Serendipitous Discovery: Following the Ninth

Another day, another interesting surprise. I was searching for a way to rent a Lexus R300h in or around Frutillar, Chile (research for LCB: Drives) and came across a post on Fodor's forum by someone asking about a scenic spot between Santiago and Puerto Varas. The poster's name was Kerry Candaele and he mentioned that he was working on a documentary. Someone replied to his question and wondered whether he was related to Casey Candaele, former Major League ballplayer. Turns out, Kerry is Casey's brother and the two had previously produced the documentary A League of Their Own, on which the feature film starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis was based, about their mother Helen Candaele, who is inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Anyway, he posted a link to his current documentary project: Following the Ninth. Curious, I clicked on the link. Nothing to do with the nine innings of baseball. Rather, the Ninth in question here is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It's a fascinating documentary that links the world and its historical events through this one seminal symphony.

As the website explains: "Part road film, ala Jack Keroac, part musical love story, ala The Red Violin, FOLLOWING THE NINTH will move across geographical and cultural borders like the Ninth Symphony itself. The film will tell the story of passionate commitment to and love for music and its capacity to sustain us even in the darkest of times. Rather than limit the appeal of the story by focusing on symphony musicians alone, FOLLOWING THE NINTH will find the rock band in Hong Kong that performs the piece, the Qanun player in Jerusalem, or the steel drum players in New York City, the five-thousand-member chorus in Tokyo, from poets, priests, and housewives, scholars and scamps all over the world who have found themselves connecting to Beethoven’s Ninth."

I have no idea who that Hong Kong rock band is. Eagerly awaiting the movie's May 2008 release just to find out.

The view from upside down

In interviews, I sometimes ask candidates what gets them out of bed in the morning. For me on this particular Thursday morning when my iPhone alarm went off at 6am, it was the prospect of running while watching the season premiere of Prison Break. Not the grandest of ambitions, but it got me out of bed.

But the highlight of the morning turned out to be something totally different -- I finally managed a tripod headstand, something I've been wanting to do ever since I started doing yoga, which seems like ages. I was still hesitating as of yesterday's lunch hour class with Wendy. I had even updated my status on Facebook to read: "Winnie is still struggling with handstands but making some progress with tripod headstand. Need more practice...". So after my treadmill run, I decided to give it a go. Once, twice, three times...I was still stuck only half way up. Then I just sat on my heels, stared into the harbour, and just tried to focus on my breathing while listening to BEP. Slowly, I went up again. Slowly, with a bit of hesitation, I started to unbed my legs. Before I knew it, my legs were up in the air! I was so surprised, I fell out of it. I had two more goes and it felt great! It was a wonderful reminder of the truthfulness of all those cliches that now sound really lame when someone says them to you in half-hearted encouragement. I know this will sound like yoga fluff, but it seems the trick sometimes is to keep trying while not getting the mind wrapped up in expectations of failure or success. I guess that's why meditation is such a useful part of yoga (it's something that I haven't really explored yet). I can see the power of being able to make each attempt at something (no matter how many previous attempts have been made) as though each attempt were a brand new attempt, a clean slate every time. Quite incredible really. And in fact, this reminds me of what HB had told me about The Energy Project, something her boss at Barclays was encouraging his management team to listen to. She explained that someone had studied the behaviour of top seeded tennis players. What set the top few from the rest of the field was their ability to quickly reset and recharge their mind. When they hit a bad shot, they don't get frustrated. Instead, they turn their back on the net, play with the strings on the racket or anythings else that helps them to wipe out the bad shot from their mind and get back into a state of mental, and hence physical, freshness.

