My sister is a highly educated professor living in Amman, Jordan. She is currently preparing to defend her doctoral thesis this coming summer. So it was only natural that I became very worried when her conversations switched from focusing on politics to farming. That’s right, farming.
Today I am announcing that I will be taking a four week leave of absence in order to go to Farmville in search of my sister. I fear that this farming phenomenon is actually a cult and hope to rescue my sister before she gets in too deep. During my four weeks I will be posting investigative reports in order to educate others about the dangers of Farmville.
This mission does not come without risks and that is why I have enlisted friends on the outside to monitor my whereabouts. Should it appear that I have also become brainwashed by the people of Farmville, they have strict instructions to come in rescue me. Friends and fellow Barbarians, I love you all and please try not to worry.
-Shelby
posted by on September 03, 2009 at 02:25 PM
Someone please help me decipher the image used in this ad I saw on Facebook. Is it targeting nursing moms?
Does she have any hair or is she bald? Or is her hair black and filing up the entire background.
I feel like I am looking at one of those images where you can see two different things depending on how long you stare at it. Is it two witches or a candlestick?
I made a cool music discovery last night. Actually I can’t really take the credit for it as my husband pointed it out to me over a Gossip Girl rerun last night. He is the music snob in the house, I am lucky if I listen to anything besides
Dan Zanes these days. Anyway, he showed me this iPhone application that is similar in concept to the site we launched for Getty last year,
Moodstream.
It is essentially Moodstream for music and as an iPhone app. Not saying they ripped us off or anything because we can’t claim rights to the use of moods and dials. It just made me recall what I liked so much about the Moodstream concept. It was so simple and elegant that you couldn’t help but play around with it. The same is true for this application from
Ghostly International. This might be just what I need to help me explore some music outside of the kiddie world.
posted by on June 30, 2009 at 09:38 AM
The game
Prototype looks a bit creepy if you ask me but the online campaign promoting the game’s launch is kinda cool. It uses Facebook Connect to pull images and information from your profile and includes them into the trailer for the game. This is the first use of Facebook Connect that I have found to be purely creative rather than functional. I have to admit it was a bit creepy to see my daughter’s picture in the trailer for this game.
Because I watched my nephew, Odeh’s band concert streaming live from Amman this morning. How cool is that? He is the one in the red pajama top that is about a foot smaller than everyone else.
posted by on May 01, 2009 at 05:35 PM
filed under:
Boston and
Lunch
Today was the 3rd Annual Kettle Chips party at
TBG Boston, in conjunction with our weekly Grill Friday
TM. Kettle is one of my favorite brands and are definitely my favorite chips. Each year they have a
People’s Choice promotion which includes a sampling of chip flavors that fans vote on to decide which one becomes a mainstay. Since we are huge fans of lunch type foods here in Boston, I always buy a pack for the office so that we can have our own chip party.
Well this year Kettle changed it up a bit and left the flavor creation in the hands of their fans. Rather then sending us 5 potential new flavors they sent us small packs of unflavored chips plus an assortment of flavor packs. It was our job to mix the flavors together in order to concoct our dream chip. Barbarians love hands on activites so we all gathered round the lunch table as Grill Friday was being grilled. Here are the delightful creations and pictures of the fun that was had:
Garlic, Tomato, Onion
- sour cream and chives
- roasted tomato
- garlic
- created by
Spicy Ketchup with Cheddar!
- 4 parts Tomato (actually Kristen put in a heaping teaspoon!)
- 2 parts Vinegar
- 1 part something something
- and a healthy shake from the Cheddar bag
- created by and intern Kristen
Fatt Ass Mac N Cheese
- extra cheddar flavoring
- sour cream & chive
- caramelized onion
- created by
Bad Boner
- random spices from the spice shelf, all of which were probably expired
- created by
Cheesy Onion
- Cheddar
- Caramelized Onion
- created by me
Onions ‘n Chili and Friends
- sour cream & onion powder
- caramelized onion powder
- vinegar powder
- a little of the chili powder
- black pepper
- crushed red pepper
- created by
Everlasting Gob-chips
- basic mac & cheese flavor but with way more sour cream and cheddar flavoring than was suggested
- created by and former intern Emma Welles
I was so excited to log into Mint today and realize that they granted my wish and added me to their beta test of the new Financial Fitness tool. This is the first beta I have been involved with since I received one of the early invites to Gmail back in the old days. Boy do I feel special.
The new Fitness tab in the nav brings me to a page with a big progress tracking bar at the top. I am already 75% fit, so I feel pretty good but then I realize that a 75 is what a C? That is not acceptable, I need an A+. What do I need to do in order to reach 100%?
The list of qualifying tasks includes a few items in blue that I can take action on immediately:
- Get Health Insurance +1000 points – Done
- Make a Retirment Contribution +1000 points – Done
- See Where you Spent Last Month +100 points
-This took me to the trend tab with the interactive pie chart. I took a poke around and got depressed when I saw how big the pie piece was for taxes in April. Clicked back over to the Fitness tab and it still didn’t show that I had completed this task. I did this a few more times, and clicked into other pieces of the pie but still no change. Not really clear what I need to do in order to accomplish this task. Hopefully Mint will fix this part of the tool.
- Review Your Credit Report + 500
-I am not going to do this now. But it is a good reminder as it has been about 6 months since I last checked.
After checking off a few of the tasks I ended up 91% fit. There are many tasks that are pending as it depends on what I do throughout the month like saving money, spending less than I earn and avoiding bank fees. I will keep working on this over the month in order to reach my goal of being fully financially fit. I wonder what I get at the end of the month if I achieve this goal, an extra 100 bucks in my savings account? Can you grant that wish too Mint?
