of […]
Wed, Jul 03 2013

use
Oodles of Charm I would like to be very tall so I can get things off the high shelf and be of some use. 
Tue, Jun 11 2013

bogota: last wednesday
Oodles of Charm It’s nearly a year later since my last post. I’ve opted to journal by hand since doing so in Ghana. My thoughts have been locked up in a black book covered in punk rock stickers because I am thirty-five years old going on fifteen. But now I’m alone in a hotel room in Bogota, with […]
Tue, Jun 11 2013

ghana: last night
Oodles of Charm It is my last evening in Ghana and I write to apologize for not writing about Ghana. Or, rather, not blogging about Ghana. Writing, I’ve been doing furiously, by hand, in a Moleskine notebook thickened by humidity into something the consistency of slightly damp, hastily folded washcloth.  I’ll play catch up eventually, but rest assured: [...]
Sun, Jul 29 2012

trotro
Oodles of Charm Since I've arrived in Ghana, I've been obsessing over my first ride in a trotro . Trotros are privately owned minibuses that travel in a fixed path at a fixed rate, although what that fixed path or fixed rate is you only know by living here long enough. There are no schedules, no listing of stops, no website. [...]
Mon, Jun 25 2012

arrival in ghana
Oodles of Charm I arrive in Ghana. On the plane, I could see the Sahara Desert changing shape underneath the face of the woman in the window seat. We spill out  on the tarmac. Darkness, stars, and the dull outline of palm trees; men in flourescent vests waving glo-sticks. The air feels like Arkansas. Inside sweaty room, women [...]
Sat, Jun 09 2012

classon avenue
Oodles of Charm We walk at about 10pm or so, the dog and I. My hearing aid is off but I feel a tense energy. The people on the street are alert – all looking in one direction – and there are more of them than usual. Ambulances are rolling down Classon Avenue. I can't hear them but I know what they [...]
Wed, May 23 2012

central park
Oodles of Charm At Midnight, Tasha and I went to Central Park where leash laws are not recognized from 9am to 9pm. As we walk, I can feel her ears perk, her movements become expectant. When she is certain of where we are going, she starts to pull, shrinking only from the blaze of headlights as we pass [...]
Sat, Dec 31 2011

occupy occupy occupy
Oodles of Charm Alexis and I, a pair of petite, pony-tailed brunettes, sit on the steps of Zuccotti Park and watch. This is a Thursday about 4pm and I can only fit two hours of Occupying into my schedule, much to both of our chagrin. Behind us is “the red thing,” as the Occupiers call it, the public [...]
Mon, Oct 17 2011

dirt
Oodles of Charm Have you heard a guitar crying? Of course you have; this happened a lot in the 70′s. Have you heard a guitar crying funkily? Have you shook your ass to a depressed guitar? No? You should listen to Iggy and the Stooges play ‘Dirt.' Dealt with a lot of internal bullshit yesterday thanks to that [...]
Mon, Aug 08 2011