Traveling to California
Traveling is fun and exciting. Discovering new places, meeting new people is refreshing. Yesterday I visited Dallas Airport on my way to California from DC. Until then, I had no idea how big the Dallas Airport is. It's huge, you need to take a train from one terminal to another. What's most adventurous was that to take the train you need to go to the top floor. It took at least 15 minutes from one terminal to another. Wow!!! Talk about concrete jungles….
March 11, 2010 No Comments
Frozen moments…..
As I watched the infinite tiny snowflakes
falling from the sky…
suspended in air….
crashing on the ground….
and melting away…..
they reminded me of how vast our life is…
made up of infinite moments,
that we are waiting for,
that we are living now
and that we have perhaps forgotten….
and the snow settling on the trees reminded me of
the moments that remain frozen…..
that we don’t want the wind to blow away…..
that we don’t want to melt away…..
but slowly and steadily when the snow melted away……
it reminded me of how short our life is……
if we don’t live the moments when they are there….
they will melt away……eventually….
Let’s live those tiny infinite moments….
for we never know how long they can remain frozen….
and how fast they will melt away………
February 6, 2010 No Comments
Back to blogging
I haven’t been blogging for a while now. Have been too busy completing
my Ph.D. and I am proud to announce that I finally completed my
dissertation and graduated a couple of weeks ago. It’s a great feeling
to finally graduate and look forward to all what life has to offer.
For past few days, I have been catching up with friends and generally
taking it slow. But now I am back to blogging. I am also working on
some interesting assignments and teaching a course at John’s Hopkins
Univ. I hope that this is going to be an interesting and busy semester
my Ph.D. and I am proud to announce that I finally completed my
dissertation and graduated a couple of weeks ago. It’s a great feeling
to finally graduate and look forward to all what life has to offer.
For past few days, I have been catching up with friends and generally
taking it slow. But now I am back to blogging. I am also working on
some interesting assignments and teaching a course at John’s Hopkins
Univ. I hope that this is going to be an interesting and busy semester
February 5, 2010 2 Comments
Play the tune - My early morning inspirational thoughts
I have been quiet here…and for a reason…preparing for my
dissertation defense…so will be quiet until I am done with it…but
today morning I had an inspirational thought…I hope it inspires you
in the coming year…
There are many musicians in the world…
but there are only few remembered tunes….
play the one that touches hearts…
for that’s the one that lasts…. Wish you all a Happy Christmas and I promise myself to be more active
here with some great stories…. Until then….
Posted via email from savvypriya’s posterous
December 24, 2009 No Comments
My insight from today
Everyday there is something happening in our lives. These are little things but they jolt us out of the mundane and take us to that next level. I get these insights about what I may or may not be doing right in life. Sometimes it's about achieving success in your work, at times it's about maintaining relationships with your loved ones. I think these are the two most important things in life. There is a work life, then there is a personal life and a public life for those who walk that extra mile, who make their work more relevant to humanity. For past few months, I have been pushing myself hard, hoping to push harder so that I can get it all together. To get my work done, to have a happy personal life and to make my work socially relevant. But today, I realized, that which happens effortlessly is what you attract and what you are born to do. That which is simple, that which gives you joy while doing, is your thing. And the true success in life comes not by working many hours, but by making simple decisions, by having clarity of thought and purpose, then doing is just easy………..:)
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November 5, 2009 2 Comments
Tweet Tweet Twitter: Why is Twitter useful and How to use Twitter effectively
I have been on Twitter for close to a year and I thought that I was a late adopter, however, I still hear comments such as "No, I am not on Twitter", "How do you use Twitter?", "Why should I use Twitter?" or "I am addicted to Twitter." In this post, I share some of my thoughts, experiences and tips on how one can use Twitter effectively to add more value to personal and professional life.
When a year back I joined Twitter, I could find a handful of friends who had a sleeping account on Twitter, that is they were on it but not actively using it. I found Twitter very useful right from the beginning. There were three main reasons for why I found Twitter useful - first, the time when I joined Twitter the Mumbai attacks happened and I could get all the news about Mumbai on Twitter. I really felt more connected to the incident. I was not just a spectator to the event, but I could actively engage with people living in Mumbai and experiencing the incident. That made the whole incident very live. The second great thing was that I was immediately connected with professionals, researchers and academicians engaged in new media research and third was that I found myself amidst an active community of bloggers and thinkers. Almost immediately, instead of being an isolated grad student, I became a part of active community with similar interests and professions. In short, I found a whole new world opening before me.
Even in my offline life, I had an immediate effect of joining Twitter. I enjoyed recounting my Twitter experiences to my friends, colleagues and acquaintances about how important Twitter is. Also it became a habit to ask anyone I met, if they were on Twitter. It was almost like instead of asking them their email ID, I felt more comfortable asking them about their Twitter handle. I felt, it was easier to connect through Twitter.
Therefore, in my opinion online social networking applications such as Twitter are great for both personal and professional uses. It can help you connect with community of like-minded individuals from across the world, you can actively engage in discussions of topics you find most interesting and you can connect with professionals within your area of expertise.
Now we get to the question of how to use Twitter effectively. Once you sign up for Twitter, you will create your account, here are simple tips that may help you -
1. Be authentic - I think there is a lot of value in being authentic and your real self if you want to engage with serious and like-minded individuals.
First, use your real name for your twitter account so that when someone is searching for you they can find you. Also use a short and snappy twitter handle but use a part of your real name.
Second, put a good close-up shot of yourself. A simple photo is good but if the photo can show your personality then it is even better. Be very clear about how you want to project your image. Because when you put your picture on Twitter, the whole world can see it even if you protect your updates. So put a nice smiling picture.
