Pics!

More pictures!

Quick post before I get eaten alive by the mosquitoes...

Wat Pho temple


Temple of the Jade Buddha


Men playing some form of checkers using...bottle caps?


Oh beautiful, glorious, CHEAP food! (340 baht, about $9)




A wonderful street vendor who provided me lunch


I had a blast trying to speak to her using my pidgin Thai picked up from the back of my LP guide. It's pretty amazing how far you can get by on facial expressions, a map, and lots of smiles. We managed to chat about my photos, what to see and what to what to avoid (Q: what does gun gesture + south of Thailand equal? A: mafia country!), and she taught me how to count to 10 :) Thai is damn hard, I tell ya. Their writing alphabet seem so complicated. Now I understand why people complain Chinese characters are so hard; to the untrained eye it must look like the friggin' Egyptian hieroglyphs!

Now boarding: flight to Hell!


At the Ancient City






I finally decided to get a travel photography book to actually teach myself how to shoot better photos. Prior to this I had always been a trial-and-error photographer, basically getting by just by shooting a large volume of shots and picking the best ones. While digital photography affords one the ability to do so, it obviously doesn't get one very far, and I bit the bullet and splurged on an actual guide. It was 850 baht (~$21), but I think it's totally worth it. Now I can really consciously work on getting better on this trip. I just picked it up yesterday, but I think (hope) my composition is already getting a little better!

Touchdown

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this update --

*************

I just touched down in Bangkok after a brutal, 24hr flight (thanks to a 2 hr layover in SFO and 6hr layover in Narita). I'm completely beat, since I haven't slept much the previous couple of nights either, thanks to moving craziness. In total it's been about 8hrs in bed out of 3 days...ouch). I'm staying at the Shanti Lodge, which looks to be really awesome so far.

The craziest thing happened in narita though - I ran into Tim Choi, good friend whom I haven't seen in a long time at the airport!! He was on a flight back to sfo and I was waiting to transit to bangkok. I walked into this japanese food court to get some food, and i heard someone call my name. I was like, "wtf? there must be a mistake." I turn around and lo and behold, there's Tim! Crazy huh? We hung out for an hr while I ate some food and caught up, that was really cool. Talk about a small world.

Thus far, I'd have to say I think Thailand's rumored heat is overrated. Nyc was hotter and more humid. The mosquitoes, however, are not. I've only been here a couple hours and the assault has already begun in earnest. I count half a dozen so far. This must be the new guy welcome...

We're not in Kansas (or Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania...) anymore

Yes, that's true. For those of you who worried, we haven't been perpetually stuck in the twilight zone between Chicago and the cornfields of Ohio, despite what this blog may have you believe. I just haven't had time to write anything halfway decent, and I hate to just ramble all over my blog. So I'll have to give you a brief, whirlwind picture tour of the rest of our trip before I dash off to Thailand tomorrow.

Corn! We are children of the corn!



This is the closest this city boy has ever been to a real corn, outside of Safeway. Naturally, it was quite exciting for me.



Somewhere along the way in Erie, Penn, we found this Nascar-themed Buffalo wings haven, and we just had to go. I mean, that's why people do on road trips right? Apparently people come from all over, including neighboring states, to this place to eat. Besides the over-the-top decor, they also offer about 30 different levels of hot wings, from the mere tangy, to truly atomic. Apparently the atomic version has something like 25,000 units of spice-ness (I don't remember the exact scientific name) per unit of food, which requires you to sign a consent form and liability waiver before they'll let you try it. I kid you not.





Sneak preview at Oct's cover of Hot Rod magazine!

On the road

After an almost too short 3 days in Chicago, we hit the road for small town America, burgers, corn fields, and UFOs. On our way out from Chicago, we hit some massive rain. Now I know why Midwesterners snicker at Seattle rain. Seriously, I thought when people said it rained so hard that it was like pouring water on your windshield, I always thought they were full of ish. But check this out.

