Deuren Open - Doors Open: Follow The White Rabbit

Deuren Open

Follow the white rabbit.

Sounds familiar?

Let me help you a bit: The Matrix and Alice In Wonderland.

In the last week of August I participated in an Inspiration Week of Deuren Open by Karel Emck, in the Morvan, France, at chateau 'Preau'. An extraordinary experience, moving around between wide ranges of ratio and emotion, watching and analyzing films - American Beauty, Forrest Gump, Big Fish, Groundhog Day, singing and dancing, meditating, hiking and running, and engaging new, beautiful people.

L'Huys Preau, Chatin, Morvan, France

Links: Deuren Open, Preau

NESTA - Making Innovation Flourish

What inspired me to look further into NESTA is their research on Third Age Entrepreneurs. Really innovative AND compelling. Well, surely for me as I will fit the profile within a few years. And surely want to contribute to society and create a business to stay working beyond my retirement age.

Source: NESTA, NESTA - Public Sector Innovations and The Lab

Coffee @ Company Noordeinde Den Haag

It grows on me. Since I am back from Preau, this is already my third, fourth time I am here, drinking my Vanilla Latte, working and social networking, physically - with an interesting woman who lived and worked in Washington DC for instance - and virtually - blogging, updating Facebook and LinkedIn, and doing my hotmail.

I really find this an 'Empowering Space'.

How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci

Bought this book in 2001 and have read a few chapters ending up on my bookshelf for a long time. This weekend, under a blue summer sky at the south beach near the pier of Scheveningen, I started reading again and was completely taken into the writing of Michael Gelb. Learning now more about 'Curiosita, Dimostrazione, Sensazione, Sfumato, Arte & Scienza, Corporalita and Connessione'.

'I want to perform miracles' - Leonardo da Vinci (15 Apr 1452 - 2 May 1519)

With Leonardo as example you can learn strategies facing actual and universal challenges like: solving problems, creative thinking, selfexpression, enjoying the world around you, establish a goal in life and find balance, and bring harmony between mind and body.

This is what I want to dream, do and realize ...

Privium Club Lounge

This environment really makes business travel fun. Have a look at some Privium Club Lounge pics here to capture what I am talking about.

A wonderful experience, this Club Lounge of Privium at Schiphol Airport. "Life's is not about the destination. It's about the journey."

I am traveling to New York and already have a great time on this journey. If I can figure out my personal mission, I am done here ... :-)

The Human Side of the Global Recession

Portraits of a downturn.

April 21, 2009 1:54 AM
A Family Scrambles to Find Coverage After Job Loss
The Times’s Kevin Sack follows the story of Russ and Danna Walker, who are among the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance and are now a diagnosis away from medical and financial ruin. In a video report, the Walkers talk about their race against time to find coverage for their son, Jake, whose testicular cancer is in remission.

Source: The New York Times - Living With Less - The Human Side of the Global Recession

The Future of Social Networks - Social Media Move Into The Enterprise

What about a single place to manage your personal profile for all online social networks? Secure and reliable ...

The power of connected social networks comes down to integrating and managing easily and transparantly your (1) Identity, (2) Contacts and (3) Activities. Why should Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the likes look into this? Why new media and business in general should consider this? Because of the money! Because of the new opportunities of revenu sharing. Because of the new social and business models that are emerging ...

Have a look at this video and presentation of Charlene Li, Thought Leader of Altimeter Group, presenting "Social Networks Will Be Like Air", at SXSW 2009.

Source: Altimeter Group / Charlene Li

Sunday

9:33am - A beautiful day. An hour ago it was still grey. Now it is all blue and sunny. Love spring.

The last hour Bella and I are playing. Me the internet, with Twitter, Facebook and Chess.com, and Bella with Little Pet Shop at her Nintendo DS Lite.

Am trying out TweetDeck. Great single view of Friends' Tweets, Replies and DMs, with key action buttons. Really handy. Would like to filter on Following Friends, and make groupings there. The Group function seems to apply only for Followers ... Is it?

Am pretty multi-tasking. Listen to a BNR radio feed, follow Tweets via notification from TwitterDeck, play online chess at chess.com, write a blogpst at Live2Inspire and talk with my little girl. YaaHooHey!

Am also looking into various Twitter applications. So far:
TweetDeck - Cool! TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application, currently in public beta, that looks to capture the abundance of social media and display it in a unique columned user interface.

TwitterFeed - Obnoxious! Find it kind of spamming. Really aggrevating. No creativity here. It pollutes my Tweets stream ... People who use it, I unfollow immediately.

Twittbot - Kind of the same as twitterfeed.

twhirl - twhirl is a social software desktop client, based on the Adobe AIR platform. Am going to try this one out soon.

iTweet - An interface for using Twitter on the iPhone.

