Crushing on some color for summer, and love the look of a pencil skirt for the office. I am loving finding all of this color in the traditional shape that is usually black.
I wear my black pencil skirt weekly, it is from Express and it is just too easy to wear. But it is plain jane too.
I like these options that still have the same shape, but offer more fun. And two are at a great price, which I am a fan of.
Anthropologie Woodblock Pencil Skirt, $78
Love the look. Pair it with a green cotton button up. Though pairing those bright colors is probably why people in my office always say "wow, the girls in marketing wear such bright colors."
Tulle, Solid Cotton Sheen Paper Bag Skirt, $21.20
That bow, that price. I think it would be a wrinkled mess by the end of the day, but I think it would be cool and sleek.
I can't pull of an April Fool's joke. I don't have jokey street cred. Last year, a coworker made chocolate dipped strawberries and passed them out to everyone -- but the chocolate was full of salt! Creative and hilarious to watch people eat them.
The best prank that was ever pulled on me, I'm thrilled to say is on YouTube.
A list of the top 10 office pranks is here. The tin foil one has been done often but never gets old.
Update: I added the video. Sorry, school has completely fried my brain. I was in accounting last night, pretty sure my teacher was speaking Japanese. Would have been cool, if it was a Japanese class.
WDL posted 30 funny print ads, two of which featured pugs. Well, they are good for cuddling, running and tilting their head, among other things.
Can't decide if my puppy is being displayed to the world fairly or not. Except that she does have really bad breath and she kind of scrunches up like that.
Ten points to anyone who knows what PDF stands for. I'm sure it is something simple. But acronyms have a way of becoming verbiage.
They can also be very frustrating. Here's two links that are fabulous for ending that frustration.
FillAnyPDF lets you electronically write on any PDF document.
PDFMyURL lets you turn any Web site into a PDF. Great for recipes or news articles that you think are going t be taken down (I'm thinking portfolio here.)
Both links from Lifehacker, love that site. Fabulous for useful information.
There’s two camps to join post-Superbowl. The ads were funny, some spot-on. Or the ads were sexist and a horrid display of what Madison Avenue believes our society to be.
I fall somewhere in the category of “hey now, women wear pants too” and Doritos and Budweiser have an inflated advertising budget.
I can't help but agree with this chart about the ads.
Poor men. They gotta get the girl, and then they gotta get away from the girl before she emasculates them.
But wait! Instead of ending the relationship, there are products to help!
The ad I understood? Using a naked Megan Fox to sell a phone. Makes sense. Stereotype, check. I get that. But using sex to sell -- to predictable these days.
Or perhaps you're in the camp that all ads are eye-roll worthy. They are fun to laugh at. They ring true in some aspects, as did this one (full disclosure, husband loved it).
But when the laughter is gone, the knocking of healthy relationships with give and take, of ambition, of teamwork remains. The ads weren’t ripping into men, they were ripping into relationships that men have with women.
As if women are these horrible creatures that only seek to emasculate men. Of course, because I don't know a girl who doesn't mind her man opening the peanut butter jar or working up a sweat at the gym. If that's her guy's thing.
And shh, don’t tell Dockers or Snickers, but women make up 50 percent of the population. And much more of that on the buying power.
It is hard to be a hater though. Love Betty White. Hate the phrase “playing like a girl.”
Go to Seattle. Tickets are bought for Spring Break. Wahoo.
Start my own business. Not so much to go out on my own just yet, but to keep track of freelancing, business-related purchases. etc.
Find a yoga studio that fits in the budget. Or do something to work my body. It needs it.
Get good grades. A weird part of me wants to set a goal to be first in my class or something. But I'm trying to silence that part of me.
Celebrate three years of a fabulous marriage
Babysit a baby at some point. The more I talk about babies, the more I realize I want to know more about them. Because I know nothing.
Track my work. I may work hard, but I'm realizing that I can't ever prove myself if I can't show what I've done.
Work to overcome some issues of anxiety, break downs and PTSD. If I ever want to have a baby, this needs to be checked off.
Find someone to trust me with their baby because I know nothing about babies. Maybe I can just go out to lunch with a baby and its mom.
Go to Blogher 2010. See my friend Katie and maybe Brooke in the process. Meet a lot of great people.
Develop a fantastic social media/Internet policy for employees of my company. Love this one.
Only buy clothes if I love them. This isn't really a list item as much as it is a goal.
Sew something amazing. That fits.
Be assertive at work.
