Aadat Se Majboor

The NYU ITP Show Was Amazing

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI meant to show up last year but for some reason the event fell through the crack of things. I am so glad I got to show up this year. If you could go to just one event in December, it would be this one. And there are some great Holiday parties in town this month.

December Events

I showed up early and stayed the entire time. I went from stall to stall. And when I was done I made repeat visits to some stalls. It was a mind blowing experience.

FourSquare Should Rent A Stadium

NYU is accessible like Columbia is not. NYU has a great location. And the ITP has the distinction of having had Dennis Crowley there a few years back. He probably is its most famous alum.

The Significance Of Eating An Apple

I'd like to believe I am health conscious. And I wish the same upon others. I weigh the same that I did when I showed up in this country. That is no small achievement. Exercise, food and sleep are the basics you have to stay cognizant of. I am capable of going for long walks. And the primary motivator for me there is what I see, not the muscles I exercise, although those walks always lead to good nights of sleep. Similarly the apple for me is the good taste. I don't think of it as a prescription drug. As in, it is good for me, so I should eat it. I do freehand exercise. Long walks are for when I feel the strong urge to see. And the vastness of Queens speaks to that urge. Used to be The Bronx, but I took care of that weeks ago. I camped out at a friend's for a few weeks and walked all over The Bronx. Now Queens is the borough I have seen the least. And the borough is just so big, and most parts are far far away from train stations. I sleep plenty. I think that is key. For the past few weeks I have been eating a lot of uncooked food. There are people who eat out, they don't cook, they eat out. I have been experimenting with the cook as little as possible thing. But for me the fill in the blank has meant a lot of uncooked food. Like apples, for example. No, I don't eat it every day, not several times a day, not for meals. No. But the dependence on uncooked food means the apple has to be a ready snack. An apple can be a great snack. For one, it tastes so good. For me it is about the taste. It also is good for you. That's there. There must be something in the apple that you get an immediate boost, you get uplifted, you feel fresh. Maybe it reminds you of cold climates or something. You end up feeling fresh. Oranges are good too, as are carrots. And I grab cooked, packed vegetable dumplings from a nearby Chinese store. You put it in boiling water for a few minutes and they are ready to eat like instant noodles. And I get to put hot sauce all over it. There is no limit to how hot I can eat. Recently I cooked chicken curry into which I put a whole bunch of green chili, the Indian, hot kind. I have not cooked rice at home in months. There's a food cart a block away where I get some lamb over rice when I feel the urge, which might happen every few weeks. But rice has been displaced by whole wheat pita bread. When you eat it you feel like an Afghan.

Thug Le

New Business Cards

"Don't Throw Your Business Card At Me"
New Business Card On The Way

Another card designed by my friend Jackson Lin. This is two sides. He did it in five minutes while I watched. At the Whole Foods in Union Square. This might be headed to some local printer.

Kathmandu Six Decades Ago

Blip.TV Did Rent A Stadium Looks Like

At the party I am going to say a founder of Blip.TV personally invited me, that is why I am here. As for these other six people with me, if you want, I don't know who they are, feel free to kick them out.

paramendraParamendra Bhagat

Are there @foursquare and @bliptv holiday parties this year? Or are they going cheap? There seems to be no public info. @dens@dinakaplan

Dec 12FavoriteRetweetReply

in reply to @paramendra↑

@dinakaplan
Dina Kaplan@paramendra@foursquare@bliptv there is - send angelaATblipDOTtv an email!
Dec 12 via Twitter for AndroidFavoriteRetweetReply

FourSquare Should Rent A Stadium
December Events

Following 2700 People On Google Plus

Image via WikipediaA few weeks back I discovered this list. That gave me a start of sorts on Google Plus, even though I still don't show up daily like I do on Facebook and Twitter and Gmail of course.

It is like I signed up for Tumblr early, not long after it was launched, because I read about it in the news. And then I forgot about it. When someone convinced me to "get on Tumblr" I believe in February 2010, when I went to sign up, there already was a user by that name, and that was me. But Tumblr for me took off when I came across a list by David Noel. I ended up following most people on the list. These were tech entrepreneurs and VCs.