Twitterfon - Twitter client for iPhone and iPod Touch

Tweetergetter - Get more than 19.000 followers in 30 days. By just retweeting in a particular format with one tweet, including six Twitter people, it does the job. Scary ... :-)

Squidoo - Squidoo is about a free, easy place to set up a personal page online, about anything you're interested in, and share it with your friends and the rest of the world (wide web).

Twitterrific - Twitterrific is a Mac OS X, and iPhone OS client for the social networking site Twitter, created by The Iconfactory.

And what about blip.fm? - @DevelishDelish tweet brought me to blip.fm. Create your own music station. Cool!

Today we, Elliz, Bella and I, were at Tennis parc "Berg en Dal" with Verena and Chloe, and Zoila and Sophie (See at TwitPic). With the bunch we took a late lunch in our garden (See at TwitPic). Was really cool and terrific; good talk, sunny, fine wine (chianti) and home made Caprese and Tuna salad, and the kids playing around the house and garden, 'fighting' and making fun at the same time.

Hot, Flat, And Crowded

Started reading in the latest work of Thomas Friedman. Fun! Very instructive and insightful.

And many ideas I can use in my speech at the Digital Cities Conference in Zagreb, Croatia, at March 5th.

Am now in Hotel Hohenblick, Muhlhausen, 40km east from Stuttgart, underway to our skiresort in Kirchberg, Austria.

Curious how many pages I can and want to cover in Hot, Flat, And Crowded ...

Source: ThomasFriedman.com

We Are All The Same In Our Human Needs

"Why do we do what we do and How can we do it better" - An inspiring speech by Anthony Robbins at TED

What is your motive for action?

I take many decisions and take actions every day. What is my motive for action? What is yours?

It comes down to simple, everyday emotions. I believe emotion is the force of life.

Understand your emotions, as emotion is the great force of live.

Explore where you are today.

What's make the difference in the quality if people's life.

Develop emotional fitness and psychological strenght.

Understand the human needs.

Study the Science of Achievement & Art of Fullfilment.

This is about appreciation, and about contribution.

Decision is the ultimate power.

Make decisions as decision is the ultimate power. Decision is shaping your destiny. Decision starts with *focus*. Focus creates intention. Focus generates emotion and energy.

Resourcefulness is the defining factor, not resources. The latter we always lack, it is never enough ...

If you can create the right emotion, you can achieve your dreams. It drives your actions.

Develop em0tional fitness and psychological strength.

State & Model
Emotion in the moment (state) and our filter of how we perceive the world (model).

Six Needs
1. Certainty
2. Uncertainty
3. Significance
4. Connection & Love
5. Grow
6. Contribute Beyond Yourself
7. Emotion

We have 6.000 representations of emotions in the English language ... We often only use 12 in our personal life.

Robbins message is that we shape our own destiny. We can change our state and model continously, as we see fit. At the same time we have to understand our driving needs ...

Focus, Decide and Act.

De Volkskrantdag at the Internationaal Film Festival Rottterdam

Room And A Half

Slumdog Millionare

Yesterday was with Brian at the IFFR. Seen five consecutive films. Between screenings had some sushi and Bife de Lomo.

Route Four:
Room And A Half - Russian biography of Joseph Brodski, in a creative combination of animation, documentary and fiction.
Jermal - Indonasian son meets father for the first time at a fishers island.
Troubled Water - Norwegian young man leaves prison to start all over again and faces his past.
Maman Est Chez Le Coiffeur - Canadian kids and family in the summer of 1966 when things are different as they seem to appear.
Slumdog Millionaire - Indian boy from Mumbai slums tells his life story at the police station during Do You Want To Be A Millionaire.

We had an excellent route this time, with four movies within the top ten of audience favourites. A great time with my little brother ... Next year again!

Trailer Jermal

Trailer Maman est chez le coiffeur

Trailer Troubled Water

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Read an interesting interview with Alain de Botton in De Volkskrant this morning. Was immediately taken in by his sincerity and lightness at the same time, his existential mode of 'continuous wondering' and the text in bold below. By the way, I love his website. It is clear, transparant, light and inspiring.

"We spend much of our lives at work – but surprisingly little gets written about what makes work both one of the most exciting and most painful of all our activities.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work is an exploration of the joys and perils of the modern workplace, beautifully evoking what other people get up to all day – and night – to make the frenzied contemporary world function. With a philosophical eye and his characteristic combination of wit and wisdom, Alain leads us on a journey around a deliberately eclectic range of occupations, from rocket science to biscuit manufacture, accountancy to art – in search of what make jobs either fulfilling or soul-destroying.

