serendipity

It's a small world, baby

 A while back Vox asked a question about our favorite class in school. Not feeling very inspired, I was all set to skip it until Scott wrote about his favorite teacher. Now this was something I could relate to and I wrote a post about Larry Vilaubi, my high school humanities teacher who not only opened my eyes about life, but who also saved it. That story is here.

 

When I was writing the post I was thinking how nice it would be if Larry could actually read it. After all I was 18 when all this happened and I can't say for sure that I did a good job of thanking him for everything he did. But 25 years later, I had no idea where he was.

 

Back 1989 I had seen an insurance commercial about Loma Prieta featuring him and his family, and I knew it was Larry when I heard him refer to the insurance company as a bunch of "really nice bean counters." The commercial only aired once or twice. (Insurance company wimps.) Aside from that, I had no idea what became of him and his family.

 

As you all know, Vox is still invitation only, and really what chance was there that Larry was A) in here, or B) stalking his former students from 25 years ago and therefore up to date on my blog, or C) was friends with someone who not only read my blog but who also knew him? Higher than I thought as it turns out.

 

The other day I received this:

 

Karen,

 

So a friend of mine clued me in to your blog and the story about Pompeii. I was blown away. I have an equally vivid memory of that day and of nearly losing you. It's amazing how an "expanded presence" memory can remain so vivid for so long. Anyway, I'm glad you didn't die. Also, thanks for the kind words -- I really miss teaching Humanities and making those kinds of wonderful connections with kids.

 

Larry

 

Surprised is not the word. Astonished, perhaps. Elated would be another good one. Really happy.

 

So what did I do? I invited him into Vox. I don't know if he'll take me up on it, but I do know that someone who can write after 25 years "anyway, I'm glad you didn't die" is someone whose voice I want to hear more regularly.

 

Cue music: It's a world of laughter, a world of tears, it's a world of hope…

 

P.s. Thanks for saving my life, Larry.

Music and personality

Here's an interesting study that shows your preference in music can predict the patterns of your life - including sexual activity, drug use and political outlook. The findings are not as predictable as you might think, here are a couple of tidbits:

Opera fans were as likely as other music lovers to try hallucinogenic drugs

More than 37 percent of hip-hop aficionados and nearly 29 percent of dance music fans had had more than one sexual partner over the past five years, compared to just 1.5 percent of country music lovers. (well, duh)

Fans of hip-hop and dance were least likely to support recycling or alternative sources of energy, and least likely to support the use of taxation to expand public services.

The backers of the study are fielding a worldwide study on music and demographics online. If you're interested in participating, go here.

Full throttle ahead

Today we announced the launch of my company, Yoriwa (Yo-ree-wuh) and our product LeapTag.

In a nutshell:

LeapTag is a personalized web discovery tool that learns what you like and then delivers it to you when you want it.

Why is that interesting? Well, imagine you are interested in something, like your competition, or cycling or cooking. It's unlikely that you have time to run searches every day to find out what's new. However you might like to know if there's a new book from the Naked Chef or a previously undiscovered web site that focuses on the Tour de France. LeapTag does this, and we do it through a process we call dynamic tagging.

Dynamic tags are ones that change over time. They are not keywords. You define them by tagging sites you are interested in, and then when LeapTag brings you back results, you vote on what you like and what you don't. The more you use the product, the better it gets to know you and the better your results. Oh, and if you want, you can share your tags with your friends.

Now since this is my personal blog, and not a product site, I'm going to stop here. But I know that some of you were curious to know what all the secrecy was about, and since the cat has been officially jettisoned from the bag, it's time to come out from under the cone of silence.

It's also time to go to bed, since tomorrow we chase press and give demos all day. Our six-minute presentation happens on Wednesday afternoon. While that timing is pretty tough (near the very end of the program) the DEMO folks have proactively made it up to all of us by giving us premier placement for our demo stations - we're right in front of the entrance (completely their idea, how cool is that?).

If all goes well, I'll post something. If it doesn't, well, I'll probably post that too.

Location, location

Lucky number 6

Directly in front of the door!

09-25-06_1528.jpg

Making small talk

I've been using VOX since the beginning, and as I've used it I've become a relatively vocal proponent of comments and their importance in building connections between people. My metaphor for VOX continues to be that of a cocktail party, as opposed to myspace or livejournal which are more akin to frat parties - fun for many, but a totally different scene and one that I am too old for.

My VOX cocktail party has been getting really active lately. I've met a bunch of new people and many of them are good writers telling interesting stories. Very few of  them write like Prince (die 4 U) which is great. I love a healthy vocabulary and complete sentences that make big and little stories...but I'm starting to digress and today I have a point to make. Really, a plea.

I've met these new people in large part because I have commented on their blogs or they have commented on mine. Very often these comments turn from "you go, girl" into real conversations. The conversations rarely last for more than a few days, but during this time I frequently check VOX for updates. I do this while I'm working, and it used to be an easy and relatively guilt-free activity because a quick peek at the home page would show me what I needed to know without sucking time away from critical projects. Wham, bam, a quick reply and "enter" then back to work. It was totally working for me. And more than once it enabled me to turn neighbors into friends.

The redesign of the home page has completely changed my behavior. I now have no idea from one hour/day to the next if someone has replied to my comment (except of course if they have done it on my blog - but I am not talking about that). The only way to find out is to click back to the reader (which I never, ever use) to "recent activity" (a name that means little to me because only comments are there and not a complete list of recent activity) to a list of every single comment I've been connected to for the past several weeks - not the kind of "recent" I'm looking for.

Oddly enough, my own comments are not listed here. I often comment on the blogs of strangers who are too new (and unknown to me) for me to want to make them neighbors. I suspect the (perfectly rational) thinking went something like "who doesn't remember what they wrote"?  Well I, for one, don't.  Perhaps it's early on-set of Alhzeimer's, the fact that I'm hugely busy, or simply a sign of an active commenter. Regardless, the net is that I now have to weed through a very long list of stuff, in search of what just happened now. It takes forever and consequently I rarely do it.

This is a loss for me. Now instead of making small talk at my cocktail party I'm watching a movie. Occasionally I throw popcorn at the screen but I don't have time to see if anyone is throwing anything back. 

I feel like the relationships I've built are suffering somewhat because I can't nurture them like I did before. And most sadly, there is little chance of turning new neighbors into friends.

I know that you folks are hard pressed for real estate on the VOX home page and you have a bunch of competing priorities not the least of which is driving revenue. But small talk, or commenting, will become the life-blood of the community. It's the difference between a monologue and a dialogue. Of talking to friendly people or whispering in the wind.

Keeping the entire list of comments in recent activity is okay if you will put the short list of what just happened back on the home page. That is my plea.

And yes, I know that you cannot reinstate this feature just for me. And it could be that my way of using VOX is different from the great majority which you must serve. But this post has been rattling around my head for over a week, and it's taking up much needed space.

I'll take my answer off the air. ;-)

Playground Vox

Vox in blocks

QotD: Written By Yours Truly

If you could write a book about anything, what would it be about?

Oh my. Who has the time or energy to write a book? I can barely keep up with this blog.