Weekend Observation

I just got back from Starbucks where I was doing some last minute prep for my message tomorrow and there was this woman and young son (maybe around 8 years old?) who stopped in to get a coffee.

They got their drinks and sat down fairly close to me and I noticed that the 8 year old kid was drinking 2 Starbuck Doubleshots. For those of you not familiar with what this is – it is an iced coffee that has 2 shots of espresso in it. It’s really good and a little strong, but not bad……FOR AN ADULT. An 8 year old kid? Wow.

Within 5 minutes both cans were consumed and within seconds this kid was wiggin’ out big time. He was jumping around in his seat, skipping around the store and clapping his hands. And his mother was getting really upset and telling him to relax.

I sat there in my chair thinking to myself, “Hello. 4 shots of espresso for an 8 year old kid?” That’s like me on 6 shots. You don’t want to see it!

What worries me here is that this woman seemed completely oblivious as to why her 8 year old was freaking out. She was upset at him. What’s wrong with that picture? Where is the responsibility on mom’s part?

Ok, before someone points out the plank in my eye I will be quiet.

Happy Saturday.

The Startling Secret of a Red-Eyed Tree Frog

PowerPoint guru, Cliff Atkinson, has a good idea on catching people's attention while using a PowerPoint presentation.

Link

Millenium Park

Ryan from citying.com has some great pics of the new Millenium Park here in Chicago. You can view them here. If you scroll down he also has some pics he took in NYC.

Too Much Time On Her Hands...

Apparently Betsy has too much time on her hands. But she did come up with something funny in relation to my last post...

Click here to see it.

The Female Me?

I just saw the female version of myself.

Ok, let me clarify. She didn't look like me (or visa versa) but she sounded a lot like me.

She was sitting here @ Starbucks talking to her friend about Italian Beef (Chicago food) and her explanation of it (I overheard it) sounded just like how I would describe it. She was so excited about it. "Oh we have to try this beef place... They dip the sandwich in the juices and then pour hot peppers all over it!!!"

She had me salivating.

Inspiring?

At Fast Company Now, Fast Company magazine editor in chief, John A. Byrne, points out the mission statement of a Seattle advertisting agency, Sedgwick Rd.

Here it is:

Sedgwick Rd. is a journey. The scenary is always changing on Sedgwick Rd. There are no speed limits. There are no rest stops. There are not signposts. There is one continuous passing lane. On Sedgwick Rd. there's always another curve to hug. Another straightaway to take. Another hill to climb. And so on Sedgwick Rd. you'll find drivers who are nimble, and drivers who are powerful, and drivers who are smart. Because Sedgwick Rd. will let you go as fast and as far and as brilliantly as you believe you can go.

Sedgwick Rd. is a destination. Sedgwick Rd. is a brand new place with a history. It's an idea factory where plots are hatched to change the world. It's where art and commerce have joined forces to stew the cultural pot. Sedgwick Rd. is the home of powerful ideas. It's the forwarding address for innovation and initiative. It's where the desire to do something unheard of takes up residence. Sedwick Rd. is a place to find. It's a place to go to. It's a place to get a little work done.

Sedgwick Rd. is a journey and a destination. Sedgwick Rd. is a road that can take you anywhere. It's where creative and clout intersect. It's where quick and big move in the same direction. It's where you'll find the crossroads of intelligence and intuition, deliberation and daring, independence and connection. To get you where you want to go, take Sedgwick Rd.

Tell me that doesn't move you. If I were a business person looking for someone to market my product, reading this would excite me and improve my chances of choosing Sedgwick to help me out.

So question: How is your business/church/product inspiring people to give your message/product a shot?

Cats

Cats scare the you-know-what out of me. I'm not totally sure why, but tonight I was working in the office and Norm's cat (they are in New Zealand) was meowing at the door so I let her in. As it walked around the room I started getting the heebie jeebies so I made it leave the room.

Sorry Tiny.

Most Expensive Cities

Mercer Human Resource Consulting has just released a study indicating the top 50 most expensive cities in the world to live in. Ready for this?

Top Ten:

1. Tokyo
2. London
3. Moscow (Russia)
4. Osaka (Japan)
5. Hong Kong
6. Geneva (Switzerland - not Illinois...)
7. Seoul (Korea)
8. Copenhagen (Denmark)
9. Zurich (Switzerland)
10. St. Petersburg (Russia)

New York City came in at #12 and Chicago came in at #35. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco are the top four most expensive US cities to live in.

According to Mercer's website, the study "measured the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location. These include housing, food, clothing and household goods as well as transportation and entertainment."

Four of the world’s ten most expensive cities are in Asia - with Tokyo being the most expensive city globally.

I have uploaded the .pdf file of the survey and you can download it by clicking here.

Mercer uses this information to help companies determine salary adjustments for employees (or potential new hires) in various parts of the world.

President Tony Soprano?

Can you imagine? I personally like Tony, but I think he would make Bill Clinton look like Billy Graham...

OrchardBlog Sneak Preview

We've begun the OrchardBlog on our website for our church (Orchard Valley Community Church). We're pretty excited to see how we can utilize the blog to keep our church community up on events, share stories, post pics, celebrate, etc...

Haven't publically launched the blog, so you get a sneak preview...

Link

(p.s. the website is in very raw form...still working on it.)

BEYOND BULLETS

Found a new blog today thanks to FC Now (Fast Company's Blog). It is called Beyond Bullets and it is written by Cliff Atkinson, who according to his site is:

...a leading authority on PowerPoint and organizational communications. As an independent management consultant, his clients include companies ranking in the top 5 of the Fortune 500. He is a keynote speaker and writer, and president of Sociable Media in Los Angeles.

This looks like it might be a good resource for communicators who integrate technology into their presentations.

BOBOK SAUSAGE COMPANY

EatChicago.net has a good post about Bobok's Sausage Company - a great Polish grocery store/deli here in Chicago. Great Polish sausages, potato pancakes and kielbasa.

Link

GOOGLE DOODLE



There are a lot of reasons I enjoy using Google as my primary search engine. The image feature is awesome, their toolbar for Internet Explorer is super convienent, their search engine is FAST, AND they like having fun. You can just tell.

It's become somewhat of a tradition for me to check Google's logo on their site on every national holiday (and not necessarily "national" holidays either) because they almost always alter their logo just a bit in recognition of a particular day, person or event. You can view their "google doodle" library here.

The artist who doodles is Dennis Hwang, a 23-year-old Korean computer artist who has been drawing the face of Google for almost two years. You can read about him here.

The Google image above is what was displayed on Mother's Day 2004.