Archive for November, 2008
Thanksgiving Dinner
Here’s some pictures from the amazing dinner at Jessica, Alex, and Andrea’s. Everything was perfect – so there’s not much needed in commentary.
Pie # 2
Here’s the picture of the second pie:
It looks great. Hopefully it tastes good too. Had to improvise on some ingredients.
Anyway – now getting ready to head over to Jessica’s. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!
T-Day Prep
I’m heading over to my friend Jessica’s for a mid-sized Thanksgiving Day Feast. My role in the prep: baking pies. (Kezza took over the Potato duties I mentioned on the Crocs Blog) I made one pumpkin pie from scratch and the other is a pumpkin cream pie from Kezza’s wine club gift baskets.
The cream pie finished first. Here it is below:
The normal pumpkin pie is still baking. Not quite used to baking at high altitude. I would have taken a picture of the MESS I made – but I’m in Avery’s apartment cat sitting so I’m not sure I want to leave that evidence behind. I’ll take it when it’s done – and obviously have pictures of Jessica’s place.
Ed Hardy
I read a lot of fashion blogs. I would love to say that I do this because my job is in the realm of fashion (or anti-fashion depending on your opinion). Of course, the real answer is that I simply like fashion. It’s probably the closest thing we have to popular artwork in today’s society. The attention to detail, flawless design, and creativity in today’s leading fashion designers is a wonderful thing to watch. I don’t necessarily pay attention to who is wearing what – that’s more gossip than fashion in my opinion – but I can’t help but pay attention to the trends.
One trend I’ve been noticing lately is Tattoo art in mainstream fashion. This is generally attributed to Ed Hardy’s recent dash to the mainstream. (Shoeblog has a great summary of Ed Hardy’s history and how he wasn’t an overnight success). As much as I love a lot of the design and the aura and feel that Tattoo art exudes – I can’t help but think a lot of the stuff will be relegated to the back ends of the closet as the trend comes to an end.
Except when done subtly. A lot of trends – be in pop colors or niche designs like tattoo – can become longer lasting than the trend themselves when done in lesser extremes. Take for example these heels from Gucci:
The subtle tattoo rose design makes the peep toe pop while still maintaining a certain amount of class and dignity. In a lot of ways, it’s like a well placed tattoo. While a sleeve or full back tattoo can be beautiful and awe inspiring, over time it is too much. Yet a subtle tattoo, hidden away only for those special enough to see, can often have a lot more lasting impression.
Will people be buying Ed Hardy shirts at thrift stores 5 years from now? Or will the trend stay somewhat mainstream? As with all fashion, it’s a wait and see game.
Support System
I ate lunch with my boss today. It was a good lunch – Taco Tuesday, in fact – but the food wasn’t what really struck me. It was my boss’s ability to really listen to me. Over small talk and shared bottles of Cholula, the subject of my work on Social Media came up. He was intrigued to find out that, despite my obvious pleasure in doing it, that it wasn’t quite living up to my expectations. We started talking about it. I voiced my opinions and he listened. After I was done explaining what I felt we were doing wrong, he said he would speak to his counterpart and something would get done.
A few hours later, when I was in another building on campus, I ran into his counterpart. He stopped me and asked me what my boss’s email was about. We talked, briefly, and that conversation wasn’t a win, but it was something. It was the manifestation of the fact that I have the support of the people around me to take the plans that we’re developing for Social Media. It won’t happen overnight and we’ll probably have to convert some staunch detractors – but ultimately, I think the program is going to be a huge success for the company. I’ve been so excited about it that I haven’t been able to stop reading about various SM stuff, and had an hour or so long conversation with Gwen Bell about various SM stuff.
It’s nice when your passions and your work can intersect. It makes you excited to go into work (although I do have a 5 day weekend). It makes you so excited you email your co-workers various thoughts you’ve been having. Sure, it’s 12:36am and I’ve been reading/writing and talking about all this since 6pm – but I’m happy. And there’s something to be said about that…
What is Twitter?
“What is Twitter?” That seems to be the question that everyone has been asking me lately. With Facebook’s attempted $500 million bid to purchase twitter rejected, I figured I would take the time to answer that question.
The problem is – it’s not easily answered. Some people call it “micro-blogging.” I’ve been calling it “text messages + away messages + blogging on steroids…with only 140 characters” to those who don’t understand what “micro-blogging” is. In reality, it’s everything you want it to be and probably more.
In literature, there was this famous group of writer’s called “oulipo.” Oulipo stands for “Ouvrioir de literature potentielle” – which is French for “workshop of potential literature.” They used self-imposed constraints to create works and, as they saw it, deliver on the missing potential of literature. The reason that I bring this up is that, for the most part, Twitter does the same thing…
Think Small
I work for a Global Brand – with a hardcore fan base and equally hardcore set of detractors. So how does that company embrace the hardcore following while putting up the proper protection to shield themselves from the detractors? In Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble and Shel Isreal present the answer pretty simply: open up communications. Creating avenues for two-way communication (ie – blogs, Twitter, etc al.) is integral to harnessing the power of those supporters while learning/converting/silencing the detractors. Now, that’s not always an easy proposition. After all, from a corporate standpoint – do you want to host a venue where those negative opinions can be vocalized? After all, it’s often the malcontents that make far more noise than those satisfied…
The Cup – Boulder
Since moving to Boulder last August, there have been very few constants in my life. The Cup – my favorite coffee shop in Boulder – is one of them. I’m not quite sure why I love it so much. It’s hard to explain – there’s just something about it. It’s an independent coffee shop – locally owned and all that fun stuff – but, to be honest, I never really care about those things. Heck, I go to Starbucks 5x a week minimum. I guess, it’s just cozy. I come here almost every weekend. Sometimes it’s just for a drink. Sometimes it’s for hours. Today, I’ve been sitting in the same comfortable chair for a few hours. I’ve done some work, leisurely read, twittered, people watched, and just relaxed. It’s funny how I can’t achieve this level of relaxation in my own home. It’s like, because I’m in public, I can just drown myself in the ambiance of the auras of all these people around me….
This picture is from last Sunday, but I could have easily taken it today. It’s of a Bahkti Chai Milkshake and the sun shining off my table in front of The Cup. It makes me happy just thinking about it. It’s Saturdays like this that I just enjoy living here in Boulder…
Halloween ’08
A Flickr slideshow from the Halloween Festivities at Crocs HQ just outside of Boulder. Here’s my favorite from the entire batch:
