Harajuku-am-Rhein

Young adults are a growing market in publishing: Walk into a bookstore in a European city on a Friday or Saturday afternoon and you can find teenagers crowded in front of a wall of the comic books — a sight nearly nonexistent a few years ago.

German teenagers dressed as Japanese goth rock stars, with multi-coloured hair and heavy eyeliner, mingle with Japanese schoolchildren in a bookstore on the street, giggling as they step into “purikura” photo booths that shoot instant snapshots that people decorate themselves and print as stickers.

It’s a scene replicated in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Rome: local bookshops have expanded their manga sections and feature hundreds of French, Dutch and Italian titles. Often without the credit cards to shop online, these teenagers visit the stores as part of their social life.

Young shoppers edge manga into Europe’s mainstream, Reuters, Dec 20, 2009

Mexico 2007

it seems like the world gets smaller..  tinier and tinier each day… and there are days when i can’t stand the mystery anymore and wish i had the superpower of seeing what goes on behind the scenes– (not the future, that’s a different power) after all the world is a stage and we’re just acting out “the plan” right? (no, im not THE OMNISCIENT) but sometimes i wish i could watch my life like an Inarritu movie– laying out the interconnections and revealing to me what part of the web this and that and who and why this is connected to.  at least more guidance, more clues.. more signs.

i try to keep my intuition strong by keeping the heart open and the mind aligned.

i am a big fan of this intricate web.  but sometimes i don’t like what this small world has to give and to keep some peace of mind i try to reason it by saying, “EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON.”  i mean, people don’t just arbitrarily go through pain right?  there is a cause and sometimes you end up the targeted EFFECT.

then there is the angle of not taking it too seriously. it is what it is, and that is reason enough.  but still, id like to think that the pain isn’t in vain.  or it doesn’t even have to be pain it can be anything.  do i give it too much meaning?  do i ask too much for meanings?  maybe… and maybe i just want a story.

we all want happy endings,

but let’s make the beginning and middle joyous too.

SMALL WORLD, LITTLE BLUE BALL and URGENT UNION present:

THE END OF THE NAUGHTIES!

*** New Year’s Eve Special ***

Tickets are only available on the door

Small World

GUARANTEED VENUE

Bringing together two, soulful and heartwarming,
musical communities.

The Little Blue Ball, Hackney’s musical melting pot based in Passing Clouds, one of London’s hottest “underground” venues.
Small World, the UK’s legendary festival stage, wild and magical.

Over 12 hours of inspirational party vibes
Warm colourful intimate large venue
Skanking hot festival bands, cheeky dj;s,
Openhearted, openminded, dressed up, smiley characters
Jugglers, magicians, fire staffs

3 Rooms – Small World – Little Blue Ball – Urgent Union.
Garden and Fire Pit
——————————————————————-

SMALL WORLD
Wild festival mayhem and madness

LIVE:

PLANETMAN AND THE INTERNATIONALZ – Tropical Afrobeat reggae from the band at the heart of Hackney’s musical melting pot.
http://www.planetman.net

SWING ZAZOU – Exciting new 8-piece swing remix band that stormed at the Glade Festival last summer.

MORDEKKERS – Swirling high energy Celtic Breton dance from a band that honed their unique style playing along side rave soundsystems.
http://www.mordekkers.co.uk/

Plus friends and special guests

DJ’s
Ska-Swing-Balkan-Funk-Festival Skank-Rocknroll
World’s Tallest DJ, Pony, Planetman, Ruth Bloomers plus more friends
———————————————————————————-

LITTLE BLUE BALL

FLIGHT COMMANDER & FRIENDS – eclectic party mash-up!

MR. SHIFTER’s Dub experience.

DJ’s form Little Blue Ball, Urgent Union and Small World

From Beats to Boogaloo, Trash to Tropical, Latin to Lounge and anything fun inbetween.

Room to chill

——————————————————————————-

URGENT UNION – Seladore

Dubby – Deeply – Glitchy – Groovy

Dj’s playing Bass heavy beats, Maximal Dub, Minimal Tech, Breaks etc

Sausage Meat Bargain Basement – Zekarnevil + Jackanory (Tropicoma)

Kamelion Crying Hands

+ Residents Lorenzo + Arcane G

Breaks, Beats, Electro

——————————————————————————–

GARDEN, FIRE PIT AND ALL WEATHER MARQUEE.

