JENi ON THE RUN

Do Some Sm(art) in 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 26 May 2017 04:23:00 +0000

'To create' has a distinct before and a dramatically different after, doesn't it? There is a starting point and there is an end.

Abe Lincoln said, "Whatever you are, be a good one."

Smart man.

Whatever you do in 2017, do some art, too.

To Share Is To Be Safe

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 15 May 2016 01:24:00 +0000

I just watched the movie Spotlight during a recent 4 hour flight. It was the story of the Boston Globe's investigative reporting team that uncovered widespread and systematic child abuse by Roman Catholic Priests and what's more; shared the story with the world. 

While watching the movie, I thought of my days as a reporter. I thought of my friends and loved ones so closely associated with the Catholic Church. I thought of my own siblings as we grew up in a less than perfect household. But mostly I thought of my own children and my desire to protect them from absolutely anything bad, let alone horrific. 

Then I visited Facebook and scrolled through the updates of friends and loved ones. With the story of the thousands of young boys molested at the hands of their trusted Catholic leaders fresh on my mind, I scrolled through many comments about how transgender bathrooms could potentially allow child molesters to gain access to our vulnerable children. Some comments are neutral but most are filled with fear or vile one way or another. There is an obvious divide when it comes to the hot topic of transgender bathrooms, but I question if that is the real issue. Is it not the ability to protect the vulnerable in our society that we are all concerned about? 

Since moving to Australia, most of the public bathrooms I have used have been all-gender bathrooms. Some even have timers on them, telling me I have 10 minutes to pee before the door unlocks automatically. Others are make-shift bathrooms that a number of businesses share. Some are well-kept and some are absolutely unbearable. Restaurants do not have to offer patrons public bathrooms, like they do in America. I'm not really sure why but that doesn't matter much. At the end of the day, it's not a question as to whether or not a person has balls, but a personal choice.

And that's the issue. It's about making things more personal and allowing the world to get a little more personal, too. Making it "okay" to share and even, dare I say, encouraged to slow down long enough to make a real connection and actually care about something. I'm talking about getting involved and staying involved and evolving as the world around us experiences painful growing periods. Because when we stop growing, we start dying. And who, among us, wants to try and thrive in a world where death becomes us?

The concern to protect our most vulnerable is a shared characteristic of human beings that I, for one, adore. It's this desire to want to help, protect, to love and be loved that cuts across religions, gender identities, communities and continents. 

This last thought for today is an image that I grabbed from a friend's Facebook post after riding the roller coaster of emotions that comes with staying grounded and growing at the same time. Landing on this screen shot gave me peace and I hope it does the same for anyone taking the time to read it. I guess the point of this story is that Facebook is not all that bad, and either are we. 

Did you know that in more than 60% of all sexual offenses, the victim knows the offender?

The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) is an unprecedented public safety resource that provides the public with access to sex offender data nationwide. NSOPW is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and state, territorial, and tribal governments, working together for the safety of adults and children. For more information, please visit https://www.nsopw.gov/en/Home/About.

Fear vs Hope; what influences you to action?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 00:41:00 +0000

We are tired. We are poor.

We are now huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

And we have come to a crossroads in American political history. In world history, really, if you listen to the rest of the globe as they watch with personal interest while holding bated breathe.

What will America do? How will America vote?

Consider, for a moment, the etched bronze plague on the Statue Of Liberty. The words so heavy and true in 2016 just as they were penned in 1883 by American poet Emma Lazarus (1849-1887).

Here is the original sonnet titled, "The New Colossus."

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Who is the brazen giant? What is the Mother of Exiles? Who is the tired, the poor?

What does America need now most; to be protected or to be a safe place? Can one element really exist without the other?

These questions are soul-searching, painful and dangerous to address, but we need to. As a group, we are tired of the current scene and even more weary of personal politics, agenda setting and ego fighting as a strategy for the leader of the free world. We are ethics-poor and humanity-starved. The rest of the world is watching as we huddle together to determine what to do, where to go and who to follow home. It's easy to see that America needs a servant leader now more than ever. A leader who will lead by example, with truth and compassion, but with strength both of character and virtue. We need to be able to trust our leadership, trust each other and trust ourselves. We do not need to be scared. We already are fearful of even ourselves. A servant leader is what we need most.

The one question every voting American needs to ask themselves as they head to the ballot is this:
"Am I voting out of fear or am I voting with hope in my heart?"

Godspeed America. Please make yourself well again.

It's All In A Word. Vote.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 23:35:00 +0000

Have you been watching what's happening in America lately?

If you are alive and exposed to virtually or literally any form of media, no doubt you've come across a few stories on Donald Trump and his bid for the leader of the free world.

No doubt you've seen some of his performances, where he engages in a back and forth sort of conversation/shouting match (previously referred to as a political debate) in front of a crowd of cheering & leering fans/protesters.

No doubt you are familiar with the American business tycoon known as "The Donald," and all the good, bad and ugly tales that would make for an absolutely unwatchable biography should it be narrated by Donald himself.

Here's why: he acts like a kindergartner.

I know this because I own one myself. I've been through three of them and I am here to tell you that I adore kindergartners. Their mannerisms, their stories, their colorful way of embracing and sharing all that life has to offer; their boundless energy, unnerving passion for the most idiotic things (for example; I LOVE CUT UP CHEESE x 500/daily) and most of all, the way they can talk for hours uninterrupted about absolutely nothing but immediately complain of being too tired for words when the sight word homework book hits the kitchen table.

It's a kind of frustration reserved for the 9th circle of hell, but it's also the magic ingredient that makes angels fly.

So when I say Donald Trump acts like a kindergartner, for now, I mostly am referring to the words he chooses because I don't want to insult any kindergartners.

It's his choice of words, how he uses them, how he does (or doesn't in most cases) make sense and how he eventually ends up avoiding the original question entirely. Does that make him a kindergartner? No. It makes him a salesman.

A really good smarmy salesman. A very successful salesman. Potentially a salesman that will say anything to close the deal.

Don't take my word for it.

Another gem. It's a parody, but it's all REAL THINGS TRUMP SAID, in his voice, in your head, almost like Comedy Central's Drunk History except a lot more terrifying.

This one, while only an image, is pretty special, too.

And Trump is not the only one being analyzed for his words, but he certainly is the most entertaining, as is nearly every kindergartner I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

But is 'entertaining' dangerous when it comes to policy-making? Is rudimentary commentary really something we should worry about or something we should embrace? As informed American voters, is political commentary something we should know more about? The author of this piece on phrases most often used by each GOP published in Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight.com* suggests so and I think it's right on.

