Dear Royal Bank: Fail

So I had some financial woes of late, it’s a long story but essentially something happened to my bank account and I had to rush and put all my money on my credit card.  But then there was no money in my account to make their metered out payments, and it was around Chinese New Year so that means no real money coming in for a month or so to send money home.

Anyway it was a bit of a mess, and when I tried to talk to them about it, all they would do is spout parroted bullshit with out any thought.   That’s assuming they would talk to me at all and not be incredibly rude and condescending.   So I ended up just writing it off, I’d make a payment when I was able to send money home.  Normally that would be in a month, two tops… but because of Chinese New Year it ended up taking 3 months to get enough money together to be worth sending home.

My card got cut off, and no one called me or informed me of what was happening.  The only reason I even found out was because I couldn’t update apps on my ipod, and when I called the bank, everyone I talked to was unbelievable rude.  Like I was some sort of  degenerate who had be accumulating mountains of debt and paying nothing for years, as opposed to I missed two payment I live overseas and I contacted then and let them know in advance.  Assholes.

I got pissed off with the rudeness and  asked to be transferred to someone else with manners.  After much BS I finally got someone who didn’t have their head in their ass, got everything sorted out and then I specifically asked if I was going to be running into any other issues or problems in relation to this situation.  I was assured that I wouldn’t and happily went about my life.

Oh another unforeseen shit fest was, I applied for a loan online but wasn’t able to complete it, it would have paid off my credit card and been at a much lower interest rate.  I needed to be in Canada and walk into a bank to sign the papers, but then all this happened and temporarily screwed my credit rating so I couldn’t get the loan while I was home.. most annoying part?  My credit rating corrected within 2-3 months when I was no longer in the country… annoying.

Then, in August they jack my interest rate.. ASSHOLES.  I pay for a low interest rate card and then they bump my interest up…dicks.  I call, pitch a fit and am again treated like a complete piece of shit.  I progressively get more pissed off, and finally get someone polite who agrees that the bank actually screwed up, but she’s not high enough up to change or fix anything.  She promises to talk to people and call me back.  No call, they have completely failed at communicating with and getting back to me.  GRRR

So I call again, pitch a bit of a fit, and insist on speaking to manager, they have taken another installment of interest at this ridiculous rate and everyone is so rude.  There is no manager on, but this girl takes the whole story down and swears someone will call in 24-48 hours max.  Four days later no god damn call.

Now in this time, it occurs to me that I really should just tell them to stuff it.  I mean if I let the card default, let it go into collections, wait a while then contact collections  I can pay it back at 30-50 cents on the dollar.  So I get to keep my money now, don’t have to borrow money from my friend and i’m kinda debt free now.  BITCHES.  sure it messes up my credit rating, in a country I don’t live in and have no intentions of going back to anytime soon.  Shrug, what do I care?

And if I wasn’t such a god damn goodie two shoes…. that is exactly what I would do.  So lame, I wish I was badder…. but given how badly Visa was behaving  I was ready to be bad.

But.. sigh… this week I called and actually got someone intelligent and polite on the phone, who listened to me rant and actually tried to fix things.  Returned the last interest payment (the interest rate had already been fixed) so they returned all they money they took illegitimately plus some.  When I said wasn’t really enough, I got a genuine apology and he offered me a different card with some points that would give me some merch.

Honestly, it still isn’t enough but I’m damn well taking it, I will pay my visa off.  But I am definitely going to investigate other banks credit cards and what they can do for me.  I’m a good customer, and they don’t seem to get that.

I have paid the thing off, but I’m completely unimpressed.

TEDx Magda.. tee hee

For some odd reason they didn’t want to change the name of the event… odd…  Just kidding :D..

I will write later, but I thought I would post my ‘speech’ for those who were interested but unable to make it 🙂  The truth is I didn’t really follow my script and I can’t really tell you how far off of the ‘reservation’ I went until I see the video.  But here’s hoping it was good.  There was a lot of really good positive feed back, and I had a great time.  I’m heading out to see some people, but here is what I wrote.   http://tedxmonga.com/en/tedxmonga-ii

A few months back I lost my voice, not for a day or two, it lasted almost a full week.  And as anyone who knows me could tell you, this was a personal disaster.   It was also a potentially professional one as well.    As a teacher this was an especially difficult and challenging situation to face.  Imagine if you will, that your livelihood depended on your being able, to not only express ideas, but to also expand on them, to interact and communicate in a deep way with others.  Suddenly conventional methods are no longer available.  What do you do?

