Happy Holidays

This is quite possibly the coolest holiday card of the season...not only is it clever and fun - it's interactive and allows the user to make their own greeting and send it to their friends ... :)

www.rga.com/holiday

The power of ME

Time Magazine just named me the person of the year. How fantastic to have my power as a digital agent (professionally and personally) validated! How equally frightening since marketers have already begun to conspire to turn this back around to bite us in the arse (think Lonely Girl and the less public deceptions of fake consumer feedback).

Still, I revel in this acknowledgement…how’s them apples Chray?

Personal Un-interaction

My friend recently revealed that he plays Uno online…via his Xbox. (“Uno on Xbox?” I asked perplexed. “It’s not just for killing things,” he replied). I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this. One, because it seems almost unmanly (not killing things and all); and two, because of my experience with Uno traveling through Europe. It was an entirely social experience – and while playing online is social…it’s not in person. Playing over beers with friends in a café in Sevilla seems very different from playing with strangers online.

It strikes me how much of our interactions are social, yet not in person. Doesn’t this inherently make them unsocial?? With the blow up of possible interactions – isn’t it ironic that we use these avenues to actually NOT deal with people.

The gears of communication

I have been remiss in my blogging. This has entirely stressed me out over the last couple of weeks, especially as my nemesis, Chray, was so quick to point this out.

In any case, as I stressed about this this morning, it struck me that as the proliferation of all our communication gear has exploded – communication itself has actually become poorer. Meaning the means to get the message out is there…only the messaging itself it totally lost. Perhaps not lost, but not necessarily thoughtfully executed. I’ve touched on this before in the discussion of Bill Joy and it’s been an idea at the core of Chray’s incessant soap boxing about blogger writing quality.

As the means to get the message out has become easier and easier, we’ve slowly but surely taken for granted what we’re actually saying. We see this across all mediums, TV in particular (do I need to get into a discussion here over Fox news?). We have become a society of throwing out messages without thought of consequence…as if to say communication for the sake of communication – and I realize you’re following me down a rabbit hole – but is that communication at all?

Truth is I began thinking about this not on a societal, lofty plain this morning, but on a personal one. How the rapidness of today’s communication means has diminished the ability to truly relate to and understand what we are thinking and feeling. Example – how easy it is to fire off an email vs. the time it takes to patiently hand write a letter. Following this line of thinking, I realized that I have a dear friend whose handwriting I have never seen…following that thought, I asked myself, do I really know this person at all?

Many tangents this morning…but something to chew on this week.

A billion served?
Does anyone else find it ironic that McDonald's-Japan gaveaway MP3 players infected with a spyware virus? Come to think of it...does anyone else find it weird that an MP3 player can exist on a cup?

I heart webisodes
I love that more and more webisodes are rising to the top of online muck. They are little nibbles of creativity with video...I especially enjoy the ones that have nothing to do with an advertisement. Here comedian Demetri Martin offers this Wes-Andersonian take on an overachiever. Check out the debut, "A Rare Condition" at clearification.com.

Google...Godzilla?

In what I can only describe as, "ya think?" Google has bought YouTube for 1.65 billion. The company's largest acquisition to date. They describe the deal as "natural":

"The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. (As quoted in AdAge)

Does this give anyone else pause? I am a Google fan - and have been since before the Google bandwagon went locomotive over the Internet landscape. But I'm starting to feel as if I've been hookwinked. It used to be that MicroSoft was the big bad. Has Google graced us with user-centric content to passify us into thinking they were on our side?

It should be worrisome to us all when one company's footprint grows so large that it blocks the sun. Godzilla never brought people flowers and presents when he came to town.

I'm suspect is all I'm saying.

September’s [ LI ] My montly list of best ofs and eceteras

Best site: www.captainsofindustry.com

Bloody hell they have cool gadgets. Where do they find the time?

Drama, Turtle, E: Last month I gave Abby Lou a Turtle – this month I give her a resounding E for taking her show on the road: Sydney, Beijing, Singapore, Frankfurt, London…all in the company of the wicked witch of Palo Alto.

Drama—To Chray for at least thinking about his resume…and for always trying to solve our differences by showing up with sporting equipment.

Best iPod Morning Shuffle: This month it’s going to Wed 19 Sep when I had the privilege of iPod-ing for the dept. Yea, I rocked it.

Jayner’s LOL: Altruistic Deshelling Really anytime Jayner’s parents make it into the blog – you can be sure it will be mentioned as a best of:

At this point, Mom jumps in: "Have dad tell you why we have 78 containers of unshelled peanuts in the cupboard."

