The not-so-secret diary

After a long hiatus, I decided to catch up with some cultural and social events in London. It was not my explicit intention to mix the bizarre and the bohemian, but that's the only way to describe how my week turned out. I started out on a Sunday of jazz music joining a group of serious jazz enthusiasts. To me jazz has mostly been something that plays in the background, or perhaps adds character to a lazy afternoon spent reading a book. So it was fortunate that the event was in fact 'The history of jazz music' and I got up to speed with the names of popular artists and change in style from 1930s, 40s, 50s.... right up to 2010. And I discovered that I was happy to be stuck in the 1930s where it seemed a lot more fun and played to the foxtrot and other interesting dance styles. Invigorated by this finding, I decided to attend a proper concert mid-week where a prominent jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp was joined by the rather-talented jazz-pianist Joachim Kühn . It was ...

Recently I read an article that said: More than half of the college students surveyed indicated that if an employer banned access to networks like Facebook at work, "they would either not accept a job offer from them or would join and find a way to circumvent." ... One in four college students, according to the report, said issues like these--while likely baffling to older generations--would represent key factors in their decision to accept a job offer. (!!!) The full article can be found  here  . Well, I do admit that I would be very surprised if I didn't receive at least some kind of a laptop or a blackberry at work, mainly because these are essential tools required for me to operate effectively in my profession. Having recently joined a firm that doesn't allow access to Yahoo/ Gmail/ Hotmail and social networking sites from the office, I noticed within the first week I had built up a massive backlog of unopened/ unattended personal emails...