My Most Recent Performance...

A New Inspiration

So, I haven't found much to write about recently so this blog has been quite quiet...however, I have new inspiration which comes in the form of a very sexy fictional character named Edward Cullen.

Girls - if you haven't already met Edward Cullen, you MUST immediately read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. You'll fall madly in love....immediately!

Guys - Read Twilight, Be Edward.

Just to introduce you to this impossibly perfect man, here are some of my favorite quotes from the Twilight Saga (and this isn't even the full list!)
- “I adore you”
- “I told you I wasn’t going to live without you…”
- “You are my life”
- “You are the only thing it would hurt me to lose”
- “I promise to love you forever--every single day of forever. Will you marry me?”
- “If I could dream at all, it would be about you and I’m not ashamed of it”
- “Your hold is permanent and unbreakable…never doubt that”
- “When I told you I didn’t want you…it was the very darkest form of blasphemy”
- “You are the most important thing to me now…the most important thing to me ever”
- "I know you think that I have some kind of perfect, unyielding self-control, but that's not actually the case"
- "You're awfully small to be so hugely irritating"
- "Do you want me to sing to you? I'll sing all night if it will keep the bad dreams away"
- “By the way, I'm not leaving you”
- “I'll be back so soon you won’t have time to miss me i promise...look after my heart I've left it with you”
- “Could you believe, despite all that I've put you through, that I love you, too?”
- “Bella... would you please stop trying to take your clothes off?”
- “Do you have any idea of how much you mean to me? How much I love you?”
- “I thought I'd explained it clearly before. Bella, I can't live in a world where you don't exist.”
- “Do I dazzle you?”
- “Then I sighed, and opened the window as wide as it would go”
- “Don't be ridiculous, Bella, I'm just trying to illustrate the benefits of the bed you don't seem to like. Don't get carried away.”
- “Of course I do, you silly, oversensitive girl. Doesn't everyone? I feel like there's a line behind me, jockeying for position, waiting for me to make a big enough mistake...You're too desirable for your own good.”
- “You will be the death of me, I swear you will!”
- “If you bring her back in less than the perfect condition I left her in, you'll be running with three legs dog.”
- “Death that had sucked the honey of thy breath hath had no power yet upon thy beauty”
- “Bella control yourself. I could kill you. Do I always have to be the responsible one?”
- “I know, Bella. Believe me, I know. It's like you've taken half myself away with you”
- “You don't see yourself clearly..., you are far from ordinary”
- “I swear to you, we will try. After you marry me”
- “Do you have any idea how painful it is, trying to refuse you when you plead with the way?”
- “You are so beautiful”
- “You look sexy. very sexy really”
- “Sleep, my Bella. Dream happy dreams. You are the only one who has ever touched my heart. It will always be yours. Sleep, my only love”
- “If leaving is the right thing to do, then I'll hurt myself to keep from hurting you, to keep you safe.-“
- “He called you pretty....that's practically an insult, the way you look right now. You're much more than beautiful”
- “I could see it in your eyes, that you honestly believed that I didn't want you anymore. The most absurd, ridiculous concept---as if there were any way that I could exist without needing you!”
- “It was like my heart was gone---like I was hollow. Like I'd left everything that was inside me here with you”

Are you melting yet??

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Will the Suns Keep Shining?

This entry may seem a bit out of place because it’s about sports…but one thing that I love besides fashion, media, technology and pop culture is basketball – but not just any basketball, Phoenix Suns Basketball! (I’m also a devoted University of Arizona Wildcats fan, but that’s a story for another day.)

I just got home from the Phoenix Suns vs. New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden and it got me thinking – has all this media frenzy in recent seasons around The Phoenix Suns’ “amazing collection of talent”, “innovative playing strategies” and predictions to FINALLY take home the championship this season be detrimental to the overall success of the team? Let me explain a bit about each of these characteristics before I explain my concerns...

Amazing Collection of Talent: sure, the players play like a real team should – they feed off of each other’s strengths and don’t allow just one player to carry the team unless it’s absolutely necessary. They try to stay out of fights (again, unless absolutely necessary like Raja Bell’s clothesline on Kobe Bryant in the May 2006 game against the LA Lakers.) Above all, the team functions with all the ups and downs of a family…but mostly, it helps that the team is composed of players who possess the most diverse playing skills in the league – Steve Nash, Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw and as if that wasn’t enough, we now have Grant Hill, as well! What a talented (and gorgeous) team!

