holy moly!

Things that suck about DrawSomething

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:58:49 -0400

The obsession with DrawSomething, the latest craze in social bathroom time gaming, tends to begin rather innocently. The words you’re given to play are new, fresh and challenging. You start off playing during bathroom breaks, or waiting in line. It’s easy. It’s fun.

My personal journey with DrawSomething began as an interesting way to socialize with my friends that enriched our friendships.

But things grow dark quickly in the world of DrawSomething….

Bitches Love Pinterest

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:46:00 -0500

Bitches Love Pinterest:

The market for distracting girls on the Internet is tiny. You’ve got social bookmarking sites pining for other types of attention spans. Tumblr hosts a growing teen population and Reddit‘s got web-savvy males wrapped around their finger. Pinterest offers a diversion that caters directly to the emotional needs of women. Right now, they have an estimated 80% female user base. They use it, they find it fun, and they can’t stop talking about it.

Read the rest of my blog post here!

ellynet: Art Basel Miami 2011: The Game Plan.

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:05:09 -0500

ellynet: Art Basel Miami 2011: The Game Plan.:

ellynet:

My best picks for parties, events, and art fairs for Art Basel Miami Beach.
I chose most of these events based on a set of prioritized criteria:

Will I be able to indulge in copious amounts of free liquor?

Will I be able to get my dance on?

What invite-only events can I shamelessly try to…

Lonely Meme Halloween

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:04:08 -0400

Lonely Meme Halloween:

ellynet:

This Halloween, I decided to be an Internet meme. More specifically, I chose to be Hipster Ariel. As was made apparent by my night of confused and/or disregarded looks, this was a bad idea.

For those who are not familiar…

According to KnowYourMeme, Hipster Ariel (a.k.a Hipster Mermaid) is…

ellynet: The Planking Plague Strikes the Agency World Got my 15...

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:35:45 -0400

ellynet:

The Planking Plague Strikes the Agency World

Got my 15 minutes of fame today. A photo of me planking my boss’ office was posted to our company’s Facebook page and somehow made its way onto Media Bistro. Now it’s time to fix my reputation for doing something “so 2 months ago”.

productivitydecreaser: Danny Daze - Your Everything (official...

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:34:00 -0400

productivitydecreaser:

Danny Daze - Your Everything (official video)
(click through image to watch)

Over the course of the past grueling month, I directed, produced and edited the above video. It’s a great song that’s a huge hit and I’m really proud of how it came out.

Watch it all the way till the end cause it gets crazy.

Full cast and crew at Vimeo.

missabba: Posted my first nail art tutorial! This look is a...

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:25:06 -0400

missabba:

Posted my first nail art tutorial! This look is a little late for July 4th, but it’ll work for any other patriotic holiday.

Comment! Subscribe! Rate! Enjoy!

My friend Gaby has begun documenting her nail art, which I’m pretty excited about. I’m [not-so] secretly hoping she’ll do her Pokemon one. Check her out!

I’m really digging the new Washed Out album, particularly...

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 22:43:55 -0400

I’m really digging the new Washed Out album, particularly this song (Eyes Be Closed).

…but I think I only like it because of my teenage infatuation with Moby - Porcelain. I know it’s chillwave and all but this is THE SAME SONG.

debbieso: The City of Montreal has approved a $108 M bailout...

Sun, 29 May 2011 14:41:33 -0400

debbieso:

The City of Montreal has approved a $108 M bailout for their bike-sharing program, Bixi, last Tuesday.

City council voted 35-25 Tuesday afternoon in favour of the package, initially proposed by mayor Gérald Tremblay.

The package includes $37-million to cover Bixi’s deficit, and another $71-million in loan guarantees to export and develop the system abroad.

The head of the the non-profit rental-service – Roger Plamondon – has insisted the company is not under threat, despite having liquidity problems.

The Bixi system was set up in Montreal, 2009. Personally, I think it’s great. There are a high number of easily accessible stations, the bikes are easy to ride (although forever stuck in that slow gear), and the price is reasonable ($5 for an unlimited day pass). I use it whenever my bike is broken or I need to go somewhere that I don’t want to ride back from.

The lack of transparency on Bixi’s financial health is disappointing. Jacques Bergeron’s office was supposed to audit the bike system, and submit a summary of that review in his annual report. However, his 2010 report, tabled Monday, does not include any Bixi audit and Bergeron says it won’t be ready until at least June.

