My Secret Guilty Pleasure

I’m convinced that it’s the small things in life that make all the difference, and you have to find the little things that make your days, well, awesome.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Spill it.

You can also spill on

The Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/ObservingParticipant

or The Twitter : http://twitter.com/#!/michmski

or The YouTube : http://youtube.com/MiChmski

Awesomeness 🙂

Mimes

Right! Sorry about the Internet situation, it’s…not yet resolved but HEY I have a code to get WiFi from the street so…. it’s kinda good 😉

This week for some reason I was thinking about all of the hand gestures that have saved me and that I just find super amusing. French people are super.

Don’t forget to say hi on

The Facebook Page

OR

The Twitter

OR

Subscribe to the YouTube 😉

Awesomeness.

Have a kickass week.

Even if you don’t have Thursday off 😉
AND HAPPY BASTILLE DAY!

Paris Paris n°6 – Moved In !!!!!!!

Unfortunately today is the day of bad surprises… there is no video 😦

Check back tomorrow though… not for any particular reason… but .. you know … we’ll see

The truth is the week’s been spent moving and unpacking and sorting and cleaning and everything that goes into it like I’m sure many people have lived through but that was truly a first for me (as well as starting the 2nd week of my new job!). Yeah I’ve moved a ton of times before, but I never had more than a couple of suitcases at most. This was the big Kahuna of moves. And well worth it !!

I found out that truly… and I mean truly truly truly

friends help friends find nice apartments

Sales in France

Sales in France can be brutal. Killer, even.
I feel like sales must be as ridiculous in any big city, but this is craziness. And yet…Bring it.

 

 

And say hey over on the Facebook and Twitter.

Speak English (really superly) in 3 Words ;)

OK, so after more than 2 people seemed to enjoy learning French in 1 word, I figured I had to reciprocate for the “other side” 😉

Enjoy. P.S. I apologize in advance for my hair and bad southern accent.

The rest of the Observing Participant videos are over here

DSK – just one big…big..misunderstanding

I’ve figured out what’s really going on with Dominique Strauss-Kahn and why he hasn’t been able to get the sexual healing. It’s just one big cultural misunderstanding….

Other American in Paris confessions are here 😉

Happy Monday

(and yes! I’ve changed to posting videos on Monday now xx)

Ycare is awesome!!

I hope everyone has had a good week and is ready to enjoy the sunshine this weekend (or whatever there is of sunshine near you)

I have to admit, I had an idea all planned out and then…came Thursday night. And nothing. Nada. Except a simple wish to disconnect for the weekend and tell everyone to do the same. Grab a mojito and head to a park, or a beach, or anywhere where there’s fresh air and not a screen between you and someone else.

And then…I got a personal message  from Ycare

My movie pitch for the Amex Tribeca film competition : Extreme jump roping

When life gets hard…you get jump roping.

This is my submission for the Amex Tribeca Film “My Movie Pitch” competition. You’re only allowed 60 seconds for your clip, but if I had more time I would have gone into the codes of the sport (right-footed vs goofy-foot jumpers, hand signs, and the code names we have for different jumps) ; and the struggles of being a jump roper that can’t get no appreciation.

Thanks to Nanowar for their creative commons music, and the artistofideas for the suggestion to submit, and Greg for his fabulous filming capabilities (even when I’m continually falling) 😉

This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this, but after he sent me the link, I thought, “why not?” 🙂

If you win the Amex Tribeca thing, your idea gets made into an ACTUAL VIDEO. So…..

I’d love any ideas you’d have to make this better (you actually have until May 25th to submit so teeeechnically I think I could re-submit).

In the meantime, you keep on jumpin

The rest of the day in the life videos are here 😉

Have a great weekend!

Gift economies, World Domination, and the 97% of the World Population that is Not on Twitter

“At 10 years old, you died of shame for not being able to swim
At 20, for not being able to drive
At 30, for not being able to tweet”

Went the newsletter sent out to the readers of My Little Paris, a daily newsletter, that hosted a “Tweet School” on Monday hosted by yours truly and Gregory Pouy.