———————————————————————————

£15 on the door.

Seven Sisters Underground
Bruce Grove BR
Busses 73, 149, 76

According To You – Orianthi

last night was quite incredible and enjoyable. only 3 weeks with the ruby and just in time for this amazing holiday party where we got a fantastic little surprise in our cards, catering by jake’s (ohmygod sooo delicious), ruby-tinis, fun auction, and just a good time all around. frankie is also very happy that i work for ruby. he throughly enjoyed the party.

some highlights included:
~secret santa present! janel did great with mine…she made these awesome journals for me and very cool buttons. i love it! and jill really liked my present for her—which was great because i was worried she wouldn’t.
~small worldness! emily is roommates with sami and is friends with robert! craaazy.
~i am the proud owner of a dvd/blue-ray player and a 6 month subscription to Netflix!!! i ♥ auctions.
~rubytinis are fantastic…lemondrops with a syrup strawberry like twist. and not too strong either =] perfect for me!
~sara-lee made these gorgeous flower arrangements and i got to take one home! =]
~ what i’ll call a “christmas bonus” =]
~ all the food. seriously. like ah-maaaaz-ing. i wanted to take some home with me. mmmmm.
~ beautiful girls and spiffy boys. ruby gals have some serious style.  ;]

wonderful saturday. =]

other notes for sunday: tried to look at an apartment today. it was an open house. but didn’t know which buzzer to ring and when i called the people, no answer. still haven’t received one. too bad, ’cause i liked the look of the place and the area of town. *shrug* back to craigslist i go.

and now to enjoy a day of movie watching and reading while frankie’s in seattle for the 49er/seahawks game.

Author: J. Michael Key
Source: isnare.com

“it’s a small world” is one of the most beloved attractions at Disneyland. After 42 years, people from around the world still bake a beeline for this charming, low-tech, whimsical boat ride. Yet, in 2008 it was showing its age and in need of refurbishment. So the Disney Imagineers shut the ride down for some months as they made repairs, spruced up existing characters and scenes, and added, disney acting auditions, a few subtle changes.

In particular, Disneyland has added a couple dozen new “residents” to the “it’s a small world” community.

The ride re-opened to the Disneyland public on Friday, February 6, 2009 after a day or two of limited access. We took a ride through “small world” on Friday with a former cast member, disney acting auditions, who had been a Lead and Trainer on the attraction. She helped us identify and photograph many of the changes.

The exterior of “it’s a small world” has not changed much, which apparently is just the way millions of visitors want it. There’s some new paint and minor touches, but it still has the same quaint entrance.

Despite the simple technology, guests to Disneyland just love this ride. Repairs included major work on the fiberglass flumes in which the boats travel; they, disney acting auditions, were leaking water in surprising quantities we’re told.

There was no-doubt a lot of work on pumps, controllers and other unexciting behind-the-scenes stuff. Our former cast member did observe that the boats moved more smoothly through the ride, especially near the loading area.

What was done inside “it’s a small, disney acting auditions, world?” We are pleased, disney acting auditions, to report that the Disneyland designers have stayed true to the original feel.

The ride actually looks much the same inside; the most obvious change is that the guests now float through one new room showing vignettes of, disney acting auditions, Americana– a room more-fully dedicated to Walt Disney’s homeland and North America in general. It includes a bit of Hollywood, along with a scene of farmland and the frontier west.

However, scattered throughout “it’s a small world” are little additions, disney acting auditions, . You have to look for them; some are easy to spot and others require good eyes.

This will make it more fun for Disneyland guests who are very familiar with the ride; look for new additions like you watch for Hidden MIckeys in the park or seek references to the movies in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” attraction.

Near the beginning of your world cruise you’ll see Alice and the White Rabbit. Cinderella is also there with a couple of her mice friends. You’ll come across Pinocchio (with short nose), and shortly thereafter will find Aladdin, Abu and Jasmine flying overhead with their friends (no Genie that we saw).

