Archive of A Picture A Quote

I’m about to go to the country of baconnaise, the home of hamburgers, fries and Dr Pepper. The land where you get asked a question and are not expected to really truly fully answer.

Can’t wait to see how Miki, my travel mate, will react to this. Entering shops, placing orders in a restaurant, pretty much everywhere you get greeted by a phrase that might look like this:

“Hello (Sir), how are you doing today?”

When I first went to California, this warm and open greeting seemed kind of alienating to me. You get asked how you were doing today… In the most formal restaurant? That – to me – used to be material I talk to friends and people close to me about. Not waiters. Not staff. Until I realized that this is not supposed to be some intrusive question or anything of the kind. It’s just a way to greet someone and loosen up a bit.

You are not expected to give detailed updates to your waiter on your critical condition concerning your inflamed right pinkie toe. Just shoot back a nice “Fine thank you, and you?” and where ever you are – may it be in a café, restaurant, shop,… everywhere – the person that will be helping you for the day will appreciate it.

What Europeans get wrong very often: You are not expected to give orders to a waiter before you greet him/her accordingly. That would be considered entirely rude. “Hello, how are you?” – “Two scrambled eggs and bacon as an aside!”. You get used to that warmness very quickly and I sometimes miss this kind of dealing with people. Use phrases like “May I have another diet coke, please” instead of “My coke’s empty. REEEFILL!”… You get the idea.

What Europeans get wrong too often: Tipping accordingly.

Can’t wait to give you more updates on our upcoming trip. Just ordered the New York City guide by Lonely Planet since the Encounter version was just too superficial for a 10 days stay. Covering just the basics that I knew about already made it look like there wasn’t too much to do.

What is described below should not happen with the money you’re supposed to pay back with knowledge “purchased” earlier in life in college. If that “student loan” is a scholarship that your country gives you on a monthly basis, please understand that there comes certain responsibility. The tax payer will thank you.

Drink responsibly.

As seen on Twitter by lukeayresryan.

“As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes.” (by Mel Brooks)

As long as it’s dizzy and not I-am-about-to-vomit-queasy.

Fly Away Home · photo by Thomas Hawk on flickr.com

When people mention “The New Media”, Web 2.0  or uniformly use the term Facebook or Twitter as an umbrella term (Sillies!), you often hear about stories, videos or other online material having gone “viral.” The WTF Viral factor (as described in this post over at We Love Viral) basically describes how content gets a lot of exponentially growing attention. Person A tell his mom B and a friend C that he saw F’s dad making out with D’s secretary in the company backlot person A did an internship at. As a result mom B tells its coffee round consisting of several other moms of person D, E and F, oh and of course G who brings all the yummy cup cakes, who then,… Okay, we figured out how rumors spread, same technique, different content…

This inevitably leads to the following question. How do you get people’s attention whose childhood taught them to keep their attention span shortened to a minimum and whose radar displays only peak when several people are shot slaughtered put into a microwave and set on defrost mode having them spin on the glass table in there? … I got your attention there. Point proven. Thank you.

WTF & OMG. Ingredients for home-made virally spreading content.

So to sum it up: To have things spread virally, be sure to easily connect people (coffee meet ups, Twitter, Facebook), create unique content that have as many people go “WTF” and this is where it starts getting viral “OMG I need to tell all my buddies”. Both conditions fulfilled, you will achieve a maximum of attraction and exposition. See this example. Cellphone being microwaved.

• “WTF?” Check.
• “OMG I need to show my friends!” Check.

Another example just to train yourself in how to have things go viral. The Swine Flu:

• “WTF? There’s a flu named after swines?” Check.
• “I may be infected. Should tell my friends I didn’t wash my hands?” Check.

You can´t supress a powerful question. (Click to enlarge via ImageShack.us)

May 3rd is the International World Press Freedom Day reminding people around the globe that only with freedom of press we can catch the elusive term of liberty. The internet with all its derivative forms of journalism plays a crucial part in the quest for freedom of press. Based on what A. J. Liebling (an American writer, 1904-1963) put quite cynically – “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” – everyone can now have a word in the fast paced stream of news in this world. That’s the beauty of the internet to me.*

“The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty.” (by Adlai E. Stevenson)

Advertising, investors, owners, politics and various other strong factors can put enormous pressure on the liberty to print, report and investigate free from outter force trying to limit depth, stretch the truth or have journalists go as “they” please.

In context with this topic, I was reminded of BBC’s campaign “The Power of Questions”. I previously came across with the ad in a Time’s Magazine back in January and immediately ripped out the page and put it on my pin board. Yet I always forgot to dedicate a seperate post in this matter on my blog. Thumbs up for this strong motive. Apart from print ads they released a commercial for TV.

* I know that news papers are struggling and that the Internet is said to be blamed (A drop in subscribers and ads placed due to the economic downturn), but still I strongly believe that the internet has contributed to the freedom of press. Evertime a country with regime-controlled press gets hit by a crisis, the “real” information leaks via the Interwebs.

San Francisco at night by Thomas Hawk

“It’s simply a very romantic place. Just one look at any of those streets, and you couldn’t be anywhere else – it’s so beautiful, and there’s that location, and the sense of the free spirit. Who couldn’t become ravenous in such a place?” (by Julia Child)

Excuse this lame anglo-french approach in the title. Here one more reason to get onto a plane and escape the fierce Austrian winter…

Feel free

“It never rains in Southern California” (Albert Hammond)

Winter here in good old Austria made me really desperate. Desperate enough to have me pick up the clichést of clichés. Look what I found on my hard drive looking for a cosy warm desktop wallpaper.

“I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against — is hugely against — 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler” by Williamson.

With all due respect: One more reason that will soothe my conscience and won’t make me feel bad that I immediately trashed that Catholic church letter asking for a fee that dates back to Hitler himself. 

Is this club, it’s nothing more for me, in trouble? Heck yes. Holocaust denial is a crime, people.

I feel sort of feel bad for not believing, but it kinda makes it pointless when you doubt the whole story. ‘Nuff talking for a “A Picture A Quote” post.

One more thing. The picture matches the topic, because that represents the future vision if church keeps insisting on this outdated policy that really needs some sort of update.

no session today · photo by kymioflario on flickr.com