kate mats

So I haven’t been updating recently.  There are lots of reasons for this–work is busy, been trying to focus on diet/working out more (which takes time), cooking more, cleaning more, reading more, and of course planning!

Well I have decided that I am going to relaunch my little website to be kind of my “personal portal” and an online business card so to speak.  I am going to keep the blog but I am going to try (perhaps) and make a bit more focused.  I am super excited about this prospect and can’t wait to see it come to life.  (BTW, no idea on time line since I have to do this in my off hours–which tend to be sparse–but I am hoping to make some great progress with the holiday weekend etc.)

With the development of my new site, I started spending some time thinking about my personal brand and what it meant online.  These days every online presence you have is no longer just personal, and everything you do/say/share is a reflection of you–and I believe I can use this to my advantage (hey, I have always found myself interesting).

There is an article on mashable that has some good tips and proliferating your brand (setup a linked in profile, a twitter account, have an consistent online presence, etc).  I liked the tip of a video resume (how cool right? But of course I am partial to most things video) and of course developing your personal sense of style (this is something that I think is so important for first impressions, etc).  Part of my launch will be to rebrand my twitter page to be consistent with my website.  They also say that everyone should have personal business cards–I love paper products, so I am planning on printing my new identity on some cards too.  So, in addition to my site, I had a whole list of things I wanted to accomplish, great!

Here came the hard part though–what is my brand?  This article gives some info on taking a step back and thinking through the things that make you well–you.  I thought this was a good place to start–defining what I am about.  While I will spare you from my whole exercise I started writing (and ranking) a list of attributes or things that described me (or the part of my life I am trying to represent).  Here are some of the things that made the cut:

• Technical, intelligent, nerdy, management
• Professional, sophisticated, experienced
• Stylish, fashionable, chic
• Forward thinking, innovative, entrepreneurial

My mission statement is to really establish myself as a female leader in technology, and eventually in business.  Being really experienced in technical management and engineering leadership, I want to spring board and further my reputation in these areas.  And over the last several years I have developed my working knowledge of large scale distributed web systems (and constructing/operating them on a shoestring budget), which should only become more important with the rise of cloud computing.  And while all these things are great, I also think that part of what makes me “me” is the fact that I love fashion, shopping and clothes.  I have a great sense of style and like to think that I do everything with a bit of panache specific to me.

I decided to keep my title “Kate Mats”  I thought about going back to “Kate Roth” or expanding to my new full name “Kate Matsudaira”, but decided that Kate Mats had a nice to ring to it (plus I already have the domain name).  From my adjectives above I did a *whole* bunch of word-smithing and came up with the tagline/slogan (wait for it!) — “Bringing style and technology together”.

Anyway, I am still working on these things, but am super excited about all that is possible and coming up  :)

Oh and if you have an opinion, please let me know!  I love getting feedback.

Wow, I have been so busy.

It seems lately I have been keeping myself occupied and haven’t had any chance to post anything recently.  So let’s see what have I been up to recently?

• Took a trip to NYC.  We spent about 7 days there and even though I had to work during the weekdays it felt like a mini-vacation.  It was very reinvigorating, despite tiring.  I love the city.  Mostly there was a lot of touristing around and seeing the sights.  I got to see the Statue of Liberty, Coney Island, Central Park, and explored all the little neighborhoods.  We also saw Guys and Dolls on Boradway (it is one of my favorite plays). It was soooo much fun.  And despite all of the wonderful meals we ate I managed to lose weight.  I think it was probably from all of the walking!  Anyway, I will likely be going back there again next week for work.  
• Working out!  I have been back on the bandwagon with my work outs recently.  I have been watching some TV Shows on demand (The Duel, The Hills, and several others) and I bought season 2 of Lipstick Jungle, so having a full programming schedule has kept my motivation up.  Oh and I am seeing results!  That has also been helping.  Although I think the main reason for the results is that I have been improving my willpower and doing pretty well on my diets.  And weight loss 20% exercise and 80% diet, and I have been having some success on both fronts.
• Reading.  My new commute taking the bus has given me lots of time to read.  I am on book 4 for the Stephanie Plum series.  I read this epic thriller called Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet–it is definitely more of a man book (mainly because of the graphic violence) but it was a good story and I read all 1000 pages in less than a week.  I also read Water For Elephants, which was one of the best books I have read in a really long time.  And my queue of books has been growing–Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is next.
• Cultivating my inner domestic goddess.  We planted a little garden (tomatoes, strawberries, snap peas, basil, a pepper plant) and I have been picking roses almost daily from our rose bushes so we have fresh flowers in the house (although my florist arranging needs some work).  I also have embraced spring cleaning and completely reworked my whole closet–including ironing and making a big pile for the tailor (which hopefully will get taken care of this week).  And (yes there is more!) I have been spending more time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning.  I have been coming up with new recipes and trying to eat at home more frequently.
• Working!  Of course!  After all, I do work for a startup and I love what I do, but it certainly keeps me occupied.