Go to Paris. I really hope this happens. I have apparently been vocal about this goal because I got three travel books relating to Paris for Christmas. I practice French on my iPhone. And our savings is going great. We're not eating, we're saving - but we have had a few setbacks. Mainly from the vehicle category
Photo taken in the first moments of 2010. Sparkling cider equals Mormon booze.
My entire working life has been spent out in the open. My cube now has four sides, which is a step. I've adapted to the open atmosphere and I thrive on conversation and collaboration.
But these pictures of the offices at Google - whoa. Awesomeness. All about collaboration and openness. They take the dream of being in an office and make it the dream of being in a banana chair.
Why is Thursday night TV so great? Flash Forward, 30 Rock and of course the cubicle crew. My relationship with The Office is love/hate. Some days I am not a fan of watching a show about an office when I've spent all day working in one. Some episodes are amazing, i.e. Pam and Jim's wedding. Others I feel like I want that 30 minutes back, i.e. The Micheal Scott Paper Company.
This is why I like it though. True Office right here.
Oh and I am a fan of Hulu. Seriously who needs DVR when you have the Internet? OK, I see the advantage but in my money consciousness, I am trying to save money.
Note: Massage giveaway extended (due to spreadsheet disappearance). My loss is your gain. Enter until Nov. 30
See, I thought forgetting my lunch and going hungry was a bad thing.
Just kidding hubs, it was a girls birthday at work, so I got cake. And the birthday girl was on a diet, so we all got to eat two slices! It all works out.
I get having email open, I'm totally guilty most days. But what are you doing on your work computer that you need a $40 foot pedal to switch things when someone walks by? Those things can't wait eight hours?
I've admitted to being bored, and there may be some days when I am less than motivated. But overall, my motivation comes from dedication to the company, and to myself.
The day I have strayed so far beyond my tasks that I fear supervisory reaction and need a foot pedal -- that is the day I change jobs. Maybe I'm clueless. I work in a cubicle where everyone can see what I'm doing when they walk by -- and it does make me jumpy. Even if I'm on twitter -- and I am paid to be on twitter. I just get this overwhelming sense of guilt. I've been known to click off quickly when anyone walks by -- I feel a Word document would look better to the CEO than a Facebook Fan page.
Or am I missing something. That could totally be the case.
Offices just aren't like this. But if they were, it would be awesome. And if the Backstreet Boys had done music videos like this they probably wouldn't have bombed out of their career.
Alternate title: promoting yourself versus self-promoting.
It was a topic at Blogworld, without being one. I oft heard
"Well, we could go to that session, but so-and-so is presenting, and they are a self-promoter..."
At the conference, people didn't want to spend an hour hearing a commercial and were fearful to converse.
I get it. We all have that shall-not-be-named tweeter that we've blocked because it was just an endless stream of ads. But many of us are trying to do the same thing that guy was. We want to promote our brands, ourselves, or whatever we are selling (and we're all selling something) but we also want to be personable. Or maybe you are just an attention whore, as Paul O'Flatherty calls bloggers. He is one, so pot meet kettle.
In San Diego, some gals who balance this well are Alex and Julie of San Diego Travel Tips. They have helped me so many times when family has come to town -- but they are also lobbyists and have a great tourism site. Their helpful tips remind me that they have something to offer, but they are helping me, so I don't feel sold to. They have made a name for themselves and write for the new San Diego News Network. Yay!
But let's say goodbye to it. Here are five techniques I have gathered. Now, I'm not perfect, and these are words for me to live by too.
Develop a ratio. I've been to seminars where they say tweet about others five times as often as you tweet about yourself. I've even hurt up to 10 times. It gives you value to tweet about other links related to your brand or topic.
Along those same lines, remember that twitter and facebook aren't your personal advertising network. It is a social network. Don't you just roll your eyes at the friend from high school who emails you, asking to buy into his or her business, even though you haven't talked since the all-night-graduation party? Yeah, don't be that friend.
Converse, engage. Say thank you for retweets and comments. Liz at BabyBlooze does this. Simply put, it makes me feel good, and so I do it again. This is definitely something I need to be better at! I get distracted.
Promote your stuff in a different way. Be creative. Don't do the same old same old email. Create a way for people to participate and become well known too. That Wife Blog is having a giveaway right now. Jenna is asking people to send pictures of their wedding dress. She'll choose a winner from the submissions, same way as almost everyone does through random.org. But my wedding dress is going to be on her site, and well I am a little in love with the dress I celebrated my union to hubs in, so I got all excited and sent it in.
Go face to face. Unless you live in the boonies, Meetup.com likely has a presence in your city. Find a group. When people can vouch for your genuine self, you gain trust. And when you seem genuine, people no longer see the plastic outer cover.
There are good teachers in San Diego, thank goodness. Several people I've known for months before I knew what they did -- and then we'll talk business. I think that's a good thing.
I live tweeted my sessions at Blogworld Expo, taking notes and hoping to share the fab info. But the crazy thing to me was watching the live stream and realizing “Holy crap! I am totally sharing a wifi connection with ‘so-and-so!’”
I would look around, looking for my role models in the room, but let’s face it, a one-inch-by-one-inch avatar is about as good as a drivers license photo. And I’m saying that because the bouncer at the nightclub looked at my license, looked at me, looked back at the license, and shrugged his shoulders. Like “meh, she’s probably old enough.”
Dearest bouncer. I am totally old enough.
Me at my first Las Vegas nightclub, bottom center, bright green. Hey, I didn't say me looking hot at a Vegas night club, right? I'm scared to find more pictures.
(cc) Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com
So I didn't get the chance to geek out too often and yell "I follow you!" But I did plenty too. (sorry again Chris Brogan. Nah, no I'm not.)
But you know what I learned most? Do what you do best how you do it.
Foster that and prepare for change. When the "so-called new twitter" comes out, you will be ready for it.
I heard RSS was dead in one of the first sessions I went to and was “all, I am going to have to bury my Google Reader or be declared ancient?”
And I would cry because I am a little attached to my reader.
But then I was “saved” when I went to a class all about utilizing RSS.
Another session talked about the death of email. I couldn’t live without that either. But there are some things I think are dead too. So we do what we do best.
Moral of the story: if it is making you a better blogger, communicator, influencer, whatever, then stick with it. But be open to new ideas too because they can help you be great. That is good too.
The other day I parked among the homeless again. (sidenote, I saw that guy again. Sorry I never told you, but oh guess what, he's OK, I wasn't heartless for not stopping)
As I was walking back to my car, a woman yelled at me.
"Do you always do that?"
I was confused. I looked at her.
"Do you always walk like that?"
Then she started laughing hysterically. Like I walked oh so crazy. I mean I was in heels though. Maybe I never mastered that concept?
I spent the entire next day asking people if I walked funny.
...
I was talking to a coworker. Who happened to sit in on the panel that interviewed me for my job. way back when.
"Natalie always makes me laugh," he said in front of me and others. "You want to know why Natalie always makes me laugh? When she came in for her job interview, her suit button was wrong. There were only two buttons on the suit and she'd messed it up. She had a fifty/fifty chance and she missed it."
I was mortified. About an event that happened over a year ago.
...
Then I asked a friend if I walked funny. Told her the story.
"You're really letting that incident take up that kind of precious real estate that is your brain? Of all the things your brain could be doing and you're dwelling on that?"
If you aren't on the flu shot list at work, you're getting dirty looks.
It is now officially cool and not at all OCD to leave the bathroom with a paper towel, to use it to open door handles.
A debate has commenced on whether or not antibacterial wipes are good or bad for you.
Sneeze and people wonder what you are up to.
People don't want to move cubicles because other departments are known to be more ill than others.
I sang happy birthday to myself so many times while washing my hands, I felt like it really was my birthday. It even brightened my day a little.
No one is talking rumors about the weekend. Instead it is "did you hear that so-and-so is sick."
I haven't debated on whether or not to get the H1N1 shot. Have you? Should I?
My theory is that husband and I got the flu shot last year and didn't get sick. At all. With my track record (in 2007 I was sick all of February) that was a miracle.
I figure that I have enough issues without getting sick. Today I am getting a nerve conduction test on my hands to test for nerve damage. I almost called and canceled because I was scared of the idea. But they assured me it would be OK. So at about 9:30 a.m., maybe think of me?
P.S. Don't Google image sick. Ick. Though a picture of Glenn Beck did pop up. Awesome.
I like lists. They make me feel like "if I do this, then that will happen."
I make lists constantly, in a little pink notebook I carry everywhere with me. Some are along the lines of "things I am good at," "places I will go someday" and "what I'll do when I grow up."
(can't for the life of me remember where I grabbed this picture. I just liked it. need to be better at that.)
William Safire was an ultimate writer. He wrote for Nixon and the New York Times. He crossed the lines of public relations and journalism fluidly.
He died this past weekend. One of my journalism professors posted a list of his writing tips. I'm guilty of regularly making these mistakes (got called out for the use of exclamation points on my company's twitter account on Monday). Yikes. I thought I'd repost them here for inspiration.
Safire's useful writing advice:
1. No sentence fragments.
2. It behooves us to avoid archaisms.
3. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.
4. Don't use no double negatives.
5. If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, “Resist hyperbole!”
6. Avoid commas, that are not necessary.
7. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
8. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
9. Writing carefully, dangling participles should not be used.
10. Kill all exclamation points!!!
11. Never use a long word with a diminutive one will do.
12. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
13. Take the bull by the hand and don't mix metaphors.
For almost as long as I've been on twitter, the above photo has been my avatar. So as I've gotten to know people, and gone to tweetups, I've always gotten the comment "where's your hat?"
And I'd laugh it off, because I really liked my hair and eye makeup.
No seriously, that was the reason.
But then @downtownrob told me I looked more serene on twitter than in person. And by serene, it could have meant snooty.
I'm not snooty, or serene. So I flipped through photos. But an avatar must be close up to be seen on its super tiny square (even smaller on the iPhone I'm realizing) so I wanted to choose carefully.
Right now, I'm settling on this version. But I'm not sure I like how the busy background is showing up on places (though it is the paparazzi) And when I took it to the court of public opinion, also known as the twittersphere, the response was: And, @shelisrael never answered me back when I asked if I looked OK with the hat. Men have a hard time understanding that if you say that you like the new haircut, well then what did you think of the other one.
And yes, I get it. Women have a hard time shutting up. So?
There was the issue of recognition though. I realize that I completely associate people with their faces, and not always their names. There are a lot of names that begin/end with PR or SD that I talk to, so it is good to have a good face to put to a name. Personal branding is one thing I struggle with. I'm thinking about this a lot as I prepare to go to Blogworld.
I am even tempted to change my blog name again to be more reflective of marriage and being a wife. But then again, I'll like the theme. I think I'm just indecisive. I'll never get a tattoo for that reason. Permanent. Scary.
Really Kanye? Really Joe Wilson? Really Serena Williams?
Am I missing any other adults who lacked class this week?
In case you missed it, what are you living under some pop culture rock? In the past week, Representative Joe Wilson yelled “you lie!” at the president during his speech about Healthcare, Serena Williams threatened to shove a tennis ball into a referee and Kanye West stole the microphone from Taylor Swift when she won best female video and did his own speech (video below).
The only one I would actually expect this from is Kanye.
Clearly money doesn’t buy class. But on the Senate Floor? At a tennis match where cheers from the crowd is inappropriate? And well, I can’t really say the MTV Music Awards is a place for class (oh, the pastie! Lady Gaga’s horrible song!), moments of recognition are typically one to be respected.
It is a sense of entitlement that allows us to yell and jump on stage in front of other moments of fame. That same sixth sense crashed our economy and continues to pervade our society. We don’t learn our lessons, and because of that, I don’t feel like we can ever flatline. We will continue to bounce around in fancy cars and credit card debt until we crash again and again.
The results from the acts were mixed, except for the fact that they all sent publicists scrambling to issue an appropriate response. All issued apologies, which is appropriate, but this serves as a reminder to "prepare and prevent" instead of "repair and repent," ala Kanye (sorry to pick on him, but he's so classic... this screen shot has apparently been removed, likely at his publicists' direction)
However, for his impending election Wilson and his opponent have raised a combined $2 million and people who didn’t know his name and thoughts on healthcare now do. Guaruntee in November, it will be one of the most-watched elections and if he loses, Fox will use him as a commentator.
Williams lost the game and consequently, the U.S. Open {her apology}. West may have some industry support and he also took away from Beyonce’s moment, the very person he was trying to spotlight, because she gave it back to Taylor Swift.
"I remember being 17 years old, up for my first MTV award with Destiny's Child and it was one of the most exciting moments of my life. So I would like for Taylor to come out and have her moment." - Beyonce said after receiving her award for Video Of The Year. Beyonce had never won Video of the Year, and she didn’t get an acceptance speech for it.
I don't have much of a point, exept that it never hurts to be nice. Let us all think before we talk and if we ever do get as much cash as Kanye, use it for good instead of a illspoken voice. And lets start with a Corolla instead of a Bentley in our lives so we suddenly don't feel entitled to a public rant session.
If JT brought sexy back, can someone bring "manners" back?
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And when I took it to the court of public opinion, also known as the twittersphere, the response was:
