Thursday, October 29, 2009

You would think moving is my favorite thing to do!



Buttt....it is not. My favorite thing to do is work. Sick huh? Anyway, yes I am moving again and my apartment looks awful right now. As a matter a fact, I took a quick photo so that you can see the disaster that is the apartment.
The more I think about it and look around, the more sad I am to leave PE Lofts here in Downtown LA. I mean it is pretty cool, but I have to flow with my situation and move a bit closer to the OC. The good thing is that I'm moving back to Long Beach, maybe a mile from where I used to live. I went to go give my deposit the other day and driving down those old streets surprisingly made me feel like I was home. Never did I think that I would be at 'home' in Long Beach but is has become a safe place for me. I have already lived at 'the beach' for about 4 years, so it is an easy transition. We'll see how the boy takes it though.

The new place is fabulous. A 2 bed 2 1/2 bath townhome. I will finally have enough real space to make me feel comfortable and the upstairs/downstairs element will give the homey feeling. Oh yea and I can't forget my very first fireplace. Woo! Anyway, Sunday will suck, but I think this is the beginning of a beautiful living situation. Excited! Don't try and be social with me until next Thursday.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

25/50 - 25 Things to do in 50 days

I was inspired by a post that I read this morning called 101 things to do in 1001 days. I need shorter term goals, so I shortened my list and my time span to see if I can also accomplish what The Little Goat had set out to do. I'm guessing the main goal is to really get things done and stick with them. Everyone knows when you publicly announce something, it's more likely to get done.

So as per style of The Little Goat;
the mission if I choose to accept it: Complete 25 goals in the span of 50 days.

Method: By any means necessary. Tasks must be specific with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined.

Start:
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Celebratory finish:
Thursday, December 10, 2009 And so the list begins:

1) Start this list
2) No soda (outside of soda water)
3) Play 1 tennis tournament

4) Run 10 miles/week (including at least one 5K)

5) Lose 10 pounds (starting weight: to be updated soon)
6) Post my first video on Netropolis

7) Blog 2 times/week (14 posts)
8) Straighten out my taxes

9) Go wine tasting
10) Play tennis 3 times a week (at least) - total of 21 times

11) Hit the Santa Monica stairs 1/week (at least) - total of 7 times

12) Read 3 books

13) Learn to ride the scooter

14) Get a king-sized bed

15) Floss everyday

16) Cook 1 new recipe/week

17) Watch 1 foreign or independent film/week (7 total)

18) Golf or hit 1/week (7 times)

19) Hit serves 4 mornings/week (28 times)

20) Get a Carrom board

21) Create an acrylic painting

22) Enter all receipts into an excel spreadsheet

23) Only eat out 1 time/week (7 times)

24) Go to the gym 5 times/week (35 times)

25) Write a new 25 things list


Wish me luck, looks like I'll need it! Look for updates too, each time I accomplish things I will gray them out as I go, although many of them will only be completed on the last day of this target list.


Saturday, October 17, 2009

U never know what to expect @Blogworld -Day 2

Starting Day 2 was not fun. $28.00 to get to the convention center was really not the way to get my day going. Anyway, I started out with some lovely conversation from the CTO of Webgrrls, a very cool professional network for women in technology. Hopefully, I will be helping the LA Chapter grow soon.

Anyway, I walked the exhibit floor for a bit to get a feeling of what is going on there. By far the two most interesting places to be on the exhibit floor was the Charity Smackdown and the Fatburger truck, where they were doing a 11/2 pound burger contest. I contemplated participating, but I was too late to register. Don't worry I have a second chance today, but who knows.

Apparently, you never know what's going to happen at Blogworld. I met lots of new people that I have had great conversations with, potential clients, potential vendors and so much more.