I totally want to get a new camera so I can start putting some pictures on my blog–but being a budget prohibits that kind of spending so right now you will just have to settle for my stories.  

Anyway, I am going to try to get back in the swing of updating more frequently, in particular I plan to post some of the recipes and things I am trying and how they turn out.  I am also going to post some book reviews, and maybe some shopping links as they come about (I am hankering to tackle some redecorating projects in the house!).

Hope everyone is having a great spring

….is that you can’t say what you really think.

You see I have lots of opinions–thoughts that would probably be fascinating to read–but even though this is my blog I feel like posting those thoughts would have such bad unintended consequences that I don’t dare do it.

For example (and these are random examples pulled off the internet, not necessarily things I would write about), you can’t write what you really think about your significant other, because if they read it they will likely be upset.  You can’t post about how much you dislike your job, or your coworkers, or your clients because if they read it they will be really upset.  And you can’t post about your friends because they too will be upset if they don’t like your opinions.  All of this spells recipes for disaster.  I think this is true of most personal blogs though.

I think I need an anonymous blog where I can post all my *true* feelings about things.  I think that blog would be *really* interesting to read.

Tonight I had to swing by the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, there was a problem with the insurance so I had to sit for 25 minutes to wait for it to be corrected.  It seemed like a regular Tuesday night, and I spent about 10 minutes meandering around the store, decided I didn’t need to buy anything (and since I am trying not to spend money on things I don’t need or *really* want) I decided to sit in one of the more comfortable chairs and read a magazine.

It was about 8pm and the pharmacy was set to close at 9pm, which I guess meant rush hour–all the people racing in to fill their medications before the end of the night.  Despite there “stand back for privacy” line, I could hear every conversation from my little vantage point to the left of the counter.  As I sat there for about 20 more minutes (largely waiting for the line than to pick up my order since it was filled pretty quickly) I was amazed by what I witnessed.

I counted 12 different patrons.  The smallest number of medications for any patron was 3.  The largest number was 9.  On average it seemed like people were picking up 5 medicines.  No one wanted “counseling” from the pharmacist as almost all the patrons were picking up medicine that they took before.  This got me thinking a lot about my medication and medication in general. How medicated is America?  How about the world?  Most of the older people I know closely take a whole cocktail of pills daily.  Is that characteristic of other people?  I wish I had more time to do research on this topic as it is fascinating how many pills people take on a regular basis.

There are plenty of studies on how taking too much medicine is bad for our health (makes diseases resistant, etc) but what about all of the other medications?  How can that be good for people’s well being if they are all on a bunch of pills all the time?  And how frequent is it–how many people are taking 1, 2, 3, or more medications?  From my night of observation at the pharmacy it sure seems like something someone should be thinking about.

Ladies, the next time you are on a date don a red ensemble.  Based on a study done at the University of Rochester men are more attracted to women wearing the color red.  Men tend to percieve women in this color to be more desirable of more sexually attractive.

I don’t own anything in red except for two pairs of shoes.  This means it is time for me to start looking for a hot red date dress   Some of us girls could always use a little more help.

On a side note, I wonder how this would impact business or the work environment.  They say that more attractive people tend to be more successful–so if you have an important business meeting would wearing red make a difference?  Perhaps, although it may not be a “good” thing.  Of course this begs the question “Is being feminine and sexy an advantage or disadvantage in the work place?”  That is a question I wish I knew the answer to…..

Interesting food for thought.

Source.

I haven’t updated in a while because I am so busy. I have a whole bunch of projects going on, both personal and professional leaving my spare time to a minimum.
I have been keeping active via twitter, so if you don’t already follow me then you should! http://www.twitter.com/katemats

About two weeks ago I picked up my workouts again. I have been holding steady at 129 pounds but am hoping to get down and stabilize at 120 pounds (and eventually 115 pounds, but I take it one step at a time). That means more time on the elliptical trainer and more time searching for things to watch On Demand (Comcast’s TV on demand service for those of you who aren’t familiar).
This week I re-encountered Kimora Lee Simmons reality show. I seriously love her. She has such great taste. Everything she does is so over the top and fabulous. I think my wardrobe would look like hers if I could afford it. So much of her clothing is metallic, pink, animal print, glittery, bejeweled, or adorned with feathers and accents. Her home is so opulent and decadent, it was what my house would look like if money were no object. Even though she is a bit of a diva, I love how she is a such a perfectionist–and she has done a great job building an empire around her brand. It is definitely something I want to emulate as I think about my future.

