Friday, February 29, 2008
Stopping to watch the geese
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The multi-talented Jeff Hibbard - An example to emulate
here is a imaginary interview with Jeff Hibbard. Kindly note that there is not even a shred of truth in these answers and they are a figment of my imagination.
Q) Jeff why do you go around the beltway with a camera in your truck?
A: This is part of a grand plan that involves a multi-million dollar project. In future the traffic in the beltway will only worsen. I am now getting familiar with the mobile video blogging technology and the plan to montezie my technology is 2 fold :
- I will then sell my expertise to one of the Big 3 US auto firms and they will include the video blogging as part of the standard package and that will enable them to beat the Japanese car makers. The idea is that if you car breaks down or if you are in traffic you can be less streesed if you video Blog from your car.
- When this succeeds we will have a lot of cars with video cameras. Now we will lease the data they collect to the local radio and Tv stations so they instantly know of traffic conditions and can zoom to any of the car cameras at the spot.
Q) Is there any truth in the rumor that you are starting the first creative firm focusing on Online TV shows.
A:Yes, currently you will find us creating ads for Jonny's par-tay. Now Jonny is a talented guy. Once his show gets picked by the national network my ads will not be far behind. We will go from Jonnywood to Hollywood. Who knows where we can go next.
I told you this was imaginary but the truth is that every week for Jonny's par-tay Jeff creates an ad. They are very funny and are keepers. He works hard at his own business and then tries to engage in his passion - Social Media. I am really happy that he is my friend and it was great to meet him online and off line.
Blogged with Flock
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Ride-On Bus Route 37 is saved - Congrats to the Community & Roger Berliner
I got this email from the office of the Montgomery County Council member to whom i had written about saving Route 37.
I am delighted to announce that County Executive Leggett has revised his Ride-On Proposed 2008 Savings Plan, and he will no longer be canceling Bus Route 37 in Potomac. It will run at a reduced frequency of 30 minute intervals, effective May 5, 2008. For all the reasons that each of you communicated to me, I felt that it was very important that this route be retained, and I’m pleased that our County Executive heard our call and responded appropriately.
Roger Berliner
Eric Litman on Jonny's Par-tay
I was on last week on Jonny's Par-tay and I am thrilled that Jonny is having Eric Litman, the Managing Director of WashingtonVC, as the featured guest on the Par-tay on Wednesday Feb 27th. on JonnyGoldstein.com I got some free advice from Eric Litman when I met him a few weeks ago .
You should also check out the cool Google Map/Social Media Mashup that Jonny has on his site.
Monday, February 25, 2008
DC Area friends - Interested in being featured in the Washington Post
Read on:
Have you done your taxes and figured out that you owe the IRS money? Do you not have the cash available for it? Are you trying to figure out how to pay it? Or has this happened to you in the past and you were somehow able to find a way to pay it? If so, would you be willing to talk to a Washington Post reporter about it? Please call Nancy Trejos at 202-334-6731 or email her at trejosn [@ ]washpost(.)com if you are willing. (Must be a resident of D.C., Maryland or Virginia please.)
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Community Unites to Fight for Bus Route 37
In the Washington Post outlook Section today Adam Garfinkle wrote a article on "the No. 37 Bus Uprising" . I learnt from this article that in order to mobilize the community a new blog was started http://rideon37.blogspot.com/
;The gazeete newspaper also carried an article "Bus riders beg to save Ride On routes" written by by Audrey Dutton
I hope the county listens to the community.
Seneca creek in Gaithersburg
Cheers to nature
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Network Solutions Social media Swami on the Jonny's Par-tay
Part 1 ( I talk too much so they had to do it in 2 parts)
Part 2
credits :
Jonny Goldstein
Scott Stead
Special appearance Jill Foster
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Want to Star in a mobile phone chick flick?
The blog announcement at http://overheatedsymphony.blogspot.com/ says :
Calling all women everywhere. Join the Birds Eye View Film Festival in the hottest international interactive mobilephone filmmaking project... Be a part of the OVERHEATED SYMPHONY: an innovative cinematic symphony of women’s voices from around the world.
We invite you to participate in a groundbreaking film project, by making a quick flick, between 40 seconds and 4 minutes long, on your mobile phone, on the theme: OVERHEATED.
Details here http://overheatedsymphony.blogspot.com/2008/01/birds-eye-view-film-festival-overheated.html
I hope all my friends will enter and be the stars they truly are and have fun on the way .
