Jen O - A Room of My Own

Pushing through jetlag...

I'm home from a whirlwind tour. It actually started a few weeks ago with a week in San Jose (California) and then two weeks ago I flew from SF to London, London to Singapore, Singapore to Hong  Kong, and back to SF.

I've posted pictures on flickr...and hopefully you have noticed the flashing "Recent Flickr Pics" to the right.

I've tried to push through jetlag by staying up when I land and going to bed and getting up at normal hours. However, last night I still found myself lying in bed at 3:30 wishing I could sleep.

My trip was for work...but I got in a fair amount of visiting with friends and family, sightseeing, and eating. I forgot how incredibly YUMMY and SPICY Chinese food is in Asia. My cousin John tested me with "zui la" (most hot) food at the Sichuan Restaurant...and I was in heaven! I at spicy frog and then visited the froggies with Nicholas afterward (picture included). I also played Guitar Hero for the first time. Thank GOD Travis didn't tell me that I could be booed off the stage. I made it through the easy version of Slow Ride my first time, and if I'd known about the booing part, I don't think I'd have been so successful.

I watched 5 movies:

1. There Will Be Blood. I agree with everyone, DDL is fabulous...but it is a long way from My Beautiful Laundrette.
2. Jumpers. I had to...it was about people who teleport.
3. Cloverfield. NYC Gen Y type video tapes a friend's going away party and the destruction of Manhattan by a monster.
4. Dan in Real Life. This is a very cute movie. Especially after all the blood and gore. Although I can't seem to get "Let My Love Open the Door" out of my head....especially at 3:45 AM.
5. Then She Found Me. John and I went to see Helen Hunt's directorial debut on Saturday night. She did a great job, but I didn't get the Matthew Broderick character at all. He's WAY too wimpy.

Today I'm trying to catch up on he email and get focused on all the stuff I've been putting off the last two weeks. I guess if I can't sleep, I've got plenty to do!

Quick trip to Slims

Yesterday afternoon John got a text from his friend Joseph Wooten saying that he was in town for a show at Slim's and asking if we wanted to be on the list.

Joseph plays keys in the Steve Miller Band. When Joseph isn't traveling with Steve he is often traveling with his brother Victor. We've seen Victor's band play in NYC and at the SF Fillmore and I was all for an unexpected trip to Slim's!

Victor Wooten plays the bass.

He is breath taking and mind boggling. Every show is different. Last night we walked in to a full on reggae vibe with the entire club singing, "everything's gonna be alright.." The band moved into a South African mode and later in the evening there was incredibly beautiful Moroccan music. All mixed with a fair dose of funk, R&B, gospel, and jazz.

I present to you 5 minutes of magic. Enjoy.

The Press and the Hillary Clinton Death Watch

So...if you haven't seen it, this is kind of funny. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank and Akira Hakuta make fun of the press and their continual desire to announce the death of Hillary Clinton's campaign to be the Democratic Party's candidate for U.S. President.

Only kind of funny.

I think the press really hate Hillary and they really believe that each and every time this will be it. AND what happens? The U.S. people do something unexpected. I LOVE that part of democracy. The unexpected. Actually, it is the part about democracy that I hate the most too. Sometimes the people do really silly things. Hmmm...like re-elect a guy whose middle initial is W?

So, why do I write about this? Because I really want Hillary Clinton to win. I think she will make a GREAT president. I think she can beat John McCain. And, I went and donated enough money to her campaign that it is going to show up if you Google my name when the next quarterly report is submitted.

So, I figured I might as well out myself. That's the weird part. The Obama supporters have been so up front and righteous about their candidate. No outing is needed. There are a number of Obama supporters in my family. They tend to be pretty up front and righteous. I've noticed that the Clinton supporters have been much more reserved, cautious, almost afraid to get our hopes up.

But my hopes are up. I preceded the 100,000 good people who donated money to the Clinton campaign on Tuesday. I donated last Saturday. However. Someone else in my family. A registered Republican...was one of the 100,000.

Hillary - YOU GO GIRL!

My blue eyed niece...

has been sick again for a couple of weeks. Poor little Carolyn Rose has had a lot of tummy problems since she was born...including a stay at the hospital about a month ago. Her mommy just sent this picture out asking for prayers. Please send good thoughts her way.

Who are we?

A friend of mine, within IBM, shared this TED video. He has blogged often about his life after an aneurysm.

Do not miss Jill Bolte Taylor, brain scientist, neuroanatomist, spreader of a message of peace, as she describes experiencing her own stroke and the insight she now has about our place in this world.

Musing...as I try to participate...

I received an invitation the other day from the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Also, known as IR/PS...or that place I spent two years of my life nearly 20 years ago, wearing shorts, playing hackie sack, drinking tequila, and learning a lot.

In anticipation of the school's 20th anniversary, the invitation was to participate in a series of online threaded discussions on 15 topics lead by IR/PS professors. The discussion topics will  culminate in policy statements for the Pacific region and be presented in a press conference style forum at the anniversary celebration. The topics and moderators are:

1. Bridging the Digital Divide - Peter Cowhey
2. China's Global Role - Barry Naughton
3. Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility - Peter Gourevitch
4. Environmental Issues in the Pacific Rim - Lisa Schaffer
5. Fragility in the Global Financial System - Takeo Hoshi
6. Future of APEC: Regional Institutional Architecture for the Pacific Rim - Richard Feinberg
7. Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation - Roger Bohn
8. Japan's Security Policies: The Future? Ellis Krauss
9. Language Passport for the Pacific Rim - Yashy Tohsaku
10. Political Economy of Korea: North and South - Stephan Haggard & Jong Sung You
11. Reforming US Immigration Policy - Gordon Hanson
12. Security in Northeast Asia - Susan Shirk & Tai Ming Cheung
13. Terrorism in the Pacific Rim - Barbara Walter
14. The New Left in Latin America: How New? How Left? - Richard Feinberg
15. Globalization and Supply Chain Management - Roger Bohn

My reaction was, "Cool! They're having a jam...and I'm invited to participate!"

