heathervescent

Grounded as the Earth

Every solid handhold I created the past 5 years has shifted.  So far, I've traveled almost 60k miles this year, my preferred tool has been broken/in for repair for 2 1/2 months and I just moved (it only took me 3 1/2 months to do it). (There are other, larger shifts, not mentioned here too.) 

Needless to say, I have felt a bit unsettled. I needed to find a sense of "grounding." Stability. But, I was rarely home. I spend more time with my suitcase than I do with my dog.  I'm in an airplane a LOT. My feet are barely on the ground. 

So I embarked on a thought experiment. I started with a vision of grounding. I thought of tree roots in the earth. A vertical grounding, so the tree could grow, strong yet flexible in the winds of change. But this concept of roots wasn't working for me. 

Then I started thinking about the earth. What's the earth grounded to/with? Nothing? It's a sphere hanging in space. The earth has no "roots." It lays on nothing. I envisioned the solar system, the planets - all wondering what how they were "grounded". In nothing? Spinning? Then I saw the earth is "rooted" in its core.

I thought about this.  I liked that. Seemed to make sense. But how to translate this concept to moi, human? My core is not not a physical core, although it comes with me where ever I go. Part body, part mind, part something else. It's the part of me that rocked a 2 week trip after my computer died on the airplane (and proceeded to give 2 presentations with temporary tools). This combination of self, part personal identity, part body, part mind, part online connectivity. It's where and what I'm rooted in as I physically move around this globe.

Cutting the Line

I had a new experience in rudeness last night as I waited in the popcorn line at the New Beverly Theater. It was a David Lynch double feature: Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. I was looking forward to a respite after the emotionally taxing (and ongoing) move.

I was cranky. My place was a mess with boxes, my new home office (kitchen style) was bare bones. I had spent the morning running around getting my Brazilian Visa. My internet was giving me dial-up speeds. The dog was upset and being bratty. Work wasn't pulling any punches either. At least I had another 2 weeks in LA before the mother of all travels. All I wanted to do is stare at a screen at a more surreal Los Angeles than the one I live in/created.

The popcorn line is around the corner into the theater. We go get our seats and ponder getting in it. It's not getting any shorter. Finally, I say I'll do it, weave my way through the seats to the line. I'm in no mood to talk to anyone. I want the damn popcorn and red vines and that's it. I didn't come to a movie theater to be social. 

So as noted before, the popcorn line is quite long. Anyone who sees it, understands that's the situation. You don't want to wait in line, don't wait in line! As I walk up to join the end, a large woman walks into the theater. Her arms are full of snacks and two bottles of coconut water. She questions everyone, are you the end of the line? are you the end of the line? Well, I was the end of the line. At which point, she asks/declares/demands in no uncertain terms that I hold her a spot in line behind me while she goes to get her seat. I tell her that I disagree and that I will not do that. That if she wants to get in line, get in line now or come back and take your chances. She insists that I hold her spot. I tell her in no uncertain terms I will not do that, but I will convey her request to the people that get in line behind me and they can decide. 

After five minutes or so (the line is moving s.l.o.w.) she returns and demands her spot. There are now 5 people behind me. During her 5 minute absence I have communicated the situation to the guy behind me. As he is a nice person, he allows her to get in line. She is not in it more than 1 minute before asking him to save her spot while she does something (I did not hear her reason). She leaves the line (again!) and does not return until she is the 3rd person in line (another 10 minutes or more). 

W.T.F. woman?!

You've just taken the prize for the rudest person I've had the pleasure of encountering in this city!

 

Shouting at the Childless

I was at my favorite bakery a few weeks ago. My European travels gave me a hankering for fresh croissants back at home and I knew just the place. I was up early - thanks again to the jetlag - so pup and I piled in the car - a quick stop before a Hollywood hike.