Before


After


It was no exaggeration when I say it was like someone was throwing buckets and buckets of water on our windshield. Later we found out that we encountered one of the biggest downpours of the year thus far, causing flooding in Cleveland and a bunch of other cities in the Midwest.

I'm also proud to announce my new favorite chain diner - best catfish fillets and candied carrots ever!


Look, giant Smarties! Only in the midwest!


Pick up lines, 50's-style

Chicago, part deux

A trip to Chicago would not be complete without a visit to one of its ethnic neighborhoods, so we went to check out Pilsen, a well-known Hispanic neighborhood despite its not-so-Spanish name (interestingly, Pilsen is the Czech town where Pilsner Urquell was born, where I went for a brewery tour). The subway stop had lots of artistic murals, providing an interesting backdrop to an otherwise weathered subway stop.







And then we had lunch at this wonderful hole in the wall Mexian place called Gloria's. Gloria, the owner herself, really welcomed us and made us felt at home. Barrie chatted up the super friendly owner with ease in Spanish (sigh, I'm so jealous. She speaks Italian and Spanish), while I got to embarrass myself with my crap-tastic gringo (or would that be amarillo?) espanol.

Me: uh, um, para mi, uno taco asada por favor? (por? para? damn I can never
remember)
Gloria: un taco asada? y una coca cola?
Me: [nods head vigorously]

Despite my mighty linguistic struggles, the food was awesome. Simple but hearty and refreshing.


After an unsuccessful attempt to Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise since it wasn't really worth it, we made it out to the Navy Pier for a nice night walk.



What does this remind you of?


While officially called "Cloud Nine", it is known as "The Bean" to everyone else. Anish Kapoor's gigantic metallic sculpture in Millennium Park is an endless source of amusement to people, especially kids (and yours truly). Its curved and reflective surface creates all sorts of cool photo opportunities. On a sunny day, as when we were there, you can see an endless stream of people underneath the giant bean looking at their own reflections. It's also just a great public space for people to gather and spend time outdoors with friends and families. A Chicago paper I read proudly proclaimed that Chicagoans are the people who best know how to enjoy summer. During the fleeting month or two of comfortable, warm weather, everyone just comes out en masse to enjoy the weather, not unlik Seattlelites. Though we don't really have much to complain about when comparing weather with our Midwestern neighbors.





There's also Crown Fountain, two opposing 50 ft structures composed of glass cubes, forming mosaics of various citizens. They smile, they frown, and every once in a while, they blow!

And the adventure begins

My (hopefully epic) travels for this year has officially begun yesterday, after I quit my job, packed my things, and hit the road for good. It still feels kind of surreal that my life in Seattle is over and I'm now moving into unknown territory, but it also feels good too. Sometimes you need a little catalyst to jolt you out of the mundane and remind yourself what living life, not just merely coasting along, is like. I just can't describe how electrifyingly alive it is to be on the road again.



So, I set out for the Windy City with Portos and Athos...ahem, I mean Alex and Barrie.






And first impressions so far? Wow, what a majestic city. Everything about it is grand, spacious, and open. It is probably the most architecturally aesthetic American city I have ever been to, truly living up to its heritage of Frank Lloyd Wright and other amazing architects. Downtown is filled with well-preserved Beaux Arts and Art Deco buildings, and walking around often feels like traversing a man-made Grand Canyon of steel and glass. We're staying at a fabulous location, in the middle of downtown CHI, where everything is within walking or L distance.



Knowing me and food, one of the first things we did was to go to Pizzeria Uno, the purported birthplace of the deep-dish pizza. The pizza was damn good I have to say. Not quite as good as I had hoped it to be, the crust was a little flaky for my liking, but the toppings were flavorful and servings generous.



Secretly, I think Zachary's in Berkeley is a bit better, but it's probably difficult to live up to everyone's expectations as well. Funny thing is, there's a Pizzeria Due down the street if the line ever became too long, though fortunately we didn't need to go there.