Ariel and Flounder are there along with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell. There are quite a few other favorite Disney characters, old and new. Look for Sheriff Woody and his companion Bullseye from Toy Story. Donald Duck can be found south of the border. The music has been tweaked a bit, with new ethnic instruments added here and there.

So if you’ve been a fan of “it’s a small world” you won’t be disappointed. The new additions (over two dozen we’re told) will have you paying attention as you float from continent to continent, making the attraction more fun for newcomers and old timers alike.

If you are a local, put “it’s a small world” back on your Disneyland attraction list!

Michael is a Southern California native, and has written on numerous topics. View the latest photos of Disneyland’s “it’s a small world” ride at: The SoCal Vacation Guru.

Last week I sat through two school assemblies, where the kids in each grade sang songs. As I know very few people at the school, I randomly sat down in the first empty seat closest to the front. And as I am wont to do, made small talk with the woman next to me. As part of the discussion, we pointed out our kids to each other.

She pointed to her son (in first grade, like Zack) and said his name, including his last name. “That’s my mother-in-law’s maiden name,” I said. “You think we’re cousins?” I joked.

She looked at me seriously and said “it’s not a common name.” At which point we started to figure out our husband’s family trees.

Long story short: her father-in-law is Mark’s great uncle (his grandfather’s brother). Mark hadn’t seen Uncle Harry since his grandfather’s funeral 13 years ago.

Yes, Mark’s grandparents have lived in New Jersey for probably 40 years. And yes, his grandma, aunt/uncle and two first cousins live within a 45 minute drive. But this is part of the family we obviously haven’t been in touch with (and I never knew existed). These new cousins used to live in a different town, maybe 20-25 minutes away.

We have new cousins.  And they live a half mile away. And one of them is in Zachary’s grade.

It’s a small, small world.

Back in September, I took a Saturday stroll through Portobello Market and came across a man wearing posters, campaigning for animal rights. I wrote a post about the little amusing thing that happened when I walked by. The gentleman who I wrote about found my blog at random two months later and commented on that same post, “I am the man who wears the posters. I came across your lovely remarks by accident…. etc.”

I asked him if he would like to write a guest post on my blog about his experiences campaigning around Portobello for the last two years, but he declined, saying it wouldn’t be particularly interesting. Instead, he sent me a photo of himself in action at Portobello Market.

I love how, in a city of 7 million, it is still possible to connect with strangers.

 Julia Ep by Small World

2009 (4 tracks, 15:18)

alternative/indie

kinder räume – kindermöbel zum verlieben und mehr

kinder räume – off- und online laden für außergewöhnliche Kindermöbel und schöne Accessoires für das Kinderzimmer & Babyzimmer sowie wunderschöne Babymöbel.

Kleines Outlet-Angebot

…and I like it!

I’ve been a social media convert since the beginning. I grew up on AOL instant messenger and chat rooms. I’ve been blogging since the days of geocities and was the first of my friends to be on Facebook in college. It doesn’t take much to convince me of the value of these new tools and how they can be used to bring people closer together.

I understand that not everyone is as easily convinced as I. That is why I’m always so excited when I have a new story about how social media has connected people.

A few weeks ago, I posted to the Raising Arizona Kids twitter account that our 500th Facebook fan would receive a complimentary 1-year subscription to the magazine.  I messaged the winner, a young woman named Tatiana Scocos, and was pleasantly surprised by her enthusiastic reply.

It turns out that Tatiana had posed when she was a baby, with her mother RoxSand Scocos, on our May 1992 magazine cover.

Social media allowed Tatiana to connect with the magazine that’s been a part of her entire life. It has also permitted me to connect with her in a personal way that was more than just a name on a Facebook page. 17 years after appearing on our cover, we’re happy to have Tatiana as a fan and hope to rediscover more connections as our following grows.

Do you have a social media story? Share in the comments.

images from SMALL WORLD.

______________________

it’s all one.

over the past few months we’ve been
working on offering a special experience
built on the foundation of collective upliftment
and celebrating life.

we’re fortunate to have a group of people
who are aligned on this vision
and we’re finally here in this moment
to share this special occasion with you.

we are blessed to showcase
the very first live performance together
of two of our positive forces in Los Angeles.

we’ll also be infusing the space
with intentions of the highest form,
hoping to cultivate a movement towards
the timeless quest for collective merging.

your presence is as important as ours.

we’re all connected, we just don’t know it yet..

