Chatting With a Star!

I can hardly type, I'm so excited that I had the opportunity to chat a little on Facebook today, with literary brilliance and human behaviorist extraordinaire, Jonah Lehrer.  Isn't social networking wonderful?  We can reach out and engage in conversations about something, everything... or nothing, with people who would have normally been consider unattainable.  Social networking makes us all seem a bit more "the kid next doorish" and I like that.  Please click on his name above so you can check out his home page and see not only his credentials and his articles (he writes for The New Yorker for instance) but his amazing blog called The Frontal Cortex.  

Post #12

Jonah Lehrer wrote49 minutes ago

I was just talking to a scientist yesterday
(Jonathan Schooler at UCSB, who has done
some great stuff on mind wandering) and he
noted how surfing the web is a lot like mind
wandering. We simply follow the links, even
when the connections are tenuous. In other
words, the internet allows us to free associate
and make all sorts of new and unexpected
connections. So that's another way that
technology is assisting (or at least imitating)
some of the functions of the human brain.

Eager Beaver Me jumping in at this point:  

Post #13

You wrote47 minutes ago

MORE MORE MORE on how social networks 
/ social media is affecting decision making...er... lack of. LOL

Post #15

Jonah Lehrer wrote45 minutes ago

I think that still remains unclear, Alexis. It's a really important
 question, but there are few good answers. I wrote recently
on my blog, for instance, about how having lots of facebook
friends doesn't mean we have more close friends in real life.

Anecdotally, one peculiar thing about having a smartphone
is that I rarely buy anything in a store without checking with
the web first. Is this a good price? A good product? The
end result is that I'm even MORE indecisive than usual.
So that's a classic case of paralysis by analysis, which I
think is becoming more and more common, at least in my life.

Post #17

You wrote43 minutes ago

Jonah, I'm quite the opposite. I was hesitant to
 buy if I didn't have enough information. I've 
been using social networks to ask for suggestions 
or experiences regarding products and/or services... 
with huge success. It's given me confidence to
 make purchases I normally would have sat on for a while. ; )

Post #21

Jonah Lehrer wrote40 minutes ago

Well, Alexis, I think the future will help us narrow down
the overflow of information by using our social networks,
weighting information according to whether or not our
friends also found that information useful. So you're
ahead of the curve!

(Did you see that?  Jonah Lehrer says I'm 
"ahead of the curve".   I'm going to blow that up 
and stencil it on my living room wall.)

Post #30

You wrote34 minutes ago

Jonah, do you find a trend with females 
versus males as to who goes with the gut 
instinct the most? (I would guess females... 
perhaps being more intuitive... 
but just a big fat guess).

Post #33

Jonah Lehrer wrote59 minutes ago

Actually, there's little evidence that women are
more intuitive. However, there are real gender
differences in decision-making, which I wrote
about here:
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/03/men_vs_women.php

Post #39

Jonah Lehrer wrote51 minutes ago

I haven't actually found any meaningful gender differences when it comes to creativity. But it's
an interesting question. One of the things that
drew me to creativity as a subject is that it's so
damn mysterious. We have virtually no idea
how the brain creates its new ideas, although
that seems to a big part of what the
human brain is doing....

Post #32

Hannah Pfeifle Harlow wroteabout an hour ago

Jonah, I'm so curious to know how you do your
research. I imagine you hanging out with scientists
 all day talking about cool research projects and
experiments. Am I glorifying it a bit? How do
you find the right people to talk to?

Post #35

Jonah Lehrer wrote55 minutes ago

Those are the fun days. The less fun days involve
 lots of time in the library, reading science
journals. But it's a true luxury getting to hang
out with brilliant researchers. I sometimes
think about the Auden quote, about how
when he's in the company of scientists he feels
like a "shabby curate in a room full of dukes"...

Post #36

You wrote54 minutes ago

LOL!!! What books do YOU read for pleasure? 
As if you have time.

Post #40

Jonah Lehrer wrote49 minutes ago

I love novels. I'm reading Wolf Hall on my
Kindle at the moment. Then I'm going to
re-read the Rabbit Trilogy by Updike.
The last book I read for research was
 an interesting book on Silicon Valley,
called "Regional Advantage". It's about
 the success of Silicon Valley (at least
when compared to Rt 128 outside Boston)
 is largely due to its social networks, and
the ease with which people can share ideas...

