go well ppcb

[now I miss you guys even more]

is that you?

i adore karl.

it's not about the clothes or the world or the glamour

[although given the paycheck or the opportunity i would happily indulge]

it's because he has a point of view on the world

opinionated

strong

often bitchy

never boring

i think that we/me often worry so much about people liking us, and being inoffensive that we often don't express

the world needs more characters

so it was with snarky delight that i stumbled across this blog

musing

running will always be the master that teaches me
that no matter how high i may climb
how much i control
how many people adore, fear, love or respect me
that i still have to do things that i don't want to
if i truly want to grow and succeed

the last naivete

yesterday i flew from chicago to dallas
my usual state is to sit on the aisle and work away
[i love planes because i can work uninterrupted]
but yesterday i sat on the window and kept the computer under the seat

i spent most of the flight looking down on the country
[i had this lovely gooseskin moment when we flew over the mississippi]

and i couldn't help but the think about the melee that was unfolding yesterday on the ground below
if i were writing a book, this would be the beginning of the end, right?
"financial system of the world's most powerful country teetering on the edge of collapse"
it sounds like the beginning of an apocolypse movie, right?

but yesterday i was flying from chicago to dallas to do focus groups
and i'm working on two other clients right now
and i'm really busy and life is running along and i'm going to move into my new place next week
and i have to order a mattress, internet's getting installed on friday
it's all so... normal

and so the plane started to descend, and the big texas buildings got bigger and bigger
and i wondered to myself if i'll look back on this day two years from now with a begrudging laugh and say, "I had no idea how bad it was going to get. It was all so normal."

give me liberty or give me a cheaper rate

as the consumer grows
as the demand for their attention becomes a complicated tango of tit for tat
the proclamation that has been all the rage for the past like, forever is that the consumer is in control
media companies are freaking out
advertisers are chasing their tails and spewing shitty powerpoints
and clients get that deer in headlights look

but perhaps the tables are turning, or at least rotating by .25 degrees...

because the companies are figuring out that it's cheaper to make a trade than buy your attention
you scratch my back, i'll scratch yours
so in exchange for convenience or money people are letting themselves be intimately monitored.
onstar is working with some insurance companies. the insurance company gets a monthly report of how much you drive, how safely you drive, where you drive and if it's less risky than what you're paying for, then you get a reduced rate [but supposedly they can't charge you more if you're a maniac]

i did it. i let the british government scan my retina so i wouldn't have to wait at immigration at heathrow lovely heathrow. i carry a phone that essentially tracks where i am 24 hours a day, but in exchange i never get lost anymore.

so the justification goes that if you're not doing anything wrong what's the harm of exposing yourself to this monitoring, especially if you gain something from it. i weakly agree with it. it's just that every time i go into my maps feature on my phone and within a minute see the pulsing blue dot pinpointing exactly where i am and am moving towards, i get the creeps.

fo'rizzle?? fo'shizzle!

i'm in chicago, doing groups, doing my thing
went for a run this morning
went out afterwords to get the choc/ban vivanno from *bucks
i'm patiently waiting in my sweat hog glory
and i look up and see, wait, really?
rob. sherlock.
a creative director that i worked with in Hong Kong a few years back
he is like one of my favorite people i've met in adworld
standing there, pecking away at his blackberry
chilling like a villian
i gotta admit, the man looked GOOD. damn.
and it was, needless to say, SO COOL to see him.
so he just sent me this photo from our last night in HK.
good lord.

post modern nostalgia

i am noticing a palpable sense of relief these days when i finally do something internet-ish on a real computer as a opposed to my iPhone. i have a "comfort reaction" where I feel myself physically relaxing into the computer screen, fondly looking at all the space before me in the same way i react to burrowing into a cozy couch with a big fat book in my hands. now that's a bit troubling, no?

