HeyChristine.com

Wednesday,
August 28th
On this date last year...

"Lots of things I keep wanting to mention..."

Random thoughts but memorable ones that I want to track:

HTML Newsletter
This latest email newsletter that I put together made me so HHHAPPY! Yes, it's all about me at the end of the day, and I do what I do because I love doing it, duh. Putting that together and making it look as GOOD as it does (oh yeah, I'm totally bragging my pants off right here...) was quite fun for me. It TOOK awhile, but when I was done, I was like, "Man... if I wasn't ME, I'd be IN LOVE with myself!" ... LOL!
What a SEXY newsletter! I deserve an AWARD or something!
So stupid...
ORIENTED Community Outreach Program (COP)
This is a program that we (organizers and myself) have been talking about developing for quite some time now, ever since the Shanghai team hooked up with the Shanghai Drink Club several months back, but sans a private online discussion board to share ideas as a group (email doesn't cut it with 20+ people... I'm working on it I'm working on it!), I've had to try and come up with the basics on my own.
I thought I could get it done in a few hours, but actually, it took me over a week. Not so simple, because I had to take into consideration all of the various KINDS of organizations -- including FOR-profit entities -- in terms of how best to ensure the value-for-value relationship, accountability, etc. It's not yet final, but I basically worked on it ALL SATURDAY and got all of this done right at midnight before heading out the door to meet up with friends.
It's one of the most personally gratifying programs I have yet to develop in my years of community service (and it hasn't even officially rolled out...). Not only does it serve to bring people together, even more encompassing is that it will bring like-minded ORGANIZATIONS together, a lifetime goal of mine, particularly for the Asian-American arena in the States (but that's for another day).
In designing the program, it was helpful to have had trial-run joint events in Beijing last month and in Taipei this month. Very good experience.
SEGUE!
In the hush-hush of everything, the quiet posting of our announcement on the ORIENTED.ORG Homepage, and then my getting busier than ever before, I never did have the opportunity to mention Gus' new Taiwan site --Segue.com.tw So here it is!
I've asked Gus to give me a banner to rotate here so that I can promote the website, as I have every reason to want to help ALL those sites out there do well. Call it a hidden agenda of sorts (wink wink!) but it comes from a very important lesson that the man himself taught me many years back about mutual cooperation versus paranoid competition when we first resigned from CAPT to start ORIENTED.

What else?

Ah yes... people's reaction to my departure.

Well, it's exactly split down the middle.

Those in Taiwan are pretty much freaking out on me. As Mike put it when I broke the news to him today, "Christine this is so like you to make a decision and then do it so SUDDENLY." Something like that. I was like, "It is?!" I've been wavering about this day for ages, no?

Anyway, he was speechless. It was funny.

Those in the States, on the otherhand, are jumping for joy! Alright so maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit here (hey if they AREN'T jumping for joy THEY SHOULD BE dang it! lol...), but there are some pretty gosh darn happy people out there awaiting my return, as I am. It feels good to be loved. =)

Corrina was the first to call me on it from Hong Kong. Rather appropriate, yes? She knows me so so well, made me shed a few tears with her "I will miss you Christine..." speech. GODS. I'm coming back, OKAY?! Ugh... may that be my only "moment" during the transition. No more okay peeps? Actually as of this today, I've run out of time to tell everyone, it's been a little nuts.

Wow... I meant to make this entry short, but it's chock full of SHEER DRAMA and I'm still not done!

Somebody shoot me please!

MORE...

People are steadily signing up for our People Directory and I CANNOT describe how HAPPY that makes me. The backgrounds of these individuals, where they are from and what they are doing now -- the INTEGRITY of the personal data that they are willing to submit to a public website -- just makes me feel so darn giddy, LOL! Granted we're only talking about 3, maybe 5 new profiles a day, but it's the quality that matters.

Quantity will follow as we move forward.

Many are submitting their company URL to the site, and I am being introduced to more international companies in Greater China than ever before. It's fantastic the current AND potential value that this Directory has to offer. Alright... not being too terribly articulate here because I'm trying to rush through this entry. Point is that we're shakin' it baby!

I talked with Steven for a very long time last night -- two hours I think -- about the future of our efforts with the Happy Hours and with the commercial activities of the site, as I turn to him most when it comes to business strategy and MAN does he know his stuff. He even tuned me in to the whole publication/media industry in the U.S. and the AOL-Time Warner merger and how that relates to our Happy Hours!

He looks at ORIENTED 100% as a commercial business and endeavors to help me focus on certain key concepts and business strategies, whereas I look at this as one huge community service project with a revenue-generating twist to it, such that by the time we were done (2 a.m.), he laughed and said, "Christine it's funny how different our approach is. You really need to STOP calling it a project. It's a company, a company!"

Sure Steven! I hear ya!

In that sense, as he put it, we work well together. It's a good balance, I GUESS! I'm just hoping to make enough money to pay my ... okay never mind.

Last but not least... my resignation from my day job.

I thought I was going to do it on Monday, but then I pushed it off until today and it still hasn't happened. Truthfully I am having a little difficulty with it, because gosh I've been here, doing what I've been doing, for 4 years! I've been at this job longer than any other job since college and yet it -- in and of itself -- has ironically been the least of my professional interests in terms of where I want to be in the future.

How weird!

Anyway, I'll resign on Friday and NO Lisa, I'm not pulling your leg so don't even start with me girrrrrl! lol... I miss ~~torturing~~ that girl, can't wait to hook up with her in the bay area.

YEAH!

As a side note, Lisa I believe was the only person in the States who didn't "jump for joy" like the others when she found out I was headed back. Instead she said,

"... took you long enough."

How very... Lisa.

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