SMALL WORLD

Friday, October 30th

__________________________________________

a race of angels + GB are THE OTHASIDE:
preparing for the release of their debut album together,
they will be performing all new material for the first time ever.
__________________________________________

AFTA-1
finishing new material for his second album,
he will be showcasing his most current works for an exclusive premiere.
__________________________________________

RANI D. + SON ZOO
selecting world rhythms, uptempo grooves, steady rockers
for the discerned dance floor.
__________________________________________

hosted by SANTANA (Truthseekers Radio)
facilitating vibrations and setting tones.
__________________________________________

cash bar only. visuals, and an altar for offerings.

$5 before 11, $8 after / 21+ / 10pm-2:30am
__________________________________________

The beauty and interconnectedness of our community is becoming
more and more apparent with each passing moment.
Small World is an attempt to acknowledge and celebrate this beauty.
You, me, and we are summoned to share in this space,
in hopes that all our senses may be awoken.
As we surrender to the alchemical vibration of love,
may our collective energies unite and vibrate on the plain of Oneness.

A dancing prayer awaits you…

PS: SMALL WORLD went on Truth Seekers radio this past Friday.
We played some new tunes, shared story, and spoke on the intention of this night.
Please give it a listen and catch a vibe: http://truthseekersradio.org/

blessup to the one,

SMALL WORLD.

Since I started getting into hobby games in earnest 2.5 years ago, I’ve picked up 28 new games. Of these, I’ve only purchased five. Sara and I try to limit ourselves to a pretty small “entertainment” budget, which means that the lion’s share of my games show up in neatly wrapped boxes on my birthday or under the Christmas tree. My family usually asks for some sort of holiday wishlist around this time of year, and I thought that posting it here would allow for some feedback and perhaps others posting their own wishlists. So, in no particular order…

Conquest of Paradise: Despite some slight negative feeling towards this game, it really intrigues me. I learned how to play this from the designer at the 2009 World Boardgaming Championships (WBC), and there’s a lot of neat mechanics at work like “blind” exploration, hidden fleet movement, etc. It seems to suffer a bit from too little playtesting, but I think with a few house-rules, it could really be excellent. Plus, GMT is selling it quite cheaply!

Endeavor: This Euro-ish game of exploration, colonization, and conquest has been getting a lot of good press recently. Players compete to grab resources in the New World, and use them to grow in power back in Europe. I read a review in which the author described it as “the post gateway game,” which is sort of a weak point in my game collection right now.

Pacific Typhoon: A  card game about the Pacific theater in World War II. This is GMT’s sequel to Atlantic Storm by Avalon Hill. I had never really heard of this game until I noticed the number of people playing it in random corners around the WBC. This looks like a good cross-over war game.

Small World Expansions: At $10 apiece, Grand Dames and Cursed! look like cheap ways to spice up the base game for those of us who have been playing like fiends since it came out.

War of the Ring: Although I am a huge Lord of the Rings nut, I’ve never sat down to play this game. I know it won’t get to the table much due to its playtime, but I can’t pass up the chance to marshal the forces of good against evil, or vice versa.

Wits & Wagers Expansion: From what I saw at the 2009 WBC Wits & Wagers game show, these questions are most obscure than ever–perfect!

That Mystery Game I don’t know the name to yet: I’m putting a call out for suggestions. My brother is getting married soon, which means when we meet over at Mom and Dad’s house for Sunday dinner, there will be six of us (Mom, Dad, brother, his wife, Sara, and me). I’m looking for a light game that can be played in 60-90 minutes for a group of six people that like to play Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan. Any titles come to mind?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts about my wishlist or have you share your own.

As I promise myself to blog on a regular basis, I fall short. I pick myself up and try to start again, tell myself that blogs or posts don’t need to be perfectly scripted or full of statistics.  As I dig into the world of international real estate, I will gain an audience interested in other countries, cultures, traditions and more! The first step on the journey of going international is actually located in your own backyard. Can’t afford to travel  internationally let alone buy property overseas?  It is truly a ’shrinking planet’.  Take the ‘know before you go’ approach. Learn as much as possible about the country before you go.

