Category: Archive

Back From Greece

Nicole Glaros1 Comment

Mark and I have just returned from a much needed month in Greece. People keep asking me what we did while there. Well, other than seeing a couple of ruins, we did little other than eat, sleep, drink, and see family. I really wish I could give a more exciting synopsis, but that is truly all there was.

We spent a few hot and polluted days in Athens, checking out the Acropolis and taking care of some paperwork (I’m working on getting my Greek citizenship – EU Passport BABY! – and as a digression, Mark won’t be getting his citizenship anytime soon since all men under the age of 45 must serve military duty).  Then a couple of relaxing days on the island of Samos, just off the coast of Turkey.  Our final resting spot was Ikaria, the mothership, the place where my entire lineage on both sides of my family are from.  Hey, it’s not incest.  It’s pedigree.  There are about maybe 2000 people on the island year round, and that number swells to about 10K or 15K in the summer.

Ikaria island has been the subject of CNN’s recent series on Blue Zones – places in the world where people consistently live to over 100 years old.  For Americans, this is a fascinating topic, one wrought with mystique and envy.  Here, I can sum it up pretty quickly why they live so long and are so youthful into such late years.

  • They eat what they grow.  Nothing in packages, boxes, or cans.  And they don’t use fertilizers other than goat shit and food scraps, and no pesticides.
  • They walk EVERYWHERE.  Seriously.  You try hiking an hour down a mountain then 2 hours back up it twice a day for your whole entire life and see what kind of shape you’re in when you’re 95.
  • They work to live.  They’re all farmers, so the work they do supports their life.  But they aren’t working 18 hour days and come home to lists of crap to do.  They have less stress in their lives.
  • The elders have purpose.  They don’t sit in their house and watch TV while their brains rot.  They have to feed the goats, harvest the crops, water the fields.  If you show me an 100 year old in the US that still has a job, I’ll show you someone that’s still happy.

One notable thing we did while there was go to a Panayiti – this is a village’s annual celebration.  It’s a little fundraiser for the village, but it involves food and wine and as much dancing as your legs can take.  They usually start around 10pm, and this particular one didn’t wind down until about 9AM the following morning.  The band played continuously that whole time – fantastic.  The dance of choice in Ikaria is called the Ikariotiko, which is basically the island’s dance.  Each island has it’s own dance.  This dance can last 20 MINUTES if the band is feeling tortuous, and you’ve never been so tired and sweaty after a dance.  For Ikarians, the Ikariotiko isn’t a dance, it’s a calling.

We left at about 5:30 in the morning, which is really when the party got started.  It was a mercy escape really, as I was sleeping in the back of the car by this point (pregnancy will do that to you), my dad and husband were drunk beyond comprehension, and my poor mom was sick of babysitting the two of them.  They came back RAGING, and I spent the next 10 minutes laughing so hard because my dad could hardly stand and my husband was singing the Ikariotiko out the window.  At some point I had the werewithall to record his rantings… shared for your listening pleasure here.  We’re driving down a very dark and winding road at 6am at this point, so the screen is dark except the occasional view of the road.  Mark, when drunk, gets very philosophical, as you’ll see.  You can imagine the Greeks LOVED that about him.

Anyway, we’re finally back and settling into life in these United States.  We’re missing our naps at 3pm every afternoon, missing the fresh produce daily, and the nightly sunsets on the balcony with fresh grapes, wine, my Aunt Nota’s goat cheese, and some olives.  It’s life back to lists and to dos.  But my head no longer hurts from trying to speak Greek, my back no longer hurts from sleeping on a psuedo mattress, and I don’t have to wash dishes outside in a bucket anymore.  Coming home is such sweet sorrow.

A huge thank you goes out to my Mom and Dad for spending the month with us.

Ignite Boulder – the most entertaining event

Nicole Glaros4 Comments

I was first introduced to Ignite Boulder by my friend Andrew Hyde.  It’s an event where a dozen or so people stand up in front of a room of 200+ peeps and give a presentation on whatever is on their mind.  The twist is that you have 5 minutes, 20 slides, and 15 seconds per slide.  The slides auto advance to keep you on target.  Sounds fun?

