You might be asking, why should I become a fan?

Today I’m giving you a reason: special Facebook giveaways!

I’m taking a look at a lot of great books about Italy and travel and I want to share them with you, but I don’t want to start reviewing books on this blog. So I’m going to be doing a few giveaways only for my Facebook Fans, so you have a reason to drop by every once and a while. And I may add some other things, too!

In fact, the first giveaway is already in progress! Stop by and check it out!

Become a Fan for Ms. Adventures in Italy on Facebook!

The blogging and giveaways will not stop on this blog, though….don’t worry! :)

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• About
• Pocket Coffee: Real Italian Espresso covered in Chocolate (Giveaway!)
• 4th Annual World Nutella Day is on February 5, 2010
• Adopt a Blogger: Finding New Sources of Traffic and Readers for Your Blog
• Contact Me

Social Networking

I didn’t spend much time joining new mainstream social networks, but dedicated some time to finding some communities organized around action! (keep reading the entire post to find out what I mean)

• In 2009 I remained very active on Twitter and Facebook and said goodbye to FriendFeed. I’m still using ASmallWorld, Flickr and LinkedIn but they are not the first sites I open each day.
• Biggest resource of 2009: It remained Twitter. The diversity of people I follow or are exposed to through ReTweets and lists make it an immediate go-to for me.
• Biggest sell-out of 2009: For me, it was FriendFeed. I think Facebook buying it (and subsequently not improving or investing in it) means it’s dead in the water, and I think FF really needs to improve the way users interact (perhaps adding photos to each comment) as some very interesting discussions occurred there but also some crazy flames and ganging up, too. Also, people deleting their accounts meant entire discussions disappeared. There’s a lack of accountability that I feel other sites handle better.
• Bloggers met (in person) in 2009: This was a big year for seeing food bloggers at the BlogHer conference in Chicago, but I was a little upset BlogHer Food was announced after I’d made my plans (hurry up and announce if there’ll be a date in 2010!). I really enjoyed Travel Blog Exchange in Chicago where I met so many great travel bloggers. I continue to meet tons of Italian bloggers as an organizer for the Girl Geek Dinners in Milan.

Blogging, Photography and Computing

• Domains I have active websites on: 5
• Domains I have bought but haven’t started using: 6 (I see this number increasing very soon – buying domains is the new impulse shopping)
• 5 Most popular blog posts on this blog (written in 2009): Nutella Virgin? 50 Ways to Eat Nutella and Nutella Lover Types, The Search for the Perfect Frosting Recipe, Lemon French Macarons with Limoncello White Chocolate Ganache Recipe, Dark Mint Chocolate French Macarons Recipe, Panzanella: Tuscan Bread Salad Recipe
• RSS Feeds: I know some people are saying RSS is dead, but for me, it’s still going strong. This year I had a huge jump in feeds – from 211 to 339 feeds that I read, but I find that most people aren’t posting as much as they used to, and I’m getting much better at skimming titles and content so I don’t feel it’s taking more time. I added three new categories that I classify my feeds in: “Girl Geeks” “Travel” and “Photography“
• Camera and Video camera equipment: Still using my 10MP Canon Digital Rebel XTi, and my Canon PowerShot SD750 7.1MP for quick shots and video. But this year I’ll have the Kodak Zi8 (my Zi8 is raspberry!) as my go-to for video – I am really loving it, though I also used a Flip Ultra this summer. I had to buy another Canon 50mm f1.4 lens as I broke the first one in January in Istanbul, and this year I added the 28-135mm Canon zoom for a decent telephoto lens. But I like playing with prime lenses – I’m thinking about an 85mm, 100mm or 200mm!
• Backing up Data & External drives: This continues to be the most important part of my regime – backup! I am employing the 3,2,1 method – 3 copies of everything, 2 onsite, 1 offsite. For the onsite, Western Digital 250GB Passport and my Western Digital MyBook 750GB do fine for now, but probably this year I will upgrade to a 1 or 2TB. I’m also still using Mozy (a Pro account) to do a further backup online of my photos and other critical files, now from my Mac. Read more about How to Backup Files using Online and Offline Software on my tech blog.
• Computer: This year, to avoid the Microsoft XP-Vista-7 Bermuda triangle this summer, I bought a MacBook Pro. So far I’m enjoying it and using OpenOffice and GIMP instead of Office and Photoshop on my old laptop.

