Social Media Marketing

NASA’s, well spaced ‘Tweet’

NASA

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station received a special software upgrade this week that gives personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web via the ultimate wireless connection.

Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer made first use of the new system Friday, when he posted the first unassisted update to his Twitter account from the space station.

Astro_TJ Tweet from Space

Earlier, the tweets made from space were to be e-mailed to the ground where support personnel posted them to the astronauts’ Twitter accounts.

Makes us wonder about the power of the blue bird: Will twitter be the first social media micro tool to travel through Space?

Happy tweeting!

Image Source:

NASA LOGO Source: NASA

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A trailer truck and my car fell in love with each other for a brief moment. The result was a dented door and broken mirror. The fall out was that the car went to rest in the garage and I travelled by Mumbai’s famed local train for few days.

So I trudged to the railway station a bit earlier than my usual exit time. I was out of breath but pleased with the less than expected crowd. I stood at the same place where I used to, when I was studying in a College in this suburb thirty five years back. What has changed? The tea stall still serves the same type of food (Thane Station – Platform No. 2 made good Batata Vadas, but not this Station). The circular dial clock is replaced with a digital clock. The indicator is also digital- of the newer type. The sign board is clear and legible. The 7.59 local had left at 7.58 (as per digital clock). The next train was at 8.04. It came at 8.06. There was no mad rush to pounce into the train and rush inside. I got in early and stood between the seats and attempted to read the novel I had with me.

A person nudged me to keep his bag. I kept it. Then another one nudged. Totally there were four such requests. All the bags were satchels and not the briefcases. In fact I could not find any brief cases in the luggage rack of the First Class Compartment. Four out of ten persons were speaking intently on their cell phone. One was explaining in detail what he intended to do after reaching his office for trading in some share or commodity. There was an unauthorized occupant in ladies first class who was being berated and asked to leave- at the next station. I believe that women are more particular and vociferous about exercising their rights.

I got a place to sit after thirty minutes of a fifty five minutes journey. I got down at VT Station (CST now) and walked to office. It is a ten minute walk the oldest part of the town. All are stone buildings made several decades back. There is porch in the front of most buildings, which gives shade during this walk. The street vendors were just opening their wares for display. In my younger days, Keralite vendors used to display covers of “foreign goods” such as ‘two in ones’, tape recorders etc. Today it is odd items of low value – including colorful foreign condoms.

I passed the Fort Branch of Bank of India where I was posted on my promotion from clerk to officer. I worked there only for fifteen months and had no great memories associated with it. On reaching Office, one security chap hesitantly asked whether I was an employee. I felt crushed and reminded me of the famous tweet by a Minister on travelling cattle class.

The evening journey was even more pleasant. I could rush into an empty compartment and get a sitting place and read my novel without jerks and jumps. The next three days by train were uneventful. One day I even got down at Dadar, did some shopping, got into a Dadar starting train and could get down comfortably at Mulund. A young pair was sitting in front of me. The boy was convincing the girl that the earth is flat and he would take her to the other end of it. The girl was listening intently and wiped a tear drop- perhaps thinking that her parents had mislead her by informing that earth is round. Then she received a phone call and was vehemently conveying some message with actions and all. I wondered whether there would be enough substance in their tale for one TV Serial episode.

The train journey takes around 55 minutes to traverse 34 kilometers. The road journey takes 70 to 75 minutes in the morning and 100 to 150 minutes in the evening. It is not a pleasure to take 20 minutes to travel one or two kms. A colleague who lives in the next suburb told me that he and his wife initially travelled by car to Office, but found it boring and tiresome and gave it up soon. I could understand it well. A comfortable and reliable public transport is far superior to a private transport if the journey is from point to point with minimum walking in between. Lack of investment in infrastructure (most over used word today) in the early years of independence has lead to the present abysmal state. Even cattle are not transported in goods train the way human being travel in local trains and buses.

The underground trains in London are in existence from 1920s. (See below)

Trams are found in most European countries. (See tram in Switzerland)

Metro rail is common in south Asian countries. India too could have had all these much earlier. All of it is a case of missed opportunities in India.

