ALERT!!!! I MADE A BIG MISTAKE!!!

So, for the past two weeks, my email has been acting up... Before leaving on my trip, I asked my dad, Mr. Mac Expert about what I should do to solve my problem.  He told me I had to clear space on my computer- okay.. So, I did that, but it didn't solve my problem. My mail was full and it kept giving me a message to make space in my home folder.

Not really knowing what to do, I used my webmail during my trip (I couldn't send mail through my regular program).  I was able to receive email on my regular mail program, though. 

It all gets worse when I got ultra frustrated last night because I had been trying and trying to delete old emails but nothing was working and then the program would just quit... I was stuck!! I even called Apple Tech Support and the guy told me to free up space in my mail box, that it was full!  Yes, I knew that already, my problem was that my program wasn't even allowing me to do anything other than look at my inbox.  I couldn't delete anything or perform any other actions.

So, when I finally got too tired to do anything else, I shut down the computer and went to sleep.  I tried again this morning and SOMEHOW... don't ask me how... I did something and then all of my mail in the inbox became unreadable and I had a message on each one saying I had to go online and download the messages to my server?!!!! WTF?! Okay, I went to help on my mail and tried to solve the problem.. There were several options that made sense and I tried a few of them... Nothing worked... BUT, somehow, I ended up DELETING ALL OF MY MAIL!!!!!!!  And then after that, I ended up DELETING ALL OF MY SENT MAIL (that was readable just a few seconds ago)!!!! OMG!!!

Did I mention that before I deleted the mail, I saw that I had almost 18,000 emails!!!!! Then I had NONE!!  It's soooo depressing!  I guess I no longer have the problem of my mailbox being FULL, so I should be thankful for one thing... BUT, I lost a helluva lot of important email messages and I am pretty PISSED about it!!! Dam computer!!!!

Stove cakes - Kürtöskalács

A blog I just found, Food and Beverages in Hungary, talks about these yummy treats- kürtöskalács.  "Kürtöskalács is the oldest Hungarian pastry. It translates as chimney cake. It is originated form Transylvania. It was originally made by wrapping the dough around the chimney pipes.You can find more information about it here."

To view my slideshow- click HERE.

GRATUITOUS Ice Cream shot... For Mira!!

One of the highlights of our trip was the YUMMY ice cream we found EVERYWHERE! I'm no an ice cream convert, thanks to Mira!  

Prinsip Dasar Konsep Bisnis

Menurut Gary Hamel, untuk menjadi revolusioner industri atau dapat membuat aturan permainan baru di era sulit atau era revolusi harus menciptakan konsep bisnis beserta komponen-komponennya. Suatu konsep bisnis di era sulit terdiri dari empat komponen utama, yaitu strategi inti (Core Strategy), sumberdaya strategis (Strategic Resources), perantara pelanggan (Customer Interface) dan jaringan nilai (Value Network). Empat komponen utama tersebut dikaitkan oleh tiga komponen jembatan.

Antara komponen strategi inti dan sumberdaya strategis dikaitkan oleh komponen konfigurasi aktivitas (Configuration of Activities). Komponen manfaat bagi pelanggan (Customer Benefits) mengaitkan strategi inti dan perantara pelanggan. Sedangkan komponen batasan perusahaan (Company Boundaries) menjadi jembatan antara sumberdaya strategis dengan jaringan nilai. Dalam model bisnis di era sulit tersebut mencakup empat elemen penentu potensi profit yang terdiri dari efisiensi, keunikan, kecocokan dan pendorong keuntungan.

Komponen pertama dari konsep bisnis ini adalah strategi inti (Core Strategy), yang merupakan inti dari bagaimana suatu perusahaan memilih cara untuk berkompetisi. Unsur-unsur dari strategi inti tersebut meliputi visi dan misi bisnis, cakupan produk / pasar dan basis diferensiasi. Visi bisnis merupakan apa yang diinginkan perusahaan yang bersifat ideal dan misi bisnis merupakan operasionalisasi dari visi bisnis. Visi dan misi bisnis ini akan mengarah pada pernyataan nilai, kehendak strategi, tujuan dan sasaran yang besar, banyak dan berani serta semua sasaran kinerja. Visi dan misi bisnis ini untuk memberi arah dan seperangkat kriteria untuk mengukur kemajuan yang dicapai. Visi yang dilandasi modal spiritual terbukti dapat melabungkan perusahaan. Merck Pharmaceutical mempunyai visi bahwa perusahaan ini eksis karena menyediakan obat-obatan bagi yang membutuhkannya, sehingga menggerakkan bagian riset untuk bekerja optimal.

