I thrived in the international community in Tokyo. Coming back to America, at first I missed being a leader of this and that, and being a regular at networking hives like the Economist group.

Today I happily participate in the Los Angeles scene instead.

So much has happened in the networking scene in one year.

On-line, I got a head-start on Twitter and watched it go mainstream. Facebook now hums with adults. Spurred by the gradually deteriorating economy, LinkedIn has more, well, links.

IRL (in real life) meet-ups and on-line relationships intertwine. One of the fascinating pieces of glue pulling them together is photography. Flickr’s storage platform and FacebooK’s photo tagging system makes timely sharing easy.

Over this year Wm. Marc Salsberry has emerged as The Man taking tech glitterati photos in Los Angeles. There are other shooters of course, including my fabulous husband Ray, who took this popular photo of Marc January 11th as we exited PhotoLA.

Wm. Marc Salsberry by Ray Gordon

A year ago, Kevin Winston, My Space movie marketer, was just starting up Digital LA. Now attendees from Sony Pictures, Yahoo!, FOX Interactive Media, Google, Disney, WB, NBC, Vivendi Games, and other entertainment, studios, ad agencies, startups, and tech companies mingle at sold-out monthly gatherings. The January 28th happening at Coco DeVille was electric.

Kevin Winston and I at WebTV Jan 15

Feb 5th, I got a Social Networking Insider newsletter from Marc Lesnick and Mark Brooks that read:

SNC2009 West will be in Los Angeles and is scheduled for (June 25-26). We’ve moved it from SF to LA because … LA is becoming the new ‘hot area’ for tech.

Hollywood Web TV Meet-Ups bring together the Digital Film set. Tubefilter’s Marc Russell Hustvedt hosts these events and recently created an award, the Streamys. I nominated The Last Single Girls webisodes series that The Courage Group produced with Jerusha Stewart. The February 4th meet-up at maniaTV Studios was immense. My marketing savvy NYC pal, Tim McHale recently concurred with me that LA is where digital film is happening.

Sean Michael Beyer and I taken by Kent Schmidt at WebTV Feb 4

Efren Toscano and his handsome TechZulu crew are out and about live streaming the key LA tech meetups, including BarCampLA Oct 26 at Mahalo headquarters where I spoke on “Single Life: On-Line/Off-Line Integration”. TechZulu celebrates their one year anniversary February 11th at the Beverly Wilshire Sidebar.

We’ll be at TwistUP 5 February 12th at Santa Monica airport. SingularCity is a media sponsor.

The women in tech and film in LA are not being left behind.

LaLaWag got me on video at Girls in Tech, answering a question no one else had a real answer to, “Who are the female heroes of tech?” My answer: Esther Dyson!

Robyn Nicole Cohen), Girls in Tech LA host, here with Jackie Peters and Laurie Percival @V Lounge Jan 27. Photo by Wm. Marc Salsberry

Jackie Peters, founding partner of Heavy Bag Media, hosts SMCLA events. January 11th, we enjoyed her Sunday brunch. Here’s Anita Ondine who was on her “Social Media Club LA – Focus on Film” panel (photo by Ray Gordon).

You never know when everyone’s favorite recruiter, Melissa Hooven, may show up so make sure to have enough business cards on hand.

Melissa Hooven, Marsha Collier and I on New Years Day at the Belvedere (photo by Ray Gordon)

Famous author of the eBay for Dummies series, Marsha Collier, and I will be at Lotay Yang‘s Black Card Circle Foundation Black Tie at the Ritz Carlton Feb 7.

I went through a phase of not owning a TV for three years before moving to Japan in 1981.

In Japan I began watching TV to study Japanese. The dramas were pretty easy to follow even with minimal understanding of the language. I liked to use American movies broadcast in Japanese because I already knew the story so I could absorb the language almost subconsciously. I found TV a great right-brained way to study.

Broadcasting TV subtitles are not mandatory for television sets directed at Japanese consumers but I managed to find one. NHK was the leader but gradually the commercial stations produced more and more shows with closed caption sub-titles. This is a terrific way to study Japanese. Watching the story unfold, listening and reading is a great right brain left brain medley. I still have a collection of VHS tapes (I know, ancient technology) I made in Japan. Over the years, people would tell me my Japanese sounded “natural” as opposed to “textbook” which I attribute to the influence of TV.

I also watched Japanese TV to follow consumer taste. The style in Japan for commercial broadcast TV is to present a series of 12 shows that trap you in the story. While on the mission of checking out a hit show to better understand my customers, I would certainly get hooked from time to time. A show title that translated to “I Owe Her Money” was one of my favorites. It was about a man who falls in love with a professional money lender.

I found this method of studying language so useful that I used American movie DVD’s to study French and then Italian when I was working for Club Med and Barilla (supported by Berlitz lessons). The great thing about DVD’s is I can watch in French/Italian with English titles and then in French/Italian with French/Italian subtitles. The work days in Japan are very long but it is possible to squeeze in 30 minutes here and there. I set up an exer-cycle in front of the TV for morning exercise before dashing to the office.

These days I like watching TV in Spanish, which is very convenient in LA. I especially like HBO Latina because it broadcasts Spanish closed caption. Unfortunately it isn’t broadcast in Hawaii. I guess I am the only person spending time in Hawaii that wants to see it.

Why do you watch TV?