The Nokia office is aflutter, aflurry, whatever…busy today in preparation for CTIA and Web 2.0. We’re making our lists and checking them twice-only it’s not Christmas, oh no, it’s the opposite of Christmas…it’s…Show Time!

The majority of us will be off to Vegas for CTIA—Quick Question- what’s less fun than working in Vegas? Ok, trick question. Call me a fuddy duddy, but cutting my way through the casino floor to get my morning tea is always a rude awakening. Watching last night’s leftovers on vacation while you begin your morning at work is just plain harsh. 

Luckily I’m off to San Francisco for Web 2.0 — that place that’s NOT vegas but still has a trade show. 

Ok, time to go load the “Price of Persia” on our N85’s for pepcom–Not play them, just load them

I was in Sri Lanka in December visiting my brother who lives there. We went to an ancient site called Sigirya where we encountered this warning:

Of course, jokes about the size of the hornets relative to the person fleeing them ensued. But folks, this is no joke….this just in:

wasp attack sri lanka sigiriya

    

http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/wasp-attack-sri-lanka-sigiriya

Next time, when I see a sign alerting me to the dangers of monster cartoon wasps I will pay attention

So this is my first time at SxSw- and this place is an extreme headblender of sorts. The first phenomenon that stuck me was the meeting of the virtual and the real – those that know eachother in the ether meeting finally face to face. I was expecting to be somewhat disappointed by a bunch of folks who cared more about their virtual fame than their real-world lives, however i was surprised  to find a group of pleasantly well-rounded virtuREAL folks. Highlights include a conversation about deja vu with Amber Case “cyborg anthropologist” and a convo about making a piano concerto with a tuba with Tara Hunt- basically how do you articulate the cultural shift needed at large corporations to embrace the true nature of social media – and benefit from its results. Met the sweet and cuddly Sam Perry (of Oprah inauguration weeping fame) who is awesomely nice and the philosophical –heck, I’d hug the guy any day! and Jeff Pulver who was practicing social media before it was even a term and believes in its principles with an almost religious-like fervor. Got some sound advice from Heather Gold, who argues that we need to simplify our multiple identities by just practicing the laws of humanity at work. 

If anything, I’m realizing how much I still don’t know about all this stuff.