I knew exactly what I wanted. A latte and a croissant. Simple. My typical European breakfast. When I opened the bakery door, it was children chaos and cacophony. Overwhelmed mom in front of me with two misbehaving kids running around causing all havoc and hell. I waited patiently. I was in no hurry. Fully present, thankful I was not the mom of two misbehaving children. Asking the counter attendant question after question about which pastry had which filling. Unable to remember any answer. Frazzeled she was. I shifted slightly and a strange type of calm settled over me. (Or perhaps I settled into a strange type of calm amidst the storm.) I was amused watching the scene. Detached. Knowing soon I would be pulled into the clusterfuck. Despite mom's vacillation, another person came to take my order, and that's when I was sucked in. (O Calm Center of the Tornado can not hold for Long. A Ying/Yang / I <3 Huckabees red ball head bashing moment of sublimity.)

It was like in a dream; you are speaking, the words go through molasses before they reach the other person's ear, letters jumbled up in the hearing no matter how much enunciation. It was the interference of the childrens cacophony. They distracted all, but me. As I intended my order they twisted and misunderstood in the most sublime telephone game way. Through the cacophony, I remained calm - I take no pleasure in this momentary ability to remain in the eye of the storm - I work hard to sustain it when I am lucky enough to find it.

Childrens strollers were strewed throughout the aisle. When I got to the register, to my dismay, my order was incorrect! My amusement rose at the level of sheer fucked-up-ness occurring. Me to blame for the misunderstood order! Me to blame for no place to stand because of the cacophony of children and unaware parents. Me to blame because the food has to get out and I am in their way (not the two strollers or multitudes of running children and parents lost in their keeing up with the jones conversations). Losing it to the only adult waiting patiently consciously (and with judgement only after the fact) for their latte and croissant!  Register person screwing up the order one final time just for good measure!

O.M.F.G. It was like the Bermuda Triangle of Bakery experiences. I had to get out of there.

Sometimes that happens. The person with extra mental bandwidth becomes the target. Amusing it can be, just don't get sucked in.

NorCal vs SoCal

Anyone who's lived in the Bay Area for a significant amount of time has come across the huge (one-sided) NorCal-SoCal rivalry.

From the San Francisco Bay Area perspective, Los Angeles is the ground zero of shallow consumerism - fake fake fake. People. Boobs. Personality. And the traffic?!?! We all know how horribly polluting cars are, those horrible horrible Los Angeles people - don't they know what they are doing to the earth? (This was before the Prius.) NorCal would expound on how much more aware they were, more evolved, aware, of the earth, good food, real sustainable businesses. There was no fakeness here in NorCal! We reveled in our "coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" foggy summers. Fuck the tourists expecting typical California (SoCal) sunny beaches. Bwahahah - go buy those sweatshirts to stay warm! Oozing with self-importance. Oozing with I am better than you.

From the SoCal side, the rivalry is .... *poof* what rivalry? Yeah, some people up there have a chip on their shoulder, but that's their issue. It's great down here. Great weather, lots of space and so much going on! Yeah, people think Hollywood's the big industry here, but there's so much more.

The NorCal SoCal rivalry was one-sided. I stopped caring about the haters up north and instead set about to make my dreams come true.

Regardless of where you live that's good advice. Stop caring about the haters and make your dreams come true.

Heather's 2012 SxSw Recap

It may be a few months late, but I'm still thinking about things I saw/heard at SXSW this year. Here's my recap of the event.

1. The New Age of Money

Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the economic collapse

I had a 15 minute talk in the Future 15 series where I crammed in as much information before showing Flowers for Grandma. After my talk, one woman whose company builds applications, came up to me and asked - when is this launching!? People get very excited when they see the example products in these visions of the future. Link to the Presentation (slideshare). Link to Audio (SXSW).

2. LATAM Startups

I attended a panel on LATAM startups and met key connectors of the startup community in Chile and Brazil along with several Mexico VCs. I'm very interested in exploring and building relationships in my favorite southern hemisphere to give local innovations a regional spotlight through my work at Innotribe. 

