Soap Box Friday

While perusing the Wall Street Journal today, as I do most days (when I remember), I came across an article entitled "Conjuing the Next Harry Potter." As a self proclaimed book nerd, I couldn't stop myself from reading the entire thing. In summary, book publishers are frantically looking for the next series to replace the high sales Harry Potter achieved. With the HP last book completed years ago and the final movie still in theaters, publishers and producers have now turned their sights to "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern claiming that it will be the best of both Harry Potter and Twilight and thus will be a huge hit.

My concern with this article stems from the mass produced society that I am not only a part of but have grown up in. The Harry Potter series was discovered by accident and will likely be one of the few series/books that will still be read in 60 years. Books are printed at high rates of speed and while I get the information  needs of today's world also functions at a high rate of speed, shouldn't we also be focusing on quality instead of quantity?

The same argument can go for movies and music. What will my children consider classic movies and tunes from my lifetime? I had a conversation with B on Tuesday about how we need to see several "oldies" bands before they retire or die since there won't be anything around for the next generation to see. I'm betting the music played on today's oldies stations and the movies shown on AMC will be the same as they show today. And while I want my kids to be fans of Journey, Bon Jovi, Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club, it's sad to think that so few things be created today will be well-known and treasured in the future.  

So while I too await the next fantastic series, I don't think it needs to be such a heavily recruited and publicized event. Otherwise, we'll end up with more mass produced mumbo jumbo that no one will remember. And I want to this generation leave an impact in this world, darn it.

< stepping down from my soap box >

Digital Drama

My desktop’s hard drive crashed last week while I was out of the office. While that was perfect timing for me, the issue didn’t get resolved until today when I was informed that a new one was on order. Awesome! Who doesn’t love new toys?

In the meantime, I’ve set up two lap tops. One has been acting strange (and is currently being scanned for viruses) so I borrowed a second one to use for internet while utilizing the strange one for word documents and accessing our network. Awkward, but still useful. Until the wireless went out in our office meaning I couldn’t access my:

a. email 

b. network

c. files 

d. any one of our five office printers

So until it was resolved five hours later, I checked email from my cell phone (until the battery went low) and tried to find things I could accomplish that didn’t include the above bulleted list. Which wasn’t much.

I was lost.

Besides this sounding like a country song about technology, I realize that I need to work on unplugging my life a little bit at a time. I check Facebook at red lights and unlock my phone as soon as the green indicator tells me I have a new text/email/tweet. All unnecessary as the world will continue if I’m not up on the last second life crisis of some Facebook friend I don’t even talk to these days. (I realize that blogging about this technological malfunction of a day isn’t and will never be considered unplugging… but I can’t distribute to the masses via pen and paper, so we’ll let this example slide. )

I brought this up to my boss today as her computer has also died and we are like antsy kids waiting for Christmas morning. So I guess baby steps are key to not being ruled by my Droid. Hopefully the withdrawal symptoms are not intense.

Bittersweet

With our summer programs now over, my social life is re-engaged. That said, I'm currently in the "let down" phase many describe after their wedding; months of planning and preparing now over. It was an awesome, if not hectic month and a half where I learned so much from over 110 high school and college students from across the state.

Throughout each program, we have our "bread and butter" speakers who always speak and are always relevant, regardless of age demographic. With this being my third summer (yikes), that also means that I've heard many of these speakers up to eight times. And as good speakers go, I learn something each time. So I while I hope you get to hear these individuals sometime in your life, I wanted to pass along two quick takeaways today that I was reminded of this past week, after hearing him speak for, yes, the eighth time. 

1. Significance instead of success. I am extremely guilty of looking at material successes in life... cars, clothes, cash. Instead I need to focus on the significance I'm bringing to my life; with my personal relationships and through my work, and to focus on careers that help me bring out significance to the world. Whoa, deep. Because, at my 40 year class reunion I won't be bragging about the size of my house or brand of my wheels but instead of on the significance I've had in my life and that I've had on others.

2. Rule #6 - Rule #6 is don't take yourself so seriously. Live, laugh, love. Not a new concept or quote but oh so true. What are the other five rules? There aren't any. That's the point. Use it today.

While I realize these are not brand new, life changing concepts I thought you too might need these thoughts re-emphasized in your life. I'm so excited about it, I wrote them on Post-It's and stuck 'em on my work computer screen. Can't wait to find out what I write on Post-It's after the ninth time of hearing him speak.

Make it a great day.

A Best Friend's Wedding

I spent the weekend with some rather wonderful individuals at one of B's great friend's weddings. I'm pretty lucky that my significant other has a stellar group of people he's associated with and their significant others are equally fantastic. I'm even more lucky that I was grandfathered into the group once we started dating and can now call them my friends/family as well. Being embraced with open arms by these fine folks when few of my close friends lived in Des Moines meant and still does mean the world.

While there were many highlights of our weekend in small town western Iowa, (including meeting many of the equally great families these people come from) the most memorable moment came at the last song. With 50+ people standing in a circle, arm in arm singing and swaying to Piano Man at the top of our lungs, as the bride and groom danced in the middle. I know a few people had a tear or two in their eye at the amount of love that was in that room last night. A whole bunch of love. I wish I had been smart enough to take a picture of it. Hopefully someone did, but that visual will stick with me for awhile.
I guess I'm still on a high from the weekend and realize there's really not a value in this post if you a. haven't met his/our friends or b. weren't at said wedding... but I guess I am once again reiterating, as I've done before, that I'm pretty lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people. So this post is for my benefit, possibly alone,... and I'll do my best to post something a little less personal soon.

I love technology... this week.

 

I, like many, have used Skype to chat with friends and family on a personal level. Most of it has been on a “within Iowa” basis but my college roommate went to Spain one summer so we skyped back and forth then. It’s fun to see people you talk with, especially when you don’t get to see them as regularly as you might wish. This week, though, I used Skype on a professional level for the first time. I had heard many companies are using this feature to set up long distance interviews (after all, the free software is much less expensive than the cross country… or world flight) but this was my first walk through a b2b Skype convo.

 Details: I conference called, via Skype, with an Englishman in Spain and German in Brazil from my downtown Des Moines office. (let’s not get started on their fantastic accents). Over two days, two separate calls and from three continents, we hashed out details for a business simulation our collegiate program will be using Sunday. All for free. Sunday, they will be facilitating said simulation and discussion remotely in from their respective continents. Cool, right? I’m considering adding “Sarah Roth, International Businesswoman” to my resume. I could swing it, right?

 Now here’s to hoping that this fantastic technology ends up working like when it needs to this weekend. Knocking on wood… now.