I love reading advice dispensed by teens for either themselves or their parents, and today I was luck enough to stumble across both.  Check out these wise words!

In AZ Teen Magazine,  Sammi Baumgartner of Ironwood high school advises peers to get off the couch and get going over summer break.

Secondly, on Teens Today with Vanessa Van Petten, 16-year-old blogger Nate shares 5 tips for moms on communicating with their male, teenage sons.  Soak it in mamas -- I think he's on to something!

Pour l'occasion, Eric Dupin a sorti le grand jeu. Il connaît son influence(N°1 sur wikio) et en profite pour créer du gros buzz. Il a donc contacté plusieurs amis, partenaires et sponsors afin que ceux-ci lui offre des cadeaux pour son anniversaire, enfin, plus précisément pour les lecteurs de Presse Citron, que c'est gentil!

Comme toutes entreprises ou tous bloggeurs rêvent de figurer sur le blog de M.Dupin, je suppose qu'il est envahi de mails lui proposant des super cadeaux, des réductions énormes...et que les cadeaux vont défiler à une vitesse énorme sur le blogs, alors chers internautes n'hésitez pas à vous rendre sur son blog pour gagner un max de cadeau.

Et bon anniversaire Presse Citron.

So where to position myself moving forward.....

I have been reading about various types of roles and functions and frankly that puts me too much into a box, not sure i like small boxes much, big 2.0 boxes are ok, for now anyway.

A particular function/role does appeal to me within a context of social media and enterprise 2.0 which is Enterprise Architecture. My council has a team of Enterprise Architects and they get involved in cool stuff, so why not try and aim for that arena.

A post by Prasad Sombhatta on "who is an architect and what do they do" is an interesting read and gives a common view or what EA's do.

I am personally interested in social media and how that can deliver business transformation, but i am also very keen on the wider use of the Web/Digital media for business transformation.

This journey has only just begun and i will no doubt share my thoughts as it progresses

Teradata in Islamabad are keen to start a company club. we also have 6 teenagers for whom i have been asked to start the Youth Leadership Program. I will need everyone's support for starting
the YLP.

Islamabad Toastmasters club is also in touch with the Academy of Media and Broadcasting to help launch and setup a club for their broadcasting concerns.

We look forward to mentors from Express Toastmasters Club to help our members with speechcraft. ITC is working to explore the possibility of starting speech contest with ETC using video conferencing, or
recorded sessions, for example.

Stay tuned as all of these opportunities unravel.

Please note that the next meeting will be on 22 July 2008 - plan your self_paced growth with VP Education and ask for a mentor, there are many a hill for us to climb , place your first step on the first ladder.

I have been pondering things as usual (when don't I?) but I haven't been able to make them take a coherent form, so I didn't want to blog about them. I'm a hideous perfectionist so if something is not communicated effectively enough then I get irritated. With myself and others.

This need for precise communication - where does it come from? Poor Mr. Razzler. I like to talk about the new ideas and concepts that pop into my mind. I like him to engage with me on these matters. Now, Mr. Razzler is a very practically minded sort of person. I love this about him. He can change fuses and other such useful things! We have very different personalities. I infuriate him on a regular basis because of my lack of observation skills. He'll say, "Did you see what I did in the kitchen?" And my response is usually something along the lines of, "We have a kitchen?" He looks at me like I've suddenly grown another head.

However, I'm very observant when it comes to people. I notice subtle changes in expresion, body movements, etc. I notice how other people communicate and how they best understand communication, so I can often tailor my own communication to fit their needs.

But... and here's where it gets complicated... I often struggle to verbally communicate the thoughts swishing round my own head. I can talk to someone about their own thoughts, and I can often understand where they're coming from and help them with certain issues. But I can't talk about myself! I get tongue-tied very easily. Mr. Razzler has pointed out (with relative frequency) that I often repeat myself. I know the reason for this. I think about everything before I talk. I have formed my thoughts precisely in my head. And am therefore often frustrated because they don't come out of my mouth in the same way that they were when they were nestled snugly in my mind. I worry that I haven't expressed myself adequately and the other person will therefore be left with an inadequate expression of my thoughts. I can't bear that so I try again. And again. I'm working on this.