I could have done what most people suggested and just stayed home, but that didn’t seem quite right to me.  I genuinely believe in innovation and creativity in Education.

And that is why I am here today. In spite of how exciting a story of a mute teacher might be, I want to tell you about what we can accomplish with a little creativity, even in a seemingly rigid environment.

Asia has a very strict and busy education system. It’s extremely competitive over here, and to be successful many feel you must be the best.  To be the best you must work harder and longer than the other millions of people that you are competing with.  It’s a tall order and as a result students are loaded up with hour upon hour of assignments, homework, and extra classes.  It can start in kindergarten and the pressure, classes, and extra homework continues to increase over the years.

Kids here don’t often have much of a chance to be kids, at least in the minds of many who are observing and coming from a different background.  Speaking for myself, I never had to do 6 hours of homework after class, not even in senior high school when prepping for university.  I remember many a happy afternoon spent pouring over books, playing games and just generally relaxing and having fun.

So with all of this pressure and competition, is there any wiggle room for fun and new ideas?  In the past I have frequently been told by many an educator, and administrator there isn’t.   And I have always felt that that is pure and unadulterated garbage.  There is always another way.  So a few years ago I took matters into my own hands, I ignored the negative Nancy’s who told me that Taiwanese parents would never let their kids play games and just have fun;  That there must be tests and homework, writing assignments etc to prove the value and worth of any form of education. I started talking to kids and parents about something new, something different.  A way to study and learn that wasn’t about writing the same thing 1000 times, doing drills, or any other boring form of study.

So where did this all come from?  Honestly, I regularly play board games with my friends and on some level I wanted to find a way to bring my play to work. While playing, I learn and practice things about history, science, new vocabulary, math skills, and the psychology of others, critical thinking and problem solving.  And I do this all on my own time, for fun.   Sounds like work, doesn’t it?  Well it is, and it’s not.

Games have built in reward systems; there are points, achievements, constant progression and movement toward goals throughout the games.  They are riddled with puzzles and problems to solve both big and small, every success is marked and noted.   This all got me thinking, what if there was a way to use this great device to help bring a little fun and excitement into the educational lives of my students.  So I decided to just start using board games, as a learning tool.

You might not believe me here, but I swear to you it’s the truth.  It was fun.  I know, pure blasphemy, no fun should ever be had, in the sanctity of the learning sphere.

When using unconventional tools for learning, such as board games, we provide students with opportunities to communicate in a different way.   Different parts of the mind are engaged and activated, it encourages a more well rounded and active learning experience. Have you ever tried to learn a new subject, language or task simply by reading about it?  How about only being told?  Now think of a time where you were able to immerse yourself in the learning.  Where you actively took part in what you were trying to learn, you had to complete tasks, collaborate and communicate with others who were also involved.

Inhibitions are left behind in the excitement of the possibility of tromping your opponents.  You stop worrying so much about your personal short comings, and focus on the task at hand.  Sometimes it’s a cooperative effort, sometimes it’s competitive, and other times it’s a combination of the two.  Regardless it helps build relationships, not only with what you’re studying but also between the participants; there is a certain comrade-ry that arises.  Additionally, vocabulary and phrases are used over and over again, math skills are needed to calculate and manage your money or scores.  All of this results in becoming more interested and engaged in the topic allowing for a more rounded learning experience.

Studying, words, sentences and grammar from a book in a classroom is effective but it’s also very one dimensional.  Being actively involved in a game is an exciting and fun way to not only practice what you already know and understand, but to also to learn new things in a dynamic fashion.  Allowing you to not only remember more easily but understand on a deeper level.

I was told this would be difficult if not impossible to do in Asia; that local children would never be allowed to waste precious time on such an unstructured activity.  That adults and parents wouldn’t be interested or buy into something so unregulated.  Yet, I have been running a very successful program at a school doing just this for a couple of years now.  I use these games as learning tools in my Adult classes, and am constantly being asked for more game time.

