Word of the day

Lyssophobia. Random, I know.

REWARD for missing portfolio

How I lost my interviewing portfolio is beyond me. Fri am, 10:15 I entered a meeting with my recruiter. I had the folder. Sunday afternoon it was lost and gone forever. In those 2 days, I was in my car, my apartment, Alicia's car, and at Great Lakes working. Have checked all these places, it's not anywhere. Also Damon's house and boat but for the love of god if I lost it at a drinking BBQ or waterskiing I'm just an idiot. What the f happened to it?

Here's what I'd include in a police report:
Maroon folder, appx. value $10. Bought in 1998. Containing a load of business cards and interview notes. Missing since Fri 7/22 am. Reward is negotiable - tell me what you want.

UPDATE: As of 8/1/05, it's still missing. F-ing portfolio.

UPDATE: Yesterday (August 7), I found my folder. Yipee. Stuffed between my bed and my couch - must've fallen off my bed which I sometimes use as a shelf (you have to improvise in a studio). Hmm, not completely unlike a certain Kerry Keyes being stuffed between a bed and a wall in a certain Dan Hansen's bedroom.

Rockstars of the Week

Sorry for the delay - I was trying to get a pix to post with this but it just hasn't happened. All from the fun weekend of the St. Louis crew in town...

Honorable honorable mention: Goofy foot. What more must I say - best "technical" term EVER.

Honorable mention: Lenertz - For being fun at Damon's BBQ. And by fun, I mean that he had a half full pitcher of beer and people were scooting away from him asap to avoid the inevitable dripping from the pitcher. Add this picture to Lenertz in a shirt so soaked in sweat you'd have to see it to believe it.


Sweaty Lenny. Looks normal, isn't quite normal.

3. Alicia - For making a girl cry after Alicia exclaimed "Who the F drinks white wine at Williams?" I decided in posting this, it would result in admitting we went to Williams in Uptown, but alas, it happened. After reflection upon the event the next day, we realized that Alicia made the comment to the homo that was the girl's boyfriend - not to the girl herself because she actually thought HE was the one drinking the wine - not the case. As a side note, we weren't sure if she was crying about Alicia's comment or the fact that she's dating a homo. I guess we'll never know.

2. Juice - For grabbing and slamming the aforementioned glass of white wine from our neighbor's table as we were getting kicked out of Williams at 2am. Nice work, killer.

1. The Dancing Golden Girl we encountered at The Lyons Pub on Friday night. For everything that she is and does and represents. Not that I know what that means, but wow. You had to be there to believe it. I'm trying to post her picture - all I have is a video. It's worth seeing but I can't post it. Per your request I'll email it. Honestly, it's worth it. Unbelievable - it's pretty much the reason for video to be incorporated into digital cameras - still pix can't capture her essence.

Teddy Ruxpin

I think my sister had one of these toy Teddy Ruxpin bears when she was little. I think they're creepy, as the author of this article suggests. They're relaunching the bear for it's 20th birthday this fall. I'm not "hot to trot" for this new fad. Are Puffalumps next? And what are the animals that fold themselves and turn into a ball? Can't remember the name...

How do you account for that account?

I'm posting this article from the NYT because if you aren't registered with them, you won't be able to read it. I think it's v. interesting - especially note the fact that they say the Sarbanes-Oxley law has affecting the marketing department of companies across America. Random, eh?

How Effective Is This Ad, in Real Numbers? Beats Me

By STUART ELLIOTT

THE results of a survey scheduled to be released today at a conference sponsored by the Association of National Advertisers bring to mind the familiar Mark Twain remark about the weather: Everyone complains about the inability to determine the return on investment from advertising spending, but no one seems satisfied with what is being done about it.

The conference is the most recent in a skein of meetings sponsored by the association, the trade organization for the nation's largest marketers, focusing on advertising accountability. Senior marketers are increasingly intent on figuring out what they are doing right - and wrong - as the cost of peddling goods and services climbs each year, along with the difficulty of reaching potential customers.

The conference, formally titled the 2005 Marketing Accountability Forum, is to begin this morning with a general session at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. To underline what it considers to be the importance of the conference, the association is also promoting it to members of the trade group that represents the agencies that marketers work with, the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

The survey was conducted in April by the advertiser association and two partners, Marketing Management Analytics, part of the Aegis Group, and Forrester Research. In telephone interviews this week, Ms. Mirque and executives from Marketing Management Analytics offered a preview of some survey results.

