FIUTS CulturalFest – Travel the world in a day

CulturalFest is a great opportunity to be entertained, exposed to world culture and interact with students from around the world, all while supporting UW students and a long standing non-profit. CulturalFest is a collaboration of FIUTS (Foundation for International Understanding Through Students) and student leaders at the University of Washington (“FIUTS Student Board” )

CulturalFest is a day-long celebration of the diversity and vitality that international students bring to our region. CulturalFest features more than 30 interactive display booths produced by University of Washington students from countries around the world and a special performance night of global music and dance. CulturalFest is produced by the FIUTS Student Board, a student leadership initiative of FIUTS, the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students.

This year’s FIUTS CulturalFest is going to be extra awesome for the following reasons:

• It will be in Meany Hall, one of the region’s premier performance facilities.
  In the past few years the performance had been in the Ethnic Cultural Theater which holds very little audience. Each year the tickets are sold out in advance and people line up outside that evening hoping to sneak in for a peek. With a much bigger venue this year, not only can we accommodate more audience, the performers (such as the Husky Wushu Team) also have a much bigger stage to perform on.
• There will be a pre-show VIP reception, which includes appetizers and beverages, a silent auction, and access to exhibit booths.
  In the past, exhibitions are only available during the day (11 am – 1 pm) so many can’t attend (and can’t bring their children) because of conflicted work hours.
  The VIP reception provides an exclusive opportunity to preview the country booths in the evening before the performance, bid on unique silent auction items (such as canvas paintings of Hong Kong, accommodation and travel consulting for Bali, and exquisite Turkish tea sets) donated from supporters all over the world, and meet the performers while supporting UW students. Reception tickets also include admission and priority seating for evening performances!
• Tickets are available ONLINE!
  You can now buy tickets not just in person at the FIUTS office, but more conveniently, online! What can be better than that? * I’m super excited about this improvement *

CulturalFest will be on February 10 2011. Artist Reception & Silent Auction is 5:30-7:30pm, followed by Cultural Music and Dance Performance 7:30-9:30pm.

Buy tickets now!
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/browse.html?keywords=culturalfest

More information:
http://www.fiuts.org/educationoutreach/culturalfest.html

CulturalFest is sponsored by Team Diva, Zipcar, STA Travel, and the University of Washington Department of Global Health

Why support FIUTS?
FIUTS has done great work for over 60 years. I learned a lot as a student facilitator during the Fall International Orientations and as a Student Board member. I have also gained valuable insights and opportunity to help new students as a Homestay host.

Blog Discovery – Zenhabits

I reached out through Google search for something interesting to read and found Zenhabits. I like the overall concept/ idea and find the latest post nice, but it didn’t hit a nerve right then.

On the other hand, I looked through the archives (nice layout, by the way, very easy to scan) and found The Absolute Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Small Online Business which I think is very inspiring for all the future Entrepreneurs out there (including myself and my friend).

Here’s a snipet copied from Leo Babauta’s post (Thank you for the inspiration):

Tip #3: Ask For Help
If you’re a bit introverted like me you might be shy about asking for help.
Don’t let that be a barrier to your success.
In other words, feel the fear and do it anyway.

It is very in all aspects in life. Take a risk, ask someone for advice. Worst that could happen is you didn’t get any useful advice. Nonetheless, at least you showed some initiative for something you cared about. Who knows? That person might be able to reach into his/ her network and find someone who could give you pointers!

To read the rest of the article, go here: http://zenhabits.net/small-online-business

Should I switch from T-mobile to AT&T?

Background
I’m currently 4 months into a 2-year contract with T-mobile. Been with T-mobile for 4 years now and starting to become very unhappy with what I have. I have an almost 2 years old Motorola W490 which I got for free at the end of 2007 when I signed up to recontract for 2 years. The phone is nice as it’s compact but doesn’t have any smart phone functions that are becoming more and more common in the marketplace.



Problem
I had a ‘loyal customer’ 800 minutes a month up till 5 months ago which I pay $45 – 50/ month for. It includes unlimited week nights and weekend minutes. Since my bill average 300 minutes a month, I thought I could change to a smaller plan and save some money. However, the smaller plan does not include week night minutes, and I have been running ~100 minutes over my plan a month in the last couple of months, and ended up paying about the same when I had the 800 minute plan.