Fundraising, Donations, and Supporting Causes

This section has become even more important to me as this year I stepped up my giving efforts and put my money where my mouth is when it comes to supporting open source, services that I regularly benefit from and interesting causes.

• Working with causes, powered by Social Networks and Bloggers: we continued Ovarian Cancer for Awareness in October with a great turnout, I contributed two great bid items to Menu for Hope and gave David a hand with the Europe round-up – we raised more than $78,000! I also want to give a shout-out to the travel bloggers’ initiative Passports with Purpose which raised more than $26,000 – this year I just donated money but hopefully next year I can be more involved.
• Supporting other entrepreneurs via Kiva.org, which I had known about for quite some time, in July I bit the bullet and signed up to become a microloan lender. For now I’m concentrating on mainly female entrepreneurs. I know that I’m not donating directly to the individuals, but for now I still think it’s a worthwhile contribution that I can keep reinvesting.
• Supporting interesting projects and the arts at Kickstarter.com – it’s a community-powered lending site for projects that are proposed by individuals and teams who are then responsible for getting 100% of the funded amount (or nothing at all) by a deadline. Most projects revolve around the arts (music, photography, film, design) and new projects are being inserted often! The project owners offer special incentives to donors based on the level of donation in the form of handmade things, photos, updates, etc., tailored to the project. It’s the 21st century of patronage. Here’s my profile. (Anyone have an invite to start a Kickstarter project? Contact me…I have an idea!)

Open Source Software and Creative Commons

I continue to be a big advocate of open source software and I’m also making some strides to contribute more in terms of my own T&M (time and materials).

• CreativeCommons.net – I’ve contributed to CC and now I’ve also got a profile on the Creative Commons network that I will update as I release more works with Creative Commons licenses – so far I’ve listed my photos that are Creative Commons (easily found on Flickr) and the ebook I created this summer: “101 American Foods to Try in the USA” - if you don’t know what Creative Commons is, read my “Guide to Copyright and Creative Commons” on my tech blog, When I Have Time.
• Open Source Software I’m Using: not much has changed here – I’m still using WordPress for websites/blogs, Firefox web browser, FileZilla for FTP, VLC media player, Open Office docs and spreadsheets, PDFCreator, Synkron synchronization software, and 7 Zip zip files.
• Goodbye Photoshop: Last year I said goodbye to Microsoft Office, and this year I’ve left Adobe Photoshop and moved completely to GIMP for my photo editing, and recently I wrote a tutorial about 7 easy Photoshop Tricks you can do with GIMP for Free on my tech blog, When I Have Time.

Food, Cooking & Eating

This year, while I never stopped eating, I did decide not to keep up with the Joneses so much this year. I can’t be chasing the latest trend across the globe, stocking my pantry full of one-use ingredients, or making a ton of space in my tiny apartment for single plates, forks and endless napkins that I can’t use in normal life. When I moved apartments this year, and I had to choose between plates and memories as my meager belongings are still following me around the globe, it definitely struck me that I can’t become a food stylist with the shelf space I have available in the near future.

This year, I’m changing up my goals a bit. I’m trying to focus on a little more savory things and more “basics” – I got the book “Ratio” by Michael Ruhlman and I bought a few more cookbooks with some basics in them – I intend to do a little more offline reading this year for my cooking inspiration. Luckily I have a little space available to expand my cookbook collection (currently hovering under a dozen books!) as I made room for things during the move.

• New discoveries on the blog: camel milk chocolate, lokum from Istanbul, Turkey, the search for the perfect frosting recipe, Pocket Espresso to Go

First, let’s look back: How did I do on my “I Dare” cooking challenges for 2009? Again, not as well as I’d hoped.