I really need to think more about my “brand” — what that means and how I will cultivate it into success. Kimora is definitely one of my role models.

I know that America certainly isn’t in the best condition, but it seems like much of the world isn’t doing too much better.  I have seen the move Traffic, and I recently went on vacation to Mexico, but it is still hard for me to fathom news like: Mexico drug gangs threaten cops on radio, kill them. Now this article is from Tijuana, and perhaps other border towns have similar crime stories, but it is still so shocking. Here is an excerpt from the article (the rest can be found here):

This news certainly shocked me and I think it makes you realize how fortunate we are here.

I slouch all the time.  I am always trying to remind myself to sit up straight.  I have tried sitting on a medicine ball, sitting on one of those kneeling seats and leaving myself little notes on my monitor reminding myself to straighten up.  I read about this little device in a recent issue of Shape magazine and I think it is so cool.  It is a little vibrator that sits on your back (by your bra strap) that will vibrate a little bit every time your posture is less than ideal. It has a steep price tag $75 (well $85 with shipping) so I haven’t purchased it yet (still trying to save money in this economy).  I will definitely write a review when I do, but I still wanted to share!

Check it out at iPosture.

Last week I didn’t get a chance to update much since I was completely slammed with a big assignment at work.  I got it done though, and in time and I was quite pleased with myself.

On a side note, I also decided I was sick of my brown theme so I changed it up.  I really like this theme because it is easy to customize and make your own.  So I plan to edit it like crazy   Of course for now it is just nice to get a face list.

My birthday is coming up and I have asked for a new pocket digital camera.  That way I can take more pictures.  For example, I have a bunch of projects going on I haven’t updated about; like my new favorite thing is embossing, where you stamp a rubber (or plastic) stamp in glue-like ink and then sprinkle glitter over it; then you heat up the glitter so it melts and voila–a cool looking embossed stamp.  It is how I am making the thank you cards for all of my wedding gifts.

Anyway, don’t get too used to the site design as I am still tweaking it and making changes, but do look forward to more pictures and content over the coming weeks.

The recession is cranking up into full gear.

There is a little boutique downstairs from my office that is going out of business.  I always thought it was a such a cute little store and I even bought my favorite candle ever (voluspa’s vanilla bourbon–which is so romantic and boudoir-ish) there.  I thought their window displays were cute but most of the stuff was a little out of my price range (denim in the $150-$250 range, tops $50+, and dresses $100+) and they never put much stuff on sale.  I probably would have marketed and merchandised my store a bit differently, but it is still sad to see it closing its doors.

Almost every day I read about more companies laying off employees.  Today Macy’s announced it is laying off 7000 jobs.  That is just another company to add to the list of Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Kodak, and others.  It is really quite distressing and everyday I am thankful that I have a job.  Really the best way to ensure you keep your job is to work harder.  No longer are the days of coasting and hoping things don’t happen–now it is even more important to pound the payment, try and toil, and truly put in the effort to earn your paycheck.

We have really been trying to cut back ourselves.  We are trying to cut out eating out at restaurants and cooking more.  I am also trying to only buy things on sale at the grocery store. I think it is necessary for everyone to really stop living beyond their means and focus on cutting back on the little extravagances and really try and save money.  Even if you think you have job security, no one really does (just ask my good friends at Microsoft that watched their whole division get cut).  Everyone is expendable.  That means it is time to work harder and put it in a little more elbow grease.

Make sure you have a plan for how to spend your money.  You need to be prudent in saving and plan what your expenses are each month.  You should know how much is in all of your accounts.  Budgets are a good thing.  Planning and goals are also good things.  Make sure you have them for all aspects of your life including your finances.  It is important to be able to set aside some savings should something unfortunate happen.  It is likely things may get worse before they start improving.

Here are my very simple steps for prudent finances in 2009:

1. Spend less than you earn and save money.
2. Work hard at your job.  You don’t want to risk losing your source of income.
3. Set a budget and plan what happens in your life.  Don’t let things happen to you.