Next we walked down the Magnificent Mile, which is this stretch along Michigan Ave. with tons of luxury shops and buildings, kind of like Chicago's version of 5th Ave. We dutifully played our part of wide-eyed tourists by going up the John Hancock building to get a panoramic view of the city. I'm glad to say it didn't disappoint; to see Lake Michigan stretch to horizon with no land in sight is truly magnificent, and makes you wonder if the early explorers ever mistook the Great Lakes for an actual sea.



After coming down, I have to admit I succumbed to my impulses and bought some stuff at H&M ;) But they were good bargains (when is H&M ever not cheap?), or at least that's what I keep telling myself. For dinner, we ventured out of the touristy downtown into Lincoln Park, one of Chicago's old neighborhoods. It was gorgeous, to walk along in the warm summer night breeze, sunset in the background, and rows upon rows of old, charming apartments and houses lining the streets. There were little boutiques on the 1st floor and beautifully restored housing on top, reminding me a lot of parts of Boston and SF.

And for dinner (yes, you know it was going to come back to food, don't you?), we went to this awesome place called Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, which served up some finger-licking-good Spanish tapas with some good-looking clientele :) Umm yeah, doubly delicious. I guess there must be some sort of reason among the karma gods, as Seattle's imbalanced ratio is obviously balanced out elsewhere in the universe - like here.

I'd love to write more but sadly my internet connection is running out and I must go...to be continued!

The (sports) gods must be angry

god, what the hell happened to the sports world? I go camping for a few days and all hell breaks loose. First Brazil loses to France, which totally sucks. Then Portugal beats England, which is bullshit, those diving bastards don't deserve to advance, and now Germany loses to Italy, another stage-acting, overdramatic, flopping team? This is friggin terrible. And the Lakers are picking up Radmanovic (read: yet another one-dimensional, soft shooter with no inside game. Like we need another one of them?) What kind of retard ass move is that? Jesus christ, my beloved lakers is totally going to the shitters...please just shoot me now. We don't need Jerry West to see thatwe need an athletic, two-way defensive doberman at the 1 - hell even I can see that!

Update: well at least France beat those Portuguese floppers today. Good god. I'm rooting for les bleus to take it all now, now that my favorites are all knocked out. Sadness.

On Gilmore Girls, the big G, and Southeast Asia

'Gilmore Girls' is a hit with guys, too'

Yes!!! Now I can finally come out of the closet - I, too, am a Gilmore Girls fan! Wow, what a witty, charming show. I initially started watching only by accident because I was watching w/ someone, but then quickly got hooked. I just love the snarky, clever diaogue and embedded cultural and literary trivia all throughout the show. It's almost impossible to find TV with such wonderful writing these days. Just a very intelligent show with lots of warmth and endearing characters over all.

Yeah, and I love pink shirts too. There. :)

*************
In other news, I formally accepted my offer from the big G today. Yup, I will be quitting my first full-time, professional job. What a surreal moment. I never planned to stay in Seattle for more than a couple years, but still it seems like just yesterday when I first moved up and For those of you (gosh, for my limited blog readership - that's like what, all of five people?) who've been with me through out this drawn out process, thank you so much for your support, encouragement, advice, and well wishes. I couldn't have done it w/o my wonderful friends. Thank you all.

So now that I have some time off between jobs, I'm super excited to get back on the road again. It's been almost a year since I last strapped on my backpack, and I'm itching for some adventure. First, I will take two weeks to do a roadtrip across the US with some friends. Well, halfway across, rather than the whole way. I wanted to go the whole way but the other guys couldn't quit their jobs :) . We'll fly into Chicago and take the Oregon Trail, going through the Great Lakes, Niagra Falls, out to Boston, then down to NYC. You can even take a look at our trip plan here (btw, Live Local has got some awesome features. I think GMaps has kind of been sitting on its laurels the last couple of years. They really need to get off their asses, heh, maybe I'll be the one doing it).