3. Activities in the Payments Space

3A: ISIS

ISIS had a big presence and was pushing their mobile payment application, a hardware integration of NFC (Near Field Communication) and credit cards. Partners are Capital One, Chase, Verizon, T-Mobile & AT&T. I got a demo of the app and it looked well designed and slick - however my concern with NFC is adoption and ubiquity.

The adoption problem will not come from shoppers/purchasers - many of us are used to various applications on our smart phones and we like to experiment with new payment methods. The long road of adoption will come from Merchants/Vendors - they need an easy, cheap way to extend their payment infrastructure to accept NFC. ISIS launches their program in Austin and Salt Lake City later this year. I'll be watching to see how things go.

3B: Barclay's Crowdsourced Credit Card

UNBELIEVABLE!I was really impressed with this credit card offering. It's a mashup of a credit card + crowdsourcing + radical transparency. The community of card holders decides how they want the card serviced. Things like, what do you want your late fee to be? DO you want outsourced customer service experience, paperless statements, etc.

A perfect example of what I call a positive wildcard: a low probability event with a high positive impact. (Innovation team: these people are one of us!) Read the release. 

I was so impressed with this card, I invited Paul to join my panel at the Future of Money conference. I'm definitely watching what they do and how people respond to 

3C: Community Currency

The most interesting community currency at SXSW came from a woman in the Chilean startup community. Her challenge was to build a vibrant startup ecosystem that required/encouraged participants to give back and reinvest in the community. Companies that participated in the 6 month program had to earn 4000 points and there were a variety of activities they could do to earn those points; for example mentoring programs, giving a workshop or talk. I was fascinated and impressed with this way to encourage participants to reinvest in the ecosystem, strengthening and growing it.

4. Bina48

The most fascinating thing I saw at SXSW was Bina48, a robotic panellist: a head and shoulders sculpted with a mindfile uploaded into it. Bina48 could understand speech and speak and the audience asked all kinds of profound questions. I was personally transfixed, overcome with emotion at seeing this "robot" answer profound questions.

From a future of identity perspective I was transfixed. Today you can create a mindfile of yourself, by scraping and collecting our data and information, very soon, you might be able to do something with that file. A previous article on Bina48.

5. danah boyd's talk on fear and hate on the Internet

I had not heard danah speak recently and really loved her talk. A few pull quotes: "Power is no longer hierarchal, power resides in the network." And "we view the world as a linear story - but these paths are not linear. Historically they ebb and flow." 

On the fun side, I picked up a sweet pair of cowboy boots and filled my belly with delicious avocado rich Tex-Mex.

Changing the Rules

Back in the summer of 2008, before we entered financial no man's land, I had an epiphany.

I knew for a long time (call it gut knowledge) that our existing financial systems were going to shift dramatically. I had no idea how and it terrified me how it might impact humanity negatively. 

One day, driving over Laurel Canyon to the San Fernando Valley, with the top down in my convertible and my dog in the passenger seat, I saw a glimpse of the future. Relief. Curiosity.

The rules would change.

We do not live in a static world. The rules (and regulations) that govern us, our systems today - did not always exist. The rules are our own creation. We change them on a regular basis. Even if the rules (or repeal of some rules) created today's situation; there is no reason to think that we (our governments, banks, institutions or people) will continue to play by those rules. I think the opposite is more true. When we don't like things, we change the rules.

Sure, if we DID decide to play by the rules, it could be a very bad scene. But who wants a bad scene? We'd have to find someone to blame - it's not easy or safe to take responsibility for our wrongs in our world. So we change the rules. And we will continue to change the rules. 

Our rules will change and evolve, the system will be pushed and gamed and played (in response), and rules will change and evolve (in response).

 We're watching and changing the rules around money, value and transations today.

The Global Now

The Global Now is a term I use to describe

• the mental awareness of the global world
• the various time zones - envisioning the dark, light, sunrise, sunset, noontime meal, midnight mysteries - of places around the world
• my colleagues, friends, family, dog, my beloved Queen of Angeles in their current timespace
• and the varied activities: working, play, sleeping, eating of above around the world

While being aware of my individual, personal, immediately direct experience. 