If you have a business, organization or information to share that is internationally-themed, tell me! I will explore the international options in theVirginia Beach, VA or Hampton Roads area. Just in the last few days I have explored a Caribbean/Jamaican restaurant, found food-heaven at the Puerto-Rican/Cuban restaurant, joined and attended my first Hampton Roads Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event and put on my ‘international to-do list’ a new Indian Restaurant that opened in the Town Center area of Virginia Beach, VA as well as a Peruvian restaurant in Norfolk.

Tell me more about what you have to offer and I will share it!

I'd take a shack on the beach any day!

I skipped the Saturday night Pete and J show and just went home.

Sunday  I got up and walked to the gym near the winery. While I was post showering, Gabe called and we decided to meet up for the incredible sunny fall weathered afternoon. I was a little nervous to see him because…well…you know.

It was seriously a brilliant afternoon. We walked and talked all along the East River. Philisophical, Religious, Family, Where I Am Going…we covered it all lightly and I called him my Constant (in LOST’s honor) to his face. I really wonder where we will go. Possibilities are either endless or short lived. Or maybe both?

Then I walked tipsily (we drank Octoberfest Beer on Avenue A) across the Williamsburg Bridge to meet amber to see her French friend sing in Spike Hill. I told Mum on the phone about my lovely afternoon and that if things were different I’d marry him. She told me that people don’t wait around. Wait…what? Was that an irk?

Turns out Amber’s friend was Marcel who friended me on facebook. And whose poster was at Banjo Jims. What a small funny world. Despite the language barrier I was in love with his set. He has the most beautiful, rich voice. Then Amber, Derek, Marcel, Ava, Nina, and their Mom had a quick bubble tea (#2) experience down the block. Then I raced home to do nothing alone.

Today i would introduce you new awesome game. David Shute’s Small Worlds is casual and easy game , you are moving and jumping character your goal is simply to find the exit of the level. As you move through the level the area revels itself. Since the size of your character is relative to how much of the level you have exposed, the more you explore, the more you discover how small you are in relation to your surroundings. The graphics could be a lot better , but the gameplay compensates the poor graphic design.  Try Small Worlds now  , you wont regret.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/infographic-day-its-small-world-afterall?partner=yahoobuzz

Today was another great day with a lot of good surprises in my life and one of those surprises that I found was this:

http://allaboutmodels.blogspot.com/2009/09/wanted-angelica.html

Well, I’ll try to explain in just a few words, maybe it isn’t necessary but anyway:

Samira (the blogger) of this wonderful page is kind of friend of mine, that I met by Facebook and yes, she became my partner as well. Through her I contacted other different agencies and models.

Another curious point, specifically about  this post is:  the team of photographers (2nd group of pics)  are my friends as well!!! Dudu Lima and Marco Mendez, two amazing people that I have the pleasure to have in my life as good friends and great professionals…

Really, till now i couldn’t realize in fact how exactly small the world is…this things make me scared and obviously surprised, but I love these coincidences!

The more I live, the more I want to discover new things… The more I live, the more I learn about how surprising the world is!

Congratxx for all of you!

Viernes a las 21:30 hrs, por Discovery Home and Health

SKY 210, CABLEVISIÓN 221

La historia comienza como cualquier otro gran romance. Un hombre conoce a una mujer, se enamoran, se casan

tienen hijos y hacen lo posible por darles la mejor vida y la mejor educación. Lo que hace singular a esta famila, es que se trata de una familia de “Gente Pequeña” lo que no les impide comprometerse a una vida GRANDE en la cual ningún problema les parece demasiado ambicioso o imposible.  La familia está compuesta por Padre, Madre y 4 hijos.

De los 4 hijos que tuvieron 3 son de estatura normal y uno si tiene las características de una gente pequeña, esto a pesar de ser gemelo y que su hermano cuenta con estatura normal.

Este programa cuenta con grandes lecciones de vida, y enseña claramente que no hay problemas en este mundo que sean demasiado grandes para nosotros.

