• Got depressed
• Gained 50 lbs from the Pizza & Fast Food Diet (from May 2008) *** EDIT to include
• Got laid off from work
• Moved 250 miles back to Houston, Texas
• Started my own business
• Scored my first client
• Pitched a few others, managing a small sales funnel
• Became happy again
• Lost 8 lbs (and counting [down]).

Yeah, it’s quite a list. Today, Mother’s Day, in fact — I felt the need to post I was still alive (and celebrating my mother and mentor) because I had thought for the first time in a long time. The above summary is basically the summary of my year since graduation, and I’m not sad about it.

Today marks the one-year mark since I finished college classes (end of BAMF-student-status). 5 days from now marks the one-year anniversary since I graduated from Texas Tech University. I was sitting on the couch mocking up a Web site, and I couldn’t help but think of my past year and how up and down it was. I laughed, cried, was silently rejected, started falling and then moved, verbally rejected by my job as my job became “unnecessary,” and used 29,900 cell phone minutes (almost 500 hours) in an attempt to maintain my validation as a person, long distance.

In the past 6 weeks, I’ve been thrown to the ground, picked myself up, run away and started over. I’m losing weight and gaining sanity. I don’t regret my roller coaster ride with my first grown-up job, because I learned about what’s truly important to me - family, friends and room to grow professionally. Hopefully my new full-time job (when I get one) will give me the former, and I know I already have the two latter. I also hope my side business will buy a BMW by the end of the year (at least half of one).

So when you don’t know what to do, drop everything and start fresh. That’s what my first year of college has taught me.

*****************

Edit: 10:30 pm, 5/10/2009

I wanted to add some additional thoughts that led to how I actually bounced back. @davidbadash on Twitter was nice enough to give me some Retweet love, so I wanted to expound.

Over the past year, I spent a lot of time feeling inadequate, and sorry for myself. I felt under loved, like I didn’t have any friends (sans two people and my parents, none of whom were local), and that I just wanted to sit on my porch and drink cheap merlot until I fell over.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like if I had made different choices before and after graduation: if being straight would make me more popular and less of a novelty at work (or even pretending, successfully anyways); if being skinny would get me a boyfriend; if being skinny would make me a better sales person; if I should even be a sales person … all these questions ran through my head constantly. I became noticeably unhappy at work, and even more so at home in my solitude.

Then it all culminated with a scare concerning testicular cancer (which I don’t have, as it turns out). All I remember is certain people at work were all of a sudden trying to be my friend, but I wasn’t about to let them feel sorry for me anymore than they already did.

Then in late March, it happened. I got laid off. I knew it was coming, the train was loud and I saw it from the distance (about 5 months in the distance to be exact). I was taught you don’t quit if you don’t have anything else, so I stayed; what else is a new grad to do in a down economy? However, the axe finally fell and within 7 days I was out of Louisiana. The only attachment I still have to my old life are a reference letter, a book of checks and a promise of a returned deposit signed by my apartment complex.

I had toyed with the idea of creative/project management freelancing for more than a year with my friend @claracobb. We went to school together, have a mad design synergy, plus I know the tech side and she is better at typography than I am. So since she is uber busy with her current job, I went out on a limb as soon as I got back to Houston and decided I was going to start my own business, sell it like it was hot, and buy a BMW by January 2010.

Upon arriving to Houston, I started going to the gym immediately, started eating right, and immediately set out to establish CCComm, the affectionate term for CCCommunications. I decided to find freelancers and find out how it was setup, and I hit the ground running. To date, I have signed my first client, and have several bids pending. I’m hoping June will amount to be a $4,000 month (take that Louisiana Unemployment).

However, details aside, I spent too much damned time feeling sorry for myself in Louisiana. I decided to restart, pull the plug and start over again. I have better things to do than feel sorry for myself. I have friends, live music, my cat, my parents and the best group of professionals who are supporting me, that I could EVER ask for.

So again, I say: if your life sucks, or you just got laid off (fired?): pull the plug. Pull it, seriously. Reboot the system and choose to be happy. Choose to be productive. I learned first-hand, it’s all about the choice; and that sometimes that choice is easy, and sometimes it’s harder than quitting crack (analogy based off stereotypes, I’ve never actually done crack). But anywho, make the choice: it’ll change your life … I know it changed mine.

Somebody needed to get the man a teleprompter. The one joke everybody remembers is about how the president apparently is as good a bowler as retarded kids.

“I bowled a 129. . .it was like the Special Olympics or something.”

Unlike his predecessor, who often spoke blithering nonsense and excelled at mashing words from a teleprompter and ad-libbing nonsense, B-Rock has a different problem. He only speaks truly eloquently when he can read it from a t-prompt.

When he goes off script, he continues to be the smartest kid in the class only because his arguments become circular and he uses big words and nobody notices.

In this instance, he was just a jerk.

I am 99 percent sure before a show like the Tonight Show, producers from the show and/or the host talk about certain things that they’ll be talking about. So, the President knew what was coming up. He should have spoken with foul-mouthed Rahm Emmanuel beforehand to learn the jokes he probably shouldn’t say and then spoken with wonder-nanny Mom-in-law to make sure the chosen jokes were cleaned up.

It’s okay that he’s not good without the prompter. You can’t be awesome at everything. But his staff should have gone over the jokes with him, over and over and over again before he went on.

Because now he’s got Maria Shriver on his ass.

When I was in D.C. the premiere for Tropic Thunder, there were many groups that turned out to protest its repetitive use of the word “retard”. I’m not a big fan of being politically correct religiously; I think it robs a lot of truth from the political process and gets in the way of real progress between different groups of people.

But it was hard to come out of that movie, where I laughed a decent amount of Downey Jr.’s rant about going ‘full retard’ to stare into the face of a man with Downs Syndrome holding a sign saying “I’m not a ‘retard’” outside the theatre. It wasn’t funny anymore and I felt pretty ashamed.

Mr. Obama should go take a look at the incredible kids that participate in Special Olympics. I was blessed to get to know the Boerne Special Olympics team while I was in high school. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by the lame brief side note, but these kids should look up to people like The President.

Time to man up and remember that. You’re not the adorable candidate on the campaign trail anymore. The thing about being president is that when you say something the words aren’t just magnified by the microphone anymore. Everything has larger consequences, as he’s finding out.

P.S. I’ve seen those kids compete. They’re a lot better than you insinuated. It would have been funnier to say, “Me bowling is like when Michael Jordan tried playing baseball.” That would have shown bravery and that he isn’t afraid to hit his base (a.k.a. Chicago Bulls’ fans).

In honor of tonight’s series finale, I’m going to do a quick blog post dedicated to “the Bucket,” one of the smartest shows on TV (which you’ll get to see for its final two hours and eleven minutes tonight). Just a warning, those of you not familiar with the show may want to tune-out as much of this is going to seem like banality. The following are highlights for me of what I’ve learned and what you should probably take note of.

Battlestar Galactica has brought incredible stories of human heroism and suffering into our homes for almost half a decade (mostly because SciFi and other events caused our beloved show to have incredibly mind-numbingly frustrating long hiatuses). Besides all the awesome frakkin’ goodness that comes with the show there is a mantra that resonates in my chosen field of public relations.

This Has All Happened Before And This Will All Happen Again

This special little phrase has been repeated again and again by the One True Cylon God’s angels. I would like to issue this on a little magnet that politicians, reps of non-profits, crisis communication practitioners & wannabes and any CEO out there. This has all frakkin’ happened before and it’s going to frakkin’ happen again. So make sure to take note of similar situations that have happened to your competitors, in your failures and successes.

Never take too much pleasure in the downfall or method of self-imposed implosion of your opponent. You never know when the seductive Number Six Cylon, nicknamed Karma is going to spank or slap you. There are some tried and true methods of avoiding disaster or avoiding bigger disaster if you know how things have gone in the past. (For bad examples, please refer to one Doctor G. Baltar).

As a quick geek-out sidenote, I like the idea of “THAHBATWAHA” because the pinnacle of human civilization will probably be creating our own artificial life and intelligence. It’s about as far as we can go to becoming gods. But in true “THAHBATWAHA” fashion, spiritual followers will always tear down their temples. We’ll be masters of our own destruction. It’s only a matter of time, right? Even if some do survive, we’ll just forget those important lessons we’ve learned and come to that pinnacle again and then . . . well, you know.

This ain’t SciFi, this is REAL.

Another reason BSG’s resonation level has been so high is because all the characters are so, human. For a while, you appreciated the Cylons because of the mere fact that they were able to be consistent in their actions –always bad. Our human heroes kept criss-crossing into doing bad things and redeeming themselves but then frakkin’ up royally again. Their fallibility has made it more real. Sometimes even the audience can’t see a bad idea or the fruit of the characters misbehavior until it shows up in the form of a Toaster.

But really, how smart is Battlestar Galactica? How important and life-altering is it really? Well look no further than the United Nations. In one of the first relevant moves we’ve seen in a while, they’ve taken a close look at BSG and the issues it addresses (which were either ripped from the headlines, Law & Order style, or just social commentary about the world we’re living in).

You can find that here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/media/16galactica.html?_r=1

It redefined the role of what women leaders look like

I recall that the black president on 24 once claimed to have been the one to pave the way to the White House for Barack. I said hueey then. Likewise, if anybody thinks that the lady-prez on this season of 24 is doing the same, I’d just like to say:

BACK THE FRAK’ OFF MARY MCDONNELL BEAT YOU TO IT. Laura Roslin could beat the hell out of you with her EYE-TEETH lady. So don’t be claimin’ no titles.

Seriously, though. Roslin’s journey through the series has been on incredible, pragmantic, inspired and heartfelt ride. Without Ms. McDonnell it would have never been possible. The range she gave Roslin was so real and natural. My two favorite scenes of Laura would probably be in the first season when she orders the military to shoot down a hijacked civilian ship. You can see the emotion in her eyes, the regret and tenderness but also the resoluteness.

My other favorite is when she’s interrogating Baltar. Her voice and overall power scared the hell out of me while also wishing we had a woman in government who could pull that off.

My big passion is women’s rights. We need more female voices in government and I want to help make that a reality. The problem? Gods damn it, President Roslin. You set the bar so high. Little girls should be looking up to you. Not some shakey grandmother-type president or some salty-bimbo zip code specific socialite. You are intelligent, stunning, powerful resolute and compassionate. And I know that in the future, the model that Mary McDonnell has set up for female leaders will be used across the board.

P.S. The other women I’m in love with on the show for their strength, and admittedly, hotness (Hi! Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Katee Sackhoff, Kate Vernon, Rekha Sharma) only add to this pyramid of female leadership that has driven the fleet across the galaxy.

Extended P.S. My best friend and I identified highly with Tigh and Adama. But, special note is that these men were driven many times by the women that they hung out with

Gods Bless BSG. You will be missed.

It’s something that seems like such a no-brainer, but it’s something a lot of marketers, especially those of us who double as a creative services team, can easily forget. I know from personal experience when you get excited about all the different creative options, media choices and what my public relations professors would have called “tactics.”

In fact, this takes me back to the day where we discussed goals, objectives, strategies and tactics in PR campaigns class. I only recall this because during this planning stage, where you create an organizational needs assessment to determine what your goals, objectives, strategies and tactics ought to be, you also take into consideration your target markets — your buyer personas. The people you want to reach with your marketing messages. The most important part of the plan.

The book had a great way of how to create a buyer persona, and immediate upon reading it I thought, “Duh,” but then realized how easy it is to assume what people will respond to, and how important thorough research can be. To really research your buyer persona, it’s like creating a persona for your brand. What does your specific buyer look like (in general)? What are their activities? What other products or services do they use or subscribe to? How do they speak, are there regional phrases you should take into account?

In my, and the author’s, opinion, I believe all of this information should supercede the 4 P’s of Marketing. It’s one of those things where you don’t know where to put it (place), how to price it (price) or who to tell about it (promotion) unless you’ve done your homework first. Dr. Seltzer would be proud that somebody got the message about research before you act.

So in end, before getting caught up in strategy and individual tactics and their implementation, do your homework and check it twice. Then decide on colors, designs and messages that you can actually direct to your buyer personas.

It’s a sub-compact, great on gas mileage, blah blah blah. I like the car. This however, isn’t the sole purpose of my writing on this topic.

Wondering what the purpose is by now? Ford’s newest social media foray: The Fiesta Movement.

The movement encourages anybody over the age of 21 to submit a video about why they should have access to a 2011 Ford Fiesta, imported straight from Germany. They will pick 100 of their favorite videos (and people) to get a Ford Fiesta, as well as paid insurance and gas for 6 months. The whole point? Promote the Ford Fiesta to a large number of people via the Internet. Each agent (of change) will have a monthly secret mission they have to complete, and then report back on via youTube videos, blog posts and tweets.

So what does this really mean? In technical terms, we’re seeing a MAJOR brand who is participating in the conversation, and not just watching it, or worse, being oblivious to it. Ford knows the economy is rough, they’re feeling the pinch as their sales dropped 48% in Q4 2008. They know they need to do something bad ass to sell cars. So what better way to sell cars, than make a car that fits peoples’ needs, and then make everybody want it by making them green with envy. Choose special people and make them do public things, it’s almost Barnum-like as a PR strategy, but less shady. In essence, this is a massive psuedo-event that takes place across the U.S., and invites people to join the show. In fact, they want people to go to all ends to get picked, so that way it’s much more a badge of honor.

I personally feel this is pretty effing cool. For transparency purposes, I have to say I applied to be a secret agent myself. I’m really excited about the prospect of 1) having a “new” car, even if it’s only temporary, and 2) having MORE reason to do and learn more about video production.

So, you can join the movement by going to fiestamovement.com, and I encourage you to view and rate my own entry … because I want the damned car.

On Nov. 4, 2008 we had two historic things happen: we elected President Barack Obama, who I have yet to make a real decision on (I’ll wait until his 100 days is up and see how I feel); and in Calif., they decided to restrict a constitutionally-granted right from a group of people because they are different.

I’m not a big fan of restricting voices. I like to thank Voltaire, because it was he who said (approximately) “I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” I don’t always agree with everything I see or here, but I know that it’s their right to say it. I just wish they’d respect my right to say what I believe when I do so verbally. It’s so easy for people to say, “Get outta here if you don’t like it,” but we all know that’s silly.

Anyways, oral arguments are tomorrow which means we should have a decision by June 5th, 2009. The State realizes that rights were taken by a simple majority vote, when a major constitutional revision requires at least a super majority (2/3 vote) which is an amount of support the pro-Prop 8 group NEVER had.

So watch the oral arguments online tomorrow from 9a-12p Pacific or later on the Internet. I’ll be giving my comments tomorrow night, as I’m stepping off the soap box for tonight!

So be watching for more of him! He will publish on Thursdays.

Although the definition of Twitter success depends largely on your view of it (how much traffic is driven to your Website, the number of @ replies you get or the number of followers you have) let’s take a look at some examples of ways to be Twitterific.

Ashton Kutcher
Username: Aplusk
# of Followers: 105,243
Website: http://blahgirls.com/

As a public figure/(kind of) movie star, Ashton succeeds in letting people into the star-studded life. By 9:15 p.m. CST on Wednesday he had chirped 23 times.

And not just about walking down read carpets. He Twitters about everything from Kabbalah, to Nine Inch Nails and his favorite quotes. Despite not doing much (as seen on IMDB anyway) for the last two years Mister D. Moore has several film projects coming up. So by massively Tweeting this could be Asthon’s way of ramping up interest in him and his upcoming movies, or a blind grab to stay relevant. Heck, he might even do it for fun (like a lot of us). But he’s been in the news negatively, crying via YouTube and Twitter about his neighbors waking him up at an all-too-early 7 a.m. Maybe if he weren’t Tweeting at three-in-the-morning he’d be making his December counterpart breakfast at 7 a.m. Attacking your neighbor’s construction crew (a segment of the population that needs all the work they can get these days) about waking you up at 7 a.m. (when most school kids are getting up to go to school and their parents head to work) Kutcher’s asshattiness makes him, to me at least, a lot less likeable. . . And we even had that hometown Iowa connection. . .

Lessons Learned:
1. When Twittering, ask yourself: Will this chirp make me look like an asshat? (as in entitled, standoffish or out-of-touch).
2. Also, ask yourself: Should I back away from Twittering and do something productive which would produce something worthy to chirp about?

Anderson Cooper
Username: AndersonCooper
# of Followers: 17,739
Website: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/

You think as one of the biggest anchors in the world, you would see some exciting Tweets from Andy Coop. And you’d be way, way wrong. Like Anderson’s single facial expression, his Tweets are bland and conformist. HEADLINE, LINK. HEADLINE, LINK. HEADLINE, LINK. Come on Anderson, I want to know if you accidentally spilled a little coffee on your tie before going on air or if you just broke the story about Ashton cheating on Demi with his Twitter account. But all we get is the same oatmeal-flavored headlines which feel like they’ve been read off the news ticker. I know the old-world ideal of a news anchor was emotionless, but you’re young, you’re hip and you’ve got a widely watched news show. You need to let us in what it’s like to be you, and it wouldn’t be hard to make those interesting tidbits about your life to the news. Because you live to cover the news. Make it a little more real to us through your experience please.

It feels like you were punishing an unpaid intern by locking him in a bathroom stall with a computer and wireless card, instructing him to cut and paste headlines and links into the Twitter feed.

Come on, Anderson, your Twitter feed is about as exciting as Larry King and Wolf Blitzer giving speeches at a bar mitzvah.

Lessons Learned:
1. If you’re going to link us to something, be funny and create relevance. If you don’t mix it up a little bit people are going to lose interest or not look.
2. Give us insight into your life (a reasonable amount anyway). You’re ANDERSON FREAKING COOPER! You get to go to places and meet people that 99.9 percent of us will never see or be introduced to. We want to know if you and Shepard Smith over at Fox were bonding by making fun of Wolf’s beard. That shit’s funny!

Claire McCaskill
Username: clairecmc
# of followers: 5,947
Website: None

I originally started following the Senator from Missouri after I read at Politco.com that she was Tweeting during Inauguration ceremonies. She had a better seat than me so I thought it would be cool to experience it through somebody that was there.

Despite a lack of links, she does give personal insight into what’s going on—and oftentimes it relates to the major issue of the day. She’s done a good job highlighting progress or inept behavior of the (Republican, at least) members of Congress. It’s a great way to get out your message and keep up contact with your constituents.

Some golden Tweets from Claire:

Don’t know when we’re going to vote. Will the no votes delay vote just because they can?Speed is important. They know that.
1:58 PM Feb 12th from TinyTwitter

Thurs is coffee and bagels for any Mo visitors to DC. Over 30 folks this am. Lots of pics in my office. Usually great questions
8:22 AM Feb 12th from TinyTwitter

Just did interniew with CNN on tweeting. Talking about the personal nature of my tweets. Want to be real. And share work.
10:33 AM Feb 11th from TinyTwitter

She highlights her message, promotes events and talks policy. I know at least Politco watches her Twitter account. She lets the press know that she’s ready and on top of issues and available during crunch time when the public really wants and needs to know what’s going on.

The Senator summed it up pretty good in the last Tweet highlighted here. Yo! Public officials/figures, listen up! When you’re communicating with us here at Twitter use the three R policy: Be Relevant. Be Real. Respond to us.

Got it kids? Real, Relevant, Respond. It’s that easy.

And we will tune in if you do.

After hearing oral arguments they have 90 days to make a decision as to whether or not to invalidate the proposition.

We will await the oral arguments, and hopefully they will be posted online before the decision. If they are, I look forward to critiquing them.

So keep watching for more information!

Here is the quoted article from advocate.com (and a link).

The California supreme court will begin to hear oral arguments on March 5 that will decide the fate of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the state.

The legal challenge is brought by groups like the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the American Civil Liberties Union, who are arguing that Prop. 8 is invalid because the people of California have established safeguards that prohibit the underlying principles of the California constitution from being changed by a simple majority vote (Prop. 8 passed with just 52% of the vote). By taking away a right from one group, the lawsuit argues, Prop. 8 violates the most basic principle of our government: that all people are entitled to equal treatment under the law.

California attorney general Jerry Brown — who has voiced interest in running for governor of the Golden State — is also asking the court to invalidate Prop. 8 on the grounds that certain fundamental rights, including the right to marry, are inalienable and cannot be put up for a vote.

On January 15, 43 friend-of-the-court briefs — from bar associations, religious groups, and legal scholars – urging the court to invalidate Prop. 8 were filed, arguing that Prop. 8 drastically alters the equal-protection guarantee in California’s constitution and that the rights of a minority cannot be eliminated by a simple majority vote.

In May 2008 the California supreme court held that laws that treat people differently based on their sexual orientation violate the equal-protection clause of the California constitution and that same-sex couples have the same fundamental right to marry as other Californians. Prop. 8 eliminated this fundamental right only for same-sex couples. No other initiative has ever successfully changed the California constitution to take away a right only from a targeted minority group.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU filed this challenge on November 5, representing Equality California, whose members include many same-sex couples who married between June 16 and November 4, 2008, and six same-sex couples who want to marry in California. The California supreme court has also agreed to hear two other challenges filed on the same day: one filed by the City and County of San Francisco (joined by Santa Clara County and the City of Los Angeles, and subsequently by Los Angeles County and other local governments); and another filed by a private attorney.

The California supreme court must issue its decisions within 90 days of oral arguments. (Neal Broverman, Advocate.com)

I’m submitting a photo this week, if you have gay friends or family, or are in fact gay, I suggest you do the same.