In a culture where we we are forced to react and share our opinions so quickly, (think twitter, facebook etc), I fear daily news is hardly memorable anymore and each day morphs into one another to form a large amalgamation of perfectly ordinary days. I certainly blog, vent via status updates and tweet, but with even more certainty, I forget about it later.
So I challenged myself to remember (before midnight) at least three important things that happened today. And I've rated these news pieces on a scale of 1 - 3, with 1 signifying zero to no impact on my life and 3 signifying tremendous impact. Sarah Palin joined Fox News as a commentator. In a very amusing quote to BBC she also called FOX News, "a place that values fair and balanced news." Even though this might make some pretty good late-night post-party drunk television watching, I've got give it a 1/3 NYT published its 31 Places to Go to in 2010 list yesterday. 31 places is an easier to-do list than the insane 1001 things to do/see/wtf before you die. And I've already been to 3 out of 31.On a more critical note, who in the United States of America can find the time to visit 31 places across 20 countries within a year ? (Do not answer this question if you are a member of the four-hour work week cult and/or get paid to travel.) I recently took 3 weeks off for my own wedding in India and to pull that off, I took zero vacation in 2009 and I'm pretty sure I won't take any time off for the first-half of 2010. This just makes me envy the Europeans and wish American journalists wrote more reasonable headlines. Though, I feel confident I knock off the other 28 places in the next five - ten years.
A definite 2/3Ajay C. Shah turned 54 today. He's not a politician, a super-traveler or even a famous business man. But he rocks my world. And he's the reason I'm me.
Happy Birthday Dad. I miss you. This is the 8th year in a row I'm not even on the same continent as him to celebrate his birthday. And even though I didn't tweet or blog about this, he was the only one on my mind all day long. And this is why Jan 11, 2010, will mean anything to me.
3/3-------------------------------------------Jinal Shah is a digital storyteller and strategist in New York. She works at Electric Artists and co-founded Dsplaced.com. She thinks that participating in project 3six5 is the coolest birthday gift she's ever given her Dad.