[Camera pans back to me.]

"Uh, dad, why do we have 78 thingies of whatever on the shelf?"

Dad: "Oh. Mom and I have a one-armed squirrel that comes to the door."

Fran of the month: Fran’s been behaving herself lately…mostly, cause I’ve been busy. Never fear…she’s off to Italy this month—nothing like some Italians to bring out the crazy in Fran.

Is Pandora one of the good gals?


As those of you who know me, the proliferation of Internet radio has me waving a flag of HA HA in the face of Clear Channel. And as a Sirius subscriber, having so much music at my eardrums is pure bliss. I love the idea that the Internet grants us easy access to a plethora of musical choice. I love the idea that bands are not beholden to big corporations and a lot of money to get their music out there.

(Although – and I pause here with an irony of tangentative thought: the true age of DIY – the kind that was a lot more gritty then a myspace page, born truly great music and an ethos of questioning and challenging the status quo that I worry we will not see in this our culture anytime soon).

Where am I going with this – ah, yes, Pandora.com is the kind of Internet radio that develops its playlist based on what you already like: you tell it Death Cab for Cutie and Radiohead are your favorite bands, it plays Nada Surf and Broken Social Scene. Fantastic! When I first played with Pandora a year or so ago, not only did I love the music, but the technology of it was yummy. A big music brain playing before me.

Reading about the growing number of similar sites popping up in the paper today, I was challenged with the idea: is this good – or bad? Is it good to keep listening to music similar to music you already know? Or does that pigeon-hold you into a pattern of dullness? That is to say – by listening to things – ideas, music, words, do we prevent our brains from expanding into something new and learned? Sometimes I fear our new world has created so many silos that the experience of the big picture -we are incapable of hearing, seeing, feeling.

The Career-O-Matic

I often find myself wondering why I bother with the 60 plus work weeks…afterall we’re not saving lives here. It has always cracked me up a bit how seriously advertising and marketing companies take themselves. In any event, this digital piece by Wunderman (themselves a marketing communications company) made me realize we’re all kind of in on the joke: Career-O-Matic 3000.

Quality and access

Bill Joy, the cofounder of Sun Microsystems, is quoted in Atlantic Monthly this month dismissing the idea that online communities could provide an educational boost for America’s young people. At the center of his argument is quality – a notion I touched upon in my 11 Sep blog.

[T]he real problem is, by democratizing speech and the ability to post, we’ve lost the gradation for quality. The gradation of quality was always based on the fact that words had weight—it cost money to move them around. So there was back pressure against … junk …

Yes. I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea that everyone gets to throw their two cents into the mix and some cents, for reasons beyond my comprehension, rise to the top. There isn’t a filter for quality. And it is troubling that much of what gets posted is taken as the truth without considerable discretion.

But who employs the filter? Who decides what is publishable and what is not? Yes, with so much out there it is easy to dilute information and art and ideas – but without an open forum for these notions, we’d be headed the way of media today – consolidated and controlled by a very few. Until we reconcile quality with access, there isn’t an answer to this that isn’t elitist.

Hungry for something

It's not entirely that I have been lazy - just nothing's come across my desk for me to sink my teeth into. Check this out though for a good laugh: Flash Beer . Carlton Draught's follow up to it's famed Big Ad.

Where is the truth and who has it?

I came across an article on the film “Loose Change” this weekend. Self-funded and produced by 22-year old Dylan Avery, the film began as a screenplay about the fictional account of he and a group of friends discovering that September 11^th was not a terrorist act of violence, but rather a US government-led attack.

As Avery explains on his site, upon researching for the movie it became apparent to him that the premise may not have been fiction. Thus, he creates the documentary – which gets picked up virally and is now one of the most watched videos on the Web. From his site:

"Loose Change 2nd Edition" is the follow-up to the most provocative 9-11 documentary on the market today. This film shows direct connection between the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the United States government. Evidence is derived from news footage, scientific fact, and most important, Americans who suffered through that tragic day. IT IS EVERYONE'S DUTY TO VIEW THIS FILM!

Truth be told, I have not seen the film. And I’m not sure I want to…I have a mental block on all films related to September 11^th. But the premise got me thinking about the power of the web to spread information – all information – correct and incorrect and how it frightens me that the line shifts so often and so easily.

I don’t claim that Avery’s film is a lie. But it is disturbing me that with the vast amount of information that is disseminated each day, it is becoming harder and harder to ascertain what the truth is.

