Michelle Phan’s Fall Lookbook and smelly things

First of all, this is the most creative approach to a video lookbook I’ve ever seen anyone do, though I admittedly don’t look at a lot of people’s lookbooks so that might not mean much. Still, Michelle’s been one of my top YouTube loves since I was 11 so I’m fine supporting.

I’m currently sitting in a Starbucks enjoying my small coffee-priced WiFi and electric connection and feeling happy I put on Westbrook instead of the TF Plum Japonais that is slightly inappropriate for the warm autumn day. Read More

Iceland Day 4

This was both the best and worst day of the trip. We started out wonderfully with a lot of time in my new favorite town, Seyðisfjörður, where I finished the Iceland Day 2.2 post in the Hotel Aldan restaurant and had my first taste of reindeer, which was delicious. We kayaked for a couple of hours and met Mr. Hlynur Oddsson, our guide (the kayak guy, as informed by a waitress at Hotel Aldan) who was as kind and as funny as he was educational. Mr. Chokkattu was also able to wash our car for free, which is good because our little 2×4 was definitely begging to get clean after being covered in mud and dust from our drive. We also got to sing in Tvisongur, which we were told means “Double song/singing” and Mr. Chokkattu lent his lovely bass to the environment and I pittered out my minimally trained alto as accompaniment.

Later on, we had a delicious dinner at the Skaftfell visitor’s center, which also housed some interesting local art I recommend checking out if you go.  Read More

Bad influences

Bloo, my stuffed representation of the internet sensation Boo started smoking under the supervision of my boyfriend. I am so disappointed.

I decided it would be a lovely idea to leave Bloo with Mr. Chokkattu for a fun day at his office and workplace, to be returned to me the next time he sees me this week: Tuesday, if nothing goes wrong. The morning went fairly well:

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Nick Diamond making jingles and social awareness through advertising

Went to the Saatchi & Saatchi ‘7×7’ Seminar at BB King after my volunteering shift! It was fantastic, although I wish everyone had more time to speak. That was the point though; seven people, with seven minutes each.

I also caught the end of the previous seminar, which was about social awareness through advertising with the creators in charge of the Truth campaign and Evolve’s gun safety campaign:

Don’t Be a Dumbass:

As well as Budweiser’s love affair with puppies continuing to make people ‘aw’ and cry and this time, warn people against drinking and driving.

We narrowly missed an off-topic and harrowing discussion about gun rights (and how no one should have guns, my god, why are you even encouraging this) and it seemed that everyone working on these particular projects were passionate and truly put thought into targeting my generation. Especially though, they were aware of slacktivism and made sure to supplement the awareness with activities; creating cab and towing programs to keep drunken people off the road, getting gun owners to sign a code of gun safety and trying to bridge the gap between gun owners and non-gun owners by engaging through social media, and acknowledging that as a culture we’ve come a long way for smoking, and that all there’s left is to burn it out.

Happy Advertising Week!

I’m going to be super exhausted this week because it’s Advertising Week all over Manhattan and I’m volunteering!

Advertising Week is in its 11th year, and it’s the largest collection of communications and marketing leaders in the industry. Lots of lectures with lots of topics, lots of food, and lots of music. Speakers like Dan Ackerman, Ariana Huffington, Jamie Oliver, Laura Adams, Jessica Alba, Mario Batali are going to be discussing awesome things in tech, comm, and marketing, and A-Trak, T.I., The Script, Outkast, and Wiz Khalifa are all performing.

Unfortunately, I have to miss much of the night shows because I have school at night, but it doesn’t bother me that much because I’m honestly going to learn (thought it would have been really cool to be at the kick-off gala.)

Get your tickets here, and I hope to see you at an awesome lecture!