Well, I had no idea how fun until I attended Ignite Boulder 3.  The creativity of some of the presenters astounded me.  Somewhere between the 200 people wearing fake mustaches and drinking free beer, we learned how to cope with akward moments of passing a slightly-slower pedestrian, we learned how to survive a zombie attack, we learned how to piss off people in Boulder, and we were thoroughly entertained by a rapper.

I was hooked.  I wanted to take part.  A group of us stood around afterwards and brainstormed about what we might do should we muster the courage to participate.

On my way home that night I came up with my idea – dances throughout history!  The funky chicken!  The Moonwalk!  The electric slide!  It would be so fun!  So when I got the email saying sign up your ideas, I submitted mine.  Never did I actually expect to be selected.

Selected I was.  Okay, fine, I’m not that uncomfortable in front of people.  Whatever, I can do this. Ignite Boulder 4

Fast forward a month.  The presentations are due in on Sunday, and in true Greek style, I procrastinate until the last possible moment.  Which under normal circumstances would have been okay, but Saturday I learn of the sudden and tragic death of a family friend.  So scratch my dancing mood on Saturday.  Sunday comes and I figure I better start preparing.  I start by doing a quick You Tube search to glean some ideas, and low and behold I discover The Evolution of Dance, one of the all-time-most-popular-videos-EVER, seen by over 119 MILLION PEOPLE, is basically exactly what I want to do.  So damn, I’m not as clever as I originally hoped!  Now what?!?!?  I’m starting to think this wasn’t such a good idea…

When I was growing up, my cousins and sister and I used to make up these hilarious dances.  It was one of our favorite past times.  I can only hope it will save me for Ignite Boulder 4!  I throw together a presentation, I pick a song, and run through it once in front of my bathroom mirror.  I quickly conclude this is a bad idea, as I’m seeing how utterly idiotic I look, I begin to lose my nerve.  So I abandon looking at myself and decide to practice in front of my husband.  I practice twice for him, and his looks of love confirm my original suspicion; that I DO look like a complete idiot.  I resign myself to the idea of a little liquid courage before the show.

Wednesday morning starts with an investor meeting at the butt-crack of dawn, then on to a funeral, then home for a nap.  I practice the preso a 4th and final time before I proceed to start doing shots of tequila in my kitchen.  My nervousness is enhanced with Craig Kendall tweeting me a countdown ’till the show.

By the time we arrive at the venue, I’m a wreck.  This isn’t a 200 person event, it’s swollen to 500+ people.  I’ve drank an entire flask + of tequila.  I lose my purse, I lose my cell phone, I can’t find my costume.  My husband has no idea what to do with me, my sister Katrina is humoring me, and my friend Shannon is awesome as always in helping me track down everything.  I recruit my friend Josh to wear my costume and stand on the stage with me.  I continue to drink.

Ignite Boulder 4So, I remember seeing my name up on the screen next, I remember walking down to the front and getting the microphone.  Then I remember walking back to my seat.  I remember everything before and everything after the performance, but I don’t remember those 5 precious minutes AT ALL!

The congratulations I got were countless.  Apparently I had the whole room on their feet dancing.  It was a success!  If only I knew what I did…

Thanks to everyone there for humoring me and taking part of the dance session.

—– Deee  Lish

Huge shout out goes to Stepan Mazurov for the fabulous pictures!

How to get into TechStars…

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techstarsbadgeSo I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve accepted the role of GM for TechStars Boulder this summer! I’ve been at it for 3 weeks now and I’m having a blast. The one question I keep getting is ‘How do we beat all the competition and get into TechStars?’. While I’m truly new to the program, I think I can share a little insight about what gets everyone excited.

1. The Team: If there are 2-4 of you, and you’re all rockstars, we get excited. Rockstars know how to execute. They’re bright, driven, creative, and have accomplish tons in a short period of time on this and/or past projects.

2. Hunger: Your team has to really want this – and communicate that with us. Walk the line of annoying. Just saying you want it doesn’t count, you have to show us by working your ass off to hit your milestones.

3. Idea: You’ve come up with something innovative, new, & exciting. While a good team will always trump a good idea, the combo is thrilling.

4. You listen: TechStars is a mentor-driven program. We try to surround you by the best and brightest to help accelerate your company. You have to know how to listen to input (sometimes negative), sort through the noise, and execute quickly on the best advice.

