lauren clementine.

time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.

Notes

my morning... in a puddle.

homeless man (lying down covered with a blanket but laying in a puddle):
miss, that is a very nice raincoat. i used towahavea raincoat JUST lika that rain coats you got on.
me:
(awkwardly) oh, thanks. yup, it’s definitley doing the job today - nice and dry. sir, I think you’re laying in a puddle.
homeless man:
THINK!? what are you? dumb? of course i’m laying in a puddle! I was dancing in it but I just got too cold and tired so I thought I’d lie down for a bit

55 notes

early Saturday morning, a water main broke in a Boston suburb - causing ‘unsafe levels of contamination’ in the city’s drinking water.  a ‘boil order’ was put into place which explicitly instructed Bostonians to not wash their hands in the water, not drink the water, refrain from doing laundry/dishes and watering plants and under no circumstance are we supposed to cook with the water or give our pets unsafe water to drink.  Basically, showering was allowed and how that’s any different than washing your hands, is beyond me; not to mention, animals (our “pets” are used to drinking out of lakes/ponds/puddles - let’s spoil them with bottled water.  genious!)  Originally, we were all told it would be weeks before the water could be consumed normally and used without concern - albeit the break in the pipe was nowhere near as bad as officials once thought (surprise surprise).  Nontheless, chaos erupted.  I should jump in here as well, on a positive note, and add that my hair and skin have NEVER felt so great as they did for those 2 days… if you see a girl bathing in the Charles, don’t ask why.  Do we, as human beings, have a built-in trigger that causes excitement over catastrophe?  Ready. Set. RUN.  Grocery stores and convenience stores became mobbed and people became vicious - like carniverous animals over a dead carcass.  I had to laugh because this wasn’t a crisis at all - it was a 2-day time period where it was ‘unsafe’ to consume the drinking water; does anyone have any idea how many parts of this world ‘live’ off contaminated water every day of their lives (and I’m not talking a bit of a leak from the Charles River, I’m talking animal ridden/sewer-used/brown community drinking water).  We are all ‘freaking out’ over a water leak that’s being repaired and there is an oil spill disaster in the gulf of mexico that’s wreaking environmental havoc in the US and beyond.  Guess what folks?  This affects you too - go nuts.  I don’t have enough time to sit here and go over the ‘real’ problems in this world but back to my human observation for a moment.  Here’s the theory I have come up with:  A minor crisis/a state of emergency if you will - causes self-absorption and excitement as panic sets in and people pretend the world is ending to add to their fun game.  but a real crisis, a disaster, and a life-threatening occurence would actually bond people closer together… how is it that we get closer as the problem gets bigger?  just an observation.  ps. if anyone wants a t-shirt to remember this historical moment in our lives: http://www.thrillist.com/links/106774

early Saturday morning, a water main broke in a Boston suburb - causing ‘unsafe levels of contamination’ in the city’s drinking water.  a ‘boil order’ was put into place which explicitly instructed Bostonians to not wash their hands in the water, not drink the water, refrain from doing laundry/dishes and watering plants and under no circumstance are we supposed to cook with the water or give our pets unsafe water to drink.  Basically, showering was allowed and how that’s any different than washing your hands, is beyond me; not to mention, animals (our “pets” are used to drinking out of lakes/ponds/puddles - let’s spoil them with bottled water.  genious!)  Originally, we were all told it would be weeks before the water could be consumed normally and used without concern - albeit the break in the pipe was nowhere near as bad as officials once thought (surprise surprise).  Nontheless, chaos erupted.  I should jump in here as well, on a positive note, and add that my hair and skin have NEVER felt so great as they did for those 2 days… if you see a girl bathing in the Charles, don’t ask why.  Do we, as human beings, have a built-in trigger that causes excitement over catastrophe?  Ready. Set. RUN.  Grocery stores and convenience stores became mobbed and people became vicious - like carniverous animals over a dead carcass.  I had to laugh because this wasn’t a crisis at all - it was a 2-day time period where it was ‘unsafe’ to consume the drinking water; does anyone have any idea how many parts of this world ‘live’ off contaminated water every day of their lives (and I’m not talking a bit of a leak from the Charles River, I’m talking animal ridden/sewer-used/brown community drinking water).  We are all ‘freaking out’ over a water leak that’s being repaired and there is an oil spill disaster in the gulf of mexico that’s wreaking environmental havoc in the US and beyond.  Guess what folks?  This affects you too - go nuts.  I don’t have enough time to sit here and go over the ‘real’ problems in this world but back to my human observation for a moment.  Here’s the theory I have come up with:  A minor crisis/a state of emergency if you will - causes self-absorption and excitement as panic sets in and people pretend the world is ending to add to their fun game.  but a real crisis, a disaster, and a life-threatening occurence would actually bond people closer together… how is it that we get closer as the problem gets bigger?  just an observation. 