And I'm not alone. This is much bigger than us. The whole world is watching and wondering what the hell is going on.

I'm also not in America, so I get to witness firsthand what others think of US right now. And it ain't pretty.

Of course, that's not to say that "It's (Only) All In A Word," because sometimes there are no words.

Sometimes body language carries more weight than even the loudest loud mouth.

*Need more proof? Be sure to check out the facts found at FiveThirtyEight.com GitHub site. "The debates are exhaustively transcribed and annotated by The Washington Post. The version used in this analysis, combined and edited slightly for syntax, can be found on GitHub. "

How Our Vision Changes as We Travel

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 01:15:00 +0000

Moving from one side of the planet to another means a lot of things.

It means, quite literally, the longest recorded flight on the books, which is really all I can say about that, mostly thanks to Ambien and her sweet, sweet warm blanket of uncompromised slumber.

It means weeks, if not months, of wading through 20 plus years of combined households and definitively placing every single item in one of three bins: water container, long-term storage or donate.

The status of those three bins, you may be wondering, just as I am? The water container still has not arrived even though we are well past month number 2 of this 36 month adventure. We've been through all seven stages of death with our unforlorn water container, now joking that our belongings are at the bottom of the ocean next to Leo and his doorframe to nowhere. The long-term storage goods and wares were sent off to a local long-term storage facility a few weeks after Halloween of last year, so please don't ask me what I am storing long-term. That part of my life seems like a dream. As does the amount of trips I took to load my car with what I thought was treasured and useful belongings (mostly my clothes and accessories) to the chosen charities and donation centers. Those things, what I did and how I lived and loved those things, are now but a blurry memory in my minds eye.

My memory, in general, is a lot like my vision. Eerily similar to how my own vision is morphing from myopic to presbyopic as I age, I am losing sight of what I once thought was a reality within my own reach, or in the very least, surrounding me.

Now, more often, I find myself in a place of discomfort and curiosity in what could be, but without the crisp edges of focus on things closer to me. It's altogether unsettling and romantic as can be. I find myself ping-ponging between enjoying isolation and investigation on so many levels one minute, but then desperately lonely and out of sorts the next; looking for familiar scents, places, faces and experiences. I see my child endure the same and am reminded to focus on her; next to me, holding my hand, asking to climb into my lap or laughing at something foreign that would certainly only happen in Australia. It's then that I realize how lucky I am to get to experience this, as unpleasant and unrelenting as this amount of change can be. How lucky for a grown-up to get to endure a child-like lens on life a second time around? To relocate, to age, to grow up; they all mean the same thing. Our vision matures.

The thing I have learned about relocating to the other side of the planet is that relocation does not mean that everything stops or that everything changes. In month 2, relocation to me means adjusting to a vision that is entirely blurry; equal parts frightening and exhilarating and 100% exhausting.

Oh, and one last thing. Bacon. Bacon is not bacon in Australia. And baseball?!?!

Don't get me started on baseball.

A Clear Need For More Diversity in Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 00:44:00 +0000

So the good news is that I have finally memorized my Australian phone number.

The bad news is that Australia does not have Twizzlers. Which means I am very close to sending a resume and business proposal to the Twizzler head office back in the US and make a case for why they need to expand into the land down under in a big way.

I realize the hilarity of this scenario. Australia. Australian licorice. Perhaps Twizzler decided to strategically avoid this market due to magic and wizardy of the unknown Australia licorice underworld; a black market, dare I say. I mean, I KNOW we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. It's the wonderful world of Oz. Land of cricket, rugby, football, spiders, ants and snakes. All that jazz. But seriously, where have all the Twizzlers gone?

And more importantly, how to bring them here. It's not as easy as bringing sexy back. But I think it may be worth it. If there is anything that a land full of one thing (black licorice) needs most, it's Twizzlers, or ya know, diversity. I would probably settle on my luggage arriving from America, now that I have been in my host country for more than a month. But Twizzlers would be nice, too.

Also, I would enjoy cars that drive on the right side of the road. Because now I can do both. I drug my feet at first. I whined. I complained. I was super afraid that I was going to kill my whole family or another carful of decent human beings. But then I charged through all the discomfort and made it to the other side. Now I'm a little embarrassed that I resisted so much. It's not a perfect relationship, but every day gets a little easier. But when I'm tired, eating, drinking, chewing gum, reaching for a pen, trying to scratch my calf, checking to see if I forgot something or something just fell over and is spilling around in the back of the car, well I gotta admit, I default to driving on the right side of the road. And let's face it. Rarely am I simply just driving around, paying attention to the road like a grown ass adult should do, not trying to multitask or daydream or maybe take a little extra mental time for myself. Which means that I now celebrate being able to chew gum AND drive at the same time.

Which is not much to celebrate, I realize, but if there is one thing I am learning in this adventure 9000 miles away from my comfort zone, it's to celebrate the small stuff.

Like Twizzlers.

Exercise Your Words Carefully

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Words matter, don't you think?

Writing is an art that can be difficult, depending on what you are writing about & who you are writing for. Reading can be difficult, depending on how much the reader gets out of the writing and how much the writer actually put into the writing. But at the end of the day, words are what tells the stories of our lives.

So it got me thinking. Just how much do words really matter?

Let's try something. Read these sentences and concentrate on the emotions you feel as you move from word to word.

1. The hot fudge quickly melted the ice cream into a thick, rich chocolate milk slush. 2. Feel your ribcage melt into your spine and your sitting bones melt into your mat.3. Getting rid of sugar in her diet, she sat back and watched the pounds melt away. 4. She melted into his arms in a warm embrace. 5. Your puppy dog eyes melt my heart.

Now consider a similar word that has an almost similar meaning.
Moist.

That's a pretty gross word. Most rational people will agree, don't you think?

View post on imgur.com

Some lovely irrational yet politically poetic literary wonders seem to agree on the importance of words in our world. Here are just three of my favorite things to keep in mind when writing, reading and living.

I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels. ~ John Calvin

Be obscure clearly. ~ E.B. White

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~ Mark Twain

Be careful. Be creative. Be conscience of others.

Clear. Concise. Compelling.

Know your audience. Trust your audience. Trust yourself.

What other writing advice do you follow?

A New Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 23:11:00 +0000

So, there is this one job...

And with that, we were off.