The car Dealer informed me that the car is repaired and I could pick it up. My driver, who was to go and pick up the car, rang up to inform me that he could not come due to an accident between Mulund and Thane. It was a freak accident in which a concrete slap fell on a running train. This hit a huge water pipe which burst and created a mini flood on the track. The motor man died as could be extracted only after four hours. One more person died after a day or so. The trains had to be stopped for a day for repair. Everybody now realized that the concrete slab was hanging precariously for quite some time and no one was really responsible for it. One political party threatened to tie the civic servant to the nearby tree till he assured that the entire pipe line and all would be repaired.

(Courtesy DNA Newspaper)

What are the lingering memories when compared to the past? The trains run at greater speed and do not stop abruptly in between stations for signals. The mega blocks for maintenance repairs have made a great difference to the time and speed of the journey.  The 12 bogie train is a great blessing as it clears more crowds.  The camaraderie of passengers travelling together every day is an enduring sight. Nobody plays cards now as it now may be banned. The ticket sellers sit in AC offices and give computer print outs for tickets- something quite common in South India. The foot over bridge seems cleaner and even.

I leave with the belief that in spite of all the drawbacks of a chaotic democracy, there is some movement forward- albeit a slow one.

Thanks

Anjeneyan

The Tour de France is the most well known and prestigious of cycling’s three “Grand Tours”.

The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages and this year’s 2009 was upstaged by the 24 year  Mark Cavendish.

• Age: 24
• Team: Columbia
• Born: Isle of Man
• GB Team: Olympic Podium Programme

Mark Cavendish

The leaders of a team and his team mates racing on the Tour de France try to excel, individually or by the support they provide to their team. This amazing sporting team spirit of courage, determination and perseverance which is the Tour de France is an annual bicycle race that covers around 3,500 kilometers (2,200 mi) throughout France and bordering countries.

The Tour de France 2009

Individual times to finish each stage are added up to determine the overall winner at the end of the race. The rider with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears a yellow jersey.

The course changes every year but it has always finished in Paris and since 1975 along the Champs-Élysées.

It typically has 21 days, or stages, of racing and covers not more than 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi).[2] The shortest Tour was in 1904 at 2,420 kilometres (1,500 mi), the longest in 1926 at 5,745 kilometres (3,570 mi).

The number of teams usually varies between 20 to 22, with nine riders in each. Entry is by invitation to teams chosen by the race organiser, the Amaury Sport Organisation. Team members help each other and are followed by managers and mechanics in cars first Tour de France was staged in 1903.

Riders aim to win overall but there are three further competitions: points, mountains and for the best young rider. The leader of each wears a distinctive jersey.

The maillot jaune (yellow jersey) is worn by the general classification leader. The winner of the first Tour wore not a yellow jersey but a green armband.

The maillot vert (green jersey) is awarded for sprint points. At the end of each stage, points are earned by the riders who finish first, second, etc

The Points and more:

Flat stages: 35, 30, 26, 24, 22, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points are awarded to the first 25 riders across the

finish.

 Medium-mountain stages : 25, 22, 20, 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the first 20 riders across the finish.

 High-mountain stages : 20, 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the first 15 riders across the finish.

 Time-trials: 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the top 10 finishers of the stage

OVERALL STANDING ON TIME

Results link after stage 21

Total distance covered: 3459.5 km

http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/LIVE/us/2100/classement/index.html

Winner: Mark Cavendish

http://www.markcavendish.com

Legends Trivia:

A legend of the same:

Lance Armstrong in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005

Lance Armstrong

Image Source:

Cycling

Sports

http://en.wikipedia.org

Roadcycling

Letour

Career proofing: Flying High! on clouded skies

An amazing 4 hour midnight telephonic conversation and I conclude, I am not made up for phone talk!

I then realized, I did it anyway so may be change IS in the air.

Not trying to jump hoops here. Just getting and catching up with the current market scenario.

Had a wonderful conversation with two very different individuals yesterday which made me blog into ‘The blog is personal again’ section. Both were frustrated & discouraged with their jobs, one had resigned and one was dying to resign. Both had remarkably unique points of view to share on the current scenario.

The one who was free from both income and ‘immediate-earlier’ stress spoke with sheer self-belief of the current industry trend of no / poor job & career opportunities.

I asked him, “How did you take this step then, if the industry is so bad?” He said “I resigned ‘coz the industry is awful anyways, so there is no immediate scale for professional growth in our organization. Whatever be your performance, you would be tagged in with the millions as far as recession in industry goes. So when you know the industry is bad, even the sector that’s doing well refuses to grow or accept growth, so why not resign and start a venture of my dream?”

