Rob's Blog

Tanzania Safari

This January, we went on a Safari in Tanzania, with the Oberlin Alumni Group. It was an incredible experience. We saw just about every animal imaginable - lions, giraffes, cheetahs, a leopard who we saw kill a baby antelope, warthogs, hippos, rhinos, zebras and wildebeast. I recommend the trip as a definite entry on the "bucket list." I'd previously gone on a safari in Kenya, but I think I saw more animals on this trip which took place during the "Great Migration" in the Serengeti as animals follow the seasons towards Kenya. Another great location was the Ngorongoro Crater.

 

What a great vacation!

Got back last week from a terrific vacation in the Seattle area. We spent a few days in Seattle, which is a nice city, very laid back, though that belies the fact that you can't walk a block without running into a Starbucks or some other coffee place. Very caffeinated. We then went to a spa at Snowqualmie, which was nice, though we've been to better. The highligts of the trips came later. We visited Orcas Island, part of the San Juan Islands off of Seattle. It was amazing. We stayed at Turtleback Farm Inn, near Eastsound. It was set overlooking acres of land which was home to a small herd of sheep, one of whom was very friendly, particularly if you had food!

The view from our room at Turtleback Farm Inn

 

Feeding "Chompers"!

We took hikes, walked around town, went to a Farmer's market, ate great food, and I even jumped off a bridge into a lake. Fun! (You'll have to take my word for it, Linda thought I was crazy and didn't take a picture.)

  Click below to read about Mount Rainier National Park!

LATISM and social media

July 28, 2011

I’m in a small, impoverished village in Haiti, just over the border of the Dominican Republic. The heat is sweltering, and there’s no electricity or running water. Dozens of pregnant women, many of whom are in their teens and already mothers, are attending a free pre-natal health clinic staffed by volunteer doctors from the U.S., found via Facebook and Twitter. The women are advised to get regular checkups, though this is problematic as they are so isolated. The doctors perform a routine examination, and if they suspect any serious conditions they are referred to a hospital in the Dominican Republic, where they will be treated for free. One frequent condition is fistula, a serious medical complication that sometimes occurs in pregnancy, particularly in younger girls.

One of the young mothers at the makeshift clinic

This is part of a month long sustainable development project set up by Ana Roca Castro and her LATISM (Latinos in Social Media) organization. Ana, with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy, is shuttling us (myself, a video producer and a cameraman) from one location to another, so we can document the project. Back across the Dominican border in Monte Cristi, another isolated, but beautiful village on the northwest coast, we visit a “cyber room”, set up with dozens of computers donated through Latism.  Here, local “trainers” help educate artisans, and hotel owners, to use social media to connect with potential customers and organizations. The trainers will stay behind after LATISM departs, thus fulfilling the promise of sustainability, and ”using social media for social good.” We were able to meet the local artisans, mostly all women, who were visibly excited about taking pictures of their beautiful handmade pieces, and enthusiastic about sharing them on line. Many of the crafts will be sold at the upcoming blogging event, BlogHer.

Local artisans with their wares

Finally, the last aspect of the program is a summer camp, attended by the children of both the LATISM volunteers and cyber room participants, where they get to work on their English, Kung Fu skills and to generally have fun. It’s amazing how a relatively small, but extremely focused organization like LATISM can achieve so much in so little time. What they will leave behind are practical skills, knowledge, the promise of economic sustainability, and most importantly, increased self-worth and hope for a population too often ignored.

Ana Roca Castro and "gringo"

Where I have been. What I have eaten.

I've not blogged in a while, very busy at work, including conferences, travelling, etc. Paris, Nashville, New Orleans. In Paris I spoke at the Marketing 2.0 Conference  about the jnjhealth channel on You Tube, which has now registerd over 4-million views. In April I was in New Orleans for Mom 2.0, where we interviewed Moms about "using social media for social good". We'd done the same thing in Nashville at Blissdom. Looking back on my photos, there has been a consistent theme. Eating and drinking a lot! As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand calories.

 

 

 

 

Experience Music Project

During a recent trip to Seattle, I had the opportunity to visit the Experience Music Project Sort of like a miniature Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame, with fantastic photos of rockers curated by Graham Nash, memorabilia and a really good exhibit about Jimi Hendrix. As well a guitar "statue".

 

 

In Search of the Perfect Quilt

Or, searching for Intercourse in Pennsylvania. Yes, there really is such a town in the Pennsylavania Amish country, southwest of Blue Ball and north of Paradise. What's with these names?! Anyway, it was a struggle to get there - every main road in Pennsylania seemed to be under construction, turning an already long 3-hour drive into a 4 1/2 hour one. I'm officially avoiding that state. Anyway, my wife and I finally got to Intercourse (really), and looked for quilts there, and in nearby Ronks. Linda was on a mission to replace our very worn out one, circa 1930, and was having a really hard time. None of them "spoke" to her, and they seemed either uninspired or overpriced, or both. My suggestion to just buy a blanket and be done with it didn't do much to help. Finally, looking through a local paper, we found some out of the way places, that were private residences/farms. These quilts were much nicer and much more reasonable than the ones we saw in town. So, if you want to save yourselves some time, we'd recommend Country Lane Quilts, 221 South Groffdale Road, in Leola, PA (where we bought ours) and Esh's Handmade Quilts on Route 340 1 mile east of Intercouse. (Is that like East of Eden?) The one place in town that was pretty good was Village Quilts, in Intercourse. It was really late by the time we finished our sojourn, and headed towards Lancaster for dinner. We had no idea where to go, but wandered around the town and made a great find. A really nice restaurant called The Press Room, complete with jazz trio. Good food and drink after a long day. We finished at 10, and with minimal traffic and avoiding the nightmare roads we took getting there, it still took us 3 hours to get home. Oh, and the quilt. It's beautiful!

This is IT! (Wedding ring pattern)

Our little town

The Press Room, Lancaster, PA

More Berlin photos

German Engineering

Star Trek Weirdo

Brandenburg Gate at night

Click To Play

Juggler at the Brandenburg Gate

When Communism meets Capitalism

The East German Ampelmännchen, or "little traffic light man"

Ampelmännchen and more conventional form

There has been almost a comic controversy going on between two businessmen, one from East Germany and one from West Germany about the use of the Ampelmännchen, or "little traffic light man" (Ampelmannchen), an iconic symbol, orginating in the East. So what used to be idealogical differences transformed itself into patent litigation about who has the commercial rights to the symbol. It's no small matter, as related memorabilia sales generated almost $3 million in annual revenue as of 2005. I couldn't find any udates on sales figures or the status of the litigation. Actually, the use of the Ampelmännchen represents the cultural and political divide that obviously still exists between the two, now united, Germany's. Whereas the West used a skinnier, more traditional version traffic symbol, or the typical red light/green light, East Germany utilized the more prosaic one. There was actually quite an uproar upon reunification when the West Germans wanted to impose their version. A committee was formed, protesting the decision and now you see traffic lights with either the West German version, the East German version, or both. Those wacky Germans!

More or Las Vegas

This about says it all:

On the other side of the coin of the realm:

My, what a big building you have, Mr. Wynn. Even bigger than Donald's!

Las Vegas

In Las Vegas for NAB (National Association of Broadcasters). Went to a course on Final Cut Pro during the Post-Production conference this weekend. Tomorrow, Digital Video production essentials, tools and gadgets. But the highlight of today was crashing a party (not on purpose - it said opening reception!) hosted by the International Association of Assembly Managers Foundation. I'm sure you've all heard of it.

Hooray for the IAAM!

Two of my gracious hosts.