the sun, it rises as you walk

So come out of your cave walking on your hands
And see the world hanging upside down
You can understand dependence
When you know the maker's hand

kak ya provel etim letom

i live for a living - this way of life

Berlinale'10

the light just goes right out of your eyes.

And as the sun died
I promised that I'd seek you out
Well now the years have weathered me
And soon I'll claim you for my arms again

And if our hearts all disappear
And if our bones, they crumble to the soil
And all our love will rise again
And we'll float to the sea

make a promise

http://www.leechangzhi.com/

Your name is heard in high places

You talk like Marlene Dietrich
And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
Your clothes
are all made by Balmain
And there's diamonds and pearls in your hair

You live in a fancy appartement
Of the Boulevard of St. Michel
Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
And a friend of Sacha Distel

...

fighter plane

I held the fort, and I swung my sword I have muted the screams I have broken the falls oh I have fought, and I swung my sword I have muted the screams I have broken the falls

TCM's 31 Days of Oscar Moodboard

Leadership Movement

due consonanti persi in tre vocali

a g33k vday

Parks and Awesomeness

via

separated at birth

The Marple edition:

Winter - ich liebe es!

This is a quote that perfectly describes the situation in Berlin for the last 6 weeks, and probably (and unfortunately) for the next 6 to follow:

"Dunque, la situazione è grave. la città è in stato di allerta. fa freddissimo. lo spree è ghiacciato e ha esondato, così, come un megaghiacciolo. inoltre ci sono i primi segni di imbarbarimento. ieri per esempio ho fatto finta di aiutare una vecchina, lei mi ha sorriso e io l'ho gettata sotto il tram, sottraendole la baguette calda. di notte bruciamo i cadaveri perché la legna è finita. detto questo, in realtà si sta bene, direi colbacco no, ma giacca calda sì. e poi cappello, guanti e sciarpa obbligatori. portati la lana migliore" (by T.F.)

cute overload

career opportunities

Steve Jobs first said it: "Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?". 

Me, considering.

renewable optimism in two parts

[via]

[via]

music tuesday

Your walls are up
Too cold to touch it
Your walls are up
Too high to climb

I know it's hard
But I can still hear it beating
So if you flash your heart
I won't mistreat it

Countdown to Winter Olympics 2010

bff

Where did it start?
We used to be friends
Now when I run into you,
I pretend I don't see you
I know that you hate me

I've tried to be tough
I've tried to be mean
I don't want to be like this
And I hope that you listen
All I'm trying to say is

...

Ruhe!

Natural quiet is a rapidly disappearing resource. According to acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, there are only seven or eight naturally quiet places — defined as where the sounds of nature are unbroken for intervals of at least 15 minutes during daylight hours — left in the United States. None exist in Europe anymore. But if you travel far enough to remote corners of the Earth, and listen carefully enough, you can still find them.

Seed Magazine combines sound and images to provide a look (and listen) at these naturally quite places. Penguins, flapping butterfly wings, waves, and more.

midnight dancer

Metropolis

Metropolis is a 1927 silent science fiction film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and Thea von Harbou. Lang and von Harbou, who were married, wrote the screenplay in 1924, and the story was novelized by von Harbou in 1926. It is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and examines a common science fiction theme of the day: the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism. The film stars Alfred Abel as the leader of the city, Gustav Fröhlich as his son, who tries to mediate between the elite caste and the workers, Brigitte Helm as both the pure-at-heart worker Maria and the debased robot version of her, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge as the mad scientist who created the robot.

Metropolis was produced in Germany in the Babelsberg Studios by Universum Film A.G. (UFA) and released in 1927 during a stable period of the Weimar Republic. The most expensive film of its time, it cost approximately 7 million Reichsmark to make. The film was cut substantially after its German premiere, and there have been several efforts to restore it. Also, the American copyright lapsed in 1953, which eventually led to a proliferation of versions being released on video.

Movie lessons

Somehow, I predict that most of my posts this week will be movie related. I guess it's just the influence from the 60th Berlinale festival that knocks on the door.

So here is a nice post (source), telling what we (business people) can learn from the success of Avatar.

