People & Society – i am sarah kohl

The Contagion Piggybacking on the Pandemic

While everyone has adjusted to life in the era of Covid-19, there’s another contagion piggybacking on the pandemic…burnout. You’ve probably noticed it in your workplace and you’re not alone. The added stress of kids going back to school (or not?), working from home (possibly with a spouse), and trying to remember to wear your mask everywhere despite perhaps peer pressure has taken a toll on the mental state of everyone.

Unfortunately, you don’t have to be a parent or working from home to feel the impacts of these situations because burnout is contagious. [More]

A Taste of New York Chips from Western New York

New York Chips vs Saratoga Chips for Best New York State Chip
It’s been some time since I posted and while I’ve thought of a number of different things I wanted to write about I haven’t found a lot of time to do so. I recently bought a house, moved back from California, started working on a startup, and in my spare time I’ve learned to code. Needless to say, busy.

That being said, I can’t ignore anything related to small businesses in New York. If you don’t know, New York Chips are the potato chip that’s 100% made in New York. The potatoes are grown, processed, and packaged right here in Western New York. [More]

Developer Week 2017 in San Francisco

sarah-kohl-silicon-valley-SF-developer-week-2917

This was my first time attending the Developer Week Conference and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I attended a handful of talks and walked around the show floor and was overall pleasantly surprised.

I should start off saying that I’ve always found virtual reality (VR) to be a bit too gimmicky. Often applications that are released are focused around video games. While that may be fun I’ve never understood why Silicon Valley has been so in love with the technology until now.

Two specific events at this show helped me to make the jump from VR skeptic to VR advocate. [More]

42 USA: The Free Coding College

42_usa_coding_school_free_sarah_kohl

The past month I’ve been learning to code in Silicon Valley as part of the application process for the no-strings-attached free-tuition school called 42. If you’ve been following my twitter, you might have noticed one or two posts about the application tests and process. The owner of the French telecom network free founded the college in Paris, and this year they opened their second campus location in California. The college has no teachers, no accreditation, and has just started to build it’s reputation, but the draw of a free education that leads to a good paying job seems to be attractive to people from all walks of life. [More]

The Ringing Rocks of Pennsylvania

ringing rocks campground Pennsylvania

It’s important to try and get your outdoor activities in before winter when you live someplace like New York. Naturally, this means camping in the beginning of fall! My youngest sister had pointed out that just outside Philadelphia there was a cool phenomenon known as The Ringing Rocks. In typical Kohl-sister fashion, we decided that planning a last minute trip over the weekend was do-able so we packed our things and headed out for the keystone state.

We decided to tent camp at a campground called, The Ringing Rocks Campground, mostly because it was close to our destination. [More]

What is MIT’s Project “Solid” And Why Should You Care About It?

tim berners lee mit labs project solid

Tim Berners-Lee gave us the gift of the Internet without patents, copyrights, or trademarks. Unlike the giant tech companies we know today, Tim Berners-Lee provided global value to society without putting his own self-interest first. Now this genius wants to revolutionize his creation with “Solid” and the team at MIT’s lab.

Solid stands for “social linked data” and somewhat represents the block chain system we see being used for crypto currency. The end users would store their personal information in personal online data stores, or “pods,” and access to this information would only be aloud by applications that have the authority to do so. [More]

Panama Rocks in Chautauqua, NY

I had seen this place on the map a few times and thought about visiting, but it was always too close for a real trip and too far for a day trip. That horrible middle ground made it an unattractive destination to me despite the beautiful photos I’d seen.

That’s another thing with visiting natural attractions like Panama Rocks. If you see too many photos of the destination you start to convince yourself that you’ve seen the best parts and there’s no need to go. Or at least I do. So when I got to Panama Rocks I was pleasantly surprised. [More]

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You have to strive every minute to get rid of the life that you have planned in order to have the life that’s waiting to be yours. Move, move, move….

— Joseph Campbell

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Happy World Heritage Day!

If you’re not aware, today is world heritage day. It’s clearly not one of the better holidays for selling cards, chocolate, or other gifts so I won’t blame you if you’ve never heard of it. World Heritage day was created to raise awareness of global cultural diversity. The International Council for Monuments and Sites, yes such a thing exists, suggest that people go visit monuments today. (They would suggest that wouldn’t they!) Instead, I would like to share a bit that I’ve learned about my own culture and heritage. [More]

There’s No Luxury on a Cruise Ship

why you should never go on a cruise and why cruise lines are evil

Let me start off by saying I’ve never been on a cruise ship. I’ve heard stories, seen pictures, and understand the appeal, but I have no desire to be on a cruise ship. It seems that, unlike everyone else, I can’t see the luxury others find in a cruise.

The idea of a cruise is great. I love boats, meeting people, and being lazy. To make it all better, a cruise is generally cheap. At face value, you can’t really go wrong. In fact, most people who tell me about their cruise vacations come back ecstatic and rave about the fantastic time they had. [More]

How to Buy Products Only Sold in the USA

sarah kohl travel blogger tips to buy in the USA and ship internationally

Being a US citizen I hardly ever think about “not” being able to order something from a site. Once in awhile I’ll see a retail site in the UK that claims they won’t ship to the United States, but pretty much, everyone is willing to ship here.

Sure, I had seen the text, “only ships to the continental United States,” or something like it before while checking out, but it never impacted me so I didn’t pay it much attention until I started dating a Canadian.

This guy was well off, but maybe not the most educated person. He adamantly believed that a weird cocktail of supplements in fruit juice was the magic bullet that could prevent or cure any flu, cold, or unidentified sniffle. [More]

Tips for Getting Sleep While Traveling

Getting sleep is important regardless of where you are and what you’re doing. The benefits of a good night’s sleep range from maintaining overall health to an improved mood. As difficult as it can be to get rested at home, it’s even more challenging to get sleep while on the road.

Changing time zones and red-eye flights aren’t the best way to ensure you get your beauty rest, but I have a few travel tips that should increase the chances you’ll stay healthy and rested while you’re on the go. [More]