ps. if anyone wants a t-shirt to remember this historical moment in our lives:

http://www.thrillist.com/links/106774

47 notes

The Rising Stars of Gossip Blogs

frostbites:

The lines between “reporter” and “blogger,” “gossip” and “news” have blurred almost beyond distinction. No longer is blogging something that marginalized editorial wannabes do from home, in a bathrobe, because they haven’t found a “real” job. Blogging now is a career path in its own right, offering visibility, influence and an actual paycheck. As more gossip action in a variety of fields moves online, young writers who might have hungrily chased an editorial assistant job at Condé Nast a few years ago now move to New York with the dream of making it as a blogger — either launching their own blog into the big time, à la Perez Hilton, or getting snapped up by a prominent blog network like Gawker Media or MediaBistro.

Notes

When I was quite young and quite small for my size, I met an old man in the Desert of Drize. And he sang me a song I will never forget, at least, well, I haven’t forgotten it yet. He sat in a terribly prickly place, but he sang with a sunny sweet smile on his face…” “When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you start to get mad… You should do what I do! Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people are much more…Oh, ever so much more…Oh, muchly much-much more unlucky than you!”

When I was quite young and quite small for my size, I met an old man in the Desert of Drize. And he sang me a song I will never forget, at least, well, I haven’t forgotten it yet. He sat in a terribly prickly place, but he sang with a sunny sweet smile on his face…”

“When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you start to get mad… You should do what I do! Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people are much more…Oh, ever so much more…Oh, muchly much-much more unlucky than you!”

47 notes

slow motion dog commercial puts pedigree at the top of youtube views today!

a phantom camera was used in this commercial to show a piece of dog food thrown up in the air and the reaction of multiple dogs.  the result of using a 1,000 frame/second camera in this instance? an “underwater-like” quality shot (SUPER SLOW MOTION).  Upon researching the clip, there were actually multiple cameras used to create the commercial - one was used to capture the piece of food being thrown up and then one camera on each of the 5 dogs to capture the anticipation of the canine reaction to the food being released. The extreme slow motion shot was able to portray the intenseness and the desire in the eyes and body language of each dog.  Such a simple ad made great by the technological advancements of photgraphy.  What’s next you ask?  Theoretically, the same idea behind the Phantom camera capability could be used in the cinema to increase suspense in thriller/horror/action movies.

Notes

chilean earthquake results in…

 

The earthquake that killed more than 700 people in Chile probably shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day, Bloomberg reported. The day was reduced by 6.8 microseconds and shifted the axis by about 2.3 milliarcseconds.

0 notes

UberVu launches Compare

 so we all know that google ranks as the #1 most-visited website and surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) - facebook recently snagged the #2 spot (bumping out Yahoo!) but is it fair to continue using website analytic tools like compete.com and alexa to rank popularity based solely on global visitors in a given time frame?  from an advertising standpoint, it’s not a fair comparison to go into a client and fight for budget against a social media site.  online advertising and driving traffic via social media platforms are two completely different avenues for companies/agencies to consider and advertising dollars need to be split and allocated accordingly.  fortunately, for those in my shoes, there’s a new player to bring to the table as uberVu launches Compare…

Small businesses have slowly begun to turn to social media as powerful avenues for gaining exposure for their products/services.  Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook or a blog - advertising dollars have kept the most popular social media sites alive.  As an Account Executive who’s clients are exploring the online world of branding their company name - it’s often a challenge to to go head to head with someone who is comparing the traffic on a social media platform against their own ROI (return on investment).  Obviously, a niche demographic is a huge selling point to any client and while the ‘traffic’ might be less than appealing - it’s the target audience that should be measured but how can we measure a client campaign on a social media site with 3,000,000 unique visitors a day against a local blog with a key audience but only 6,000 visitors a day?  

UberVu has just launched Compare.Com which measure a ad campaign (by phrase or campaign message) against all social media platforms to determine relevancy and performance. 

Here’s an example I had today:  A client is working on a new product which will be used in conjunction with built-in automobile GPS systems.  The relevancy of the word “navigation” performed better on certain social media sites than the keyword “GPS” so that the keyword used on each ad campaign - would differ by each platform being used to market the message. 

Check it out! http://www.ubervu.com/social-media-comparison/navigation-vs-gps/

1 note

lasagna.

i’m not usually a big hearty dinner kinda gal but i made lasagna for the first time last week and i think it truly was the best lasagna in this world - hands down :)  in case you have a TON of time on your hands and want to impress some dinner guests.  here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

  • 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
  • 3/4 pound lean ground beef
  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
  • 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 12 lasagna noodles
  • 16 ounces ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
  • 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

  1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
  2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
  3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
  4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
  5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.