Sometimes, we just waste so much energy dwelling on inconsequential details, like when I was so distraught over my iPhone last week or when DA told me last night that she had lost her Cartier watch at the spa. To make her feel better, I told her the story of my lost Malo gloves. I had bought a beautiful pair of orange gloves from the Malo shop in Venice this past Chinese New Year. A little over a week later, I left them at Tate Modern. I was a bit sad that I had lost them so soon, but at the same time, I somehow felt that it was a good omen (For some reason, I've always had this silly belief that when I lose something, I also gain something in return). Sure enough, that night, I met MG who turned out to a friend of Mary Lester, the wife of Williams-Sonoma chairman Howard Lester. MG passed a set of Little Cream Book to Mary, who then passed them on to the buyers at Williams-Sonoma Home. Nearly seven months later, we're about to ship their first order to their shops for the upcoming holiday season. All that from one chance encounter after I lost a beautiful pair of orange gloves.

So that's what gets me out of bed each morning -- wanting to see what surprises are in store for the day.

iPhone reborn

I am naming my firstborn after FW, a truly wonderful, wonderful cat.
Within 4 hours, he managed to bring me back from my state of mourning
back to absolute jubilation by not only reviving my iPhone, which I
thought I had bricked by trying to install the software unlock without
a complete and up-to-date set of instructions, but he also succesfully
unlocked it. I've been SMS-ing everyone for the past couple of days.
One of the most useful sites is: www.hacktheiphone.com. Attempt with
utmost caution, patience and an endless spirit of trial and error.
It's not an easy procedure to follow. It took AW nearly 24 hours to
complete. But now that he's succeeded, he's over the moon as well. The
price of an unlocked iphone in hong kong is now HK$4,880 and dropping
fast.

Sent from my iPhone

RIP: my poor iPhone...

Sob...I tried to unlock the phone function with iPhoneSimFree's recently-released software...now my iPhone is dead. Be warned.

On the bright side, now I can get a new one for just US$299 (using the US$100 credit from previous purchase).

I'm a Believer Now!

Today must be Facebook day, because the site's power has just been revealed to me: Utterly stumped and frustrated by a series of google searches to figure out the name of one made-up, supposedly global language, I decided to see whether I could harness the knowledge of my Facebook community to answer my question. So I changed my status to read: Winnie is stumped trying to remember the name of the made-up, "global" language. Within 12 minutes, the answer came back to me in a message from HH in San Francisco -- Esperanto! So cool...My status now reads: Winnie is lovin' Facebook's knowledge-harnessing capabilities.

A Lightbulb Morning: Facebook, Bill Clinton, Anita Roddick

Sometimes, everything just seems to converge. It's like the stars are all aligned and everything just falls into place. It's happened to me many a times, where I think...and think...and think...and nothing...absolutely not a drop in the bucket...not even a flicker of light from the light bulb. And then, all of a sudden, out of the blue, it's as if someone turned on the switch and the room is flooded with light and you just see everything so clearly. This morning was one of those mornings.

It all started this morning when I woke up at 6am and checked emails on my iPhone and found that PT had left a message on my Facebook wall: "Why are you throwing sheep at me? I don't get it...". To be honest, I didn't really get it either. AI had SuperPoked me first and I thought it was kind of cute to throw sheep at a couple of friends. But I didn't really think much of it. And in fact, I've been quizzing my Facebook friends on why they've become so addicted to Facebook. Really, what's the point of throwing sheep at someone or sending fish for a virtual aquarium or sending a "growing" plant. It all seemed rather silly and pointless. But the Facebook phenomenon is one of the "legs" underpinning the business plan I'm working on. So I felt I needed to understand the appeal and it bothered me a little that I hadn't quite "got it".

And then, around 7am, I finally got it! I was on the train heading to the gym, listening to Bill Clinton read his book Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. He was reading Chapter 7: Gifts That Keep on Giving and talking about the work that Heifer International does. In a nutshell, one of Heifer's initiatives is to provide a "living loan" of livestock such as goats, sheep, duck, chicken etc. Loan recipients are then trained in raising the livestock and using them to create a sustainable livelihood. Once that has been achieved, the recipients are obligated to pass on the first offspring of their livestock to another family in need. Thereby, extending the chain of giving. And then it occured to me that this is what a lot of Facebook applications are trying to do. While it's not giving to the financially needy, it's giving of a different kind. When you're poked, you feel obligated to poke back or send a fish back. And then while you're at it, you think of sending something to a friend you haven't seen or spoken to in ages, just as a way to let them know you haven't forgotten about them. And this is one reason why Facebook has become so viral. FT Magazine had an article this past weekend ("Here's Looking At Us", BM emailed the article to a bunch of us after our Saturday evening discussion on Repulse Bay beach) and today's FT has another article -- Route to social success: How Facebook's founder aims to use his network. That's two FT articles in less than a week; Facebook is now the new youtube, ripe for the picking.