When announced, it was criticized by some because, well — tweeting should be as natural as breathing, right?.. And yet–97% of the world population is NOT on Twitter (world stats from Wikipedia and Twitter stat from RWW).

And using Twitter… really does mean immerging yourself in a different culture to get the hang of it. When I first started, I pored over articles about who to follow, how to tweet, Twitter etiquette, etc. Being an anthro/soc-lover at heart, I discovered another culture. But..

Twitter can seem like a weird place, far far away

Twitter, among with any other number of social media tools can seem like outer space to people that have never used them before.

You just have to take a look at 5-year-olds (or younger) posting videos on YouTube of themselves giving make-up lessons or sharing why it’s important for a girl to have a job before she gets married (or else she’ll find someone else, DAMMIT) to see that kids are already using the web to interact with others, collaborate, and comment, without even realizing the cultural implications. As the authors of Wikinomics point out, “while their parents were passive consumers of media, youth today are active creators of media content and hungry for interaction.”

the end of the world is coming

Or at least the world as we know it. OK, I’ll admit it — I believe in the Mayan prophecies and that the world is going to end in 2012. Not the physical world, though ; just the world as we know it. Every day there is a revolution of some sort, it seems — political, cultural, ethical, you name it. Ray Kurzweil predicted the exponential acceleration of technological and innovational change, and the daily newspaper proves him right every day.

It seems like now you can even predict certain situations or say you could have seen it coming. The photo of Kate Middleton as she crouched down on the royal balcony was bound to be photoshopped so it looked she she was giving him… a first wedding gift..

no adult left behind

It’s up to those of us that are continually using the web to show others why it’s important that they be there, young and old. The Web provides unlimited opportunities. Two years ago, I first began working online as a community manager. And I’ve never looked back. If I hadn’t started working online, I never would have moved to Paris, or met some amazing friends, be living where I am, staying in a Shangri-La Hotel, — the list goes on.

For those that haven’t made the digital jump, though, people that have blogs, and post videos, and use Twitter can still seem like straight-out geeks. Which is a hindrance not just between generations, but has serious implications for business.

Which leaves me with two thoughts…

1. Are we headed towards a gift economy?

Gary Vaynerchuck calls it the “Thank you Economy,” but will those that are digitally savvy give their time to help others learn how to use various tools as they emerge (many of you do already, just by having a blog. It’s just up to “offline people” to find them and read them). In gift economies, money isn’t king — it’s intangible things that are valuable. i.e. every time you give someone a hand by recommending their product, introducing them to someone, teaching them something, you earn status. It’s not about how much money you have, it’s about how much you offer to others that makes you “rich” and influential.

2. Or are geeks and digital natives about to take over the world?

Or will those that are digitally savvy become insanely rich as they exploit “offline people” for their lack of knowledge about the subject forever becoming the future rulers of the New Order? After all, if news breaks first on Twitter (and now it’s starting to), those of us that are connected are “in the know” well in advance of anyone waiting to watch it on TV or listen to it on the radio.

(Digital) knowledge is power, isn’t it?

What do you think? 

(I have to throw in a side note that I’m all about the karma, man. What goes around comes around..)

Your turn : 

American “you-can-do-it-ism” vs French debate…ism

Last week an article from Slate caught my eye about cultural differences between Americans and the French that just might explain a few things..

You can do it !

In the U.S. it’s true (admit it!) that we’re raised with a certain American dreamish “you can do it” attitude. Not everyone is raised the same way and there are certainly circumstances in which children are discouraged, but growing up in the U.S. has definitely made me appreciate our spirit that is willing to try. Why else would someone have thought it was a good idea to try and reach the Pacific Coast? Or build a giant highway system just in case of a Cold War. But I digress..