1. Cake, cupcake, cookie decorating – I did make valiant advances in looking for the perfect frosting recipe, but my decorating set remained mainly untouched.
2. 12 Fresh Pastas – I continued to make fresh pasta like Fresh Spinach Reginette Pasta with Walnut Pesto and How to Make Fresh Homemade Spaghetti alle Vongole, Pasta with Clams but I didn’t get to 12 types, at least on the blog.
3. Alternative flours, grains and legumes - I continue to use alternative grains every day but I’m not blogging about it.
4. Playing with Flavored Liquor – I failed at this one.
5. Croissants – this one, too :(

I’m getting ready for World Nutella Day, in its 4th year, on February 5th, 2010!

Reading and eBooks

• Books (new) read in 2009: 79 (100% were ebooks). These are only new books for this year – I tend to re-read from my library as well. I also added a few paper cookbooks to the mix, too.
• Ebook Advocate: I have been digital for 4 years now – I wrote a Guide to Ebooks for Ebook Week on my tech blog, When I Have Time, for those that are new to ebooks or are interested in getting started!

Travel and Moving Around

• Cities lived in: 1 – Milan, Italy; but I changed apartments, yay!
• Countries visited: 4 – U.S., Dublin, Ireland; Paris, France, Istanbul, Turkey
• Years without a car: 6.5 but this streak has ended. We officially picked up a used car at the end of the year. I’ll continue taking public transportation every day to work.
• Carbon: According to Dopplr, a service I used to track my travels, for the first half of 2009 I totaled: 913 kg CO₂
• Moving around: I signed up for a gym after taking a break for a while, and started up with Nike+ sensor with my iPod Touch and I’m loving it.

What about you – do you have any interesting stats you track for your end of year?

Note: I have an Amazon affiliate store – many of the links in this post have an affiliate link to the Amazon site in case you are interested in buying that product. I will get a small percentage of the purchase price if you do (4-6%). Otherwise, plug the name of the product into Google and buy it somewhere else!

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Getting Banned by Google, and Upgrading WordPress
• 2009 Year in Pictures
• Adopt a Blogger: Finding New Sources of Traffic and Readers for Your Blog
• It’s Alive!
• FemCamp, Moo Notecards, Me in Italian Glamour

In January I had a bright spot in the otherwise dull Milan January when I visited Istanbul. I can’t wait to go back!

In February we celebrated the 3rd annual World Nutella Day with Hazelnut Macarons (get ready for the 4th Annual on February 5th, 2010!

In March, I tromped around my favorite neighborhood (and ex-living quarters) of Rome, Trastevere, at an ungodly hour and found it spectacularly empty. I launched my tech blog When I Have Time, too.

In April, I introduced you to one of my favorite treats, Pocket Coffee and later its summer cousin, Pocket Espresso to Go.

In May, I took a trip to Dublin, Ireland with my father and fell even more in love with Guinness when we visited the Guinness brewhouse.

In June, in a wedding mania month I introduced you to some of my favorite scenes from Italian weddings that I have photographed and attended a few more, too!

In July, I spent time in America for the BlogHer conference and at Travel Blog Exchange in Chicago, visiting friends and family, and I spent a lot of time putting together my recommendations of 101 American Foods to Try in the US series and its subsequent ebook.

In August, while Milan slept and its inhabitants were out of the city except for me, I sacrificed myself for you by tasting all sorts of interesting gelato flavors like habanero and cream of bell pepper.

In September, together with some wonderful friends we explored a hall of prosciutto and how Parma prosciutto is made.

In October, I spent some time in Naples with my close family and my distant family, too.

In November, I spent some quality time with good friends in Paris.

In December, I participated in the Menu for Hope and escaped Milan’s Winter Wonderland to spend time with my in-laws in very unusually/out-of-season hot Puglia.

How was your year?

Hat tip to Miss Expatria for the idea of reviewing the year in photos! I will be posting my detailed year in review next week.

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• NFPC: Hiking Capri
• Seeing Carnevale through the eyes of Children
• Announcing World Nutella Day 2009: February 5th
• Burnin’ and a lootin’ tonight…
• One year ago…