Bob Dylan
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It’s half past five AM. Outside the Women Association of Ho Chi Minh City, I heard music. Not hip hop, not trance. Jut Gold music “Gui Gio Cho May Ngan Bay”, blasted from a boom box . It’s dark, but the sidewalk hosted a group of women practicing Tai-Chi. The music was about acceptance, about one wing drops after another. But…
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Have you ever looked back at those goals you had set right out of college? Marriage? Career? Health? Then and Now. Perhaps they still remain the same or in reverse order. No one set out with a goal of multiple marriages. Or multiple careers. Yet it has happened, taken most of us by surprise. On a…
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That voice which slows toward the end of the song as the chord changes: “If you’re going to San Francisco…” accompanied by the 60’s signature tambourine, has died. But his one-hit wonder stays, perhaps more famous than the city itself. It’s a state of mine. A period in history, with in-depth expose by Tom Hayden…
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It’s not good enough with automation. They need to combine that with outsourcing, off-shoring, in-shoring and now, near-shoring. The idea is to line up the Filippino call-center workers at mid-night (to go to work, not in line for next-day Black Friday sales) to make a go at scripted greetings like “Have I done everything to your satisfaction”.…
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I heard “Bonjour Vietnam” again last night…”un film de Coppola…” http://stanmark.multiply.com/reviews/item/9?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Freviews%2Fitem It evoked psychedelic images and texture of horror (adapted from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.) Yet we were sitting in a boutique studio, with aged ladies sang along to Le Uyen Phuong’ s Last Word to You , equivalent of Bono and Cher: “let’s lay down one last…
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I saw a funeral pouring out onto the sidewalk one day, and on the same block, a wedding the day after. Meanwhile, the street sweeper just went about his business of sweeping, regardless. Even if they could use some industrial-grade sweepers, people prefer man to machine. This solves labor problems. Scavengers make their daily routes by offering…
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Doomsday prediction did not materiale. On this side of doomsday, Southeast Asia is no longer a war zone. It’s the new fun zone (with young and upcoming demographics). LinkedIn IPO gone through the roof while IMF Chief couldn’t check in at any hostel in NY (I did not mis-spell “hostel”). Whether you live in flood zone or…
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Years ago, I rode in the back , my friend and his wife in front, and I popped “The Essential Bob Dylan” on “to knock, knock ….on heaven’s door” all the way to a Vietnam beach. On April 10th, the singer will be there in person, finally. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20043290-10391698.html American celebrities with conscience have fascinated with…
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I read today about 10 jobs that did not exist a decade ago. http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/111973/jobs-that-didnt-exist-10-years-ago It quickly came to mind jobs that are now gone, for good: Telephone switchboard operators Gas station attendants (who used to wipe our windshields and check the oil) One-hour photo clerk (Remember Robin Williams?) Milkman, mailman, newspaper boy (fewer jobs) Typist…
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First they outsourced to lower the cost of, let’s say, an I phone. The guy (Chinese farm-to-factory worker) if not jumped out of the window from a Foxconn‘s dorm, wished he had because there was no way he could afford one. Even his counterparts in NYC had to get in line just to hand carry the same…
Thang Nguyen 555 