Hey folks, bots! I wanted to thank you for following this blog from its inception and also let you know that I've refocused my thoughts into two additional blogs: The Dark Ages and Jr. Strategy.

The Dark Ages is about growing up. It's my own chronicle contemplating the most mysterious years of an adult's life, their 20s. I was drawn to creating the blog after never quite getting a clear answer from grown-ups about what happened after they moved away from their parents and before they "settled down". Some say it's a blur, some say that you instantaneously shift gears at 25, some say "just never do the things I did". No one knows what really happens to you, how you become an adult. Maybe it's a time meant to remain hazy. We'll see.

Jr. Strategy is a blog about my profession, from the perspective of an amateur. Check it out!

I will continue posting long-form, general thoughts to Orhiginal, so please do not despair. Thanks for the read!

Fun @work

It's Sunday night. And absolutely thrilling to work in a fast-moving, competitive, cream-at-the-top industry, huh!? Yeah! It never feels like you'd rather eat your brain out with a spoon! Why would it feel like that? That's ridiculous.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery...

Someone's out to win a Lion this year.

US Migration Patterns

At this time I would like to pose the following contradictory point regarding immigration and migration. American movers are actually trying to leave the country. They are heading toward warmer weather and most likely seeking refuge from our northern neighbor's judgefest in the warm embrace of Mexico's tolerant climate. Just take a look at this article from Buffalo's Business First News Journal referencing the US Census Bureau.

[63% of moving states are moving to escape Canada's judgefest, 37% of moving states just want to be Gus Porter.]

California, Texas and Florida are the most popular destinations for those looking to escape the square bummsville states in the middle of our country. And Washington, Virginia, and Minnesota round out the top six. If people aren't moving south, they're headed to the furthest edges of the United States, barring Maine, of course. Take a look at my *skilled* illustration below, demonstrating that I'm right.

In general, here's the shakedown:

• Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Colorado, and Hawai'i are moving to CA.
• California, New Mexico, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana are moving to TX.
• Alaska, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Georgia are moving to FL.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

• Oregon, Idaho, and Montana are moving to WA.
• North Dakota, South Dakota (can't they do anything separately), and Wisconsin are moving to MN.
• Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina are moving to VA.

While clever states make the getaway to one of the big three, less popular states are flocking to their pageant-queen neighbors like court cases to Lindsay Lohan. Texas and California are besties, swappin DNA in the living room closet while excluding Florida, who gets sloppy seconds from other states that didn't get the invite to the CA/TX love-party. Washington residents are backing down from their idealistic toadstools as they realize how much rain it takes to get green, while Minnesota and Virginia just sit back and soak up the love.

Yeah, I'm right. Tell everybody. This is definitely true and my scientific opinion is NOT to be discounted or trifled with.

Fun with a Quarter

Click to enlarge. Then click to super enlarge.

Future vs. Present, GLOVES OFF.

Last night I had the privilege of going to a live concert performed by one of my favorite artists, The Tallest Man Earth. He's a master of tone, verbal inflection, lyricism, finger-picking. His music is the kind that speaks directly to your heart. It's simple and soulful. I've posted one of my favorite songs, Love Is All, here so that you, too, can relish the depth of feeling in this track.

When he started plucking the intro during the concert, I was thrilled. Not Beiber-fever thrilled, but excited, at least. So I jockeyed for a line of sight in my twenty first standing row in the back. You know how you can weasel in-between tall people to get a peek of the attraction, looking over their shoulder but under the earlobe? I did that. I squirmed my way into a respectable sight line. This was hands-down my favorite track and I just felt so lucky to hear it from his mouth, live. Not surprisingly, though, I wasn't the only one. Just as I braced myself to freeze ideal peeking position for four minutes, a hand shot up through the crowd. Muting my hard-earned view. It looked like this:


See, through the glory of the inter-webs, I was able to use Youtube to share with you what I was missing during the actual experience. So, that's what The Tallest Man On Earth is like live. If you're close enough. Otherwise, if you're in the back, you're gonna get my view. It's precisely because I could share that video with you, that I couldn't see it when I was there. Is that a worthy trade?

While I refrained from yelling expletives, this time, I thought about the raging battle between future and present. I understand why this D-BAG was filming our favorite song with his iPhone. He: is sending it to someone who couldn't BE there, wants to show his friends or watch it LATER, wants to post it on YOUTUBE. There are a lot of reasons, but it sure as hell wasn't because he likes to stick his arm up and hold it perfectly still while listening to live music. It's not like he better understands the performance by receiving vibrations through his forearm.

