Last week I came across this Doritos Super Bowl Contest, where fans can make their own ads. The Fast Company article was specifically discussing a video that had a goat screaming. It was good, but then I started looking at the other finalists in the competition. That is when I found this one:
That is one clever little girl. Check out the four other finalists and vote too!
Who are you rooting for on Super Bowl Sunday?
One of my favorite things about Chris’ face are the laugh lines around his eyes. They are precious to me. I have watched them change over the past 10 years, and hopefully I have been one to help add to them. Those precious lines that show happiness and honesty. You can usually always tell when someone is giving you a real smile or laugh, just by the lines around their eyes.
There is nothing that makes my heart sing and a smile grow on my face than someone else laughing. The sound of a baby or child giggling uncontrollably is the sound of bliss in my ears. What could be better? On the other end of the age spectrum, is the man at the end of the below video. So precious.
I am not a fan of advertisements, but I have to give credit where credit is due. This VW ad campaign is clever, because it brings out your emotions. Instead of VW telling you all about their cars, and what is new, they instead speak right to your heart. They encourage you to stop, take a break, breathe, and laugh. You forget they are selling a product and allow you to just remember VW. The theme of this video is: “It’s not the miles, it’s how you live them.”
Enjoy and start watching for those laugh lines, they tell you a lot about an individual. Do not forget to smile and laugh today!
What if we all took time out of each day to be silly? How would that affect the way we interacted with others? Would it bring more joy to our conversations? Would others find you more lighthearted? I have been thinking about how hard most of us work, and how little we play. What if in 2013 we all focused on being sillier?
I am going to try it. I feel I have almost perfected my silliness with Chris. I can tickle like the best of them, and I do all that I can to try and make him laugh. Much of the time I do that by being silly. Dancing, tickling, saying odd things, and last but not least being downright silly! If I get a laugh, then I have succeeded. (Of course, I love to succeed and win!)
I often think of silliness as a similar action as playfulness. I ebb and flow with my playfulness abilities. It depends on my circumstances. If I am surrounded by little children I get down on their level, whether squatting down to talk to them at their eye level, or to get down and sit and play with them. That is when I am most playful and silly (oh yes, and when I am silly around Chris). Yet, there are so many times when I could be more silly. Times when I could relax more, or not care about an outcome of a situation. My silliness that is buried like the moth balls in a closet, needs to be pulled out of hibernation and aired out.
Sometimes it gets aired out when I am in a grumpy mood, and something or someone spurs the silliness in me and my playful side comes out and my grumpy-self releases to a joy-filled, positive state. Silliness = positive mood. When we are silly we forget all the other crap happening around us. We let go of our frustrations and are present. Silliness = being in the now.
So as we get older, why is it seemingly so hard to be silly? Maybe that is not the right question to ask. What if the question had more to do with how do we stay more present in our lives, and live more in the now? The answer could very well be, bring more silliness into your life. What do you think? Does silliness come easily to you?
Some of you may be staying in a hotel right now. You might be on a holiday vacation, or maybe visiting your family. You might also have an upcoming trip to a warmer place so you can get away from the snow or rain for a few days. Or, maybe it is a regular part of your job to travel for work and spend a large amount of your week in a hotel. Have you ever thought about how your experience at a hotel has to do with how often you open your wallet? I just finished reading the book: “Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality” by Jacob Tomsky. Definitely a clever name for a book.
It is a raw memoir of the life of a hotel employee. A book that sheds light on the inner workings and guts of a hotel. It also discusses how the way you treat a hotel employee may have a direct effect on how you are treated, but in ways you might not expect. Are their actions due to how the corporate hotel chain requires their employees to treat you? No hotel is the same. Or does the service you receive have more to do with how much you are willing to fork over from your wallet? One of my favorite excerpts from his book is this quick story from when he worked at a New York City hotel:
“Speaking of area codes, one of the most wonderful tools at my disposal is putting a guest into a certain room on the twelfth floor. What is so punishing about this room? Nothing by the look of it: a decent room by all accounts. However, if I put you in room 1212, your phone will not stop ringing with wrong numbers. Why? Well, a surprising number of guests never seem to learn that from every hotel phone you have to dial out. In general, to place any call, one must press 9 prior to dialing, local or otherwise. So all day, and believe me, all night, idiots dispersed through the building will pick up their phones and try to straight dial a local number, starting with 1-212. Whatever they press after that matters not because they have already dialed room 1212, and 1212’s guest will constantly pick up the 3:00 a.m call and hear the loud mashing of other numbers or some drunk guest saying, ‘Hello? Hello? Who is this?’
What time is it? Why are you calling me? Who is this?
I’d like to order the Szechuan chicken please? Excuse me? Is this Happy Family Palace’?” page 197
Wow. That will definitely make me think about how I treat the employees at hotels. There are many more experiences he shares, as well as tips for how to navigate the hotel world, whether for personal or business. In its own way, hotels are a world of their own. Tomsky shares how desk agents, bellhops, doormen, housekeepers, and management work together, how they have a system of their own, and how it works and sometimes does not. The tips he shares are snapshots of what travelers can do to navigate around hotel policies, and alert them to things they should be aware of when dealing with hotel employees.
If you do not read his book, then you will want to be on your best behavior, plan and connect with the hotel ahead of time, and be sure to open your wallet and tip for the best service. If you do not, beware and proceed at your own risk.
It happened last year on 11.11.11, and the year before that on 10.10.10, and before that and before that. However, these repeating dates will not happen until 01.01.2101. They only occur in the first 12 years of a new century. What will you be doing at 12:12 pm on 12.12.12?
Doing a bit of research I came across quite a few websites specifically for 12.12.12. A bit shocking to go to so much trouble on a website meant for one day in a year. Some are calling it doomsday like the Mayans have selected December 21, 2012, some are calling it a spiritually enlightened day, and others are using it to raise money. There is a concert for Sandy Relief will be happening on December 12, 2012. It looks like it will be televised tonight at 7:30 ET. There is also a group calling 12.12.12: World Day of Interconnectedness.
For me it is just another day. However, because there will not be another repeating day while I am alive, I want to do something fun and memorable. What should I do at 12:12:12 on 12.12.12?
Post a comment and share your ideas!
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