Avatar is a world-wide phenomenon and is currently the top grossing movie of all time*. How can you learn from its success and apply it to your own projects (even if they aren’t billion dollar movies).

1. Technology Matters.James Cameron first wrote Avatar in 1994, but he ended up tabling it until 2005 because he felt the technology wasn’t there yet. Figure out what your idea needs and how you can make it happen. If your current idea won’t work well, put it on hold and work on something else.
2. Love Your Idea. This movie finally came to fruition 15 years after Cameron’s initial idea. He didn’t just forget about it, he waited for his moment and made it happen. And now he’s very rich (er, richer).
3. Get Fans, Not Just Viewers(/Users). Avatar was so successful because you didn’t just go and think “good movie” and go to sleep. You wanted to tell everyone you knew about it. After watching this movie I immediately started telling my family and friends they had to see it. Now.
4. A Little Controversy is Good. Avatar’s a commentary on the war in Iraq. And our treatment of the environment. And a critique of the military. And advocates polytheism. And deals with racial issues. Or maybe none of the above, but it made you talk about it, didn’t it?
5. Make it Beautiful. Avatar is a cinematic masterpiece. It’s gorgeous. Don’t settle for less with your iPhone app. If your iPhone app is the best looking thing I’ve ever seen I’ll not only use it but share it with everyone I know.

*Okay, so this actually depends on whether or not you count inflation. In any case, it did very, very well.

when filmmakers meet the super bowl

a cute one from google

breakfast for champions

how wonderful life is with gaga in the world

you might have been a headache, but you never were a bore

Over-stimulation is the enemy of imagination – we should give our children the gift of boredom

Forever's Not So Long

Forever's Not So Long from garrettmurray on Vimeo.

Sonnenschein

link

the female factor

If women ran Apple, would they have unveiled a product called the iPad? In Business Week, Vivek Wadhwa argues more women are needed in the executive suite (and not just for name changes).

Wadhwa provides a grim snapshot of women in the top echelons of the technology and financial sectors:

Apple isn't the only company with a male-dominated executive team. No woman has ever been CEO of a Wall Street firm. Women were primary owners of only 19% of the 237,843 firms founded in 2004, according to the Kauffman Foundation's analysis of Dun & Bradstreet data. And only 3% of tech firms were founded by women in that year.

Wadhwa and his team sifted through stacks of data about the habits of successful entrepreneurs and surveyed 549 entrepreneurs about their experiences and attitudes. Their conclusion?

Given all the similarities in background and motivation for men and women entrepreneurs-and the fact that women now outnumber men in universities-we remain perplexed by the dearth of female startup executives.

So what could be contributing to the lack of women in top spots of industries all across the globe? Wadhwa explains that the root of the issue is societal expectations of women:

Evidence suggests that this does not reflect a failure on the part of women but rather a societal failure. Consider the contrast with India, a country that is in many respects more conservative than the U.S. It might therefore be expected to be even less amenable to women in leadership. Yet there, women are rapidly rising through the top ranks of the business community.

[Cindy Padnos, managing director of Illuminate Ventures] is optimistic that the tide will turn in the U.S. as more people recognize that having women at the helm makes good business sense. Women-led high-tech startups generate higher revenues per dollar of invested capital and have lower failure rates than those led by men, her research shows. Women are also more capital-efficient; the average venture-backed tech company run by a woman was started with one-third less committed capital than those led by men, yet achieved comparable early revenue levels.

The question of why there are so few women at the top has been a hot topic of discussion within the pages of international newspapers.

The New York Times recently published an article called "Where Are the Women on Wall Street?" as a part of the International Herald Tribune's yearlong series on women in the 21st century. The story revolves around Sallie Krawcheck - the President of global wealth and investment management at Bank of America and one of the few female Wall Street Executives - and the issues surrounding her work in financial services, and how the industry is facing a major decline in its already low number of women employees. Part of the reason why women are less interested in pursuing a career in financial services is due to the culture. This is a well known problem:

But in the heart of Wall Street, the aggressive environment on the trading floor is often cited as a reason that women are rare at the top. Others cite the dearth of women to aid in career networking.

