no sense of humor? really?

what i love about this...















...is that it tells me i am smart and also as dry as a wooden board.

fair?

the conversation over lunch today inspired me to create this (click on it to make it big enough to read):






















share your thoughts, or don't. it just helped me to get this out of my head.

[i am a project manager, not an designer, so please forgive]

but then why are they always so sad?

my logic class from college is coming back to me when i see this:
























how many different fallacial or misleading statements can you spot in here?

why do i suddenly feel like a terrorist or satan?

(thanks sam)

beauty industry- under fire!!

yeah, i'm not going to get up on a soap box about it, but i like the change in attitude about the beauty industry, illustrated by the dove 'evolution' ad and their latest one, 'onslaught':



there is something that bothers me slightly about these ads, maybe that dove hasn't always held this perspective and probably helped contribute to the current situation. it's cool tho that they're leading this new attitude.

there's this channel on youtube created by girls who are 'flipping' ads because they are disrespectful, irrelevant, promote an unhealthy body image, and in their opinions, fail to effectively sell the product they represent to the target audience- girls. check out the channel here.

here's a good representative example:



yep, i also love that the girls get to state what they think on video- helps improve their own confidence, i'm sure. great approach.

advertising all time high (or low?)

you wanted to be the first, but you missed your opportunity...














someone is selling advertising on a picture of a crotch, with proceeds going to pay for the laser pubic hair removal of (supposedly) the person whose crotch is pictured.

i know you want to get in on that action... here's the link!

fight for kisses

funny-


the 'men are jealous of the attention their wives give their children' concept is always a strange one to contemplate for me. i've never heard of a woman being jealous of her husband spending time with the kid...

even murderers need someone to mispell to

got a little extra time on your hands and wanna write a letter? why not send that letter to an inmate?

you can even pick your favorite inmate from many options at the 'meet-an-inmate.com' website (male and female options available).

maybe you wanna chat with nicholas:
























"I have a few more years left in with good behavior. My day will eventually come. I still have my pride and integrity and resources, and my new plan when I reach the world. So for all the beautiful ladies who are looking for such a man free to do so, give me a Holla!

Will you be the one?"

hey, at least he's honest about what he's in for:

"Mistakes: incarcerated for corporate scandals, manslaughter, self defense."

doctors are irresponsible! (ocular rosacea)

so according to ophthalmologist jeff stephens, i have ocular rosacea, NOT pink eye.

since i had already been to two doctors, paid for by me thanks to my high deductible health insurance, i was a little weary about hearing a new diagnosis and getting a new $70 prescription and setting up another follow up appointment.

so i asked him if he was sure.

he was pretty condescending, but also pretty sure. he mentioned the degree he has in ophthalmology and the fancy equipment he used to look at my eyeballs, things the other doctors didn't have.

i told him i meant no disrespect.

really, it's the other doctors i disrespect for 'diagnosing' without really knowing for sure and wasting my money. unfortunately, i now have to pay for two wrong diagnosis's and one right one.

michael moore is right.

so yeah, another week with my glasses (jeez) and more eyedrops (jeez) and some stupid warm washcloth treatment (jeez).

thanks heredity!!!

church signs- so much fun to violate

if you're like me, you're an atheist and you get annoyed every time you have to drive by a church and read some silly twist of truth on a sign that is designed to get people to go to church and tithe more often (wow, that whopping dose of cynicism even stings me a little).

okay, i'll concede that some of the churches really think they are offering up insightful tidbits of perspective on their signs, though in the world of religion, that's something of an oxymoron.

anyway, because i have this moderately cynical view of the whole church sign thing, i had fun at this site. i went there, and i made my own church sign... =)
















i love the internet.

consumer breaks up with advertiser

snicker...

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager

having worked in advertising, i always found it interesting the perceptions (and mis perceptions) people have about what goes on day to day inside the industry. this ad plays on that advertising reputation and i think it's pretty funny.

people seem to think that there are a bunch of people sitting in a room somewhere scheming for a way to get all their money!!! tricks and manipulations and downright lies!!! really, advertisers are thinking more about winning awards, i think, than they are about manipulating people.

the saddest part for me was seeing that clients are always looking to sell more of their product and ad agencies are always eager to help. sell more? we can do that.

nevermind the big question- should we sell more?

crazy question, i know. we should always sell more, right?. at any cost, right? make more money for ourselves, right? nevermind the consequences to making more stuff and selling more stuff and polluting the world in the process and using up all our finite resources. we have to sell more stuff!!!

for example, those little plastic crap toys in cereal boxes- who needs that crap? kids don't. land fills don't. let's sell some more cereal by advertising cheap plastic crap. it's working, let's do more of that. how creative can we be at inventing crafty cheap plastic crap, packaged liberally, so we can sell more stuff?