When my LIVE experience gets shafted because of some non-existent FUTURE BENEFIT, I gotta say, enough. I go to concerts so I can enjoy an experience that will never happen again. An experience that is impossible to re-live or re-create. Sure, you can see what it was like online, but it will never be that. Why would you watch an artist on Youtube anyways? Probably to get a sense about whether you want to see them live. This moment just too perfectly framed how we are, in fact, losing the power of the moment. I think that we're so in love with it, we're afraid to let it go. But, to quote the Tao te Ching, "Grasp, and it will slip through your fingers." We keep grabbing and pulling, trying to keep it all. Trying to make it last when, really, we're just denying the inevitable. The concert will end and you will have to work, work to find another artist you like. Or wait, wait, to see The Tallest Man on Earth again. These are the physical properties of the world that you cannot deny. We're compromising the joy of the moment so that we may live a little of it over again in the future.

Sure, I've been guilty of filming or photographing an event instead of raptly watching. And, when I'm done, I find myself trying to remember what just happened. It's like reading a book while you're thinking about something else. You have to go back and re-read the pages you turned absent-mindedly. It's like thinking about your own issues while a friend is talking to you. "What? I'm sorry, say that again?" You're missing the point of the interaction.

I love taking pictures and video. I'm a sentimentalist. In middle school, I made scrapbooks like nobody's business, don't get me wrong. Keeping parts of an experience is incredibly romantic. But when it gets in the way of being there, get over it. Put the camera down. Live a little. Live for today because tomorrow might never come. Now if you've read through this rant, run the ringer with me, come full circle, and you say, "But Rachel, why are you freaking out, you can just watch it on Youtube." Then you, my friend, have a problem. And I don't feel bad snapping that ONE picture because it was a crappy moment I didn't need to be fully present for. Hypocritical? I'm only a human being.


[If you think this future-oriented idea is interesting, check out this animated lecture by RSA. It talks about the differences of time orientation between cultures and is very insightful.]

Orhiginal's DroidX Review!

Holla! Just today I got my little hands on the new DroidX and here's my non-developer, not tech nerd, first-time-smart-phone owner opinion:

1 Awesome

2 To quote the lady in front of me at the Verizon store, "it's a big ass phone". The screen is enormous, but the phone is surprisingly thin. It's definitely a back- pocket rider.

3 Men men men. From the visual appeal (wallpaper, black and red color palette) to the sheer size, I gotta admit that it was designed wih men in mind. Because of the top-heavy (hd)camera, trying to hold the phone upright and type with my miniature hands is already causing a cramp. Little hands, steele yourself.

4 Coming from the mac background, I can finally, truly understand the debate between iPhone vs. Other. The iP is easier for me to use and understand. The otions on my new phone are numerous and equally confusing.

5 I can't get four square to work yet. Either that's my bad, or they haven't caught up with droid yet. Either way, bummer.

6 I'm writing this post via app for the first time ever, and that's pretty groovy.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.7

Fast as a New York Week...

Just a couple weeks ago a group of students representing the UO Ad program packed their bags to terrorize New York, the city. On last year's trip I was extremely busy working on a client pitch for the student competition and a detailed presentation to BBH. This year, I decided to get the dirty work out of the way first (one presentation to BBH about SXSWi takeaways) and otherwise hit the city and see what it would come back at me with. Upcoming UO Ad generations [take heed], magnanimous readers and my one follower [ I salute you], here's my take on one New York week:

a—Top three pieces of advice
You’ll be defined by your last greatest feat, make sure it’s something you’re proud of.

Play in analog. It will make you stand out.

When you move to NYC, it never stops. It’s like the responsible Vegas.

b—Top three experiences
Jazz, baby. This time around, I made sure to save some time for the things I am passionate about, like live jazz. There’s a fine line between shirking your responsibilities and striking out on your own: toe it. Don’t be afraid to abandon the safety of the group for something that’s really important to you.

Making friends outside of my immediate group. I know it sounds cheesy, but really! It feels good to know that you’ve got different people you get along with and you’re not stuck anywhere. The trip is a great chance to make connections with other students as well as professionals.

Gleaning a few twitter nods from established professionals by tweeting about connections I saw during the UnConference. You just have to think, and put it out there. If you’re on to something, people will notice.

c—What do you know about agencies now that you didn't know before
Agency leadership goes to a lot of conferences, adult learning summer camps.

A lot of places want to know if they are a good fit for you. The more personal the recruiting process gets, the more agencies start to care about you as a person. One of the first things recruiters or job leads would always ask me was, “where do you want to work?” I couldn’t tell them “anywhere” because that would sound lazy, and since they were taking the time to get to know me, I should make it worth their while. So give it some thought before you’re ready to approach people.

Sometimes it's a bother for students to show up at their office with presentations that are irrelevant to their immediate jobs. This is something you could guess, and I’m not saying it’s everybody, and big-thinkers are always open to new ideas, but I heard it while walking through a revolving door into the building.

d—A couple of beautiful moments
Riding on Gabe’s shoulders.

