This year’s Blog Action Day topic is water, and I find it hard to ignore.

Water is the first thing I drink in the morning and the last thing I drink at night.

At my house we gave up bottled water about two years ago, and I’m very pleased about all the plastic we’ve saved. We’re lucky where I live to have clean water from the tap, and we have a large filter tank in the refrigerator.

This year however, I spent a lot of time and attention watching the water in the Gulf of Mexico, wondering if it would ever be clean again. I still worry about the sealife there, and the wildlife in the marshlands on the perimeter of the Gulf. The ocean covers approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface. We need to show some respect.

Sadly, the old adage is still true for many – ocean, ocean, everywhere and not a drop to drink.

In developing countries, drinkable water is hard towards impossible to find, and developed nations are doing the same thing to their natural resources.

Polluted rivers and streams are undrinkable and produce contaminated food sources, as well as polluted river deltas and fishing areas in the ocean at the end of the rivers. Hey guess what, we’re talking about the United States, too! How can this happen? It’s as simple as pesticides and other untreated nastiness draining off of large hog farms into the Mississippi River. Read more: 11 Facts about Pollution

Want to do something? I’ve added a link on this page to the UN Petition for Blog Action Day 2010. Join us! And thanks for reading.

I took part in the third annual Women Who Tech Telesummit yesterday. (Thanks to winning a free pass, thanks Allyson!) I must confess I was multitasking, but nevertheless, I got a lot out of this day-long web conference. I’m looking forward to listening to the recorded sessions that I wasn’t able to attend, and already looking forward to next year!

Topics ranged from diversity to self promotion to social media ROI to launching your own business. We talked about building the ultimate user experience and discussed how to get more women in leadership roles in the tech industry.

My quick little brain-dump of my top ten takeaways from the day:

1. You get the best ideas when you are listening, not speaking.
2. Women tend to be perfectionists about their expertise. Allow yourself some room to fail.
3. Interested in doing public speaking? Practice. In your car, in your shower, on video or audio recordings, to gain confidence.
4. Foursquare is a public relations tool. It’s free, so use it. Manage your organization’s presence there.
5. Google Analytics: also free, so use it. Even if you’re just getting data on your Facebook or Linked In pages.
6. User Experience is every department’s responsibility.
7. To attain the Ultimate User Experience, you need to watch/listen how your customer is engaging with your products.
8. Risk is an abstract element. If you’re afraid of taking a step, ask yourself, “What happens if I fail?” and really answer the question.
9. I need to find the source of this mash-up: it’s not “Rocket Surgery” – I just love that!
10. All-girl events are fun/empowering.

If you have some others, including links you might want to share, please add them in the comments! For more great nuggets, look for the hashtag #WWT on Twitter, follow @WomenWhoTech, and be on the lookout for next year’s conference.

Hopping on the Meatless Monday bandwagon? Or going even further? Here are some great places where you can get your grub on without slicing into a bit of meat. You’ll still leave with a full belly!

1. Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant — This is my all-time favorite vegetarian place. They also provide vegan meals. The flavors tend towards Asian favorites. You’ll find sweet & sour, General Tso, won-ton soup, and even a sort of sushi, all 100% vegetarian. In addition, there are many more creative vegetarian creations that I encourage you to try. The Seven Corners location is newer and more formal than the original location in Vienna, which is a bit cozier. But they are both equally tasty!
2. Java Green — When in downtown D.C., this is the best vegetarian sandwich available for miles. Their barbeque sauce is unbelievably tasty. It’s a small shop, but when the weather is nice, they have some nice outdoor seating available too. I very much recommend this for the doubting Thomas that doesn’t believe meatless can be filling.
3. Amma Vegetarian — There is a location in Vienna (the Georgetown location sadly closed recently) with carry-out available. It provides very tasty southern Indian cooking, all vegetarian and VERY spicy. If you like it hot, stop by and give this a whirl. Yum!

If you’ve got some other ideas, please share in the comments!

I just wrapped up my first year as a volunteer with GirlsRock! DC, and what an experience!

About 70 campers from all over the District, Maryland and Virginia put on an unforgettable showcase on Saturday morning at the 9:30 Club. As a girl, I had recitals for flute, violin and voice. I performed in plays and musicals. But nothing I ever did before college was like this.

