Archive for the ‘USA’ Category

Hyundai's Equus and VW's Phaeton  If we had a dollar for every customer that had a negative dealership experience, we’d have retired ages ago, example story a la the Chicago Tribune. Anecdotally, auto OEMs would be wise to put great amounts of resources into improving the dealer-customer relationship. The U.S. ... Full story

  A few weeks ago I received a notice for a workshop called Beyond Skin: A Spiritweaves retreat with Michael and Anneli that would take place just down the road in Dallas. When I read the description of the workshop, my soul knowingly said to me, “GO!”    A movement ... Full story

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. —T. S. Eliot Recently, I wrote about the gifts of my summer vacation to Seattle, the San Juan Islands and Alaska. Now that I’ve been home for ... Full story

When I heard in 2007 that a Mandarin-speaking politician well-versed in Asia relations was elected as Prime Minister of Australia, I was living in Japan and understood almost nothing in regards to the Australian political scene beyond the fact that John Howard was previous Prime Minister. As a result, I was initially impressed ... Full story

He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left. –Chinese Proverb Juneau, Alaska Having just returned from a spectacular summer vacation to Seattle, the San Juan Islands and Alaska, I’m relishing in the tremendous gifts that traveling offers. What I’m noticing the most is that I viscerally feel ... Full story

  I guess it is only fitting that this become one of the last hot questions to be pondered in the public domain these days. After all, there is a cleantech war underway (which China is winning), there is talk that the world needs to move away from the USD, and the Moody’s of China saw it fit to saw that the US was now ... Full story

A few days ago my girlfriend was invited by a friend to hear about a “new business model for entrepreneurs that would change her life forever”. As soon as she told me about the “invitation” I had a feeling in my gut that was telling me something was wrong, something told me ... Full story

I just found out that they make Spanx fo men…really? Full story

Soon, I’ll be rafting down the Mendenhall River in Alaska. I’m taking a break from my blog while I’m on vacation. See you in a couple of weeks. Full story

Yesterday, I met for the second time with a group of creative folks who are desiring to establish a local creative community. There are several arts type groups and many arts events, but there is no unifying force bringing us all together. My husband, who moved to McKinney after living in ... Full story

I live in Texas and the temperature is in the triple digits more days than it is not. Consequently, staying indoors reading a good book or going to a stadium style movie theater is just the ticket for the lazy days of summer. Since I discovered the world of blogging around a year ago, I’ve noticed that the amount of book reading I ... Full story

Junior League of Seattle’s NW Art Anniversary and Bellevue Arts Museum Members’ Reception Celebration on June 24th  - Click on the picture to RSVP Come see the JLS NW Art collection exhibit and attend the opening celebration! Meet the artists, enjoy fine food, drink wine and win door prizes. Sign up for ... Full story

Here is the voting in finalist on Oprah’s “Your Own Show” competition. May, a food coach who lived abroad in different countries for 13 years, and she may have her own food recipes by international ingredients. Her recipes will give more food information which we can use in different countries or we may modify the info based on ... Full story

Well, it seemed only a matter of time. Web sites, protests, and even a murder later, Arizona has finally cancelled the speed camera contract with Redflex out of Australia. The murder was a tragedy, to be sure, but the cause wasn’t entirely routed in the brain of a psychotic ... Full story

Thirteen year old Erik Martin is living with liver cancer. But that didn’t stop the comic-fanatic from saving Seattle as Electron Boy. The Make-A-Wish Foundation recently granted Martin’s superhero wish by organizing a giant city-wide role playing scenario.... Full story

Most of you may notice this situation of the new immigration law in Arizona that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into the law last week. Now the reaction from other states reached a lot to here. I do not want to comment and put any opinion either, but we can expect what we would face in future on ... Full story

Andy Sernovitz interview with Adam Brown of Coca-Cola regarding their recently updated social media policies for employee contributions in social media.   Coca-Cola's new Social Media ... Full story

Did you see the last game of San Francisco Giants vs Houston? Did you see this player of outfielder, Eugenio Velez and his jersey? Can you read this logo? Yes, San Francisco was misspelled with "San Franscicso"!?!?!?!? What a fun happening on his jersey! How come nobody did not ... Full story

Did you see already the iPad at Apple stores? I believe most friends have seen the product as I did. In the Monday morning, April 3rd I rushed to a store in order to look at the product and finally got a chance to look the iPad when one guy left over after using. How ... Full story

Upon reading the early reports of Afghan President Karzai's recent speech criticizing foreign interference, and thus indirectly including U.S. interference, it would be natural to feel resentment given the material and human sacrifice the U.S. has made over the past +8 years in attempting to both destroy terrorist networks in Afghanistan and ... Full story

Since the public release of iPhone launch for Verizon, we witnessed the stock price of Apple surged and at&t went down. It would be the last strategy for Apple against google's strategy. Also currently Google's OS is getting to have more share than other competitors. According to the research by comScore Mboilens, ... Full story

I have read the interest article from consumer reports April version, and it released a chart regarding vehicle problems by ages from each makers. The chart shows luxury brands to standard class car makers such as Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. Do you know how many years the manufacturers guarantee their qualities? Normally the makers have 3 years and 50,000 miles for the vehicles, and especially Korean makers such as Kia and Hyundai and some have 10 year warranty programs. Full story

You have seen and heard many cases from Toyota nowadays. We know what they have problems on the vehicles. Now the vehicles are ready to recall by Toyota. Also Toyota had closed North American factories during sales halt period. In this case we are learning some lessons from Toyota in order to overcome this situation ... Full story

Have you ever experienced to find any hair in the meal, even in the middle of the sandwich? How much is it terrible? It is the worst thing if this happen in the morning. However it happened to me. A funny thing is that this kind of happening is not the first ... Full story

I have looked and observed what features and functions I can use instead of traditional tablet PC, and realized and wished something iPad does not have on the product. Without looking a real product I can not explain whole things, but I just want to share what especially ... Full story

When it is my recall turn? Actually my car is one of these models which were suspended. At the first time of purchase I was told their quality is the world best and there was no company that could superior to the Toyota. However other players such as Honda, Hyundai, Kia other American brands will be little or big happy by Toyota's unprecedented recall incident. The ... Full story

It's announced yesterday, Jan 28th. iPad, We had waited for a long time and we were much excited with the rumors on online world, and finally now it came to the world with the name of iPad (little fun name, I am so curious why it is "i+Pad". Well, Apple will start selling the product from Marchwith WiFiversion and April with 3G. If you would watch the iPad, you would be in love with that. In fact I was little skeptical about this product. I expected several different things and features, but some of them were not selected within features. I believe I got too much surrounded in tablet-pc concept even though it is in tablet-pc category. It is wrong....... Full story

Earlier in the year, I wrote several posts speculating on how the Obama Administration would develop their grand strategy for the Asia-Pacific. For convenience, I have provided links to the key posts below: Speculation on Obama's Grand Strategy for the Asia-Pacific Part I, II, III, IV, V, VI Full story