Regardless of your feelings re: drugs, parenting, etc., there is absolutely no denying her talent. And if you try to deny her talent, I’ll cut you. RIP
Archives for category: This just in – current events
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
Yes, I have a brand new car. And yes, it gets fantastic gas mileage. But I’m still riding the MAX to work and this is why …
I stopped driving to work when I realized that the never-ending construction on MLK & Grand was sending me to an early grave. Not just because of the skyrocketing blood pressure from moving less than a mile in 20+ min. But, also because the likelihood of me ramming full speed into the next person who cut me off was almost guaranteed. Combine that with the rising gas prices, and, my friends, the MAX just seemed like a better option. Especially since my work pays for my monthly MAX ticket. So basically it’s $4 (maybe $5 soon) a gallon + impending car repair (from teaching someone a valuable lesson), or free. Hmmmm, tough choice.
So now I drive my new little Yaris a smooth and enjoyable two miles to the park-and-ride, before loading on like cattle with my fellow commuters for a 30 minute ride from the suburbs to the city. Most people do their best to keep their iPods at a reasonable level and avoid eye contact at all costs. I like this about my fellow commuters. Perhaps there will be some stories to come, so stay tuned.
Thanks to the awesome people at Social Fresh Portland, I will be attending next Monday’s conference for the low, low price of $FREE! Yay!!
I’m loving that the focus of the conference is on case studies and getting down to the brass tacks of using social media in business. I’m really trying to bring social media to Generator Group, but in B2B I’m having a really hard time showing the value. I feel like a lot of the social media conversation usually centers around B2C companies so I’m looking forward to the panels geared more towards B2B.
Stay tuned for more in the next week!
I spent the weekend exploring, what I like to call, the Wild West of Eastern Oregon with @amber_mckenna. Stationed in Pendleton for the duration of her Snowden internship, Amber invited me to a little thing called the Farm City Pro Rodeo. Actually it wasn’t little, it was quite large complete with an accompanying fair.
We trolled the fair grounds on Saturday and immediately I was overcome with the urge to buy a funnel cake. As I kept an eye out for a vendor of my favorite fried concoction, I couldn’t help but notice the ridiculous amount of other fried things. Besides the regular funnelcakes, twinkies and elephant ears, there were fried cinnamon rolls, pizza and coke! I was not brave enough to hazard a taste but Amber had tried the coke earlier in the week and did not speak highly of it.
After wondering around for a bit, we found ourselves in the middle of pig auction. Now this is definitely something I can say I had never seen before, nor want to. The smell alone was enough to send me running, but my piqued interest kept me seated. It seemed absurd that these pigs were being sold for over $300, but then again, considering how much we paid for our labradoodle who will not provide us with bacon for a year, maybe it wasn’t that crazy.
We ate dinner at a delicious Mexican restaurant and then headed over to the stadium to grab seats for the main event. The entire stadium was filled with cowboy hats, boots, denim and beer.
The first event was the bareback riding, which to me seemed unnecessarily and extremely painful. Yet all the cowboys walked it off and found their way back to the gates on their own after being thrown off.
The crowd favorite was definitely the bull riding. As the crowd chanted and clapped at the announcement of the event, you could feel the heightened anticipation.
Once we saw the first cowboy ride out of the gates and hit the ground, we understood why it was so revered. This first rider didn’t move for about five minutes while the medics tended to him.
Amber and I look fondly at the memories of this weekend and our first rodeo (minus the rodeo clown). But it wasn’t all fun and games, some lessons were learned.
1. Don’t drink too much (bathroom line > beer line)
2. Matching corsets and jeans are perfectly acceptable for friends to wear.
3. Oversized crosses on necklaces and hats are super trendy (especially when accessorized with turquoise).
4. Late night funnel cake + coors lite = bad dreams
5. Always leave a 50 ft. radius between you and any animal barn.
For those of you who don’t know me well, I am addicted to trashy reality TV. It’s my ultimate weakness and Project Runway is one of my less shameful favorites (along with, cringe, Rock of Love and American Idol). I’ve watched all the seasons and absolutely love it. So imagine my complete and utter shock when I’m just going about my business at work, Eugene Swim and Tennis Club, and in walks one of the contestants from the original season, Austin Scarlett! Apparently he is the grandson of one Buzz Summers, a tennis pro at ESTC, and was in town for Buzz and Joyce’s 50th anniversary. They were making the rounds in Eugene and stopped at the club. Pretty much the best day at work EVER. Shook hands and conversed. Love it.