Then, I'm planning on going to SE Asia for 5-6 wks, just backpacking through the mainland. So far on my itinerary is Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and possibly Myanmar. Any travel suggestions/advice people?

Hear, hear!

Soccer has become a favorite pastime of the American intellectual. "Many people would say that soccer is the latte or the Subaru of the sporting spectrum"

The other shoe

has finally dropped. It's been, what, almost five months now, since I wrote this entry? I can't believe it's been so long. And now the point has finally tipped, it feels so surreal. I've crossed, and now I just have to make a decision. What will it be? I supposed I should feel elated; instead, I just feel relieved. It's been such an agonizingly long process that during this past month I just wanted it to end - I didn't really care how. And now that things have, I feel surprisingly calm about it. Things aren't completely what I'd like them to be, there are a couple details that really irk me, though I don't think they will be deal breakers at the end.

Moreoever, I guess the decision will come down to what I'm looking for. There's been so much hype, part of me want to say yes just to find out for myself what's real vs. what's hype. That aside, everything I've learned and heard about the people have just been really great. People seem to be really, really sharp, and passionate about what they do. Which really excites me. I really want to re-capture my mojo again, to get so excited about something to want to work on it 24-7. Am I just really want to work with top-notch people. A+ people I can learn from, and be inspired by. That really excites me. They are growing really fast, too fast for my comfort, but then that's to be expected I suppose.

And I guess I do have some stories to tell, though I'm pretty wary of the power of search engines - I don't really want this to getting /.ed or digged or anything like that. Maybe it will suffice to say that I was asked questions of all shapes and sizes (in four different languages - first three went pretty well, pero mi espanol era muy malo though), from water bottle packaging, to egg dropping, to coding, to lots of infinite numbers, lists, sorts and optimal this and optimal that, to growing apple's market share, to winning in china, and a few more things here and there. Yeah, they do beat you up until you think you can't go anymore, and then some.

So what's it going to be? I don't really know yet. I guess I'll sleep on it for a few days, and then think about it some more. And I guess at least now I can watch all the world cup I want without worrying about this anymore. Ha!

Goooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!

I've been watching a lot of World Cup this past week, averaging about 1 match/day. It's been awesome. I've never been a big football fan previously, because I always felt it was too low-scoring compared to games like bball and tennis, but now I can truly appreciate the game. The game can turn in seconds and every shot counts, unlike other sports. And I love how how the fans get so into it. The roar of the fans after a big play is simply electrifying.

Anyways, I found this as the official World Cup theme. Pretty cool, not quite as good as Ricky Martin's "La Copa de la Vida" but still really good.



And check out this goal - how incredible is that?!


Interestingly, the traditional powerhouses aren't doing terribly well. Brazil has underwhelmed in its two games so far, and so has Holland. France is on the verge of elimination, and Englad barely scraped through its last two matches. Argentina is the only one performing to form so far, their 6:0 crushing of S&M was awe-inspiring. Too bad they may meet the Germans in the quarterfinals.

As a side benefit, it's certainly helping me get up earlier these days, to watch these 9am matches. Maybe I'll be conditioned into an early riser after the Cup, ha!

你心中的這個特別的朋友

你心中有這樣的一個人嗎？
你們可能相愛過，你們也可能喜歡著彼此，
但是，為了什麼原因你們沒能在一起？
也許他為了朋友之間的義氣，不能追你。
也許為了顧及家人的意見，你們沒有在一起。

也許為了出國深造，他沒有要你等他。
也許你們相遇太早，還不懂得珍惜對方。
也許你們相遇太晚，你們身邊已經有了另一個人。
也許你回頭太遲，對方已不再等待。
也許你們彼此在捉摸對方的心，而遲遲無法跨出界線。

