Catch Up Lady

Noah K Everyday

Noah Kalina has taken a photograph of himself every day for the last 9 years as part of an ongoing digital art project that focuses on the subtleties of aging.  He began taking daily photos when he was 20, and posted a video chronicling year 1 - 6 a few years ago.  Noah intends to post a video on the 10 year anniversary and then every five years thereafter.  You can check out the video below, which has over 12 million views.  Pretty cool (though you can practically pin point the time that he moved past college aged years, and developed big ass bags under his eyes like the rest of us... try clicking around in the video stream to compare his age.)  Via HeeHaw Marketing Blog.

The Crapper: I'm Catching Shit For Not Blogging About "Funny" Things Edition

Behold, The Crapper - where I dump all the random post-lets that couldn't stand on their own.

"I'm Never Drinking Again" - My bestfriend totally called BS on me this morning when I uttered that famous phrase, "I'm never drinking again."  She then challenged me to guestimate how many times she herself had heard those words pass my lips, days - sometimes hours - before returning to the bottle.  I figure: 10 years of friendship --->52 weekends ----> 1 awful hang over a month for the last five "grown up years" and 5 a month during the first five collegiate years ---->  Um, I can't do the math with my hangover - let's be real.  But it's a lot, and if there isn't a comma in the final number then just tack on more until you get there.

Voicemail FAIL - Ok, I am totally fucking sick of the voicemail prompt at the end of people's personal greetings.  "When you are finished recording you may press 1 for more options.  To leave a call back number, press 5."  Yeah, thanks, collectively as a society we have the whole press 1 for more options thing down.  And what the hell is a call back number anyway?  Do you know ANYONE that has ever used that feature?  The number is on your god damn call log.  I want this whole situation remedied as you can tell from my use of multpile profanities.  Can you hear me now?

Cold Case - I love this show, but the opening music scares the ever loving crap out of me.  It's essentially just this person wailing in an absurdly scary, my murder case hasn't been solved for over 20 years kind of way.  It seriously makes my skin crawl and I always attempt to mute before too much damage is done.  Check it out, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Marketing Video Gold Mine!

This week was marked by an outpouring of hilarious videos poking fun at marketers - because if we can't laugh at ourselves then... uh...yeah. 

Enlightened Stupid Marketer

The Vendor/Client Relationship in Real World Situations

Catch Up Lady LIVE on BlogTalkRadio

Two weeks ago my colleague John Stauffer and I launched a BlogTalkRadio show, That Social Media Show where we riff on all the remarkable and unremarkable  things that happened over the course of the week.

You might think that we had been planning this for months, but you'd be.... so so so wrong.  At 8pm at night at the Miami airport I emailed John that we should do a BlogTalkRadio show, and so the next day at 6pm we did.  And that's pretty much the back story. 

To give you a sense of what you're in for in Episode 1 we chatted about The Twitter @ reply kurfluffle, The Wall Street Journal's social media policy, Tropicana's The Juice community, WOMM-U in Miami, and Google Wonder Wheel.  Episode 2 we hit on the WolframAlpha launch, the new Google chrome, gratuitous social media mentions on television examined, Kindle 2 review, MicrosoftVine beta review, and Mashable's Twitter resources. 

So as you can see, while I haven't been blogging regularly I have not forgotten my social media roots - and have been contributing to society in my own way.  You can check out our show live every Thursday at 6pm, or listened to the archived episodes on the player on my side bar (yeah it doesn't fit, no I can't fix it) or on our BlogTalkRadio channel.

What's Been Keeping Me Busy...

In the last few days I've been catching HELL for not posting to this blog - everyone from my mom, to my bestfriend to a girl I used to work with and haven't seen in two years (hey Claudia!) have all been busting my chops.  So before we resume regularly scheduled programming I wanted to highlight some of the my work projects that have been consuming my time of late over at 360 Digital Influence:

Tropicana Trop50 The Juice
The social media ball keeps moving over at PepsiCo - and a few weeks ago Tropicana Trop5o launched The Juice, an online community for women in partnership with BlogHer.  The community revolves around the concept of getting more of what you want, and less of what you don't out of life - whether you're focused on nutrition, functional fitness, family, or just optimizing your life overall.   So what makes this community different?  Each week discussion is kicked off by a video featuring BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins and an expert guest, and the content is truly driven by community generated tips and ideas - from the Tropicana Trop50 spotlight that serves as the inspiration of each episode to the community tips that are featured throughout. 

A few weeks ago I flew to San Francisco for one of the episode shoots (that's me with BlogHer's Blake Norman, Julie Godard and Lisa Stone watching playback) - and I'll have more on The Juice in the next two weeks, as we head to New York to film an epsiode with a very cool guest.  In the meeeantime check out The Juice community, or watch one of the weekly webisodes below is The Juice: Make Ahead Meals  with Stephanie O'Dea from a Year in Crockpotting.

