It occurred to me...

When our canteen lady came to me at work with a grin wide as hell on her face, and said "I HAVE to show you something" and shoved her non-touchscreen phone in front of me.

She pressed a few buttons with her thumbnail, and showed me a few "naughty" and hilarious pictures her niece sent earlier today. We both guffawed with laughter.

Then I thought...wow, it's been quite a long time since someone actually physically showed me a pic like that. Rather than posting on a wall on facebook and seeing 68 comments with all variations of "haahaa", "aahahaaa", "hahaaa"s and "LOLs".

It occurred to me how I kinda miss things like that ....don't happen much anymore!

Today I am Spanish (according to KLM)

I just received this direct marketing mail from KLM. All in español. Obviously they've decided that I will be Spanish today. No worries. I go to translate.google.com and voila! Puedo leer español! (I can read spanish!) lol.

3-minute management course

Lesson 1:

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings.
The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs.

When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour.

Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you €800 to drop that towel.'

After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after
a few seconds, Bob hands her €800 and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and
goes back upstairs.

When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?'

'It was Bob the next door neighbour,' she replies.

'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the €800 he owes me?'

Moral of the story:
If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.



Lesson 2:

A priest offered a Nun a lift.

She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had
an accident.
After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.
The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.'

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, 'Go forth and seek,
further up, you will find glory.'

Moral of the story:
If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.


Lesson 3:

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find
an antique oil lamp.

They rub it and a Genie comes out.

The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.'

'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without
a care in the world.'

Pooff! She's gone.

'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii , relaxing on the beach with my
personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.'

Pooff! He's gone.
'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager.
The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.'

Moral of the story:
Always let your boss have the first say.


Lesson 4

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.

A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?'

The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.'

So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the agle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox
appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.


Moral of the story:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Kudos to your plan Shoeby, Booooo to implementation!

I'm watching Trinny and Susannah on RTL4 on this cold wednesday night. The whole show is heavily sponsored by Shoeby. They feature head-stylist from Shoeby, they dress the make-over candidates exclusively in Shoeby clothing. You'll see the black, white & red logo everywhere. It's a whole hour of advertising basically. 

If one of the purpose is to drive traffic to their online shop, they certainly nailed it with me! 

So....I ticked in "shoeby" in google search (not that I'm proud to say, but I never get curled up on the couch without my bright red laptop next to me)... and while sipping my hot berry tea...I waited.

Waited...

Waited...

Waited...

Ah...finally the page loads. OK...interesting...I clicked further into the category for women's clothes.

I waited....

and waited...

and waited...

Ah...finally the page loads.

I see various categories, and so I went into "Blouses en tunieken" and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

Ah...finally the page loads!

This is crap. It takes forever to load each page! 

(closes window)

Conclusion? It is a classic case of awesome planning, with a complete let-down in its implementation. Shoeby, your business as an online fashion retailer means that the shopping experience online has got to ROCK!

What a let down. I'm an avid onliner, and an avid online shopper. But not with Shoeby for now.

Come on businesses. Reach out to me. I'm online.

Everywhere I see, I see onliners. Everywhere I see, the onliner needs are far from fulfilled.
Online people are always online, but the traditional image of people online is that they never get out.
Which is rubbish.
We go out. We mingle. We want to be outside while being online.
That's why you see business catered for species like us are soooooooo booming! (BOOM BOOM!)
Take netbooks.
Take 3G phones.
Take iPad (awesome).

Even Bill Gates predicted that the best education is going to come from the web - in 5 years.
I'm with you Mr. Gates.

So we've got products developed for our needs. We're going to get cleverer online. Now what I'm missing, are services getting online and reaching out to us. Stop paying students to wear cheap-poloshirts uniforms and handling out leaflets and sample crisps and drinks.

I want to sample your new flavor of crisps. Not by going up to the student promoters in town and hoping they notice me and give me a sample pack. No thanks. I'd rather click on the button 'yeah send me those crisps' and deliver. Or add another packet so I can toss it about in the office to my colleagues. Won't that be something?

If you're thinking of setting up a new business, OR improve your business (we online people DO spend you know?) here are a few ideas.

• Webchicks like us, we DO get manicures and pedicures done. How about we don't call you. How about we log on to your website, and then get 5 options for appointments and book our own appointments online? Who knows... webdudes might want a nail buff too.
• What the heck. We can order food to be delivered online. Why can't we make restaurant reservations online too? Why don't someone create an online reservation platform and sell it to restaurants? Maybe there's one already, come talk to me.
• My guy keeps tinkering around on the piano keyboard on his iPad. I try not to grimace. (Sorry honey!) Companies who have made a software that teaches you to play music on the piano, please contact the Appstore. I'd be happy to pay 5.99 for that application.
• E-government in Singapore is awesomeeeeee. How about IT companies try to work with the government here in Netherlands a bit more? It's just not that clever to offer PDFs as forms online, so we can print it, ink it, then lick a stamp on it. That's just a pretty lame effort on your online service.

Anyone's got more ideas? 

Come online. Reach out to us.
Please.

"Cocooning is out. The individual only exists if it is part of a group."

"quote"



Who is your group?
Your family? Your friends (online or rl)? Your collegues? Neighbours?
All the fans of your national soccerteam? ;-)


Questions:
Are you defined by people you know? Or by people who know you?
And if so, who defines you? Those same friends and family?

Or the whole world?


People show themselves. To everyone.
They have a bbq-party. They take pictures. And put pictures on Flickr for the world to see.

Do you see how many friends I have?
Do you see how nice, fun and cute they are?
Do you see my lovely garden?
Do you see how much work I had to put in to make it look like that?

Hey, do you see I had changed my haircolor? I like it much better this way! Don't you agree? Please comment that you agree! ;-)

Do you see where I have been in the world? I've done all the continents in the last ten years. Met so many people and cultures.
I've been to the end of the world! And damn, NO connection whatsoever!

Do you see the online games I play? And more importantly ...
Do you see how high my scores are? I am goooooood!!
Come on, challenge me! I will kick your ass!!

***

Do you see my family?
Do you see how wonderful they are? How proud I am of them?
Do you see how important they are to me ....... ?

Take another look at my friends.
They have been so wonderful and good to me. I am so lucky!
Do you see how important they are to me ......?

This is my way of showing that.
They give me sense of self. They care for me and I for them.
I am so gratefull. And I want the world to know!

We define each other.


Do you see ....... me?


.

Generations .......