Cubicle Pranks and Productivity
Friday, February 15, 2008
Tokyo has more Michelin Star restaurants than Paris
Washington Post story
Japanese Show What It Takes To Dazzle the Culinary Judges
160,000 Restaurants. 191 Michelin Stars. Paris? New York? No, It's Tokyo.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Blog Post from Acela on the way to New York
I am not a seasoned train traveler even though I love trains. I learnt my lesson a year ago when my 2 trips to New York by flight had resulted in a overnight stay due to canceled flights. In desperation I took Amtrak back to Washington DC. This trip I did not even attempt to book a flight.
I left my house at 4 a.m for the Union station. My train was at 6 a.m. Without traffic and a very clear George Washington Parkway I reached Union Station parking at 4.40 a.m. By the time I went down 3 levels it was 5 minutes. The ticket machine recognized my card and easily printed the tickets. Now people who know me know I am an adventurer but not a avid risk taker but still decided to see if I could catch the 5 a.m. I asked the smiling lady at the gate what it would take to catch the earlier train. She directed me to the ticket window. I was second in line and the gentleman said it wouldn't be a problem and that I had enough time to make it to the train. I paid the $21 dollars to change the reservation and boarded the train with at least 8 minutes to spare. They asked for my id there.
The first coach was First class. From the outside I could make out maybe 8 people there enjoying their juice. The next coach the conductor informed me was the "quiet coach" ( No cell phones and no loud talking) Nope that was not for me. I went to the next one and there it had about 6 people. The train left on time, didn't hear a announcement from inside the car. The conductor checked my ticket and made me sign the top left ( I did not get that. Why?) Then On the seat he put a card that indicated my destination ( Not sure this is a practice on any other railway).
As soon as the train got underway the conductor told us the cafe was open. I was hungry and was the first one there. The lady had a pleasant demeanor and gave me my egg and bagel and coffee. a few minutes after I had returned to my seat I saw her again as she brought me a fresh cup of coffee since as she said she had noticed after I left that my coffee had grounds in it. I am amazed that Amtrak has some great people - I am going to try and send an email about her great service.
I am on Twitter using my T-Mobile Dash as a Internet connection. The Dash is such a handy phone. Posting to a blog from a train is not new but this will be my first mobile post from a train. I am returning back this evening and hope to twitter and blog. On purpose I did not bring a book to read. Since its too early on the East Coast a lot of my US Twitter friends are still asleep I think.
Having passed Baltimore and Wilmington the train is still quite free. Oh! before I end this post I must tell you a year ago my co traveler was the CIO of Fannie Mae Rahul Merchant EVP and CIO of Fannie Mae. What a great guy ? it was the best 3 hours. He was very down to earth now that is probably another post.
We just left Wilmington Delaware. The ride is not smooth (No I am not blaming any typos on the ride !) . When I go to India next I want to check the trains again to see if they have become smoother. The middle tier/ business class was always quieter and smoother from what I can remember.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Get more Teenagers on the Road - Montgomery County to stop Bus route to School
As you may know, Montgomery County budget constraints are threatening some Ride On bus routes. One of the affected routes is #37, which has a stop at Tuckerman and Gainsborough. Route #37 runs between Grosvenor Metro stop and Potomac Community Center. This bus operates on Monday to Friday peak hours only (6:17am - 9:57am/ 3:49pm - 7:50pm). Churchill students who stay after school might rely on this bus for after-school transportation. Montgomery County hereby notifies the general public and other interested parties that a public forum will be held on Monday, February 11, 2008 starting at 6:30 p.m. and ending after the last speaker at the Council Office Building, Third Floor Hearing Room, located at 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, Maryland. In case of inclement weather, the date will be February 13, 2008. Contact our County Council member, Roger Berliner, and let him know that you are opposed to the discontinuation of Ride on Bus Route #37.
Send your comments to: Mr. Roger Berliner Montgomery County Council 100 Maryland Avenue Rockville, MD 20850 councilmember.berliner@mountgomerycountymd.gov
Comments may be written, faxed or e-mailed on the proposed service reductions to the Division of Transit Services by 5:00 p.m. on February 19, 2008.
Send your comments to: Carolyn G. Biggins, Chief Division of Transit Services 101 Monroe Street, 5th Floor Rockville, Maryland 20850 (240) 777-5800 (phone) (240) 777-5801 (fax) transit.dpwt@montgomerycountymd.gov
Won't this encourage more teen drivers on the road? If you agree please write to councilmember.berliner@mountgomerycountymd.gov asking him to make sure the bus route #37 is not affected.