These girls were so confident on stage, all performing original songs or DJ sets. It was really overwhelming, especially after spending two days with them earlier in the week as a workshop teacher. I’d seen them just learning to get along, just meeting each other, and here are all these great cohesive bands up on stage looking just as good as any college band. (Sometimes better…)

If you didn’t get the chance to attend the show on Saturday, I encourage you to click around the GirlsRock! DC website. See what they’ve done and check out some of the stories that have been written on them. (Donations would be appreciated, I might add!) This is really a super opportunity for families that rock to take in together, and for girls 8-18 to take part in.

For older girls like me, I encourage you to follow my lead and volunteer some time. It is all kinds of inspirational and FUN!

If you have been wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately, it’s because I found this great volunteer organization to donate some time to.

On August 14th at 11:00am, more than 70 Washington area girls will take to the stage at the 9:30 Club, just as many legendary rock stars have done before them. Girls Rock! DC (GR!DC), a volunteer-run, non-profit organization, is launching its third annual, week long rock camp for girls ages 8-18.

During the week of August 9th – 13th, a volunteer staff of female educators, musicians and community organizers provide campers instruction on electric guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals and turntables. The campers form bands and are coached by counselors to write, collaborate and perform original songs and DJ sets before a live audience at the 9:30 Club.

The aim of Girls Rock! DC is to create a supportive, inclusive and creative space for girls to build community, stand up and rock out! With a base in music education, the camp will focus on building girls’ self-confidence, leadership and cooperation skills.

Campers also attend workshops on team building, performance and body confidence, songwriting and other skills young women need to take over the world of rock. I’m on the media literacy team. Whee!

I encourage you to join us (bring your kids!) at the showcase on Saturday to see these girls rock out. I can’t wait!

The girls will showcase their original works at Washington’s 9:30 Club on Saturday, August 14th at 11:00 am.
The showcase is open to the public.
Tickets are $10 at the door.
Free admission for youth 12 and under.
More information is available at the Girls Rock! DC website: www.girlsrockdc.org.

Girls Rock! DC is part of a national Girls Rock Camp Alliance. There are Girls Rock camps all over the world.

UPDATE: We got some coverage from NPR’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show (check out the video)

After months of fundraising, today I crossed the finish line at the National Walk for Epilepsy with my biggest supporter, my husband. It felt great to have worked for this cause that affects me every day, and to be part of this effort to raise awareness for this condition.

There were so many thousands of people there this morning, families and friends supporting each other. It was empowering. There were also NFL athletes and local and national celebrities there to help draw attention to our cause. Of course that means we grabbed some autographs and pictures, you know me!

The money we raised will go to fight stigma, raise awareness and find a cure for epilepsy. My hope is that this Walk will help bring more families closer to seizure-free lives, and help people better understand what epilepsy is all about. This year’s theme is Talk About It. There is a great new website at TalkAboutIt.org to explain epilepsy to the world. I hope you’ll check it out!

ALSO SEE: Why I’m walking for epilepsy

I’m looking forward to embarking on a new adventure as a corporate tweeter. As such, I’ve taken a good deal of time accumulating best practices for corporate accounts. Many of these are the same as I would recommend for anyone operating a business Twitter account for themselves:

1. Have a mission/message in mind before you post your first tweet.
2. Your message should also consider your target audience.
3. Twitter directories are a good way to gain some followers initially, but there is no get followers quick solution.
4. Be selective in following. There is no need to follow everyone who follows you.
5. Be careful of your language. This is even more important for corporations than for individuals.
6. Your posts are 100% public. Remember that bad news travels faster than good news and anything your shareholders wouldn’t like will travel out of the Twitterverse and onto TV screens and into newspapers.
7. Corporations need to select a voice. It’s best if one person, or a couple of people, man the account, for consistency, and to be sure there’s no redundancy. Most corporations invoke the royal ‘we.’  Other more customer-service oriented Twitter accounts have used an individual speaking from the first person.
8. A regular stream of content is important to any Twitter feed to maintain followers. Appropriate corporate topics include:

• • respond to follower/customer inquiries
  • retweet satisfied customer tweets
  • link to updated/interesting information on corporate websites/blogs
  • retweet updates from affiliated Twitter accounts
  • Twitter contests
  • advance notice of corporate news
  • Twitter discount codes
  • stimulate Twitter discussions with product-related questions
  • product-related trivia
  • run online surveys
  • photos of corporate events

Have some other ideas? Please share in the comments!

Bird art by Triax Mills.