It's viewing my life from a global perspective while holding/experiencing my individual context.

Let me give you a few examples:

Early Morning Los Angeles

When I travel to Europe my workday is through the quiet hours of the California night. Right as my mind is waking up (even if my body has acclimated to the time zone), tuned to the rhythms of Los Angeles, I finish my European workday. Before closing down my laptop, collecting my electricity adapter and hailing my taxi to the hotel, one last check of twitter.... an early morning tweet from LAFD - Los Angeles Fire Department talking about a morning cup of coffee. Physically 5500+ miles away, in a instant my mind is right there, on Robertson or Santa Monica or Wilshire Blvd in the pre-dawn darkness. #theglobalnow

Innotribe Week: San Francisco, Singapore, London

A few weeks ago Innotribe hosted events in San Francisco, Singapore, Bangkok and London within a day of each other. I kicked off the week with our Future of Money panel with Yobie from Citi, Paul from Barclays, Shamir from Simple and Michael Michael from Burning Man. Tweets and Instagram pictures went out with the #innotribe tag. Just as we finished a celebratory conference dinner, the Singapore Startup Challenge kicked off with tweets from Matteo and Nektarios and my APAC colleagues. I raised a gin and tonic to them as the sun rode West, heading to bed before the winner was announced. Later, the sun rose on London and #innotribe represented at our business forum panel.

All around the globe, as time flowed, the world turned, I saw my colleagues and I - tiny moments on the crust of this earth, a globe hanging in the universe. Pinpricks of light, stars in the world. #theglobalnow

#FutrChat

Once a month, the Association of Professional Futurists holds a chat on twitter. It's about a specific topic: the future of ----. For that one hour, colleagues from the APF get on twitter: DC, Kansas City, Florida, Seattle, Texas, Sydney, Hawaii, London and beyond... a firehose of rapid fire conversation. Intimate, public. I imagine the usernames, my colleagues, collaborators, all over the world, with each tweet, at their computer or device tuning into our shared time-space on the internet - one hour - we come together in a timeless, locationless space. We are together in conversation. #theglobalnow

Domestic Meditation

The morning is cool. I'm up early. Finished the coffee challenge (a variation of the kitchen challenge - where the kitchen and sometimes the laundry or other cleaning errand - is clean/prepped/done by the time I finish fixing my coffee).

Kettle onto boil. Prep the mug, melita filter, Peet's Major Dickenson, half n half, a spoonful of powered chocolate (Belgium is influencing me), sugar. The stove clicks and then the gas is lit. I take the sponge, I wash the two pots, one knife in the sink. Pick up the empty wine glass on the coffee table. The dog snuggles into the blanket on the sofa. A cool breeze comes in from the open kitchen window. One ear on the kettle, I pop into the laundry nook. Checking on the air-dry items, putting the next load into the dryer. The timer. I push the button. Back in the kitchen, I can hear the kettle gaining energy, but it's still got some time to go. I start a few hand wash items, get them started in the kitchen. The kettle starts making the pre-boil noise. I pull it off and begin decanting my morning liquid. As it seeps through the filter, I run the hand washables through the double rinse. Blot them dry on a towel so they don't drip and hang them in the laundry nook with the other air dryables. Meanwhile the water has turned to coffee. I doctor it with half and half, sugar, stir in the chocolate, a liberal dash of cinnamon. I mentally start making a grocery store list. I've used the last of my coffee. My hands are warm from the hot water, from the coffee cup, moist with the hand washables.

I miss these domestic mornings with the cool breeze of Los Angeles. Possibilities of the day, before heading to my office, my computers, my devices, the internet, the world, the global now.

White Lilacs & European Introspections

Mr Great Great Great Grandfather Schlegel left the motherland in the mid-1800s. After 15 years traveling the frontier territories, he settled in Iowa. Lost connection with the old country, building a new legacy, a family, a law practice in a new country. A wild untamed country. 

