WTF??!!

When did Ian leave? And why hasn't he/you blogged about it...that's exactly the type of event God created blogging for...jeeze! Um so can I have his job?! Sid, can't you score me a marketplace planning position at Avenue A in Austin? Do it, I already have a house to move into...NOW.

So I said my interactions at the conference were interesting but I cannot say they were exciting...the whole thing was a lame, boring, and weird mess. I couldn't escape the bar from some old dude from Verizon who insisted on detailing his days back in 89 when he was an engineer on the east coast. You guys, it was really bad. The only satisfaction I got was skyping with Lauren about my deranged conversations and run ins with seriously odd (but not in an intriguing way) people.

So gimme the dirt on you guys (you too Ian, dammit)...anything outside of work that's exciting???

All I got for y'all is that I've been doing focus groups for a new product we just launched. One of the guys in one of the groups said I remind him of the "crazy drunk rich fag-hag" on Will & Grace. I take this fine dreadlocked fellow's portrayal of me as THE Karen Walker as a compliment. That's the most exciting happened to me this week and it happened just a few hours ago. The end.

Leaving, chocolate, bunnies

I hope that leaving avenue a Razorfish does not mean Ian will stop blogging!

Random links:
To make Tracy's mouth water - Vosges chocolates - we're very intrigued by the Mirabelle Orange - mirabelle plums, orange flower water, dark chocolate, nasturtium petal...yum!

Amusement in 30 seconds - Angry Alien productions - your favorite films re-enacted in 30 seconds or less, by cartoon bunnies

all i am doing

is nothing super like you guys. Just hanging out. Played tennis all weekend. And you know what..Mr Ian Watts is quitting. booooooooooh...i will miss him...its making me sick.

How are you all? It seems so long ago..so what "interesting interactions" did you have Tracy?

Goody goody

Last Friday, I went to a lecture on a new model of leadership. Pretty common sense stuff - but also stuff that just doesn't happen in large companies and I think people need to come back to.
The fundamentals:
Leadership is different from management. It's about vision, getting others to commit, anticipating breakdowns, and managing them.

As Jensen (the speaker) spoke of "breakdowns as an opportunity to breakthrough" and his colleague who said "oh, goody, we're having a breakdown" - I thought back to Jeremy's presentation from the conference. Expect some of your innovations to fail. Without failure you become the best typewriter company in the world.....

And I'm all wrapped up in Heroes! I've been checking out the "360 experience", the convergence system of stuff they have on their site - it's pretty cool. Check out this site - not only is it fun to get involved in the speculations and theorizing, but it's fascinating to see the layers they've built around this....

Ummm hellooooo....

What is up people? Where have you all gone? Has Number 1 Gang fallen to shambles? If so I'm not only disappointed but I am here with the glue.

I'll have you know I attended another conference earlier this week and I was reminded of how special Number 1 Gang is special is. I made not even one friend...I had a few interesting interactions (to say the least) but the conference itself and social exchange overall was nothing more than a cheep imitation of what we experienced in Huntington Beach, people! Or at least this is what I thought...and now I am left to wonder...

Some one write something in response or I might throw a complete fit! Get the toilet tag pumping...NOW.

Links

here are a couple of cool things I came across recently:

Second Life's impact on customer service

The anti-MySpace site Kevin Roberts mentioned. Quick poking around looks like it could be cool. Will have to login and explore more.

Saw this on Frontline last night - a microlending organization. What a cool concept!

Still typing - I'm up to about 1/2 way through Kevin Roberts. I'll send my file around once I finish....

Presentation huddle co co continued

Oh hello you guys! So let's get on this thing. Not sure even where to start. I typed up all my notes last weekend but that's as far as I've progressed. I need to get the presentations too. Do we just email the speaker or what? I'm going to need help understanding more about this labels phenom. I get the gist of it but I need some rules of engagement before I jump on the bandwagon. Word...

off the radar & smith corona

Hey - sorry I missed any collaboration over the weekend - I sometimes fall of the radar when escaping from work mode. Got a new car (pick it up tonight) and visited family and whatnot.

Jeremy G from Trendhunter.com went to Surf Camp after the conference, but not Surf Diva - something in the jungle! Pretty cool. Anyway - he's posted his deck from the conference. I also have decks that were emailed to me from the ethnography session (pdf) and the Whyville session.

What's the best way to share what we've done so far? In the progression of the conference, I've typed up my notes up to Jeremy's session (Tuesday am) - still a bit of a ways to go...

Lets do this

Ok sorry, had people come in town. Lets get together and work on this for real.