I have also been doing guest lectures for student teachers, and tutors from schools that are interested in this new way of engaging the students.  More and more people are looking for something new, something different and more importantly something interesting.  I have even done a seminar with Junior high and high school teachers from all over the country; telling them of the benefits, and helping them brain storm ideas and ways that they can adapt these kinds of games and activities into the current school system that they have to work within.

Being invited to speak to other teachers, and seeing them embrace these ideas and principals of learning, has been a really gratifying experience.  In recent years there have been more and more people interested in board gaming as a social tool, which can easily be seen by the massive growth of the BoardGameGeek site.  And I believe we can clearly see that utilizing these games as an educational tool not only has the potential to take off but has already gotten many excited about the idea.

There is so much we can learn from a little play.

Here is a little video to give you a small taste of what I’m talking about.

Christmas Reruns…

So if you’ve been checking ye old blog recently you may have thought to your self… wow Magda has been writing again!  Promptly followed by a strong sense of deja vue.

Yes, they are older posts thatI moved to the front of the blog.  I did this because at the TEDXmonga thing, my name and web page were in the book.  Now I have absolutely no idea if anyone will even look at it, BUT they might.  And the only thing I had posted recently was a rant about the TSA.  Didn’t seem very TEDdy ;).

Plus, I have written some pretty good stuff in the past, I just haven’t had the writing bug lately.  I was also hoping posting and rereading all that stuff might motivate me to get off my duff and get back to writing, and life n stuff.

So there you go, the reruns explained ;P

The Art of Failure

Being afraid of failure is STUPID . (<— I should write the book)

I freely admit I am a moron.  I’m am terrified of failure, coupled with my shrieking fear of change I’m nigh on crippled half the time.  The other half I just rock and stare at the wall praying it will all go away now, it never does you know.

You wouldn’t think it, (or maybe you would) but I really am.  And that’s with my knowing why it’s stupid to be worried about failure.  But obviously I don’t KNOW it.  I know on some intellectual, theoretically level but it’s not part of who I am, yet!  I mean look at the whole, quit my morning job business.  Scary, but then what did I do with the whole thing?  And then I was deliberating over that whole online course I was taking, now I’m just sorta floating around trying to choose a direction to move in.

Why?  What’s the big hold up?  I’m smart, I know how to do things, I’m extremely good at most thing when I put my mind to it.  Hell I’m good at them when I don’t even put my mind to it.  What is it that’s holding me back from…. taking over the world ( 😀 per-say)?

Fear, mind boggling terror.  Of what?  Failure.  That’s right, I’m a moron.  I’m completely freaked that I’m going to try to do something, loose a bunch of money, make some horrible mistake and look like a fool.  Really what do I care?  No offense but I don’t really care what ‘people’ think, so what the hell is my problem?

Here I am, telling you, how stupid it is to be afraid to fail.  Hypocrite!!

Well, screw it! Hypocrite or not, I’m telling you all (and myself) to stop it.  Stop holding yourself back, reach as far as you can.  So what if you fall on your face, get back up and reach again.  If all you ever do and try is what you’re confidant of, you will never even come close to reaching any kind of potential.  You will be like everyone else, mediocre, average, CRAP!!!

Well, what’s the art then?

Do you have to fail?

That’s pretty much it, isn’t it?  You need to stop being scared, and the only truly effective way I know to stop being

Seminar

So this weekend (Ok sadly I wrote 90% of this the weekend after my birthday AT the seminar….) I’m in a seminar for Eye’s open hypnosis.  The opportunity came up just before my birthday and I though..  it’s something I’m interested in so I should step outside of my box and give it a go.  And I’m really glad I decided to to it.  So far we’re halfway through the first day, and it’s been really interesting, there have been many cool discussions and demonstrations.

Coming way out to XiZhi (ShiJr) and tying up my whole weekend isn’t something I’ve been excited about, but it’s been a really positive experience so far.  Brian, who is giving  the seminar is really good at what he does and is very intelligent and personable.  So it’s not only interesting, it’s quite fun because he’s got a quirky sense of humor.