New thought. I've just been to lunch with 3 of my colleagues. I have worked out that they are all Sensing types. That's Myers-Briggs who are unfamiliar with what that means. I am an iNtuitive type. Concepts, ideas, big picture stuff comes naturally to me. Details do not. My brain automatically takes leaps in thought; I'm not a linear thinker. You'd think, then, that S types would be very precise communicators. Not so. It's like they sometimes get hung up on the details at the expense of the overall theme of the discussion. So... Topic A impacts on B and C. But my S friends are busy discussing A, and forget that A impacts both B and C. I often have to point this out to them. I find myself getting bored with just talking about A. I want to make the leap to B, C and beyond, with a potential detour around X!

I have to remind myself that being an N type is not better than being an S. Both are equally valuable. I must be careful to not get impatient with people simply because they think and communicate differently to me. I can be a perfectionist with myself, but I really should be more easygoing with other people.

There is a new coffee machine in the office and it looks like a space age gadget.  With the new coffee machine in place the trusted old coffee machine was abondend/retired for a short duration. The old coffee machine made a great come back by engineers popular demand. ( Is there a managements truth here? )

There is a reson why the old coffee machine was so popular among the engineers. It had pretty simple interface and most of all the error messages were clear. So everybody knew what to do when things go bad. For example when the container gets filled with the grounded beans, the old machine says

Empty the drawer

For the same condition the new coffee machine says

Ground beans full

The message "Empty the drawer" is simple and to the point. You have to empty the drawer to get the fresh cup of coffee again but the message "Ground beans full" is not direct and message is not clear and ambiguous. It is not asking the user to empty the drawer. I first thought that the grounded beans are full and I am going to get fresh cup of coffee now, only to wait for eternity.

We humans are designed to understand simple and directed message, I hope programmers/designers understand this and write/design more simple and direct error messages in future.

She called me last night so that we could talk this whole thing out.  She was pretty upset that I called her the night before and "basically shat me out".  She has been feeling like I have not been putting enough effort into our friendship and that I have not been forthcoming with information about what is going on in my life with the IVF etc.  She told me that although it might look to me like her life is perfect cos she has kids but that she has other problems to deal with and that her life is far from perfect.  She also told me that she did not ask questions and enquire about the IVF cos she did not want me to feel pressured and had assumed that I had a great support system already and did not really need her to be harping on about it as well.  (As it is I did have a fantastic support - our families, you guys, some close friends, we were so very blessed)  She told me that although she never asked about our IVF, she was thinking of me througout and was praying for us throughout the process.  She told me that she also feels that because she does not know enough about the process that she asks silly or stupid questions.  She was very upset that I did not invite her to my 30th birthday party and felt like I was wanting us to drift apart in our friendship cos I did not call her or text her or invite her to my party... 

If I am brutally honest with myself I can admit that I have not put a lot of effort into the friendship in the last few months.  I *have* been pretty self absorbed (rightly so of course but I can understand where she came from after we chatted), and have been focused on my life and our IVF and our grief after the BFN...  I have not really been putting much effort cos I felt like I was not going to share details about our journey with her if she did not ask, it seemed to me that she was disinterested so I never shared with her.  I told her last night that I would much rather have stupid questions that show her interest in what is happening in my life than nothing.  I also told her that I guess I never invited her to my 30th cos I thought she would not be bothered to come cos our friendship was clearly drifting apart.

Seems to me that this whole debacle is a clear cut case of miscommunication.

Both of us agreed that we did not want to see our friendship in the gutter (I was her maid of honor for gosh sakes and am honorary auntie to her kids) and that we were both in the wrong for what had transpired between us in the last couple of months.  We agreed that we needed to nurture the friendship more and both make more of an effort if we wanted to continue being friends.

So for now our friendship is in the process of getting back on track.  We'll see how it goes...