不過即使你們沒在一起，你們還是保持了朋友的關系。
但是你們心底清楚，對這個人，你比朋友還多了一份關心。
即使不能跟他名正言順的牽著手逛街，你們還是可以做無所不談的朋友。
他有喜歡的人，你口頭上會幫他追，心里卻不是很清楚，你是不是真的希望他追到。

他遇到困難時，你會盡你所能的幫他，不會計較誰又欠了誰。
男女朋友吃醋了，你會安撫他們說你和他只是朋友，但你心中會有那麼一絲的不確定。
每個人這輩子，心中都有過這麼一個特別的朋友，很矛盾的行為。
一開始你不甘心只做朋友的，但久了，突然發現這樣最好。
希望我們來世還有線能相逢
你寧願這樣關心他，總好過你們在一起而有天會分手。
你寧願做他的朋友，彼此不會吃醋，才可以真的無所不談。
特別是這樣，你還是知道，他永遠會關心你的。
做不成男女朋友，當他那個特別的朋友，有什麼不好呢？
你心中的這個特別的朋友……？是誰呢？
*************

你好嗎? 雖然我已再也不陪伴在你身旁 可是我還是一直想念著你, 牽掛著你過得好不好。我會永遠在遠方祝福你,為你祈禱。也希望我們來世有緣再相逢。

I'm getting old...

God, I must really be getting old. I played a bunch of bball today, 2 league games at the pro club, then another hour of pickup afterwards. Now my legs feel like they are going to fall apart. My right ankle hurts still from turning it last week, my calves were cramping, my left quad is tight as a steel cable, and let's not even start on my knees. It's sad to know that you've hit the age when your body is slowing down and you're just not able to recover the way you used to. I used to play bball all day long out on the blacktop courts of wilbur, man every day after class freshman year I'd be balling it up for hours until sundown. Never a pain or an ache, except the occasional turned ankle. Sigh, those were the days...

I'm sure everyone deals w/ aging differently, but it's funny to note it happening to myself. It basically started sometime last year, when I started to have knee problems. That was when it really hit me, "oh shit, so this aging thing that people always talk about...it's actually happening!" It's not that I didn't believe I could get old; it was simply that thought never crossed my mind, because there was never any sign of it. I could run all day, stay up all night, work all the time, drink all I want (well, maybe not all I want, but a pretty respectable amount). Until now I guess. Anyways, so now I pop vitamins, b-complex, and fish oil every night, watch what I eat, workout 3-4 times a week, don't binge anymore, etc etc etc. All the stuff that my mom nagged me for years to do to no avail, suddenly I'm doing it all religiously by myself. With no one watching over my shoulders. Ironic, isn't it?

Another thing I find kind of funny is how I tend to overdo things when I start. Like when I first started watching what I eat, I think it must been from reading one too many Men's Health mags that Garry had lying around or something. But suddenly one day I just decided, I'm going to start eating better. So I cut out all this stuff cold turkey. Literally, like I just woke up one morning, and stopped eating all of this -

pizza
fries
potato chips (or pretzels, mixes, any sort of stuff you'd find in that aisle)
fast food (except grilled chicken sandwiches)
soda
ice cream
chocolate (a lot of it, at least)
cookies
and some other things I don't recall right now

And I actually did this for months! What made me eventually cave on pizza and soda was not so much the craving, but the fact that our cafeteria is such crap and the food is so shitty, if you don't eat pizza you'll basically starve to death many days. And if I don't eat something high calorie, I just can't get through an afternoon. But still, there was stuff I completely cut out that I don't miss that much. Like potato chips, fast food, ice cream, cookies. It's weird. It's like after you don't eat it for a while, you don't want it anymore. weird.

I tried quitting ramen, but that was just too damn hard. It's a constant struggle for a continuous eater like me (my boss says I'm like a cow. I don't eat, I just continously graze). I'd have periods where I go "dry", but then I would totally relapse and start binging on ramen. Sigh, bad habit from college. Oh well, I guess you gotta have one or two things to indulge in.