Innovative Playing Strategies: “:07 Seconds or Less” – need I say more? This is a great book by Sports Illustrated writer Jack McCallum about his experience shadowing the Suns for a whole season. Wouldn’t that be incredible? What I wouldn’t give to see my Suns day in, day out for a whole season! Ok, back to my point, for those of you haven’t read the book, have you ever wondered why most Phoenix Suns games seem to be more fast-paced and higher scoring than most NBA games? Well, this is why – the Suns believe that it only takes :07 seconds to set-up and take a shot. So if the shot clock is set to :24 seconds, why not try your shot in the first :07 seconds rather than waste the first :17 seconds with the potential to miss? Sure, there are some requirements for this strategy to work: 1) The Suns must maintain a high shooting average, 2) they must be very good at rebounding their own missed shots and 3) this strategy works best if the opposing team is a relatively low shooting average (otherwise, there would be more time freed up for the other team to take extra shots).

So that’s the great stuff…then why am I afraid for the Suns this season as are many basketball analysts? I was at the game tonight and the Suns won 115-104, but they actually struggled against the Knicks in the second and third quarters. There should have been NO struggle. There was expected to be NO struggle! Seems that there’s been something wrong with the team chemistry lately. They need learn to leave personal issues off the court and just support each other – without going overboard like jumping off the bench when a cheap shot is called on the team MVP! Also, since both Marion and Stoudemire will be sharing the spotlight this season, Marion needs to get over his petty jealousy issues and hug it out with Stoudemire. Either that or he’s got to go (and I hope it doesn’t have to come to that). They can’t rely on Steve Nash to be the team's band-aid for yet another season - he has more important things to focus on, like continuing to play like the MVP that he is!

While I'm on the subject... I'd like to send my love out to my original Suns: Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle and Charles Barkley!

Bringing it all together...A Phoenix Suns Widget!

Get With It with Widgets

Next time you’re in line at Starbucks during the morning rush, you know you’ll be there for a while so entertain yourself by doing a bit of marketing – help educate consumers about an impressive phenomenon known as Widgets. Turn to the person behind you in line and ask them “Do you know what a widget is?” Chances are they’ll say “no.” So seize the opportunity to give them a brief description of a widget and they’ll likely respond with a sudden expression of familiarity and realization that they have, in fact, used a widget before.

Widgets have existed since the beginning of the World Wide Web, but have only recently begun to see their full potential as a strong marketing tool. Many people have downloaded and used widgets assuming the widget is just a helpful tools created by a company to make their user experience more engaging and successful. While this is one of the goals of a widget, what the companies really had in mind is marketing - the opportunity to own prime real estate on the consumer’s desktop.

One very popular widget is Southwest DING! – travelers and non-travelers have downloaded DING! when searching for a well-priced fare. It’s simple to use and is not disruptive to the user. From Southwest’s perspective, they own this consumer before any purchases have even been made. In the future, it’s more likely that the consumer will conduct a quick search on DING! prior to checking any other airline’s website.

Another fun widget is The Gap ModelMaker which allows consumers to add their face to a Gap ad. However, this isn’t where the genius ends. The user can then select the outfit for their picture and also add accessories. Although the consumer simply thinks they are dressing their own little Gap ad, they are actually browsing Gap’s online store. Even if only a small percentage of consumers visit Gap Online or walk into a Gap store as a result of the widget, The Gap will have succeeded in accomplishing their goals.

Some of my favorite widgets include The Simpsomaker, My iTunes, PopSugar and Forbes.com: Top Lists. On the other hand, instead of downloading widgets created by companies, websites like GoodWidget allow users to create their own widgets and send them to friends. Now this is even more brilliant. Companies are now able to get consumers to essentially do their marketing for them! Genius.

Strikers See the Green

The writers can start writing once again…the strike is finally over (well, sort of)! It seems the unseen heroes behind the scenes that we know so well have come to an agreement with studios over their contracts. Hallelujah! But what I don’t understand is why the Studios waited so long to come to terms? Were the hashing out the numbers? Ever wonder what the executive conversations sounded like over at Walt Disney, “$34.3Billion minus a small fraction of $130M over 3 years…oh boy, that’s steep. Maybe we should just let our writers go and just run syndicated shows forever. We still have advertising, right?”

The writers had a very valid argument against the studios in asking for revenues for online replays of TV shows so what puzzles me is why this strike didn’t occur last year when replays of online shows were a bigger threat to TiVo than DVR. Especially when advertisers will soon pay more and more for online ads that can’t be skipped and can be more targeted than traditional TV advertising.

Also, there was another strike going on at the same time on Broadway - that strike is also over and the theater district is back in the cash-collections business. With all the revenues lost given the inconvenient timing for this strike, I expect ticket prices to ultimately increase for consumers. Nevertheless, this was the first Broadway strike in the union’s 121 years of existence, so hopefully this is will be the last we ever hear of a Broadway strike…unless, of course, Broadway shows begin to play online, as well. Now there’s an idea!

