On Saturday, Amanda and I picked up Rock Band 2 for Xbox. I thought it'd be funny to mash-up our duet with our daily video workout. I was right!
(Sorry for the shotty YouTube video. Vimeo has a cold.)
I love my SwissGear backpack
My generation of professionals is a backpack generation.
For awhile there, I thought I was in the minority of professionals rocking a backpack, but now that I'm a public transit commuter and among the masses, I notice that everyone has a backpack. The guys in suits have backpacks. Some women even leave their purses at home in lieu of a backpack. Backpackers unite!
Forget Gen Y or Millennials. We're Generation Backpack.
Most days I carry two laptops, one for work and one for personal use (nerd alert!). So a backpack isn't a luxury - it's essential. I've had a Targus backpack for the last year and it did OK, but it was hardly fashionable and you know I can't have that. Also, the zipper started to snag over the past couple months. It was time to upgrade. Since I got my Macbook Pro, I've been lusting over some of the Patagonia and Hurley backpacks at the Apple Store. However, the SwissGear backpacks caught my eye during my last Mac pilgrimage. The beauty of the Apple Store, of course, is that you have Internet access, so I just hopped online and found the same backpack $100 cheaper on Amazon. The next day I made the purchase. I wanted one for three reasons:
- It was mad stylish, with Swiss Army-like branding.
- It looked durable and spacey-enough for two laptops plus gadgets.
- I trust the Swiss. I have no idea where the backpack is actually made, but I've been to Switzerland and they don't half-ass anything. (Have you tried their chocolate? Wow.)
My backpack (pictured above) arrived as scheduled last week. Like Ralphie grabbing his Red Ryder BB Gun, I grabbed my new red SwissGear backpack with glee. This must be the feeling women have when they get new shoes.
The backpack is stylish and totally comfortable to wear. The pockets are many and functional. I don't need 35 mini-compartments that only hold pens or pogs. I need five or six that are large enough to fit books.The weight distribution is much better.
Now that I have the backpack I notice that A LOT of people have SwissGear backpacks. It's no wonder why. This product of the Backpack Generation recommends SwissGear.
Netflix 'culture' guidelines get two thumbs up
In this era of social media, companies have made headlines (for better or worse) by way of their social media policies. With respect to this trend, I say Netflix should take Best in Show.
Netflix has posted its entire quasi-employee handbook titled, "Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture." It promotes everything you'd want to read in an employee handbook - freedom, flexibility and fun. Even if this was published as a marketing ploy, it's a darn good one.
Most impressive is Netflix's vacation policy. According to the middle pages of the vast document, there is no vacation limit for Netflix employees.
Wow, I know.
You may be asking, "What does this have to do with social media?"
Everything.
Social media is about conversation. Most companies worry about maintaining social media channels and branding more than they do contributing quality content to the conversation. Here, Netflix has set itself up to be a conversation piece for social media enthusiasts. Search Netflix on Twitter and you can see that the publishing the guidelines have worked.
Intel gave Netflix some good competition last week by embracing transparency and sharing its social media guidelines publicly (See Intel social media guidelines.) Best Buy, too, started from the foundation and crowdsourced the requirements for its new Sr. Manager, Emerging Media Markets position, which spread like wild fire across Twitter. (Full disclosure: I used to work at Best Buy in college. I can alphabetize DVDs like a mofo.)
On the losing end, ESPN dug its own digital grave this week by telling employees they can only Tweet if it serves ESPN. (See Ric Bucher's Tweet and the Mashable article.) Da-da-da. Da-da-dumb.
Netflix is a clear winner because it managed to create so much buzz with (what appears to be) so little effort, simply by telling people want they want to hear. Leave it to the direct-to-you movie service to make an indirect social media move.
Netflix has created advocates through this simple effort and let them do the talking. That's a best social media practice that I give two thumbs up.
Foto Friday: An old fave
"Longboarder at Boulevard"
This was probably the first photo I took that made me think, "I could be good at this," which is why I appreciate it so.
Food porn: Open-face taco fiesta
This is an iteration of something Moos makes. Actually it's hardly comparable to Moos' Mexican cuisine, but I tried!
I cooked up some black beans with white onion and home-grown green peppers. I put a soft tortilla over the beans and topped it with an over-medium, yolk-broken egg, green onions, home-grown jalapeno and cilantro, pico de gallo, cracked salt and pepper and Tapatio. To enhance the plate, I probably could have added sour cream and avocado. It was oh so tasty!