bargain

state of the union

[i don't even know why i'm blogging right now as i don't have time for this but oh well]

apartment found
williamsburg, first stop, converted factory, tiny
job, rolling... violently.
my social life is quickly taking on an evanescent quality. [see job]
running, hanging on. hamstring is being a little bitch. i'm bitch slapping it. might race again next weekend, might not. have to see how it feels.
new york, loving it. walked "home" last night and felt cosily shrouded underneath soaring, glowing skyscrapers.
london, missing it but not painfully so.
not writing enough, not playing enough. i'll get there.

rest in peace

brief: chinatown lunch

menu and workers grasping to the edge of english
"chefs" annihilating roasted duck carcasses with cleavers
greens limited to overcooked scallions
dish doubled in weight by accompanying grease

mission: accomplished

thank you mister triathlete dude

just when i'm hauling my ass up cat hill for the sixth time by 6:30 am
desparately trying not to re-injure my testy little hamstring
wondering if I'm even going to be able to get ready for the next race in time
getting a bit demoralized
letting the doubt creep in
i get a little thumbs up and a nod on my way down the hill
thanks dude

hold your thumbs

"pick your wedgie!!!"

this past week ian was so ubergracious to take me as his plus one to the US Open. we were treated to the lexus box where the food and booze was flowing. i think consumed enough calories to feed an entire african village. classy.

[oh, rosie perez was in our box and i accidentally papped her as i was trying to get a pic of the empty court]

the matches we saw were, if i do say so myself, beyond dope: venus v. serena and nadal v. fish. venus/serena needs no explanation as to the inherent drama, except for a quick note to say that those chicas fought. it. out. intense.

nadal is the reigning wimbledon champ as many of you know. but fish gave that little spanish nino a run for his money. added to that is that they didn't even get on the court until 11:30 pm, so by that time the new york crowd was properly soused. people were heckling [see above, ever watch nadal between points?]

ian and i finally gave up and went home at 1:30, right after the lovely pictures of us deliriously consuming the 1:00am sweet treat were taken, but i think the match went until 3:00 am. it was pretty awesome, pictures below...

as you wish jitador, as you wish

i miss u

writing a presentation
about behavior
i keep writing behaviour
instead of behavior
behavior looks wrong
and my fingers stuttter every time i try to type it

humour
colour
realise
analyse
behaviour

argh

london/berlin/paris/kenosha/sussex/vermillion/new york... the race

i ran the nike human race on sunday. it was my first ten.k in ten years, my second of my lifetime.

it fucking hurt. but it was good.
i enjoyed the pain/zen of the race experience.
i was racing again.
it was pretty life-psyched.

the race itself here in new york city, was, and i say this sadly, a bit of a mess. it had all the potential to be, as there were over 10,000 runners. so here were the issues:
1] big race, big line-up, so you have to stage earlier. it messes with your warm-up a bit, but if you realize it you can prep for that. what's hard to prep for is a] no room allocated to do strides b] an additional 30 minute delay to the start time. so we were all just hanging in the sun, annoyance levels increasing by the minute.
2] the course itself was narrrrrrow. the first two miles was a shoulder to shoulder cattle rush of jacked up runners. lots of bumps, kicks, starts and stops... read: no pace, no flow
3] the urge to physically assault the woman that i passed around the 3/4 mile mark with red cotton "china" shorts wedged up her butt and an ipod wedged in her ear as she puttered along at a 10 minute pace was immense. i'm always preaching about the wonderful democracy of running, no other sport puts pros with beginners in the same event, but this tested my usual calm and magnaminous demeanor.
4] poor planning meant the pack came to an absolute stop about 400 meters from the finish due to a way over-crowded pedestrian footbridge. we stood there for about a minute. it was awesome.

so, it was what it was. see post race photo below.
it was good, i did okay [36th female], but i think there's a better race on my horizon.

and we're back

okay okay i took off for awhile.
there's been a lot of shizzle going down and i haven't been good about writing, but now that i'm back in an office [yes today is my first day at bbh] here i am again, valiently battling against open office plan induced stupor and finding the blog again.
i will split the latest going ons into separate posts so as not to drop a mega.