LG DTXTR

With LG DTXTR LG is branching out in the texting space - because while teens are leading the way with their warp speed thumbs the rest of us (especially parents) can use all the help they can get.  DTXTR has several features - most importantly the DTXTR Text Transaltor which lets you enter in any term and "translate" it into teen speak.  The Translator is powered by the DTXTR Glossary which is an every growing list of terms that anyone can add to at any time. There's also an interactive DO U Know TXT quiz where you can test your text knowledge, and TXT Tips for Parents.

Right now there is a DTXTR promotion running on BlogHer - so check it out for a chance to win the LG enV2 or Lotus.  These phones are pretty rad, I should know, they're all locked in my desk until they ship to the weekly winners.

Ford Fusion 1,000 Mile Challenge
One of the many projects that 360 Digital Influence is involved with over at Ford was the recent 1,000 Mile Fusion Hybrid Challenge.   For nearly four days here in DC a team of Ford Hybrid engineers led by Wayne Gerdes, the world record hypermiler, used Eco Driving techniques to drive over 1,000 miles on a single tank of gas in the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.  The team actually did better - going over 1,400 miles before rolling to a stop.  I was there with our team creating video, live-Twittering, and hosting bloggers as they took Eco Driving clinics with the Ford team.  Below is a video of the final day of competition when NASCAR star Carl Edwards (fresh of his amazing crash at Talledega) flew in to drive the team over the 1,000 mile marker.

So, now you know where I've been.  More to come!

The State of My Shows: Volume V

Remember when I used to write hilarious posts about TV shows that I watch?  Yeah, I know it's a little fuzzy.  Well, I recently got DVR.  That's right, welcome me to 2005.  You're the first one to make that joke.  In all seriousness, I have NO idea how I survived without this technology and my quality of life has been dramatically improved.

So without further ado - an update on all of my faves:

24: I can't even call this a favorite anymore.  Whoever is in charge of this show should be put to sleep - or maybe inhale a fatal pathogen and slowly wither away before our eyes.  In my 24 Examined post I maintained that at this point all you have to do is watch the "Previously on 24" segment and the final tick tock to stay current.  I've been testing this theory and I'm right.  This show was a brilliant concept that unfortunately has not evolved at all. Please send rescue, damn it.

Chelsea Lately: If all my DVR recorded was Chelsea Lately I'd still pay for it.  Unclear how it took me so long to discover this. 

Heroes: Unfortunately I was forced to abandon this show when the 7th time traveling version of Peter Petrelli showed up.  If this ship has somehow been righted please let me know.

LOST: Speaking of gratutious time travel...

How I Met Your Mother: Still one of the best shows on TV - and the only show I refuse to eat dinner while watching for fear of accidentally choking on food while laughing.  Spread the gospel people.

NCIS: As I mature, my crime scene show interests continue to evolve.  Law & Order was great until I could figure out who the perp was after the opening scene.  Law & Order: SVU provided a more comprehensive case, but eventually convinced me it was only a matter of time before I became a victim of a violent sexual crime.  CSI (Las Vegas) was the next obvious stop but after I watched every single episode and my secret boyfriend William Peterson left the show I needed a new home.  Enter NCIS.  It's funny.  Actually really funny - perfectly reflective of real life office dynamics and humor.  Toss that in with interesting plots, three handsome leads (the silver fox, the geek, and the jock)  and I'm totally conflicted and mildly obsessed.

The Beard is Back (And Oh Yeah, Sorry I Forgot to Blog for 2 Weeks)

Ok, first of all I'm blogging because I'm convinced that child services is moments away from busting down my door and taking my blog away due to my gross negligence.  Between work and my new-found single status I have truly never been busier - this shit is exhausting. 

At any rate - turns out it's May which means the Stanley Cup is back in full swing and I'm totally digging the Detroit Red Wings "Beard Central" experience.   The site includes tons of fun opportunities to show your Wings pride and cheer on the team including:

• The Beard-a-Thon - collect donations to support your own playoff beard growth.
• Photo Galleries for Celebrity Beard of the Day (mostly C-list Detroit area celebs even I haven't herad of), Beards of History (James Lipton, Santa), Hockey and Beards and Fans from Games
• Build-A-Beard - yet another contest for children I wish I could enter
• A Beard FAQ including tips on beard growing and beard maintenance 

Tune in this week for the Anaheim series.  Needless to say I'm terribly excited to look for the 7 other Wings fans in Washington, DC and watch the games sporting the man sized Wings jersey that my father bought me after I requested a woman's cut jersey (thanks Dad!)