Bacon candles

Thank you sir for your contribution to humanity.

Professor Soap - Spirit Quest Journey

I found this great blog Noteworthy or not that has such a cool collection of random postings. Where does betty ann find this stuff? She's a great web trawler and has a wonderfully eclectic sensibility. Check out this cute video.

Let's call it a day with Charlie

I was joking around with a colleague today about whether he was following all the craziness that is Charlie Sheen. Instead of laughing at the goddess stories and tigerblood rants, he said that he felt bad for the guy and thought that the media should leave him alone because he was clearly mentally ill.

Made me feel kind of guilty.

Why do we chew these people up and spit them out? Maybe it's because we're jealous. Maybe it's because when we read the ludicrous stories about them in the press they seem more like cartoon characters than people - and it's OK to drop an anvil on a cartoon character's head. Let's leave the guy alone and wish him well.

New face of marketing - one-on-one combat

I attended the Art of Marketing conference today and must say I'm inspired. Here was a group of speakers who are brilliant at what they do and clearly love doing it. They've taken risks and failed to conform and they've managed to achieve great success. There was a lot of silly swearing and fist pumping but their enthusiasm was contagious.

There wasn't necessarily a lot of practical advice I gained, keynotes rarely give it, but I certainly captured a zeitgeist. Today's marketing has to be fast, has to be far-reaching and it has to be personal. Gary Vee said it well, with today's social media platform, it's "one-on-one combat." Pushing out print ads, direct mail letters, sales tool and other paper-based products just doesn't cut it. Now companies should - must! - respond to customers directly and truly care about them if they want to penetrate their market. He made it all seem real, stopped being a talking head, when he promised all 1500 of us in the audience that he would respond personally to us if we Tweeted him @garyvee. Try it out! Tell him I sent you.

Here's a list of the speakers and links to their blogs. Enjoy!

Avinash Kaushik
Gary Vaynerchuk
Jeffrey Hayzlett
Dr. Sheena Iyengar
Guy Kawasaki

Musn't grumble

I had kind of a crappy day today. Weather sucked, everyone was grouchy, house is hella messy, the usual.

When you ask an English person how their day's going, they often say "musn't grumble." This guy legitimately could have, but didn't. I would have gone to town....

Hollywood publicists - not such a glamorous job after all?

In light of the trainwreck that is Charlie Sheen, I don't know how some Hollywood publicists do it. Sheen's publicist, Stan Rosenfield, who finally severed his relationship with Sheen on Monday, had kept a lid on the actor's antics for many years. That must have been a hella job.

Remember Octomom? I think most people found her unsavoury to say the least. But her publicists quit after receiving multiple death threats.

Are these publicists providing a useful service? Are they parasites? Should we feel sorry for them?

What do you think?

Goal setting - the kiss of death?

No sooner than I set myself a goal, I break it. Aaargh!

A few weeks ago I set myself the goal of posting at least 3 times a week, it's now Friday night and I'm just writing my first! If you could see me now though, banging away, slightly drunk, on a keyboard that's sticking on virtually every key, channeling my inner Frankenstein, you'd give me A for effort. I know you would.

Readers, from Canada to Croatia, keep me honest! Send me butt-kicking comments when I start to slack!

Two posts tomorrow, for sure..