What If?

What if my birthday were on February 29^th? I could claim to be three quarters younger than I actually am. That in itself is a very scary idea; imagine having to go THERE again. And if you wonder what “there” is, divide your age into four and remember how that felt. 

Most likely that was a time when you hated your parents, actually all grownups pretty much. You couldn’t WAIT to be grown up and make your OWN decisions and not follow those STUPID rules. Needless to say, taxes, rent, college tuition (your own or your kids), and (talking of which) kids, spouses, pets, errands, leaky pipes, bosses, deadlines and the whole lot seemed so lovely (if you knew of them at all) and certainly better than the BS you were dealing with right then: OK, I’ll turn the music down – say what? I can’t year you – speak up.

In reality of course, I’d still be mpf-old, but I would have only had mpf divided into four birthdays. That would SUCK. I love birthdays – if you have ever have been fortunate enough to be invited to one of my birthday parties you’ll know what I’m talking about. 

Here in New York we often go out to a restaurant to celebrate a birthday and the bill gets split up such that the “birthdayee” is invited.  I tried that a few times myself, but always felt bad for my less economically fit friends. 

And I must confess that once or twice I bailed on a friend’s birthday because I knew there would be some big spenders and it was an expensive restaurant. I have not taste for paying for someone else’s three cocktails, entrecote, desert and port wine – although I pull my weight in the wine category.  I find it awkward at best. 

So, I celebrate my birthday the Swiss way. I invite my friends to my house. I bake my own cake, buy the booze, prepare all the food and in general go pretty much nuts to have a great party for my friends. Not me, because after all I want everything to be perfect.  So really, it’s not a birthday party as much as it is my annual thank you to friends for being just that.  It just happens to be around my birthday.  The cake baking is up for grabs by the way… hint.

In Switzerland kids bring a cake to class on the day of their birthday to share with the others.  I think it makes an awful lot of sense, because the kids (their mom most likely) are not going to forget their birthday and so with a cake each time there’s a birthday is guaranteed – unless you’re one of the super unlucky ones to have a birthday during vacation time.  And that’s worse than having a birthday only every four years!

The Importance of Local

As I am sloshing through “Within the Context of no Context” by Georges Trow I find myself torn between total awe for his insights and alienation for his fragmented writing style and the realization that it is the style that makes the reading so thought provoking and painful but also beautiful.  I’m a fast reader and this is a slim volume, but this book is one paragraph, often just one sentence, at a time reading. I’ve been digesting “Within the Context of no Context”, morsel by morsel for well over a year. 

Today I came across ChrisBrogan’s latest blog entry about how “local” will become more and more important, and I immediately had to think of “Within the Context of no Context”.  It made me realize just how much more we feel disconnected the bigger our virtual reach becomes and that a need for immediate connectedness and belonging to a smaller subset that is ‘manageable’ might not be filled in the physical world, especially where business is concerned. 

Trow talks about those opposing forces as quadrants. The quadrant of man alone and the quadrant of all (in this case all Americans). Trow writes about the loneliness of man in terms of one person looking for a connectedness in a one-way relationship with the TV (Trow’s essay was originally published in the New Yorker and as a book in 1981) and how we personalize and ‘make our own’ the stars and TV personalities we watch every day in an effort to shrink the distance between our quadrant of physical living and experiencing and the quadrant of the rest of America. Trow might as well have been talking about the internet 2.0. 

I would that that a step further and say, that the larger our network becomes the more we become a group of one in the physical world.  In an effort to manage our growing reach, we create an “us”, which in our own eyes encompasses “all”, but really only means an “us”; a group who’s sentiments, or geography, or political views we share. Everything beyond “us” is foreign and out of our reach, sic understanding. This, also a powerful explanation for any ‘club-yness’ to the exclusion of ‘the other’ (another favorite topic of mine). 

The internet has made the stakes higher and the distance between man and the ‘rest of the world’ more distant. Trow’s quadrants have moved even further apart.  Any business who understands to fill the void between the quadrants has a lottery ticket in hand.  

If a business can reach out and have a meaningful two-way interaction with its customers on a global, virtual, all-connected platform, AND can give them their local 'heroes’ on the ground (as Chris Brogan calls them) – it will have a very powerful brand and a very strong relationship with its customers and consumers indeed.

Deal With It!

I like the sentiment of non-kvetching*. Although, we all do it we should all do less of it. I believe we are where we are in live because of the choices we have made, and yes, some bad and some good luck too. We are products of or environment in as much as we let "it" rule us. It's very strenuous to always do it 'your way' and wanting your life to be focused and full filled but darn, is it worth it!

* for non-New Yorkers: kvetching is a Yiddish word that would roughly translate into 'lamenting' or 'complaining', it has a heavy note to it and I love it because in German you "quetsch" a lemon to extract it's juice, or someone “quetsch” through at tight spot, or you "quetsch" your car into a tight space; it means to squeeze. I just love the sound of it.

My Point Exactly (pun intended)!
I ordered it.

Body Language and the Greek

I'm no expert on body language, neither am I on the work of the International Monetary Fund, nor do I have any in depth understanding on what makes the world go round in the finance world, but I do understand loud and clear what Madame Lagarde is saying to Mr. Venizelos. I just wonder what he said (or didn't) to prompt the clenched jaw and those fists (uikes).

Evangelos Venizelos and the
International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde
source unknown

Test blog from my iPad

Yours truly in Switzerland where there actually was snow and winterly temperatures.

My iPad

I gifted myself an iPad for Christmas (or Hanumaswanza as it’s called in my house – pronounced on the “mas”).  I bought it and ran off into the sunset, i.e. travelled abroad.  I use it daily for my New York Times, New Yorker and a Swiss publication (NZZ am Sonntag) and I love using Facetime with my sister and nephew. I know how to turn it on and off.  I thought that was about it; until now.  

It’s so simple, it has one button – how complicated can it get? I can, of course. I can hit the button twice in rapid succession and see that after two months of use I have EVERY application open – no wonder I’m charging like a champion.   

I can move icons, but only if THEY want to! I hate being at the mercy of “0”’s and “1”’s.  After my friend Susanne (www.smuellernyc.blogspot.com) showed me how to get an app icon from one page to another (patience is needed and there I’m lacking) it is now time to sort the apps. After all I’m Swiss and things need to have their order (being a producer and a Taurus doesn’t help either in the ‘need order’ category).  I successfully got my social apps in one line – how pretty – they are all blue, how quaint. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Skype all lined up like little soldiers.  Now on the media icons:

For the past 20 minutes I have (so far) unsuccessfully tried to get my Swiss newspaper icon to join the New York Times in the Newsstand, but as with our current banking regulations (see FATCA) the Swiss and the Americans aren’t playing nice.  The Newsstand keeps avoiding the NZZ newspaper icon – which is actually quite funny – until it isn’t and then it’s VERY annoying.  Again: at the mercy for zeros and ones.  In desperation I add the NZZ into a new ‘cluster’ I call “Reading”, but I must tell you – it tugs at me that the Newsstand won’t accept anything but the NYTimes and the New Yorker – very un-PC and not what I’d expect from an American product (even if manufactured in China).

My favorite app(s)?  I love doodling on the Drawing Pad, watching Netflix movies in my lap, playing around with Sun Scout and showing off my presentations on the Prezi Viewer.  And I do think that the New York Times interface is brilliantly done. 

Now I look forward to my “Intro to the iPad 2” class at the Apple store on Friday – maybe I’ll be a bit less at the mercy for zeros and ones afterwards.

What are your favorite apps and how do you organize yourself?