My new friend Blair Williams (@supercleanse)

The opening day part was at JET nightclub at the Mirage, which is the first time I have been there. It was a nice place, free beer, $6 sodas, roasted veggies and mozzarella balls, yum! Upon entry I met Blair Williams at the app bar. It was one of the few highlights of my day. After exchanging conversation about what we do, banter on life an other miscellaneous intro conversation, Blair pulled out some tickets. Who doesn't love tickets?

The Blue Man Group

What were these tickets to you ask? I'm glad you did, it was the BLUE MAN GROUP. I immediately said yes to take one of his last two tix, because I've been dying to see the show for years. Quickly I had plans for the night other than wandering around from one Blogworld party to the next, ensuring an inevitable headache. Instead, I'm on my way to The Blue Man group with 10 new friends from Blogworld. The great part was most of us didn't know each other. We head over to the 10' o'clock show and I must say that the show did not disappoint. The music in the show was amazing, there were funny bits, stuff that made you think and audience participation all wrapped up in a really unique presentation. The Blue Men were great, but what I really enjoyed was the band that reminded me of those Cobra Kai guys in Karate Kid in the skeleton costumes.


Skeleton guys (aka the band) Skeleton guy from Karate Kid

It was a great show and I even got to pretend like I knew what I was doing on those pipes that they play. Check out the pix.


Me on the drums Blair on the drums

One blue man

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Getting social at BlogWorld - Day 1

First thing is first...WHY did I forget the camera? Was it because I left my place this morning at 4:30 a.m. to catch the first flight out to Vegas? Maybe so....Maybe that's also why I forgot to stock up on b.cards....DUMMMMMBBBB! That's ok, I should have enough to last me tomorrow night's Blogworld party.

If you don't know what that is, it's a party where a whole bunch of computer nerds that love to write and be heard go and consume a bunch of free alcohol at really cool places in Vegas (well...this year anyway). If you can't tell, I'm looking forward to it.

Now...back to our regularly scheduled programming...The Social Media Business Summit (Day 1)


Getting at the Las Vegas Convention Center at 7:30 a.m. is not my idea of fun and there was really not much fun involved, but the day was more eventful than I expected.

I started my day at the Keynote (which was awfully early for a conference). The first 5 minutes was full of apologies and thank you's for making it out so early on the day before the expo. The rest of it was really the speaker's recount of how she got started in social media and how it opened doors for her.

I really feel like social media should be able to do that for anyone who puts time and effort into it like most relationships. Something that started out as an annoying fad, has now been translated to an essential business and communication tool.

What I realized yesterday is that we are at a pinnacle of technology that may never be seen before. This generation is the one that was able to see the turning point of simple technology into advanced technologies. Our children will never have to look up anything in books if we don't make them. That said, I think that traditional learning is still very important.

Make time to learn and use new technologies but introduce your kids to the essential tools of learning (like how to write in cursive for example), how to look things up in the library, playing an instrument (like the piano or violin), reading novels, writing letters. Now that technology has 'simplified' everything, we have become simple and forgotten about the sophisticated and romantic cultural traits of years past.

I guess that's another topic. Recap for Day 1's poignant new media sessions......

Things I could care less for:
Disorganized badge distribution this morning
Me hauling around my suitcase all day
Not enough power outlets
Getting yelled at for networking at the luncheon (bad planning on their part)
The guy who was snoring in the back of the Internet Marketing panel

Major +'s:
Informative panels
Great discussions
Knowledgeable speakers
Super friendly social media people that like to network and learn

Follow me on Twitter to hear what's going on at the show @Ronjini

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My week with Bikram...yoga, that is!


My adventures with Bikram yoga started very unexpectedly, I was at Ralph's. Lately, I try to keep an open mind to any and everything around me. Whenever I am somewhere with a message board, I have a tendency to check it out. I'm talking restaurants, coffee shops, the cleaners, grocery stores, anywhere really! So I was at Ralph's downtown and saw this message board near the elevator. Usually there isn't anything interesting there but alas I saw a flyer for 'hot yoga' (better known as Bikram Yoga).