Haha, too funny

Recently a recruiter for a major firm visited several prominent business schools to interview the best candidates. As is common in interviewing today, she asked a number of behavioral questions to asses the candidates potential. “You are driving in a rental car to a client’ s job site in the Arizona desert. The car hits a nail and one of your tires blows out. The rental car company has forgotten to put the spare tire in the car’s trunk and your cell phone is out of range. You are several miles from the nearest public phone and there isn’t a lot of traffic on the highway. What do you do?”

Here’s how the candidates responded at various schools:

HARVARD: “I’m so important to my client; he’ll come looking for me.”
CHICAGO: “The present value of a tire and wheel is less than the future value of a client contract. Therefore, drive as many miles as necessary on the flat.”
STANFORD: “I’d drive on the flat tire; however I’d let the air out of the other three tires first so that the car rides better.”
MIT: “I’d remove the tires and install rocket pods.”
MICHIGAN: “This would never happen to me. I only rent Japanese cars that don’t get flat tires.”
COLUMBIA: “The desert and the middle of nowhere without any people? You must be thinking about New Jersey.”
WHARTON: “There are so many Wharton people; it will only be a couple minutes before an alum drives by.”
CORNELL: “You must be mistaken; Arizona is not the middle of nowhere. Ithaca is the middle of nowhere.”
UNC-CHAPEL HILL: “I’d do whatever the NASCAR guys do in a flat tire situation.”
WISCONSIN: “Start drinking. Repeat as often as necessary.”
USC: “The first thing you need to do in this situation is to call a lawyer.”
UT-AUSTIN: “Burn the tires for a smoke signal.”
PENN STATE: “Pop the hood and see if the spare tire is in there.”

She hired the Penn State grad.

Oh hey look, I found the question (Yarr Maties) that I bombed years ago when I was interviewing for an equity trader internship at GS...ah, those were the days.

Brilliant. The best commercial I've seen in a long time...

Those of you who understand Chinese will absolutely appreciate the brilliance of this commericial.

Background:
Tongbohu is a famous dead poet who's also known as quite a playboy. There's a famous old Chinese poem, loosely translated as "It's raining now, should I keep my guest or not?", which I actually don't remember if it was written by him or someone else. But, it plays on the importance of punctuation in the Chinese language, and how merely moving a period or comma from one character to another can completely change the meaning of entire sentences or even paragraphs. It's a well-known story studied by kids all over in elementary schools, and even I still remember it till this day. It also illustrates an unique nuance of the Chinese language very well.

Enter video:


Brilliant. Simply absolutely brilliant

I love the none-too-subtle exophobic jab and underlying nationalistic implications here. Plays extremely well to the Chinese youth market and popular sentiments. I am quite impressed.

Personally, I have compared both searches, and I do think Baidu does a better job of parsing Chinese than Google does. Google has got a real competitor on its hands, and things are gonna get interesting...

English translation as follows -

Foreigner: I know! Heh heh.
Tangbohu (a famous Chinese clever guy): Hahahaha~~ You may not know!
Tangbohu: I know you don’t know. I know you don’t know I know. YOU DON’T KNOW.
Foreigner: I know!
All: Ei? [audience is surprised at Foreigner's seeming agreement with Tangbohu that the foreigner does NOT know (as in does not "get it"]
Foreigner: Ei!I know!
Tangbohu: Not necessarily. I know you don’t know me, I know you don’t know me, haha~ I know you don’t know!
Foreigner: I know!
Tangbohu: I know that you don’t know I know. You don’t know that I know you don’t know!

Look Ma, I'm on TIME magazine!

Well, almost. My team and our product made it into 3/20 issue of TIME magazine. Check us out.

I think this one is going on the refrigerator...

