Archive for July, 2009

On failure

Posted by Blanca in Everything else on July 22nd, 2009

What is failure? Is it when we decide that we are not good at something or when we allow others to decide that for us?

“Try and fail, but don’t fail to try”. I am not sure who said this, but whenever I feel that I cannot tackle something head on I sort of use it as a mantra. It does not always work, of course. Unfortunately, like all human beings, I am easily influenced by others on what I am “good” or “not good at” and this, unfortunately,  limits my possibilities of experiencing so many things!

Hence, I see myself “failing to try” more often than not.

Many are the brilliant minds and spirits among us that have transcended thanks to their self-confidence and believe in their own potentials. Thank God for them as their perseverance is a great source of inspiration for those of us who sometimes struggle to believe just how much we are capable of and that the ‘risk’ of trying is worth it every single time!

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Language matters

Posted by Blanca in Fun stuff on July 15th, 2009

Language mattersAlthough I have worked in the field of communications for many years, I have to admit that there are a couple of people in my life with whom I know that having a normal conversation is totally out of the question.

With one particular person I decided to give up talking altogether and stick to written communications only, in the hope that things will improve at some point and with the relief that at least I have written evidence of what I said. But even then, if I write “white” he reads “black”, when I write “thread” he reads “threat” …!

The fact that we both speak different languages and have very different backgrounds does not help. Breaking a language barrier by being totally fluent in a second, third or fourth language does not mean that you can easily cross the cultural barrier.

Like the story of a Polish man who moved to the USA and married an American girl. Although his English was far from perfect, they got along very well until one day he rushed into a lawyer’s office and asked him if he could arrange a divorce for him.

The lawyer said that getting a divorce would depend on the circumstances, and asked him the following questions:

L: Have you any grounds?

P: Yes, an acre and half and nice little home.

L: No, I mean what is the foundation of this case?

P: It made of concrete.

L: I don’t think you understand. Does either of you have a real grudge?

P: No, we have carport, and not need one.

L: I mean. What are your relations like?

P: All my relations still in Poland

L: Is there any infidelity in your marriage?

P: We have hi-fidelity stereo and good DVD player.

L: Does your wife beat you up?

P: No, I always up before her

L: Is your wife a nagger?

P: No, she white.

L: Why do you want this divorce?

P: She going to kill me.

L: What makes you think that?

P: I got proof.

L: What kind of proof?

P: She going to poison me. She buys a bottle at drugstore and put on shelf in bathroom. I can read, and it says: ‘Polish Remover’

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14 years later

Posted by Blanca in Everything else, Mexico on July 11th, 2009

We all have events in our lives that become important milestones during our journey. Many of these events are a result of our actions and we have plenty of control over them: a wedding, a divorce, a graduation, a promotion, and to a certain degree, the birth of a child. They become our personal reference points, as in “before my promotion…”, or “after I became a mother…”

Other events are caused by external factors. We don’t really have control over them from happening or not, but we can control somehow the effect that they have on our lives. War or a natural disaster is an example. The death of a loved one is another.

July 11, 1995 is one of my milestone dates. It is when Little Johnny was officially pronounced death.

It is the day I lost my father; and it is also the day I lost a substantial degree of trust in others. Especially when it comes to trusting other people with that which is very important to me, as would be the life of someone I love.

Looking back, I now realize that on that sad day I also lost other things: the opportunity of seeing my father as a grandfather to my daughter, nephew and niece; and what I am sure would have been the best piece of advice I could possibly receive on some of the most challenging moments I have experienced in the last 14 years.

Wherever you are Little Johnny I miss you.

I always will.

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Why do I heart Facebook?

Posted by Blanca in Everything else on July 7th, 2009

Confession: I am one of Facebook’s 225 million or so active users and one of the 100m who actually logs on at least once a day.

Do you care to know why?:

(1) I have used Facebook as part of the communication strategy on quite a few projects with great success. I love the fact that you have access to demographic information to target your message. Some say it’s pricey, but what I’ve seen is higher conversion rates and ROI than with Adwords.

(2) Links on Facebook are responsible for 95% of my personal blog’s traffic. It makes sense if you think that 19% of hits to Huffington Post blog come from FB links, and that they are also the number one driver of traffic to the Perez Hilton gossip site.

(3) I agree with Hala Gorani from CNN: nobody emails these days! Email is turning into the new snail mail. 80% of my emails are work-related. I don’t need to send an email to my friends to catch up; they can learn what I am hallucinating about from my blog and what I am up to … on Facebook! (that one works both ways, of course – the ‘what are they up to’, not the hallucinating part).

Facebook is getting more hits these days than Yahoo, and despite the unexpected rise of ‘rival’ Twitter in the last months, FB’s user numbers keep growing quickly (more than half of the users have signed up in the last year!)

Having said all of the above, I have one complaint: Why is ‘Facebook’ marked as a spelling mistake every time I type it on anything MS and on Blogger, when the word ‘Google’ is not?!

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Archaeology in the 35th century

Posted by Blanca in Cyprus, My projects on July 4th, 2009

As part of a project I am working on, I recently did some research on a particular archaeological site in Cyprus known as the Saranta Kolones castle. The name, which is obviously Greek, means “40 columns” and it comes from the many granite columns that were found scattered around the ruins of what is believed to have been a 7th century fortress.

Nobody really knows exactly when Saranta Kolones was built or what for, but it became a UNESCO World Heritage site; I guess mainly because it is about 1400 years old.

So, that got me thinking…

How will archaeology reports of our times read in the year 3400? I can only guess it would be something like this:

“The Holecene Epoch complex of “2000 seats” is located in a vast plain and is believed to have been surrounded by a series of trading outlets where people used to exchange printed paper for goods. It takes its name from the many seats that were found on the site and which probably once formed part of this ancient place of worship.

The complex is believed to have been built at the end of the 20th century AD to perform some kind of ancient ritual. The building consists of a large structure divided in eight rooms which could accommodate a total of about 2000 seats. All the seats seem to have been facing towards one of the walls. No traces of images have been found on any of these very large walls that were about 6 meters tall x 15 meters wide; so it is speculated that the attendants used to worship The Wall itself during sessions that lasted about 2 hours each.

It seems that there was some kind of classification as to who could worship in which room and at what time of the day. Children were not allowed in some of the rooms at certain times and in some cases the sessions were attended mainly by males or females.

A reception area, common to all rooms, is believed to have been used to sort out the worshipers.

One privileged single person, probably a priest of some sort, could worship from a private room. This room was located at a very high level, opposite The Wall, and had a rather small hole through which the priest would either conduct the worshiping ritual or attend it in privacy.”

Now, try to imagine the future archaeological description of DisneyWorld!

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