During my last trip over here (to Europe where I sit typing this), I chatted with a colleague. He mentioned he had family in America. Someone from the family generations ago crossed the great water, went to the wild land - but they lost touch. They never knew what became of them.

I never thought of it from the other side. That there is some Schlegel family here in Europe, that might occasionally think about my great great great grandfather Schlegel who left and was never heard from again. I wonder if they wonder; Did he die, merely survive, start a thriving legacy? And as far as me and my name? Who did I come from? I have the same name as a minor philosopher, but whether I am related by blood or similar interest in romantic poetry, I will never know.

--

As I drive these European roads, motorways, almost literal cow paths, through small towns and fields, shifting up and down the gears, I am reminded of the midwest. It's as if I am visiting an alternate universe. I can see why so many Europeans settled there (in the midwest). The fertile fields.  The forests. The animals. It is familiar, the lush land. 

I can see the attraction. I can see what was brought - ideas, hard work, beliefs, traditions. And I see how those were changed by the wide, open land. Big sky. Possibilities. The farther West, the more the change. I guess that makes sense... you'd have to give up a lot (and want to give it up) the farther you moved West. The land is RAW. It is unworked by human hands. It is land on a geographic scale. No forests or fields, this is rock and water, the elements and geology.

Everything is easy here - in Europe. Things are well made. Well crafted. Attention to detail. Sophisticated. Expensive (but only comparatively to the cheap Chinese production). Quality. Artisanial. There are years upon years upon years of civilization to stand upon. Build upon. Then there's also all the baggage that comes along with years of civilization. Reinvention, I think, is difficult. In some ways I think it's easier to be who you are, but I don't know that it would be easy to change the image once decided upon. But life is easy here. Comfortable. The land does not challenge. The land has been tamed. 

The thing that strikes me the strongest is society - human society - civilization. People have lived together in close quarters and cultivated the land here - much much longer than America. There's been time to refine things - including how to socially interact - learn to live with others in such close quarters. Other places in the world have experienced this longer - China, India - but I do not yet know these places.

It should be no surprise that we're rawer in America. We've only had 600 or so years (of development of the dominant society - please realize I am leaving out a huge hole of Native American Society, but that culture has unfortunately not significantly influened mainstream Americanism.) There's more physical space, so people spread out - because there is space to spread out. Survivors had to be resilient and independent - especially if you moved West of the Mississippi. Risk takers with nothing to lose. Kansas City was the last bastion of back water culture until San Francisco. Kansas City has more fountains than Venice.

I think about the people who came, and still come to my country. It attracts not a race, an ethnicity - but a way of thinking about the world. It attracts an attitude. The farther West you go, the more intense this attitude, until you reach California. It has a reputation for a reason. It is, I think, the metaphorical edge of this world. It is the place you go to invent, reinvent. It is here, in my city of Angels, I honed my ability to pluck possibilities, pull them through the fine mesh of imagination and manifest them physically. 

With every trip away from her, I bring a piece with me - this skill to pluck the possibilities, to enable a new view, invention, reinvention, seeding her beyond the deserts.

 --

A week or so ago, I remembered the white lilacs of my childhood. Lilacs were/are my favorite flower, and they were familiar in the town I grew up in. I loved the deep purple ones and also the white ones... because who called a white flower lilac? (Even as a child I loved contradictions.)

As I drove down Highway 1 from San Francisco last week, I thought about white lilacs. They just popped into my head. It had been decades since I had seen a white lilac, let alone think about them. Lilacs do not grow in California, except in some of the colder mountain regions. And every lilac I have seen in California has been light purple... or lilac. 

But today, as I explored these Belgium country roads along the roadside were bush after bush of lilacs - not the light purple ones, but the white and dark psychedelic purples one. Strange synchronicity, this memory of white lilacs... or perhaps it was just the whisper of my ghost?