Clients prefer simple, uncomplicated relationships. Low expectations, meaning low risks. As Pacino says in one movie: “I just want the baby, i don’t want the labour pains”.

Providers want to build long lasting relationships. Want to know more about you and your company, want repeat performances, make themselves indispensable.

It seems to me the first group has a very masculine behaviour, where the second has a predominant feminine one. The first wants quick high return for small efforts, the second wants long term, mutual high returns for high efforts. The same examples are present in business life just like in personal relationships.

• as men will always pay for prostitutes, so will companies continue to pay for the business equivalent
• young companies, or companies entering new ventures will always prefer a few dozens one night stands before starting to look for a more serious relationship. usually because they realise it costs more.
• you will also find companies stuck into long term relationships with suppliers they don’t really like, following an “accidental baby” they had when they were drunk on euphoria. “Divorcing” is painful, time consuming and always damaging to the “baby”.
• you can find unfaithful clients switching for a “newer, sexier, less chub – no love handles” supplier or some that threaten you with switching if you don’t “swallow” their pride.
• you will for sure find the opportunist supplier looking for a fat pocket and a no pre-nup agreement.
• you will find great suppliers technically speaking (6 pack and flexing pecs/big boobs and curvy ass) that lack on conversation, social skills, IQ.
• and my personal favourite, companies that partner “trendy, cool, great PR-no substance”  suppliers they end up paying a lot of money to get nothing in return.

There are a lot more for sure, but these ones would be the ones i personally experienced.

If you have any, let’s hear them.

If you would build a museum of your own social accessories, what would you have on your shelves?

(He defines social accessories as: things, objects, attitudes that do not define me, but i have them because they are a must.)

At first glance i wanted to say it would be quite an empty museum, because looking for the things i own or have collected through-out the years i realise i have very little. I throw away things yearly or give them as presents. Some gifts that i cherished and took with me wherever i went got lost along the way. Attitudes though, are there with everyone. Knowing what those are, realising that you have them is quite different. Making money is something that does not define me and would be on that shelf because of desperate cries from society. Respecting rules and trying to please people.

Why do you still have them in your life?

Getting rid of them isn’t easy. Plus, i think there are things to learn along the way living with them that are worth the while.

What experiences, relationships, people, objects i would bring into a book about me?

I try doing all that i want to do, every day so i believe all the things i’ve experienced and all the people i met mean something important to me. All the women i loved, my teachers and friends, the beautiful Sri Lankan beaches, full moons, a bicycle, other books, awesome food and all the bottles of wine that i want.

Mihail and his book will be at the Bookfest in Bucharest on 20 June 2009 and after that the book will appear in  libraries.

Good luck to you, Mihail! Book blog here.

Paying it forward to Ionut and Paul.

By bringing us unique footage from over fifty countries, all seen from the air, by sharing with us his wonder and his concern, with this film yann arthus-bertrand lays a foundation stone for the edifice that, together, we must rebuild.

But Home is more than a documentary with a message, it’s a magnificent movie in its own right. Every breathtaking shot shows the Earth—our Earth—as we have never seen it before. Every image seems to be saying, “Look how beautiful the Earth is, look at what we’re destroying, and above all look at all these wonders that we can still preserve.”

When I started working on the project with Yann, I was convinced that the idea of shooting a movie entirely from up in the sky, without interviews or archive footage, was the right one, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. One conversation enlightened me: “From the sky, there’s less need for explanations.” Absolutely!

One’s vision is more immediate, intuitive and emotional. That’s what sets Home apart from all the other movies on the environment—which are all equally necessary in this crucial period for humanity. Home impacts directly on the sensibility of anyone who sees it, bringing us to awareness, through emotion initially, in order to change the way we see the world…

It’s probably the “less need for explanations” that also enables the film to come through on its original aim of embracing the major ecological issues that confront us—and showing how everything on the planet is interconnected—in under two hours. And as the film was shot without a script, that was quite a challenge.