Are we there yet?

We’ve all seen the films, TV series , books and songs that reference the future. And the future is always depicted as a world where everything is optimized and the world as we know it today seems pre-historic! Well, I’ve been waiting for this future to become the present….so are we there yet?

2001
“2001: A Space Odyssey” (Film & Novel)
A classic Kubrick film from 1968 with a supercomputer named Hal who has a mind of his own – today, we call this artificial intelligence. So, did we accomplish AI in 2001? Not really. But then, this was a sci-fi film and it was Kubrick so I suppose I shouldn’t expect this to come to light for perhaps another century.

2008
“Franchise” (Novel)
A short story written by Isaac Asimov in 1955, set 53 years later in 2008, Asimov’s hopeful thinking was that the US presidency would be selected by a computer program that could automatically select the most “representative citizen”…..well, one can dream, can’t they?

2010
“Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows” (Film & Novel) & “Transformers” Season 1986-1987 (TV Series)
Really? So I suppose we should expect wizards walking amongst us – keep an eye on those close friends who always seem to get everything want. Also, be weary of the electronics who may be “more than meets the eye.”

2015
“ Back to the Future II” (Film)
Filmed in 1989, our beloved hero, Marty McFly, travels to October 2015. In this world 26 years in the future for Marty, but just 8 years away for us, the world is unimaginable. Flying cars, “Hoverboards”, holographic people working in diners, holographic newscasts and tiny frozen pizzas “dehydrated” to create large piping hot dinners in a matter of seconds - do we think this future world is actually just 8 years away? Dehydrated pizzas, ok, fine. “Hoverboards” have been mimicked by AirBoard – a decent attempt, but still not even close and costs $14,500. How about flying cars and holographic people with real jobs completely eliminating the need for people? All this by 2015? Unfortunately, I think we’re a little behind schedule. Another fun prediction worth noting is the prediction that the Chicago Cubs win the World Series in 2015– this hasn’t happened since 1908 so I suppose it’s possible. Afterall, with flying cars, anything seems possible.

2016
“Ghostbusters II” (Film)
This infamous movie predicted the end of the world to be February 14, 2016!

With that, I conclude my trip to the future. Knowing all that there is to come, doesn't life today feel like the simple life? Not so much…time for me to refresh my Facebook page on my iPhone so I can see what my friends are doing and thinking at this exact moment! "See you in the future!"

Gimp-Addict

I’ve recently been introduced to a fun little free-ware photo-editing program called GIMP. I was looking for a free version of Adobe Photoshop to create fun holiday cards when my brother told me to check out http://www.gimp.org/. After a several frustrating hours of playing around , I finally figured out how to extract photos from backgrounds and place them strategically into other pictures. Now I'm addicted to this fun little program - check out some of my creations...for example, me hanging out with my favorite rat pack cuties:

or, my husband and me posing for the paparazzi with our with good friends, Tom, Katie, Vic, David, Jada and Will:

So, as a beginner, GIMP is absolutely ideal for all my photo-editing needs. If you have ever found yourself struggling with cut & paste pictures to create picture to make your friends laugh (or jealous), you should definitely try GIMP!

Social Butterfly

The term "Social Butterfly" is used to describe someone who befriends everyone, attends every party, every event and is simply well-connected. In fact, in the not-so-well-known Marvel comic book, Livewires, there is an android named "Social Butterfly" - her role is to extract information from individuals using her powers. Well, today, "Social Butterfly" wouldn't need to use force field induced direct brain manipulation or artificial pheromones to accomplish this task....she would simply become a member of Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, Dodgeball, Flickr, Twitter, myYearbook, orkut, WeeWorld, Bebo, Classmates, SecondLife and perhaps even LinkedIn and Doostang. She might even consider getting a Master's Degree in Social Networking - which, believe it or not, is an actual degree offered by the University of Michigan!

I have to admit, I aspire to be somewhat of a social butterfly myself - as a member of nearly half of the social networking sites listed above, I feel I'm as good a candidate as any teenager around the world to offer my unbiased thoughts on some of these sites.

Facebook
Let's start with the one that has been in the spotlight the most in recent weeks. The applications available on Facebook are endless. And did you know that there is actually a class offered at Stanford University dedicated to teaching students how to build Facebook applications?? Mark Zuckerberg, the lucky 23-year-old, took the social networking trend to a whole new level by somehow getting the world to work for him...for free! Of course, there can always be improvements, such as searching within your own friends to see who is in your neighborhood for the weekend - similar to what 2 NYU students did with their start-up, Dodgeball (now owned by Google, of course!). Perhaps this application already exists and I just haven't come across it yet....but in any case, I have no doubt that if it doesn't, someone young genius will create it the very near future. Either way, I'm addicted, as are 73.5M other users.