LauraK - Raising Funds for Breast Cancer
I met LauraK on Twitter. She is always full of humor and we have had many great conversations. When I heard about her efforts to raise funds for cancer I asked her for details. She was kind enough to send me an email. I keep reading the email over and over again and to do justice to the emotions that flow while reading the story I have to reproduce it as is here. Laura Has given me permission. If you wish you can donate to her Cancer walk
2008 Arizona Breast Cancer 3-Day on behalf of Laura Prakel-George.When Fluffy was born, my aunt Doreen was pregnant with her youngest (a surprise for her as the others were 10 and 13 then). My youngest cousin is therefore two months younger than my own daughter. When the girls were still toddlers, Doreen was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a partial mastectomy shortly thereafter. When the girls were 10, Doreen was diagnosed with cancer again, both in her breasts and in her spine. Surgery and treatment were unsuccessful, and the cancer spread to her brain. There were more surgeries, even gamma-knife treatment, but nothing worked.
I suppose anyone losing someone they love and knowing that they're losing someone they love wants to do something.
I'm not a doctor. I'm not a biochemist. I'm not going to find a cure for cancer, or even a better treatment. I'm not a millionaire, so I can't donate my millions to the doctors and the biochemists who can find a cure. I can't pull women off the street and into clinics and give them mammograms so that those who do have breast cancer have a better chance of beating it. So for a while, I really felt helpless.
I'd seen the ads for the Breast Cancer 3-Day. It's a 60-mile, three-day walk (I think there were 11 locations then) with proceeds benefiting Susan G. Komen For The Cure. (www.the3day.org has a lot more information on that.) In 2005, with Doreen still battling, I decided to sign up. The minimum fundraising contribution that year was $2100. I'd never done anything to raise money beyond selling girl scout cookies when I was a kid, but I managed it, with help from co-workers and friends and family and even a collection jar in my daughter's 7th-grade classroom. My SO, Shane, signed up to walk with me and raised funds at his office and through his contacts, too. We started taking 12-15 mile walks on the weekends instead of 5-mile walks, and I started thinking about all those steps meaning more research and more mammograms and more outreach so that someone else wouldn't lose someone they loved, too.
We were definitely losing Doreen. 5 days before my first 3-day in 2005, my cell phone rang while I was on the last mile of a 15-mile walk alone. I didn't answer it. I just kept walking.
Doreen didn't want a funeral or a memorial service, so the weekend after she died, I was walking 60 miles with more than a thousand other people. I cried a lot the first day, especially when people asked who I was walking for and I was no longer supporting a survivor of breast cancer, but mourning a victim.
At the end of every 3-day in every location, there's a closing ceremony. Survivors among the walkers and crew and volunteers are honored in the center of the crowd, and the walkers each raise one well-worn shoe as the survivors take the stage. Every year, I get three days to think about the woman we all lost and the women who are still here and the little girls who still need mothers and aunts and grandmothers and teachers. Every year, I cry, but every year, it's different.
It took me 3 weeks to sign up for 2006 after the 2005 walk. I signed up for 2007 while I was still walking 2006. Shane hurt his knee and has turned into the best personal cheering squad and first-aid tent ever, even though I know he'd rather be walking with me. Arizona created special breast cancer vanity license plates in 2007, and my license plate now has a pink ribbon and the letters "3DYWKR". I'm still shy about fundraising, but somehow, everyone chips in and we cleared $3300 in 2007.
Last year, Fluffy made me a bracelet of pink ribbon charms, each with the name of someone my supporters were missing or pulling for. It's heavy. It shouldn't be that heavy. It shouldn't have to be that heavy.
I can't find a cure for cancer. I can't fund a hospital wing. I can't start a whole foundation and run it by myself. But I can do this. I can walk 60 miles every year. That's it - 60 miles and some blisters and $3000 gets raised for breast cancer research and outreach and prevention. How easy is that? (Okay, maybe not so easy, but not so hard, either, when you have a reason and two good feet.) This year, I'm walking 120 miles. I'd already decided to walk in Phoenix in November and then they added a walk in Washington, D.C., where Susan Reynolds lives, and Steph said she'd walk if Gloria and I walked, and somehow I'm walking D.C. in October. I can't wait to to take the first step.
I said once that I'd walk the Breast Cancer 3-day three times, once for each of my aunt Doreen's three daughters. 2007 was my third, and I thought that maybe I'd stop there, but there are dozens of names on pink ribbons on a charm bracelet, and thousands more that should never make it to a pink ribbon, and I guess this is just what I do now. It's what I can do, so I can't not do it.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Super Tuesday Meetup at Mayorga Lounge DC
More pictures and reports on the way.