You can download the Press Release and Poster or all other documents in the press kit from the project website.

You can also watch the video here on youtube.

Follow the project and learn more about them on twitter – @homeproject, or on Facebook.

The Jugendstil Ankeruhr - Hoher Markt

As the blog title says, today i did a bit of wandering. 2 hours to be exact. Alone, with a camera, with no particular objective. Today Austrians were celebrating again. It was a free from work day so most shops are closed, which kind of makes it a good day to visit the city center otherwise infested with crazy shoppers looking for that extra bargain.

It made finding some rolling tobacco a total failure but compensated by giving me a lot of space to wander about. Took off on roads i never walked before and paid attention to things i never noticed.

The church of the Danube Boatmen - Maria Am Gestade - Salvatorgasse 12

I discovered a few corners less traveled and i would like to share them with you in a two step riddle. I photograph big spaces to capture a piece of detail that i consider beautiful and so i will post those details now and in about 3 days will show the full image.

I am hoping the one above is easy to guess if you have been or live in Vienna. If you do and post the correct answer to riddle 1 or the following, more difficult riddle 2 below before 3 days a special hand made gift awaits you.

Below a few of the other things i saw today.

You can watch the entire conference or a few from the playlist.

Cheers!

http://www.web2expo.com/webexny2009/

No comment. Just go on Ionut’s photoblog and leave some love. A comment or an email sharing this with friends would be enough.

As i was telling you last week, Labour’s Day found me in Graz, Steiermark’s (Styria’s) capital city.

As soon as we entered Steiermark region by highway I was surprised by how green it actually is. It seems it’s nothing but a big forest, sometimes coniferous, but mostly leaf shedding. It certainly gives the impression the Styrians built the highway on purpose in the middle of a forest to fool everyone into thinking it really was the green heart of Austria. Well, it is not a fake. This region seems entirely green and when it’s not green with trees, it’s green with vineyards. But i’ll leave the vineyards for another time.

Graz is a city of approximately 300.000 souls. A famous university-education and scientific-research center and wood related industries. Through the city flows the river Mur, high with spring’s melted snow water at the time i saw it. Here, on the banks of this river landed our ‘Friendly Alien’. In the above picture, center-top. The black looking thing, if you didn’t get it yet.

It appeared here during city’s preparations for being the European Cultural Capital (2003) and houses ever since Graz’s Art Gallery. The ‘Friendly Alien’ is what people in Graz call the building.  The official website where you can find out more and also see a better picture of it can be visited here.

At the same time with the Alien, the Mur Island (Murinsel) appeared too. It is a floating metal structure across from the Art Gallery and is a relaxation spot with a coffee shop, a playground to get rid of the little ones for a while and terraced steps where you an lounge in the sun, read or whatever other things you feel like doing. Click on the picture to see a bigger image.

After about 10 minutes on the island we decided to climb the hill overseeing the city to the Schlossberg castle. 473 m to be climbed on stairs isn’t that much if you climbed Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka (5200 steps). If climbing gives you asthma attacks you can take the elevator or the train up. Once there, you are surrounded by history. This is the castle from which Austrians resisted Napoleon’s armies more than once and in which the city’s folks found refuge every time they needed it.

On top of Schlossberg lies one of the city’s oldest landmarks, a clock tower. It was undergoing restoration when i was there but i found this landmark to be a very witty one. The clocks on each of the 4 sides of the tower point the hour with the big watch-hand and the minutes with the small one. I’m telling you this, so you don’t get fooled by it if you get there. I couldn’t find the explanation why it was done so, i suppose to help old people with poor vision know the days hour, since minutes for them are irrelevant, but i prefer to think it was as a prank to mess with tourists too preoccupied with time.