The Sergeant-at-Arms:
1. Ensures proper Venue Preparation. This includes ensuring availability of all the required gadgets and documents (Members Attendance Sheet, Guest Registration Sheets), and proper seating arrangement etc.
2. Distributes Agenda.
3. Opens the Meeting / Calls for Order, making use of the gavel.
4. Welcomes the audience.
5. Gives a brief introduction of the club.
6. Handovers the control of the lectern to the Presiding Officer (who may or may not be the President of the Club).

The Presiding Officer:

1. May add to the club introduction.
2. Requests the Word Master to announce the Word of the Day.
3. Requests the members to introduce their guests (if any).
4. Requests other guests to introduce themselves.
5. Announces Last-week Winners.
6. Assigns Roles for the Next Meeting.
7. Handovers the control of the lectern to the Toastmaster of the Evening.

The Toastmaster of the Evening:

1. Introduces the meeting structure and segments.
2. Introduces the Role Players / Helpers (Grammarian, Time Keeper, Ah Counter, Vote Counter). Each of the role player gives a brief introduction of his/her role; the Time Keeper explaining time limits and use of signaling lights; the Ah Counter explaining what an “Ah” is and why it is counted, etc.
3. Introduces the General Evaluator.
4. Introduces the Table Topics Master.
5. Handovers the control of the lectern to the Table Topics Master.

The Table Topics Master:

1. Gives a brief introduction of the segment, telling the time limits.
2. Announces 1st Table Topic and invites anyone from the members to the stage/lectern to speak on it. While the member is coming to the stage, the TTM repeats the topic.
3. Repeats the same with other Table Topics.
4. May invite guests to speak, asking them if they would like to speak.
5. Once the Table Topics are over, asks for the Time Keeper for qualifications.
6. Asks the audience to vote for the Best Table Topic Speaker.
7. Asks the Vote Counter to collect and count the votes, and announce the winner.
8. Congratulates the winner and thanks the audience.
9. Handovers the control of the lectern back to the Toastmaster of the Evening.

The Toastmaster of the Evening:

1. Gives a brief introduction of the Prepared Speeches segment, telling the time limits.
2. Introduces 1st Prepared Speaker and announces his/her Project No. and Targets.
3. Asks the Speaker to identify his/her Evaluator.
4. Leaves the lectern and lets the Speaker speak.
5. Repeats this process for other prepared speakers.
6. Asks the Time Keeper to report disqualifications.
7. Invites the Evaluators one by one to present their evaluations about respective speakers.
8. Asks the audience to vote for the Best Prepared Speaker.
9. Asks the Vote Counter to collect and count the votes, and announce the winner.
10. Asks the audience to vote for the Best Evaluator.
11. Asks the Vote Counter to collect and count the votes, and announce the winner.
12. Asks the General Evaluator to present his/her detailed report. (Not sure about it whether the TME invites the GE or the Presiding Officer does it)
13. Handovers the control of the lectern back to the Presiding Officer.

The Presiding Officer:

1. Asks the audience to vote for the Big 3 (Toastmaster of the Evening, Table Topics Master and the General Evaluator).
2. Asks the Vote Counter to collect and count the votes, and announce the winner.
3. Gives Certificates to the Winners.
4. May award the Guests with Guest Ribbons.
5. Adjourns the Meeting, making use of the gavel.

New Members:

1. Membership Assessment:

Each of the new members may not be at a different level of understanding and pickup. Some are very fast learners, some are slow. So the VP Education may assess them for their Confidence and other Strengths and Weaknesses, so as to identify their Areas of Improvement to focus upon.

