One more class left!!!

Just had one of the last two classes of my MBA career. By this time Thursday, it will be all over- YAY!!!

Thursday can not come soon enough.

Morphine- Cure for Pain

One of the absolute hands-down greatest things about the web today is that you can have both a video (a la YouTube or some other random site) and the lyrics to the song in a few strokes on the keys. The video and lyrics I just posted are for Morphine's Cure for Pain. I do not profess to be a Morphine fan. In fact this is probably the only song I know. But it's a cool song. And it reminds me of sitting on the deck of the cottage we would rent down the Cape during the fourth of July week- which used to be the annual vacation before I don't know what happened and the family stopped taking family vacations.

WOW!

Only 32 days left in my MBA studies. I have to say, at times it felt like it would never end but overall- WOW! I cannot believe I am already graduating. Nor can I believe how excited I am. I am "having a time" as we city folk like to call it but preparations for that have not excited me nearly as much as picking up the ceremony tickets did this evening. I am giddy. It was better than seeing someone fall down.

Shows I want to see this year

• Harry Connick, Jr. at the Wang Center (I refuse to call it by its new name.) 4/25* Wednesday Night.
  I actually got to see HCJ at the Fleet Pavillion a few summers ago. The show was phenomenal!
• Wicked- Boston Opera House 9/12/07-10/14/07. I need PIT seats.
• Ray Romano at the Mirage in Vegas. What better way to end my May trip?

*Dare I buy tickets for a show the day before my absolute last final class ever?!?

Like a fork on a chalk board...

Did anyone else see The Real Housewives of Orange County? Am I the only one that thinks Jo singing could be used as a serious form of torture?

Gitmo got nothing on Bravo.

Stephen P. (DAD) 1931-1992

My father's anniversary is this month. It's amazing. He's been gone 15 years. Random memories still pop into my head. Driving home this evening, I remembered when I was a kid and I would sit in the back of our gigantic brown station wagon and laugh as my Dad drove down the hill toward our house yelling "Look- no hands!" while my mother would scream "Steve, put your hands back on the wheel!"

It still makes me smile.

What a load of crap!!!

Has anyone seen this? Undergraduates get 6 tickets to the commencement ceremony but Graduates get only 4? Wh-wh-what??? And why do people who have not completed their degree requirements get to take up 4 tickets??? Why should they be allowed to walk? When space is that limited, they should have to wait until the next ceremony rolls around.

More Consumer Generated Content

I was reading an interesting article on consumer generated ads. The article talked about the wave of advertising being generated by consumers on the web. Like Doritos, MasterCard and Bud have capitalized on user generated ad content. Hopefully, this link to the article works. There, you can follow links to the Bud and MasterCard sites. Also, you can see the "Mentos & Diet Coke" ad- which was pretty entertaining. As the article describes, two guys "produce a cola version of the Bellagio fountain." The results: $100 million in free exposure and a 15% spike in sales for Mentos.

Pandora.com

This is one of the neatest sites I have seen on the web if you like music. You can enter in a song title or an artist's name and Pandora will create a play list of songs with similar musical characteristics. There is some advertising but it's limited and not intrusive. It's nice to put on in the background while you do homework. (And by "do homework" I mean surf the web.)

The Super Bowl Ads

Almost every class I have taken in the last year of my MBA studies talks about the YouTube phenomenon and other copy cat sites where people create and post their own video and content. Perhaps the most interesting manifestation of this phenomena is the Doritos add that was created for the Super Bowl. Doritos challenged consumers to create their own Super Bowl ad. The top 5 ads were chosen and aired during the Super Bowl. If you haven't seen the ads, they are pretty funny. http://www.doritos.com/

Thank you Mr. Mayor!

I can't tell you how psyched I was to read Menino's statement which can be found on http://www.cityofboston.gov/, among numerous other websites.

Statement from Mayor Menino

First, I want to congratulate the Boston Police Department and all the public safety agencies for responding in a coordinated effort today. As most of you know, there were reports of nine suspicious packages found throughout the city and area earlier today. At this time there is no reason to be alarmed. The coordinated response by all departments proves the system we have in place works. Today, my Office of Emergency Preparedness and the Boston Police Department shared intelligence with the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, Boston Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, Massachusetts State Police, ATF and FBI and we will continue to do so whenever necessary.

It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme. I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents. Boston will look to coordinate our efforts going forward with Cambridge, Somerville and any other affected agencies.

Aqua teen....

What complete and utter morons. I hope Turner has to pay for every person at every law enforcement agency who wasted their time on this nonsense.

To boot, apparently the news broke on blogs before the hoax was revealed in the press. Read about it here and here.

The chicks at....

A big Thank You to Susan for her topic suggestion- "the uncanny ability of the chicks at dunkin donuts to always screw up your coffee." Unfortunately, I don't drink coffee. However, I can attest to several workers with questionable hygiene who have not mastered the proper use of gloves and/or the tissue wrapping required to handle baked goods.*** They insist on touching my baked goods with their bare hands. Many times after a nice cough or sneeze. If you were wondering what that something extra was that your muffin/donut/breakfast sandwich seemed to have, now you know. Most people will smile politely when this happens. I lunge across the counter and scream like a lunatic. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? DIDN'T YOUR PARENTS TEACH YOU NOT TO TOUCH OTHER PEOPLE'S FOOD?!?" OK, most of the time I'll just say I changed my mind and walk away but one can dream, can't she?

This topic did make me think, the web is the great equalizer when it comes to consumer complaints. I Googled consumer complaint blogs and got roughly 1.9 million hits. That's a whole lot of complaining. One of the links I followed ranted about a recent incident on Southwest airlines where a financially-strapped and medically-bloated man was flying Southwest to and fro in search of a kidney. As the story goes, a SW employee tried to make the guy purchase a second seat due to their "Customer of Size" policy. Interestingly, a SW employee posted a comment on the story linking to the corporate blog which had a response to the story. Clearly, businesses are taking notice of the blogosphere and actively seeking to manage bad press. You can read about this story here and here.

Next topic?

***This has happened at eating establishments too numerous to mention in and around the financial district. Bring your lunch people, bring your lunch.

What do I write about?

Here is my first post in all its glory.

I am considering several ideas for this blog but really I have no idea what it will be about. I like to write and consider myself fairly good at it. But the idea of publishing my thoughts and ideas on the web sort of frightens me. It's all too permanent. I hate the idea of having things I might write or rant about now thrown back in my face later on.

For example, what if I decide to write about "The Apprentice?" What if I decide to lambaste Mr. Trump for his poor choice of terminations from week to week? Then let's fast forward 5 years from now... I have achieved a monumental amount of success in business and for some reason come into contact with Mr. Trump....and he is holding a print out of one or more posts which he considers derogatory for some reason or another. "The posts were just meant to be funny" I try to explain. But the deal falls through and my career is now in shambles.

Alternatively, what if I reveal that reality TV is my guilty pleasure? Fast forward 20 years and I am running for political office. And out comes the dirt..."She is not a serious candidate. She watched 'Flavor of Love!'" And people write me off as fluffy with no substance.

So you can see my dilemma here. This is not just completing an assignment. This is my future.