I then went through the process of signing up for First Class so I could participate. I request my access, get my user name and password, log-in....and it's kind of a bust.

• After experiencing the power of both our jam and blogging environments, I'm irritated by the kloogy discussion thread. This prompted me to go check out First Class...and it is being positioned as a secure collaboration and social networking application for education and business. Hmmm...a competitor to Lotus Connections?

• The professors have each posted an issue statement to get the discussion going. But, the paragraphs feel more like term paper or test questions. They're not terribly conducive to sparking discussion. They're complex, intimidating, and too wordy.

• Not surprising, although the forum has been up since February 4th, there has been little activity other than the posting of the issue statements.

• In the few instances where people have responded, they've often provided a reference and a link to an article, as opposed to providing an opinion.

• I must not be the only one scratching my head, one of my favorite econ profs, Takeo Hoshi, wrote in response to a post, "Hi Chris - Thank you for posting a very interesting  article to start the discussion.  I was hoping some other people to jump in, but I guess you have been busy.  Now we are entering a long weekend, I hope some of you join the discussion...."  What impresses me about Hoshi's response, is that it is pretty much the only example where there is a conversation. In fact, although, I'm not so interested in the topic (Fragility of the Global Financial System)...I feel compelled to jump in.

There is a lot I don't know.

1. Is this an experiment for IR/PS in social learning? As an alumna, I don't think I've ever been invited to participate in something like this before, but is this also new for the current students and professors?
2. Has the school done anything to prepare people for this type of communication, conversation, and learning? Was Professor Hoshi's response intuitive? Or, does he have experience with this type of conversation in other forums?
3. What type of marketing campaign was underway to encourage participation? I reacted to an email.
4. In the pyramid of creators, commentators, and readers...it is obvious that very few are creating, if you count links, a few are commenting, and I wonder are there many lurkers like me?

There is one response that is quite thoughtful. In fact, it is pretty much the only thoughtful response so far. As I read it, I think I recognize the writer's name...who, I have just looked up on LinkedIn...and sure enough. She is the cousin of Waishan Leung, one of my best friend's at IBM!

I wonder if I am too far removed from thinking "public policy" as opposed to "business"? I use concepts I learned at IR/PS all the time in my work. Yet, I'm struggling to jump in and respond. At the same, I wonder if it is the structure, not the content, that is inhibiting me. With that...I continue to muse...

Live blogging at sound check

While most of your are watching the Super Tuesday returns on TV, I am sitting in the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. I am pretending to work. Actually, I'm even getting a bit done. But my real focus is watching Hugh Masekela and his band sound check. There are like 11 people on stage. Horn players, keyboard player, drummer, percussionists, guitars, bass. A violinist is playing right now. There are beautiful harmonies floating through the auditorium.

I spent years following Hugh when John was his tour manager. What a special surprise to see Khaya Mahlangu, a wonderful sax player, who I probably haven't seen since the earlier 90's! Old friends. Smiles and hugs.

The band is singing, "Bring back Nelson Mandela, bring him back home to Soweto, I want to see him walking down the streets of South Africa. Tomorrow!"

Fabulous.

Before the world changed

Talia,
originally uploaded by jokimoto2000.

I am honing my web2.0 chops. Seems silly how slow I am to adopt some apps, yet I've been blogging for over three years.

Tonight, I've been playing with flickr. I forgot that I uploaded a bunch of NYC photos after John and I spent Thanksgiving there. But that's all I did.  Uploaded them. No titles, no comments, no tags, no map associations, nothing.

Tonight I've been playing with all of that...titles, comments, tags, maps.

Over the last month, I've been clicking away. Jill keeps asking when I'm going to upload more photos of Carolyn. I hear some of you are asking for updates from the initial "hot off the press and out of the oven" photos on the day she was born.

Well first, I dedicate a flickr set to Niece Numero Uno. Miss Talia. I've created a set of photos from Christmas 2007. The majority of the snapshots are of Talia, but there are also photos of everyone else hanging around.

If you'd like to see the full set, go here. Enjoy.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

This is my pledge...

During the years that I've been paying attention, by now I've usually picked my candidate and stood firm throughout the campaign and election. I guess I'm pretty good at picking candidates, because my guy has nearly always been the candidate. He hasn't always won. But he's been on the ticket.

This year, like many of my friends and family members I've been much more ambivalent. I've been leaning toward my fellow Wellesley woman, but I honestly can't decide. I have said more than once, "I just don't know...although, whoever runs on the Democratic ticket will be better than any of the clowns running on the Republican side." (Please note: I caveat that opinion by stating that although I disagree with many of his policies, I don't think John McCain is a clown. I believe he is a man of integrity, I just don't want him to be my president.)

So what is my problem? Maybe the fact is we have some really good choices. Maybe I'm ambivalent not because of weaknesses in the candidates but because of an overabundance of strength.

I just read Patricia Williams' commentary in the 1/13/08 edition of the UK Observer. She makes a number of very interesting points. My pledge is whether Hillary or Barack is on the ticket...I will support either one of them (or both as Ms. Williams dreams) all the way.