Monday, July 28, 2008

Happy Monday, squirrels!


As I was walking through the Commons this morning, I saw a group of people staring a tree. But upon further nosiness, I saw that they were all looking at 2 squirrels who appeared to fighting. I have a feeling though, that they were fighting to have sex...and they had an audience. Gotta love Americans for staring at the fornicating wild kingdom.

Freakin' brilliant

Holy shit. Finally, a company has learned to give a consumer a sensory experience in none other than a movie theater! Check out the company Cinescent. They create scents that emanate through a theater while a commercial is playing. So you smell what you see. Damn me for not thinking of this first!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

This is why advertising is so great.

14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Stride gum found this guy and offered to pay for his travels if he made a video of himself dancing in every country he visited. Their mantra is that the flavor lasts ridculously long. This video is a great piece of creativity that connects the notion of longevity to a human emotion; happiness.



Check out these links:
Where the Hell is Matt?
Stride Gum

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Bottoms up!

My July 4th contribution to the USA:

LBZ White Sangria

1 bottle Chardonnay (I used Bogle)
1 nectarine, roughly chopped
1 orange, halved, with rind kept on
1 pear, roughly chopped
approx. 20 grapes, halved
2 splashes Grenadine
couple bites of cantaloupe (optional)

Mash in everything, but keep the fruit in tact. Let the mixture soak overnite. The next day, add:

1 bottle Charonnay (yes, another bottle)
1 2-liter bottle of Sprite Zero (can use regular Sprite, but not sure about the sweetness factor)
1 bottle Magners Cider

Was so delicious you have no idea. I know that typically Sangria calls for a sweeter wine, but I think a nice dry white worked really well. The longer you keep the mix in the fridge, the sweeter it gets. Just remember, the fizzy parts go flat, so hold off on adding the Sprite and cider if you'd like the wine and fruit to soak longer.

Pairs extremely well with chips and salsa/guacamole.

Silly boys

Note to all guys out there:
If you meet a girl, exchange numbers and hang out with her, here's a word of advice: It's easier to just say you're not interested, than to make up a lie about how you're in a serious relationship but strayed. You "admitting" that you have a "girlfriend" portrays an even weaker character- you may mean this: "hey, I'm an asshole for almost cheating on my girlfriend, my bad," but we take it as this: "damn, I wish I knew who his girlfriend is, cuz she should know that her man is cheating on her." Guys, just take note, I'm tryin' to help you out. Keep the little integrity you have and be honest!

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Joydrop


There's an amazing band that I've loved for years named Joydrop. Their songs are still unavailable on iTunes but that don't make them any less awesome. Just means they're not played out yet. Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs.



Beautiful

If I was beautiful like you
Oh the things I would do
Those not so blessed would be crying out murder
And I'd just laugh and get away with it too
Like you do

If I was beautiful like you
I would never be at fault
I'd walk in the rain between the rain drops
Bringing traffic to a halt

But that would never be
Never, never be
Cause I'm not beautiful like you
I'm beautiful like me, I'm beautiful like me

If I was beautiful like you
I'd be quick to assume
They'd do anything to please me, why not
I see their reaction when you walk into the room

But that would never be
Never, never, never be
Cause I'm not beautiful like you
I'm beautiful like me, beautiful like me
Beautiful, beautiful like me
Like me, Like me...

If I was beautiful like you
I'd have so many friends
All fighting for my time to be next in line
So if I hurt one, I wouldn't have to make amends

But that would never be
Never, never, never be
Cause I'm not beautful like you
I'm not beautiful like you
I'm not beautiful like you
I'm beautiful like me
I'm Beautiful like me, beautiful like me
I'm beautiful like me, I'm beautiful like me!

My Space

There are some people who edit their profiles on myspace and/or facebook everyday. But the one time a month I log into myspace, I'm reminded that a good piece of writing, is still a good piece of writing and doesn't need to be rewritten if it still works. In that vain, here's my myspace "about me" profile that sums it all up:

i used to think i was obsessive compulsive. now i realize it was love that made me do it. stupid love.__i think everything happens for a reason but can't rationalize for the life of me why 2 of my closest college girlfriends are already in heaven.__i talk to at least one of my parents almost every day. i think it's healthy.__i am eternally on a diet. i'm convinced the only way to get the perfect body is to be stranded on a desert island.__i think combo eating is the wave of the future. Salt with sweet...sheer genius.__i have a favorite restaurant on almost every continent. __most of my friends are men. but the female friends i do have, are the best i could ever have.__i sleep in a tank top and underwear no matter what the weather is.__i bite my nails, not out of habit, but because i like the way it shapes them.__i think scars are beautiful.__i agree that therapy is more therapeutic than destructive.__i say things i believe to be true, and unless someone corrects me, i go with it.__palm readers scare me, because i believe in destiny and fate.__i think the best days are those that start with drinking at around noon. i respect people who don't drink, but will forever try my hardest to convert them.__i love babies and puppies and would not be able to choose between the two if you offered me one for the day.__i love red and blue, but am not the biggest fan of purple.__i love to cry but don't do it nearly enough.__i get the itch to move after staying in one place longer than a year.__i could never be with someone who doesn't say "bless you" after i sneeze, no matter what their religious denomination is.__i respect more than i admire, i am envious more than i am jealous, but i love and hate about the same.