Plus he’s got a Siamese cat.. which we all know is my true love ;0)  He’s Siamese yowling right now.. aka someone pay attention to me damn it.

We’ve been talking about hypnosis and NLP and how to use it in therapy, and influence.  My favourite book, Influence: science and practice has been brought up several times which of course has pleased me to no end.

There are 6 of us here taking the seminar, one girl is interesting resistance to physical responses, but then he used her analyzing and resistance to physical cues to distract her and her critical factor  suddenly you could see her respond to things that she was clearly resistant to.  She described it very well, that you are at crossroads, to refuse or to go into the ‘fog’.  It’s like  lucid dreaming, when you  realize you’re dreaming you have a few seconds to make a choice; wake up or dive in.  Refuse it, or play along.

Anyway the weekend was very interesting, Brian actually did some therapy on me and it really helped.  He also showed us how to do some of the therapies on and with others.  Interestingly Brian is one of the best at what he does and is quite well known in the US but over here there isn’t much awareness.

Then a few weeks ago Brian had a show at the Comedy club and I was determined to enjoy the show and not be on the stage.  In order to make sure I got to watch I brought two of my friends who I had fairly good reason to be sure that they would be good subjects.

Wooo nelly I was right.   I had a fantastic time.  Unfortunately there weren’t many people at the show but we had a great time.  We all hung out having drink afterwards and ended up at a KTV of all places.  😀

Here are a couple of video clips from the show 😀

TEDxFormosa

So I did something silly, I applied to be a speaker for the TEDx thingie in Taipei this December.  While it’s not particularity likely that the powers that be will choose me to be a presenter, you never know I’ve seen odder talks before.  Honestly, I applied because it certainly doesn’t hurt to try, and it would be SO cool if I was chosen to participate.

But what the hell could you possibly talk about?  Have you met me?  I could talk about anything but something that might be TED worthy?  Well the topic is things that work well in Asia, so any innovations, ideas or practices that work and are more Asia specific.  Well I have my board game project, which has gotten me invited to be a speaker to a few different things.  Actually I just finished a speaker seminar type thing today.  This time it was more on conversation classes, which I also have a little experience in, but not really the same passion for.

I think the whole board games as an educational tool is a really fun and interesting topic and I feel rather passionately about it.  Perhaps it is just because it allows me to have fun and interact while introducing people to games.  But mostly I think it’s an untapped resource to aid in learning and study.

Regardless, I think it’s pretty cool that there will be a TEDx conference in Taipei this year.  And it would be so very cool to be involved.

Eeep, I’m kinda sleepy and run down from my speech today and getting up early to go running, like a good girl.  That will be all, I’ll keep you posted.  J

Kohl’s Cares

This company in the states that my friend (who just had a baby and her husband and also my friend went a little wild making a website for the baby, if you’re into baby pictures you can check it out here .  He’s actually quite a good photographer, so while I don’t give a hoot about baby pictures, his pics are really good.  Here are some more of his photos if you’re into that sort of thing on Flicr. Fuck ramble ramble.. sorry back to the point) MJ works at, Kohl’s .. which I always thought was spelled Coles, is giving away 10 million dollars to 20 schools which is a pretty nice thing to be doing.    Now of course their probably not doing it just out of the goodness of their hearts, but hey when you give away 10 million dollars I think you deserve a little attention and good press.

So the way they’ve decided to do it is to hold a contest online through facebook, handy as everyone is there most of the day anyway.   You go to their facebook ‘busines’s and then you can vote 20 times (max of 5 times per school).  I love things that let me be philanthropic with other people’ money.

So even cooler my friend Casey lives in Milwaukee and apparently Kohls is a Milwaukee based company.  There are three schools in the runn

Lie to me, Biatch!

So there is this show that started last year that I’m super into.  Called, you guessed it, Lie to me.   It’s all based on the science of this guy called Dr. Paul Ekman, it’s one of the coolest shows I’ve ever seen if for no other reason that the whole thing is based on real stuff.  It’s all about micro expressions, and how you can tell people are lying.  They have all kinds of real life references, pictures etc of famous people that have been later been proven to be lying. (like that OJ kid)

Well every since I saw the show ‘Lie to me’ I have been really interested in the whole topic and with a little research I discovered that not only was it all based on real stuff the main character is (loosely) based on a real guy, who is an actual consultant on the show.  Not only does he consult on the show but Ekman does some vlogs to break down the science behind some of the stuff touched on in ‘Lie to me’.  I, unfortunately not living

The Stick… Seriously?