Then, I got to work this morning and one of the BBC News feeds was: Mobiles for the "world's poorest". And as if I needed more inspiration in addition to all these relevant news articles, there was the news of The Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick's death. The Body Shop was probably the first social enterprise I ever came into contact with, a company that championed social causes while turning a profit. In 2006, Roddick had sold her company to L'Oreal for GBP652mn.

Just goes to show that sometimes, you can chase and chase and chase and still end up with nothing. But then, on those rare occasions, when all the signs just seem to confirm that you're on the right path, it's wonderful.

Apple Bonkers?

That was the headline that flashed on CNN as I was running on the treadmill this morning. Had I not already seen the news this morning while waiting for BL to arrive, I surely would have fallen off the treadmill -- iPhone 8GB price dropped to US$399 from US$599? An iPod Touch will all the functionality of the iPhone minus phone functions for just US$299?? Truly jaw-dropping news, especially considering I just bought a still-locked iPhone less than 2 months ago for US$599!

As a consumer, I should feel totally jipped (judging from online posts, quite a feel iPhone owners do feel pissed off, but early adaptors always pay a premium for being first to play with the latests gadgets). But I'm actually feeling quite ecstatic. It may have to do with the fact that as an APPL shareholder (or maybe it's the endorphins from my morning run), I am just brimming with excitement over what a big holiday season it's going to be for Apple. The new products and the competitive pricing are just going to kill. APPL shares closed down more than 5% once the news was announced. But as a consumer, even with the iPhone, I still wouldn't mind adding the new (Product) RED nano and Nike+ kit to my collection. I think I've gone bonkers, not Apple. Oh, and did I mention the cool Apple+Starbucks partnership to sell music? It's a brilliant move for both companies and it's creating a whole new way of discovering and buying new music. The only glitch right now is NBC Universal pulling their content from iTunes distribution at the end of this year; am very worried about not being able to keep up with Heroes (Season 2 starts 24 September!).

Now, all I'm waiting for is the flash card drive laptop...

TED Talks Diversion

Finally started putting together the business plan to submit to 21st Century Challenge. The clock is ticking; deadline for submissions is 12 October. I've always wanted to create a business that combines luxury travel, microfinance and technology, but for one reasons or another, there wasn't any urgency until I came across the Challenge in a Skoll Foundation newsletter. Nothing like a deadline for motivation! After a great luncheon brainstorm session with IE, the whole idea seemed to just reveal itself. So now I'm getting down to the nitty gritty details, combing the internet for relevant statistics.

Was googling for companies that offer mobile phone banking/payment systems in developing countries and came across Iqbal Quadir's GrameenPhone and his engaging TED talk, which then got me side-tracked to Hans Rosling's entertaining TED talk. His Gapminder World 2006 tool (which google now owns) is super cool, great for finding all sorts of interesting statistics such as comparing the number of internet users across nations (Sweden, where Hans Rosling is from, has 756 users per 1,000 people, higher than the US's 630 users) or phone users (Hong Kong has the second highest at 1,733 fixed and mobile subscriptions per 1,000 users, just slightly behind Sweden's 1,743).

TED Talks -- Hans Rosling: Watch the End of Poverty


TED Talks -- Iqbal Quadir: The Power of the Mobile Phone to End Poverty

Obviously, looming deadlines haven't prevented me from killing a whole afternoon watching TED Talks. The dangers of youtube...