Everywhere on the top you can find locations where you can eat, have a coffee or other thirst quenching liquors or even sleep. I saw a lot of signs explaining the past of a particular building and then towards the end it would invariably say: “since the year 1800 something it houses a restaurant/pub”. I’m telling you, as soon as wars end drinking joints flourish. In the picture to the right you can see a very cute little coffee shop hanging over a beautiful garden and overlooking the city center. Again click on the photo to see a larger version.

The old city center in absolutely charming. Narrow streets, surrounded by tall buildings with sharp roofs and flower burdened windows with wooden shutters. Loads of small shops, lots of them selling knives, but don’t ask me why. Maybe they have a hunting tradition. Coffee shops, beer and wine gardens, trams that share streets only with pedestrians and heaps of bicycles left all over without fear of being stollen.

Obama’s name and image has been borrowed even here to help with marketing. I found an Obama Lounge on a small street. Click the picture to the right.

To end, i’d say Graz is indeed a beautiful town that fully deserves the comparison to Sibiu i intuited in my previous post. Proud but reserved, old but unashamed to support the modern, with young and also calm people. I recommend you visit it. As a bonus, the city’s surroundings are gorgeous themselves and i will tell you more in my next reportage. If Graz is a lot like Sibiu, the surroundings are like the Tarnave or Rahau hills. Very pretty, so do not miss my next post.

Dedicated to Günther, who let us use his flat, drink his wine and finish his butter.

What’s interesting about this wind is the supernatural powers associated with it by Austrians as well as others in the Alps region. They say this wind makes people do crazy things. The phenomenon is called Föhnkrankheit in German (Föhn sickness) and it is manifested by illnesses ranging from migraines to psychosis. During this wind, studies say mortality due to suicides and accidents grows by 10%. On aspirin derived preparations you can find sometimes in the prospect that it is indicated for Föhnkrankheit.

Soon after the wind, coffee shops, bars and restaurants pull out their tables on the streets, parks are full of students shedding their sickly paleness and together with the slight tan, the entire population becomes happier. You can see smiling people all over the town, babies learning how to walk, children riding a bicycle for the first time, young people enjoying a coffee, a beer or a wine splash out in the sun, happy to be wearing their sunglasses for the first time.

Two weeks ago there was a festival in front of the Municipality and i would like to tell you a little about it. It was organised by the Steiermark region, also known as Styria, the green heart of Austria. The festival’s name was The Steiermark Spring. What happens there? This region takes over the square in front of the Municipality and shows the world the best they have.

Folk music specific to the region, the wines they are so proud about, their beer, their food and most of all their hospitality and good humour. I was pleasantly surprised by all of it. Not just the perfect organisation of the event, that is the norm here in Vienna, but the way in which the Viennese and tourists enjoyed the feast.

There were a lot of tourists because the weekend coincided with the Vienna Marathon with over 50000 participants. As me, they were very happy about everything but i would like to give special mention to the Austrians present. Vienna is home to many nationalities, one prouder than the other but in the same manner it is home to Austrians from all its regions, all very proud of where they come from.

I enjoyed seeing how much they cared for their traditions and how glad they were for the opportunity to show off (in a nice way) and represent their region. I saw a lot of men dressed in leather shorts specific to the Alps, the so called Lederhosen and women wearing green skirts with flowered aprons and white linen shirts.

Everybody was singing around me, wine and beer were flowing endlessly, pretzels and ham sandwiches with horse-raddish were being eating.

Styrians are famous for the pumpkin oil sold all over Austria as a delicacy and believe me it is awesome when poured over an omelette, for their region’s specific wines like Welschriesling, Weißburgunder, Morillon, Traminer and Schilcher.

The region’s capital city is Graz, aparently very similar to Sibiu in Romania. It was the only city holding the title of European Cultural Capital in 2003 and twice was the imperial capital. They say about Graz that they are famous for the enjoyable tendency to idleness. Sounds a lot like Transylvanians. This is the region’s English version website for more details. I will travel there this weekend and will come back with my own impressions.

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