Well anyway, I recently identified some areas where I need to improve, and since they are interesting and this blog is my little “journey” I wanted to share them with you.

1. Abstraction. I struggle sometimes taking all this stuff that I know and then distilling it into a few key abstractions.  One of the things to help with this is to start with the end in mind.  By thinking about the question you are trying to answer, the criteria for success, or what you are hoping to accomplish you can help figure out what is the path or questions to you need to answer to get to that conclusion.

2. Think before speaking.  Yes, I know — “open mouth insert foot”.  I am not one to hold back what I think.  Normally this isn’t such a big deal, but I think at times it has caused some real problems.  I am trying to get better at this, but not saying anything unless I have carefully thought through my words (event if that means an uncomfortable silence).

3.  Communicate through multiple mediums.  Not everyone can learn things verbally, and not everyone has time to read what you write.  Having things in email (or some other written format), and discussing them (such as in a meeting) provides the best framework for getting a message across to the parties involved.  Sometimes I only do one of these and as a result not everything I am trying to communicate comes though.

Those are some new areas of focus for me.  Luckily I get to practice most of these every week, so these combined with better self discipline are where I am going to channel my improvement efforts over the next few months. Make sure you are taking the time to improve yourself and pick areas where you can get better.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

While I was on vacation in Mexico I ate and drank constantly.  I think I honestly ate as much each day as I normally eat in two days.  The indulgence wasn’t a purposeful thing, it just more or less happened because we were with group(s) of people and someone always seemed to be hungry.  If something concrete wasn’t planned we would eat, and if something was planned we would eat then too.  And while I normally abstain from alcohol I liberally drank all sorts of fun drinks–margaritas, pina coladas, hard alcohol cocktails, and I even had my first daiquiri (which tasted like an alcoholic strawberry milkshake, although I had expected something more sugary and blue like daiquiri ice flavored ice cream at Baskin Robbins–one of my favorites).  So needless to say I returned from my trip slightly heavier than when I left (you would honestly think that donning a swimsuit everyday might have swayed the gluttonous eating, but it did not).  So I am back on my diet.  And having spent a bunch of money in Mexico I am also ruthlessly on a budget.

That whole paragraph is basically my long winded way of saying I am focused on saving money and losing weight so my new year’s resolution to cook at home has become important.  So on Tuesday after I was back I went grocery shopping and purchased 6 bags of healthy diet friendly food.  Our local grocery store (Safeway) was having this 10 for $10 special on all these things–cucumbers, red peppers, salad bags and carrots–so I stocked up (I mean it seems like a pretty good deal, right?).  I have made my lunch the last two days (but stocked up on lean cuisines just in case–they are seriously like adult lunchables) and “cooked” dinner the last two days.  My cooking mostly consisted of dissecting a rotisserie chicken, but I did make salads both nights.  I am hoping to collect a bunch of *simple* recipes that I can use to whip up a healthy, wholesome meal very quickly.  So far that hasn’t happened, but it is in the works.

The other thing that I am make progress on with respect to resolutions and self improvement is my whole “getting organized” kick.  I have been making lists and checking things off.  I basically have all these little projects and I am trying to get more out of my day.  I still have a *ways* to go here, but at least I feel like I have made some progress over the last month about using my time efficiently.

I know I have a bunch of other areas I am working on, but that is what I have so far

And here is a new one to add to the list:  I want to get better at my makeup.  I got my makeup done in Mexico and those women sure do know how to wear a lot of makeup and have it look natural.  I want to learn, since it looked phenomenal on me and I wish I could replicate it every single day.

The other interesting thing that happened today was on my drive home I saw the most amazing cresent moon.  It was at the bottom, almost like a little smile, and you could still see the faint outline, almost black of the whole circular moon.  It was pretty incredible really–I wish I had a camera (and cook take pictures while driving) so I could share it.  When you think about the moon and the stars sometimes it is hard not to feel so insignificant.

Anyway, I am finally back after a bit of a hiatus.  I took a nice long vacation in Mexico.  We want to Los Cabos on the pacific side and ti was amazing.  Besides the 80+ degree weather and the fabulous company, I got to travel somewhere I had never been.  I really enjoyed myself.  I don’t know if we will go back there soon (although I certainly wouldn’t object if I could have unlimited vacation time) but it was a very nice place to visit.  Now I really want to go to Thailand, other parts of Asia, or Costa Rica.

It would be wonderful to move to one of these places.  When you are on vacation you truly don’t get to explore the best parts of the city.  For example, someone visiting Seattle might see the space needle or Pike’s Market, but they would miss things like my favorite little tea house in the international district that has the most amazing teas and comfy couche, and a distinct aurora that makes you feel like you have stepped back in time.  You would also likely miss the little garden part way up Queen Anne hill that is so beautiful in the spring time, or what a breathtaking view it is to watch the sunrise as you run along the city streets.  The truly wonderful things about any city are often hidden from view and you only true experience after being somewhere long enough.

Anyway, enough deep thoughts for now.  Life is good and I am glad to be back. 

In the past I have always found that odd years tend to be better for me.  I am very anxious for 2009 and am looking forward to lots of positive change.  I am planning to do some more investing this year and am excited about all the of the bargain stocks. I am also going to focus on saving a lot, spending less, and just being more economical in general–and it couldn’t be a better year for it

I wonder what the fashion will be this year?  I am hoping that wedges come back for summer, I will just be happy for things to warm up here!

Anyway, I wish everyone the best!

Oh and check your horoscope for 2009–here is my Aquarius forecast (see source here) for future reference