Pequeño Gran Mundo

Nikon recently released the 2009 winners of their annual Small World photomicrography competition. The 20 winners are selected from a record 2,000 entries, and are evaluated for both their scientific and artistic value. It’s a very striking gallery, take a moment to check out a little glimpse into the microscopic world.

1st Place – Dr. Heiti Paves, Tallinn University of Technology, Arabidopsis Thaliana (thale cress) anther (20x) Confocal.

Although this year’s winner is an impressive image and was scientifically demanding, as many of the winners were, from purely an aesthetic standpoint, I really enjoy the following two images of distinction for their artistic simplicity.

Image of Distinction – Dennis Breitsprecher, Hannover, Germany, fluorescent actin bundles growing from the surface of coated beads (63x) In-vitro TIRF Microscopy.

Image of Distinction, Karl E. Deckart, Eckental, Germany, Soap Film (10x) Reflected light.

We’ve already been fed up with “2.0″ (or even 3.0) hype, but this book explains quite logically not just what is changing but why and how, and puts it beyond the issue of new media and technology. This was more interesting and insightful to me than Groundswell: While both point out what matters is people rather than technology itself, Shirky’s book further explores what the consequences will be in a larger social context and highlights more profound change our society is facing now.

In short, Shirky argues that we are in a new social ecosystem where cost of forming and maintaining groups is so law, thanks to new technologies, that group activities previously unaffordable to organize are actually viable. In looking at how the change is taking place, he breaks group activities into three types: sharing, cooperation, collective action.

First, now that media for one-to-many communication (=broadcasting) and media for one-to-one personal communication are merging because of the Internet, not just mass media in a traditional sense but every single person can publish any information. In most cases, what people share with each other is not really “content” intended to be consumed by public audience, but unfiltered personal messages targeted to their friends and families. However, as the Internet also enables many-to-many communication, personal interaction within a small group can be extended to a larger community, especially when it assumes the potential to serve as what the author calls  “community of practice” where people ask “how did you do that?” and share information.

When this type of conversation goes on from “how did you do that?” to “look what I’ve done!” and further to “I can make it even better!,” it can lead to cooperation/collaborative production. What makes collaboration possible is not only tools like wiki but also motivation of the community members. Financial incentive is not always necessary here, because of the low cost of operation as well as low barriers to participate, and social motivation — willingness to contribute, desire for recognition and respect, etc. — is often enough to get things going, even in such a large project like Wikipedia.

Sharing and participating being this easy, it has become easier to coordinate collective action as well. Information and awareness of the need and possibility of a certain action can be readily shared through many-to-many communication tools, and thus with little or no advanced planning, a large number of people can spontaneously get together and take an action.

Power law distribution (Picture by Hay Kranen / PD)

When it cost to organize a group and the resources were scarce, people who shared latent desire to get together for something of negative or trivial value could not gain enough social support to make it happen. Now, with much less cost for forming a group, they no longer need social approval to realize their desire. Also, making a failure is too costly for traditional corporations, whereas open collaboration can tolerate many failures by allowing the participants to test their ideas and filter them by themselves. People and ideas at the lower end of the power law distribution (small in number, less in frequency/amount of contribution) can make themselves visible and meaningful. All of these eventually leads to more people forming more groups for more objectives. And as Shirky repeatedly emphasizes, more is different, not in quantity but in quality.

So, what does this all mean to my client? Lower cost of mobilizing people, along with “love” as a practical incentive, is a good news especially for nonprofit organizations like TFT. Even for a very small organization, there should be a group of people out there who are potentially interested in the cause it advocates, but are below “the Coasean ceiling,” in Shirky’s words, without enough resources to get activated, or too small and isolated due to the lack of “connectors.” It is highly feasible now for such an organization to gain support from them by having them to form, participate in, and expand a community. Since TFT asks people for contribution in a more participatory way than simply making donation —buying and eating a healthy meal —, there is a strong potential to involve them in sharing (e.g. conversation on what they eat, how to eat healthy, etc), collaborative production (e.g. proposing healthy recipe ideas), and collaborative action (e.g. petition requesting fast food restaurants to carry healthy menus). Also, as eating is such a basic human activity and relevant to anyone, possibility of growing from dense, small groups to a loose but larger network is promising.

This video and Q&A summarize his argument very well, with some updates.