Am I overly cynical?  screw that .. I’m so not.

This is ridiculous… go to this site.   http://www.thestick.com/ Make your own judgment and then come back and see what I have to say.

Back yet?

Ok…. SERIOUSLY!!! WTF  it’s

Your input would be really appreciated!

I’m going to make a site, but I can’t decide on a domain name.  It’s going to be funny picture and I have most things ready to go but I’m not sure which domain name to buy… it’s not about life in asia.. is crazy ass weird shit you see all the time here but you just wouldn’t see anywhere else!

What do you guys think? you can vote on more than one and suggestions are totally welcome.  (my original idea was http://www.onlyinasia.com but it’s not available :P)

please pass this along to others and give me as much input as you can… thanks guys!!!

Teaching Sells, does it?

So at the urging of a close friend I signed up for an online marketing sales type course called Teaching Sells.  And there is a lot of interesting information and more importantly teachers and a network of other people trying to do the same things as I am.  Making money online, with blogs marketing, membership sites etc.  This network is good because people help you brainstorm, help encourage you when your down and give advice when your feeling lost and confused.

Sounds great right?  Well what’s the catch?  It’s not free (obviously), and it’s a little expensive.  Don’t get me wrong, in the grand scheme of things it’s not, but it comes to about $2000 and it feels a little steep, perhaps I’m just cheap but it feels heavy to me.  On one hand, ouch right… but on the other, all this information is nicely packaged so you don’t have to sift through the crap, plus there are people involved whose whole job is to help you make this work for you.  Besides, if you have nothing riding on it, what is there to push you forward and MAKE you do it?

Perhaps some of you just have the ambition and

Not a Pro Blogger…. Yet (Part 2)

Continued from last time…

• Paragraphs and Spacing.  It seems obvious and trivial, but I have had to point it out to almost every ‘new’ blogger I know.  Just having paragraphs doesn’t cut it, make sure there is a space between each paragraph.  Also try break big ass paragraphs up a little into more digestible pieces, it makes actually reading more palatable.
• Don’t have music, sound, or video play automatically.  You might think it’s neat but it’s very irritating when you go to the page and have to search for the off button for the sound, especially if you are not at a private computer.

• Buy a domain name.  You don’t have to, but if you’re serious about your blog you should consider it.  You can just be lazy like me and just have it forward to your existing blog, but it still makes it super easy for people to remember and find your blog.
• Learn about keywords, Tags, and Categories.  The oversimplification is that tags are what search engines use to search, and Categories are more contained sections of your blog. See [here] for a better explanation on the issue. Learning about key words [here].
• If you have something to say, say it don’t save it.  Too many times you think, wow this is a great topic I should

Not a Pro Blogger…. Yet (Part 1)

This post contains:

• Some updates and information on blogging
• usual Magda chit chat
• Some links to interesting and relevant materials/people
• Some of what I have learned so far about better blogging (at the end.. I wanted to move it to the beginning but it just didn’t work with the flow :D)
• These are what I have found to be true, they are not rules.  If something doesn’t ‘work’ for you then don’t do it 🙂

Well I ever be? Perhaps.   I’m looking into it because my big goal right now is to get paid for the things I am already doing and like doing.  One of those things is my blog.

Side bar… completely ironic that I’m little miss bloggy pants as I only got my original blog under pain of smacking.  Tracey had one, as an alternative to emailing everyone while traveling, and it really is a better alternative.  You write it, and they come to read it, instead of slamming people’s in-boxes with massive email updates.  I was

Choose Your Donation

In the past few years I’ve tried to be a little more involved in charity.  I’m not much for volunteering but I make ok money, so I try to donate a little something here and there when I can.  But even more than just donating money, I like the idea of doing things to leverage the money I donate.  Getting donations from others, holding contests, etc, I’ve had few ideas in the past and have talk about it a lot with Casey.  Actually, I believe it was Casey going on about a project that he wanted to do years ago that really got the whole thing on my mind.