The book amounts to a celebration and investigation of an activity as central to a good life as love – but which we often find remarkably hard to reflect on properly. As Alain points out, most of us are still working at jobs chosen for us by our sixteen-year-old selves. Here is the perfect guide to the vicious anxieties and enticing hopes thrown up by our journey through the working world.

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work contains over a hundred original images specially commissioned from the great documentary photographer Richard Baker. To see extra images that didn’t make it into the book, click here."

Source: Alain de Botton

Ready To Lead

*Inauguration 44th US President*
Barack Obama launched his presidency before an estimated 1.5 million people on the National Mall on Tuesday with somber yet confident tones, saying the country will overcome its serious economic and international challenges.

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real," Obama said in his inaugural address. "They are serious, and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met."

Source: CNN
"Gathering clouds and raging storms."

Bipartisan Dinner - The Evening Before

"But let us strive always to find that common ground, and to defend together those common ideals, for it is the only way we can meet the very big and very serious challenges that we face right now." Barack Obama

Source: CNN

Awaiting The 44th US President Inauguration

Inauguration revelry began Sunday afternoon as thousands of people packed the National Mall in Washington for a free concert featuring big stars.

President-elect Barack Obama addressed a roaring crowd after 90 minutes of high-energy acts such as U2, Mary J. Blige, Usher and Beyonce.

"Welcome to this celebration of American renewal," he said.

"In the course of our history, only a handful of generations have been asked to confront challenges as serious as the ones we face right now."

"I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure," Obama said. "That it will prevail; that the dream of our founders will live on in our time."

Obama at concert: The dream of our founders will live on

Source: CNN; video

Perfect Power - Innovate and revolutionize the electronic power infrastructures and business models

Not only our digital infrastructure but also the electric networks are under scrutiny. Imagine being self-sufficient, or at least not completely dependant of the electric power moguls and manage your home power network smarter ...

"From Robert Galvin and Kurt Yeager comes a powerful wake-up call for the entire energy industry. A must-read for investors, entrepreneurs, homeowners and environmentalists, Perfect Power offers bold new solutions, investments and job opportunities that address the biggest energy problems we face today, including how to: Meet the rising demands for more electricity; Create "Perfect Power" that will withstand hurricanes, blackouts, terrorism and technical malfunctions; Implement clean, "green" alternatives by tapping the smart microgrid revolution; Live "off the grid" and become energy self-sufficient; and Identify and invest in exciting new companies and technologies."



Source: GalvinPower

Date With Destiny

"Find balance and true fulfillment in your life" is THE tagline which triggers me to look into "Date With Destiny" a bit more.

A dear friend, Jantien, mentioned it to me today. She has participated in a couple of Anthony Robbins' courses already. In London (2007) and San Francisco (2008), I believe.

This might be very interesting and inspiring. And make a real commitment and investment ...

Source: Anthony Robbins University

Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better

My Birthday

Another year. Fortyeight now. Feeling great though. With the years insight and wisdom grow on you, however, slowly :-)

Slept till 10am. Had breakfast with presents of Elliz and Bella. Yesterday both were sick. Bella had to throw up. Elliz was not feeling well that whole day. Still had shaky legs. Both felt better, though.

In the morning my lovely mother-in-law, Barry, dropped by with Narcisses as a gift. My youngest sister, Nes, her little daughter, Nicky, and her partner, Serge, were also at the door, but didn't come in because of the scattered bacteria in the house. Didn't want to take any chances, after being ill before years ending.

Downloaded E2 from Eros Ramazzotti, with I Belong To You (Il Ritmo Della Passione) with Anastacia, after seeing/hearing it on YouTube. Listened to it in the afternoon and early evening.

This evening we are up for 'Liefde Is Alles' with Carice van Houten. Saw it standing when shopping a present for Djinke's birthday tomorrow. An appropiate present for Elliz. Sonja packed it for me in a box with white balls on red paper.

Verena and Chloe came by to pick up Bella for skating in Segbroekpark. Afterwards we ate the whipped cream cake, with hot chocolate and coffee.

We had a lovely dinner, the three of us, at home, with 'windows' from the oven, 'spruitjes' and filet of porc, with a glass of Shiraz (Lindeman), and a dessert of Milka.

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

Sources: About Randy Pausch 'The Last Lecture'; Randy Pausch Website; Randy Pausch Blog.

Barack Obama At My Birthday

Today is my 48th birthday.

01/03/09: President-elect Obama's Weekly Addres American Recovery and ReInvestment Plan. Create 3mn new jobs is Obama's number 1 goal of the plan. With more than 80% in the private sector. Investments in infrastructure, healthcare, education (21st Century Classrooms). Tax relief of 95% of all American workers. There is no reason we can't do this, he claims.

Yes We Can