Misi dari Google adalah mengorganisasi informasi dunia dan membuatnya dapat diakses dan digunakan secara universal. Misi yang kaya dengan modal spiritual tersebut menjadikan Google dapat meledak penjualan iklannya. Dari modal 0,1 juta dolar Amerika pada 1998 meledak pada Maret 2007 dengan pendapatan mencapai 3,66 milyar dolar Amerika Serikat.

Sedangkan misi dari Yahoo adalah menghubungkan orang dengan keinginan yang besar mereka, komunitas mereka dan pengetahuan dunia. Perusahaan didirikan oleh Jerry Yang dan David Filo dengan modal yang relatif kecil pada 1994. Sekarang perusahaan tersebut telak meledak dengan perolehan pendapatan 6,426 milyar dolar Amerika Serikat pada akhir 2006.

Komponen kedua dari suatu konsep bisnis di era sulit adalah sumberdaya strategis (Strategic Resources), yang terdiri dari kompetensi inti, aset-aset strategis dan proses inti. Sumberdaya strategis bersifat spesifik dan unik yang dapat mengubah secara dramatis sumberdya kompetisi menjadi sumber inovasi konsep bisnis. Kompetensi ini merupakan sesuatu keunggulan yang dimiliki perusahaan dan mampu memberikan ketrampilan dan kemampuan yang unik. Misalnya Amazon.com, mempunyai sebuah paten teknologi “One-Click” dan mempunyai merek yang sangat kuat merupakan di antara kualitas kompetensi intinya. Tetapi sesungguhnya kompetensi inti dari Amazon.com adalah pengalaman yang diciptakan untuk pelanggannya yaitu nyaman berbisnis dengan Amazon.com. Mengapa nyaman? Karena mudah (One-Click), membuat orang mempersepsikan bahwa mereka berbisnis dan menjual serta membeli produk dengan yang mempunyai merek telah dikenal.

Komponen ketiga perantara pelanggan (Customer Interface) yang mempunyai empat elemen, yaitu dukungan dan pemenuhan, informasi yang mendalam, dinamikan hubungan dan struktur harga. Harley Davidson merupakan perusahaan yang mampu membangun hubungan sejati dengan pelanggannya.

Sedangkan komponen keempat dari model bisnis adalah jaringan nilai yang mengelilingi perusahaan dan yang memperkuat dan melengkapi sumberdaya yang dimiliki perusahaan. Cisco dan Nokia menggunakan jaringan pemasok mereka sebagai cara untuk mengurangi modal kerja dan meningkatkan fleksibilitas secara dramatis.

May Day/Labour Day.

What is May Day?  Here's what Wikipedia says:

May Day occurs on May 1 and refers to the Haymarket affair or any of several public holidays. In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, which celebrates the social and economic achievements of the labour movement. As a day of celebration the holiday has ancient origins, and it can relate to many customs that have survived into modern times.

May Day around the world.....

LONDON, May 1 (UPI) -- May Day celebrants fanned out across Europe Friday and thousands marched in annual protests, some in defiance of government bans.

Japan's Trade Union Confederation held its 80th annual May Day rally in a Tokyo Park drawing nearly 36,000 regular and temporary workers, the Japan Times reports.

The workers carried banners calling for wage increases and job security.

In Turkey police used tear gas and water cannons to prevent hundreds of leftists from marching to Taksim Square, Today's Zaman reported.

Turkey last week declared May Day a public holiday but the government rejected demands by unions that workers be allowed to celebrate at the square, citing security concerns.

In London, May Day protesters targeted the Bank of England in scenes reminiscent of the G20 protests, politics.co.uk reported.

Labor unions in France planned hundreds of marches throughout the country.  Polls indicate 72 percent of French people are in favor of May Day demonstrations, France 24 reported Friday.This year marked the first time eight main French labor unions showed a united front by marching together.

Joyeux Premier Mai!

Happy May Day.  Let's all dance around the May pole...

Traditional May Day celebrations

May Day is associated with the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan andneopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment.

As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, and All Saint's Day. In the twentieth century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian, with the festival of Flora the Roman Goddess of flowers, theWalpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pagan celebrations were abandoned or Christianized during the process of conversion in Europe. A more secular version of May Day continues to be observed in Europe and America. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Various Neopagan groups celebrate reconstructed (to varying degrees) versions of these customs on 1 May.

The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day ofSpring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps.

Cute hand made dolls...