In my mind, if there was an inch of truth the film, wouldn’t major newspapers such as The New York Times be picking it up and running with it? Or would they be too scared to act on anything given the chill the FCC has spread across our media?

The Internet is a glorious thing – and content generated by ordinary people is a phenomenal infoscape of experiences. (It is also one of the first things a good marketing agency leads with on a pitch – which really needs to give you pause). What is troubling to me is that ordinary people don’t subscribe to the same code of ethics as a journalist. It’s like when a cop becomes a private eye and doesn’t have to follow the law anymore…sometimes a good thing, sometimes scary.

That’s not to say that the state of journalism is polished and pretty. It’s actually quite disappointing. Still…I keep coming back to the idea that it is a profession for a reason.

So, Mr. Avery – he may have all the good intentions in the world…at the end of the day, I cannot wrap my head around his inspiration for the movie coming from a conversation with James Gandolfini. I pretty much stop considering him a viable resource after that.

As you can tell by the tangential narration of this article – I’m still trying to figure this out.

You cannot make a case for five

Over drinks the other night, Katie shared with me her lesson to her 9^th graders – Humanities v. Science. She explained to her class that the humanities were subjects related to ideas and culture – more of the gray matter. Whereas the sciences dealt with fact and trying to get to the truth of the matter. This was her example:

If you’re in math class and your teacher asks you to add 4+2 – and you don’t get six. Then you know that you are wrong. You cannot make a case for five.

You cannot make a case for five.

Maybe it was the cadence with which she spoke, or maybe the very beautiful simplicity with which she explained – but that phrase hit me. It started to transcend so much more than what she was relaying. It began to permeate into my recent thinking on reality v. virtual life. The virtual life, for all its magnificent imagination and creativity – it does not equal six. It will always be five just by its nature of being virtual.

It feels like it measures up and on every level that feeling begins to convince you that it is indeed real…only it’s not six.

Madden NFL 2007 recently came out – with a whole lotta hoopla in the gaming world. Jeff MacGregor, wrote a fantastic column on this in SI 21 August 2006:

“Take the violence out of football, erase the pain given and taken, reduce the grunt and the struggle to the push of a button, eliminate the magnificent inconsistencies of the human heart and it’s capacity for courage or cowardice, and the game, the war, is no more than fast-twitch exercise – a battle fought without personal cost. It is cause without effect, a victory only for technology and opposable thumbs.”

You can win at Madden 2007 – but you’ll never feel the beating, you’ll never taste the blood and you’ll never sweat the win.

That’s a whole lot less than six.

This translates on a personal level with me. I seem to continually be in a pattern of making a case for five. I can whip you up a fantastic story of love and romance – I can write words that will make you quiver and blush – but my words do not make a relationship come alive.

Still, truth be told, I am the Atticus Finch of number 5.

August's [ LI ] My montly list of best ofs and eceteras


Best site: If I was a thoughtful woman I'd say it was We are the Web...but I can't always keep up the charade that I am smart...this month - it's going to Snakes On A Plane.

(Pause, as I go to verify the link)

huh? wha?

They've taken the customizable Samuel L. Jackson message...the one that Mas and Bread played with over and over again last week (my department is really a glorified Kindergarten). In all fairness, having Samuel say your name is pretty fantastic. Although how would I know since why on earth would a marketing company add "Elisa" to their list. Adam, Chris, Timothy, Anna...I hope you know how lucky you are.

Drama, Turtle, E: I have a couple to hand out this month:
Turtle - goes to Abby Lou for always being gracious at the sign of adversity.

E - goes to Ev, for always managing to keep me upright and moving forward. plus it's an E and we're in a battle over the nickname.

Drama - another shout out to DMHj, for worrying that he wouldn't be fast enough and then coming out with the best time in his race. Knucklehead.

and finally a coveted Vince to Katie Crosby for the line "you cannot make a case for five."

Best iPod Morning Shuffle: Has to be The Chemical Brothers. Entering work to a beat and "Here we go!" - nice.

Jayner’s LOL: House of Marbles

"Yo, MARBLE GAMES COMPENDIUM author: Uh, um, Sir Isaac Newton called;
He fucking HATES you, man."

Fran of the month: Spending time with her on her birthday meant hanging out with her gang of ladies...I kicked some butt at dominoes during their golden girls gone wild weekend. Plus, seeing all of them trying to figure out how to use their cell phones...really, are you kidding me? You can't make this stuff up.

