Grace's blog

Slate.com is featuring a five-part series on how the U.S. military captured the Iraqi dictator which you can read here. Apparently it took a fat man, a resourceful soldier and Facebook to pull it all off. I know it sounds a bit oversimplified, but essentially, with the leadership of Colonel Hickey (resourceful soldier). the military decided to shift their approach in searching for Saddam Hussein by taking into account his personal relationships, charting it out (ala Facebook) and then pinpointing a particular connection (the fat man) that eventually led them to him.

Last month, Peru was hit with torrential rains which triggered landslides that blocked the railway between Machu Picchu and the city of Cuzco. Known as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, Machu Picchu is a big tourist attraction. As a result, they had to close down the the trails and railways leading to the place. They even had to airlift stranded tourists and evacuate them along with the locals.

If you are an Angeleno, you probably know that one of the best things about this city is the Mexican food. However, not known to many is an existing subculture of taco lovers that make a pilgrimage to the streets in order to taste some of the yummiest amalgam of meat, cheese, beans, vegetables and tortilla one can only get from a...taco truck. Yes folks, blogs have even been dedicated to our flourishing taco scene. Check out the brave Bandini's The Great Taco Hunt for the evidence.

But before this turns into a foodie post, I bring ye the social media tale of The Kogi Taco Truck. Here are several lessons I have learned from them that I would like to share:

Move over Geek Dads and make way for a new breed of tech savvy moms. They are called the Digital Moms. They can blog, they can tweet and some can even write HTML. According to a report published by Razorfish and Café mom, 40% of all women online today are moms. Why?  Because today’s mom has become quite adept in using technology and social media as a resource to help her “do it all”- whether it’s shopping, looking up recipes, researching about parenting or meeting other moms they turn to digital technologies to make life easier.

This week's topic is something that is really close to my heart. Last September, I posted a blog regarding The Bayanihan Spirit,  which referred to the spirit of communal unity or the communal effort to achieve a particular objective. Although I was not able to reach the total donation goal, I am very proud to say that a lot of people still generously responded to this plea for help. I also believe that this was a great opportunity to make people aware of events and stories that affect other people in this world. Most often we get so wrapped up in our world that it is hard to see past it. We do not realize how other people are suffering and how we can help change that in our own simple way.