Social media musings on #smday

It’s Social Media Day!  To celebrate, I am providing you with my Top 5 finds today from Twitter and various blogs.

1.  My official Calgary Stampede nickname is Margarita “Doctor Release” de Guzman.  Ummm… comments? (Thanks @kuwindayyc)

2. 4000 people are officially “attending” Shag an Archaeologist Day.  That’s it??? (Thanks @diggingthedirt)

3. Social Media Day could not have happened without Mashable. Here‘s their article on how social media has changed people’s lives. (Thanks @mashable)  I have really enjoyed blogging and find it a great outlet for organizing thoughts and giving back to the world (yes, I like to think that the whole world is reading this). I think bloggers will agree that it gives you a sense of fulfillment.

4. “How do we help great ideas thrive? By understanding that we won’t know the outcome until we explore.” This is from The 99%, who strives to go beyond creating ideas, finding ways to make ideas happen. (Thanks NP of Platform Design for the tip!)  As an entrepreneur, I am always looking for inspiration. Get inspired!

5. Amber Rae‘s flow chart for making decisions (sorry kids for the F bomb).  ‘Nuf said – fabulous.

And… bonus #6! Love @ancientdigger for posting “30 Reasons Why You Should Become an Archaeologist,” though not everything applies in my case.  I’m betting that if you meet at least half of this criteria, you’d be pretty happy being an archaeologist. Notes: I totally agree with the love for Indiana Jones, #8 is key, I think that women get buffed too, and I think I’d prefer cocktails with my friends over watching archaeology documentaries… but that’s just me.

What a difference a year makes

About a year ago, I embarked on a new adventure.  No, not the Indiana Jones kind, not just yet. It was probably just as stressful, and perhaps as much of a roller coaster ride, though there were no life-threatening rolling boulders, just mortgage-threatening lines of credit.  One year later though, and I’m still alive and, most importantly, alive and kicking.

It has been such an educational experience, being an entrepreneur.  I feel I have grown so much in both mind and spirit (luckily, I kicked myself in the butt before I grew too much physically).  Circle met its targets for its first year and was exposed to hundreds of people by mail, phone and email, and hopefully thousands of people via internet.  Marketing became a new-found love for me, and I was able to bring all the skills I learned in the past right back into the present.  Networking became fun, meeting people became fun and drinking lots and lots of coffee continued to be fun.  I have met some great people who have given me great advice, both in business and in industry, and I feel like I’ve gained some mentors along the way.  Some of those mentors, I found, were right in my backyard.

I’m not going to do an Oscar speech and start listing people that I’d like to thank.  First of all, my successes are small; I measure them this way so that I strive for more.  Secondly, know that if you interacted with me this past year, you would be on this list.  I feel that everyone has provided me with a lesson.

And one of the greatest lessons I learned this year?  You can’t work all the time.  You must find time to play.  Play makes the world, especially work, a better place.

P.S. Why not come play with us in SVG?

It’s Star Wars Day!

May 4th is an unofficial holiday to Star Wars fans, dating back to 1979 when an advertisement in The London Evening News, congratulating Margaret Thatcher on being elected the first female Prime Minister, read, “May the fourth be with you Margaret. Congratulations.“  Being a Star Wars fan (though not as hard core as some people I know), I thought it worthy of at least a blog post, if not a drink later on today.  Turns out, there are plenty of ties between Star Wars and archaeology.

In Harper’s March 2009 issue, Jon Mooallem writes about a number of people, an archaeologist included, that go to old Star Wars film locations to look for evidence of the set (thanks The Diary of a Taxi Driver).  In one location that was used as Tatooine, the author noted, “A quarter of a century later, remnants of the set were apparently littered across the valley or buried in the sand. We would be excavating whatever authentic artifacts of that fictitious universe remained.” How ’bout that for site survey and excavation?

(Photo from Through the Sandglass, but Photoscaped)

Oddly enough, if you Google “star wars archaeology,” the results will have a number of links to both Star Wars and Indiana Jones.  In fact, The Official Star Wars Blog even wrote a post about archaeologists evaluating the latest Indiana Jones flick, analyzing it for its fictional elements.  Yes, it’s a fictional movie, but perhaps it was just a fun exercise?

At any rate, it would seem that Indy and Han have a bit more in common than you would think… and I’m sure they would both tell you, “May the fourth be with you.”

Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology

Now THIS is a dream come true. The Indiana Jones series has inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of archaeologists, and has brought archaeology successfully into the mainstream as something interesting and worth saving… and now there is a travelling exhibit about it! Not only will there be props from the movies, there will be examples of artifacts from around the world. Indy continues to educate and inspire us all… Please come to Calgary!!!

Thanks to @BBC_Travel for tweeting this.