I love this comment about CREATIVITY ...
 it makes me think of HubSpot and 
the good things they are doing there.  
Check this out... and ask yourself 
what you're doing to encourage 
creativity in your workplace, home 
or where ever:  

Post #44

Jonah Lehrer wrote36 minutes ago

In general, creativity is accelerated by
sharing. So workplaces that
encourage "horizontal interactions"
generate more new ideas. That's
why Google puts free food in its
cafeterias. They want people to talk
while eating, and thus share all
their speculations, hypotheses, etc...
It's also why Pixar only has a single
bathroom for each gender...It's all
about designing workplaces
that maximize interactions. Cities,
by the way, seem to obey the same
principles, with cities that encourage
more interactions generating
more innovations...
(So NYC is more innovative than,
 say, Phoenix.)

Thanks to Jonah Lehrer and the other participants
of Fans of Jonah Lehrer on Facebook for
sparking my interest in decision making even more! 

on a side note from my facebook page:  

"Alexis and Jonah Lehrer are now friends."   Woohoo!

Time to Repurpose People for Schools

Thank goodness we're all pretty much clever people... who can look at something we've always used one way and actually use it for something else.

If given the opportunity, we can see what else it can be... not what it "supposed" to be.

Maybe we should be more literal... like this "bookshelf"...

Let's never fail to see the beauty in something ordinary... like these milk bottles.

I love these kitchen items making up a sparkly new chandelier.

When something was useful as one thing, it might be just as useful, if not more, as something else...

Like these crates...

a suitcase as a fancy medicine cabinet

run out of room? Keep looking. There's always options...

My father taught me that there's always several solutions to one problem...

Fortunately, there's a lot of creative people out there to help us see what else we can do.  Social Media maven, Steve Crescenzo reminded me a few weeks ago to never again say or accept these words, "It's the way we've always done it."

I encourage all of the public schools throughout the United States, who are facing the beginning of a horrendous Federal budget crisis...  to rethink everything they have been doing.  In light of the economy, the landscaped has changed on a dime. The demographics have too.  Repurpose the people who are commited to the students in their district.  Reuse those resources to best fit the new and dire needs knocking on their doors. Fully utilize the parents and community that believe in what they are doing wholeheartedly... and to make what was the old way... a new and improved way.  The timing has never been better.

images from: Poetic Home, The Mimi Project, My Sweet Savanagh, vandalized vintage and flickr stock

Who's Genes Are Those Anyway?

It snowed an unexpected boat load yesterday. I'm of the opinion, if it's going to snow... then it better damn well snow.  Ta da!  It did.  We got just under 7".  Wet heavy snow.  You look at it and it starts to melt.  So today,  my 7 yr old daughter and I set out to make a snowman.... or snow something.  She had been out for about 20 minutes longer than me.  Her snowthing was a just a base by the time I got to the yard, but it looked perfectly symetrical and as if it was covered with an oversized layer of fondant icing.  It was beautiful. She was on her knees, close to the ground, perfectly shaping the medium size sphere that would sit upon the base.  Who is this girl?  This neat tidy little thing that was picking the slightest bit of leaf and acorn debris from her work.  Why can't she do that to her room? 


I started in on my snowman project.  There's a KU basketball game later today, so I thought I'd make some snowcheerleaders in a 3 person pyramid.  I got the first two snowgirls set up side by side and was finishing the "flyer" snowgirl (that's cheer code for the girl that is on the top of the pyramid) when we caught my daughters eye.  She flashed a huge smile, ditched her project and asked to help me.   SURE!  I clipped some old Majestic Palms that had been in a pot and long since died, but kept their shape... perfect for hair or pom poms.  I wasn't sure yet.  We found acorns and juniper berries for eyes, sticks for arms and even some evergreens for eyelashes.  There was talk of food coloring in blue and red to make a K and a U, but we kind of forgot about that as we moved along.  

I had the flyer snowcheerleader mounted up on top of the other two bases.  They all had their hair, noses, eyes in... and then it happened. As I had my back turned I heard the thump.   Lil miss flyer fell backward to her death and creepily all that was really left, was the face... like a mask... with a plastered smile on it... 2 feet from the body.  I laughed really hard because it was a great attempt and I was actually good with leaving it like that and labeling it a cheerleading disaster.  My daughter however, was not. She bolted up off the ground and yelled "I can fix it!  We're going to fix it!  We have to fix it!"  After several attempts of packing snow in places it fell away from and putting the flyer back up... it just wasn't working. So... our cool pyramid looks more like a party pic from a sorority at KU.  Minus the alcohol punch filled red cups. 