Monday, June 23, 2008

What good is a cigarette if you don't have a light?

I was walking to work this morning in complete humidity and utter shitty weather and all I wanted was to have a cigarette. I quit smoking a couple months ago, but always have that one loner smoke in my bag for mornings like this. Figures that the one time I wanna inhale, I can't find fire for the life of me. It being Monday of course, I had a disappointing epiphany...what good is having something you want if you can't fully take advantage of it?


I work in advertising because it's my passion; my obsession; my life. But what's the point of being in this industry if I can't be the best I can at it? I don't suck, I'm actually pretty good. But if for some bullshit reason, I can't get a job at a hot shop, what's the point? It used to be so rewarding to wake up and do what I love, but I'm past that point now...at a dead-end job, where my battles aren't coming up with a great headline, it's dealing with other people's issues- and I'm not even a CD! It's not rewarding just to do the job. It's rewarding when you do something that makes a difference, or at least makes people look at it and laugh...or cry. But I can't even do that right now.

Why are the forces making it so hard to kick ass at what I do?

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Great quotes

"I can resist anything except temptation" - Oscar Wilde

"We all die. The goal is not to live forever. The goal is to create something that will." - PostSecret

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." - Bob Marley

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Stellar mottos

I'm all about good catch phrases, so this is my contribution for today:

- "Happy wife, happy life" - The Heartbreak Kid
So true. Make your wife happy, you'll be happy.

- "Think long, think wrong." - This chick's Kristina's dad.
When shopping, if you are hesitant about making the purchase, BUY IT. Think about it too long, walk away from it, and you'll not only think about it nonstop, but you'll regret not gettin' it. Hence, think long, think wrong. I try to incorporate this line into as many ads as possible. A client has yet to buy it. Big mistake. Huge, actually. It's gonna make millions someday. You saw it here first.

- "Don't explain. Don't complain." -Anne Thorpe (a co-worker)
This was given as an example of how managers should trust their employees. For example, if you tell your manager you have to leave early, that's it, you have to leave early! They shouldn't ask why, they should just trust you. If you end up having to explain yourself, chances are it will be in the form of complaining; and that's your own fault. Don't explain, no need to complain. Brilliant.

More to come...

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

You ever have a moment?

Lately, I've been having loads of "a-ha" moments and the only thing that explains how I feel are those retro Imperial Butter commercials. My favorite is the one of the kid sitting on the dock when the crown pops up, but this one will have to do...



Damnit. This video never wants to load. Lemme know if it works for you. If not, I'll delete the posting :(. Thanks!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Hi to the fam


It's come to my attention that some of my family may be reading my blog. And to those select few...I love you. I miss you. And I'll try to write more so you know what's up!!

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Best book I've read this year


Ya know how after you watch an episode of Lost , you can't stop thinkin about it? Well, I've just read the most incredible book that's done the same thing to me! It's called "Call Me By Your Name", by Andre Aciman. Aciman explains emotions and relationships like I've never seen. He gets so deeply into it, that while you're reading, you find yourself nodding your head in agreement. He's eloquent, tells a fantastic story, and at the end of the book, you can fully identify with the main character so much that it's almost like Aciman knows of your own personal heartbreak and wrote about it. A MUST READ for anyone who's into unconventional love stories.

Here's a gorgeous excerpt from Call Me By Your Name:

"In your place, if there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don't snuff it out, don't be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we'd want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything—what a waste!"

In case you don't believe me, here are some reviews:

NY Times Book Review
4.5 of 5 Stars

"This novel is hot...It is an exceptionally beautiful book that cannot quite bring itself to draw the inevitable conclusion about axis-shifting passion that men and women of the world might like to think they will always reach — that that obscure object of desire is, by definition, ungraspable, indeterminate and already lost at exactly the moment you rush so fervently to hold him or her." STACEY D’ERASMO

Boston Globe
4 of 5 Stars

"The novel is richly, sensuously detailed, from Elio’s testosterone-fueled fantasies to the pair’s passionate couplings to such vivid descriptions of the Italian countryside one can almost smell the ocean and feel the heat. … I kept wondering where the parents were in all this." KAREN CAMPBELL

San Francisco Chronicle
4 of 5 Stars

"The novel is told in retrospect; while most of the events take place over the course of a summer, this is the story of a man remembering an important moment in his past. Aciman carries the reader along by the fury of his language, tightly focusing on the all-consuming nature of love (reminding us, along the way, of Nabokov’s Lolita, Stendhal’s On Love and even the Bible’s sensual Song of Songs)." IRINA REYN

Seattle Times
4 of 5 Stars

"Aciman’s prose is alive to each spiral and retraction of feeling, to every signal sent out and withdrawn. The result is a tender-tough story of headlong love and awkward timing that reads like a highbrow cosmopolitan variation on Brokeback Mountain." MICHAEL UPCHURCH

Los Angeles Times
3.5 of 5 Stars

"Aciman’s real theme, as indicated by the novel’s title, is the idea of sexual love as absorption—the act by which all barriers are dissolved and the outside becomes one with the thing desired. … Aciman spends his literary currency on [sexual] descriptions that are over the top and detract from the novel’s more nuanced ideas." JUDITH FREEMAN

Thursday, March 27, 2008

My happy thought for the day

Was walking to work this morning and discovered a van with this logo on the side:


You'll never guess what the name of the company is...SUNRISE ERECTORS!!!!
Don't believe me? Check out their url: http://www.sunriseerectors.com/

Today was awesome.

