Steff Deschenes celebrating National Drink Wine Day on February 18.

What do you get when you mix a vegan author with photography, one year, and a passion for food and food-related national holidays? Steff Deschenes and her sizzling blog, Almanac of Eats.

The idea for her website began with a just-for-fun competition with her boyfriend, a “365 Project” consisting of taking a picture of yourself every day for one year. She stuck with it for two years, taking pictures of herself at the dinner table every night, and this project catapulted Deschenes into an even bigger project. This year, she’s celebrating every national food holiday and writing about it on her blog.

“For me, it’s cool because I literally came up with this 48 hours before the New Year,” says Deschenes, author of the award-winning book “The Ice Cream Theory.”

The idea came to her when she read a tweet that said, “Happy National Enchilada Day.” She started doing research and found websites with information on food holidays. “I cross-referenced 10 to 15 different websites to compile my own food calendar,” says Deschenes.

But there’s a twist: Deschenes is a vegan, so she has to be super creative in order to celebrate each holiday animal-free. So, she began “veganizing” recepies. “For National Noodle Day I’m taking my mom’s recipe and ‘veganizing’ it,” she says. “If I don’t have a recipe, I research and think about how to make something and then make it from scratch.”

As a vegan, Deschenes says that she is more in tune with the food she eats and pays more attention to food in general. On her blog, she shares her own “veganized” recipes for each holiday as well as restaurant and product reviews.

“My overall goal is to have this site that is really fun and informative with a secret side dish of a healthy diet,” says Deschenes.

Her passion and her vibrant personality are summed up by three very telling words in her website bio: “author. foodie. smexy.” “Smexy” is a phrase Deschenes coined that combines smart and sexy. “Smart is sexy,” says Deschenes. “You don’t have to be a size zero.”

Within just two months of starting Almanac of Eats, she’s received restaurant review offers and sponsorships with major companies. “A bunch of companies send me food,” she says. “Barilla pasta sent me extra products to give away.” Some of her other sponsors have been Sophie’s Kitchen, Vermont Soy and Kettle Brand peanut butter.

When it comes to restaurant reviews, she says, “I am very harsh if they aren’t good; I don’t sugarcoat it.”

Despite the fact that Deschenes has found her passion in food, she was not always excited about cooking. In fact, she took a semester of culinary school and is not afraid to say that she hated it. The school did not encourage creativity, she says, which is something she thrives on.

“In my early twenties I refused to date a boy who couldn’t cook,” she says. “My claim to fame was that I made the best sandwiches. But as a vegan you can’t depend on anyone else if you want to eat well.”

Steff Deschenes celebrating National Cereal Day, March 7.

Deschenes’ creativity is obvious when reading her blog and her recipes. She likes to approach each holiday differently and play around with different ideas. On National Chocolate Soufflé Day, for example, she decided to take chocolate-flavored alcohol shots and make them taste like delectable chocolate soufflés.

Kicking it up another notch, Deschenes adds a dash of music for each holiday.  The next time you participate in National Blueberry Popover Day, crank up “I’m Good, I’m Gone” by Lykke Li or some coleslaw makin’ music with Florence and the Machine’s “No Light, No Light” for National Cold Cut Day.

“Entertainment is ideal,” she says. “I think it’s really cool when people celebrate with their kids, too.”  One mother told her that she saw it was National Cereal Day on Almanac of Eats and she celebrated it with her kids.

Sometimes the ideas and recipes she thinks up don’t always pan out, but she is not afraid to showcase what she came up with. National Almond Day’s recipe did not go as planned, so she decided to turn it into the Awesome Awful Almonds recipe, writing the disclaimer, “(I’M SO SORRY, ALMONDS. PLEASE DON’T HATE ME FOR WHAT I DID TO YOUR FRIENDS!) Oh well: you win some and you lose some, I guess.”

No matter how she approaches each food holiday, she sees even more success in her near future. “I think this blog will be successful because this isn’t my first rodeo with taking pictures and eating; I did it for two years,” she says. “Basically, if this was fantasy football, people would want me on their team.”

She does secretly hope that this could turn into another book, the content of which will, of course, be anything but dry.

“Am I the first person to talk about national food days? No,” she says. “Am I the first person to eat them all? Maybe not. Am I the first person to eat them all animal-free? Yes.”

Whether you are an aspiring vegan, someone looking for easy, healthy recipes or if you just have a passion for national food holidays, check out Deschenes’ entertaining twist on being a foodie in today’s world as she “eats the year” with her Almanac of Eats.

Patrick Maguire, author of the award-winning blog "I'm Your Server Not Your Servant."