My daughter returned to her snowthing... which turning out to be a bit steampunkish with it's quirky eyes, ponytail on top of the head, no mouth and smooth perfect shaped body.  Again... it's was like a cake covered in fondant.   I was amazed at our two different approaches to such a simple project and yet we're closely related.  Neither of us took the regular three snowballed body coal eyes path.  However, we didn't necessarily do it anything close to eachother's either!   I swear she's my child.  I know I delivered her and she looks like me at that age.  Perhaps none of my reckless, messy, let's give it a shot and see what happens genes made it into her.  She might have her daddy's DNA of simplistic, streamlined, minimalism and well thought out before attempting, thought processing.

As we finished and I took a few photos, we came inside to warm up... I saw she was still wearing her PJ's under her snowsuit.   Yep... THAT is my girl!  PJ's  might not have been the "right tool for the job" (my husband would have had all the right snow weather clothes on underneath his snowsuit) but they did get the job done and she stayed warm and cozy.  Awesome.  LOL!    

Group shot!  Parrrrr-teeeeee!

Giddy, Slightly Over Animated & Cotton Mouth

Yesterday... I met a few rock stars within the social media industry... Steve Crescenzo and Chris Brogan.  Both were passing out laughs and wisdom at the IABC Business Communicators Summit in Kansas City.  Paired with several local social media rock stars (Zena Weist, Whitney Mathews, Jason Gertzen, Matt Tidwell and Bryan Truta to name a few), I was giddy, terribly over animated and develop a bad case of cotton mouth during my short presentation.  I'm sure I left many with the feeling of shock and awe.  

Gray was the color theme apparently in our photos... LOL!  Steve Crescenzo has the "Mr. Clean" hair style and Chris Brogan has the goatee.  Steve is doing exactly what he tells corporate communications departments not to let the executives do in photos... look constipated.  So to help him overcome that... I've included another one with him smiling...  and he was all smiles yesterday.  

Despite my wild eye'd and wide open mouth appearance, I had a truly great time!  Loads of laughs and as I explained to another social media junkie friend of mine, "it wasn't earth shattering information, but it was a strong reminder that our communication is all about people and people's experiences."  Steve said "Do not say or accept this phrase ever again: That's the way we've always done it".   Amen.  Corporate Communications is no longer. It's Creative Communications from now on. Steve had wonderful examples and a few before and after's.  Incredibly inspirational!  Chris' easy going approachable style was one reminder after another ... to listen.  So we can genuinely respond.   

They both are all about PEOPLE.  All about reaching back when someone reaches out to you... and vice versa.  If you get a chance to see either of these outstanding men up front and center... do.  It's the jump start we all need in this ever changing world, to start having fun with work and play.


side note: 

Look at the Uptown Theater.  Turns out they're on Twitter too. I'd only been there for concerts the last few decades.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out there are a lot of conference rooms and wonderful full service catering.  Fanastic!  The theater decor' though, has always reminded me of the Swedish Village at Worlds of Fun. 

Looking at Regular Things in Different Ways Through Social Media

Big chunks of sea glass... in an ornamental bowl.  Beautiful.  Two rather ordinary things, but putting the glass in the bowl makes it somehow... better.  Much better.  I've been getting subtle hints like this for the last few weeks all around me.  

Like these baseballs in the cage.  I don't know what kind of cage it is... but I like it. I like the small squares mixed with the spheres in the rectangle box.  There's something in the psyche that tells my brain, it's a WIN.

A Christmas tinsel tree as a Valentine tree.  Since my Christmas tree is still up (yes... it really is) I'm thinking this might be more possible this year than ever before.  LOL!

A grey bowl with tarnished silver.  It works... it's beautiful. The combination is pleasing and the colors are calming.  Seperate though, I'm not sure I would have noticed either.

The photos above came from a recent antique show I attended with my crafting maven friend, Amy Barickman.  I enjoyed the show immensly because the vendors are extremely savvy in how they merchandise their products.  Using them in different ways and in different combinations and forcing you to take a second look and recognize the beauty.  Social media kind of does the same thing with regular businesses using branding and marketing in new and different ways.