Wow, $108M? Having Bixi stations on every corner of Montreal, 24/7 customer service, tracking chips, first 30 min free, etc., etc… would be interesting to see the details of the audit.

Summer lesson for y’all: Clean out your cooler within one...

Sun, 29 May 2011 14:26:00 -0400

Summer lesson for y’all: Clean out your cooler within one day of using it.

Over two months ago we grilled some hot dogs and had a few beers with friends by the pool. We had tons of leftover food and drink.

You know the feeling you get after it’s “too late” to deal with something? You just let it go, and let it go… avoiding it as each day it gets worse and worse and you’ve realized there is no longer an easy way to “fix” it?

This is what happened. My cooler full of hot dogs and beer slowly got grosser and grosser. To the point where there was no easy way to clean it out. Especially when you live in a condominium with no backyard or hose.

Last resort? Tape it up so whatever strange growth inside could not creep out in the middle of the night and wreak havoc on this earth. Then dump it.

I’m just worried that someone will come to the dumpster in my building and say, “WOW, someone just dumped a perfectly good cooler. And it has WHEELS! And CUP HOLDERS! I’m taking this little treasure home!”

And then the end of the world will come.

I wipe my hands clean of this!

ellynet: How Social Media Reacts to Breaking...

Tue, 03 May 2011 11:54:55 -0400

ellynet:

How Social Media Reacts to Breaking News, featuring the Osama Saga [INFOGRAPHIC]

productivitydecreaser: Spain/France Travelogue 2011 Back from...

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:01:23 -0400

productivitydecreaser:

Spain/France Travelogue 2011

Back from our two week trip to the Iberian peninsula and beyond, Elly and I made a short music video about our adventure (aka lots of drinking and eating.)

Vacation videos > Vacation photos

I’m back from my nearly two-week trip to Spain (and a...

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:19:00 -0400

I’m back from my nearly two-week trip to Spain (and a quick detour to France)! One of the most interesting (and let’s be honest, Tumblr-worthy) places we visited was Bharma, a Lost-themed bar in Barcelona of all places.

What was most surprising was how well-made the scenery was, down to the tiniest detail. I’m talking about octagonal windows and a sweet hatch replica!

Anyway, we met the owner who was, of course, geeking out on his laptop sitting at the bar. He told us about Jorge Garcia’s visit to the bar earlier this year and what materials he used to make the bar look like a cave.

Apparently, they aired the finale at the bar at the crack of dawn and had the place packed. Sitting there listening to these stories on an incredibly slow Friday night made it sound like old war stories. If you’re a Lostie in Barcelona, make some time to check this place out before they decide to re-purpose it (but rest assured, they’ll geek it out some other way).

Happy birthday to my husband, Carlos (Productivity Decreaser),...

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:42:00 -0400

Happy birthday to my husband, Carlos (Productivity Decreaser), whose child I bear will inevitably look like Diego from Go Diego Go.

Hey Elly... because you are going to Barcelona you may want to add this bar to your list http://r3d.tumblr.com/post/4347696872/so-theres-a-bar-in-barcelona-spain-dedicated-to

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:25:55 -0400

OMG. This is happening. I officially added this bar to our list of spots to hit. I’ll save pictures of our Lost party to my phone to drunkenly show off to the nerdy bartenders. Thanks!!!

5 Awesome Online Travel Planning Tools (and how your buddies end up doing all the work)

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:18:16 -0400

5 Awesome Online Travel Planning Tools (and how your buddies end up doing all the work):

ellynet:

This bittersweet process of searching for hotel rooms led me to five online travel search tools I plan on using for future trip planning frenzies. I highly recommend these based on my experience with my OCD travel planning.

As most of us have done our travel planning 100% online for quite a few years now, innovation in travel-planning tools has taken a decidedly social bent. Trendy as that may seem, the collected travel experiences of a social network of like-minded people have proved pretty useful to me. Stupid About.com lists be damned!…

The concierge at my building randomly brought up that she saw my husband Carlos and I arguing in the...

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:18:09 -0400

The concierge at my building randomly brought up that she saw my husband Carlos and I arguing in the elevator yesterday through the elevator camera. She very excitedly described a fleeting moment in my life I barely remembered as if she was watching this totally awesome reality show.

At this point, two things crossed my mind:

Well, gosh, that’s a pretty forward thing to say to a tenant
OMFG INSTANT FLASHBACK of every embarrassing thing I’ve ever done in this elevator in the last three years

Me: “Haha… yeah… I’m sure you see us do lots of things in there. Fight and dance and sing and whatnot..”

Concierge: “yeah dancing and whatnot…but anyway, I was TOTALLY rooting for you! Like, I was just waiting for you to smack him upside the head!”

Me: “……yeah… I totally won that one. No smacking necessary…”

Besides my complete lack of knowing how to respond in this situation, I grew increasingly red-faced on the long walk back to my apartment as I went through a long, long list of the random, inane things I do in the elevator.

Roundhouse kick the elevator buttons Streetfighter style
Pick my wedgie
Make-out sesh with Carlos
Booty dance on Carlos
Jump as the elevator starts up to my floor
Jump as the elevator lands on the bottom floor
Run to each of the four corners during transit
Make a herp derp face behind people’s back as they walk out
Challenge Carlos to carry me like a baby during transit
Pretend to strangle and beat my husband
Solo dance party
Extend my arms up to pretend to summon the elevator on the way to my apartment
Extend my arms down to pretend to summon the elevator on the way out

You get the point. So, now, with one single comment, my private elevator fun has come to a permanent END.

No longer are these moments precious.

You’ve ruined everything sacred in life ever, lady.

How I Won an iPad and Influenced People.

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:50:49 -0400

I recently started a new tumblog dedicated to the nerdier side of my life, now available in long-form. Artwork is my own and used to spoon feed my spewing of nonsense to the average Tumblr attention span. Follow me!

ellynet:

For some reason, I’ve been following the Facebook page run by the car dealership where I purchased my car a few years ago. Every time I come across one of their updates, I flash back to that one late-night OCD rampage I had where I needed to decided to take “like” every brand I’ve ever interacted with in my life.

The other day I came across a pretty classy-looking post of theirs promoting an iPad giveaway. Not only was it legit looking, it was completely do-able.

Ooh, classy…

The giveaway called for the following requirements:

You submit a photo of yourself with the car you bought from their dealership

You gain the most Facebook likes on your photo if selected (only 5 are selected from the submissions)

What I found particularly interesting about this giveaway was the confidence I had in the strength of my social networks. My left eyebrow rose as I pondered my ability to rally friends from every corner of the Internet.

Can I Actually Win This Thing?

Let’s talk numbers.

The Collection’s Facebook Page has approximately 2,100 likes at the start of the giveaway The assumption is than an average Facebook page has 4,596 likes*; The Collection having a low amount of likes means less fan-generated content/submissions, which means I’ve got a pretty good chance.

The Collection is a local, luxury dealership in Coral Gables, Florida. The assumption is that the market is small and very likely to be able to afford or already own high-ticket items such as an iPad. In fact, this market probably eats iPads for breakfast.

I have approximately 6 networks I could choose leverage: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Yelp, FourSquare and my coworkers over at BGT Partners. My confidence in each of these networks was strong, but I’d never really leveraged any of these networks for anything but an ego boost.

Overall, I was pretty secure with my chances at winning this thing. My only concern was in ensuring I made it to the top 5 to be in the running for most likes.

The Hustle

With that, my husband picked up his nice camera, I kicked on a pair of red heels, and we drove down the street until we found a nice backdrop for our photo. All the important elements were there: the branding (dealership name is on the car), the local flavor (buildings in the heart of Miami) and the indisputable benefit of being a girl giving a #winning smile.

A couple of days later, they announced me as a finalist.

And so the liking race began.

I started with my largest and most easily leveragable network – my coworkers.

Coworkers, aka, Kings of the Internet

With just one mass email, I was able to gain 56 likes within the hour. I also happen to work at an interactive agency – these coworkers were not only internet savvy, but also massively supportive.

There was zero activity after that, and frankly, things had to start livening up a bit around here. At this point, I called upon what, to my surprise, was the strongest network yet – Facebook.

Facebook aka, I guess people like me.

I have about 480 Facebook friends and the second I posted my cry for help on Facebook, the likes jumped up to over 100. Not only were these friends surprisingly loyal (I mean, these are the people who wish me a “happy birthday” every year despite having relationship where neither of us would even say hi to each other on the street). After all, if so many people are willing to take the time to send me a Farmville or Give Someone Herpes app invite, they may as well vote for my thing, yes?

At this point, I was comfortably in the lead for several hours, but the guy behind me was gaining traction at a steady pace. Time to hit up Twitter.

