Mad Men Yourself: Implications of the Swanky '60s Style Avatar Creation Site

This post is for anyone interested in Web 2.0 technology, trends in social media, graphic design, the TV series Mad Men, or marketing.

It appears I have a knack for finding new "[Insert Title Here] Yourself" services on the web. These Cartoon-Yourself, Yearbook-Yourself, Elf Yourself, and avatar generators let us show off our tweeting, friending, narcissistic selves as profile pictures without seeming the least bit vain (à la myspace). And darn they're fun to use.

The latest is AMC's "Mad Men Yourself," and this one has an interesting backstory.

In case you don't feel like reading my 20-page "Representing and Misrepresenting Yourself on Social Networks" report about online identity, a little background might help. Mad Men is a television series on AMC, now in its third season, which centers on the high-powered world of Madison Avenue advertising agencies in the 1960's. Think David Ogilvy.

The series quickly developed a following in both real and virtual settings, e.g. Twitter, because it appeals to agency/media/marketing people who also happen to be early adopters of Twitter and other social networks. A lot of these creative-types did some really neat things with the characters on the show, and AMC did some really stupid things and then took it back and a year later, wised up and created the following awesomeness, a perfect reflection of the "brand" that is Mad Men, and the "fans" such as Dyna Moe, who created the illustration for the site:

Congrats, AMC. You finally "got it," and your show is saved.

PS - Does the music remind anyone else of the old The Sims when you were in "buy" mode? Ahh elevator music. Never goes out of fashion.

PPS - Eight O'Clock Coffee gets a Brand + in my book for a perfect sponsorship deal:

Playing Nice in Web 2.0

Read this post if you like sharing and getting credit for it.

I just love Web 2.0 -- it means more free goodies for all. Creativity and inspiration become infectious, and I find myself downloading more megabytes of photos, vector images, Photoshop brushes, textures, and tools than I will ever have time to find a use for. Part of this culture was made possible by the nonprofit organization Creative Commons, which has been around since 2001 and helps artists/creators choose an appropriate copyright notice for their work.

Web 2.0 sites like Flickr, however, allow everyone to share this work with the public.

As both a creator and a user of content created by others, I was very excited to find that two of my own images from Flickr had been re-purposed on the web. Check out how they were used!

An entry dated May 5, 2009 in SaunaScape features my "Weigh" image from last August.

A May 27, 2009 entry in Everybody’s Invited! features my "Fondue Fun" image from Laura's 19th birthday.

As a final note, I was able to discover these images because the authors of these blogs so kindly mentioned my Flickr user name, whoaitsaimz, under the photos. Which brings up an important point about the sharing culture: provide credit where credit is due. It makes the experience fun, fair, and everyone will be more likely to continue sharing in the future.

The Best Social Bookmarking Widget for Blogger

This post is for Blogger users who like custom templates and widgets.

Sometimes, it's hard to be a Blogger user, especially when you see cool features in Wordpress that you can't have, like "related posts" widgets and nifty social bookmarking icons that link up automatically to your post.

Recently, I found this code from cheth Studios, and I installed it to my very own blog.

Instead of the "Add This" widget which I used to use (also recommended, easier to install and smaller but uses javascript instead), you can now see all the functioning social icons below each of my posts. So go ahead and e-mail, tweet, bookmark, and share to your heart's desire. It can't get any easier.

Thanks, Cheth!

Music Fans: You Need to Sit Back and Listen

This post is for everyone who listens to internet radio and likes free stuff.

Regardless of your music taste, and whether you've settled into your iTunes, your ForumW, your LimeWire, Pandora, or some other way of consuming music, you have to try out last.fm.