Reconnecting with a Swede who beat me out last year. Great guy, Rassmus. He insisted I email him this time.

Presenting at BBH. Admittedly, we didn’t bring it like last year but sharing your original perspective and getting feedback is what being a student is all about. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable going off and pursuing jazz shows until I knew that I had contributed to the task at hand.

Michael Jordan, the Person

So I just started following Michael Jordan on Twitter. It's refreshing how he tweets like a normal person, with no ulterior motive to the ultra social tool.


And now I know that, in my line of work, whenever I think about morning coffee dependents, I'm also thinking about Michael Jordan. I also know that we even share some opinions in common: Why LOST is useless as popular entertainment.

Me and Michael, man. Try that on for size.

It All Makes Sense Now: A Week at SXSWi

It's one day after SXSWi. I've stopped thinking of everything in # tags. I've had time to take a breather and enjoy the sunshine in my own state. After a good night's sleep, I woke up refreshed and inspired.

Suddenly, the magnitude of the festival sunk into my brain. Like any other festival, you go for the whole experience. That's why you spend a week eating, drinking, excreting digital instead of listening to podcasts. The real value of SXSW is total immersion. It's like a meditation retreat, except the opposite. Instead of surrounding yourself with nothing, you're surrounded by everything. And although I had I considered myself an informed student, I came back speaking a new language. I have a new take on communication and social trends.

• Yes, you need to make a mobile app; put a concept and strategy in your portfolio.
• Yes, brands need to expand in relevant ways; not just expand.
• Yes, social mobile is here to stay; and it's having a baby with the "real" world. Get used to it.

The experience reinforced some things I already knew: people are still people, with idiosyncrasies, even if they're an engineer for Google mobile. "Audiences" are participants and it's time to start treating them like friends, not targets. But I also learned some new themes: Screen size really does dictate expected depth of interaction. The digital disparity between have's and have not's is wide—there is a lot of opportunity in less recognized niches. "Open" is a door, while "transparent" is a window.

Now, after the festival, I can think in both channels of media development and themes of humanity. It was like learning Mandarin in school, but never really understanding how to use it until you live in Beijing. At SXSW, doing everything media connected [Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Gowalla, Apps, QR codes] was the norm and, frankly, overwhelming. But now that I'm back in the leisurely pace of normal life, I can refine my value of all the new media options. I can translate between Mandarin and English, I can see the beauty in the venn diagram space between high-tech and daily motion.

While waiting for a nice cold coffee at Vero in Eugene, I downloaded Gowalla [it did beat FourSquare, after all] on my iPod. And a rush of understanding swept over me. SXSW changed me in the biggest way possible— ideologically. I came back a believer in the power of digital, especially mobile; equipped and ready to enter the rapidly evolving scene of digital communication.

(From our University of Oregon SXSW blog. Check it out for more reads from Evan Schultz, Isaac Viel, Nicole Schultz, Marq Blaine and myself.)

Easybake Cupcakes for Adults!

Here's a new app that I found in the "What's Hot" app store section. How painfully ironic! Actually, these cupcakes will never live up to their tasty expectations... It's the new superpretend Easybake oven for adults! But so much worse.

Now if this 99cent app was for, I don't know, A REAL BAKERY that baked the cupcakes you designed, it would be a brilliant idea. Just a thought.

Interviewing Ze Frank at SXSWi

Rachel Hom interviews Ze Frank at SXSWi from Isaac Viel on Vimeo.

I saw him from the side. And then from the front, to make sure. It was, in fact, Ze Frank. He was kind enough to grant us an impromptu, unblinking interview. Isaac was quick with the camera, and I got the audio with my *new thumbtack iPod mic. Thanks Thumbtack! I was too nervous/excited to be normal, but thanks for inspiring us, Ze...and the interview.

(Isaac Viel video)

Midday Mariachi

A wonderful surprise in the Fishbowl (a commons area in UOregon's student union building) today: a mariachi band took out their instruments and serenaded the lunch crowd. They were terrific. Great singers and musicians, in the full scale outfit. I think they were members of Mariachi Viva Mexico.

While I enjoyed the musical treat, I took a quick appraisal of my surroundings. There were about 40 people present in the bowl. 9 (including myself) had laptops open during the performance. 3 of those 9 continued listening to their own music and one person talking on the phone complained that some sort of band was playing.

I was a little surprised at the lack of crowd enthusiasm. What does it take to stir these people up? I hope our elephant will do the trick in March... oop. I've said too much. I hope every Thursday is mariachi day. At least Thursdays.

Productivity + Digital

It's amazing how our productivity as a society has soared in this digital era.

Or has it?