Twitter, aka the not particularly engaged.

Now, I don’t have a huge Twitter network (177 followers), but I feel there is a higher visibility that comes when someone chooses to read your 140-character empty complaints on a daily basis. Boy, was I wrong.

I was unable to pull a high volume of new likes, but more effective in reminding those I already told via Facebook. Overall, not very fantastic results. I’m pretty sure I got skimmed by my friends using their phones (afterall, we’re looking at 62% of Twitter peeps who read their newsfeed on their phones*, probably moreso on a Saturday night). The Twitterverse was simply going to let my tweet die a lonely, lonely death.

Tumblr, aka GIVE ME FUNNY CAT PICTURES, NOW!!!

Tumblr was a fail, however, it was to be expected given the Twitter results. At 136 followers, and given the nature of Tumblr users (impatient, full of ADD and looking for immediate gratification) there wasn’t much convincing I could do. I calculated I pulled 2 likes from here. Seriously.

Let’s be realistic, my post was probably sandwiched in between a picture of someone riding a bike with a storm trooper helmet on and a funny video of a cat taking a nap, so forget that.

Despite my competitor getting a handful more likes over the weekend, and the failure of my smaller social networks, I managed to continually maintain a 20 like lead. Facebook continued to be my most devoted network, with a variety of Facebook friends campaigning for me on their own profiles. Ain’t that nice?!

Over the weekend, I became bored. My main competitor clearly gave up, but my desire to win grew paranoid and maniacal.

I had nightmares about my closest friends voting for my opponent, and even dreamt he would rally a 50-person crew in middle of the night to like his photo while I slept.

The Final Push, aka, I Got This.

Before I went to bed the final night, I posted one last time on Facebook. Apologetic about spamming and offending these newly great buddies of mine, I pushed my message during prime time TV – The Oscars were in full effect, and the Knicks were beating down the Miami Heat. Commercial breaks and DVR fast-forwarding breaks were perfect times for liking my photo, I mentioned.

Surprisingly, I was able to juice about 30 more people from this thing! Facebook friends are worth their weight in gold.

I still slept with one eye open.

I Got This.

The following morning, The Collection was up and at ‘em and announced me as the winner. My lovely Facebook friends all liked the announcement and filled their page with positive comments. All was well in the world. Even my competitor congratulated me. I felt guilty about making him out to be this incredible super villain in the confines of my paranoid mind.

So, that’s that. I won an iPad and learned a heck of a lot about my social circles. They don’t just act like real-life social circles – they are real-life social circles. When you reach out to your friends for support you really learn who’ll help in your time of need, and who will blow you off (I’m looking at you, Tumblr.)

What did The Collection get out of this?

It depends. Giveaways are definitely a quick and easy way to gain likes quickly. The hard part is in keeping these new people and getting them to become engaged.

Interestingly, three weeks after the competition ended I noticed several of my friends were regularly liking and commenting on future posts. This surprised me. Was I really able to help be a brand evangelist? Did I really help them put a price on my friend’s heads?

I don’t believe my friends will decide to buy a car just because they’ve been exposed to the brand, but I do think that if and when they decide to buy one, they’ll be able to recall The Collection’s name at the drop of a dime.

Sources: http://www.sysomos.com/insidefacebook/, http://blog.twitter.com/2010/09/evolving-ecosystem.html

Hello, tumblr friends! I don’t usually (ever) do this, but...

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:45:11 -0500

Hello, tumblr friends!

I don’t usually (ever) do this, but in the midst of all these “win an iPad” contest every company in the world seems to be running right now, I’ve managed to find myself deeply involved in one. And I’ve actually got a fantastic chance at winning.

If you’d like to be a good tumblr bud and help me win, I just ask that you “like” the page below and then “like” my photo on their page. It’s a few posts down (my photo is on this post too, obv)

LIKE ME! >

If I win, I find out tomorrow and will post a custom thank you to all of those who have helped me. ;) And next time your car dealership runs a free iPad promo, I’ll be sure to vote for your contest entry.

SWAG.

missabba: Finally tried the pokeball nails! My left hand came...

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 13:13:47 -0500

missabba:

Finally tried the pokeball nails! My left hand came out sick, but my right hand was a total disaster, so I scrapped the look last night.

I’ll try again once I have a little more practice doing freehand designs with my non-dominant hand.

EPIC! :D