The all and mighty power of the public

As if in response to my last blog – AdAge reports today that “Consumer-written Product Reviews Increase in Importance.” According to a Jupiter Research report, “48 percent of online shoppers find it critical that retailers post reviews.” And, that the number of online shoppers who found reviews to be the most important feature doubled within a year (2005 to 2006).

The reference to a report is really a press release for the importance of the site Bazaarvoice.com – but it’s of a greater significance to us as web enthusiasts because it proves our voices are important. They are powerful. In essence we trust each other more than we trust the media or the corporations that profit from our purchases.

What this also gives credit to is the idea that there is a collective voice that is organic and uncontrolled – or rather it identifies that there is the potential for a voice that cannot be corrupted. It is pure…I pause now because I realize that just as marketing companies have latched onto MySpace to launch their wares…they will soon find a way to buy those voices. Ugh, I hate being so pessimistic.

While I live and breathe the Internet will not go the way of radio

As some of you know, I made a little movie about media consolidation and what it did to radio and thus music (America:a broken record). And as Chray just said to me today, "How can you make your little indie film about consolidation and then want to go to Best Buy?" His perpetual effort at dogging me not withstanding - you can imagine my anxiety when I read about the efforts of big telecom and media companies now putting the Internet in their sights.

Their goal - to begin charging companies (small, large, whatever) to download their Fspaces faster then others. What does this mean? Essentially large businesses like say Google would be in the fast lane - while the sites that get built and nutured in garages and living rooms across the country would be in the lane behind the tractor that is for some godforsaken reason on the highway.

As savetheinternet.com explains: Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment -- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on what site pays them the most. If the public doesn't speak up now, our elected officials will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign.

What makes the web such a beautiful creation is that it is free and accessible to everyone. That it is created by more than just a corporation. It is what it is because it is NOT controlled by a mere few.

I need to write about this more indepthly and admit that I'm being lazy right now - but visit wearetheweb.org and watch the video to start getting your head in the game.

Because yes, it is game time.

Like a really funny joke

I’ve been meaning to write about this for awhile, but have been away and what not (it was Fran’s birthday – go FRAN!). My lunch with BJ today sparked my motivation.

So Agency.com turned the advert world on its watercooler heels when it launched its viral video on YouTube. The video is Agency.com's team effort at pitching SUBWAY for its interactive business. And as nearly every ad-blog-newsletter-banter will tell you – this is either a brilliant move…or a plain splinter in the foot.

The video documents the team’s efforts at coming up with “big ideas” and demonstrating their “passion” for interactive media. It includes one-on-one's with the team, as well as footage of them interviewing people on the street about their SUBWAY experience. It also includes a particularly funny segment on the team members working at SUBWAY. Here’s also where I find myself in a pessimistic predicament – anyone who has an engagement ring the size of Texas is not keen on working at SUBWAY – no matter how much you tell me it will be fun.

What makes the video even more disconcerting (in that kind of I'm embarrassed way) is the level of passion we are being told the team has. If you have passion – do you really need to tell us about it- or might you just let the production of the pitch speak for itself. Lines like “When we roll we roll big” or “We can pull it off no matter what” may be true in reality…but in a reality that is not in front of a video camera (aw, the conundrum).

What’s brilliant (for my purposes) is when an Agency.com team member asks a person on the street, “Do you forward things to your friends? Like in email?” And she replies, “Maybe if it’s something really funny, like a really funny joke.”

So – is this a really funny joke? Or one of the coolest marketing pitch ideas? Really, it would be much more realistic an undertaking had there been a bizdev person arguing against such a high-cost production, a producer looking at the time constraints (what with their other half-dozen projects) and a creative director begging the question – but really, couldn’t we just look like fools.

I caught up with Theresa-NYC this weekend in San Francisco. As always, we were writing the same page of our storybook. She told me she’s decided to change the name her friends call her by – as part of her reinvention of self. It kills me how parallel our narrations find themselves. I told her about my own fascination with re-branding and my thoughtful dabbling into the launch of Cybele. Now it’s as if Theresa is my own little beta. I can't wait to see how it works out.

As much as I re-brand myself in my head, it doesn’t seem to come out in reality enough. Perhaps it is that I’m gun-shy to head into production…not sure. But making a statement like, I am now Cybele, that offers a product-promise doesn’t it? Is that what it will take to get me to see and present myself differently? Not sure. There’s too much headspace to deal with on that one I think. Maybe I just need to hire a really good publicist.

Blue Bele

To answer the late night over a few beers question – if you were a superhero who would you be? Check out the SciFi chanel’s HeroMachine, where you can “create your very own champion of justice.”

