It's not very often that I praise the wondrous technology that is social networking (who am I kidding), but I have to say that I really, really, really love Twitter.

Six months ago, @joerib turned me on to Twitter. I didn't get it, I thought it was stupid and frustrating and that these people were complete idiots for wasting their time talking to empty space about nothing... and then I read the 'first rule of Twitter':

"You're going to have to follow at least 60-100 people before you start to 'get it'."

Only then did I start to see the conversations form, to see who was talking to who, who moved the community, who was snarky, who was serious, who paid attention to other people's commentary, who was social, who was introverted, you name it. All these personalities started to emerge and I started to learn about people in places I wasn't particularly familiar with, who did things I wasn't familiar with,learned about what it means to be famous in the land of social media and some of these folks even became friends. I have no way of knowing whether or not I would have ever met any of these people otherwise.

I have to admit that it's pretty unique to be the voyeur to so many people's lives. I think that the mask of anonymity really helps people to vent their frustrations in a public arena and not even feel the least bit badly about doing so. I also think it's fascinating that people openly express their personalities in text so effectively. So far, the folks I have met have been spot-on to their Twitter personae (@scottypboston, @jpostman, @cathybrooks) and I imagine that others are exactly the same way (@mattyfo, @CoachDeb, @Geletka, @dooce, @FabGirl, @SeanMarler). I can't wait to meet you all.

Most importantly, I think it has been most encouraging that people in this circle really do talk to each other - professional recommendations are abundant, and I was fortunate enough to have landed my job just because @joerib introduced me to Twitter six months ago. Pretty f-ing cool, if you ask me.

Labels: business, change, communication, social media, Twitter, work

Today, I fell victim to the "Oh, Shit" Clause.

Fortunately, it wasn't really my fault. The director and I had agreed that an email going out to all of our clients announcing our new name and the site's downtime would be sent out today at 11am EST (okay, well, I argued and said next Friday, but he decided today would be better). Luckily for me, he forgot to then inform the Marketing Director and CEO that this would be happening. Fan.tas.tic.

The "Oh, Shit" Clause states that copious amount of vulgarity are permitted in any office situation that I feel justifies such an outburst.

Good thing it wasn't really my fault. Except that this was the third or fourth issue to pop up today (that was 'my' fault), which lead to said outburst. Fortunately, everyone here is so damn sugary sweet and doesn't really want to step on anyone else's toes, I didn't get full-on bitched out for causing the problem.

It's about time we set up some better communication strategies here.

*Update: I put my karma points in by returning to Subway to pay for yesterday's sandwich that they let me take with me even though I didn't have enough cash (their computers were down) - this subsequently turned things around at work and everyone left happy. Hoorayyyy karma!

Labels: awkward, communication, complaints, confusion, failure, help me, websites, work

Yah, they're better.

In an attempt to make sure that I look hot when guests come into our office, I felt the need to break out these heels today:




I'm quite sure that my fellow coworkers wonder what the hell is going on with me. I wear crappy jeans and a hoodie one day, and the next, I'm decked out like Roman Holiday (literally). Supposedly, sex sells... I might as well offer a little taste to the lovely gay men who wander into our offices to try to convince us that they are the advertising agency to work with. I'm just trying to channel Madonna and aim to please with my own personal version of pointy bras. However, given that my feet (and other parts of me) are frozen, I haven't decided if it's more fun to occasionally exceed their expectations or to hide under swaths of clothing because it's about 22 degrees in my office on any given day.

On a bright note, I've decided not to hack off my hair again. After spending six weeks sans hair dryer, awaiting its return from its own personal NYC holiday, I bit the bullet and purchased a new hair dryer. Since I started actually getting out of bed early enough to have enough time to beautify myself, I realize that my hair does not look as horrific as it has the past few weeks, all limp and air-dried. Besides, the combination Roman Holiday and new hair dryer has finally captured the attention of the fine gentlemen of the South Bay (free lunches all around). Wonder what will happen if I throw a little makeup on?


The weekend is a'comin!! Friday brings the joy of yet another 415 social with The Conversation Group. Last time I went to on of their shindigs, I remember (vaguely) having a pretty fabulous time grooving out to their funky tunes and drinking their high-quality liquor. This weekend's a busy one. Outside Lands Festival is happening in SF, Radiohead tomorrow night, Tom Petty Saturday... I'm not sure about this whole thing; my poor bank account had enough of a heart attack after this week's Ikea excursions. No biggie, Radiohead is worth the hassle (ow ow ow) and I'm looking forward to spending some time with some good people. Best shenanigans and free booze of all time. Wish me luck with my costume changes from work to 415 to Outside Lands.

Labels: boredom, social media, start-ups, tip o' the day, useless blog

When was the last time I could run around dancing to Estelle in my underwear? I mean, really, I think my sister would have been offended. There's something to be said for hanging out at home... watching Michael Phelps on tv... anyway, I digress.

In an effort to increase readership to the levels it used to be, content may become increasingly vulgar from now on. I tried to keep my professional face forward for a really long time, but let's be honest; no one wants to read that crap. I get a little jealous reading Awkwardly Social and decided it would really be valuable for me to go back to being honest about my life in all aspects.