Well Casey is up to his usual manic antics, and has decided to take on a huge project.  He’s trying to get all the projects for Donor’s Choose in Milwaukee Funded before school starts.  Donor’s choose is cool, because teachers post projects that they need funding for and can’t get it from the school systems.  So you go on the web page and check out all the different project and decide what and how much you want to donate.  Then the teachers, send you messages and pictures thanking you.  Which is nice, and especially nice because they just thank you they don’t ask you for anymore.  (Which totally essentially pisses me off.. I just gave you something and now you’re asking for more?)

I’ve donated to them a couple of times, the first I think was when Tim Ferris gave away a bunch of money for other people to Donate to Charity (that was fun).  I’m not actually going to try to explain the whole thing Casey is doing because he does it very well himself on the social Milwaukee site [click here].  So I’m writing this on my blog to draw attention to it, and hopefully encourage all my friends and family to Donate a Dollar to a project through the social Milwaukee Page.  And to up the anti, if you donate a dollar, leave me a comment here and I’ll match your donation (see so it’s like your money just got doubled)!

EVEN BETTER!….. Ask your people to donate :D.  No pressure, if you’re not interested or there are no projects that tickle your fancy don’t worry about it.  But I’m a teacher and sometimes schools and parents won’t pony up the dough for the kids.  I wish that we had something like this where I am teaching, it would be super cool to get funding for special projects and books.  Even if you decide not to donate anything at all, I would really appreciate it if you would just take a look at the site and the information, if you happen to pass it on because you agree with it 😉 all the better.

here are the links, in case you missed them:

Social Milwaukee:   http://www.socialmilwaukee.com/

Donor’s Choose:   http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=22215&category=78&utm_source=BC08&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=GP

Amazon.ca Sucks <– with some resolution in the end

Being back in my home town has reminded me why I grew up hating the states.  For one thing it’s just part of the social ‘joking’ culture of northern rural towns and there is a lot of bitterness at the American companies that clearly take advantage of Canada and it’s resources.  The water, the hydro, and lumber it is pretty offensive that it’s cheaper to buy BC lumber in the US and ship it back to Bc that to just buy it in Bc due to some fancy fan-dangling that the companies have done.. not to mention the how  they raised and illegal tariff on lumber bankrupted all the companies bought them out and by the time the courts had ruled and ordered them to pay back damages.. they were just paying Damages back to themselves as they had bought everyone out.  There is good business and dirty business… that’s down right dirty.

Not say I’m back to my old hating ways, just that I have a little more insight as to why I hated the USA so much before, and why so many people and countries still do.

And on to why the USA doesn’t suck and back to the Title.

Amazon.com, which is the US page is just full of awesome they answer you quickly they almost always have the lowest prices even if you have to pay for shipping, they ship to you almost guarantee-ably faster than the ‘estimated shipping time’ and your stuff always arrives at the beginning of the projected arrival period and usually even before that.  So if  something takes a little longer every now and again, you’re not too irritated about it.  Also if you use free shipping (aka you bought a bunch of crap from them) they do their best to ship it to you reasonably quickly instead of saying “you didn’t

Exciting Business Opportunity!

Wow I”m so excited I just got this email for the wild new business opportunity!!  And look look I’m ‘quite astute in private entrepreneurship’  HA

FROM: Mr.Liu Yan
Bank of China Ltd.
13/F. Bank of China Tower1 Garden Road
Hong Kong.

I sincerely ask for forgiveness for I know this may seem like a complete
intrusion to your privacy but right about now this is my option of
communication. This mail might come to you as a surprise and the
temptation to ignore it as unserious could come into your mind; but please
consider it a divine wish and accept it with a deep sense of humility.
This letter must surprise you because we have never meet before neither in
person nor by correspondence,but I believe that it takes just one day to
meet or know someone either physically or through correspondence.

