Fall has hit the northwest in full force. I spent this weekend wearing cozy flannels, raking leaves, and cuddling up with my dog under a heated blanket watching Harry Potter.
With my renewed zest for fall has come a little pumpkin beer taste test. I recently went to a place I’ve nicknamed beer heaven with a huge selection, and picked up this mixed six pack: Continue reading
I managed to fit a lot of my favorite summertime activities into the last 24 hours:
I guess it’s okay with me that this is the last weekend of August. Now that the deck project is done, I’m working to get the most out of my remaining summer.
Hello! Happy Monday!
So the highlight of my weekend was having a chance to dog-sit for a couple of friends for a night. Sharky is pretty much Osa’s equal in every way. Same size. About the same level of energy. Both black dogs who love to play. I was looking forward to seeing what life with two dogs might look like, having grown up with 2+ dogs at any given time (not to mention cats, chickens, fish, birds, rabbits, etc.)
Both dogs love cheese. But not as much as me, so I didn’t feel like sharing.
It was hard to get a picture of them both sitting outside, because they were generally a big blur of chasing and wrestling this weekend.
When it’s time for dinner, dogs go on one side of the gate, and humans with pizza go on the other.
…that is, until the doggies need a break from bugging each other. Then they both are in time out.
Osa wasn’t too happy when I took Sharky inside and left her. This is her way of letting me know. Subtle, right?
This weekend, I realized something. Two dogs don’t behave like two separate minds. They behave like one dog with a lot of momentum.
Let me explain. Let’s say I call to Osa, and she has two choices. Either she comes, or she doesn’t. Being pretty generous to my training of her, we’ll say there’s a fifty-fifty chance that she obeys. Given this, you’d think that with two dogs, you’d have two cases of this: each dog has a certain likelihood of obeying, given their disposition, right?
Nope. See, with two dogs, they enter this kind of pack mentality. If you give them both a command, they BOTH have to want to obey it to have it happen. If one or both of them doesn’t want to obey the command, neither of them will. That takes a fifty-fifty likelihood down to this:
…about one in four. (and yes, the middle school science nerd in me revels in using a punnet square to explain this idea.)
Now, let’s say, as a hypothetical, that my dog isn’t that well trained. Hypothetically. Let’s say that in reality, it’s more likely a one in three chance that she’ll actually do what I say. Sharky’s a much more solid guy. This would be a better illustration of my weekend:
So that’s my big lesson I learned. The collective mind is more powerful than the individual will. Just like the Borg. Or wolf packs. Or hey! Middle school kids. That kind of came full circle.
And today? Osa is missing her friend, and still dead tired from her weekend of fun:
We should all be feminists.
…since feminists are women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands…I decided to call myself a Happy Feminist.
Last week, I attended a free networking/lecture event put on by pdxMindShare, focused on “Building your personal brand through social media.”
This event, featuring the wicked smart Kent Lewis (and his dry sense of humor), was largely intended for use in professional settings, as a career-focused workshop. The intent was to learn to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and more to build an online presence, including boosting your own visibility and credibility.
After sharing some great insights on what platforms to use for what purposes, etc, I was able to pose the question:
How much of yourself do you share through social media, and where do you draw the line between personal and public profiles, let alone personal and professional?
This is a question I return to pretty regularly with regards to my own social media usage. As a marketer, I’m aware of the power of building a professional brand online. On the other hand, I’m a real person with friends and family I like to connect with, interests outside of work, and a sometimes quirky sense of humor. The example I used at the event was that, though I’m a marketer and want to show off my industry acumen, I’m a multidimensional person whose top blog post to this day is “DIY Hipster Tank Top“… and I like it that way.
There are a lot of articles out there about protecting your private life from exposure via social media, but what does this mean for a digital native who wants to share everything, from what they ate for dinner to their weird obsession with polka dot pants?
I’m not sure! And there is probably a different solution for every individual, industry, and preference out there.
I’ll leave this with an interesting comment I first read on Reddit’s “Shower Thoughts” subreddit:
“The future President of the United States probably has a Facebook account right now. And there will probably be some embarrassing photos on there.”
The creative to do list: where left brain and right brain thinking intersect.
(Post-it notes are particularly satisfying because you can crumple up the task and throw it in the recycle bin when you’re done. Unless you’re me. Then you miss the bin entirely and make a mini mess.)
Hey hey erin may 