My long silence, made the optimistically high and free being to continue and add, “When I know what I do for others is not going to get me anywhere, I might as well try to do it for me. If it does not work, I anyway have the industry to blame, its recession everywhere and so if not now, then when?”

I smiled, wished him the best of success and loads of positive morale which he would need whether or not his ‘venture’ clicks.

The other individual still bound by rules, corporate policies and frustrations from one’s superior was very clear, “it’s not a good time to leave. Let’s think about changing careers when the industry does well. I can’t sleep with peace, but can at least pay my daily bills without having to plan or think. What say?”

I had nothing to say, I just nodded.

I realized I have become too patient listening to people. Well, at least one good personal skill I added this year I guessed. But, then I just put forth both queries and pointers together:

1. The industry is anyways bad; why not venture into something new. One can change careers when the industry is good or doing great, we would have better professional career opportunities.
2. The industry is bad. Now, it’s time to just stay putt and follow with the crowd. When nothing works, at least your bills are still getting paid!

Then I felt, I would ask all of you…. What say? What would you choose? What is your take on this?

Give me your views on the same.

Blessedart!

Image Source: ANVCLICKS

Dense Nature

 The transition from the cold blue and foggy grey pick-up area to the vibrant and somewhat gaudy interiors of the bus hurt my eyes. After all the pupils of 6ChM and 6JSa had boarded the bus, it was now waiting for my English teacher, who was one of the coordinators of our zoo trip. I glanced at the designs on the inner roof of the bus. There were multicoloured cellos and shining trumpets, looking as if they were waiting ready to leap up and play a melody.

After I was bored at staring at the metal transport office with the peach coloured roof and the brown bench outside, I started a brief chat with my pals. In the heat of the conversation (which turned out to be not so brief), my teacher finally entered the vehicle. It was quite unusual as my English teacher was never late. It was as queer as a green flamingo writing the middle name of its sixth cousin (thrice removed) with the leg that it was balancing on.

This zoo trip was a trip to give us inspiration for writing poems, which was what our English topic was. We had been informed about a trip around a week before it took place. In class we had to vote for either going to the botanical gardens or the zoo. My class is full of animal lovers and majority of us voted to go to the zoo. We were to take notes about our surroundings in the zoo. These were to help us later when we were writing poems about the field trip.

The bus started immediately after my tutor belted up. The zoo was quite close by because the school was also in Jurong. However, the trip could only be two hours long because we left in the beginning of lunch, stayed there for the two periods of English and returned by the end of the afternoon break. We spent 40 minutes in the bus, so that left us only an hour and 20 minutes, in which time we also had to get to and fro from the places in the zoo. In the middle of the bus ride, a storm broke out, which we all knew would lead to the animals not coming out into the open if they didn’t like rain.

Just as we were about to enter the zoo, the rain stopped. In fact, the rain hadn’t reached here yet because the roads and flora were dry, although we could see the grey clouds in the distance. We strode over to the ticket counter, formed a straight line a few metres away from it and each gave the teachers five dollars for the ticket. My friend and I got tram tickets as he had a muscle problem because of which he couldn’t walk long distances. Because he wasn’t allowed to go alone (a school rule), I was requested to go with him. We hopped onto a tram with zebra stripes painted all over it and headed off for the fragile forest.

The fragile forest was a butterfly enclosure. The butterflies would just be fluttering in the air- living in an enclosed area wouldn’t make much of a difference to their life as the place was huge and the zoo keepers refilled their ‘feeding bowls’ (Five multicoloured hexagons with holes in them arranged in a circle on a white disc that is nailed to a tree.) and there were countless flowers. We made a partition in the chains that were hanging and opened the door that led to the butterfly park.

There was only one colour around me- green. Everything from the butterfly net to the moss growing on the emerald trees was jade green. Name a shade and it was there- pear, olive, lime, Persian green, army green, shamrock green, pine green, bottle green, sea green, racing green, midnight green, teal green, camouflage green, kelly green, pigment green, tea green, electric green, moss green, office green, hunter green, fern green, myrtle, spring green, spring bud, viridian and even asparagus!

The first thing that greeted my ears was a bunch of loud peacocks and peahens hopping like they needed to use the toilet but the thing that was using the lavatory was taking its time. Hanging upside down from the tree next to me was a bat. Its sinewy wings looked like the fabric batman’s wings were made of. A fresh breeze hung in the air. I walked a few steps ahead and I was soon on a wood bridge, as brown as the three primary colours mixed together.