Whatever the reason, ascending the ladder is much harder for women, said Bruce C. Greenwald, a professor of finance and strategy at Columbia University Business School.

And yet, in developing nations like India, women are ascending to the top ranks of the financial business. Another article in the series reports:

HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Fidelity International in India are run by women. So is the country's second-biggest bank, Icici Bank, and its third-largest, Axis Bank. Women head investment banking operations at Kotak Mahindra and JPMorgan Chase and the equities division of Icici. Half of the deputy governors at the Reserve Bank of India are women.

Why?

Women "excel when they are subject to an open competition," said Shyamala Gopinath, one of the Reserve Bank of India's two female deputy governors.

Since financial services are all about the bottom line, the top-producing performers should, logically, come out on top. However, the article explains that an entrenched boys club feel and spirit in the industry - something that is prevalent in America but not quite as rigid in the emerging financial services market in India - may contribute to the exclusion of women stateside.

This "isn't a golf-playing, beer-drinking homogeneous culture," said Naina Lal Kidwai, group managing director and country head of HSBC in India and a former head of Morgan Stanley's investment bank in India. Male bankers and managers run the gamut from devoutly religious to devoted family men to late-night socialites.

Women "could join the workplace on their own terms," Ms. Kidwai said. "You still have to network, you still have to work hard, but that made it easier."

So it would appear that a large part of allowing women to be more successful in the workplace is to dismantle the idea of a homogenous work culture. Germany recently examined the cultural norms that penalize working mothers, working to directly attack perceptions that women are bad mothers if they expect to have both a career and children. And entrepreneurs are taking their knowledge to bookshelves across the nation. Christine Comaford-Lynch penned the Rules for Renegades, advising risk-takers to rewrite the conventions of the business world. Kimberly Wilson, author of Tranquilista, rejects the boys club mentality of most businesses to promote a more balanced lifestyle - even in the crazed days of launching a new business.

Ultimately, the influence of women at all levels will promote the much needed changes in the business world.

via source

up in the air

How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life… you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV… the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home… I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office… and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.

Said the people

Because it's Friday and everyone loves teen drama.










Just like the winter / smothers the flowers in their beds / It never ceases to amaze me / how quickly love forgets.


Equilibrium is funny like that.

You can be my pajamas.

extraordinaire

P.S. It's not funny if you don't watch parks&recreation.
P.S.2 You should definitely watch parks&recreation.

Opportunities

Me? I signed up for a German course. And I am planning to pass the Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam. And I am enjoying Berlin, as much as this is possible in this polar winter. And I am making new friendships. And I am keeping up with old ones. You know, what matters in life. And when the next opportunity comes along, I will be ready to jump on the wagon and have the journey of a life time. Till the next stop of transition.

I'll stand in front of you and take the force of the blow...

Lust for Life

I know I've already posted this on FB and Twitter, but I really really like the energy in this song..



But Now Im Just Crazy
Im Totally Mad
Yeah Im Just Crazy
Im Fu@#ed In The Head
And Maybe If I Really Tried
With All Of My Heart
Then I Could Make
A Brand New Start
In Love With You

Brittain, Brittain, Marple

I like to picture Marple like this:

or like this

Perfection

FAIL

quotes time

Role Models

Everyone has one. Maybe even more than one. I sure have more than one. And I am happy and proud with each and every single one of them - humans with halo. That's what they are - they simply bring light into the world. One way or another.

Job Interview Tips

we are on an island

Another SN game challenge. It's only me and a homeless man, but it's still fun. Especially when this is still the beta version and there are so many bugs and crashes.

What can I say? Procrastination, hello!

bic prank

The Berlinale is knocking on the door. Just sayin'. ;-)

learn to fly

This beats the LEGO Pirate Ship.

you rock, we roll

What if I am not supposed to work in a cubicle, but be a Babe Ruthless instead?!

I am going to find out in two weeks, here.

why do all the good pills come in pink?

Yeah I Know

quote of the day

"Nothing’s lost forever. In this world, there’s a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind, and dreaming ahead. At least I think that’s so."

Angels in America

your song

Lady GaGa & Elton John at 2010 Grammys
von TheDlisted