We packed our house; sent a ton of shit to long term storage and even more crap collected over lifetimes of overindulgence to donation centers. Sweaters, coats, extra handbags, boots, books, toys, games, clothes, clothes and more clothes? All gone.

Our material world has been replaced with sand, wind, salty air, new places and faces, new creatures, a new school, a new job, driving on the wrong side of the road and using technology to stay in touch with loved ones left behind on the other side of the planet.

We relocated from Chicago to Brisbane in the blink of an eye.

It's been more than a month, but yesterday I forgot my iPhone at home and ended up discovering something amazing.

We moved to Australia. We really did.

I would show you proof, I really would. But I left my phone at home.

Proof that even good products can have bad advertising and still work

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 17:36:00 +0000

This morning on my way to work while driving the baby to school, I heard an ad on the radio (how old does that make me sound, geez) and this time I actually listened. (Imagine that. A baby so quiet in the backseat that I can actively listen to a radio ad? I must have a lot on my mind, huh?)

Anyway, I listened to this ad for Flonase. The nose spray that keeps allergies away, you know the one. I know the one. I take it. It works.

But here is the commercial:

"The only thing worse than being stuck in a traffic jam is being stuck in a traffic jam with allergies."

And I thought about that for a moment before my brain exploded.

Really? Really?? REALLY, Flonase?

What is worse; allergies or a dislocated IUD? Allergies or steaming hot coffee spilled in your lap? Allergies or a projectile vomiting baby from the backseat? Allergies or a friend with cancer? Allergies or a divorce? Allergies or a closet full of pants that don't quite seem to fit? Allergies or a cat? (I hate cats, sorry not sorry.)

Then I continued thinking and growing more irritated with the very idea that someone somewhere thought allergies were the only thing that would make being stuck in a traffic jam on a long commute worse. And I cursed them. What privileged lives they lead. What lackadaisical legal experts they get to work with. What lucky bastards they must be!

The only thing worse than being stuck in your car on a bad commute is being stuck in your car with a rabid dog foaming at the mouth; wasp nest that just got knocked over; a tub of maple syrup or garlic mayonaise that just exploded at your feet; a brother in law who ate a really bad burrito last night; any of the Kardashians & all their tomfoolery; not just one, but two children who hate everything you stand for and demand to tell you for the entire trip; etc. The point is, there is no humanly possible way that the only thing worse than being trapped in a car is being trapped in a car with allergies. That's just silly.

The real injustice is the fact that I want to know how on god's green earth a lawyer out there legally approved the copy for this ad?

A lawyer in the pharm world actually didn't require the creative director to provide visual graphs and attribution to studies that prove with empirical findings, that in fact, the ONLY thing worse than being stuck in traffic is being stuck in traffic with allergies.

I mean, it does suck. But it could suck a whole lot more.

Also, please note that I did not listen to the rest of the commercial after my mind exploded, so these lawyers could have very well added a line or two about not being able to substantiate their claims and all that jazz, but I don't care. I've used Flonase and I know it works.

Also, I had a baby that had unwrapped an entire roll of Scotch tape in my backseat to deal with.

It's called the amygdala and it works wonders, really

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 19:24:00 +0000

Marketing is a lot like love.

The endless plight for connection. The goal of unfettered attention and eventually, real and true engagement. Advice is often the same, too. For both marketing and love: Use color. Use images. Aim for a gut reaction.

Above all else, remain human when dealing with individuals who have a primitive brain. That's all of us, by the way.

Source: http://i.marketingprofs.com/assets/images/daily-chirp/12-Secrets-of-the-Human-Brain-infographic-large-picture.jpg

Ah, but what about the human heart, you ask?

It's all in the eye of the beholder, right? Or is it all in the bag? Or it is the bag that's on your head?

Check out loveflutter.com and get exposed to a new way of chasing torrid love affairs of the heart. It's a speed dating business in the business of masking our real identities with brown paper bags adorned with individual creativity. That's right, you show up, craft up a brown paper bag and wear it for the evening. Wearing this bag on your head allows your personality to shine, but let's face it. If the actual designed bag doesn't appeal to someone else's amygdala, then it's likely that the cat will remain. In the bag. And there will be reduced hope for true and literal connection. Just like good old-fashioned marketing aims to do each and every day.

Source: https://www.loveflutter.com/experiences

How McDonald's Won the SuperBowl

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 18:26:00 +0000

So it all started with a tweet.

Then it ballooned into a full-on co-branded love affair.

Take a look.

Don't pay attention to the stock price lately, instead focus on the fact that they serve over 68 million customers a day in 119 countries across the globe at more than 35,000 retail outlets. That's big business on a global scale. That's a complex machine of parts and pieces that must work together or something will definitely give. And while they have been fighting some harsh criticisms and sinking profits, McDonald's offered up a SuperBowl social media case study like we've never seen before. They've got all the ingredients to a successful marketing execution:

1. Consistent branding
2. Clear call to action
3. Simple, concise & yet compelling message/graphics
4. Rewarding experience
5. Relevant in context & content

6. Measurable

McDonald's literally partnered with every single other brand that showed up during the big game. That's a huge feat, considering all that a brand has to go through in order to compliantly partner with another brand, let alone 57 other brands in a 3 hour period. Well done, team McDonald's, well done!

And then, the real winner was declared.

For more information on the state of McDonald's marketing, read the WSJ's recent post with McDonald's CMO Deborah Wahl. She wants to have a unique conversation with America.

Between a man and a girl.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 17:57:00 +0000

The other night at my health club, I found myself walking around the track.

I found myself somewhat stuck behind an older gentleman and a young girl. The man had more than his fair share of pepper in his hair, but truth be told, he could have been anywhere from 40-60.

The girl wasn't a day over 4.

After I finished my workout, I hit the track to do some high-stepping, stretching and general cool downs.

Normally I use this time to relax; figuratively let go of my frustrations, my worries, my day.

Instead, as trailed man & girl, I felt an uncomfortableness grow deep within me, a stir that I usually leverage for my long runs and my extreme workouts. A stir of unrest that powers me to places that a balmy calmed demeanor could not climb.

But I was caught. I was hooked on the story. A story.

Between a

Man.

And a girl of four.

She started the tale with a burst of jubilant enthusiasm, "Did we win?"

He paused for effect and replied, "Is it all about winning or is it all about learning how-to?"

Her words, this time with pain and doubt, stumbled out; "It's all about learning how-to..."

Him: "Are you sure?"

Her words, jagged with anxiety and dripping with pause, "Noooo, but youuuuu said..."

Him: "Sometimes it's about learning how-to because it's not always about winning."