The other day, a customer of a South End restaurant demanded a gift certificate when he forgot his doggie bag of leftovers. This is the type of behavior that drives Patrick Maguire, author of the popular blog “I’m Your Server Not Your Servant,” insane. Maguire, who has worked too many service jobs to count, from bartender to landscaper to cemetery worker, was named the author of Boston’s Best Blog in Boston Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards last month.

He is currently working on a book — you can read it in progress on his blog — about the bullshit endured by service workers thanks to holier-than-thou customers who believe in the sacred “customer is always right” mentality. Maguire could have easily written a memoir about his various experiences, giving us perspective into a well-seasoned worker’s gripes, but instead he chose to create something to unite all service workers in expressing what they have gone through, with the goal of making us all aware that they are our servers, not our servants.

BLAST: You’ve had lots of service jobs. Which one was the most difficult?

PATRICK MAGUIRE: I loved bartending, but it was definitely one of the most difficult jobs I’ve had. Dealing with douchebags was a common occurrence, especially after they’ve had a few beverages. Customers have almost as much to do with the success of the customer-server human interaction as the server does, but unfortunately, a lot of people are clueless when it comes to common courtesy and mutual respect. I put a list together of 64 Suggestions for Bar Customers. A lot of people need to read it.

BLAST: What service job do you think — perhaps from your own experience or from your research — is the most under-appreciated?

PM: Support positions, such as prep cook, dish washer, nursing assistant, secretary, paralegal, food runner, busser, and bar-back, to name a few. They are the unsung heroes, and are subject to some of the harshest behavior that human beings are capable of. A lot of customers treat support personnel in a condescending, elitist fashion because they think that workers are “beneath” them. It’s appalling.

BLAST: Tell us about a horrible experience you’ve had with a customer, one that really sticks out in your mind. How did you handle it? How should horrible situations be handled?

PM: Most of the horrible experiences I’ve had of late are with fellow customers in the supermarket, sandwich shop, at Fenway, restaurants, the doctor’s office, the library, the T, in fact, everywhere human beings share public space. You pick and choose your battles, but I’ve become more vigilant about pushing back and speaking up. We need to look out for each other and not tolerate abuse when we hear it or see it. I have a chapter in my book called, Confront Without Being Confrontational that will offer suggestions on pushing back and raising awareness.

BLAST: In your introduction, you say, “The 5 percent factor is steadily growing, and…civility and common decency are declining.” Why do you think that is?

PM: The 5 percent factor that I referred to was my perception of the number of impossible customers who are also miserable, awful people with their families, co-workers and everyone they encounter.

I was in a diner a few weeks ago and I watched and listened to a waitress offer a woman a coffee refill. The woman clearly heard her but said nothing. The waitress responded with, “Okay, the silent treatment.” When the customer was out of earshot, I said, “What’s up with her?” The waitress replied, “Some people struggle with kindness. At least I don’t have to go home with them.” Touché. I always wonder what it’s like living and working with those bastards.

There are several reasons for the decline of civility and common decency: poor parenting, lack of role models, poor education, narcissism, entitlement, lack of awareness, and ignorance, to name a few. We also live in an instant gratification society where we expect everything now.

BLAST: Do you think that customers feel they have a sense of power over their servers? Is there a disconnect for customers, where they don’t see the server as a person?

PM: Some customers do have a sense of power over their servers. Many of them are making up for their own lack of self-esteem. They have an “I pay you; I own you” mentality, and love to degrade and torture workers and fellow human beings. It’s a very twisted, sick mindset and existence.

A lot of customers forget or don’t care that they are dealing with fellow human beings. Their lack of empathy and awareness is frightening.

BLAST: What do you hope readers get out of your blog and your future book? Why did you feel compelled to write it?

PM: I was driven to write the book because I was sick and tired of witnessing the abuse of service industry workers from a growing population of arrogant, entitled, demeaning customers. It’s very disturbing to witness what a lot of people think is okay. I had to speak up and do something about it. Everyone wants to point the finger at bad customer service, and no one is advocating for workers and shining the spotlight on bad customers. The book will be a voice for service industry workers who can’t say what they would like to for fear of retribution.

In addition to advocating for servers, the heart and soul of the book will be in the chapter, “Human-to-Human Service.” As I immersed myself in writing the book, I soon realized that beyond the customer-server relationship, my mission is really to promote civility, common courtesy and compassion in all walks of life. That explains the book’s subtitle, “A Case for Human-to-Human Service and Civility,” which is about co-existing, communicating with and responding to fellow human beings. I want to engage readers in a dialogue and raise awareness about mutual respect and common courtesy.

Capcom, maker of such “Vs.” games as Marvel vs. Capcom and the upcoming Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, want your suggestions for what the next project should be.

We don’t know if they’re serious or not, but either way, we’re having fun thinking about it.

The winner of the contest, chosen by Capcom, will get “precisely 12% of the swag in Seth’s “random Capcom swag.”

