This summer I’m trying to keep up with my 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter.
We’re reading recent Newberry Medal winners (fiction) and Sibert Award winners (non-fiction).
So far we’ve read:
- Parrots Over Puerto Rico
- The One and Only Ivan
- Bomb : the Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon
- Dead End in Norvelt
- Balloons Over Broadway : the True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade
We’re doing mini family book clubs complete with grape juice and appetizers. It’s not typical beach reading, but I’ve been impressed with how compelling these kids’ books can be.
Yesterday was Finisher Shirt Friday in Minnesota, with an official gubernatorial proclamation. It stems from a long winter, and the pride we feel when we share our accomplishments. I dutifully wore my Women Run the Cities shirt earned from a 10 mile race in 2012. I would have loved to see more people participate in some meaningful way. Some people will never finish a race, but they could proudly wear their “I survived Camp X” shirts or XX Company Summer Picnic or XX Family Reunion tees – sometimes getting to the finish line of those types of experiences feels like completing a marathon.
I liked this Business Journal article about how to apply some learning from National Signing Day for high school athletes to company hiring – National Signing Day: Three hiring lessons for your business (Birmingham Business Journal, 2.5.14).
I’ve also been really intrigued by The National Resident Matching Program for medical students.
What if I had been able to go through a similar process when getting into advertising after undergrad. My liberal arts English major might not have helped my cause, but maybe the prestige of Carleton would have still had me landing at a top MN agency.
Could ALA or SLA institute something like this for MLIS grads, and would I have wanted to participate? Probably not as I’m pretty happy with where I am today, but still, it’s intriguing …
How many times can we say, “This changes everything” and actually mean it? If we are each writing in our own personal journals, maybe several times a year or more. When we read headlines for the collective, it seems there are products and entertainment moments in abundance. Do we believe it?
Mobile Technology Changes Everything (WSJ, 11.29.13)
Smart Wheel By FlyKly Could Change Everything About Commuting (HuffingtonPost.com, 11.9.13)
The Good Wife recap: This Changes Everything! Season 5 Episode 05 (EW.com, 10.28.13)
$67 million gift to Mayo Clinic ‘changes everything’ (PostBulletin.com, 10.23.13)
Xbox One “changes everything” says Microsoft (GameSpot, 8.23.13)
How YouTube changes everything (Money.CNN.com, 7.25.13)
Fracking changes everything (SF Bay Guardian, 4.16.13)
Where you choose to live says a lot about you. And if you don’t like what it says, chances are you’re telling everyone why.
There are lists upon lists of different ways to define the states we live in – some of them apt, some of them just copping an attitude. Here are some of my favorites with my state of Minnesota pulled out in profile.
Most Famous Book – “Main Street” by Sinclair Lewis
YA book – “Shiver” by Maggie Stiefvater
Movie – Fargo
Music star – Prince
TV show that best represents – Coach
Comedian – Mitch Hedberg
Pornhub’s top search term – College
Sport – High school ice hockey
Best NFL player – Terrell Suggs
Most famous athlete from the state – Dave Winfield
Best sports moment – Twins’ Kirby Puckett belts a walk-off home run in the 11th inning in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.
Best golf course – Interlachen C.C., Edina
Best sports hottie – Lindsey Vonn
Top Ad Agency – Fallon
Brand That Best Fits – Pillsbury
Food – Fried food on a stick
Food – Hotdish
Iconic food – Lutefisk
Fattiest Food – Dairy Queen’s FlameThrower GrillBurger
Sandwich – The Juicy Lucy
Burger joint – Casper & Runyon’s Nook
Best brewery – Summit
Craft beer – Summit Extra Pale Ale
Craft brewery – Surly Brewing Company
Pizza – Black Sheep Pizza
Ice Cream Parlor – Sebastian Joe’s
Best view – Rose Lake Cliffs, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
Top landmark – Headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca
Best bike ride – Cuyuna Lakes
No. 1 in an environmental or public health category – Top exercise rate
Last in an environmental or public health category – Highest overall rate of autism
Most popular new car – Ford F-150
Most screwed up thing – Tornadoes
Does best – Mall of America
Top U.S. University – University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
I was just alerted to a new librarian mini-figure from Lego. Aside from the Librarian Action Figure with amazing shushing action, I wanted to do a quick review of what else is out there. So many stereotypes, and yet, so awesome.
BuzzFeed created a lot of buzz this week with its “27 Things Advertising People Know To Be True” post. First 10 listed here:
- Everyone hates status meetings.
- When it’s eerily quiet on the line, you know the other callers are talking shit on mute.
- And as soon as you get off the phone, you do this so you can chat about all the stupid stuff said on the call.
- You see these buzzwords in emails almost every day.
- Meeting invites are the bane of your existence.
- Eating lunch at your desk is an everyday occurrence.
- Clients always want the logo to be BIGGER.
- Pitching new business means you’ll lose sleep and your sanity.
- Seeing QR codes in impractical places makes you shake your head.
- Great company culture includes a whole lot of weird.
I’ll agree with everyone else that most, if not all of them, are absolutely true. When I first saw the tweeted headline, I immediately thought of the interstitials running during Mad Men on AMC, most of which we also know are true, although a bit trite and even possibly tired when pulled out of the show.
There are Mad Men quotes all over the place – here’s one place for recaps and episode quotes: Examiner.com.
Watching TV used to be different. We’d gather around the set at the appointed time and watch an episode of something and then wait until the next week at the appointed time and watch the next one. Every once in a while we’d be disappointed by a rerun thrown into the mix.
Then we got access to VCRs and could ask our parents to record every episode of Melrose Place so we could watch it on winter or spring breaks when home from school. I’d call that my introduction to binge viewing. And I feel for my poor mother who had to do the recording, and then understand the time I wanted to put in watching when I made it home. But then a career in advertising myself (without most of the soap opera salaciousness) has made it all worth it, I suppose.
But TV viewing now really is different. We watch shows on devices and order them up at our convenience. We can get full access to older shows and watch episode upon episode all in a row.
And now we are even able to watch select new series, all at once. House of Cards (Netflix) and Bad Samaritan (Fox Digital) were released in their entirety and there are plans for other networks to offer up more series in this fashion.
Binge viewing has become common enough that it can be divided into two types – “marathon bingeing” and “catch-up bingeing.” Marathon bingers are most often watching a series that has already ended. Catch-up bingers are watching past episodes of a series that is currently airing.
An NPD study looked at the most binged TV series available from subscription on demand services. In 2012 the top three were Prison Break, Charmed and That 70s Show.
A Harris Interactive study found that 62% if people who watch TV on demand have participated in binge viewing.
Comcast encouraged binge viewing during its Xfinity Watchathon Week in March 2013.
Give me the time and I’m sure I could get mixed up in a marathon of Melrose Place again. And give me the access to a new season of Mad Men, and I wouldn’t need a remote.
I can remember how excited I was to get my first magazine subscription – YM. For my brothers it was Boys’ Life and Conan comics. Since then I’ve upped my game to the Star Tribune and New York Times, the New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly – and while I have lost the time to really poor through the New Yorker and over the New York Times, and I do get more in digital bits, I still get comfort out of going to my front door to learn what has gotten the prime headline and cover shot. And while I haven’t been sucked into the Fruit of the Month Club or Pajamagrams, I’m thinking about subscribing to a bit more than the printed word. Oh, but there are so many options for you and yours! There’s a lot of curation going on out there – the subscription model isn’t for everyone and every product, but it is nice to touch, feel, try and be surprised.
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