Built to promote the new Stan Lee reality show, Who Wants to Be a Superhero? Users choose a body and head type and then add clothing and accessories to design their alter-ego. Disappointing is that the body type is only Barbie and Ken…how blasé. I started going for a cat theme - but then got girl and thought the blue would look nicer.

Anthropology on a Saturday Night


I was at the bar WaterWorks last night…yes, not the typical place to find e…but in honor of Alison’s 25^th I’d suck up my self-admitted snobbery. Where to begin? The fact that my preconceived notions of stereotypes gone awry were so right on scared me…no literally I was scared.

Taking a walk around the Disneyland of debauchery was like an anthropological lesson in the world according to MTV. It was fascinating to say the least.

Seeing as our daily work is creating experiences I think we were all a little sponge-like. Of particular interest were the large video screens with silhouettes of varying women dancing. Naked. Well at first there was some debate as to whether they were clothed or not…but judging by the jiggling and at times the less than smooth area around their pelvises, we settled on, yep.

It didn’t matter whether they were there or not (was it being streamed in?) Ben’s transfixing stare proved that such a question was moot. What was painfully apparent to me was that being in a mash-up world of virtual spring break and nascar tailgating is just not a place you want to be unless you have many margaritas and some good friends.

Entering a virtual world that is actually reality...always uncomfortable.

LOL - no really - LOL

An ad for Smirnoff...
or the best viral video in a super long time: Watch Tea Partay

Shout out to JMW-DIG

In honor of my most esteemed and overworked cohorts - NBC's site for The Office is an excellent example of how to use the digital space to market a product...in this case a TV show. They've got webisodes, a blog, ringtones, games and according to Creativity (AdCritic's email newsletter) have just launched a suite of mobile games:

"Wasteketball, table-top golf and other leisurely office diversions can now be enjoyed on the privacy of your cell phone, safe from the disapproving eyes of your boss."

AdCritic says, The Office Games is currently available for download on Verizon and Cingular network phones, with Sprint and T-Mobile following suit in September.

July’s [ LI ]

My montly list of best ofs and eceteras.

Best site: http://www.marmitesqueezy.com/ Live in London and Marmite becomes a variable for why there is a pond that separates us.

Drama, Turtle, E: I’m giving out a drama to DMHj for his ride up the Wachuset in 90+ heat this month…his pursuit to prove he’s not as old as he thinks he is lives on. Beautifully shaven legs and all.

Best iPod Morning Shuffle: Has to go to The National rock block.

Jayner’s LOL: Matties's Mom

Followed by the exchange:

“What do you Wiffiti?”

“ I wish my friends knew my name”

See: What do you Wiffiti?

Fran of the month: (because I need a place to record this stuff)

Growing tired of replacing her kitchen screen, and fuming from the idea that a squirrel would get the better of her (it’s like Bill Murray v. the groundhog in Martha Stewart’s world – no exaggeration), Fran decided that she would trap the devious squirrel and move him to another neighborhood. I scoffed at this plan, as the undercurrents had surely not been thought through – clearly there were egos at play. But she forged on. Within 48 hours she had caught 9 squirrels. NINE. Despite my, enough already, you are getting greedy – you are the step-mother nature and this will not end well – she hmmphed and said "well, we’ll see.”

And then she caught a skunk.

That put an end to operation critter-transplant.

Me and My iPod

Ever feel like technology is effing with you? Personal gadgets know what you are thinking in some sort of AI gone awry episode?

I am convinced that my iPod is in tune (no pun intended) with my moods and mental ticks. To test this, I’ve switched it from my NPR podcast to music shuffle when I get out of the T each morning. Since I am on my way to work, it’s the magic 8-ball for how my day will go.

I have been very impressed with how many times it has decided that Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor is an appropriate album to pick from. A highlight also included The Magnetic Fields, I Need a New Heart (which makes me do the snoopy dance inside).

This morning, however, it convinced me that it is somehow sucking in my mental vibes while sitting in my pocket. It played a rock block of The National. Now this may not seem like a big deal to you until I admit the following: I have a mad crush on a boy. (The kind where it's an anomoly to not be thinking about him.) And just the other night we were talking about The National. And last night I was planning on getting him one of their albums but got caught at work until after 10pm. So imagine my “Holy Cow” this morning.

I mean really, imagine it.

Not one song – TWO.

I’m just saying.