Dilemma
I want a minute plan that would fit my usage needs, I don’t really want to change the plan and re-sign another 2 year contract (which was stupid to begin with). It prompted me to start considering moving away from T-mobile, which doesn’t have as good coverage as AT&T in Seattle area, and perhaps getting a smart phone (like iPhone or Windows mobile) instead. It implies I would likely ended up signing for another 2-year contract, and paying more for minute plan and data plan anyways (which doesn’t solve my initial problems, but makes me happier since I would ended up with a better phone and stress-free minute plan). Another small caviat with moving to AT&T though, is that I will incur early termination fee from T-mobile and activation fee from AT&T.



So, what do you think?

Social Media Revolution

Pretty fascinating stats. The background music helps too.

Reading: Strategic Database Marketing

I have been pushing hard to finish reading the Strategic Database Marketing book that I got on Monday. Very interesting concepts and theories and good extensive examples of industry applications. RFM Analysis (Recency Frequency Monetary) is a new concept to me and it deep dives into ranking database, lifetime value, appending demo/ firmo/ geo-graphic information to behavioral database (purchase history).

I can see how lots of the information and technique could be applied at work, but it would be a pretty big project that requires good planning and rallying management for support (which should be no problem given a well-presented plan). Segmentation and modeling should be totally down my ally, but I need to refresh my modeling knowledge to be more comfortable.

I’m currently 230 pages into the 400-page book (got up for 2 hours of reading before going to work yesterday, tried to do it this morning but couldn’t fight the drowsiness after 1 hour of reading, and have also been reading during bus rides and after work/ rowing).

Chase

Hello and goodbye: WaMu officially becomes Chase on June 1
Seattlepi.com staff Andrea James wrote my sentiment, “the loss of such a major company has been a blow to Seattle’s civic pride.” It was sad to see the WaMu Tower and WaMu Center getting renamed.

Meanwhile, from the consumer side, the transition has been smooth and painless. Chase has been keeping things fun and easy for all the old WaMu customers. The WaMu accounts are now accessed via Chase website, but all the debit cards, checks, banking centers, ATMs still work exactly the same. The brand transition is so seamless and done so quickly that it is amazing. Chase also continue to push out month-to-month contests/ promotions engaging customers to remain active with the bank. I just got the same offer yesterday as the one I got in March. Time for another new account…? Wouldn’t mind the spare cash

Dave Matthews Band: Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King

There’s been quite a few big Marketing initiatives across industries lately.

One of the ones that I totally ate right up is Dave Matthews Band’s promotion campaign for their new album “Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King.” I have always enjoyed DMB’s music but never took any initiative in following their news (all I had is their “Everyday” album which I inherited from a friend, and that I finally bought tickets to their annual concert at the Gorge Amphitheater after living in Seattle for 5 years). This all started from Pandora, the internet radio that plays what you like. It first appeared as an ad on the side, inviting audience to click through to sample DMB’s new single “Funny The Way It Is” on Pandora radio. Pandora radio subsequently hosted a station that pre-release all the songs in the new album for free for a week. The station also have a few video clips of the Band describing how the album came to be. DMB also have presence in social networking portals like facebook and twitter, where they’d notify their fans of TV appearance and the likes. Additionally, Google recently added an iGoogle showcase where iGoogle homepage of world renowned celebrities and leaders are shared. That’s where I got my Big Whiskey banner theme

As a side note, my fav songs in this album are currently Funny The Way It Is and Why I Am.

Who can resist the charm of an Indian rock star?

Rare appearance of an Indian HOT STUFF.

When are Asians going to get ahead?

A Sunny February Day in Seattle with My Goofy Friends

My apartment has a big window that looks out to the East. On a sunny day the view is really nice.

It was very nice out so we all headed over to the blue house for some early spring BBQ. OP made meat patty from scratch with Italian sausage meat and regular minced beef with mozzarella hearts. We ate those with pesto sauce and burger buns. yumms.

Nanna made a silly face when she turned around and saw the camera

OP decided to fulfill the Northwest profile of the socks and sandals gal

It Snowed in Seattle on Thursday

It started snowing on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning Wallingford had a thin blanket of snow. In true Seattle fashion, the #26 was half hour late and the #44 never came.

We had a sun break later in the morning. Got a couple of snap shots from the deck. Snow was mostly gone by the afternoon. Our team was in a full day onsite-offsite. It was nice and fun to put all ideas on the table and plan for the coming year.
Work got really busy and frustrating on Friday. I was very upset.