Same ish, different place

in

Hi everybody! I launched Word Is Born four years ago, in August 2005. Since then, I've grown, the blog has grown and its followers have grown. I'm extremely proud and sometimes overwhelmed by that progress. I've created more than 1,100 posts so far, which have been met by 3x that many comments and nearly 80,000 visits from all over the world.

Considering this, I decided it was time for a change. Or maybe Barack Obama's slogan got to me. Probably both. Yes we can.

After my engagement to Amanda, many of you asked about the fate of the Word Is Born. It shall persist. Hopefully after I'm married Word Is Born will only be that much more entertaining. We've traveled on this blog from post-undergrad to new jobs to living with The Wives to grad school and so on. The greatest adventures lie ahead and I'll continue to chronicle them here.

To accommodate a bigger effort, I've transitioned to Wordpress for publishing. With Wordpress I'm able to create pages, jumps and lots of other nerdy tricks to make Word Is Born more friendly, intuitive and fun to read. I previously used Blogger and was (thankfully) able to import all of my posts since August 2005 so that the new Wordpress archives are complete. However, some links may be broken. Nothing's perfect.

You probably noticed that the URL has changed. Update those bookmarks and RSS feeds! I've bought wordisborn.com, paolojr.com, paolomottolajr.com and paolomottola.com in the interest of owning my personal brand on the Internet. Paolojr.com/blog and wordisbornblog.com will land you here. The old paolojr.blogspot.com address will redirect here as well. Or should.

Like anything online, this site is a work in progress, and I welcome your suggestions for improvements. You know where to find me.

Here's to another four years, another 1,000 posts, another 3,000 comments, another 80,000 visitors and you.

Best, Paolo

I shot a wedding

in

But I did not shoot the deputy. A couple weekends back, Sergio and I shot a wedding for one of Wesley's good friends. The bride and groom were awesome and the whole wedding at Lake Union Cafe was stellar. Sergio and I made some great shots. You can see Serg's at his blog. Mine are below. Enjoy.

I'm also available for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.

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And the closer...

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More photos here.

Paolo vs. Wild

in

Amanda and I are taking off for the Cascades tonight to go camping. Per Scott's recommendation, we're heading to Dewey Lakes, which is just around the corner from Crystal Mountain (surprise, surprise) in Mt. Rainier National Park. You can read Scott's review of the hike here.

We've been looking for an opportunity to go camping, so Amanda and I both took Friday off from work and spent most of yesterday evening packing. However, we're going for different reasons...

Amanda wants to hike in, pitch a tent, sleep on the ground, cook over a portable burner and use nature's infinite restroom for recreation.

I'm going to prove that I can camp. I've never been camping before. My most recent hike was a hike from hell. I've slept in tents for concerts at The Gorge, but that's as far as my camping resume goes.

Some might say, "Paolo, you've gone backpacking before so you're used to living off the bare essentials in relative discomfort and inconviences. What gives?" Running water and civilization, I argue. All jokes aside, I expect the weather to be splendid and I might just enjoy the adventure.

Assuming I don't pull a Christopher McCandless and eat the wrong berries, we should be back by Saturday. Wish me luck in the Great Outdoors.

Hot like Tim's Jalapeno Chips

in

I'm going to get local-TV-news cliche and talk weather. Because it is hot. It is really f'ing hot.

That picture you see to the left is of the thermometer at my house on Monday. That's been the average temperature this week, around 90 degrees.

Now I've been in hot weather, people. You might recall the 119-degree heat I endured in Palm Springs before. I could tolerate that because I was in the right frame of mind. Here in the Northwest, we don't have hot weather, so I'm not mentally prepared for it. So I suffer.

When it's hot like this I get into a terrible habit of drinking water, beer, whatever to try and cool down. I don't actually cool down so I keep drinking until I'm full of liquid. Like a dog chasing its tail, I can't stop drinking and don't want to. You know that feeling where you jump and can feel the liquid move in your belly? That's been my existence for the past few days.

It's hot like Tim's Jalapeno Chips. And I need more water.