Slackers?

NameSake

Just got back seeing NameSake. Beautiful movie. Highly recommended. It is based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri. Isn't Ian reading a book by her?

Ok click both the links in my post. Please

Presentation Huddle

Yeah, I am actually planning to work on a presentation this weekend. Would any of you want to hook up this weekend? I know it's a holiday and all (BTW Happy Easter!!) but I'm afraid that if I don't get cracking on this I'll forget what the entire conference was even about.

Yes, so "downs" is short for Downs Syndrome. I'll see you in hell, Sid!

Have a fantastic Easter weekend and lemme know if any of you want to get a little group work session in.

Still missing you...
Tracy

Presentations from the conference

Well yes I did not know what "Down" was. The part of the world I come from, we do not have fancy terms for retarded kids. We just call them "Retards". Well maybe that was mean. :-(

So me and Ian have to get together a presentation from the conference. Wouldn't it be cool, that we all share the burden of work and do part by part remotely and get it together. Then each of us can present the same shit to all our companies?

What do you guys think?

Also on a seperate note, we all should be responsible and put keywords / labels for our posts. Down here. It helps in SEO, search engine optimization. Look it up if you do not know what that is.

Downs

The funny thing about your last post, tracy, was that i had to explain what "downs" meant to sid...I couldn't explain it "scientifically"...so we went right to google images and answered the question visually...and in that picture it actually looked more like "I" have it than you...so for the sake of sid's referencial education (should he be checking the blog) here you go:

Down syndrome (DS) is a condition in which extra genetic material causes delays in the way a child develops, and often leads to mental retardation. It affects 1 in every 800 babies born.

The symptoms of Down syndrome can vary widely from child to child. While some kids with DS need a lot of medical attention, others lead very healthy and independent lives.

So, tracy and i seem to be very healthy, and leading independent lives..!...well done us..!..

Aprille, thanks for the Avant Game link. Good stuff! I hope you don't think I was referring to you in the photo Sid posted. You look adorable. I am the one who looks like I belong on the short bus.

So are we all back on the treadmill? I sure am...except for when I got knocked off this morning when I sideswiped a parked car on my way to work. You guys all got to experience my driving skills so I'm sure you are not surprised. I am comfortable admitting that I'm probly the worst driver on the west coast (ok, maybe in the US of A). Luckily the enormous truck I hit didn't get hurt. My car, on the other hand, has a big ugly gouge out of the passenger side. Ooopsie. I think this is a bigger job than the dent man I usually go to for my mishaps can handle.

So I hope you are all well. I continue to wish you were all still here.

Alternate Reality Gaming

(i hate pics with my hair up, btw - and yes, way cool on the ping pong thing....)

Here's a link to AvantGame, Jane McGonigal's blog, and her project details. She's really cool and has a bunch of varied and wacky alternate reality games. (Alternate, not virtual) Her Keynote on Happiness Hacking is pretty interesting, too.

I've contemplated cookie rolling myself, when I travel, but want to come up with my own spin on it....

PS I made y'all admins on the blog, so you can play with settings, add to the lists (in the template area), etc....

who's the girl with downs???

Crap Sid, who's the girl to the right of Ian with downs??? Take that photo down immediately! I mean NOW!!!

I can't believe you have bars with backroom ping-pong tables!! Thant's like one of the 10 best things things I've ever heard of. And this silly haired ping-pong freak sounds like an intimidation project you should seriously commit to further. I love it.

You were only slurring in a minor way. I'm sure you had another few semi-composed dials in you without incident.

Recovering from 2 days of drinking

Ha ha..I was semi drunk..I did not realise i was slurring..

Last night me, Ian and some friends went to a bar called Happy Village. It is a neighborhood bar with a room at the back where there is some hardcore ping pong action going on all night. This guy had been playing for over 40 games, nobody had manage to beat him. He was getting more and more annoying every game. I was in line to play him and end his dynasty. Alas, the time comes and as I get to the table, he says I am tired. I had to offer 5 dollars as stake to play me. He agreed, we start playing. I am up 6-5, he seems worried, the ball goes into the crowd and we cannot find the ball. There are 4 other balls lying on the side table for us to play with. He refuses to play any more, says he wants to play with the exact same ball otherwise he would not play.

I was so pissed, I hated his hair, I hated his body language, everything about him. Anyways he forfeits the game. LOSER.

The action looked something like this

So its been raining the entire weekend, wish we were in California. Oh well. Reality sucks.

On that note, here are some pictures from the trip.