Ignorance is Relative

Tonight I took a walk with one of my best friends. He had finally read my blog and wanted to know more. Besides wanting to know more about blogging itself (and suggesting that he start a blog to tell people not to read mine - cheeky boy) he specifically wanted to discuss my Second Life post. He was confused. The conversation went something like this:

"I didn't get it."

"What do you mean you didn't get it?"

"I didn't get it."

"Like you didn't get what I wrote, or you didn't get the concept."

"The concept - I didn't understand what it was. I didn't get it."

What followed was me explaining Second Life and my post on programs that encourage a virtual life and every sentence or so he saying:

"But it's not real..."

"Right. [Moving on with explanation] And then they..."

"But it's not real."

"Right. So it...".

"But it's not real."

"Right, still they participate because to them it is real..."

"But it's not."

God love him in his ignorance of the vast nature and wonder of the digital landscape. I do appreciate his firm stance in reality.

Look Ma - I'm famous!

What's funny to me is actually being a participant in a viral marketing campaign without actively thinking it up (hey, this is what I try to do for a living.)

So Jayners, because who else would put me on YouTube - decided her birthday evening would be a great time to make this little ditty to promote Wiffiti: What do you Wiffiti?

I should mention here that not only is Wiffiti cool it's the wave of billboards coming to your neighborhood...and also if my boss-boss is reading this - we should get one for the lobby (her name is Joan, once you watch the video you'll understand how excellent this is).

In any case - check out Wiffiti and check out me in the starring role of LocaModa's PSA.

Dinner with the boys

One way to learn the cool stuff is to go to dinner with your homeys...ok, really your programmers. This is what I learned:

There is this thing called Second Life,"a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents." According to its website it is inhabited by 340,141 people from around the globe. People actually put up hard cash to "build" what they want and at some point sell it -- like thousands of dollars worth of property and digitally created possessions -- which they then some how sell on eBay (still unclear about this, but it seems their virtual currency, the linden dollar can somehow be exchanged for real currency).

The fact that people are shelling out a whole lot of money to live in an imaginary place, and buy imaginary things is blowing my mind. Apparently there was even a case of one avatar creating gangs to go rob the other virtual peeps...and when Second Life deleted their account they sued them...in the REAL WORLD. Confused? Yea, me too.

Second learned thing:
There are people who create a virtual airport in their living room and help fly in other virtual people...who are virtually flying planes. They go home and literally help others get to their "airport"...or go home and spend hours flying to...say..Denver.

Not sure where all this time comes from, but are you kidding? Sitting in your living room telling someone else that airstrip 2 is ready for landing....and not referring to porn? Don't follow. Are we that jaded by the real world that we need to create such elaborate fantasies?? And who in their right mind would WANT to be a traffic controller on their downtime!

Still nothing but love for the boys.

iBaseball

SI reports this week that Rockies first baseman, Todd Helton, uses his iPod to review his hits from his eight major league seasons. He sorts them by month, opposing team, type of hit and pitcher. He says he watches the appropriate clips before a game as a way to remember how a pitcher pitched him, and to get himself in the zone by watching successsful at bats.

Helton's teammates are now picking up the system and having the video coordinators load up their iPods with clips - and management is beginning to get in the habit of downloading video on potential draft picks. (We're not far off from a time where every employer will have its own, private podcasting system).

It's interesting that athletes are often the ones whose use of technology pushes it into new directions. (And yes, the irony is not lost on me given their push of science as well).

The Reinvention of Self
So everyone talks about reinventing themselves at one moment or another…but what about a re-branding. Here’s where I’m at. I don’t know where I’m at. I don’t even really know how I got here. It’s one thing to come that realization and quite another to do something about it – so epiphany – what if I do something about that..what if I REBRAND myself. Instead of Elisa or E…what if I become Cybele. Would people look at me differently? Would I look at myself differently?

Part of the problem of reinventing yourself is the reinvention always involves some amount of baggage…what if I did away with that by changing my personal company. Here’s what Cybele means, here’s her tagline here’s her methodology, here I am. Would I be better able to accept and get behind her?? OK, I know we’re talking in Sybil tones here…and yes, Cybele is close in name to that – but let that go and think about it. To think of yourself as a new company – well, it’s kinda freeing. I mean on a daily basis I think about how to offer companies a new brand – how to re-launch themselves into the marketplace. But despite the fact that I do this on a daily basis – I rarely apply it to me.

It just got me thinking…what would that re-launch be? How would it be communicated? What ROI would it offer? I’m just saying…I’m good at what I do in the workplace…perhaps I need to apply that thinking into my personal life?