So they have this deal going on at the Downtown location that is $20 for unilimited hot yoga for a week. That's a pretty incredible deal given that I think just one class is pretty pricey. I'm not that into yoga, but I thought since this is a great deal, maybe I should try it out. I've always been pretty curious about the hot yoga, stemming from when I saw it up in SF a while back.

This was my chance to have my own personal hot yoga experience. So I woke up in the wee hours of the morning for the 6 am class. I get there a little early as the lady asks me too, since this is my first time and to my surprise find out the class is 90 mins long. WOW, I feel like i'm getting more of a deal now. I get in the class and damn it's really warm in there. Not enough for you to say hell no and get out of the class, but just enough where you're a bit uncomfortable.

We start the class and for the simple moves that are happening the whole thing becomes unbelievably hard. I tried to focus on my breathing and not pay attention to the heat but its not the easiest thing to do. I realize that my body is NOT flexible and the heat makes it even worse. After being extremely tight and sweaty after an hour, I had to leave because I had to do some work. So no, I didn't make the whole first class but I was determined to get a bang for my buck!

I go back for my second class, not the next day but two afternoons later. I went for the afternoon class so that I would have time to do the whole 90 mins. All I have to say about that is geezus christ. 90 minutes in the heat with constant movement is a lot of work. Can this really be good for you? Surprising enough, I didn't really feel that great after these classes. I felt sore and tight, but I don't normally feel that bad. It can't possibly be healthy to sit in a stuff class dripping sweat and tricking your muscles into thinking that they are warmed up.

I went for a third class to see if it was just me or this hot yoga really blows. I was really determined to like the yoga to reap the positive benefits of it. No dice, I felt even more uncomfortable and tight the more time I spent in that yucky hot room.

Lessons learned:
1) Hot Yoga is bogus and uncomfortable and you have to wash a lot of clothes.
2) I think yoga is a great way to stretch and I will start going to regular yoga more often
3) Bikram is really cleaning up on you suckus....
4) Maybe I will sit in the sauna every once in a while to get that same hot effect

So, in conclusion, I'm not a big hot yoga believer but I definitely need too stretch and become more flexible. I have taken a break from my kamikaze working out and it's now time to get back on track. Anyone wanna make a fitness bet? I love a good challenge.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Have you ever felt like a chicken with your head cut off?


The past few weeks have been crazy. Little rest and lots of go, go, go! I now have 4 tennis students and will possibly have 5 by week's end. I have to say that it is really fun going back to the basics and teaching; however it reminds me that I have to do all those things that I tell them to do also.

Along with that, work is going well, extremely busy. Sometimes I can't get my head on straight in the morning. At one point lazy mornings were ok for me, but not anymore. I guess I prefer it that way though. Now, i'm jumping from one meeting to the next all day and when I sit down around 6 pm, I'm half asleep on the couch. That said, we are also moving in the next couple of weeks up to Sherman Oaks. The new apartment is cute and I'm pretty excited to move there. There is lots of space so it's perfect for my love of dinner parties. However, I'm pretty sure that we are going to have to have a no-shoe policy...WOW! I haven't had one of those in years.

Anyway, I'm finding new ways of getting organized. I have decided to actually ditch the Franklin Covey zip up day planner and go with the Border's weekly planners....well, maybe, that's still out for decision; perhaps I just need the next size up. I used to be VERY organized and with all the running around, I have accumulated way to many notebooks and need to downsize. I think it's about time to purge files as well. I HATE this crap. Oh, did I mention I'm meeting with a tax guy on Friday to organize all that too?

I also need to be waking up at 5 am for my morning workout, but that has only happened once this week, which I suppose is a huge feit. With the weather getting a little more 'crisp' outside the bed is looking better than ever, which reminds me I have to look for a refridgerator.

WOW my head is just all over the place, wish me luck for the next few weeks. I'm gonna need to get organized and keep it together.