I got your contact through my personal search, you were revealed as being
quite astute in private entrepreneurship,and one has no doubt in your
ability to handle a financial business transaction. I am Mr. Liu Yan a
transfer supervisor operations in investment section in Bank of China Ltd.
Secretariat of the BOCHK Charitable Foundation 13/F. Bank of China Tower,
1 Garden Road,Hong Kong I have an obscured business suggestion for
you.Before the U.S and Iraqi war our client General Mohammed Jassim Ali
who work with the Iraqi

Contacting Random people is fun :)

Ages ago a friend mentioned having met this woman named Tristan Taormino, who is this sex author guru type person.  I ended up looking around on her site [puckerup.com] and reading a bunch of stuff about her and thought gee she seems mighty interesting I think I’ll write to her.. you know just on a whim… Saying I though it was cool that she was so confidant and that while I may not agree with all her principals that I found her work and what she seemed to be trying to do interesting.   well wouldn’t you know it she wrote back to me

Hi Magda!

I’m sorry I’m late in replying…the past week or two of travel have had me running!  I wanted to say thank you so much for your wonderful email.  It’s so important for us all to have an opportunity to learn and grow, and to explore things about ourselves and our sexuality – when we know what we enjoy and we can embrace it, we can truly start to live life to it’s fullest.  I’m honored by your compliments, and I’m glad that you found out about my work!

Well that was fun, I just wrote for a giggle and look I got a reply… so then a couple of days ago I say this story about some guy who sued google and won.. (rara little guy!!) And after reading that I came across something that indicated he was the same guy that is in some dispute with Facebook (over who’s idea it really was).  So again I think.. hm might be fun to drop this guy a line…  here’s a clip from my email to him

I read your blog post about suing goggle… and I have to say AWESOME.  While I use Google a 1000 times a day I have always said that as long as things are running smoothly, great.. but if you ever hit a problem with Google.. you’re fucked because they have no one to contact and no matter how hard you try any attempts to get and answer or help leave you frustrated and alone.

And would you believe it, he wrote back to me.. on the same day no less…

Magda,

Thanks for your very amusing e-mail. I enjoyed reading it.

It’s true, I do have a bit of a difference of opinion with Facebook, Inc. I’m just glad the one with Google is resolved.

All the best,

Aaron

Aaron Greenspan
President & CEO
Think Computer Corporation

Moral of the story… I doubt there is one.. I just thought it was fun that I wrote to these very random, likely busy people and they took the time to write back to some random girl.  🙂

The restaurant, money and life

It’s funny I saved this title meaning to write a post on Sept 14th… and man have things gone up down and sideways since then!

I swear I have mentioned the Restaurant before, but given my sister and the “whoa whoa hold on what restaurant” I am now wondering if I did. There was all kinds of research and negotiations going on. And at the beginning of September Tracey and I were so convinced we were going to go ahead an open it that we paid our deposit. Unfortunately, a week or so after that(and for the next month or so), there were some money issues, our third investor disappeared, my personal life went all over the place and then so did Tracey’s.

Every time we adjusted to the new issues (investor disappearing, new possible investors etc), something else happened. We both still are very interested in the prospects of the business, but basically for now it’s off. Why is a long story and has mostly to do with money, a lot of the investment money was/is in the stock market which has plunged so if they money is taken out then it’s just lost. Just doesn’t make any sense right now.

I suspect I had more to say but it’s not coming to me now, I wrote this over the weekend but I had to set it to publish after I spoke with Greg. We have an appointment to meet with him on Tuesday and it’s not right to be broadcasting things like this until we have at least spoken with him.

Fit for charity

Hmm so I sent out an email about this.. Oddly I didn’t really hear anything back. Honestly I was a little disappointed, not that people aren’t interested but I thought that I would have heard a little something from more people. I guess my excitement didn’t spill over enough.. oops

My plan is to encourage people to participate in my fit for charity project. I made a hyped up on adrenalin video about it –> here

Pleh I had big plans to write all this out.. but .. honestly I’m tired and don’t feel like it.

Summary, I’m trying to raise money for Room to Read, it involves providing books, learning and education to kids who might not otherwise have the joy of literacy. So I’m combining some things I love, kids and the fun of introducing the world of reading to them, helping people, and fitness. For every Km you or someone you know (me perhaps) runs, someone (yourself or coworkers friends etc.. definitely hit up the boss 😉 I did) pledges to contribute $1 or more per km… so far I have 6 people who have committed to participate by running and two who are matching my pledge.