I have gone passive on Tumblr since summer. I still reblog once in a while, but I probably came across the tumblog post somewhere else. My primary blogs hosted on Blogger still feed into my Tumblr, so I still provide fresh content.

When I show up on Google Plus, my stream always surprises me. I follow so many great quality people. If I want some intellectual company, Google Plus is that place. Google Plus has displaced Tumblr for me for now. Even though I got inactive on Tumblr before Google Plus came along, and I am not doing the daily thing yet on Google Plus that I used to do on Tumblr.

Google Plus does not compete with Facebook, just like Twitter does not, Tumblr does not. They occupy different spaces. It is like when I got active on Quora I realized the FourSquare guys were on there, active. On Google Plus that person has been Alexis Ohanian. I see him often in my NY Tech circle. He is there, and he responds. I think he circled me back.

I mean, there is the MIT Media Lab circle, for instance. Joi Ito is really something. And it is an honor to be able to follow his crew.

FourSquare Should Rent A Stadium

@paramendra
Paramendra Bhagat Are there @foursquare and @bliptv holiday parties this year? Or are they going cheap? There seems to be no public info. @dens@dinakaplan
Dec 11 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

paramendraParamendra Bhagat

Are there @foursquare and @bliptv holiday parties this year? Or are they going cheap? There seems to be no public info. @dens@dinakaplan

Dec 11FavoriteRetweetReply

in reply to @paramendra↑

@dens
Dennis Crowley@paramendra We did an employees and +1s only party this year. We getting big!
Dec 11 via Twitter for iPhoneFavoriteRetweetReply

paramendraParamendra Bhagat

Are there @foursquare and @bliptv holiday parties this year? Or are they going cheap? There seems to be no public info. @dens@dinakaplan

Dec 12FavoriteRetweetReply

densDennis Crowley

@paramendra We did an employees and +1s only party this year. We getting big!

Dec 12FavoriteRetweetReply

in reply to @dens↑

@paramendra
Paramendra Bhagat@dens Rent a stadium. I heard you raised some money. I want my party. There's still time! ;-)
Dec 12 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

December Events
Dennis Crowley: Role Model For Kids?
Blip.TV: How Do They Ever Get Anything Done?

Twitter Is Seeing Rebirth

Being Able To Embed Tweets Is A Revolution

PlanCast's Facebook, Twitter, EventBrite, MeetUp Integrations

Image via CrunchBaseI have stayed on a lookout for Holiday parties and today I was looking around PlanCast and I just so happened by the Settings page. And I got impressed. This might not be a new thing, but it is new to me. Now my MeetUp RSVPs and EventBrite RSVPs and my Facebook Events automatically show up in my PlanCast timeline. I dig that. PlanCast is now going to be more useful to me.

The page now also lets me automatically follow my Twitter and Facebook friends who might also be on PlanCast, and when I saw that I was a little hesitant because I have lots of Twitter friends. But then I decided to go for it. Because if you are on Twitter, and if you either follow me or are followed by me, and if you are also signed up for PlanCast, that is a lot of filters. That is like saying if you are at a tech event and you come across someone who does not have a Twitter handle that person is probably not worth networking with.

And my connections on PlanCast ballooned by about 700 people right away. And that's okay. Now I might have more events to choose from. And it's nice to show up at some event and know that there are at least five people there you already know or can quickly know ("Hey, I think you follow me on Twitter!"). You are more likely to pounce on the 200 in the room you don't know that way.

Right now I almost feel about PlanCast the way I felt about Twitter when I first heard of the embed tweet option. Although it is fair to say the two are in two very different leagues. Like Dick Costolo once said of Eric Schmidt: "We are not on the same plane, and I mean in the Gulfstream sense."

But then my blog itself is not a bad place to look to find events: December Events.

Paris Action (2)

Paris Action

Paris Action