5. You Execute: I’ve said this in almost all of the above points too, but thought it imperative to call it out on its own. Millions of people have hundreds of good ideas. It’s not the good idea – it’s the ability to execute on a good idea that makes all the difference. Hell you can execute on a bad idea and that’s better than not executing at all. Learn how to get stuff done quickly, cheaply, and effectively and you’ll not only go far at TechStars, but whatever you do in life.

If you haven’t applied yet, you better hurry! Deadline is March 21st!

Eckart Tolle – A New Earth & Oprah’s webcast

Nicole Glaros3 Comments

Ever since I left CTEK (my last job) back in Jan 07, I’ve been trying to figure out what I should be doing with myself.  It’s been a quest, thusfar unfruitful.  I’m working, but most, if not all, leaves something to be desired.  My mother, in an effort to help me obtain focus, bought be a book and made me promise to read it, and participate in the corresponding online class.

About the class & book – Eckart Tolle has written a book called A New Earth, Awaken to Your Life’s Purpose.  In partnership with Eckart, Oprah Winfrey has put together a live, online webcast where you can watch and actually participate.  It’s a 10 week long course, or rather a book discussion, with Eckart.  Last week was week 1 and I couldn’t attend, but watched it with Mark (my husband) last night.  I watched Week 2 tonight, live.  Regardless of what you think about the book and the class, it truly is a technological feat what they’ve pulled off.  About 700,000 people watched the show last week, live.  An additional 1.5 million people watched it during the week.  Even if you don’t want ‘spiritual awakening’, you have to appreciate there are a ton of people out there that do, and if this brings people closer to goodness, then Oprah has truly achieved something great.

Anyway, my formal education is in psychology and science, so many times eastern philosophies leave me with many unanswered questions.  I find most of it hoakey, fluffy, lacking substance.  But I did promise my mother…

So I’m at chapter 3, and I’ve watched 2 of Oprah’s & Eckart Tolle’s classes now.  And while much of the conversation is saying the same thing over and over again, I’m finding it rather fascinating.  My quick summary so far is this:

I am different that the sum of my thoughts, my pasts, my future, and my opinions.  Those are things, concepts in my life.  I am an entity that is separate from them, and the more I recognize this, the more in the present I can live.  The more in the present I can live, the happier I can be b/c I am not affected by my past, by other’s impressions of me, or of my wants of tomorrow.  Interesting.

Instead of asking myself what I want to do with the rest of my life, I need to ask the world what it wants from me and how I can best be of service.  This too is a fascinating concept.  It takes me off the pedestal (what?!?) and turns my life into one of other-service instead of me-service.

Be at one with nature – this is a quick way to shed the “ego”, which is my past, my thoughts, my opinions.  I do this already though so this isn’t a new lesson for me.

So this morning, I sat in complete silence and stillness in my living room.  It gets great morning light and this is where most of my plants reside.  I sat there and tried to quiet my mind as much as possible for as long as possible, and when my mind went active again, I tried to redirect it to ‘asking the world how I can best service it’.  I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to know when the world answers me, but I sure hope it does and I can recognize it for what it is.

This has been my first ‘spiritual journey’ and I’m keeping as open of a mind as I can.  If you are interested in discovering your life’s purpose, go buy the book, and sign up for Oprah.  I’ll keep blogging about my experienes on my first spiritual journey.

Danskin Triathalon – Let the training begin

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I have 2 friends that have talked me into doing the Danksin Triathlon coming up in June in Colorado.  I’m in pretty decent shape, I’m in the gym every day, I lift once a week and usually spin or run the other 4 days a week.  If the weather is nice, I hike or run outside on the weekends too.  Its the only thing that keeps me sane.

Well, I’m in decent bike/run shape, but I haven’t swam in YEARS.  I used to swim competitively when I was in high school, but that was about 2 decades ago.  So today, I decided to get wet.  I thought I might jump in the pool at the East Boulder Rec Center and swim with a women’s swim group, but when I arrived I learned that it was for paying members only and the class was full anyway.  So I got in the water and just swam laps.

I think I swam maybe about 40 minutes.  I took lots of breaks, griping the pool edge for dear life.  I learned that I have an old-school freestyle stroke, that I don’t remember how to swim SLOWLY, but I regularly lapped the other people in my lane (so I’m pretty fast still).