As I said in my email, any support is appreciated… just $1, $5, $100 or even just positive words of encouragement. I’m excited, this is the first time I have ever tried anything like this and I would like to do the best I can. Will you help me?

Linkedin.com FTW!!!

So I joined linked in because some cool interesting dudes I know told me to.. and I thought what the heck.. can’t hurt.

Now I can’t claim that it has brought me anything on the business end…. BUT it did reconnect me with our awesome holiday friend from Boracay, Mike the firefighter/migrant worker.. he was our muscle.. since he spoke enough Tagalog to keep us from getting sold into slavery (his words!)  I’m pleased to make that re-connection Mike was a seriously funny guy and I was kinda bummed that attempts to keep in touch failed (We emailed him but his spam blockers blocked us… dang spam bots ruining shit for everyone).

In other news, I have booked and bought(almost) my ticket and am heading to the states next Sat, should be interesting.  Speaking of .. I need to pack 😉

New projects (It’s hard posting everyday!)

So I have realized it’s a little difficult actually writing / posting everyday, and it’s only going to get worse… so to speak. I have recently started working on the HBB site, for a couple of reasons, one being that it’s fun and also it’s good practice for the projects that I want to do myself.

My projects:

a) My personal blog, you’re reading it.. this is it .. I doubt this needs explanation 😉 I’m going to redirect my domain name here… I’m tired of the double posting and Live Journal isn’t floating my boat lately.

b) ChickNag.com

c) ChickMag (formerly ChickRag) but it got too many negative responses when I presented it 😦 ) After some brainstorming with my sister we came up with ChickMag which is meant to be a cool place to go read articles by or about really Amazing Chicks doing intersting things.. or bits of interesting stories or news we come across. I’m hoping to start it as a collective blog among my circle of girls and their girls and see where it goes. Seems like it will be a fun experiment.

On the celebration front… Wed ended up getting canceled Thursday was ok, but just a quick one while out for a bit and tonight should be AWESOME! we’ll be riding the bull baby!! I will be sure to get some pictures and footage of that! .. Speaking of I must remember to edit episode two 😛

Entrepreneurial meeting and bad ass mood

I really should have written this yesterday when I was all super hyper and excited…. I don’t know what happened I was on cloud 9 all day yesterday… just bubbly happy and full of pizazz. I accidentally stayed up WAY too late chatting online but it was very amusing so not a huge deal… But then in the morning.. CRASH BURN This morning, it wsn’t that I couldn’t get out of bed I just didn’t care.. I felt really meh and down… I have no idea why…. I recognize the feeling it’s a form of depression but I was in such a good mood where the hell did it come from… nothing to trigger it… just down in the dumps.. All I want to do is lay in bed and sleep or cry or something equally lame and pathetic :(. I’m totally not looking for simpathy I just felt like sharing that I’m have a crap day, I really hope it passes before tomorrow I’d rather my birthday was pleasant instead of attack of little miss Eeyore.

Yesterday was really cool, my new friend JLick invited me to this entrepreneurial meeting/seminar. And the actual presentation was very good and has some valuable information but most of it was not applicable to me so… the useful information I got from it for my self could have been summarized in 15 mins easily. Tracey ended up leaving for the same reason (that and we had no idea how long it would go), but soon after the presentation ended and we went to TGI Fridays for food and drinks + chatting.

That was super awesome, fun and interesting. I met all of these great people to know, who themselves are awesome contacts but they are also linked to really interesting and influential people. Like one guy who at a formal dinner, just happened to be seated next to the minister for foreign affairs, turned to him during dinner and said “Hey can we talk about Taiwan’s foreign policy? I think it needs some work, these things just don’t make sense if you want foreign business and investments.” Pretty darned cool if you ask me. All the guys were super helpful and I got a lot of email addresses and contacts. Normally I would know what to do with them but a couple of the guys even told me what write or ask and that they would teach me some new stuff. Pretty amazing, I have heard it a 1000 times before that people with knowledge and skills want to share them but this is my first real broad band experience with that.

Lunch time.