WhipperSnaPR

OurStage is constantly updating the features on the website: improving the user interface, increasing the ways fans can promote their favorite artists, building the OurStage online community, etc. The latest offering includes an embeddable music player. Right now, the player is too big for my sidebar (I’m going to have to get someone to do something about that ). In the meantime, thought, here’s a taste of what it looks like and who my favorite artists are….

As promised… the new car!

It is a 1983 Mercedes Benz 300 sd turbo diesel. I’ve been told its motor is one of the top 10 motors of the last century… pretty cool eh? So far, I just feel like I’m driving a freight train down the road, but I’m sure I will acclimate… we’re bonding. The next step will be naming her…

I just came across the new ad campaign for the summer koala exhibit at the Kansas City Zoo (through the mediapost out to launch newsletter). The tag line is “cute will never be the same” and I think it has been well executed. The print ads are great:

The Duck is my favorite

But these are cute too!

The video ad isn’t as good, but it sticks to the theme. I can’t embed it, but you can watch it here. The campaign was created and executed by Bernstein-Rein out of Kansas City.

On a side note… the campaign is sponsored by Hy-Vee… I LOVE Hy-Vee! I spent a lot of valuable time in the Macomb, IL Hy-Vee back in my college days.

A few months ago when I was doing a big seeding push for Beacon Street Girls, I was very interested in mommy blogs. Specifically, I was looking for moms with tween age daughters. But, I couldn’t help but explore Dooce when I discovered it. Now, it is one of my favorite reads!

The blog is written by Heather, a stay at home mother of the cutest 2 year old, Leta. She writes about random things in her life, which could be rather boring, but Heather has the most perfect sense of irony, sarcasm and humor.

I don’t have an ounce of anything in common with her or the subject matter. I have told Josh, though, that if I should ever find myself with child (this is definitely not something on our life radar), I want to be a hybrid of Heather and my own mother. My sister, Katie, is expecting a baby in September; I told her this blog should be her parenting manual. In short, I’m a fan of this woman’s policies on life and parenting.

So, because I’m pretty much a lurker on her site, I was hesitant to blog about my fandom. But, yesterday, she wrote about something relateable: word of mouth marketing! So, as the timing is as appropriate as it will ever be, I will take this opportunity to introduce Dooce to all of you.

As far as her word of mouth marketing skills go, I don’t think Heather is as bad as she implies. Sure, it isn’t the most positive product review… and it may not be the most family appropriate… but it isn’t necessarily bad. For example, I’ve never used Cetaphil, but the next time I’m wandering through CVS and I see the Cetaphil bottle, I’ll remember the post. Dooce, has given Cetaphil context for me. That, in my opinion, is a good thing.

Anyway, outside of Heather’s interesting perspective on the consistency of face wash, here’s a selection of favorites from the more recent Dooce posts:

• Having given birth to a force of nature and the follow-up, Because I’m always looking for ways to make my father proud
• You should definitely take this seriously
• Sick Days
• Masthead tutorial, sort of: I have big aspirations to try this someday, but I doubt it would ever look as cool

I have a thing for cool/cute/fun t-shirts. My work apparel usually consists of jeans and layered t-shirt over a long sleeved t-shirt and I’ve out worn all of my current t-shirts. So, I need more. Luckily, I have been building a mental wish list. Here it is:

• Orisinal Monkey Slide: (play the game)
• Zipcar “Do you zip?”
• JBB t-shirt (I think I’ll have to go to a concert to get the one I want… darn)
• “Live Green Go Yellow” (yeah, I know it really isn’t all that good, but it is corn darn it! Well, it is sort-of corn. But, I love corn; I’m from Illinois for pete’s sake. Plus, I think this was a really clever marketing campaign)
• Yelp : “See You On Yelp“
• Indexed: Little Pricks
• Blissen: The Forest Floor
• A Hugh Macleod t-shirt… I just can’t decide what cartoon I like best. Maybe this one?

This afternoon, I had a little bit of down time and I thought this could be a good chance take Jesse Legg’s advice and give the Firefox Live Bookmark/RSS reader a try.

Problem: I can’t figure it out - I think there may be some conflict because I use the del.icio.us bookmark toolbar for Firefox. Does anybody have any insight into this?

When I’m on a site that has an RSS feed, I do see the orange RSS indicator in the navigation bar:

So I click on the orange button and get this:

Then, I select “Subscribe Now” …. and nothing happens. I’m stuck, what am I doing wrong?

also, where am I supposed to be able to find the bookmarks/feeds once I’ve subscribed? Where does firefox deliver this subscription? I’m not even sure where I should be looking to confirm that I’ve actually subscribed.

If this is, indeed, a problem with my delicious toolbar, delicious will win out over the live bookmarks. I LOVE my delicious toolbar!

I’ve noticed a trend in my blogging habits. My blogging moods can be categorized as such:

• I can’t think of anything to write about so, therefore, I don’t write.
• I can think of a million things to write about but don’t know where to start. Therefore, I don’t write.
• I feel like writing but about nothing in particular/interesting, so, therefore, I don’t write.
• My job (sort of) depends on it; therefore I write.
• I have a post floating around in my head for over two weeks. And, therefore, I write simply to get it out of my head.

I have spent the past three days reading blogs from in/around the Boston area for work purposes. Boston is rich with interesting, funny and intelligent bloggers! This is the best inspiration for a blogger with some writers block and/or laziness!

Some of my new discoveries include (in no particular order):

• Bryper
• The Progress Bar
• The Angry Young Bostonian
• Suldog-O-Rama
• All Eyes on Jenny
• Web log: a20261

There are so many more, but those were my favorites so far. Now my problem will be finding time to read my new finds. I used bloglines, but I can’t seem to make daily bloglines visits a habit

As a fan of Futurama and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, I enjoy the certain Adult Swim flavor of humor that not everybody appreciates. With that said, I just caught the pilot episode of Frisky Dingo… Love it! Get the run-down here, wikipedia, of course and here’s a quick preview:

Most people have severe reactions when any conversation turns to the topic of Zach Braff. So, I may offend some of you but I refuse to apologize. I am a Garden State junkie.

I saw the movie during a sneak preview and, to be honest, I almost walked out half way through. It just wasn’t doing anything for me, and then, I gave into the quarter-life crisis, self-pitying plot line. I’m just a sucker for it all.

I walked out of the theatre singing its praises and I’ve yet to stop. I own the DVD and have seen it about 75 times; I downloaded the soundtrack and according to my itunes, I’ve listened to my favorite track, Such Great Heights by Iron & Wine, 115 times (All other track plays are between 45 and 91).

So, you can imagine my excitement when I bought tickets to see Last Kiss when it opens tonight at Boston Common.

I already got the soundtrack and I love it! So, you can also imagine my horror when I saw all of the negative comments about it online The worst part is, I’ve resigned myself to admit that most of it is true. Oh, the pain of it all! But, this list is heartbreakingly true, yet amazingly funny and a must read!Zach Braff’s 10 Easy Tips for Writing Films About Twenty-Somethings®

My favorite….

I have to judge for myself, I’ll let you know how it goes…