For instance, 61.5 percent of the survey respondents said it was important to them to define, measure and take concrete steps in the area of advertising accountability. But only 19 percent said they were satisfied with their ability to take those steps.

And 73 percent of respondents were not confident that they understood the effects that an advertising or marketing campaign could have on sales. When asked if they agreed with the statement, "I would be able to forecast the impact on sales" of a 10 percent cut in marketing spending, 63 percent said no.

Back in the day, "marketing had a rock-star mentality, able to do what it wanted," said Ed See, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Marketing Management, which is based in Wilton, Conn.

"But we're not living in a rock 'n' roll world anymore," he added. "Elvis has left the building."

A primary reason for the change, Mr. See said, is what he called the "halo effect" of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, centered on the difference the law is making in the way top managers run companies.

"Marketers were able to do what they wanted because they were given a bye from a corporate governance aspect by the C-suite," Mr. See said, using the shorthand term for leaders like chief executives. "But now," he added, "the C-suite sees marketing as the last bastion of uncontrolled spending, and it's being viewed as a risk, a financial risk."

"It's the old story of the C.E.O. who asks the chief marketing officer, 'What happens if I take 10 percent out of the marketing budget?' and the C.M.O. replies, 'I don't know,' " Mr. See said, "so the C.E.O. says: 'O.K., I'll take 20 percent.' "

John Nardone, executive vice president and chief client officer at Marketing Management, said the survey showed that it was more important than ever for advertisers to give their marketing departments the types of controls, models and "repeatable processes" they use in areas like supply-chain management and human resources.

"Marketers are tracking all kinds of data and they still can't answer basic questions" about advertising accountability, Mr. Nardone said, "because they don't have real models and metrics by which to make sense of it."

Downgrade

I downgraded from #2 to #13 this summer with my move to Minneapolis. Boston was rated the #2 country in the country for singles, while Mpls is substantially down the list. I guess I can confirm this is true - no boyfriend in Mpls, I had one within 4 months of moving to Boston. But they are saying there's a chance for me in Mpls... Cross your fingers for me.

I'm surprised by Denver's #1 rating - I need to go there sometime and check it out. I've only ever been up in ski country, never actually in the city.

I like that they backed up their ratings with methodology. Good work Forbes.

UPDATE: You may or may not normally read the comments on my blog, but I encourage you to take a minute to read Kerry's comments on the methodology of this study, which I'd actually given props to.

Two points: a) I love that I have a friend who will be/is a epidemiologist. There's a chance you don't know that word so look it up. b) Her explaination of why their methodology sucks is written in laymens terms - nice work Kerry for dumbing it down for us. My takeaway is not to just give props to those offering methodology, but to challenge their methodology.

Legends

I like Legends of the Fall. I own it. But this guy's notes on the DVD special release is quite comical. Enjoy it.

Note to future boyfriends: Do NOT buy me a star

I've never thought about the company that sells stars based on the business plan: "People are dumb." But this blog talked about this history and invention of the International Star Registry. You know them - the people who have radio commercials about buying your loved one a star. It's a funny article.

Speaking of business plan ideas, I feel like if I'd had this one, it would've been thrown out and called stupid. My business plan ideas posted on my blog keep coming true - nail salons in airports and Hire-a-Guy (not sure if I blogged about that one) renamed as OddBalls so I'm not sure if I want to post my new idea for a bar here... I'll think about it.

Queer Sox

I think the Queer Eye has grown old in the past year - too much product placement, too much over the top let's-spend-$100,000-to-fix-him attitudes, etc. However, I'm watching the Red Sox version of Queer Eye and it's hilarious. Yes, partially because I like the team. But unless you're a Yankees fan you'll think it's fun.

Mom - something else that's on cable - this one on Bravo.

PS Bravo should win an award for the redoing of it's channel. It used to be weird reruns and movies, and now Being Bobby Brown. What a turnaround.

This sums it up

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this topic before, but once more isn't too much because the reciprocity between WI and MN is f-ed up. Like laws that you can't drink tomato juice in Ohio on Sundays - weird laws from 1848 that don't make any sense.

