Author: elemonated

Hershey vs. the UK

Posted on by elemonated

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/nyregion/after-a-deal-british-chocolates-wont-cross-the-pond.html?_r=0

That’s insane. I understand Hershey has a trademark to protect, but overseas Cadbury has this lovely distinct taste to it that the ones created here simply don’t have. I can’t believe Hershey was able to block the importing of decent eating chocolate. LBB Imports, the name of the company Hershey sued, cannot sell imported candies such as Toffee Crisps, Yorkies, and Maltesers, as well as candy with American equivalents like Cadbury, Kit-Kats, and Rolos anymore, and the lawsuit was dropped. It’s like an affront against globalization though.

We’re already facing a chocolate shortage. I am now even less likely to buy Hershey products, and I originally had only really liked Kit-Kats, Reese’s Pieces, and York Peppermint Patties, none of which I purchased on anything resembling a regular basis. They may have a right to protect their trademark, but this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Wonuts & the first day of the rest of my life

Posted on by elemonated

I have just been alerted to the fact that waffle donut hybrids exist and can be had at the Waffles Cafe in Chicago. While this is wonderful, because donuts with the slight chewy and crispy texture of a waffle just goes so well with the sweetness of a donut (think cruller; those are my favorite types of donuts!) it is also terrible because I haven’t been to Chicago in years, I’m really bad at saving money, and I won’t be able to go until I have both money and time. And as the last semester of my undergraduate life is starting today, I may not have time until months from now, let alone money saved up.

Oh. Today’s the first day of the last semester of my undergraduate life.

Oh dear.

Oh.

Let’s hope this is the last semester, and I start my real adult life soon after *crossesfingers*.

A question of scent: lavender aroma promotes interpersonal trust

Posted on by elemonated

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-01-olfactory-fragrance-lavender.html

This is an interesting study, but the authors of this study write quite a bit about how the experiment could be improved upon. I wonder as well how much of the Affect Grid especially was influenced by the fairly common knowledge of the effects of lavender and peppermint.

The “trust game” used in the experiment is also known as the game made up to help demonstrate Game Theory created by John von Neumann. Business students like myself are taught this game generally within the realm of economics to the end that rational people will try to optimize their benefit, and to teach the Nash equilibrium, which is when everyone involved in a situation is making a decision that takes into account everyone else’s choices, and an individual cannot stand to benefit from changing their strategy.

Sometimes, when the game is set up so that being unified in every decision results in the highest reward, a sort of positive Nash equilibrium that wasn’t really demonstrated in Game Theory’s conception which indicated unity as a neutral state, it’s used to teach business students not to step on each other on the path to success. That working together instead of indulging our innate competitiveness, we stand to have win-win situations instead of win-lose.

Perhaps the next time I need to negotiate for something, I should put some of Caldey’s Island Lavender on and the game will swing in my favor, or maybe it will just make me the sucker, and I’ll end up risking too much as a result of my own inclusive state of mind.

this is not a poem

Posted on by elemonated

As I continue to wait for the package from Surrender to Chance whose address I botched (twice, technically, but hopefully the second one doesn’t count), and for school to begin inundating me with responsibility, and for my new job to start, and for my life as a fully-fledged adult to maybe finally begin, I sit sleepy, with too much energy to lay down, and too little energy to get up.

Wix Breakfast: Brand Personality!

Posted on by elemonated

Actually called: Wix Breakfast: Life Attracts Life- Give Your Brand a Personality Boost!  IMG_20150114_081015

School’s getting closer, so I decided to retrain myself for it by going to bed ridiculously late and waking up ridiculously early for a lecture! Yay! I found it on Eventbrite while browsing and took a chance.

And I’m really glad I did. It was a really interesting seminar, a little on the short side, full of little tips I would have never thought of, like how important emotional touchstones, big and small (“anything from a big brand experience to a tweet”), are to a customer base. There are tons of examples of these connections with consumers that I can think of. Some smaller gestures include Xbox’s (T, F) and T-Mobile’s (T, F) avid usage of their twitter handles and Facebook support apps to annual events like Krispy Kreme’s Day of the Dozens, Talk Like a Pirate, and National Doughnut Days. Everyone remembers larger political gestures like Oreo’s support for gay pride, to well-established, company-wide policies like Starbucks’ C.A.F.E Practices (they work with Conservation International to keep the farming sustainable) and TOMS Shoes policy of donating a pair of shoes for every pair purchased. All of them work to improve the perception of the brand and endear its consumers to it, while actually decreasing a little of the bad in the world at the same time. And of course, little gestures like that are key for small business owners to create their own communities; Milk Sugar Love’s content on their Facebook page regularly attempts to engage users with questions and relatable expressions.

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Charlie Hebdo

Posted on by elemonated

Created by Lucille Clerc.

Perhaps I’m just a coward, but I don’t feel right expressing ideology right now. I don’t want to impress onto anyone that I am comfortable in ignorance, that I take comfort in “The truth resists simplicity” just as Mr. Green of the vlogbrothers doesn’t take comfort in his own phrase, highly repeated when tragedies of worldwide significance go on, but I’m also a wholly ignorant person. I don’t have any inside knowledge, and the barest of outside knowledge. I am no soldier, no scholar, no great influencer. I know to be a successful believer and supporter of anything ,I must focus, but that focus creates guilt. I am a mighty defender of the pen, but I am also hurt at what some of those pens spill. I am no supporter of violence, but I’m not blind to the power of it. I talk at times like I am not affected by the thoughts of others, but I am as subject to the feelings of others as anyone else.

I will say that there is no room for base ignorance when the internet is such a vast place. Beware of the words you use, and make sure you know what they mean. Being careless is useless at best, and harmful otherwise. The brilliance behind the covers of magazines is that they are not stupid mockery.

And so I leave this rather paragraph here. Je ne suis pas Charlie, but I will always admire strength beyond my own.

*List taken from Telegraph:

• Charb – (real name Stephane Charbonnier) 47, an artist and publisher of Charlie Hebdo

• Cabu – (real name Jean Cabut) 76, the lead cartoonist for Charlie Hebdo

• Georges Wolinski – 80, an artist who had been drawing cartoons since the 1960s

• Tignous – (real name Bernard Verlhac) 57, a member of Cartoonists for Peace

• Bernard Maris – (known as “Uncle Bernard”) 68, an economist and columnist for the magazine

• Honoré – (real name Philippe Honoré) 73, the artist who drew the last cartoon tweeted by the weekly publication

• Michel Renaud – a former journalist who was visiting the Charlie Hebdo offices

• Mustapha Ourrad – a copy-editor for Charlie Hebdo

• Elsa Cayat – a columnist and analyst for Charlie Hebdo

• Frederic Boisseau – a building maintenance worker

• Franck Brinsolaro – 49, a policeman appointed to head security for Charb

• Ahmed Merabet – 42, a police officer and member of the 11th arrondissement brigade