My sister and her husband are vegetarians and brought a tofurky for Thanksgiving dinner this year…
I think the family holiday mash-up video is going to be a new tradition.
Archives For November 2008
When narrowing down options to buy our first home, my wife and I focused primarily on century-old homes. I grew up in an 100 year-old house built by my great great grandfather, and both of us have a heart for the charm of hand craftsmanship, unique floorplans, built-ins and yes, those precious original hardwood floors.
So when we moved into our 1890 home three months ago, refinishing those floors was one of our top priorities. Last week my Dad came up from Florida, and the two of us spent nearly four nonstop days sanding, staining, varnishing and touching up.
Here are the results:
Mainfloor Bedroom
Before:
Sanding:
After:
Living Room
Before:
Sanding:
After:
Kitchen
Before/Sanding:
Sanded:
Dad varnishing behind the refrigerator:
After:
Stairs/Hallway
After:
Bathroom Floor (“Greg the Plumber” Part 2)
Before:
After:
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=95dcafe4-960c-41eb-afb4-453f95c2671b)
Last night I spoke to Rachael Marret’s Minnesota College of Art and Design (MCAD) marketing class on the topic of corporate reputation management.
I shared the developing case study of the Motrin Moms campaign crisis, the four-stage reputation recovery model (Rescue, Rewind, Restore, Recover) and an overview of how President-Elect Obama used social media to build a nation of advocates who helped shape his reputation (oh, and help get him elected).
It’s important to remember no reputation is bulletproof, each crisis and recovery has its own rhythm and you can’t just leave reputation up to the roll of the dice.
Also, if you aren’t out there participating in the social mediasphere, you have no ability to help shape your online persona or engage with people talking about your brand.
Here’s what you get if you Google “Greg Swan.” It still bugs me that these three folks are still crowding into my results.
Had a great time at Social Media Breakfast MSP at Best Buy HQ with Jeff Pulver this morning.
Check out my personal tag line and what people tagged me with!
Thanks to Rick Mahn for the “Take My Picture” tag. Classic. I actually have a big fear of my picture on the internet, and only recently started putting my actual photo even on this blog (ex. header), figuring at least I’m controlling it.
Jeff Pulver took this shot of me, actually:
Here’s Jeff’s impromptu presentation on how this all got started (thanks to Mike Keliher for the video!)
Not that I agree with the content, but this is a phenomenal example of grassroots in action.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SPECIAL TIMES EDITION BLANKETS U.S. CITIES, PROCLAIMS END TO WAR
Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out
that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
come to an end.
If, that is, they happened to read a “special edition” of today’s New
York Times.
In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million
papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged
pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass
them out on the street.
Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives including the
establishment of national health care, the abolition of corporate
lobbying, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s, and, of course, the end of the
war.
The paper, an exact replica of The New York Times, includes
International, National, New York, and Business sections, as well as
editorials, corrections, and a number of advertisements, including a
recall notice for all cars that run on gasoline. There is also a
timeline describing the gains brought about by eight months of
progressive support and pressure, culminating in President Obama’s “Yes
we REALLY can” speech. (The paper is post-dated July 4, 2009.)
“It’s all about how at this point, we need to push harder than ever,”
said Bertha Suttner, one of the newspaper’s writers. “We’ve got to make
sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do.
After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to start
imagining heaven.”
Not all readers reacted favorably. “The thing I disagree with is how
they did it,” said Stuart Carlyle, who received a paper in Grand
Central Station while commuting to his Wall Street brokerage. “I’m all
for freedom of speech, but they should have started their own paper.”
“We’re part of this struggle to legitimize the future of journalism.” – Chuck Olsen, co-founder of The Uptake, as part of his ongoing live piece about colleague Tom Elko being denied admittance to a Coleman press conference. If you’re quick, you can watch it live here.
New marketing blog posts today:
Social Studies: I Want My Obama Headlines (to hoard in the basement)
Perfect Porridge: Perfect Porridge Indy Band Marketing Tips: SXSW
I’d like to thank my colleague Mary Elizabeth, who made this day possible.
For everyone else, if you send me a picture of my name written in, I will buy you a coffee.
I bought a house two months ago. One of the former owners worked at a greenhouse and has built up quite the garden in the backyard, complete with cucumbers, green peppers, grapes and myriad flowers, plants, etc.
I’ve spent more than 10 combined hours hacking it all down to get ready for winter, and I promise you anything that doesn’t come up on its own next spring is NOT getting replanted.
One of the fun parts of buying the home of people who’ve lived there 20+ years is the adventure of discovering long-lost treasures. Every time I hack into a bush, tree or clump of flower stems, I unearth hidden bounty!
Yesterday I discovered a small plastic box filled with ancient Hot Wheels. Earlier this week I discovered this creepy frog planter thing under a giant overgrown bush.
Then there was this treasure — some sort of metallic flower windmill thing bured under a big bush (note: I have no idea about plant names, so they are either bushes, flowers or flower bushes). This one has sharp edges, so will probably need to go.
And we can’t forget the super classy toilet flower planter.
Former owners told us this is where the original outhouse used to be and warned us not to dig around it much. I think we’ll just leave it until spring.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=e1b85553-ce97-405d-8dfd-75bf2ea6e384)
Today I posted the second post in a series of Perfect Porridge-endorsed independent band marketing tips.