Her: "DID WE WIN?"

Part of me wants to tell you that the man broke down and declared victory, flung the girl high up on his shoulders and paraded her around for all the world to see & celebrate her.

Part of me wants to stop the circle of frustration and anxiety that caught me that night, to spare you from it all.

But I can't. For we live in a world that doesn't work that way. We live in a world where the man continued chiding this girl of four, under the guise of parental authority, equality & education for all that indeed, it's not what you think and dream, it's only what it is. And worse, it's indecision and indifference that scars the deepest.

The girl and man continued for a bit, just as I did. And in the end, the girl stopped asking if they won. They did not celebrate or pretend play or laugh or run like wild horses. They simply changed their shoes and left the building. And I left. With a story of why so many girls spend the rest of their lives trying to overcome feelings of fear and self-doubt.

# # #

Lessons learned here:

1. The worst thing you can do is take a passionate person and make them not care.

2. Also, never ignore the chance to tell a girl she totally kicked ass.

Dear Younger Self

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:57:00 +0000

Dear younger self,

You. Will. Never. Be. An Expert. In. Anything.

And that's okay.

Technology will forever evolve. As soon as you think you have a handle, Snapchat will bite you in the ass. The week after you get a new iPhone, a newer iPhone will be released. As soon as you spend every last marketing dollar on the Google exchange, they will announce that more than half of all their ads go totally unimpressioned. Don't think too much about it or you will lose your mind.

Fashion will come in and out of fashion like last years ombre color palette. Clothes may make the man, but it can make a slave out of an ordinary girl in two New York minutes. Which really is another way of saying that once a year, you should always make an attempt to get rid of the clothes and shoes and bags that you didn't wear or have no plans of wearing again. That's good advice.

Family will always be as challenging as it's rewarding. One can not happen without the other and the other won't ever get easier. Deal with it.

Friends are more important than anything, really. Family is fickle and painful and real life but don't make excuses for enduring rather than enjoying. Work is hardly more than a paycheck at it's very core. For both family and work, find something that contributes to your overall happiness and if it doesn't, find your way out of it. Your body -- oh sweet jesus your body-- will betray you. Trust me. These things I know all too well. Life is both sweet and savory, sometimes even a little acidic. Take care of yourself; take your vitamins and get more sleep. When in doubt, try getting more sleep. That's solid advice.

My best advice is to make peace your present. Make peace with your past, your feelings and those people closest to you that you can't bear to witness the day without.

Think of life as a marathon and think of a marathon as a journey. Don't focus on the finish until it's the only thing in focus. Your body -- with your expensive shoes, wearable devices and hipster headset -- will get you most of the way there, but at the end of the race, it's your head...it's your heart...that carries you to accomplishment.

Above all else, remember to breathe through it all.

Forget wonder, seek serendipity, says FourSquare Founder Dennis Crowley

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 21:54:00 +0000

I believe that Google removed wonder from the world. But I also fear that social media is ultimately teaching us to be less social. And as much as I adore social media (and Google), I'm going to fight it.

Back before Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare or Pinterest, I was shopping at a little boutique in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois.

As I explored the store for the first time, the lady working behind the cash register said hello & made small talk. I mentioned to her that I was looking for a gift for a friend who was under the weather; in serious need of cheering up. "Something sweet and upbeat, like the soundtrack you have playing," I said. She said she would check to see what she was playing and disappeared to the back only to emerge with a handful of "get well and raise hell" gifts that were ultimately perfect for my sick friend. I completed the purchase and left delighted. Surprised and delighted.

But not as surprised nor as delighted as when a week later, a CD showed up in my mail box. The message was simple, "Said I would, then didn't. Sorry about that! Share with your friend. Enjoy!"

Talk about engagement. Surprise. Delight. Emotional connection. Building experiences, not just ringing the cash register. Wow.

That was 15 years ago. Today, people no longer get to experience the wonder of it all. No more anxiety with waiting to find an answer; no more anticipation of a guess or exhilaration of figuring it out yourself. In some cases, shrinking the wait time is wonderful. Have a sick kid? WebMD. Need anything else? Amazon. But in other ways, removing the act of anticipation is devastating. Kids are looking less at story books and more at more screen time. Museum memberships are down and libraries are all but extinct. Why, even walking lanes need to be labeled for mobile phone users who don't have the time to stop and smell the roses.

People don't seem to have time to investigate real life as much as they used to. People don't seem to want to be as connected to other people as they used to because it's too darn easy to connect virtually. We click and request a friend, post a random rant, purchase a product, ping someone somewhere or text to enter and then we move on. We publish, like, share or pin, but do we really care? If we don't have an answer, we don't need to wonder.

Nope. We simply Google it and move on.

Dennis Crowley has been working to exploit that.

Crowley is the founder of Dodgeball and FourSquare, and now Swarm. Dodgeball was sold to Google in 2005 and FourSquare was estimated at somewhere around $1b valuation a while back. Then more recently, FourSquare introduced it's new little check-in app, Swarm, in an attempt to further gain on hitting critical mass. Critics called it a wrong move, but they can't deny it's solid business strategy. In a Mashable article titled, "Why Killing the Check-In Was the Wrong Move for FourSquare," author Karissa Bell talked to a consumer technologist at Gartner, Brian Blau, who said this new technology is already a crowded space and that it's going to be an uphill battle for success. I would argue that the want for a business to connect to a customer has ALWAYS been a crowded space and it should always be part of the battle. It's not a characteristic of an app company; it's a characteristic of a human.

It's true, though, that FourSquare-like technology hasn't enjoyed the same popularity as other social networks. Try as it might, FourSquare hasn't seen the same general usage as Facebook and Twitter. And it's not because the app doesn't work. The whole theory behind optimizing toward serendipity is a REALLY GOOD THING in a world full of predictive behaviors and always-on techno-addicts. In my opinion, FourSquare is not competing with Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, Pinterest, etc. Serendipitous marketing competes with far more important things than other social media networks or marketing messages from other retailers. Serendipitous experiences compete with life; the very details that make us so incredibly busy in the first place.

We are so busy, in fact, that it's challenging to find time to schedule a little surprise and delight. (That's why Pinterest is so lovely, btw.) There is hardly time to enjoy something as simple as running into a friend you haven't seen in a long time or giving (or getting) a surprise gift out of the blue. Talking to a store clerk or asking a human a question before making a buying decision? Hell no, people don't want that, do they? Technology doesn't allow for that kind of spontaneity and thus, people stop aching for it. When it happens, it's almost creepy.