So... I had one of my clients use social media to play ordinary games on a social network.  A guessing game and a trivia question. Two types of games that have been around since dirt.  @johnnystavernpv asked on Twitter, "For a $25 gift card to us, what year was Johnny's Tavern in Lawrence, established?"    Winner... @Chrissa21 with 1953. Second question... "For a $10 gift card, how many fingers am I holding up?"   Yes... I really asked that. LOL! My children were with me as credible witnesses and @mvanbaale won with his guess of "2". The responses and participation was much better than expected.  37 Players, total of 54 tweets by followers and non followers using @johnnystavernpv name, 12 new followers gained, $35 spent... all within 14 minutes of playing time.   Simply because we took something average and by using it via social media, made it shiny and new again. 

Try it in your business... or in your decor'.  Tell me how that works for you.

Gathering, Compiling, Creating

I've got some great posts coming up... so put me on your radar.  T-minus... a few more days!  WOOT!

How Social Media Can Get You On the News

  I smiled really big when I got the call from Sky Tracker News videographer, Tom Babb, (he's dreamy... you'll have to view my Facebook page to know why I mention that.) saying he'd read my blog and was asking if one of KSHB TV's reporters could interview me... about the leak in my ceiling.  Apparently Tom read my blog about the huge icicles, then saw my posts on Facebook and read the numerous comments from others who were commiserating about the same challenge in their homes.

He knew there was a story there.  Isn't social media great?  (insert bigger SMILE)

Here is the short story KSHB Channel 41 News ran during the 10pm news, last night. Hopefully with more information, they will follow up later on with  what ice dams are, how to prevent the ice dams from starting and what insurance agents are saying about covering this unusual form of damage throughout our region.  I'm sure there's more to come.

Here is Brandon, KSHB 41's reporter who came out to film the damage and interview me.  He was cute and made me forget to put lipstick on.  I'll be ready with a tube for the papparrazzi in the future though.

technoratie claim code  JFCS9R5XS9K6

Will Books Become a Blickensderfer #5?

This is my Blickensderfer #5 typewriter. It was made in 1891.  Cool eh?  I got it off eBay about 15 years ago because I knew typewriters weren't going to be made anymore. Computers were readily available by then. I worked at Gateway Computers through the 90's and knew everything was thrown into warp speed technologically the minute I stepped into training.  I've looked at typewriters with a little bit of longing since then.  I liked the click click clack sound of them and I enjoyed seeing my father type up invoices in his rapid hunt n peck style.  And who didn't enjoy a whiff of white out every now and then?

Now however, it was recently announced that for the first time in history, digital books have outsold paperbooks.  Wow and aaawww.   Kim, a dear artist friend of mine, has been listening to books on tape for over two decades now. Even then I thought... "what if we all listented to books on tape?" There'd be no need for paper bound books.   So now, as the new flexible e-reader is on deck, the new Tablet is about to roll out and Kindle is already in the marketplace for e-book everwhere.   So really, besides nostalgia and books being sexy, why have a hardbound paper book?  Are they going to be bought to sit on shelves as decoration... like my Blickensderfer #5? 

Here's a great article from PC World about the Consumer Elecontronic Show called  5 BIG TECH TRENDS.    If you're not into technology and how it affects us each day... it might be a hard subject to wrap your head around.  However, the article is an easy read and maybe it will spark a little interest you didn't realize you had.  If you're there already... ENJOY!

What's next, do you think?  I saw a new game called MINDFLEX by Mattel that allows the user to move a ping pong ball through a hoop... in the air... using your mind.   OMG!   Again, this is by Mattel, the kids toy manufacturer!  I know!  However, it looks strangley like a Harry Potter game also produced by Mattel 5 years earlier.  5 Years earlier???   Where have I been?   I have an 11 and 7 year old.  We love Harry Potter. How did we miss this product?  Granted, I played with firecrackers as a kid and I turned out alright, but this might have set my course in life in a different direction. 

Go read a book... in whatever manner your heart or pocketbook desires!  I'm currently reading Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw (new $27.99 or on Kindle $7.49 see a trend?) and I am always open for suggestions.  Bring 'em on!

Worst Case Scenario Happening ALL around Kansas City!

*gulp*    I thought they were so pretty.  Glistening in the sun, when the sun was actually out this last week.  They got so long like the stalactites at Cave of the Winds, not so far away.   The thought of uplighting them with blue, green or red lights was going to be my next step. Sadly not.  They are heralders of BAD NEWS!

