I'm Just Say'n

I hope you have the opportunity to get out for Halloween this year. Most of all, I hope you dress up as something. Anything. Make it unexpected. My husband plays drums in a cover band for fun, called "Recess". (originally made up of grade school dads and a mom). They are playing at one of our favorite local digs, Johnny's Tavern, on Friday night for the Halloween party. It's always great fun, because year after year, party goer's (and the band) dress up in the most unusual and creative costumes I've ever seen. I think it's the unexpected from these upstanding adults that tickles me the most. Doctors, lawyers, Indian Chiefs coming as Barbie, The Space Shuttle and a baked potato... brilliant.

My husband is not one of those people. meh. He doesn't like to dress up for Halloween and I suspect he finds it too challenging and maybe a bit humiliating. Or a lot.  He did go as Travis Barker, the drummer from Blink 182, last year. I suggested he start a trend for himself and always go as drummers. Lenny Kravitz band has an awesome looking female drummer... Cindy Blackman. One big ass wig, bright red lipstick and large pair of sunglasses later... he's HER! Regretfully, he's not feeling it.  I want him to surprise not only the hell out of me, but everyone who knows him... and dress up as something. Anything. Unexpected. I'm sensing a Flight Attendant... or a flight risk.




Happy Halloween. Find your inner Ninja, your Mad Scientist or perhaps your Zombie Cheerleader (like my daughter!). Be something. Appreciate the efforts of everyone else in costume. I'm just say'n... it's Halloween. Have fun!

Knitty Gritty

I just got home from a really nice evening... of knitting. I'm not a knitter, though I want to be. Again... it must be that "I'm old now" thing like bird watching, on a previous post. Well I hit the mother lode tonight... I saw needlepoint birds at The Studio, where we were knitting! Cool! Here are some of them. I can easily do without the old fake vines, but cool nonetheless. Thanks to Felice Azorsky of Bagettes and Jennifer Roe of Tastebud Magazine for putting this together. GREAT idea!










The yarns were inspiring. I want to make something! I saw some cool knitted fingerless gloves... I had to put one on and imitate the poor little match girl from the old moral story. I can't tell you how many times my son has cut the fingers off his gloves so he could stay warm and still catch a football. Great colors and textures... wine and candy corn... gorgeous witty women... what a beautiful way to spend the evening.


On a completely different side note... TRAIN has a new album, due out Oct. 27th can be listened to here on MY999 ! The whole new album "Save Me San Francisco"! I particularly love songs "Parachute" and "Marry Me" and of course "Save Me San Francisco" where Train made a shout out via social media on Twitter and Facebook for their fans to come to the recording studio in San Francisco and clap on the namesake song. Many of the people I've met over social networking the last few years went! Here they are... Gotta love TRAIN! Congrats to Alisa, Monique and the others... fun opportunity. Take a listen too... tell me what songs you enjoyed too. The TRAIN tour is already under way and I hope you get to see them. It's a great date!

Claim Your Name.... Before It's Too Late!

I think this is really exciting! You may have read previously on my blog about the importance of creating and getting your own Universal Identity. It's what's coming... it's what's around the corner and we're getting a peek at it more and more every day.

Two companies are going to help you get yours... so start thinking and remember what my ol' diving coach used to tell me "If you think too long, you think wrong."

The first of these helpful companies is Namechk. This is a slick quick site. Type in your username you have for your current social networks, because you'll want the same one on all your pages so you can build your own brand. Namchk will cross check this username with 128 social media networks and let you know what site that name is taken or available on.

The second site is Knowem. At Knowem, they are launching a service that will make searching and ultimately registering usernames much easier across many social sites. The basic service is free. Similar to Namechk, it will search 330 social media sites for the name you type in to see what's available and where. If you haven't chosen a username for your own personal brand or for your business, THIS IS THE TIME!

Knowem is also offering three different services too (not free). The Corporate Edition clocks in at $350, but will register your desired username across 150 of the top social websites, set-up your profile, avatar, bio/description and URL. This is all done by KnowEm staffers and they set things up so you don’t have to worry.

The Individual Edition is $99 and will start the sign-up process at 150 different social sites. You’ll still need to confirm the sign-ups and populate the accounts with your own information.

