Two Years Ago Today

I stumbled across this list I put together two years ago. All still true except #24. I sold the PS2 - no time for Guitar Hero.

1. I will put up with discomfort so either or both of my cats can be comfortable.
2. I am incapable of correctly determining the age of any child younger than 10.
3. I have never changed a diaper and I never will, unless Chris breaks both of her arms and no one else is around.
4. I believe in John 3:16.
5. My favorite sound in the world is a cat purring.
6. My second favorite sound in the world is Rob Halford singing.
7. I have the best best friend in the whole world, and many other wonderful friends.
8. I am fiercely proud of my parents for many reasons.
9. I'm the Financial Secretary at my church.
10. I love my job and think my boss is totally cool.
11. My favorite TV show is Lost.
12. I listen to books on CD in the car and don't care that people make fun of me for it.
13. I hate driving. First thing I'd do if I won the lottery would be hire a chauffeur.
14. I'm addicted to Twitter.
15. I loathe the name Liam.
16. I used to have a crush on Evan Farmer, former host of TLC's "While You Were Out."
17. I am a grammar and spelling freak.
18. I get requests for my lasagna and my brownies.
19. It amuses me that people are shocked when they find out I listen to metal.
20. I don't believe that living in Ohio means you have to be an Ohio State fan.
21. I enjoy shopping with Chris on Black Friday.
22. I have had the Taboo game buzzer forcibly removed from my hand.
23. Hand me a microphone at your own risk. It will be quite some time before you get it back.
24. I own a PlayStation 2 just so I can play Guitar Hero.
25. I have stood on the top of an arena scoreboard.

My Take on Golden Globe Fashions

Disclaimer: I'm not a fashionista. My wardrobe is built around three basics: black, grey and turtlenecks. Only my fashion-forward best friend saves me from dressing too "matronly" (most of the time).

I do, however, enjoy checking out red carpet fashions and so this past Sunday, I curled up on the couch to watch the stars strut their stuff at the Golden Globes. What a disappointment.

Here's what I saw: re-purposed Christmas decorations (Angelina Jolie), a bed sheet (Natalie Portman), a deranged high school principal (Robert Downey, Jr.), drapery tassels (January Jones), my grandma's couch (Michelle Williams), Santa's toy sack (Julianne Moore) and LOTS of tragic hair (Al Pacino, Amy Adams, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Lea Michele, Robert Downey, Jr., Sandra Bullock).

My pics for best dressed?

Female -
Claire Danes with perfectly coiffed hair and a simple yet stunning gown in an unexpected, fun color.

Male -
Controversial host Ricky Gervais in a patterned three piece suit.

Multi-Beveraging

Not only am I a multi-tasker, those who know me well know that I am a multi-beverager. It doesn't often happen at work, but today was one of those days.

The Dilemma

It's been quiet on the old blog here. Did anyone miss me? ;-)

Here's my dilemma - I feel like this particular blog has been so unfocused that I'm not sure what to write about. And looking back over old posts, I feel as though I've climbed up on a soap box one too many times. I don't want to be preachy. I'm considering shutting this blog down and starting up 1-2 more focused blogs. One word be more professional and the other word be more personal.

My plan is to make a decision by the end of the week and I will let you know what I decided.

Either way, I need to write more.

Happy New Year:-)

Rainbow

I Can't Sleep

It's 1:30 a.m. and I have to get up for work in five hours. Yet here I am writing this blog post because I can't sleep.

I hurt - I have a sinus headache and "arthr" decided to visit - my right ankle, knee and hip really hurt.

My cat poked my cheek with her paw.

My other cat is attacking the window, presumably because he saw a bug outside, but with him, you never know.

My mind is busy. Before I got up to write this post, I
- came up with a goofy rap song for my godson
- wondered how behavioral targeting really works
- thought of three ideas for blog posts (besides this one)
- remembered a survey that's ready to be analyzed at work
- thought of a survey question that might be useful for work
- wondered when my office's "sharing week" is going to be this fall
- worried about my dad's declining health

Now that I've dumped this randomness on you, swallowed a couple of Advil and slurped a mug of warm milk, I'm headed back to bed - if the cats have left me any room, that is.

Wish me luck, folks. Otherwise you might be soon be seeing one of those other three blog posts I mentioned above;-)

Book Review: The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR

At PlayhouseSquare, my colleagues in the marketing department and I handle both advertising and publicity. I spend more of my time on publicity, so my curiosity piqued when I came across the book The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR, written by Al and Laura Ries and published in 2002.

Unfortunately, this book was a chore to slog through. The tone of the authors is so bitter that I suspect that one of them was humiliated by a termination from an advertising agency, or perhaps suffered a concussion at the hand of a Clio Award-wielding ex-lover.

Some of the references are so dated that I'm only familiar with the topics through anecdotes told by my parents. I can't imagine a recent college grad relating to this book. How many 20-somethings know what a Yugo is?

And then there's the litany of suggestions rejected by their clients with the not-so-subtle assertion that these clients were stupid for not listening to them.

Further, it's hard trust the assertions of authors whose foresight has proven to be less than reliable. For example, they asserted that 3G phones and Amazon would prove to be failures.

This book's coup de grace came when I was adding it to my list on goodreads.com. I mistakenly typed in "the rise of advertising" and to my surprise, up came a listing for a book entitled The Rise of Advertising & the Fall of PR, published in 2009 with a forward by Al Ries.

All this said, I did agree with some of the points made by the authors. I do believe that using PR to build a brand and advertising to maintain a brand can be the right strategy to use in many cases. But with today's fragmented communications channels, I do not believe there is a one-size-fits-all answer.

Nor do I believe that either PR or advertising is falling or rising - both are changing.