Help! I'm on Yelp!

There has been a monster created, justsoyaknow.

Recent reviews by Monique V.

What's this?

I happen to be a fairly opinionated consumer and Yelp is tailored for my kin -- to "share our experiences" in hopes of benefiting potential customers of restaurants, hotels, spas, etc. However, this outlet also creates a monster in that it promotes me spending more time on the Internet writing and contributing to public forums. I have a Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Blogger (obviously), BRMC FanPage, Pandora, and now Yelp account. I've virtually abandoned MySpace (my About Me consists of "Remove Profile" in hopes one day the MySpace people will do away with my page) yet have continued joining social media sites. I can sit here and fuss about it all but the fact of the matter is--I love it.

June?

June.

The month passed and this blog remained bereft of an entry.

In commemoration of the ghostlike month, I decided to run the Google Test on "June" and pay homage to the very month I neglected.

A personal fave: June Carter Cash

Flaming June by Lord Frederick Leighton

Bill Nye on CNN? Brilliant.

Stumbling upon this made me about as happy as seeing an elderly couple holding hands on a Sunday afternoon.
The devastation in the Gulf of Mexico continues to grow and has left everyone in a state of, "Wow, that's horrible... is there really anything we can do?"
CNN answered this with the absolute BEST solution: Hire Bill Nye the Science Guy to provide insight as to what needs to be done.

This made my month.

Good Things

"All Good Things Must Come To An End."

I disagree.
We were told this as kids at the end of a long day at the fair grounds or Chuck E. Cheese, as our parents found themselves at the end of their energy rope.

This adage needs to be recycled and replaced with
"All Bad Things Must Come To An End."

The truly good things in life never end. Sure, the sun may set on a particularly great day and the "great day" has come to an end. However, the memories and warm feelings from this day will never leave. Think about the small experiences, such as a particularly delicious bowl of ice cream. "All Good Things Must Come To An End?" No. The privilege of having experienced the taste of the most delicious bowl of ice cream will never leave.

Let's allow the bad things to come to an end. Experiencing a bad day where it feels more like a nightmare than real life--we all get those. The fact of the matter is, these days will eventually end and the Red Sea will be parted.

If you have had the privilege to experience something good in your life, be grateful.
The majority of people in this world have not been fortunate enough to experience whatever it is that you experienced. Life itself is a gift, so enjoy. The good things in life will never end, but rather continue as fond memories to be appreciated for years to come.


The bad things can end if you allow them to. Don't let them overstay their welcome.

Home

Home is where the heart is.

Vault Door.

This is the photo that originally caught my attention.

This is the original photo.



















I'm always intrigued by photography. I think my favorite part of photography is how a person can dictate what is included (and also, what is left out). The banner (top image) was the original culprit of my interest - a cross-section view of a vault door in b&w with added focus to accentuate each lever.

I followed my nose and stumbled upon the original photograph (second image) which included a larger portrayal of the vault door. I was surprised to find this, after having been satisfied with the smaller section shown in the first picture I found. This made me wonder: am I better off having seen the whole door? Or was it more satisfying to have seen just a glimpse of it.

This line of thinking applies in all things we do. Sometimes things seem more appealing when ingesting a small glimpse or taste of it. We can appreciate a higher quantity of things when they come in small doses--that is what our culture is thriving off of at this very moment. The flip side to this? Maybe I really was better off having seen the larger picture of the vault door. The detail captured by the photographer's camera of the bottom levers/bolts/knobs/etc. is truly beautiful.

Moral of this story: Don't let the photographer behind the lens dictate what you see. If you stumble across something that truly intrigues you, do your homework and look for the bigger picture.

Failure, success & neither

" The math is magical: you can pile up lots of failures and still keep rolling, but you only need one juicy success to build a career.

The killer is the category called 'neither'. If you spend your days avoiding failure by doing not much worth criticizing, you'll never have a shot at success. Avoiding the thing that's easy to survive keeps you from encountering the very thing you're after.

And yet we market and work and connect and create as if just one failure might be the end of us. "

Seth Godin 2010 (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/)

I read this about five times upon receiving my daily dose of Seth Godin's blog (which you need to follow if you have any interest in marketing/pr/comm/buss/etc.) a few days ago.

Why is it brilliant? It reminded me of a teacher giving a student a prompt:

"Give me insight as to why people shy away from failure and in turn, shy away from success. Oh yeah, and do it in five sentences or less. You have twenty minutes."

Godin deserves an A+ for nailing the hypothetical assignment.