Supercool School

Holy Smokes! Fred Wilson Won The Lunch With Jerry Yang And Gave It To Me!!!!

Read the story here: A VC

I will write more about it later. Right now I'm speechless and very happy!

My worst post ever!

Well, it's now 7 days ago that I'm waking up every morning to tell myself that I would find some time today to post an update about Supercool School and our current level of development. As you might have guessed, I'm still not posting this update and haven't kept my promise to post more regular yet. Well, it's 1:30am and I have to wake up in 4 hours (assuming I would be going to sleep right away which I won't) to work remotely with a designer in German on the last pieces of our Supercool School application and then head towards Palo Alto to meet a startup lawyer to lunch. Then returning to San Francisco to finish some very very very important things on my "To-Do-Or-Die-Trying" list before I'll run to another meeting in the evening.

Please be patient with me. Have a little faith in me. I'm changing to the better, one day at a time. More information to come tomorrow ( can someone plz kick my ass if you haven't seen a new post before 1am tomorrow?!).

Ok - gotta return to what I was doing before this post. Peace out!

P.S. I even missed the awesome 2 year-happy-birthday SOB party of the uniquely awesome Liz Strauss today. Damn it! DAMN ITTTT!!!

P.P.S. Arrhh...just in case you didn't know (warning: sarcastic voice here plz) - I want to post about the DonorsChoose.org Blog Challenge for 2 weeks now!!! It's an incredible touching effort to do some good in our classrooms today. Please go and check it out NOW if you don't want to wait till I get my shit together.

P.P.P.S. Lovya all. Much power and love to all my readers! You kick ass!

Think Outside The Fast-Food-Box

Here's a challenge: You have to translate two full Chinese sentences ( 13 kanji symbols out of a total of approximately 47,035 in the  Kangxi dictionary ) in 1 hour. Let's suppose you can't speak or read Chinese and you don't know anyone who can ( just like me ).

Let's look at the obvious options:

1. You go to an "expert" website like kasamba and pay around $30.00 to get it right away
2. You can try to google it ( it's "free" but a waste of time )
3. You call a paid translation service ( cost at least $50.00 and they need forever to get back to you)
4. You send an email to friends who might know someone who can help you ( again free but uncertain)
5. You post it on a blog, on twitter or on facebook and ask your social network ( same things as email to friends )

This task is perfect for a "think-outside-the-fast-food-box" solution:

What I did two weeks ago ( when I had exactly this problem) was I called a local Chinese restaurant with delivery service to order sweet-sour chicken and rise. 30 minutes later, the delivery boy brought me my food and I asked him if he can help me translate this 2 sentence document for an extra tip of $3.00. He was more then happy to help me and had a fun time explaining to me the meaning of the symbols and the sentences. It was great!

There I was...sitting on my desk with the solution to my translation problems: Delicious Chinese Fast Food! Mmmhhh....

Any other good stories on how to solve challenging problems in unusual ways?

Simpsonize Me

It's funny, one week ago David and I were talking about an idea. We both love the Simpsons and we where talking about a website that would let you create a Simpsons character by uploading a picture from yourself.

As it turns out - no idea is an island: Check out Simpsonize Me

That`s my Simpsons-Alter-Ego ;)

8 Random Things About Me - Is this really interesting?!

I've been tagged before for the "8 Random Facts Meme" but after my buddy William Tully decided to tag me as well, I'm giving up and posting 7 Random Facts About Me here.

Why 7 and not 8? Well, I'm wondering if my readers are really interested in this kind of information so I'm letting you ask me for a specific thing you want to know about in the comment section ( my guess is that nobody will ask, but let's find out).

1. I love dumb ass action movies from the 80s
2. I play the guitar, bass & keyboard
3. I'm skating and I'm about to start taking yoga classes
4. I told my mom when I was 8 years old that I would change the world
5. I have two older brothers
6. I have robbed a bank with a banana ( for evidence click here)
7. I speak Greek, German, English and I want to learn Chinese in the near future
8. Ask me anything in the comment section and I will answer :)

If you read this and think that you want to share 8 ( or 7) random things about you with the world - feel tagged!

Activity vs. Identity

I had a meeting with a lawyer last week. Her last name was Batman. No kidding! I just thought that's the coolest name every!!! Think about ALL the possibilities that a name like this can give you...

But on the other side: it's not your name that defines you - it's who you are underneath. Or even better...

"Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it's
not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you.
" From The Movie Batman Begins

M.I.A. - Sri Lakan Rapper Kicks Ass

M.I.A. is one of the most interesting artists I've come across this year ( thankx to MC Kelso ;) ). She is a rapper, singer & visual artist that has causes quite some controversy. Seems to be the music week on this blog ;)

From the wikipedia article:

The nature of M.I.A.'s art work and lyrics has led to controversy. MTV refused to play the video of her single "Sunshowers" until a reference to the PLO was removed from the song, and the artist was denied a visa to enter the US around April/May 2006.  M.I.A. has however previously stated in an interview about censorship of her work:

“

From Day One, this has been a mad, crazy thing: I say the things I'm not supposed to say, I look wrong, my music doesn't sound comfortable for any radio stations or genres, people are having issues with my videos when they're not rude or explicit or crazy controversial. I find it all really funny.

”

I admit that you need some time to get her sound, read her lyrics and research about her history till you can get really into her groove but then - WOW! She kicks-ass for sure and I love it!

So for all the "free-minded-original-music-loving-spirits" out there: M.I.A is worth  listening to.

Happy Day To You!

20th June 2007.
Meditating while a handmade Japanese perfumed flower candle is the only source of light in my room. A moment of silence...thinking about the lessons of the past year...thinking about all the blessings of my life....fully aware of the moment...silence in my mind...and then....a thought breaks the silence: "You have to share this special moment with your readers!" Hahaha....damn it! One year older & still a blogger ;) A happy day ( birth or not birth) to all of us. Let´s kick some ass!

That´s what happens if you go out with a kyter...

Do you know this guy?

You Wake Up As The Man You Went To Sleep.

One of the most powerful lessons I refuse to learn is this: If you want to change anything - you have to start the change before you go to sleep. Only start - even if it is a tiny step. Anything will do it. But you gotta do it before you go to sleep.

Take it from a hypocrite: Don´t persuade yourself at the end of a day without action that you´ll do it tomorrow. If you are really ready to stop the procrastination you will start now. Before you go to sleep. Your chances are pretty good to wake up as a new man/women and continue your work then.

It´s 2:50 am and  I refused to start till now - but I refuse to go to sleep before starting too...let´s see if I get some sleep soon  ;)

I´ll keep you up-to-date about my learning progress in the comment section. Sweet dreams...