Crowley wants to change that and for that, I applaud him. And others are copying him, so he must be onto something. If you've been tracking what his companies have been able to accomplish over the last 5 years or so, you've been impressed but not blown away by the level of innovation that's occurred. And I think that's okay. Predictive personalized technology can only be so innovative before it loses it's real utility; it's ability to make money. Because let's face it; at the end of the day, it's all about adding value. Incremental value. Snippets of value that when tied together make for a warm quilt of happiness to lay over our weary souls at the close of a day or the start of a new adventure.

It's not about reinventing how a good life is lived; it's about making your own little life a little bit sweeter.

For more flavor on Crowley, watch his recent Inc. interview.

Spotted at #NYFW2014: My Grandma!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 14:34:00 +0000

Another New York Fashion Week has come and gone.

We saw leather dresses, mixed-media and cobalt blue take the runway by storm. We saw more less made-up make-upless models and non-models than ever before and still, what we saw was nothing to write home about, really.

Maybe I'm late to adopting the trends this year more than usual, but there was one particular fashion that made me feel right at home.

Imagine my delight when I saw my dear ole' grandma's doll toilet tissue covers in my fashion Twitter feed. Oh, grandma, how I miss your blue-grey eyes and smeary magenta stained lip, your constant smoking and your attitude so dreary and negative that even the most pessimistic around would ask you to lighten up.

HOLY SHIT. I think that gal in the grey is my Dorothy reincarnated.

Disruptive innovation means doing the same thing in a different way. Or a new thing for the same reason. Or #vodka.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 03:26:00 +0000

Being disruptive is pretty trendy right now.

Wearing funky colored socks, designing business cards that contain only a single word, using Yo before you really know what Yo is, eating Phu, growing pubic hair on your face like real hipsters did, buying anything that Elon Musk tells you to buy and munching on cronuts instead of Dunkin Donuts is all so very disruptive, if not totally on-trend.

But let's face it, it's not really in line with the definition of being disruptive, is it? I mean, disruption occurs when something groundbreaking happens; when a fundamental shift occurs and makes it impossible to go back to what it was like before the disruption. Parenting. Lottery. Death. Those are my top three examples of what causes true disruption. And the key to success is when disruption results in added value.

Disruptive innovation happens when there is a catalyst for change, a fundamental shift occurs and as a result, a new market is created and an existing market essentially dies. Think eight-track tapes, sanitary napkin belts, land line rotary dial phones, Gutenberg's printing press, tube televisions, etc.

Therefore, to navigate and optimize disruption as an element in your personal, professional and investment strategy, you must hold a diversified portfolio of interests among innovative industries. As in, be aware. Engage on social media channels. Try new apps. Read the news. Talk to your parents. Ask questions. Also, be friends with people like Mark Cuban. He may not be altogether disruptive, but he certainly attracts high net worth chaos; the fourth and wild card characteristic of disruptive innovation.

One industry that seems particularly interesting for disruptive innovation is transportation. Not because of my earlier comment about Tesla's Elon Musk but more along the lines of his passion for SpaceX. Transportation as a solution, not an industry, seems to have more promise than finding the next new clear engine or a greener automobile. Instead, I'm talking about looking at the problem from a different angle and seeing a solution that may already exist; then using innovation to build something awesome.

Wearable technology is, of course, a trendy thing to watch right now. There are smartphones, smarter watches, Google Glass(es) and so much more. Brands are literally racing ahead of each other with each new open source (or not) push of the envelope. But don't stop at the watch. One of my favorite little projects to track is the Samsung's Smart Bike. An article in Slashgear details that the bike will offer "Italian craftsmanship in the digital age," thanks in part to the Maestro Academy and Samsung's own corporate commitment to innovation. It's not yet for sale, but I'm sold. It may not be truly "disruptive" in transforming how humans actually ride bicycles today compared to how we will pedal into the future, but it's certainly setting a tone for the proper marriage of transportation + safety + technology + convenience for what's to come.

And then there are those reports of hover cars. In Israel. For real. BBC News penned an article about a program to offer magnetic hover cars as public transportation on the Israel Aerospace Industries campus in Tel Aviv by the end of 2015. In keeping with the theme of being totally disruptive, passengers will be able to order their ride from their smartphone. Hover cars travel up to nearly 50 mph with commercial vehicles being able to go even faster. (Listen up Amazon!) Before we know it, the company behind the innovative technology, skyTran, has said that it has plans to move into the US and India once the Israel pilot is deemed a success.

Once we get self-riding bicycles and driver-less automobiles, then I can start working on developing Vodka powder to add to water bottles, just like Crystal Light except totally better. And extremely disruptive to those concert venues and theme parks who charge $25 per adult drink. Wa-hoo!

What type of disruption are you attracted to? What do you think could be improved through innovation?

Have You Tweeted Your Kids Today?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 19:29:00 +0000

People often ask me why I tweet.

I assume it's partly because I am not a kid, sports team, celebrity or soft drink. It's also partly because Twitter has not yet hit mass relevance. As in, not everyone uses it or cares to. Not everyone sees the value in the product. I get it. I really do. I understand why they are asking; it's because they haven't yet figured out what they could be using it for. They think it's all about tweeting nonsense and being ridiculous. They don't fully understand that it's the easiest way to get caught up in all the world's trending news and stories -- quite literally -- in a matter of seconds. So instead, the ney-sayers may say through pursed lips and squinched foreheads "why oh why would you ever dooooooo such a thing..." but guess what?

Everyone seems to have heard of it.

So the point is that critical mass is not the same as mass relevance. In Twitter, in business and in life.

You can be everywhere, but are you being relevant?

Everyone has a brand. From a global level, a brand can be almost omnipotent. But that doesn't mean that it's relevance is permanent. If a brand does not grow and innovate, it doesn't matter that they've got brand awareness from ocean to ocean. If an audience refuses to adapt, adopt and grow to embrace changes as they occur, the same thing happens to them. They become obsolete. They grow old and tired and less valuable to the growth engines that push our society ahead. Like a neglected child, hope for the future can diminish and dim until darkness is all that's left.

And that, friends, is the reason I tweet.

The next time you feel the urge to ask someone why they tweet, instead ask them what it feels like to smile at stranger or why they hug their kids. It's the right thing to do. It adds value. It feels good.

In Twitter, in business and in life, that's about as good as it gets.