to me, whether advertisers are listening to consumers is an interesting question, but even more interesting is the scary relationship between brands with money and their hired help, who are infinitely capable of thinking up how to sell, but seem unable to ask themselves the bigger questions- is selling at any cost worth it? is the money we're spending on advertising really doing a disservice to our world? if we sell 5 billion more of these widgets, how does that impact the world we live in?

it's like advertisers skip over that thought completely. we could do ads for x company- wouldn't that be sweet?

this is probably why i could never be successful at running an ad agency, but i also think that's a good thing.

oops, when i decided to blog this video, i wasn't expecting all this to pour out. =)

guess who...

someone i know and love sent me this update recently, amusing me to no end... I won't reveal her identity, since she was kind enough to let me post these embarrassing details, but if someone guesses, i'll give them a dollar.

and I quote:

Did I tell you about all the fun I've been having lately? I was taking a new prescription med for about 3 weeks when my body decided to let me know it was allergic. Wuhoo!! I started getting hives on Wednesday night and I was like, "Hmm, better take some benedryl." and went to bed.

Thursday morning....I had itched myself bald (okay, not quite) and I had hives so thick on my neck I could hardly turn my head...not to mention hives everywhere.

So I called the Doctor's office and saw the PA at 10:30. She sent the nurse in with a shot and went to consult the Doc. The nurse gave me the shot and left the room. Suddenly, I'm sitting on the nice, high table feeling like I'm going to pass out. I moved to the doc's stool and was sitting there with my head between my knees when the PA came back in. She was like, "How are we feeling." I said, "Would you like to tell me about the side effects from the shot you gave me?"

Seems passing out is a possible side effect.

I ended up laying on the table with a cool wash cloth and not passing out but geez. I could hear them in the hallway talking about the poor woman with the hives that they almost made unconscious.

Then I was on Prednisone and Loratadine for a week. The pred made me want to eat everything....everything... even when I was full. I swear I gained 10 pounds.

Then they taper you off that and the minute I went to the lowest dose, it started making me naseated all day....decided I'd had enough of that yesterday.

I go back Friday to make sure I'm not dead.

Plus, I have Polaroid skin right now, whenever I get warm the hives would pop out at first (which I swear the pred made me about 3 degrees warmer...my palms are sweating right now). But now it's just if I scratch my face or whatever, it turns bright red. I've been threatening to write messages on my forehead.

Yeah, I've been a happy, happy girl. Hopefully, that's behind me now though....no more better living through chemistry even if the doctor says so!

to the person i know and love: feel better soon!!

are you man enough?

i guess mitchum deodorant presumes to tell people if they are man enough, via 'nina'...








































first, i've never even heard of mitchum deodorant and this seems like a lame attempt to get on the map.

second, it's a sad state of affairs that this will probably actually get them on the map.

sigh.

flu shot, i should have never doubted you

i've always doubted that the flu shot really does any good. i remember one year that i got a flu shot and then i got strep like three times and i swore off the flu shot as an immune system weakener...

silly me.

thankfully, rmg offered free shots this year and i stopped in to get one, snickering to myself as i did: 'silly flu shot'

so saturday night i felt a little tightness in my chest and left lindsey and michael's party early to get some rest. on sunday, the tightness was still there, but not so bad. on monday, i left work to go home and get a few hours rest since i was a little tired and afraid i was getting sick. I got two hours of sleep, worked late, and since then, i've felt increasingly better, never looking back. i feel great now. at the worst of it, there was a little tightness in my chest and i felt somewhat tired. that's it.

okay, so compare that to aaron's poor story...

sunday he started with a little cough. little. monday morning, he had a roaring fever and couldn't move. it was all he could do to force down food and liquids last night in between passing out exhausted on the couch. same story all day today. though he says he's feeling better, he really has only been able to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. if i hadn't been here to force him to take ibuprofen to reduce his fever or to eat, i imagine he would have done none of those things. i'm sure it's influenza, without a doubt. i really should go check on him again.

flu shot, i thank you.

buddy, hang in there.

all i want for christmas is my two front teeth

chipping a tooth sucks.
barry gerst and associates is the best dentist office in town.

here's why:
1. i managed to chip my front tooth the night before a busy work day which involved client meetings.

2. i called (desperately) first thing in the morning to gerst's office, and they only had a 3pm appointment available, which wouldn't work because i couldn't go to my meetings with half a tooth, and i couldn't reschedule them.

3. i called another dentist who was able to get me in right away.