There were calm waterfalls and tranquil water flowed elegantly under us. Unruffled lotuses bloomed in the cool pool like a magicians hands hypnotizing someone. The peaceful moments were broken by two screams. One of them came from a girl near a cluster of bats. She had screamed in surprise because the bats had just urinated. The other one came from one of my classmates because she had dropped her homework diary in the pond. We all walked towards the place where she dropped it to see if it could be retrieved. We could see it, floating on top of the water but it was out of reach and it was drenched in water. There was anyway not much point recovering it as the water would have made the ink spread out all over the page (chromatography- the process of separating different liquids in a solution). I then walked towards the bats and took a couple of snapshots so that I could write a poem about it later.

We lined up again and marched over to the orang-utan point. My friend and a supervisor had already left because he could then rest on the way and they will still reach there before us. It had started drizzling and soon it was heavily raining. I praised myself for remembering to pack and umbrella. After all, this was Singapore- you could never predict when it would rain. The problem was that the monkeys had all gone indoors as they disliked the rain. We only had half and hour left so instead of waiting for the monkeys and getting as fed up and bored as a spoilt five year old being forced to look at mouldy custard dripping down a wall, we headed back to the bus, stopping for a couple of minutes in the otter’s pond. Anyways, we could see their living conditions later by peeping in our locker room.

I could hear the otters before I could see them. Otters are minute mammals that eat fish. They are as furry as stereotypical teddy bears. I didn’t find them too interesting as most of them just sat in the corner under a tree and we could barely make out their outline even after craning our necks as much as owls. I could only see the head of one of them that was sleeping inside a hollow log.

We reached school a few minutes late for our next lesson, but otherwise, we followed the schedule. The trip was enjoyable and amusing because all my friends were with me and we had a great time. Even though I had been to the zoo numerous times, I never had this much entertainment. Also, I noticed many more things in this trip because I was looking for small details to write some poetry about. This was a fantastic trip and I think that it was a great idea to choose the zoo for inspiration.

—

Aditya K

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Blessedart

Do we need to be obsessed about our career or do we just need to ensure that we have a job and do it well? Isn’t a good job synonymous with a successful career?

When we started out in the employment field in India thirty years back, job was a luxury and career a word in dictionary. Better qualifications got you a better job- a more secure job. The first thing that was mentioned on getting a job was that xxx has got a secure job. Today’s generation would be puzzled by this obsession, as job insecurity ( for a skilled and young individual in India ) is not on the horizon.

When does job translate into career? I believe that gaining expertise and higher responsibilities in one’s chosen area or allied area of expertise on a continuous basis would translate a job into career. Doing a function mechanically needing limited application of mind would perhaps indicate that stagnation has begun. Another indication would be when your immediate Superior’s job seems attractive, easy to do and more importantly having self confidence to do it well.

Do we need to be obsessed with career? In other words, is career different from our employment with the present organisation? In today’s circumstances career obsession seems to be a pre requisite for success. In today’s changing times, every organisation demands skills and talents relevant to today and not yesterday or day before. We are as good as our last victory (like our cricket team). If we do not measure up to the tomorrow’s need, then in comes a rank outsider who is seen to have those skills. Yesterday’s heroes or heroines are now to follow the new leader or well …. look elsewhere.

In such a situation what does an individual do? I believe that he or she has to continually upgrade their skills so as to be relevant to today and tomorrow. Age has nothing to do with it. It would be incorrect to say that “I am too old to learn new tricks. In my time we used to………”. These kind or dialogues would draw embarrassed silence only.

Is not the organisation responsible too? Does it have to be obsessed with its own success and survival and not care for the people who were responsible for this? Yes, it also has its responsibilities. It has to nurture and grow people who lack the obvious skills, but with some assistance could be re-deployed suitably and prove to be assets in changed circumstances also. This requires visionary skills at upper and middle levels of management and listening ability. Also the appraisal system should be have a core of honesty which has creditability within the organisation and which would inform the correct situation so far as the individual is concerned.

Well, what would you say to your young cousin who has started to examine new openings within a month of taking up a new assignment? I would say focus on career, upgrading of skills, higher levels of responsibilities, exposure to new areas and opportunities for a larger contribution to the organisation would be the key to the decision.

What do you feel? I would love to get responses to the above views- especially from the younger generation.