Monday, March 24, 2008

2 weeks notice

If time is the most valuable comodity we have, why do we waste time doing something that makes us unhappy? Take the customary idea of giving 2 weeks notice when you're about to leave a job. I mean, you've clearly been looking for another job because you're miserable, and yet at the end of the day, you're supposed to be considerate enough to give them 2 weeks notice to find a replacement. Hell, the job hasn't even been considerate enough to make you happy, they haven't noticed you've been looking for another job; they clearly don't give a shit about you. And yet, even if they did notice you were absent for a couple days because you mysteriously got the flu in the middle of the summer, they're not saying anything or doing anything about it. If we want out, why can't we just exit gracefully and shock them just like they shocked us in that first interview with all the questions and anxiety and hesitation? If they can do a massive round of layoffs without any warning- without giving us time to look around, why can't we just quit and leave them high and dry? I just don't get it.

It seems like the biggest load of bull crap I have yet to encounter in the work force. It's not like any project can truly wrap up in 2 weeks. It's not like just anyone can be trained to replace what you've worked years doing. So why do we bother giving in to this corporate hogwash? And honestly, what's with the exit interview? Seriously. After X amount of years, all you've wanted was to give the company a piece of your mind; to call out the people who suck and have made your life miserable; to give praise to the people who have made it bareable and to suggest things they could do to keep the rest of them there. However, they wait until you're leaving to ask you what you really think! Do they honestly think the answers will be positive? And if they are, do they pat themselves on the back and think "oh well, nothing we could have done would have made her stay?" Let's face it. People leave because something is lacking. Whether it be a better opportunity elsewhere, or a relocation, you leave because you can't/don't want to waste any more time where you are. You need change.

It's like my last breakup. We were madly in love (I think) and after a weekend of not spending enough time together, he says he thinks we need to take a break (sidebar- breaks are bullshit; either you break up or you stay together - there's no grey area). But this was no ordinary break. He wanted a 2 week break. Instantly I realized that this was my opportunity to have an exit interview; to say everything I had wanted to say over those past 2 years. Only here's the catch. He wanted to say everything HE had wanted to say. That's when I knew it was over. Sure, I would agree to a 2 week break, but only because it was "the right thing to do." Bullshit. I had been brainwashed by work to think that 2 weeks was standard for everything. I should have just said, "No thanks. Let's call this what it is. A break up." Once you've done that exit interview, you can't go back and say you've made a mistake. Two weeks notice is final. That's it. Sayonara.

But really, how awesome would it be to you say to your job, hey, do you mind if I take a 2 week break and decide if I'm still feelin' you? If not, then, see ya. Oh ya, and don't bother seeing me out. I packed up my stuff while you were too busy to notice how miserable i was.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Beautiful

An incredible scene from the movie Bent



(Synopsis: During WWII, a Berlin homosexual is caught up in the Nazi hysteria. After being forced to kill his lover, he is placed in a prison camp, where he lies so he will be classified as Jewish rather than homosexual. After a series a constitution-breaking incidents, his love for a fellow male prisoner brings him to admit his true nature.)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Abandoning my fix

My local Starbucks is undergoing renovation, so I've decided to take a break from coffee. I think I've become addicted. The first day I withdrew, I had such an insane headache that I couldn't function. Been trying to stay away from caffeine in general cuz let's face it, I really don't need the extra energy. I've replaced my vice with Super B-Complex vitamins. So far so good. Not gonna lie though. When my Starbucks reopens, I might be forced to go in just to see what it looks like. And I might be forced to get my usual Grande Skinny Vanilla Latte. Don't hate me.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Steve Martin, not a bad writer.


Shopgirl
6.3/10 Rotten Tomatoes rating

[Ray]
"And um, just so you know, I'm sorry for the way I treated you."

[Mirabelle]
"I know."

[Ray Porter]
"I did love you."

[Narrator]
"As Ray Porter watches Mirabelle walk away he feels a loss. How is it possible, he thinks, to miss a woman whom he kept at a distance so that when she was gone, he would not miss her. Only then does he realize how wanting part of her and not all of her, had hurt them both. And how he can not justify his actions, except that, well, it was life."

Monday, January 21, 2008

Love creativity? Then quit. Please.

Dear M-
You murder creativity and should retire. If you don't, I fear that our clients will never know what killer creative work is. Quit being so selfish and think about it. We might even throw you a goodbye party.

Thanks.
Leah