Any ideas? Marc thought up RARE vs. Capcom and I imagined Guitar Hero: Metallica vs. Capcom, with Lars Ulrich slicing necks open with his drumsticks. But what about you?

Capcom vs (insert name here) @ Unity Blog

Moments after the American public learned that South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson was the one that pointed a finger at the president and called him a liar on national television, the digital race was on to see who would flame Wilson the most, and how big the fire would spread.

The digital world came alive, and Wilson was quickly one of the most “trended topics” on Twitter.

Then Wilson’s website, http://www.joewilson.house.gov/ went down with a placeholder page that said: “This site is down for maintenance. Please check back soon.”

Then he became one of the most Googled terms of the day.

Some people even fired back. According to CNN, some new Twitter accounts were created, with their first and only Tweets being in support of Wilson.

But even other members of Congress went public and digital with their condemnation of Wilson: “Biggest disappointment of evening, the total lack of respect show by one member for the president,” Tweeted Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. “Never acceptable to behave like a jerk.”

According to CNN, South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler capitalized: “Once again a South Carolina Republican has embarrassed our state,” Fowler’s office said, referring to S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford’s extramarital, international affair. “Never has any member of Congress shown such disrespect for the president during a speech. … Joe Wilson is a poor example of a statesman and an American.”

Wilson currently faces Democratic challenger Rob Miller in the mid-term election in 2010.

If you haven’t checked out one of Blast’s new friend blogs, The Musing Bouche, you’re missing out!

Blast author John M. Guilfoil (left) enjoys Fish Tuesday.

The Boston-based food blog is a newcomer, and it mixes restaurant experiences with New England home cooking.

Blast got to enjoy exactly what Tania and Nicole deLuzuriaga means by home cooking by attending a special Musing Bouche event called “Fish Tuesday,” where an unbelievably assortment of fresh codfish, (filleted from the WHOLE fish) corn pudding, tomato and avocado bread salad and more. They fed 11 people to the brim.

The blog is great, the food was amazing and you need to see what all the buzz is about.

The Twitter-verse is getting more and more crowded with sites that want in on a piece of the buzz. For example, there are six URL shorteners supported by TweetDeck alone “" this and URL shorteners are still of arguably questionable value. Who knows how many Twitter clients are available on the App Store. Likewise, we count four services that will tweet a link to a picture. Well, now there’s one more “" but this one’s a heavyweight.

Where to click to tweet an image from Flickr.

Flickr is the Internet’s single biggest photo destination. More users upload, comment on, and download pictures from Flickr than anywhere else. It would make sense that many these highly connected, technologically forward thinking individuals would love to tweet their photos. But until now, their Twitter and Flickr photo services were worlds apart.

Last night, Flickr flicked the switch on their own photo tweeting service, Flic.kr. Now users can click “blog this” anywhere on Flickr, type in their tweet “" keeping it under 114 characters so the picture URL fits “" and Flickr will post to Twitter for them, complete with its own special Flic.kr shortened URL, like this one on our Twitter. (By the way, you are following us, right? Good.)

Our first Flic.kr pic.

Likewise, mobile users can email the photo to their own special email address, putting their tweet in the subject line of the email. Flickr, long the king of publishing APIs, has also published one for this service, meaning it’s very likely you could see Flic.kr integration in all of your third-party Twitter applications.

Of course, if you’re still scratching your head and thinking “what’s the point of Twitter anyway?” this is likely of little value to you and you probably already stopped reading. But for those still with us, Twitter could see a second Oprah-like rush of users join from Flickr, which is only a good thing for everyone else using these services.

Blast and its many blogs employ several services to try to make money out of all this mess.

One of those is Newstex for syndication.

While we can’t discuss how much we make (hint: we’re not buying boats with shorties and T-Pain and SNL cast members) Newstex is a piece of our puzzle, and some kind of syndication should be in yours too. They even get us on Amazon Kindle.

They recently released an ebook about syndication. Here it is. Enjoy.

We at Blast do our best to bring you, the faithful reader, both prolific and readable news stories, reviews, previews, and analysis of the industry, but today we’re pleased to introduce “Chibi Gamer,” our take on the lighter side of the heavy news stories that we run each day. Chibi Gamer is your one-stop hot spot for all things personal and less serious in respect to our and your favorite hobby: video games!

So far we’ve run pieces detailing the hottest nerd icons, and licensed games that don’t suck, but we won’t stop there and your input, in comments, will drive the direction we take in the future. So tell us exactly what you want to see, and your dream will become a manifested reality!

To access Chibi Gamer, hover your mouse over the “Blast Blogs” tab on the Blast front page and scroll all the way to the bottom to reach Chibi Gamer.

Chibi Gamer