I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I’m a Tree Hugging Extroverted Builder

I also found out that: “0% of the 41005 people who have taken this quiz are like you.”

Well I could have told you I was that unique! Now what a Tree Hugging Extroverted Builder is…I’ll get back to you on that!

Better late than never eh?! Hope everyone had a joyous winter solstice (unless your on the other side of the world where it’s warm, not sure it works the same way) and a festive Hogmanay!

I am slowly getting back to having time to read blogs (yay!) and hopefully back to adding to this one. God I miss having a job where I have access to a computer (and a chair) all day! It’s my life, I just need to find someone willing to pay me to do it.

Anyhow, I have a pretty burnt right hand, am sick again, must do my taxes, get xmas pics on to Flickr before next xmas and move flats, but hopefully other than that, I’ll be back in action here and on your domains asap.

2009 isn’t gonna beat me this easily!

As everyone knows it’s ‘that’ time of year again. Well, in the spirit, and thanks to the power of YouTube, I am able to post a commercial from years ago, that I will never forget, that does a great job of encompassing how I like to feel around this time of year.

I feel a commercial does its job when someone – especially one outside their target market – still remembers not just the ad, but the brand 20 or so years later.

I hope you enjoy and everyone hasn’t written off feeling a bit warm, fuzzy and merry this time of year.

Have a great one, whatever one it is.

I’m a year older, and damn it’s getting repetitive!

Every b-day since the Return to Saturn album came out, I enjoy listening to No Doubt’s Six Feet Under on my birthday. It’s just a groovy ska-y type b-day song and makes me smile, so maybe it’ll make you smile too.

Not an actual video, just a pic with the song, but that’s the most important part ;oD

And the lyrics:
In the morning I wake up
And in the night I sleep
Since the day that I was born
Repeat, repeat, repeat
Brought to this life
Born to this life
Where was I before?
Non-existent? Not at all?
Will I ever know?

Today is my birthday
And I get one every year
And some day…
Hard to believe
But I’ll be buried six feet underground

Subconsciously motivated natural instinct
Alter nature for the pleasure
Orthocycline
Flirt with conception
Slow the cycle
Will the baby grow?
Social tradition interference
Control, control, control

[chorus]

Spinning, spinning
Before I can recall
All the unknown chemicals
Control the cycle
The successive generations
From dust to dust
Burying my grandma
Then give birth to my own daughter

[chorus]

As many people are having their December work parties this week, I hope everybody has a happy Darcie Day!

Brilliant. I can just imagine every 20-55yr old woman who has never had the pleasure of an orgasm, who writes letters into Cosmo magazine and compulsively purchases said magazine monthly to figure out how to find their “maybe it exists, maybe it doesn’t” g-spot, running out and purchasing boxes of this stuff.

Well I say good luck ladies! May the Play be with you.

…and p.s. Durex, PLEASE don’t make a version using mens ‘O’ faces!

I know McCann Erickson is handling the “O” Social Media Campaign, but I’m not sure who did the TV ad.

Just a wee note to say that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, just half way. And you know what? It was kinda nice.

My Mac cable went kapütt, so my mac eventually went into permasleep for a week and it gave me a chance to step away for a bit. Yes, I was on H’s PC doing the necessary work that needed to be done and on my iPhone, however, I did take, for me, quite a huge step back from my digital life.

I’m working as many hours as possible at my shop job for mulah, because it’s evil and makes the world go round. Unfortunately I can’t change this, so I have to join it. Also, I’m trying to figure out (still – like I’ve been doing since the beginning) to figure out where I’m going. As you might have noticed there isn’t work for me here in Edinburgh and in 2 weeks, I’ll be that much older and that less employable.

I find it funny, because people in the industry complain and don’t understand why I want it so much. Because it’s me. That’s it, that’s that. I don’t know what else to do and anything else I would have to go back to school for and then there are no promises of a job in the end for that either.

Between weddings, family meals, this illness/flu thing that I cannot-shake-for-the-life-of-me and paying work. The Blog has been neglected. I apologise.

I’ll end on two things: 1. I was told this past weekend that eventually you need to give up on your dream and find somethign else. Well, that does make sense in a practical way, but it would make me feel like a complete failure and 2. If I do change my destiny, what do I do with this blog?

p.s. Happy American Thanksgiving: remember to be thankful for all the little things you might take for granted each day. That’s what the day is truely about, and everyday should really be about. Friends, family, being lucky enough to have food on your table, much less choice. Clothes on your back and a roof over your head.

I am thankful for all of these things and so much more.

via andreaweckerle on flickr

So I have decided and volunteered to create a social media campaign for my part-time retail job. As it’s an individual versus a chain, there could be immense benefits from a campaign such as this and regardless what you may think of social media, bottom line is, it’s pretty darn affordable.

A problem they seem to have had since they opened their Aberdonian Farm Shop in Edinburgh, The Store, was that people didn’t know what they were. An expensive organic shop? A bath shop? A boutique of some sort? Bluntly, it’s “your farm shop in the city” and they should stick with that. It works and says what they are/do.

My only limits thusfar is that I am going to go as far as I can on the cheap (read: free), which should be okay. The only other limit is that I’m the only one who knows how to do most of it and they aren’t going to pay me an extra fee for constant upkeep and some aspects will need to be updated regularly and cross linked with another ect.

However, I enjoy it. I do it on a daily basis for myself, and if you look at this list of companies using social media (and how) that Jon from force.com posted on my friendfeed recently, my brand, DTC, is up there with any of the others in regards to a SM campaign. Althogh, I’m more like Kate Moss. My brand is myself, anything I do personally affects my work, but I don’t get millions and constant job offers…

Since I’m doing it I may as well get it all out here and plug it. If you live in Edinburgh (or Aberdeen) and have even the slightest interest in fresh local produce, locally sourced goodies and  the finest Aberdeen Angus beef and grass fed lamb you’ll ever taste, check out the website www.thestorecompany.co.uk or better yet, become our fan on facebook and spread the word.  Also, you can check out some of our photos on The Store’s Flickr site!  Goregous food, delicious staff! Can it get better than that?!

update: you can follow The Store on twitter too!

Belle & Sebastian

I live under the deluded, however sometimes comforting, generalisation that everyone shares the same quirks as myself. For example, that certain songs written were meant for you. Maybe they aren’t you word fro word, but they touch you in a way you feel you’ve never been touched before.

unfortunately, it is disappointing to find that the same song has affected or moved even one other person in the same or similar way. But should one person hear it, think of you or send it your way – well that’s your year made.

Life really is about the little things.

via postsecret

As an American currently living Britain, elections, and the outcome imparticular, have various effects on my life.

Right now I’m feeling an overwhelming sense of optimism, hope and emotion. Almost as if I had gotten used to dark days.

Not that anything is going to change over night. President Obama (that makes me very happy) has taken on the most difficult job out there – and has a country divided to deal with.

One of my main hopes is that America splits less & begins to work together. If they can’t be peaceful within, how can they expect the rest of the world to a. be peaceful or b. respect them.