True, we can now communicate faster than ever before, sometimes even faster than we can talk, or think. Before the words come out of our mouths they're tweeted. Maybe before the thought is even complete, it's retweeted. This is all well and good for a college student such as myself; I can update my blog while I'm walking home, send an email between classes, tweet an idea to my friends when I'm surrounded by strangers. I have, in my pocket, a device that can tell me just about anything there is to know and say whatever I want to everyone who is listening.

While this is all very exciting, I've still got grades to keep up—homework needs doing. When I find that I have to read not one, but TWO chapters of my text, my busy fingers pine at the thought of merely turning pages. My eyes weep at the monochromatic implications of reading a book that does not stir the senses. It's a waste of time. In the time that it will take me to read two chapters of a book, I could have created a whole website (thanks, Wix). And that makes me wonder: are we more productive?

I can't read a textbook without complaining to myself. What else can't I do? How else has the digital era lamed me? We're a young generation with a serious case of Alzheimer's. Each tidbit of info replaces the one before it, so that the things we learned this morning are forgotten by the afternoon. And when it burdens me to contemplate sitting down for an hour to wholeheartedly absorb information from a single, featureless source, I can't help but think that our capacity to acquire information has dulled our ability to learn.

Yes, I will read the book. Yes, I do like to read! Yes, I usually skip my reading assignments because I don't like doing assignments and I procrastinate. But it will sweeten the obligation to know that the words I read in this text will enrich my brain more than 20 Newser abstracts.

"Give It a Ponder"

Great move by LG and Y&R, NYC, encouraging teens to think about the consequences of their texts BEFORE making a move they regret. This is one of two major advertising leaps that James Lipton has taken semi-recently. The other was with DC shoes from LA agency, 72 and Sunny.

My question: do teens teens watch Inside the Actor's Studio?

University of Oregon Executives in Residence

This past week it was our pleasure to host two brilliant minds from the global media sphere: Rishad Tobaccowala (CEO: Denuo) and Simon Mainwaring (Consultant, Mainwaring Creative).

My takeaways from their advice and conversation were huge. Material to fill many blog posts to come. Both are forward thinkers focusing on the future of advertising and branding. Simon believes that in the future, consumers will "become a moving billboard of meaningful communications," using their purchase power to promote social values. And Rishad emphasized a brand's need to focus on utility, rather than simply engagement, saying, "If you're so good, show me, don't tell me." (A regular ol' Mark Twain, "Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.")

During their last round of Q&A in the UO Portland Turnbull center, both executives mentioned their experience with Talk, a project that I am working on at Allen Hall Advertising. At the end of the interview we ask each participant to share something they love, have lost, and fear. It was incredibly refreshing to hear these eloquent, brilliant people struggling with, contemplating and replying to the questions just like our university students (staff and faculty).

Rishad lost his fear (a trait of the market) and Simon, his innocence. See how they stack up?

Our dedicated students kept a detailed blog and we also kept up via twitter (#uoeir09).

Thanks again, Simon and Rishad, it was fantastic to host you.

Vicious Cycle of (il)Literacy

A most discussed article from GOOD prompted my speculation.

Nutella News

Alright, it's here in the US of A.
NUTELLA. But not Nutella...

A NUTELLA COMMERCIAL.

There is some great buzz following this stuff, from loyal consumers who are happy to have Nutella's public presence backing their fanfare to health watch-dogs calling out the claim to health benefits. In the commercial a mom reasons feeding Nutella to her kids in the morning because she puts it on healthier foods.

While I love the stuff, I'm gonna call bs. But I'm not here just to add my bloggerty little fingers into the fray. I'm more curious about Nutella's thinking here.

Why would this beloved brand choose to break into American consciousness with a little happy fib? Out of all the angles they could take to promote their product, why choose the sinful mom-cohersion route? Nutella is awesome because it's creamy, it's choclately, it's got a great aftertaste, it has no American equivolent and it looks damn good in a spoon. So say that! Don't beguile the (second) most obese nation in the world into thinking this luxury spread is just a part of a nutritious breakfast. It's like saying Kool-aide is good for you because you're drinking water. Get real.

Fantastic Show of Odds

It may seem that there are a lot of bicycle-related postings on my blog. You're right. There are. You are a faithful reader and I thank you. TODAY! However, is an awe-inspiring reminder that one in a million can happen, and does! But if you're this one of a million... I'm sorry.



A few weeks back I noticed some little wings blowing around on my bicycle lock when I was about to lock up my bike on campus. Upon further inspection, I found that a spider, eating a gnat, had been crushed on my lock. What are the chances of that!?

MY LOGO IS IN THE TOP 13

One day my parents called me up and persuaded me into a logo design contest for a Seattle show:
Ron&Don Nation (KIRO 97.3 FM) So one day I busted out three logos and sent them in. Though I liked one best, they were all the product of my hands, and CS2.

Now, one of my logo's is in the 13 and could win the contest! So give it up and vote for #4! I'd be much appreciative, and my Dad really wants those Seahawks tix...