I see the newspaper’s problem as two pronged; their current business model is severely flawed and their content is not original. I think at the core of the newspaper industry’s problem is the fact that they are trying to continue to charge for something that, at the same time, they are giving away for free. If you talked to CEOs in any other industry, they would laugh at that business model. I understand that the idea of charging consumers for both mediums, print and online, seems like a daunting task, but it’s absurd to continue giving away all your content for free. It might be easier to start with charging news aggregators, websites or services that only serve to collect news articles from other sources without contributing any content. This would be a way to avoid newspapers charging each individual consumer and targeting other companies that are making a profit from their work. If those companies in turn charge the consumers, it is their decision. Either way you go, the shift must be made simultaneously across the country.
The second problem I see with newspapers is the heavy reliance on wire services. When I read the Oregonian and the Register Guard on the same day, I see about 80% of the same stories. It’s ridiculous. I don’t see the point of having two different papers when it’s the same stuff over again. So my suggestion is to work on specializing or localizing the news. I realize it is tough to finance foreign reporters, especially now that they are hemorrhaging money, but at least with the local/regional news get original.
My last suggestion for newspapers is to turn reporters into personalities. Foster a personal connection between the reporter and audience. That could be done in a lot of different ways. They could get involved locally through service organizations, schools or churches. It could also be involvement online through blogging or tweeting. Anything that gets a conversation going between the audience and the reporter would be a good place to start. A huge emphasis has been placed on avoiding biases but I think at this point, everyone realizes that reporters aren’t robots – they have opinions, perspectives and some aren’t even that good at hiding them. So why try? Why not use them to really focus your audience and gain a core group of support. If readers can identify with a personality – someone who is visible, relatable and that they trust (whether it is because of their political affiliations or backgrounds) – they are less likely to see newspapers as interchangeable. They will be loyal and more willing to pay for the content.
Inspired by a story of a child inadvertently finding out the shocking truth about Santa Claus, Deb Morrison challenged us to create something, anything, about the loss of innocence. Immediately I thought of something that we had been talking about in my international class – child soldiers in Africa. With Blood Diamond bringing the conflict into the mainstream media consciousness, the eyes of the world have once again turned toward Africa. I spent some time looking into a NGO called Invisible Children.
It’s an amazing organization with a unique story. It started as a trip to Africa that three filmmakers untook in search of a story. The footage that they came back with was shocking, horrifying and inspiring. After showing the rough cut to family and friends, the overwhelming response was, how can I help? From that they built their organization on the mission to turn apathy into activism. It has developed into a really innovative campaign that has integrated all types of social media. They have an amazing website as well as a blog, newsletter and an online store. The campaign has even caught the attention of multiple celebrities who have acted as spokespeople.
So for my project, I created a print ad for Invisible Children. I found a really great picture of a child soldier from Uganda. What drew me in were his eyes. They looked sad and hopeful at the same time. I wanted to really emphasize the eyes so I took out all the color except for in his eyes. Because one of the main goals is to offer hope, I made that the slogan.
Here is my final project:
Today is a new day for America. As we usher in a new president, one who built his platform on hope, peace and a better future, I find it appropriate to look at some of my favorite moments that led up to today.
will.i.am produced these two videos after being inspired by Obama’s words.
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I think everyone would agree that Tina Fey was genius with her impersenation of Sarah Palin throughout the campaign.
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After Wieden quit Starbucks, BBDO made quite a splash with their first ad for the coffee giants. Offering a free cup of coffee for anyone who says they voted on election day, Starbucks was accused of breaking the law. Acting quickly, Starbucks amended the offer syaing that, instead, anyone who requests a tall coffee will be given it for free.
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The last video is of Obama’s stirring victory speech he delivered on November 4, 2008 at Grant Park, Chicago.