According to their website, "last.fm is a music service that learns what you love" ... and I instantly loved it back. This kind of love doesn't take a lot of effort; it's service is based not only on what you tell it now, but on your past. Meaning that for people who have been listening to music for any more than 5 days out of their lives will appreciate the seamless transition to its online/offline user experience. Borderline creepy-stalker-lover, Last.fm seems to know you as soon as you press the little "import" button on its GUI, updating your profile information to reflect your listening history. It's a good thing real relationships don't have that kind of unforgiving insight.

They also offer personalized music recommendations, some free mp3 downloads, stations based on a specific artist, all kinds of web 2.0 widgets for your blog/website/network, and automatically corrected misspellings of artist and track names. A website that can correct you, the music guru, when you're wrong???! It's creepy but it works. The question is, do you really want a service that works that well... wuahaha...

The Veronicas' Last Stop, in Philly

This post is for Veronicas fans, people who appreciate live music, and those who get a kick out of half-naked band members' pranks... I've said too much.

My Friday night / belated birthday celebration was at the TLA (Theater of the Living Arts) on South Street in Philadelphia. Australian twin sisters Jess and Lisa Origliasso of rock/pop group The Veronicas put on a great show, the last of their Revenge Is Sweeter tour in the US.

Carney & TheArt made a special appearance during 'Heavily Broken' - a quiet and beautiful song turned... well, just watch. I chose this version for the sound quality (you can hear the girls over the fans, unlike some of the other videos).

Enjoy the whole playlist here. Lyrics for 'Heavily Broken' below:

Everyday I sit here waiting
Everyday just seems so long
And now I've had enough of all the hating
Do we even care, it's so unfair
Any day it'll all be over
Everyday there's nothing new
And now I just try to find some hope
To try and hold onto
But it starts again
It'll never end

I'm heavily broken
And I don't know what to do
Can't you see that I'm choking
And I can't even move
When there's nothing left to say
What can you do
I'm heavily broken
And there's nothing I can do

Almost giving up on trying
Almost heading for a fall
And now my mind is screaming out
I've gotta keep on fighting
But then again
It doesn't end

I'm heavily broken
And I don't know what to do
Can't you see that I'm choking
And I can't even move
When there's nothing left to say
What can you do?
I'm heavily broken
And there's nothing I can do
And there's nothing I can do

Feels like I'm drowning
I'm screaming for air
(Screaming for air)
Louder I'm crying
And you don't even care

I'm heavily broken
And I don't know what to do
Can't you see that I'm choking
And I can't even move
(What can I do)
When there's nothing left to say
What can you do
I'm heavily broken

I'm heavily broken
And I don't know what to do
Can't you see that I'm choking
And I can't even move
When there's nothing left to say
What can you do
I'm heavily broken [x3]

Finally Out of North Philly - my angry post about getting robbed

For anyone who has ever experienced a loss, for those that know the neighborhoods of Philadelphia, for anyone who cares about my personal life.

I recently relocated from Temple University area to Manayunk, Philadelphia. There were a few reasons for this move, none of them being "North Philly sucks" or anything of that nature. I actually enjoyed my time at Temple, and while I have a year left before graduation, I never thought I was unhappy living in a nice apartment off Broad Street. We had plenty of space, I had two great roommates, and the walk to campus was convenient and nice. I did have some qualms with parking, not wanting to go out after dark (ha), and occasionally worrying about safety issues... but I was always reassured by the vicinity of our Temple police and the neighborhood watch guy, Tom. We had a drunk driver plough into our street once, but nothing really bad ever happened on our block. So when people would call it the "ghetto" and be hesitant to visit me, I would just shake my head and reply, "It's really not that bad."

HOWEVER, just a few weeks before I was set to leave the area for good, with mixed emotions of sadness and excitement, our apartment was robbed. My one roommate had moved out, the other at work, and I was in New Jersey for a graduation party. I'm just glad no one was there when they cut the screens on our windows, broke through the safety bars, and took any and all valuable electronic equipment from our home. Ashley and I lost three laptops, two mp3 players, a digital camera, a graphics tablet, and an internet router that evening. It's creepy to think that they may have been watching us.