Regardless, I'm living the life. I was re-reading my [other blog] a few days ago and wondering what I was thinking. I invested a lot into other people, really fantastic people, but only invested education into myself. While I felt that was "worthwhile" (okay, it got me a job, I'm not sure how much I actually learned), I can't believe how much time I wasted. Sometimes I feel bad about talking crap about Boston and living there and what the experience was like, but then people follow up with the question, "Then why did you stay there for so long?"

There are things I loved about my life in Boston. There are things that I think I had to experience in order to get to where I am now, but I also wonder if I would have been able to just skip all of that and arrive where I am now. Not sure. Don't care. I made it and things are good.

I'm lucky, extraordinarily lucky, in fact, to have found a group of friends here almost immediately with the help of a random stranger on a plane. I'm sorry to say that I don't think New Englanders were ever as warm and open to inviting new people into the group as these folks have been. I feel a little strange about being wrapped into this so quickly, but I think that has to do with my own insecurities about the way my friendships ended back on the east coast. I constantly question the things I'm saying in a group, apologize for the slightest bit of negativity. Part of me hopes that the constant self-evaluation will end, but at the same time, I think it is necessary for me to hide behind the curtain awhile longer until I get my mouth under control.

On a bright note, I've spent a lot of time decorating my new abode, a comfortable 750 square foot 1 bedroom apartment down in Sunnyvale, CA. This involved several trips to Target, as well as an entire weekend of traveling back and forth to Ikea, buying, returning, buying, returning... but let's be honest. It was all to impress a guy. I couldn't let him into my apartment with it looking all unfinished and disheveled, could I?

More to come, boys and girls, more to come...

Labels: blogs, boredom, change, confidence, friends, Target

Life is unreal.

This is the first time I've staying in one state for longer than 2 weeks at a time in the past six months. I feel like I finally lined up all the dominoes in a straight line and once I tapped the first one, it wasn't any problem at all to get them to all fall.

Pretty f-ing cool.

So I have had plenty of time to work through all my crap and I'm finding it's incredibly easy to fit into the lifestyle here. It's a little odd, I feel as if I have taken the easy way out.

This weekend was the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco. Saw a bit of this and a bit of that (mostly just Beck and Radiohead), and had a good time, but spent the rest of the the weekend dealing with a bout of not-so-well-cooked food.



I think that people try to evoke a certain amount of control in their lives but when things start to spiral a bit, they clench even tighter, thinking that by closing toxicity off, it will solve the root of the problem all together. It took me over a year and a half to realize that if I just let things happen the way they're supposed to, I end up here. I never knew it was so easy to just be happy and I hope these people know how grateful I am to them for showing me just how easy it is.

This weekend, I'm going surfing in Santa Cruz. Wish me luck... a great white was spotted up at Stinson, so hopefully he plans on staying there and doesn't plan on coming down to nom on me, but you never know. If I disappear forever, you'll know what happened. Or will you?

Labels: change, music, Outside Lands, useless blog

So, I spent the day today waiting for my Pod to arrive from Boston. As luck has it, I'm no so lucky and did a complete runaround all day long to locate what was happening, when and where. Suffice to say that I spent most of my day failing at building Target furniture and diddling around on work stuff.

Sometimes, I feel like things a deliberately made more difficult than they should ever be... i.e. in the case of my furniture building. There's a lot of things that could really make things much easier, like arrows, shapes, other annoying guiding features that help stupid people like me figure things out. In turn, this made me think about what I'm doing for work and how to make things as simple as possible for everyone involved to figure out how to effectively communicate with one another. I looked at sites like Twitter, which encourages peer teaching to enable users to learn about their community. There are communities like MySpace and Facebook that depend on current users to invite others they know and to build their community by simply adding more of your real-life friends, associates, schoolmates, coworkers, etc.

How can I do this with a financial networking site? Do people want to be "social"? Do they want to be argumentative? Are they funny people? Will they understand the benefits and drawbacks of communicating and building their network, or will they only use the tools and features we offer to track their own earning? WHY will they communicate? How would these people have gotten together to talk about investing if it was a live scenario?

My brain hurts.

Labels: communication, development, social media, start-ups, websites, work

So, I'm a week and a half into living in California, one week down at my new job. I couldn't be happier, no joke. I have met so many great people in the last 12 days that I can barely remember and detail everything that I've done. I've been running around nonstop from one end of the city to the other, meeting up with friends on the East Bay for an A's game, shopping for vintage goodies in Mill Valley and San Anselmo, wandering Golden Gate Park, wandering around Mountain View and Sunnyvale, meeting up with new friends at the Buddha Bar in Mountain View... hanging out with my new coworkers. It's completely bizarre. I'm sorry to have dropped off the face of the planet there for a few weeks, but I'll be back more now that I have a home, a couch, and am able to steal me some internets from my neighbor.

On a bright(er) note, I may have to travel back to the east coast to meet up with another prospective investor for my start-up. I'm terrified to meet with him in person, he's a very big personality on the phone so I'm not sure how this will go over, but I suppose it's good for the experience, right? If things work out properly, I'll be able to close the deal on my first round of funding and start developing! Squee!!!

Cheers to a new life and endless change!

Labels: business, change, confidence, development, entrepreneur, jobs, waffles, weekend