MySpace
Perhaps I just haven't explored this site enough, but to tell you the truth, I just never got addicted the way I did to Facebook. I was sucked into creating a profile for MySpace because my 10 Year High School reunion committee decided that this would our online portal for all reunion details! Well, of course since all my former high school friends would be visiting my page, I had make an effort to make my page look amazing. So I joined....now, with the reunion come and gone, I seldom find myself visiting or updating my MySpace page. With nearly 300M MySpace pages online, I'm definitely in the minority.

Friendster
Ahhh, my love before Facebook. I visited religiously and thought the idea of putting the "6 degrees of separation" theory to the test online was pure genius. There was, of course, SixDegrees.com developed in the late 1990s, but they were just too ahead of their time to really make an impact. Nevertheless, despite Friendster's timely launch and innovative approach, the young geniuses of MySpace and Facebook quickly out-performed by creating more creative applications and allowing users to personalize their pages with more flexibility. Friendster followed the trends, but in the fast-paced world of online social networking, they were already too late...still 26.5M users remain loyal.

Classmates
Just when all the social networking sites were coming into the mainstream, we all wondered, "why didn't anyone think of this before??" Well, they did - Classmates.com launched in the mid-1990s but their demise came in the form of something green. They started charging real money for full access to the site. They had missed mark on this one - with the target market being young high school kids or poor college students, who has the ability to pay as much as $19.99 for a monthly membership? Sorry, Classmates, the idea was great, but the execution was off target... but who am I to judge, they still have 40M accounts.

Dodgeball
I love this site for two main reasons: 1) it takes social networking to another level by being predominately on the mobile platform and 2) it was created by two NYU graduate students thus making me feel more proud being an NYU graduate student, myself. Needless to say, this operation has been and is still a success...after all, Google bought them, didn't they? They're only just getting started!

WeeWorld
What a fun social networking site!! Crazy addictive and 1.7M others agree - I could keep changing my "WeeMe" forever! As you can see from the picture with this post, that is my "WeeMe" right now - it's always changing to reflect my current mood. Today, well, I'm feeling like a true butterfly and am in the mood for a Margarita...and of course, my blackberry is always in hand. The fallback here, WeeWorld is making the same mistake as Classmates, they are charging real money to purchase new clothes and accessories for your "WeeMe"

SecondLife
I joined and came up with a great avatar name and then the frustration began. Has anyone else found it difficult to move around in SecondLife and make your avatar look drop dead gorgeous like everyone else walking around? My avatar is way out of proportion and horribly dressed - not a fan and as addicted as I expected to become to this site, it never occurred. And even more frustrating...Linden Dollars? Seriously?? Just because you call it something other that "The Real Dollar" doesn't make it less real - it's still real money that's being used to dress and house a made-up character. I'm still in awe of the Second Life realtor who made $1M real American dollars on the site!

I could go on to provide my thoughts on more social networking sites, but there's no need. I think it's clear that I'm ridiculously impressed with Facebook and that's where I'll be spending my time. See you there!

Sapphire for Your Thoughts...

Here are some random stories that have added some amusement to my life in recent weeks....feedback always welcome!

- Dining - I was at Burrito Loco in Greenwich Village last weekend (a spectacular place to eat) and was seated next to a group of four 22-24 yr old girls (my best guess). They were all immaculately dressed and looked stunning from head to toe as if they had an amazing gala to attend after dinner - I was impressed. Nevertheless, this all changed when the bill arrived - it took them 30 minutes to divide the bill to determine exactly how much each owed...down to the penny! Then they proceeded to calculate the tip....after another 20 minutes of deliberation, they ultimately ended up leaving change as part of the tip. The whole ordeal made for great dinnertime entertainment.

- Shopping - have you ever noticed that you don't always get your money's worth in terms of product quality with shopping for luxury brands? So, why do we pay so much for brand names? And I'm certainly not ragging on anyone who loves the labels, because I am guilty as sin of this charge! However, in my latest shopping excursions, I've come across the following: Sweaters with buttons falling off, unsewn seams and loose threads at Henri Bendel, Joe's Jeans with missing buttons at Barney's and the latest, a pair of boots from Prada that get more worn out after 2 weeks of wear than boots from Nine West after 2 years! Correct me if I'm wrong, you don't come across such oversights in quality when shopping at Banana Republic or Ann Taylor, do you? Despite all of this, I'll still continue to shop at these places without a thought or doubt in my mind that I'm making a mistake, but nevertheless, it's been amusing. On a related note, check out Bendel's wonderful new website - just launched this week, you can finally shop Bendel's online!!

Until next time... have an amusing weekend and gather the tidbits of sapphire - they make for great small talk!