A life lesson learned on the train: Don't judge a book by its cover. Oh, and avoid regret.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 01:02:00 +0000

Inside my neighborhood metra train station, there is a little cafe stand of sorts. A man, probably the owner, works there every morning. Offering weary, not-yet-awake daily transit passengers a cup of coffee, a bagel or a banana for not much more than what it costs him. I often buy a bagel and a banana for just about $1; sometimes because I am hungry and other times because it's just too cheap to pass up and makes for a lunch better than nothing. So today, when I pulled out my cash, I accidently grabbed two dollars. Too lazy to reopen my wallet, I told him I would buy two bagels instead of one. I'm not sure what I intended to do with the extra bagel, but something inside me told me to grab it and go.

So I did. Upon exiting the train, I leaned down, smiled and made eye contact with a less fortunate person holding a sign that read, "Hungry. Need food. Please help."

The hungry, needing food please help person promptly threw the bagel back at me, screaming something nasty and making a horribly angry face. How's that for a humble brag?

The day came and the day went.

On my way home, I kept my head down and shoved my way past hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of other transit passengers as we packed back into the metra train and headed back to our boring lives in the suburbs. As I traipsed from car to crowded car, I got elbowed, tripped, bumped into and backed up against.

So I sojourned on.

Finally spotting a half of a half of a seat up near the front car, I whispered an "excuse me," as I poured myself into the crevice and adjusted my belongings so they weren't touching the other seat inhabitant, or more importantly, the floor. In doing so, I bumped my new neighbor, so obviously I apologized. For the second time of the day, I offered up as genuine of a smile as I could muster, only to be met with a side-eye glance that which can only be described as unadulterated hatred. Ouch.

And for the second time that day, I regretted my actions. I let a pinge of hopelessness sweep across me before I gave myself permission to not care.

Then my train squeezed down to a stop, I stood up and started to trudge backward to the exit car.

That's when I heard her voice.

She didn't smile. But she did stand up and call out to me. The whole train seemed to stop for her.

And all the ants marching stopped, looked up and watched as the short-haired blonde lady handed me my train pass that I had left on my seat...quietly restoring a bit of my faith in humanity.

The Problem With Perception

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 19:40:00 +0000

Have you ever watched The View? It's a daytime talk show starring four ladies of television, varying in age and experience and let's face it; intellect. I don't need to go on, but suffice it to say that I love a world with color.

And being an art major for the first two years of college, I'll confess that I also love light. Together, light and hue paint the world with more beauty than most minds can comprehend. The lack of light, however, produces nothing visually appealing because as humans, we need to see it to believe it.

Back to the original question. Have you ever watched The View? If you have, you've seen the magic of light dance across Barbara Walters face, leaving her appearing at least 30 years younger than her 84. Why? Because life is all about perception.

So don't look too close at the lines on Barbara Walter's face and certainly don't check out her wikipedia entry. If you are a fan of hers, it will not take too much to knock her off a pedestal. That's also what makes her great, I think, and it makes her oh-so-human; more than a few divorces, family strife and turmoil, sickness and heartache. It can all be found in her story because she has lived a life well lead and a life well-documented now in social media. And sometimes the story - and the reality- is not so pretty. Hence the bright lights that flatter; creating a perception that we all crave.

Katherine Heigl has a similar story as of late, but she is taking it a step further. Seems Heigl is suing CVS because they posted a "unauthorized paparazzi" image of her carrying two shopping bags from CVS. The perception is that Heigl endorses the brand. The reality is she probably had to buy some acne cream or Tampons (like the rest of the world) and was caught off guard. The real reality is that celebrities don't do anything without being "highly compensated."

And if they do do something and they are not "highly compensated," they reserve the right to deny reality. That's why Kim Kardashian is so pissed about the spa in Thailand that allegedly provided her with 6 hours of luxury spa treatments a day. The reality was probably something closer to how the Kardashian clan took advantage of the spa in what they hoped would be free services and when the bill came, they were offended. The reality is the more money you have, the less you expect to pay. It's sad, really, but it's not a life of rich experiences and authentic friendships, it's a a life of endorsements and perception, in part thanks to Facebook, Twitter and Google.

The biggest problem with perception is that reality ruins it for us all. We want to believe that movie stars, television reporters and reality celebrities are better than us. But they are not. They are, in fact, just like us. It's not far from the man behind the curtain scene straight out of Wizard of Oz. Just imagine if the reality was that everyone had a team of writers, publicists, lawyers and staff to man our Twitter accounts, update our Facebook pages, negotiate branded deals and raise our babies for us.

Be The Change

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:05:00 +0000

Cara sent this to me a while back and I feel it's a good time to pass it along.

Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagan:

Everything in our experience -- our bodies, our minds, our thoughts, our wants and needs, our relationships -- is fleeting. Changing. Subject to death. We die in each moment and again, in each moment, we are born. The process of birth and death goes on endlessly, moment after moment, right before our eyes. Everything we look at, including ourselves and every aspect of our lives, is nothing but change. Vitality consists of this very birth and death. This impermanence, this constant arising and fading away, are the very things that make our lives vibrant, wonderful, and alive. Yet we usually want to keep things from changing. We want to preserve things, to hold onto them. This desire to hold on, to somehow stop change in its tracks, is the greatest source of woe and horror and trouble in our lives.

Being Social

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:35:00 +0000

Forget John Malkovich.

Being social is the new black.

But what does being social mean to you?

Answer my quick and easy 5 question quiz and find out.

1. Do you provide timely and jovial Facebook updates once a week or so, just to show your followers that you are 1. still alive 2. doing cool shit or 3. need something from them (validation, support, comfort, advice, sympathy, envy, etc.) ?

2. Do you tweet? Like, at all? Not just have an account, but have Tweeted (not a RT) something original in the last 12 months?

3. Do you like other people's Instagrams? What about Pinterest? Do you?

4. Have you ever used Vine, Snapchat, Tinder, Whisper, Yelp? If not, have you ever posted something original on Linkedin or Google+? They are essentially the same <insert sarcasm>.

5. Finally, have you ever Googled someone or Facebook-stalked them after you read a stupid-a$$ comment on another friends feed or overheard a terribly delicious rumor at a neighborhood gathering or witnessed something horribly attractive in the parking lot of the grocery store or the work cafeteria that made you TAKE ONLINE ACTION to learn more about someone, somewhere, so you could then go and TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS?

Okay, now the fun part; the results!!

If you answered YES to ANY of the above, then you are alive. You are a human who is not dead. Therefore, you have a propensity to be social.

