SAFUN

Last week I went to a “Girls” happy hour – I don’t do this often but need to! This happy hour was different. It involved a paintbrush and canvas and, yes, of course, wine. We started out at Bin555 Restaurant and Wine Bar located at the Shops of Artisan’s Alley. This was my first time visiting this area. They have cute little shops and restaurants. After a glass of wine, we went next door to  “Painting with a Twist.” It is an art studio with two classrooms.  The idea is simple: bring your girlfriends, some wine and get ready to paint. It is $35 per person and you are provided with an instructor and all the materials needed to make a piece of artwork. They allow you to bring in a picnic – we brought wine!

My cousin organized this girl’s night out and there were about ten of us ladies. We each had a place setting with a blank canvas, paint and paintbrushes. Our project was The Starry Night. Please note, you don’t have to be an artist! I don’t paint so I was a bit intimidated at first, however, the instructor takes you step by step and encourages you to make it your own. The Starry Night sounded like a project way over my head but after a glass of wine (and the understanding that this is not going to be graded), I became more comfortable. We of course had lots of laughs! I think it’s healthy to allow yourself to be creative whether it’s writing, painting, drawing, making pottery. Mine is writing and I usually keep my stuff very private.  So painting with friends over a glass of wine was definitely liberating.

I highly recommend Painting with a Twist for a night out with your girlfriends. I will certainly being going again. Here’s a photo I took on my iPhone.

One of the coolest things about working in my industry and doing what I do for the Rackspace Cloud is that I get to see all the innovative things people are doing on the Internet. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in America and since everyone needs a place to a host their website, I am fortunate enough to work with many of these passionate and talented people, including San Antonian, Magaly Chocano.

Back in August, I came across a TIME article titled “New Ways to Create iPhone Apps on the Cheap.” I had just purchased my iPhone so any iPhone app article interested me. The company was SwebApps. After reading through the article, I noticed that they were a San Antonio based startup. I was instantly proud that we had a tech start up right here in San Antonio. Then I thought, “I wonder where they are hosted?”  Turns out they were a Rackspace Cloud customer. I invited Magaly, CEO and Founder of SwebApps, to the Rackspace Cloud office. What a treat! I had the opportunity to interview her and do a blog posting. Turns out, we knew many of the same people through various connections.

Just recently, she entered in our Super Bowl Contest and submitted an extremely cool video. Magaly is not only a successful businesswoman but a talented musician. The contest asked customers to submit a video on why they have the coolest business on the Rackspace Cloud and this is what we received from SwebApps:

I finally saw Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” movie. I am a fan of Michael Jackson’s music, more so than a fan of him. Maybe it wasn’t my era but I just didn’t get engrossed with knowing what was going on in Michael Jackson’s life. No question he produced some damn good music. He created new sounds, new beats, new flavor and it’s the type of music that is timeless. Billy Jean is still played in the nightclubs (not the 80’s clubs either).

The movie was the behind the scenes of the rehearsal for his “This Is It” tour. It was amazing to see the dancers come from all over the world to audition and to see how emotional they got. These were die hard fans. The movie was a documentary so there was no acting. They had video cameras at the rehearsal purposely to create a movie to be produced after the show was over. The difference was that Michael Jackson wasn’t expected to have died. And honestly, throughout the documentary, I felt like Michael Jackson knew he was leaving. Maybe he thought it was going to be after the tour but it definitely seemed like he knew.

If you’ve seen any of Michael Jackson’s videos or performances, you know he goes all out. This was suppose to be the ultimate show. The costumes, the dancing, the stage – it was amazing. He sang and dance, just like he did 20 years ago. It was crazy to know he was shy of 50 years.

My take from the entire movie was that Michael Jackson created music that made you reflect, that made you want to love someone, that made you move, that created a fire inside you – as if we were going to march for a cause.

Man in the Mirror sums it up for me. “If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and make a change. I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways.”

I had the opportunity to attend the Twitter Conference in LA this past week. You may not get Twitter so you may wonder, what the heck is a Twitter conference? People come together to talk about this disruptive platform Twitter – how does one use Twitter, why does one use Twitter, best & worst practices on Twitter, tips and tricks for Twitter. It’s a Twitterathon and it’s lots of fun!

A Twitter conference in Los Angeles is a bit different than any other Twitter conference, I’m sure. We had celebrity guests such as Tony Hawk, Chamillionaire, Dr. Drew, Levar Burton (my childhood idol), Tyrese and yes, even Pee Wee Herman (Jason’s childhood idol) himself made a guest appearance. I actually got to witness Pee Wee Herman do his very first Tweet. I took a photo and here is also a video that Scott Beale of Laughing Squid took:

Twitter is making a lot of noise and it can be overwhelming to keep up with. I really liked Tony Robbins speech and he said that he likes to think of Twitter as more like a “Trigger.” It’s an opportunity to initiate a connection but doesn’t substitute for a human relationship. And it’s easy to get so consumed with all the noise but he said “Don’t let technology use you; you use technology.” This sat really well with me. You may have read my previous post on Twitter but if not, I’d like to just reinstate why I use Twitter. I think it’s an opportunity to help, inspire and connect with others. Often times, we get so consumed by the negative coming out of the media that it overshadows the good in the world. Yes, many do use Twitter to spread negativism but because I can choose who I follow and what I want to hear, I see more positive than negative. And for me, I can now influence others even outside my own local community. The way we communicate is changing and we are able have an impact others at  an exponential level. However, the fundamentals of human relationships remain the same.