1. Role Assignment Sequence to New Members:

• Vote Counter
• AH Counter
• Word Master
• Grammarian
• Time Keeper

Miscellaneous:

1. Place Order for Membership Pin. The Price is 3.25$ per pin. (If purchased in a quantity >12, then the price would be 3$ per pin)
2. CC Badges may also be ordered in advance.
3. Backside of the Membership Form may be revised to show TI Fee + Club Fee.
4. Give Awards to Shadow Officers also.
5. 4 Runner-up Trophies may be given to the 4 winners every time (that may be kept by them until next meeting).
6. Don’t say sorry; never regret on things that are beyond your control.
7. Don’t use the word “Problem”; use “Challenge” alternatively.
8. Don’t lean on the lectern, or rest your hands on it.
9. Introduce Toastmasters to others by telling that it makes people Confident and Effective Professionals, by practicing learning by doing. Public Speaking is only 10% of it.

You can't make art up for the sake of pure art. Some think you can, but from all the examples I can think of, 100% of the time, art has a purpose. If you're doing it because you're in art class in college, you're making a piece of art for your teacher. If you are making it as a child with crayons in kindergarten, you're still making it for your teacher. If you are doing it on your own at home, you might be doing it to humor yourself, give as a gift, or to put up in the guest bedroom.

And if you do it for a living, then you're doing it so you can eat seven days a week. It is inescapable. These are ultimate, overviewing reasons. You may include her more apparent reasons, like "this is a bag I'm designing for the new and improved M&Ms," but you're still making it for a reason. That's the point.

Since nearly all art is made for a reason, and, most of the art made for a reason is for monetary gain, we are seeing a huge climb in the power of modern commercial artists. Artistic commercialization, everything from elegant cars to computers to energy drinks, is sweeping the world round. 

This is not to say that commercial art is not made for pleasure. If it wasn't made to enjoy creative qualities then it wouldn't have been created at all. Still, usually the emphasis is not on the beauty of the piece, so much as the consistency with the product/service it is promoting. There's a balance to selling the product vs getting the attention of the customer and keeping it long enough to get them to buy it. If the artwork doesn't accomplish this enough of the times customers enjoy examining the artistic packaging, then the art is not living up to its purpose. This is something artists usually from experience.

If you notice, a lot of the commercial art floating around out there, and in your home, looks a lot alike. You heard of this thing called trends? On the artists side of the fence, what that means is one artist came up with a pretty good idea that sold other artists on the product this first artist was promoting, so they went and imitated, or stole from the original art that inspired them. A good artist knows how to take the art that inspired them and make it their own. A poor artist only imitates and comes out with something that people will say "hey, that looks like the other guys."

I'll continue on this note tomorrow.

Thierry Saussez a fait cette demande dans une note qu'il a adressée à Claude Guéant, secrétaire général de l'Elysée, et à Jean-Paul Faugère, directeur de cabinet de François Fillon.Thierry Saussez y sollicite 12 millions d'euros pour la "réalisation de trois campagnes interministérielles significatives chaque année", 1 million d'euros pour les études et sondages de la présidence, 2,5 millions d'euros pour le lancement d'un portail Internet, France.fr, et un projet de télévision gouvernementale disponible sur Internet, 1,2 million d'euros destiné à "la conception et à la réalisation du tableau de bord de planning stratégique", qui serait confié à une agence extérieure, selon Les Echos.

La récente campagne sur le pouvoir d'achat, diffusée à la télévision et dans la presse écrite avait déjà suscité beaucoup de réactions négatives, notamment à cause de son coût élevé de 4,33 millions d'euros !

On n'a donc pas fini de manifester!

Source :My little buzz

Google lively n’est autre que la réponse au service d’avatars mis en place par Yahoo l'an passé. Dans la continuité experimentale, Yahoo espagne proposait dernièrement une visualisation 3D sur le web de visualisation des buts de l'Euro 2008. Google Lively est un outil complémentaire de connexion et d’identification communautaire pouvant être intégré sur une page ou un blog. Sur le model de navigation de Habbo (1999), Yahoo et Google crées des espaces limités tel des chatrrooms. Comme le Gartner prévoit que tout le monde aura un avatar, ces deux entreprises oeuvrent à proposer leurs premières étapes de démarche virtuelles tout en l’intégrant sur toute son offre. Google Lively n’a rien a voir avec Second Life comme prévu. L’application est plus proche de Yoowalk.