For the true social media addict, KnowEm also offers a subscription service for $49 a month that will automatically register your username on 30 new social networks a month. (Thanks Christena Warren of Mashable for the service descriptions)

As my freaky social media enthusiast and I have been discussing these sites today ... we realize many of those hundreds (possibly thousands) of social media sites may not be around in 1,2 or 5 years. However, we really don't have any way to guess which will survive and which won't. Whodathought Twitter, with it's 140 character limit would be as popular as it is? I like the idea of these two sites and I like the easy steps toward Universal Identification too. Especially for a business who plans on long term sustainability. I would like to do it for myself too... although I find I am onesy twoing it through the social networks I want to be on. We'll see how that goes.

What do you think about all this? Would YOU do this?

Ve Vant Yer Blood!!!!!!!!!!!! Oct. 30th

This photo just goes to show... no matter how old you are, there's still a plenty of goofiness in all of us. ; )

Thanks SME Cheerleaders for a rock'n Cheer Clinic for the 2nd graders yesterday!

"BRAINS!"

For Halloween this year... Zombify Yourself by clicking here .

Zombify yourself, your friends, family, a family pet... the possibilities of freaking out people are endless. Enjoy!

Meet My Cow

I'm working on a little social media project for some old friends of mine... and loving every second of it. I really like meeting new people and this has allowed me to meet folks all around the United States, via social networks. Sometimes I'm meeting them in my pj's and that's just pure icing. Woot!

I'm finding my interest in them, is the same is if we would have met in person. I'm digging through their online pages, learing about them, figuring out what their message is and seeing how they go about engaging others in on it, all without a corporate name behind them. The people I've found are clever, smart, witty and driven. What I wouldn't give to have those four words said about me! LOL! I'm itching to meet them in person.

Who are these folks? One is a dairy farmer who video blogs from his tractor and you can even e-dopt one of his dairy cows! See the photo above... that's mine, Katie Belle! Isn't she pretty?! We have a handsome musician who has used every ounce of social media to make a name for himself as a singer, songwriter and performer. Another is a twittering chef for a swanky restaurant in California. There's the lipstick entrepreneur and a few who have been lucky enough to have books deals made because of their hilarious and quirky blogs. All together, we're shooting for 30 of these exceptional social media powerusers for a case study... of sorts...

Stay tuned on how you can learn more about these people too. By all means if you think you know a social media power user, tell me! I'd love to meet them.

I've Adapted to My Environment... Clearly

While taking the kids to school today...

Paige: Mama?

Me: Yeah?

Paige: Why are you socdej?

Me: What? What’s sock dedge?

Paige: Why are you sojek?

Me: Say it again? So jacked?

Paige: Why. Are. You. SHOJEF!

Me: Spell it.

(Jackson sitting next to her is laughing)

Paige: Mom!

Me: What??

Jackson: She’s asking, WHY ARE YOU SO DEAF?

Confession Time...

It would appear I'm getting "old".

I like bird watching.

What is up with that? I would not have considered myself a fan of birds (Hitchcock's, The Birds, ruined them for me at an early age) until the last 7 - 10 years or so. I find myself perched on the wicker chair in my kitchen, feet propped up on the low window sill, watching out of one of the three side by side windows... waiting. There's a decent show at about any given daylight hour.

Cardinals. I adore cardinals. The beautiful bright red males fly fast, low and can manuever on a dime! They are fierce about their loyalty to their woman. The males will persistently drive away other males from their lovely ladies... all ... day... long. I kind of like that.

Our neighborhood is a happy little home to about two dozen yellow finches. I'm not sure how they came to our area ... but I'm so glad! They are very chatty and frequently congrugate together in my cutting garden to perch upon and eat the dead Black Eye'd Susan seeds. They are gorgeous and social... again, what's not to like about that?

Hummingbirds. Oh boy do I love hummingbirds! They are about the size of my thumb and can fly like a helicopter! They are the only bird able to fly backwards! We really only see them here in the 'hood from July through August, during their migration. You gotta like that they even stop by so we can see them.

Red Tail Hawks are so big, fat and healthy here in Round Hill. I saw one sitting high up on a limb in our backyard this summer and for just a moment, I thought it was a turkey. All plump and happy up there... looking for an easy snack. They have taken our ground squirrel population down to about 3. All of whom seem to be living under my house. Sadly though... the squirrel population is almost zero in my neighborhood this year. The hawks can easily pick up full grown squirrels and rabbits and carry them off ... clearly the mother lode of carry out meals.

The only wildlife I like watching more than a cool bird, is a funny squirrel... or 3. The only thing better than the squirrels... are watching mine and the neighborhood kids. Either way... you can find me at my kitchen window, watching... like some freaky old lady.

(vintage bird photo courtesy of The Vintage Workshop The squirrels are from a tree near my second story window in my backyard. So cute!! Probably hawk chow by now.)