The Traveler IQ Challenge!

The Traveler IQ Challenge by TravelPod

This is a fun game(?), I sometimes try in a free time.
It's a quiz to answer the asked place on map, but this is somehow addicitve ;)
(and also educational to learn world geography, isn't it??)

I know this from facebook application but itseems now also possible to play on Travelpod's website.

But Playing this game on other sites enables you to:

Save your high scores Compete against your friends Create your own challenges Play 1,000's of challenges created by other people

Internet Radio!

As a New Years Gift(?) for myself, I bought a New "Internet Radio"!


Besides playing FM radio stations, this can connect to Wireless Internet connection and play Internet Radio Stations!

It means, without starting a laptop, I can listen to Radio from all over the world (from Japan, Italy, Brazil, Thai land etc, wherever!)

Sounds from the speaker is cool and I liked it!

Today's song: "My cool" by Adam Tensta

The Four Truths of the Storyteller (in Harvard Business Review)

Probably it is more ordinary way to start this with pictures of Italy and Austria, during this vacation,

but I have just read a very exciting article. Thus I decided to start this year with the topic about, "the story to enrapture its listeners."

The article is "The Four Truths of the Storyteller" by Peter Guber ( Dec 2007. Harvard Business Review)

The author,
>Peter Guber is in the business of creating compelling stories: He has headed several entertainment companies--including Sony Pictures, PolyGram, and Columbia Pictures--and produced Rain Man, Batman, and The Color Purple, among many other movies.

and
>For a story to enrapture its listeners, says Guber, it must be true to the teller, embodying his or her deepest values and conveying them with candor; true to the audience, delivering on the promise that it will be worth people's time by acknowledging listeners' needs and involving them in the narrative; true to the moment, appropriately matching the context--whether it's an address to 2,000 customers or a chat with a colleague over drinks--yet flexible enough to allow for improvisation; and true to the mission, conveying the teller's passion for the worthy endeavor that the story illustrates and enlisting support for it.

>In this article, Guber's advice--distilled not only from his years in the entertainment industry but also from an intense discussion over dinner one evening with storytelling experts from various walks of life--is illustrated with numerous examples of effective storytelling from business and elsewhere. Perhaps the most startling is a colorful anecdote about how Guber's own impromptu use of storytelling, while standing on the deck of a ship in Havana harbor, won Fidel Castro's grudging support for a film project.

It's worth to have a look if you are the person, who have to deliver a talk frequently, and also please feel free to ask me about the issue of magazine!

*The text quoted with ">" are descriptions published online by Harvard Business Review

Today's song: "Boa Sorte/Good luck" by Vanessa da Mata e Ben Harper

A Happy New Year 2008!!

This is a year of 2008 and Year of mouse in Japanese custom,

This weblog has nearly last for one year, although sometimes I was too lazy or too busy to update....

I'm writing weblog for a quite personal reason,

So to say, for training my skill of expressing things, but I hope some of topic or article is interesting for you too! So I will try to continue even if the pace get slow....


Anyway, I wish a joyful and delightful 2008 to all the people around me!

PS. the illustration is from Japanese website Paper museum.
(Click for downloading in high resolution, which fits to the postcard size(11cm×7.5cm) at 200dpi, it's a free for a personal use. Also other versions are here)