Embrace it. Better yet, go out and dig deep. Find those people that make you smile, shine, think, do, feel, act and friend them. Whatever multi-channel-omni-channel-meet-at-the-Starbucks-channel strategy you feel comfortable with...get out there. Life is too short not to.

World Economic Forum 2014: Sharing is Caring

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 20:35:00 +0000

I can remember sitting at the dinner table as a small child, crying, because there was a small pile of lima beans placed in front of me.  "It's what's for dinner, so you will eat it if you are hungry," my mom would tell me, "There are starving children in this world that have real reasons to cry about food." 

"But mom," I would argue through very real tears, "I am not that starving child. All I am is me and I KNOW I hate lima beans, so that's why I am crying. It's all I know." 

Of course, it hardly ever worked, but my point was there. And continued to be there through other life events that presented themselves to me; events and situations where I KNEW I shouldn't be upset because my level of suffering was literally and figuratively NOTHING compared to the global injustices and harm and pain that others felt every day. At the end of the day, though, all I have is me. My way of understanding the world is all formed from my personal experiences. I knew that at a very young age and I continue to believe it with each passing day.  

Enter the idea of globalization. (A timely topic, no doubt, because the World Economic Forum is taking place this week in Switzerland.)

Globalization is defined as  "processes of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Advances in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the telegraph and its posterity the Internet, are major factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities."

On the same day of the first day of the summit, Branko Milanovic, lead economist of the World Bank's Research Department and Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, wrote an interesting -- if not difficult to decipher if you are a word and not a numbers type of person -- article that appeared on HuffPo. Milanovic named the winners of globalization as the rich and the Chinese middle class while the losers are the American Middle Class.  So it's no real surprise that the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Reports basically says the same thing. The Risks Report was published before the forum so that folks could have something to talk about. A recap of the results as well as ongoing content coming out of the forum appeared in the special section of the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The results of the risk report indicate a dangerous trend where the richest 1% will continue to grow at a rate that will diminish the global income growth of the middle class; a class that compared to the majority of humanity has it pretty good, but as the disparity continues, will fall farther and father behind. This "squeezed middle," as the WSJ writer Stephen Fidler calls it, will ultimately oppose globalization and will someday -- sooner than later if the trend continues -- refuse to aid global economic progress and will instead focus more on doing whatever possible to attain capital (mostly real estate.) Which is another way of saying, "I understand that kids are starving in the world, but it really sucks that I've worked my ass off and all I have to eat is lima beans. Screw it, I'm not eating the beans and I'm not going to continue to work my ass off for beans I won't eat."  Which, of course, makes me look at the digital and social landscape that act as the backdrop to all our happy -- and tragic -- experiences. I mean, if there is one place to really examine the socioeconomic indifferences in American culture, you need not look farther than American-made media. 

Let's start at the bottom; we've got the Kardashians. 'Nough said. Then we've got the Rich Kids of Instagram, Honey Boo-Boo, Justin Beiber and Teen Mom 2 battling for air-time and branded dollar paychecks against the likes of Kate Plus 8, a van full of drunk housewives, or some poor little teenage boy swinging on a wrecking ball. That's not good. In the middle of the masses is the technology options (necessities to some) that act as equalizers. Having the same iPhone as Beyonce signals something alright. Following her on Facebook means something too. Making your own Twitter handle that says "LoveBeyonce" or "Beyoncesgirl" or whatever else means something even more. It means we are desperately clinging to the idea that one day we can be part of the ultimately popular and ultimately successful 1%. Of course, near the top we celebrate those who are not afraid to celebrate themselves in all their lux galore. I'm talking about celebrities. I'm talking about the world's billionaires. The more time spent in the middle, the more we care about these people. Why? Because we are stuck in the middle and can't find a way out. Watching star-studded televised award ceremonies and political shenanigans may not place us in the throws of such extravagant lifestyles, but it reminds us of the possibility.  It reminds us that we are actually a lot closer than the majority of people on this planet, so for that we should be happy. But at the same time, we should be sad that we are not doing more to help those who can't help themselves and who wouldn't know Michelle Obama from Beyonce if they were to meet on the street.

Which is a perfect time to tell you that after thinking long and hard about those starving children who didn't have any lima beans of their own, I remember gobbling up every last one in my tiny hand, placing them carefully in my pocket so later I could send them across the world to where they would be loved. Because I was lucky enough to know that sharing is caring.

How do think American media affects globalization? What role does technology play in creating a more balanced playing field for world economies?

And finally, who really likes the taste of lima beans? I mean, really.

Ditch being disruptive, collaboration is the new black

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 14:41:00 +0000

Fast Company design recently reported on how smartwatches will never disrupt as much as smart phones. The article makes a case for how wearable devices will never see the amount of popularity as mobile phones, because the technology and the appetite isn't there.

In a rebuttal of sorts, WSJ reported on what it looks like when a handful of Olympic hopefuls wore a Fitbit for a week. Fascinating.

Regardless of whether or not you think all wearables are for "fitness freaks" alone, you have to agree with two things; the weeklong trial had some pretty cool results PLUS let's face it; disruption is dead. Corporate speak may come and go, but lets face it, the very idea of being disruptive has enjoyed newfound fame in the digital and social realm. It's all over Linkedin as a primary profile descriptor. It's embedded on job boards as a requirement for out-of-the-box thinkers who know the industry capabilities enough to push forward into new chartered territory. It's especially popular among middle grade CMO-level executives who are surprised and delighted that they made it that far in a career built mostly on going with the flow. So, really, we are not talking about disruptions the way disruption really happens.

Martin Luther King was a disruptor. Gloria Steinem was a disruptor. Agree with him or not, Edward Snowden is a disruptor. Aaron Swartz was a disruptor. Mark Cuban and Richard Branson are a couple of disruptors. For reasons I'm sure he is somewhat ashamed to admit, Mike Tyson is a disruptor. Good or bad, disruption occurs when everyone takes notice of how things were not done according to the norm. So this pesky little trend to label a person, place or thing as authentically 'disruptive' is really more about damaging the definition of being truly disruptive.

You know who else endures their unfair share amount of disruptions? The average parent. Try taking an unruly kid to the doctor, the grocery store or hell, even to school on time while you ready for your own day. Dare, if you may, packing up a bag full of snacks, toys, books, prizes for a short car trip or a meal at a friendly local restaurant. There is a good chance you will witness the same kind of disruption as when baby Jesus himself parted the Red Sea.

Taste that kind of disruption and you will agree; collaboration is the new black.