Information overload

I just spent most of the day studying more marketing, and reading up on Google, their analyst day slides, the various aliases, and blogs. Talk about overwhelming information, whew. But it is exciting and stimulating. This certainly makes my day job look boring as all hell when I have to get in tomorrow to write about...ugh, video drivers. F*ck, It's getting harder and harder to get up these days for work.

The analyst day slides were interesting, but still not as interesting as Batelle's forecasting of possible Google moves. Still, I came away impressed by the company's focus on growing a sound business. The media often paints an image of Google being a bazaar run by engineers where no one knows what's going on, but there is financial discipline. I like the various operational and financial metrics used for measuring performance as well. I think that's a good sign that a company is maturing.

Some of the mentions were interesting, I wonder what Lighthouse is? Hmm...

It is still not clear to me how Google has a competitive advantage when it comes to offline advertising, however. I'm not sure how well Adsense applies to print and radio advertising, you'd have to digitize all the content first. The only advantage Google offers is leveling the playing field by introducing the auction model to advertising, essentially cutting out the middle man (advertising agencies). But in print/radio media where traditional advertising is deeply entrenched, I'm not sure how well that'll play. It's also biting the hands that feeds them, as advertising firms have the traditioanl relationships w/ all the big named accounts. But then again, I'm still a novice about this space so I can be way off.

Too tired to write more, need to go home and sleep.

Oh lastly, I benched 175 today! And that's at an end of an inverted routine as well (8x 125lb, 6x 135lb, 4x 145lb, 3x 155lb). Quite proud of myself. I wonder if I could possibly break 200lb this year?

On marketing and diamonds

OK, usually I think marketing training and books are a waste of time; most of the time the material just seem like common sense to me. While I still don't think it's rocket science, I am gaining have a little more respect for the discipline now.

Consider this:

In 1932, the global market for diamonds was $100,000. De Beers changed that forever by altering the perception of the purpose of diamonds. They launched a deliberate campaign to create an association in the minds of young men that diamonds are a gift of love, and an association in the minds of young women that diamonds are an essential part of romance and marriage. Their strategy included seminars on diamonds to high school students, news stories about celebrity romances and their diamonds, and strategic product placements in Hollywood movies such as “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Diamonds are Forever.” So how did the strategy work?

More than 100 million women now wear diamonds.

Over 75% percent of brides receive a diamond ring.

The market has grown to 50 billion dollars.

De Beers controls two thirds of the market.

Frightening, isn't it? Now millions of men everywhere like myself will have De Beers to thank when we plunk down that 3-6mo salary savings on a rock. (OK, OK, it's really for that sparkle in your eyes when we get down on one knee, but still).

And now what are they working on now that they've convinced the women of the world that diamonds are a symbol of love?

The new De Beers campaign targets women's right hands. The left hand says "we", the right hand says "me." The message is that even if you are married you can still make a statement with your other hand. And, if you are not married, you will still want to make a statement--and you can make a statement of independence with your right hand. This new campaign is targeting emotions, changing perceptions, and redefining the category once again.

"Women of the world. Raise your right hand."

Genius, I tell you. Pure genius. You gotta hand it to these guys. I have a newfound respect for marketers now.

Pace of change

Talk about accelerating pace of change...geez. I was feeling OK today, still doing all my work and everything, but then started reading some blogs, doing some puzzles to prepare tonight and now I'm feeling it a little bit. I hate to use the word "stressed" cuz it makes me feel like a wimp, but let's just say it'll be a little harder to fall asleep tonight. It's like being back in school all over again, that frantic period when you're about to graduate, trying to keep all the balls in the air, lest one of them fall. After working for a while I guess you just turn on autopilot and aren't exercising your brains anymore, and now suddenly I have to get it cranking again. It's gonna be intense.

Leaks...and then some

Wow, has everyone seen this? I feel robbed. :(

******
holy crappola, i didn't realize my link showed up on mini's trackback. good god, i yanked the link asap. don't want that mass of people over here.