Please note the fact that when WI and MN try to "settle the books" at the end of the year, the money WI owes MN is paid by the state, not the student, and goes into the MN general fund, not to the University. Who makes up this shit? Crazy people.

UPDATE: After spending a weekend with friends that are UofM alumni but essentially pledged alliance to the Badgers because they're Wisconsin natives and the Badgers have an outdoor stadium, I have decided 2 things:

a) The Gophers REALLY need a new stadium.
b) To make up for getting cheaper tuition than me, Wisconsin natives should be required to make up for it by being SUPER SUPER SUPER good and loyal Gopher sports fans. And go to more than just football games. This should be an enforced University rule.

Tim Burton

I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tonight and was underwhelmed. BTW, Michael - "underwhelmed" is my word of the summer. It's no "snarky" but what can I do...

It was fun to wonder how they were going to change it - the inside of the factory was fun to watch, but they changed the songs which made me sad. I liked the actor that played Charlie, but still wanted the original movie back. There is no wallpaper licking in this version and I won't lie, that made me sad.

I have trouble with Tim Burton movies in general - aside from one exception, I don't like any of them more than 3 stars on a scale of 1-5. What movie do I really like from Mr. Burton?

The Rove game

If you haven't been watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart lately, start. Now. Tonight. 11 EST/10 CST. Seriously, the show is so funny, and actually delivers news with the correct (notice I didn't say RIGHT) slant I'm looking for.

Pure comedy when Jon interviewed the man who wrote 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37). Jon just clowned the author over the fact the Jimmy Carter and Barbara Streisand also both appear on the list. The man tried convincing Jon that the left influence in Hollywood is more strongly influencing America today than the conservative right in DC. Jon pretty much said, um yeah right, you're dumb.

Also a classic show - Jon's take on the whole Rove issue. Again Jon's take is "are you f-ing kidding me? This whole thing is ridiculous! Why has he not been fired and accept blame and end the whole thing?" It's fun to hear someone on TV agreeing with me. Okay maybe the other way around but you know what I mean.

On the Rove topic, this FactCheck.org article about the Rove issue does a nice job of recapping everything. I liked reading through this - it made me feel smart. I signed up for the FactCheck.org enewsletter and would recomend it. I'm not sure if it's endorsed by either side (even though I realize it says it's fair and unbiased I don't always believe what I'm told) but I think it's ok...

Note to mom - Comedy Central is something you can get if you get a dish rather than the 5 channels you have now. Think about it.

ATTENTION RICH LODAHL

I thought that titling (is that the correct spelling of title-ing?) a blog "Rich?", if your name was Rich you would pay special attention to it. Especially if there was a picture of someone who looked like you in that posting.

Apparently not the case. Rich told me he reads my blog but had no idea what I was talking about when I said that I'd blogged about him last month. He had no clue and maintained that he'd read all of June and July's postings and that I was the crazy one. Au contraire.

Here's a link to the blog about Jack Osborne morphing into Rich Lodahl. Except the old Rich that isn't blonde.

I apologize

After talking about blogging for a quick minute last night at Damon's BBQ, I decided to blog about the last couple of fun days I've had. I just realized I haven't blogged since Monday.

I'm sorry.

I really mean it - I knew I hadn't blogged for a couple of days but I was thinking maybe Tues or Wed. That's crazy. My bad.

I'll make up for it in the next few days. Coming soon:
Rockstars of the week
Pictures from Europe
Tales from the STL boys and girl trip to Minnesota

New Dean

I hadn't realized the Carlson School picked a new dean to start next summer. She's originally from Minnesota, her dad Gordon Davis was a professor at Carlson, but she went to Brigham Young? I'm not sure how I feel about this...

iPoding at home

I like to listen to my iPod at the gym. Or using the iTrip in my car. But when I'm at home, I miss my iPod. Sure, I can listen to iTunes through my subpar speakers on my laptop or I could buy fancy iPod speakers. But I'd really like to use my iTrip in my house linked with a radio station. I've had bad luck trying this (ok I was using a clock radio when I tried) but even using a radio with an antennae I've been unable to get my iTrip to connect as well as it works in my car.