I asked on Facebook, how in this sub zero weather, do we have icicles?  My friend, Brownyn Maguire McNeese, commented on this photo via my facebook page, with some very disturbing news.  "Okay....I know the answer!!Icicles are caused by "ice dams" on your roof which are caused by warm and cold spots on your roof due to poor ventilation or insulation.The ice or snow melts on a warm spot, runs down and freezes when it hits a cold spot --usually gutters or valleys. It is bad because the ice expands pushing up under shingles and or ... See Moreflashing, thawing, and then causing leaks inside your house! Yuck! So be sure to look for water coming in where you see this!I know this because we have them too!! Was researching online and also talked to several people who are now battling water in their houses :( Contractors are saying it is happening all over town! Damn!"     C R A P!

Now, it's like my blue feather (reference to Richard Bach's book Illusions). I see houses all around town as I perform my daily tasks, with long icicles on the front, the corners, the sides... everywhere. Meh!   My 7 yr old daughter and I headed out to photograph the longest one's we could find.  That is before my batteries ran out.  We got a few.

This is the absolute worst case scenario!

Apparently they had melting water coming out of the vents in the soffett, from behind the shingles and from the inside of the window frame.  OMG!   I wonder if they know!

4 Businesses Using at Least One New Social Media Strategy in 2010

I want you to pick one... one thing about social media that will help you promote your business, yourself,  the not for profit you volunteer for, your child's school, your... whatever during 2010!   Just pick one new social media startegy that you can get excited about, sink your teeth into and implement.  Here are some movers and shakers and what they are planning on or all ready doing now that it's 2010.

Tom Babb's  Video Home Tours of Kansas City, is creating home video tours for realtors to get an edge on the sluggish and hopefully changing real estate market.  Brilliant! So much better than the single shots per room that give you little to no depth perception or the 360 cam that was confusing and completely distorting depth.  Tom's video tours will put you there... in the home... on the property.  It'll be ideal for those of us who are busy working all week and little time to physically visit several homes.  Perfect for those out of towners, pre-choosing homes to tour while their time in town is limited.  Furthermore, it's yet another tool for realtors to recognize buying signals from prospective clients.  If a client has taken the time to view a home and has gone another step to actually contact the realtor... well game on because they are ready!  I love this video option!


Anne Williams of  Professional Resume' out of San Francisco, will be creating online resume pages for clients along with an option for a personal video message to future employers,  in the near future. The video is "an absolute MUST" according to Anne. Anne also says she's currently utilizing social media for brand awareness and plans to blog and post relevant job descriptions from around the country, as well as information on interviewing skills and targeting the right position.  Amazing how a simple piece of paper we once brought in to an interview with us, has changed.  I really like the option of a personal branding video message.  Financially savvy employers are also interviewing via Skype, to avoid large travel expenses.  To me these steps really hammer home our "universal identity" and how we brand ourselves.  It's getting so interesting... isn't it?

Amy Barickman of The Vintage Workshop and Indygo Junction is preparing to create simple 1 to 2 minute "How To" videos for the crafting world.  Amy has a lot of experience in front of the camera (The Martha Stewart Show, Sewing With Nancy and many many expos and conferences throughout the U.S.) so this seems like a natural progression for her companies.  She will be able to personalize herself even more by letting viewers in on projects currently in progress. She can show the viewer how to create a simple craft or a portion of a craft project as an educational tool.  I even smell a live podcast, once a week with the same bat time and same bat place in her future.  She can bring in special guests or SKYPE with them via webcam and let the viewers ask questions too.  Her industry is all visual and these changes will She's also looking into making her many books, e-books.  For the first time ever, 2009 saw more books bought digitally than in paper. 




Roger Smith Hotel in NYC, has started the year by playing games with their followers via Twitter.  Today they announced their 1st winner of the #RogerRooms suite give-a-way.  All anyone had to do was tweet their guess as to which card, from a regular playing deck, was in the promoter's hand.  The winner is @alieter who celebrated by Re-Tweeting (called RT) the winner tweet announcement...  "Woo Hoo! RT @RSHotel Winner of #RogersRooms, with the 8 of Clubs is @aleiter free suite in Jan!!"    What a fun way to create buzz and excitement amongst your followers.  Better yet they tell their friends to play too and Roger Smith Hotels didn't even have to encourage them to do so!  Truly a word of mouth campaign success. At the time of this blog, I wasn't sure how often, if at all, they would be doing this particular game.  I can't wait to see what they come up with next! 


What social media tool are you thinking of using?

(Amy Barickman's Indygo Junction purses photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine)