4am

Have you ever noticed that when you think you need to go to sleep, because you have to get up uncharacterisitically early, you can’t ever fall asleep? This is a chronic thing with me. When I have early flights, or early meetings….it is almost as if I would be better off not going to sleep, and running on low for the day, then crashing that night. Alas…

I had a 6am flight this morning to get to New York for the Personal Democracy Forum (yay, techies!). Because of my 6am flight, I was up at 4am. Knowing this, I attempted to go to sleep around 10:30 last night. Did not work. At all. At 2am, I was still awake. Which promted me to hit my snooze button when the alarm went off at 4 this morning. I almost missed my flight. It was pretty crazy. I was irritable until I was on that plane. Needless to say, I have not yet had my am coffee, something that is severely inhibiting my mood. Yet I took the time to sit and blog. I have now arrived at the conference, and discovered that (like all good techie conferences) we have decent internet access. So, I am going to be blogging throughout the day today and tomorrow, chronicling the goings-on and the nonsense. But now, I am off in search of coffee…

Ciao, baby!

Chase

Summer lovin’!

A nod to one of my favorite movies, but not a whole lot to do with today’s topic. Actually, since summer is approaching, it is time to start thinking about summer colors! Well…I always like to change up my makeup for summer. It’s warm outside, so you don’t want to put anything heavy on your face, it just starts to feel sticky.
Suggestion 1:
Bare Minerals foundation, blush, and mineral veil. It’s light, but provides good coverage to hide those pesky freckles that appear when someone spends too much time in the sun (guilty!). It also has an SPF of 15, since some exposure is inevitable (unless you are a hermit). The mineral veil is also very light and leaves your skin oil-free, and that makeup won’t come off on the phone, or your clothes!
Suggestion 2:
If your skin has a tendency to get a little oily as the day goes on (as mine is prone), you might consider putting something on under your makeup in the morning. I’d suggest this product by Cosmedicine: Medi Matte. It is an oil control lotion. I know…how does a lotion control oil. But this sutff works without making your skin feel dry and flaky.
Suggestion 3:
This is actually a suggestion that works year-round, and I just recently discovered it. I don’t know how I was even wearing eyeshadow before finding Urban Decay’s Eyeshadow Primer Potion. It’s a liquid that’s got the consistency of a thick concealer, but it doesn’t feel the same at all. Once I put it on, I all but forgot it was there. It prevents your eyeshadow from smudging, fading, or creasing. I’ve always had a big problem with eyeshadow creasing, but this little potion in the cute bottle has cured that.
Suggestion 4:
Summer means new lip shades! My skin tone, hair color, and eye color aren’t really very summer friendly when it comes to summer shades. Peaches and cream skin, dark brown hair, and blue eyes. Well, I streaked the brown hair with blonde highlights, but the blue eyes throw me off. I have always worn dark brown eye shadow, because that is the main color to bring out the blue. So, I am on the hunt for some summer eyeshadow that I have yet to find. Perhaps pink or purple. Turquoise is going to be very popular this summer, blue isn’t my shade. Anyway, on to lips! As with eyeshadows, my lip colors are best for fall and winter. I search long and hard for a good summer-y color. I’m not a lipstick fan, it always feels to heavy, but I wear lip gloss almost every day. And I’ve finally found a new shade that is going to be my staple this summer. Lorac Mocktail lip gloss in Tequila Sunrise. It has an orange-y tint to it, and just a little shine. It isn’t sticky, because one of my biggest problems with lip gloss is when it is sticky. Or when it dries and gets flaky, which this does not do either. A bright raspberry color is also going to be very popular this summer. I am still searching for my own perfect variation of that one. I’m determined!
Suggestion 5:
My final suggestion is for perfume. I have one scent that I have worn for a very long time, and it is Kenneth Cole’s Reaction. I love the way it smells, I still love it, and will continue to wear it. But I can’t wear anything very heavy during the summer. For some reason, I tend to attract bees and other annoying buzzy creatures. So, I’ve found something that is perfect for anytime! You could even spritz it on for an evening beach party. It’s Vera Wang’s Flower Princess. It’s a floral scent, but light and…well….summer-y! I love it. And the bottle is so cute, it has a little crown and everything. What girl doesn’t want to be treated like a princess? This scent is a limited edition, so make sure you get some soon!

So, I varied from the norm, and revealed some of my favorite beauty secrets and/or supplies. I’ll update if I make anymore discoveries!

Human Behavior

It’s been a while, almost two weeks since I’ve actually blogged. Life has been next to hectic, and still is. However, today is my birthday, so I am actually taking the time to do things I enjoy. Before my study marathon tonight….because finals are this week. So, there was an article in the NYT last week that sparked my interest. Human behavior has always been fascinating to me, and it was because of that that I chose to study marketing as an undergraduate. Why not psychology? Well, because I am interested in the parts of human behavior that drive consumer choices. So, who buys what and for what reasons. Marketers study these behaviors in order to know who to market products to and how best to approach them. The idea is called targeting. Well, with all the advances that have been made in research methods, we can take it a step farther and start microtargeting. Microtargeting takes it to a whole new level, beyond demographic, geographic, and psyhographic information. This article was all about microtargeting used by pollsters for political campaigns. *as a side note, political science and business are very separate in college, which I think only harms the spread of new and inventive marketing tactics* Like minded people are targeted not based on age and gender, but instead based on what television shows they watch, the magazines or newspapers they subscribe to, and even the purchases they make at the grocery store. The article points to several specific food stuffs and can pinpoint which candidate you are likely to vote for based on your purchase of any of these items. “For example, Dr Pepper is a Republican soda. Pepsi-Cola and Sprite are Democratic. So are most clear liquors, like gin and vodka, along with white wine and Evian water. Republicans skew toward brown liquors like bourbon or scotch, red wine and Fiji water.” This is a tiny excerpt from the article by Kim Severson. Can you categorize your friends (politically) based on their likes and dislikes?
How does any of this help in a political campaign? Well, there is some debate about how much help this level of microtargeting does help. It won’t help you convince someone that your healthcare plan is better than the other guy’s, but it can definitely help you know where to advertise. Microtargeting is business tool that has just recently been noticed in the world of political marketing, something I choose to think of as social marketing. It’s on the rise, and we are going to see more and more in the coming election. Read the full article here.

Explaining online politics through classic rock « Alex Kellner

Explaining online politics through classic rock « Alex Kellner
This was an interesting post by my good buddy Alex, and I just thought I would share it.
 

Perez Hilton Doez Charity

I read Perez Hilton practically every day. I’m a sucker for celebrity gossip, and I am not embarrassed to admit it. And Perez Hilton is the best that I’ve found. I ♥ Perez. But recently (actually, I don’t know how recently, but I’ve noticed it recently) he’s been putting links to donations pages for charities and non-profit organizations. I love the fact that he is doing that, because Perez Hilton gets a lot of site traffic. According to Alexa.com, a website that gives information on websites including traffic, and lists the sites that gets the most traffic in certain countries, Perez Hilton is the 759th most popular website in the US (which doesn’t sound very high, but it really is when you think about how many people are on the internet during the day, and how many different sites they could be visiting). So, I’m glad that he’s posted these links to charities and invited people to donate. Someone made a comment on one post of his where he listed a charity that it was wrong of him to do that because people that go to his site don’t want to dig through the clutter for the gossip. I’ve decided to reply right here to that comment. Ok, A) the website is not hard to navigate. It’s not as if every other link or post is a link to a charity instead of some bit of salacious gossip. I’ve noticed that it is about one a day, maybe two. B) With the constant influx of information, an hour after it’s been posted, the charity link has already been moved to the second page. You’re not missing out on your daily fix. C) It’s a great thing that he’s trying to make that audience aware that there are people out there who need help, and not just the celebers who party too hard. There are real people out there struggling with chronic illness, people struggling with hunger, battling to keep a roof over their head, animals being brutalized, people in other countries being tortured and killed, a rapidly growing hole in our ozone layer, and tons of other things. So, thank you, Perez for doing that. A lot of people appreciate that you are trying to call attention to the fact that there are real problems in the world that we can actually do something about.
That being said, I have a little knowledge of that world. The world of online fundraising for non-profit organizations. And the audience that reads Perez’s website is not the audience that makes donations. It’s not that they don’t care, although research has shown that fewer of them do than older generations, but rather that they don’t have the money to donate. The younger people are, the less likely they are to donate, that’s something that makes sense even if you aren’t in the industry. The demographic of people who read Perez Hilton are under 35, web users, and generally female. Not in the “likely to donate” category. Non-profit organizations who fundraise online know that, and they don’t spend a whole lot of time trying to raise money from them. What’s important about what Perez is doing is cultivation. While his readers today are young, college age people who use any spare cash to buy groceries and pay down college loans, they won’t always be. Eventually they will be in that target audience for donors. By being exposed to these organizations now, the organizations have the opportunity to cultivate a relationship with them so that when they do decide to donate, they are donating to their organization. That is the advantage that Perez is giving these charities. Now we can only hope that it will stick.

April Fools’ Day!

April 1st, today, is April Fools’ Day. I don’t think I ever pranked anyone on April Fools. If I did, I don’t remember. Did anyone prank you? Or better yet, did you prank anyone?
Here’s some news for the day. So, my alma mater is Oklahoma State University. They don’t have a great football team, but they have (in the past) done well in basketball, making it to the Final Four at least once while I was a student there. That was under head coach Eddie Sutton (and his infamous scowl). Well, two years ago, Eddie Sutton retired, and his son Sean was named the new head coach. And today, there was a statement released that Sean was being asked to leave. Or, being fired. Whichever you prefer. Poor Sean. It’s true, the Cowboys haven’t done nearly as well since Eddie Sutton retired. Was Sean given the chance to prove himself? He did have two years. Geez, that’s got to be embarrassing. Wonder what they are going to be talking about at the next family reunion. Ah, I don’t mean to be harsh. But I was disappointed with my Cowboys this year. Football and basketball.
Then again….it is April Fools Day. Is it possible someone is making a big joke? How uncool is it to fire someone on April 1st? How do they know if you are being serious?

Stop-loss clarification

To clarify, the reasons behind my stop-loss comment are that we enjoy freedoms that others don’t, and simply because we do enjoy those freedoms, we feel it is our duty to force them on other countries. Some of the anti-American sentiments in other counrties derive from this. However, it is my belief that we are fighting in Iraq because Bush II is fighting his Daddy’s battle. I am 100% in support of the soldiers who are overseas, but I think it is time to bring them home. No one can describe what a win is in this war that we are fighting, therefore lets stop losing soldiers.

Stop-Loss

I saw the movie Stop-Loss this weekend. I haven’t heard great reviews about the movie so far, but I’ll have to say the movie was horrifying, but an excellent example of free speech. It’s about the stop-loss in the US military, which is an involuntary extension of a service member’s enlistment contract in order to retain them beyond the normal end of service term. It was created by the US Congress after the Vietnam War as a part of title 10 of the US Code. It is included in (fine print) in an enlistment contract signed by service members, stating that “in the event of war, my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six (6) months after the war ends, unless the enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States.” I agree with Senator Kerry when he says this is a “backdoor draft.” First of all, this movie just served to remind me that how much we need to get out of Iraq. As we were exiting the theatre, I heard a conversation between a few people discussing whether the movie was “anti-American” or not. My personal opinion is that it is the exact opposite of anti-American. The movie, which was produced by MTV Films, is supposed to be informative about stop-loss, but it has underlying tones of resistance. Ok, more than underlying tones. The movie follows the journey of one staff Sergeant who was stop-lossed and his struggle to avoid going back into combat. There are alot of people in the country who are against the war in Iraq (myself included) and are ready to bring our soldiers home. This movie is an expression against the war, specifically against the stop-loss that is being imposed on soldiers who’ve already done their tour. And as for the anti-American comments, the movie is an example of free speech. One of the reasons we’ve been dragged into this battle is because in this country we can get away with expressing differing opinions without punishment opinions that differ than that of our government without fear of retribution. An organization that I strongly support has done alot of work in opposing the stop-loss, and I would suggest to anyone who is curious to visit their site and learn more about the work that they are doing. Sign up to receive their emails, because Iraq Vets Against the War really is a great organization.

This is how we do it!

Oh, I couldn’t resist with my title today. Today, there was an article in the NYT called Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On. I love it! Granted, I am studying political management, and I work online, so maybe I am a little bias. But ok, here goes. This article talks about how young voters get the news. Online. Not only do we get our news online, but we pass it along online. I (sample of one, yes, I know) watch local news in the morning before I go to work, mostly for weather and traffic updates, but I pick up a few pieces of national news. Then, during the day, I read the NYTimes, the Washington Post, and I peruse Perez Hilton (which is a guilty pleasure). If If I have time during lunch or something, I will check out the Ft. Worth Star Telegram to see what is going on where my family lives, and once a week I try to read The Stranger. Most of my blog postings come from something in one of these publications. Anyway, the point is, these are the places I get my news. That and from friends. I probably get at least 10 urls from friends via instant messenger or email a day. That doesn’t even count blog postings that I read along the way. According to the article, there was a study done by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press with a “broad look at how media was consumed for this campaign cycle.” Not surprisingly, the results were that more than 50% of the respondents over the age of 50 reported watching local news regularly for campaign news. 39% of 30 to 49 year olds report watching local news for campaign news, but less than 25% of people under the age of 30 report that they do. 66% of web users under the age of 30 report that they use social networking sites, and less than 20% of older users do. 40% of young people have watched a candidate speech, interview, commercial, or debate online. Presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary R. Clinton, and John McCain all have profiles on Facebook where they have numerous friends, friends who translate into young supporters. It isn’t even a new concept if you think about it. It goes back to the old school idea of “word-of-mouth” marketing, or buzz marketing. When we see something interesting online, we share it. In the online world, we call that “going viral.” I am glad that someone is figuring out that online is the place to go to reach young voters. I think we are going to see a big(ger) turnout of young voters in November, and it is because the use of the net for campaigning has expanded immensely in the past few years. I can go to Youtube right now and find a video of Chelsea Clinton’s appearance at Butler University if I wanted to. And share it with a few friends. I’m glad to see young people getting excited about it. Let’s just hope that translates into votes.

Quidditch in a Muggle World

I am a pretty big Harry Potter fan. I love going to see the movies when they come out, and I have all of the books. I stayed up all night the evening that Deathly Hallows was released because I wanted to know how it ended. JK Rowling’s world of Hogwarts and the wizarding community is imaginative, creative, and so detailed that her writing gives you the opportunity to get lost in Harry Potter’s world. Anyway, couldn’t help but get excited when I stumbled across this article from The Daily Princetonian, Princeton University’s daily paper. Apparently, a group of Middlebury students decided back in the Fall of 2005 that they wanted to bring the famous wizarding sport Quidditch to the “muggle” (or non-magic, for those of you that haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books) world. So, they formed their own Quidditch team. If you haven’t read Harry Potter, I’ll briefly explain Quidditch. It is a sport played on broomsticks while flying through the air. There are 7 players on each team: a keeper, 2 beaters, 3 chasers, and a seeker. There are four balls in Quidditch: The Quaffle, which is about the size of a volleyball that the chasers attempt to throw through one of three hoops stationed at either end of the “pitch.” The hoops are guarded by the keeper. There are two bludgers in Quidditch. Bludgers are two bowling ball sized demon balls that zoom around the pitch with a mind of their own. The beaters keep track of these two with the help of bats (that look like cricket bats). The final ball in Quidditch is called the golden snitch. It is a small ball about the size of a plum with wings that flies around very fast. It is the seeker’s job (Harry Potter’s position) to find and catch the snitch, which ends the game. So, you can see that several of these things might cause some problems for the students seeking to play Quidditch. Well, Middlebury attempted to tweak the game so they could play while keeping as close to the original as possible. For example, the players are required to play with a broomstick between their legs at all times. That sounds…challenging. The snitch it not a ball at all, but instead a person dressed in yellow who runs crazily around the basketball court-sized patch of grass. He (or she) has a black sock dangling from his yellow costume, and is effectively “caught” when the sock has been captured. Somewhat like flag football.
Anyway, as I said, this article was published today in Princeton’s Daily paper because Middlebury has taken Quidditch on the road. In an attempt to spread their version of the wizard sport to other universities, Middlebury has been traveling to other schools and scheduling games. They’ve played Bard, Penn, and now Princeton, and have scheduled games against Columbia and Vassar. Apparently, ESPN, CBS News, and MTVU all made an appearance at the Middlebury vs. Princeton Quidditch match. Can we expect to see more schools forming their own Quidditch teams? I for one think this is hilarious. If my school had a Quidditch team…well, I probably wouldn’t play, but I would definitely go watch. Here is a clip I found on YouTube from a Middlebury Quidditch Tournament:

Life is good. When I stumble upon stories like this, they leave me smiling the rest of the day.
Oh, did everyone hear that they have decided to make the final installment of the Harry Potter movies/books, Deathly Hallows into two movies? Hooray, the fun will last just a little longer!