4. he 'fixed' my tooth by grinding at least half of it off, grinding off some of the one next to it as well (since it was also a little unstable), and then filling it with enamel to match the rest of my teeth (by the way, do you know how vulnerable a person feels laying in a chair, just after their two front teeth have been grinded away, hoping that everything works out for the best?). so my teeth are fixed, right? problem solved? not so fast...

5. i went to work, had a couple meetings, then ate lunch. i'll be damned if the pizza wasn't just a little crunchier than it should have been, if you know what i mean (the filling on the back of my front tooth broke off, and left a sharp edge for my tongue to play with).

6. i went to my big client meeting with half a tooth, though visually, it looked okay.

7. i rushed to the 3pm appointment at gerst's office, which was thankfully still available.

8. after dr. sims fixed my tooth (a little more fixed than the previous dentist) he said- i think you've been through enough today, we won't charge you for this fix.

9. i had the urge to kiss him directly on the mouth, but refrained, thankfully.

10. the tooth is now fixed, and beautiful if i do say so myself. i happen to think the gap is even more lovely than it was before the chip ever happened, don't you agree?















11. dr. gerst and associates, at 2701 nicollet avenue, minneapolis, is the best dentist office in the whole world. i thought so before this situation, but it's now written on my blog, so it's forever.

thank you, sweet dentists, for saving my teeth, and being so nice about it!!

irony

so my friend, lori, and i were talking recently about my sister, stephanie, and the situation she's in. her husband has been abusive to her and she's trying to end the relationship and start new with her son and daughter.

so lori says to me- why doesn't she call a woman's shelter for some help.

and i said- well, i think she would be willing, but she's in western michigan, which is somewhat rural and more than somewhat republican. there isn't so much support for a woman in that environment.

it's interesting that i got a call from my sister the very same day. she informed me that after there had been a fight which involved john banging her head into the ground, she did call a woman's shelter for some help.

here's the ironic part- the police came out to investigate, and since the wounds on her head weren't showing yet, but there was a defensive wound on john, they actually arrested her and took her to jail.

she now needs to hire a lawyer to defend herself against abuse charges. oh, and she wasn't allowed home because there was a no contact order against her.

just to add some visuals here, the police came to a home with a 5'3" woman and a 6'5" man... and arrested the woman... in conservative western michigan.

john finally went down to remove the no contact order- he needed someone to take care of the kids.

i'm not dealing very well with the situation.

i love my sister.

the cave

i know i've told quite a few of you about the cave i work in, but it's time to show and tell.

my coworker (and friend) julie has posted pics of what i call 'the cave' on her blog.

check out julie's blog!















now tell me, does anywhere you've ever worked compare to this?

i wish i had this much time on my hands

who has time to break the record for most t-shirts worn at the same time (155 total)?



matt mcallister does.

neat artists site

this site is fun to check out...




















i wonder how this artist could use their work to inspire people to think deeply about social issues that affect us all. ya know, put all this good work to use for social activism, give it more meaning... take it to the next level...

okay, so i'm a little nutty today. i guess it's nice to just check it out, eh?

southside pride- i wrongly assumed you were journalism...

so i finally picked up the edition of southside pride that has been on my porch since before the election, and was surprised to find some articles and language that i didn't expect.

now, i'm all for neighborhood papers reporting on the truth of the situation, and if that hurts bush or the republicans, well, sometimes the truth hurts.

the first article that surprised me was one about a clinic that is laying people off and may potentially shut down, written by Dwight Hobbes. the first paragraph surprised the heck out of me...

"Layoff notices went out Nov. 1 to staff members at Community University Health Care Center (CUHCC), with those layoffs taking effect the end of the month- right after Thanksgiving and just in time for those people to wonder what in the hell they're gong [sic] to do about next month's bills, including Christmas shopping (after all, jobs, despite George Bush's fictional economic recovery, keep getting harder and harder to come by)."

... but i chalked that up to a really intense election period.

then i opened up to page 12 and found this wonderful gem:

GEORGE BUSH STOLE MY JESUS
Ed Felien


















i have to say, that although this stuff works in the favor of liberals, sorta, and since i am definitely a liberal, there is a temptation to laugh and just say, oh well.

but a big part of me is disappointed in the paper for not being more responsible with their 'journalism'. give the truth, show appropriate balance, and let the people decide.

can you guess what's on the next page?

(if you guessed an article about how mike hatch is the savior, i'll buy you a drink)

i smoked weed and nobody died.

'pete's couch' is one of the best, but all the commercials on The Office of National Drug Control Policy channel are kinda fun to watch.



aaron loves this ad, and i bet it's very popular with kids too, but maybe not in a serious way. i wonder if kids actually get the true message...