Archive for November, 2009

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

I spent 2005 writing. A lot. Seriously, papers analyzing word choices in public speeches by celebrities, articles by famous journalists and monologues from plays pretty much every week. And then of course, starting my (90 page!) thesis paper on the study of the rhetoric of the NRA and the role they play as both a protagonist and an antagonist to the American government…Almost every day was spent in front of my keyboard, writing as much as I could about everything I read and heard, in hopes that it would come in handy for a paper down the road. While I didn’t see it then, the time that I spent writing down everything was great training for now, where I can turn real life thoughts into future blog posts.

While I was writing like crazy Millionaire Steve Fossett broke the world record by completing the first non-stop, non-refueled, solo flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. (okay, so I know it isn’t media/tech or advertising…but it’s really cool!!)

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

While my classes and scholastic experiences in school are really what helped me to decide where I wanted to be in the future, the 2 years I spent in a sorority also heavily affected my life. Actually, choosing to leave the sorority in 2004 was what made the most difference. I had great experiences in the house, and meeting the girls, planning events and building relationships. But I also learned how much I despised being a part of politics, the rules of “seniority” and the difference between real and fake relationships. These lessons have helped me greatly in the business world, and are partially what led to my desire to work for myself. I think the more that I worked for others, the more I felt I was back in that sorority – somewhere I knew I didn’t want to be.

The tech world (especially social media!) changed incredibly in 2004. In 2003, a very frustrated (and probably partially intoxicated) Zuckerberg, according to Wikipedia, was on Facesmash, Harvard’s “Hot or Not” website, and blogging about a girl who had just dumped him. Finally in early 2004, after deciding to hack into Facesmash, learning how to create a closed network for sharing thoughts with other students, and making it available to all Harvard students Facebook was created. When the site was created, it was only open to Harvard students in the area. It quickly expanded out to other colleges in the area, and then to high school, businesses and finally to anyone over the age of 13. While we can’t all be the next Facebook, what we can do is make sure we give all our ideas a chance.

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

In 2003, I moved out of the college dorms and into my first apartment. In honor of thanksgiving, I am sharing a picture of me and 3 best girlfriends, at our thanksgiving dinner party we hosted before we (and all our friends) headed home for the real holiday…

And from the media, the Google logo from Thanksgiving 2003…

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

College is one of the most difficult decisions I think most teens make in their life, but for me, it was rather easy. I fell in love with Long Beach State the first time that I saw the school…add in that they had a big downtown (I came from a small town) and were close to both LA and SD? I was sold. When I received the acceptance letter in the spring of 2002, my excitement was uncontainable… Where did you want to go to college? Was that the same place you ended up? Why/why not?

For media? Britney wasn’t trashy yet…Levi’s had creepy legs…Hank gave advice to Bonds…mini fridge kicks butt & the Clydesdales still reign.

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

Mine: AP Spanish
Technology: Wikipedia launches

We have finally reached the 21st century, and have just 9 more posts before the big one…the day I turn 25. For those who have missed a few, I recommend brushing up on my creativity through the years.

In 1996, I started taking junior councilor classes at the local parks and recreations department. It was my first exposure to sharing my creativity, creating fun events and planning activities. By the year 2000, I had taken enough classes, and was old enough, to start working as an actual after school teacher with the local elementary school. I had worked the summer before in a “paint your own pottery” store, so this wasn’t my first job. But it was certainly the first job that meant something to me. It was also when I realized that while I didn’t want to be a teacher, I wanted to do something that helped people improve on something. Then, it was school work, sports and arts and crafts. Now it’s blog management and web design. Still need patience, just a different tool box.

At the same time I was teaching kids how to play games from my childhood, John Vechey, along with Brien Fiete and Jason Kapalka founded Popcap games (the company who created Bejeweled!). I am always amazed where companies start and why – for them? They simply wanted to create simple and fun games they could play online when bored. What they did was created a company which has won over 25 major awards and employs over 180 people! Pretty impressive solution to cure boredom…

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

For me, 1999 was a difficult year. For the first time in my life, I struggled with an English class. This had never happened before. English classes (book analysis, essays, poems, etc) had always come very easy to me. So, my freshman year of High School I decided to take Advanced English and push myself a bit. Push myself, I did. I was finally reading books that were at and above my level. I was expected to analyze them past the surface level, and it was fantastic. I loved the pressures that were put on me, the fact that if I wanted to do well I would have to go above and beyond what was expected. While this was one of the most difficult classes I ever took (okay, calculus was up there too), after my first year of it, I was even further in love with writing and reading than I already was. To this day, I know that the Advanced English classes I took were the beginning of my career in blogging. Once you get the writing bug…it’s impossible to get rid of.

In the media world, 1999 was a scary thought. Who could forget the hype they created over the end of the millennium? The world was going to end. Poof, money gone, banks destroyed, computers crashing, life as we know it would be no more. People stocked up on water, food and pulled their money into safer places. So what really happened? Well, a lot of people got drunk, the world didn’t end and January 1, 2000 was just another day.

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

In September, 1998 Google Inc was founded and released for the public.

The only thing I was concerned with? I started High School.

Do you remember your first day of high school? What about your first google search?

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

In 1997, I was finishing 7th grade, starting 8th grade, and still trying to figure out who I really was (I think we all were at that age). Other than friends, boys and annoying my parents, I had 2 things I knew that I loved: reading and writing. I had a book and my notebook with me everywhere that I went, jotting down thoughts and ideas about every day life. I guess it was my first version of “blogging”. I was not a tech savvy kid, despite going to a school that had a computer lab donated by Steve Wozniak. I mean, I understood computers and knew how to use them, but was never really interested in anything beyond using them for school. I preferred the feeling of writing on paper to writing in Word. Which meant that I constantly had ink on the side of my hand from dragging it across barely dried sentences (one of the pitfalls of being left handed). To this day, I still love writing on paper, but find that I type much quicker than I can write, so my laptop has replaced my notebook (although at night, I do still keep a notepad by my bed for those random thoughts). I think that as long as I keep writing, my creativity will continue. I worry for the day that my hands will no longer cooperate and hope that by that point, there is a solution…

On the topic of reading and writing, 1997 marked the start of one of the most successful book series ever written – Harry Potter. While it wasn’t released in the US until 1998, the book became an instant star in the UK, winning numerous awards and receiving some of the highest compliments from the reviewers. For those who don’t know, this is one of my favorite series of all times and I have actually read all 7 books more than 5 times each. What impresses me most about Rowling (the author of the series) is the drive that she had to write the books, and the passion in which she wrote them. Even more impressive? According to Forbes magazine, she is the first author to become a billionaire from writing books. Now that is a serious accomplishment, and adds a little motivation to anyone out there who has ever been told writing can’t make you rich.

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

Mine: Junior Councilor

Media: Independence Day