Does anyone have an explaination for this? I think the problem could be solved by buying a digital radio - John had one that was part of the TV stereo system and I could get that to work well when I was in Boston. Do you have any suggestions on making this work - had any luck yourself?

Jamie Lynn(e)

I just found out that Jamie-Lynn Spears is the daughter of Jamie and Lynne Spears. I guess you can give them hats off for leaving the "e" off of her middle name but for the love of all that is trashy, that is trashy. Don't name your kids after a combination of mom and dad's name. Ever.

Sorry Russell, but it's true...

News of the day

A couple of things to talk about...

McDonald's is planning on revamping their uniforms with possible designers being Fubu, Tommy Hilfinger, Phat Farm, etc. The point being that teen workers will wear the cool new uniforms on their leisure time and thus push the McDonalds brand into their peer groups. I can't decide how I feel about this.

I've heard so much about Happy Endings in the last few days, it's kinda weird. I want to see it - what do you think?

I just heard about the Northwestern (IL) Women's Lacrosse team winning the national championship and visiting the White House wearing flip flops. It's bigger news than I'd expect and once again I'm not sure how I feel about it... I guess I wouldn't wear flip flops if I visited the Pres, but thinking about 20 year old super athletes who looked nice, not trashy, wearing flip flops makes sense. I do think those Old Navy plastic platform sandals that girls wear with skirts and try to look dressed up look ridiculous. But I don't think that as a rule flip flops are completely inappropriate...

Hours of fun

This website gives you soundclips spoken by Napoleon Dynamite himself. Try not to let it take over your Friday...

HP less 200, woop woop

I was excited to find out that HP book 6 is 200 pages shorter than HP book 5. Not that I didn't enjoy book 5, but I think that I should still get my money's worth out of HP6's 670 pages.

I'm picking up the book at midnight, and hoping to kick some ass in HP trivia festivities at B&N prior to midnight. What are your HP plans?

The frequent flyer game

After flying in coach across the Atlantic, dreams of first class floated in my head. It seems that buying a coach ticket and then using miles to upgrade to first is a viable option. However, I'm wondering if doing that will allow me to earn miles on that flight?

My experience is most extensive with NWA, and I know that with their Cash and Miles flights, where you spend $199 plus 10,000 miles you do not earn FF miles for those flights, even though you are paying some cash for the ticket.

Surprisingly (?), NWA's website is not explicitly clear on the rules - I know I could call them but I thought I'd blog instead. The Wisdom of Crowds theory I guess...

This plan, of course, brings to mind the redeeming-miles-for-tickets versus paying-for-ticket-and-earning-loads-of-miles debate. I still use the $0.02/FF mile rule though many online sites have been saying they are worth even less because of the inability for people to use their miles when they want anyway. Life to date, I've only book a Cash and Miles award on NWA , and a free ticket on NWA - both I booked within 2 weeks of the flight because buying a ticket was muy expensive. Ooh, and I cashed in my reason-unknown 2,500 miles on US Airways for Star Magazine and some other magazine that hasn't showed up yet.

Other than this, I'm a redemption virgin tend to hoard my miles... I'd love to hear your strategies - sometimes I think the people on sites like FrequentFlyer.com are a little nuts and I like to think my friends are smarter :)

PS Time on my blog is accurate. I'm taking some time to adjust to CST.

Tatas

How do you feel about a Hooter's in Block E? I'm not in favor mostly because it's a chain, but I'm not sure how good it would do. I think they should instead open over by the Metrodome... There aren't enough bars there and I feel like the Vikings crowd might like it.

Your thoughts?

Home on the range

Ok, on W. Franklin, but home nonetheless. After an easy flight, I landed at noonish today. I'm now trying to catch up on email and snail mail... Good times... For y'all in Mpls, let's hang out. I'm around and for the moment unemployeed. I'll keep you updated on that front...

Postcard nazi

You may remember how obsessed I am about postcards. But guess what? With this trip it changed - I only sent 4 postcards - were you the lucky one to get one?

Oh wait, I probably sent 30 postcards so dont feel all that special if you got one. But still feel special, I mean I know loads more people than 30 so I picked you out to get a gift from abroad via the post.