Right now, I feel like jello.  I can barely feel my legs and my head is spinning.  So I rewarded myself with about 6 Oreo Cookies, the only thing I could find that had fat content.  I didn’t think the carrots I brought were going to adequately replenish. Only 3.5 months to go to the Danskin.

Just between you and me, I know I’m in good shape, but I’m still nervous about this (which is why I’m doing it).  I don’t even really have a good reason!  Anyway, wish me luck…

Why Hollywood is so great

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I used to hate Hollywood. The boob jobs, botox, name dropping, $2K on a dress, plastic Hollywood is not my style. But my sister lives in LA and she gave me an interesting perspective on Hollywood once. She said Hollywood is the only place ON EARTH where the impossible is completely possible. Think about it for a moment. If you have a weird deviant fantasy about pubescent turtles, that talk, and are ninja masters nonetheless, and you can make a ton of money on that idea – what other industry in the world supports such insanity? Of course!!! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Why didn’t I think of that?!?!?

Anyway, I came across this video on YouTube. You’ll need about 10 minutes to see both the first video (which will explain the second video) and the second. But this is so weird that I’m truly entertained. Thank you Hollywood.

The original video:

The response:

Missing your flight over 1 extra gram of lithium in that battery pack

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Because taking off your shoes, belt, coat, and your computer out of it’s case isn’t hassle enough in the airport security lines, the TSA has issued new regulations concerning the type, quantity, and volume of batteries you can carry or check at the airport.

Here’s a quick overview:

  • You can’t check spare batteries anymore (like for your camera, computer, cell phone, whatever), but you can check batteries that are installed in the device.
  • You can carry on as many batteries as you like, as long as they contain less than 8 grams of lithium each.  HUH?  To figure out how much lithium is in those batteries, you’ll need to multiply the voltage by the mAh, then divide by 1000.  That will give you watt hours.  As long as your less than 100 watt hours, you’re okay.
  • Alkaline or Nickel batteries aren’t a concern.

Don’t forget to pack your calculator since you’ll be doing math while waiting for that long security line.  Just make sure the battery is less than 100 watt hours!

Since gas was briefly over $100 a barrel yesterday, and the security at the airports is getting RIDICULOUS, I’m voting to increase spending on R&D for a transporter.  Star Trek had it right!

Language on a construction site

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Warning – this posting is R rated.

As I sit here and drink wine with my husband and his best friend, both home builders on construction sites all day long, it has been brought to my attention why they guys on a construction site talk the way they talk.

Look at the kind of words that they deal with on a minute by minute basis:

stiff
caulk
hammer
pound
screw
drill
nail
wood
Dike (wire cutters)
Upskirt (a long stick with a mirror on the end of it so the guys can see in hard to reach places)
“fill the crack/seam with caulk”
“your caulk is dripping”
“Suck it in” (talking about pulling 2 boards close together)
“Oil the wood, then caulk it” – self explanatory
“Drive it deeper” (referring to nails, screws)
“Do you want the top or bottom?”  (trying to figure out who goes up the ladder and who stays on the ground)
“Blow the tools” (they use compressed air to blow the saw dust off the tools)
So of COURSE men on a construction site hoot and holler at women when the walk by!

I don’t know you but, hey, nice butt…

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So many of you know I’ve been running around throwing a business idea I have against a wall to see if it will stick.  Well, Monday I had the pleasure of meeting this fabulous Boulder woman named Kim who listened diligently to my tale, provided me some great insight, and promised an introduction to a person that could be key for what I want to do.

Today, I was at the gym and ran into Kim again.  It always makes me wonder how many times you circle around someone before you actually meet him/her.  Anyway, we had a nice little chat in between bench press sets and wished each other well.  When I was finished with my workout, I headed off to the showers to keep my poor officemate Andy from hating my presence.

So there I am, in the shower, naked save my hot pink flip flops to keep the public-shower-feet-nasties away.  And in she walks.

So what exactly do you say in this situation?  I’ve had 1.2 conversations with Kim.  She seems nice enough, but now she’s seen parts of my body that my mother hasn’t even seen recently.  There must be some clever one-liner to spout out at this opportune moment to ease the tension.  Suggestions?