Seriously? We are college students, so it's not like we have a lot to begin with, and these things that make up our lives were hard-earned and PERSONAL items. The value I assign to my own laptop far exceeded its $600 resale value, because of photos (thank goodness all my abroad photos are online already), music, programs, and personalization I had in place over the year I had owned it. My mp3 player was not only a music-playing device, but my inspiration to work out, with a fully-loaded exercise playlist. I had started on a workout binge as weather was getting nicer, and ran the track two blocks from our apartment regularly before the break-in. For the two weeks after that I did not even want to be around North Philly. So I lost and mp3 player but also my MO to go out and get exercise. My digital camera was not only a few-hundred-dollar-picture-capturing device, but weeks worth of memories, including some great shots of my new boyfriend and I and a picture with a friend who had come up from Virginia for the Penn relays. Money just can't replace that kind of thing.

So as much as I enjoyed my few years in North Philly, it came to a sour end because of the ill-will of some little hoodlums who fit through a back kitchen window and never learned to respect other people's personal property. Cowards. You just counteract any good that people like Tom and Temple police and university professionals and MYSELF try to bring to this town. I won't be coming back any time soon, and I hope you make lots of money reselling my digital camera that I have the charger for, and the graphics tablet that you forgot the graphic pen for. Good luck in life suckers.

On a happy note, I started my internship full-time, and am now enjoying the scenery of a much friendlier Manayunk. I hope everyone is having a great summer, especially the FUNemployed. Take care!

Dishwashing Etiquette

Read if you've ever lived with one or more roommates and had a problem getting dishes done.

1. Food should be scraped off dishes before washing; accidents (and forgetfulness) happen but clogged drains should be un-clogged promptly
2. Do not leave dishes in sink unwashed for more than 5 days, or for longer than it takes for flies to collect
3. Don't leave silverware at the bottom of the sink; just 'cause it's small doesn't mean it's not important
4. If you use a large pan, colander, or salad-spinner, it's nice if you can clean that up before the next person goes to use the sink -- it's very hard to refill a Brita water container with large items like that in the way
5. Just because the drying rack is full does not mean you are excused from dish duty
6. Dry knives immediately so they do not get rusty
7. If, while drying dishes by hand, your dish rag becomes saturated please throw it in the laundry so that a soppy wet rag is not placed on the counter for someone else to find
8. Thank you in advance for not playing Jenga with the drying glassware
9. Occasionally do some extra dishes even if they are not your own because at some point you probably forgot to do a cup or five before, too

Originally envisioned at the end of November 2007; revisited now.

Paint the Town Cherry Week

This post is for Temple students and alumni, or Philadelphia residents who want to know what's up with all the cherry in town.

To celebrate Temple's 125th anniversary, the university is undergoing a huge campaign to "Paint the Town Cherry" this week. By town they mean the entire city of Philadelphia!

I'm doing my part by wearing red & white nail polish during finals. Hope it brings some good Karma my way ;-)

Also look for Temple's "Cherry & White" colors around Philly all week (May 11-17) surrounding the Commencement ceremony on May 14. See if you can spot the following landmarks and buildings with Temple's colors:

• Ben Franklin Bridge
• One Liberty Place
• Two Liberty Place
• Cira Centre (look for the Temple 'T')
• Boathouse Row
• Bell Atlantic Tower
• City Hall and along Broad Street

Send your favorite cherry sightings to me or to  Temple's site and tweet them on Temple's new Twitter account if you're into that stuff.

The "I'm a Temple Owl" video contest finalists were announced today as well. Here is a stream of the finalists, the last one being the winner (Dan McKinney). My personal favorite is the third, but I'm biased being a part of the Fox School of Business myself!

Finally, for the alumni, it's Alumni Weekend at the end of the week, May 15-17. The scheduled events required registration, which closed last week so hopefully this isn't the first you're hearing about it...