My research - how long did my cards take to get to you? If you got a postcard, and many of you reading this did (sans Ranger Tom) lemmie know how long it took to get to you. The date on the card reflects the date it was mailed...

Queen Elizabeth II

Surprise! The Queen Elizabeth II oceanliner is at port right now in Stavanger, Norway, where I am right now. We came here yesterday, did a minute of sightseeing, then headed to the island of Karmoy where our ancestors came from. The smallish harbor certainly looked different this am when the QEII was parked there... It's massive. I wish they'd sell tour tickets while they're in the harbor - I'd love to check it out...

Aside from that, not much is new other than the trip is almost over. And that the mystery of ''Where is Justin Timberlake?'' is over. He has apparently been recording w Snoop in his offtime prior to his second solo album coming out. Is the video there? It is the #1 song on a countdown ''Top of the Pops'' type thing here... I like the song, go JT.

I'm in transit home all day tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have pictures posted by this weekend?

Its no taxation museum but...

Today I visited the Leprosy Museum in Bergen. Marc will be excited his name is mentioned, but sad that I have not yet visited any Postal, Taxation, or Tariff museums on this trip. I love weird museums. This was a great museum - leprosy hit Norway the hardest of any of the European countries until it was erradicated (sp?) in 1946. Interesting guided tour.

After that, we went to a Stave Church, only 20 remain in Norway. Also visited Edvard Griegg's Troldhaugen home-museum, he composed Prye Gynt which I knew prior to visiting. The visit to both was on a guided bus tour which proved quite interesting.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day shopping. Got a cute purse and 2 necklaces but that's about it for my souveniers from this trip. Last night we took the oogle-boogle (not the real name but that's how all the Norweigan words sound here) up to the highest of the 7 mountain-hills surrounding Bergen. It was a good view and we had dinner at the top. Fun.

Tomorrow we fly to Stavanger, Noway for a 2 day visit. I will try to visit the Canning Museum there and give y'all an update. I know you're dying to find out about Norway's lg canning industry...

Alicia made the spacecraft go

Edina based ATK is helping send a shuttle into space, likely because of the efforts of our own A. Truhe. My second theory of the day.

Babies

As mentioned earlier, there are more babies in Copenhagen than anywhere we've been... However, let it be noted that there are more pregnant (really, waddling pregnant) women in Norway than any other country. I think there's a part of the socialist health care program here where the maternity ward is only open July and August (they use that are for knee and hip surgeries the other 10 months of the year) so everybody has to plan their pregnancies around this. My theory of the day, at least...

If they're looking for baby names, they should check out this list of baby names that are popular around the world. I love babies and lists.

Weather update

I am knocking on wood while I type this, but let it be said: We have been here almost 2 weeks and havent seen a drop of rain. Actually, there have only been 2 cloudy days the rest sunny cloudless skies which Ill prove when I post pictures. Unlike last time I was here - "Summer of Rain - July-August 2000 all acrosse Europe". Marc plus Alicia plus Laura plus rain = many beers.

Mucho bloggo

Only 1 day later and Im back blogging. This time cant find the f-ing apostrophe. Oh well. Were in Bergen Norway now. Wish Gabe was here to help us habla with the locals and read signs, we thought wed be better at guessing words than we are - surprisingly Copenhagen (Dannish) is much more guessable than Norweigan. Who knew? 2 true cognates are kiwi and melon, though, just an FYI.

We spent last night in Aurland - reminded me a lot of Interlacken, Switzerland. Super small town in the middle of the biggest fjord - its hard to believe people actually live there every day, all day. It would be strange to live there I think...

I was thinking of lots of fun things to blog about but now cant remember them...

OOh, Mpls announcement - if youve been thinking of joining a fall kickball league but just havent had time to put a team together, join ours! Alicia, Julie and I are organizing a fall league I actually think it starts in August. No experience, athleticism required. Beer drinking required for after games. Think about it - you know you want to.

Try again from Norway

Lo siento, my blog last time didn't work when I tried in Oslo. I'm now in Flam, on my way through the fjords of Norway. Just finished riding on one of the Top 20 Railways in the World, according to someone. It was quite nice. Reminded me of the Munich - Interlacken train I've taken. I'm now blogging at the rate of 60 kroner for 60 minutes - about $10 an hour. It's no Easy Everything.

Speaking of Easy Everything, it was huge news here yesterday when London was awarded the Olympics for 2012. As Parisians were disappointed and exclaiming when interviewed on CNN World ''It's things like this that make us hate Tony Blair.'' (WTF?), my group discussed what percentage of Americans even knew NYC was vying for it. Maybe 30%? I don't know...

Oslo was nice. We saw lots of naked babies in Vigeland Park, had dinner at the top of a hill overlooking the city, and I toured city hall and went shopping at H&M. No, Alicia, I didn't go look at the Scream at the National Art Gallery, surprise.

So here's a news flash - the H&M I was in yesterday had a HUGE cosmetics department and carried both H&M store brand stuffs, as well as Loreal, etc. name brands. A huge department of makeup, hair stuff, and lotion. I tried out a face mask was was impressed - it smelled yummy, too. So heads up on H&M competing with mass merchants and Sephora for those beauty $.

News flash #2 - Europeans are super good at toilet flushing systems. I do not remember this from my last trip, but this time I've seen no less than 4 different ways to flush a toliet. Including my favorite (which made me think of old roommate Tacy): There's a button on the back of the toliet split in 2 - you have the option of pushing just one half for a ''half'' flush, or pushing both buttons for a ''full'' flush. Smart, eh? Good work Scandinavia for coming up with that one.

Also have learned much about the gov't and structure of Scandinavia. Basically for the last 500 years Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have been fighting about land. For a while, Denmark controlled the bottom half of Sweden after they won it in a war, Norway was controlled by Denmark until after Napoleon's wars when land got redistributed and Norway was ''given'' to Sweden, and Sweden controlled it till 1905 when Norway finally got their independence. At that point, they ''elected'' a king, selecting someone from Denmark who renamed himself and his family and started being the kingly family of Norway from then till now. Who knew?

Visited a fun resistance museum yesterday in Oslo. I love resistence museums.

Gotta run, everybody else wants to internet, too.

Hola from Oslo (say that 10 times fast)

World News

I forgot. Yesterday, I watched several hours of Live 8 - it was all over the news here. Saw several concert performances. Was it as big a deal in the US as it was here? I saw it was free, no wonder why so many people were there...

So upset to hear about Justice O'Connor retiring. My first thought, how could she do this to us? Not happy about this at all.

I heard Jim McNearney is moving over to CEO Boeing. I wonder how the 3Mers feel about this???

Sorry for the delay...

Had a hard time getting internet access. Went to War of the Worlds last night, not my first pick but it was English and not sold out. It was ok at best - wouldnät have gone in the US but oh well. Unlike Switzerland, they do not stop the movie halfway and sell ice cream on the stage, just an FYI. We've been in Kalmar, Sweden for the last 2 days chillin, today we are headed N to Stockholm. I've rented 2 cars here - a Puegot (sp?) station wagon and Saab station wagon - the Saab had 4 km on it when we picked it up. Glad I'm the driver...

Otherwise, all is well. Have seen more not as tall and beautiful and blonde and perfect people here in Kalmar as opposed to Copenhagen, but I'm thinking that getting back to a big city in Stockholm will bring out the beautiful people. I got to lay out yesterday, yeah. Sun didn't do all that much though, unfortunately. We had a drink at a Boston pub last night - seriously had Sox and Celtics and especially Bruins stuff all over. Weird.

Not sure what other details to report. It's good weather 70 - 75 every day. The glass blowing was as underwhelming as I expected, but I did get the chance to chat with a man about the government and their socialistic ways. He reported that by in large, people are disappointed with the taxes they pay in return for the services they get. I feel like in Denmark people have it pretty good, he told me in Sweden it's not as good. He said the tax rate is about 70%, and as for healthcare, it's a 6 month wait to get an appointment to see a doctor so lots of people are buying private insurance on top of their gov't to supplement their healthcare. Interesting. He said elections are coming up next year and there may be changes in the gov't then...

That's about all the exciting stuff I have to report. Ooh - I had a McDonald's PitaMac yesterday - veggie. It was muy bueno. I think it's something Alicia might even eat at MickeyDs? Perhaps? Maybe it's headed to the Estados Unidos...