Why Google Hangouts Could Lead to More Justice For All

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 21:12:00 +0000

I used to work the cops and court beat of a medium-sized newspaper. It was all glamour, baby. One time, upon visiting the circuit court jail, an incarcerated person threw their own feces at the glass wall that divided us. It was horrific, but not nearly as upsetting as the meth-lab dad of four who blew up his kitchen (and his face) and then forgot to go back inside to rescue his kids from his burning house. The kids were saved by the local firemen, but the arresting officer had difficulty containing the rest of the family members who appeared in court.

I worked odd hours when I first started; mostly nights and weekends. Friday and Saturday were particularly busy for offenders; especially for alcohol-related, domestic battery and misdemeanors. It was also incrementally busier because our judicial system was on a circuit, thus district courts that were closed for the weekend relied on our circuit court house for their initial appearance or arraignment. People picked up for various crimes around the region were transported by police escort to our local courthouse for arraignment because their own small-town local courthouse was closed. After the short trip, they were escorted back to their original jurisdiction, again with adequate police escort. And I drove my company car back to the newspaper to write up my nightly report.

So imagine now that this process could be carried out via Skype or Google Hangout. That's exactly what is supposed to be happening in Mumbai, according to an article that first appeared in Press Trust of India. Late last year, mainstream press in the UK reported that Skype and Facetime may start to play a cost-cutting role in their legal proceedings as well. Now there are hints that this may become a more common legal occurrence, as introduced in a recent article that was published by the New York Law Journal.

Thanks to televised panels of legal gawkers across the networks, consumers and professionals alike are growing more comfortable with the idea that stories are better told in a video diary style than piles of manilla folders or printed word. (See images from CNN and Fox News that showcase video teleconferencing as a mainstream media tactic). We are used to this format, so why not take advantage of the technology and save some tax payers dollars from paying for the transportation and lodging of all our weekend circuit court offenders?

What's more is the potential to really affect global policy and policing issues that are to blame for injustice when it comes to swift action in identifying, arresting and arraigning possible offenders. And moreso, protecting victims that need the protection of time and space that Skype, FaceTime and Google Hangouts can afford. My visits to the courthouse never really put me in danger, but the stories I've read about other reporters or worse, victims getting shamed, threatened and not getting even the slightest chance of justice makes me think that social teleconference may be a solution to build upon. Follow Nicholas Kristof, a prolific New York Times writer and one of my favorite crusaders for peace on the planet, for a little more understanding into the culture of rape we are dealing with on a global basis. (Be sure to check out his bio, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+). I challenge you to think about how using social forms of communication, like Skype and Hangouts and others, would help victims tell their stories and make court procedures more accessible for the masses and affect change at the ground level, where it so desperately needs to happen. It's not always about just telling a story, but there is always a story to tell.

Recent Celebrity Rants and PR Stunts Leave a Chill in the Air

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:01:00 +0000

Hurry up and get in like a lion, 2014. It's too damn cold to stand here holding the door open. Just yesterday it was -15 degrees and this weekend it doesn't look much better. I mean, the forecast is calling for much higher temps and a chance of rain, so there is that. But all in all, when the rest of the world starts labeling your area as "Polar Vortex," you know you are in some serious shit.

In other fun news, there is no time like this time (cabin fever) to read up on all the colorful news. Not the regular local news, weather and sports, mind you. The good stuff that gets stuck between your teeth like a tiny piece of gristle. You find it later and are so glad you did but could not believe you waited so long. That type.

Like, the new story about Meryl Streep. Her rant about Walt Disney and his "alleged sexist and anti-Semitic views," said Oliver Gettell of the LATimes.com Apparently, Streep attended the National Board of Review awards gala to present an award to Emma Thompson for her performance of the creator of Mary Poppins in "Saving Mr. Banks," a particular drama about how Walt Disney persuaded her to make the story into the classic it is today.

Not one to stand down for the fight for equality, but come on Streep. Have you SEEN any of the stories that make up the Disney Empire? The mom never lives. The damsel in distress always gets saved by her hero. It's a formula Walt himself invented and one that never fails. So your rant is a dollar short and a day late. Not to mention the noticeable bad-timing for delivery of a message, when another rising female actress is receiving an award that did not go to you.

And then there was Michael Bay at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Big time show, big time stuff, big time people. You know the drill. Expensive setups, performance powerpoints set to music and incredible lighting displays and even more expensive celebrity endorsers of products but also brands and messages. Katie Couric, Sarah Silverman, Macklemore, John Legend and others made appearances next to products that won't hit the shelves much before Christmas 2014 if at all. Fancy costumes, pranks, branding jobs and jabs...all in a battle of escalating marketing and public relations costs to one up the next.

One particularly clever point was made by Jean-Louis Carrara, a VP at SK C&C USA, who said in an interview with Olga Kharif of Bloomberg about CES, "It's so big, if you want to be noticed, you have to be out there."

That's what Michael had to do. He had to be way the hell out there or he ran the very real risk of getting overlooked. He wasn't hired to produce the next mini-Transformer ala CES, though. He was hired to set up a brilliant introduction of a product so that everyone would talk about it later....like when it actually becomes available on the market. Wa-Wah. His task was daunting...or was it? He needed to dream up something spectacular and deliver it without a flaw, leaving people with a story worth sharing. Hmmmm...makes me think that's exactly what he did.

And then, there is Dennis Rodman. It's less of a story, really, that some of us are following, and more of a desire to understand the legality of it all. And then, of course, there is the continued drama that which makes this human cartoon character so alluring. Is he joking? Is he for real? Is he really that stupid? Is he ever sober? The fact that he could be committing treason or acting illegally is less a piece of the story as is the fact that his life continues to be interesting well after his 15 minutes of fame Andy Warhol promised. How is that possible?

Just today, Rodman's camp issued an apology for his latest rant, with him admitting that he had been drinking. My personal favorite part about this story is two-fold...that Chivas is the advertising partner to this piece of content (see image below) and that we are expected to believe that Rodman had been drinking. Alcohol should not be blamed for the level of incoherence and ignorance displayed. It had to be drugs, and really serious drugs at that. Rodman was as high as a kite when he flipped his lid with CNN's Chris Cuomo after being questioned about his friendship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, a rather unsavory individual, even compared to the likes of Walt Disney.

And don't even get me started on Kraft Food's recent press release on a shortage of Velveeta. It's NOT EVEN CHEESE PEOPLE. I can't. I just can't.

So, the question is, how effective were these rants and raves or were they really much ado about nothing?