Third, give an adequate one-line description of yourself. When writing your description, use words through which you would like to connect with people. For example, I used "mobile phone research" and "youth" because I wanted to connect with people who are interested in these two topics.
2. Following and followers - The first thing you need to do after joining Twitter is to follow individuals who you think, you will find interesting. First use your email list to identify who is already on Twitter and then follow them or you can go through their follower list to identify people you may find interesting. In the beginning try and follow few people. You can also use the search options to find people you might want to follow, but who may not be on your email list. But do follow some active users so that you can understand the use of Twitter and what happens on it.
3. Tweet - Twitter allows you to send out tweets in 140 characters. Use them wisely. If you are using it for professional purpose, try and update more work-related tweets, if you are a blogger, you may want to share your blog posts and get people's reactions. You can use Twitter to ask questions and even have a good discussion. Even if you are using Twitter for professional purpose, it might be a good idea to intersperse few tweets about your personal life, where are you and what you are doing are important information about you. It helps build your online personality. You can also decide to protect your tweets, so that you can decide who receives your tweets. I think initially that's not a great idea, but you may differ.
4. Retweet - Twitter also allows you to retweet someone else's tweets which you find interesting or you think may be of interest to your followers. Always acknowledge the person whose tweet you are retweeting. It's good to retweet, that shows you are interested in what people are saying.
5. Technology - You can tweet from your cell phone, mobile device or from your computer. If you are a beginner and do not want to spend too much time, you may not want to integrate your mobile device with Twitter. However, if you do, you may want to set aside 10 - 20 min a day to check your tweets. Because it can be very overwhelming in the beginning to check it every time you receive a tweet.
6. Hashtags - Hashtags # have a great significance in twitterville, so use them wisely. When you see a hashtag appearing before a word, it means that there are a few people following that particular subject. You can also do a hashtag search on twitter by using this link - http://search.twitter.com/. It shows some of the trending topics on Twitter. You can use this search even if you are not on Twitter.
Finally, have fun and make the most of your twitter experience. Let me know how you liked my post and if you have anything to add or share. Happy Tweeting!!!
Posted via email from savvypriya’s posterous
October 16, 2009 5 Comments
Stretching our comfort zone
For past few days, I have been thinking about how important it is to stretch our comfort zones. Usually our tendency is to stick to comfort and convenience. So we work hard and we ensure that we achieve a situation that is most convenient and comfortable. And we try to stay within our comfort zones. However, for past few days, I have been testing my limits, trying to stretch my boundaries and I am loving it. Life is just so much richer, when we take that extra step and push ourselves to the next level. It's just so interesting to see how the uncomfortable turns into comfort
I am writing this post, because I want to remember this always so that I can keep pushing myself to have new experiences……If you like it, please comment or share examples.
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October 14, 2009 No Comments
Mahatma Gandhi Statue in the heart of Washington DC
Last night as I was coming back home late at night from DC, I spotted two ladies looking intently at this statue of Mahatma Gandhi. I don’t walk on that road often so I had never seen this statue but I was very surprised to see this magnificent statue of Gandhi right in the middle of the city. The statue has been gifted by the Indian government and the Indian Americans in USA. At times like this I think that DC may be USA’s capital but when you see gifts from countries around the world displayed around the city, it seems to me to be a world city.
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October 2, 2009 No Comments
Digging your own grave - Ancient Romans and the lead pot
Yesterday I went for a guest lecture and I decided to stay after the lecture to participate in the class discussion since it was on my favorite topic of mobile phone usage among youth in different countries. Needless to say I learnt about some very interesting stuff.
But during the discussion, I heard this story about "Ancient Romans and the lead pot" in the context of multitasking.
The story is that in ancient Rome, Romans who could own a lead pot were considered of a higher status, but what they didn't know was that the lead was poisonous so when they ate food cooked in the lead pot, they died because of poisoning.
The story brings to mind so many examples from our modern day life.
Multitasking - Since we have so many technologies available we multitask. While working we keep checking our emails or we keep messaging. Does it really make us efficient?
Food - related diseases - You can call it diseases of affluence or whatever, but the sad truth is just because it is available and we can afford it we eat whatever we like and however much we want. We do not focus on the fact that we need to eat healthy and in limited quantities.
I have seen many people eating, just for the sake of eating.
Let's not dig our own graves, as the Ancient Romans did
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September 17, 2009 4 Comments
Mundane bits of my life :)
I haven't been blogging quite regularly. I have been wanting to but too much was happening. I shifted residence and that can be quite time consuming. At the same time, I decided to slim down so threw out a lot of junk and sold a few things which I thought I didn't necessarily needed. I still need to sell my TV Yes, I don't really watch it and don't need in my new place. It feels good to get lighter.
Yes, I don't really watch it and don't need in my new place. It feels good to get lighter.
I also started teaching last week at John's Hopkins Univ in DC. Teaching two sections can be a lot of work but the fact that I am teaching social - media related topics makes me look forward to it. And the best thing is that my students appear to be very enthusiastic. One of them sent me this link on social media guide by Kodak today. It appears really well put together. If you are a beginner you might find it useful.
I am also looking forward to completing my dissertation this semmester. So yeah, it is going to be one hell of a busy Fall but I am feeling very prepared. So wish me luck. Tomorrow I am giving a guest lecture at American Univ in DC on my dissertation. Hoping that students will enjoy it
And yes, I am also planning to get my drivers' license this Fall. Yeah, I know I am a bit behind on this but it didn't seem like a priority until now.
So these are the trivia of my life. Few accomplishments…and many more to chase for
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September 15, 2009 2 Comments
