Look what I learned at school today

Latrinalia = restroom graffiti

Rose colored glasses make you look down

Sometimes the sun is too bright so you are forced to hang your head; sometimes you notice new things.

Food + Toys = Joy = Happy Meal

I’m an emotional eater. I was raised on happy meals. Eat this and it will make you happy; thank you McDonald’s marketing.

And food that comes with a toy? That’s just awesome. Meet the Winky Guard that came in my roommate’s Happy Meal. You may recognize him from such movies as the Wizard of Oz.

My Baseball Card

J-school kids are like trading cards, collect us all.

If my roommate beatboxed

Ikea is cheap, but college students are cheaper

This is what happens when you leave four girls alone in a room with some lipstick.

I made my first Ikea trip a week ago. I am proud to say I walked out of the Disneyland-like compound empty handed. My roommates and I did however decide to imitate some kiss paper Ikea art.

I bet you can’t tell which lip prints are mine.

Women plas faster than men

Plas- the act of giving blood plasma, according to the veteran blood plasma donor. The best part of becoming part of a new activity is the ability to make up your own words,terms and verbs to describe it.

Look up EMO kid

You might be an emo if...
You spend more time looking up than down. That said, it concerns me that I take so many pictures of my feet.

Stuffed animals possessed with sass

I ran into these stuffed animals during an aimless walk at the Valley River Center mall. I don't know when toy manufacturers started making plush toys with such smug expressions, but it scares me.

Let’s call it art.

For a city full of earth loving hippies and eco-freak college kids asking if we have a moment for the environment, Eugene is full of tennis shoes on wires.

Imagine if people gave their old shoes to the crazy cat lady on the corner of MLK instead of throwing them over wires. Nah, too practical for us.

YouTube is my bff

YouTube is my new best friend. It celebrates the average, mundane and mediocre.

Lately my roommates and I have fallen into a vicious YouTube trap.

Click only if you dare to enter the angst trap.

Get a Life Horse Freak

Production designer, Michael Curry, says the secret to success is simple- work harder than the guy next to you and you’ll get noticed.

The general consensus says you have to have a life to be creative. Curry says there is no such thing as “random.” When an idea dances off your lips, it is a culmination of past experiences condensed into that moment. Moral of the story, I need a life.

To create unique pieces, we can’t rely on the experiences and past work of others. This is why Curry suggests staying away from five page background check before you’ve had time to let an idea marinate. The “ah-ha” moment doesn’t come from accepted knowledge.

I admire Curry for his free-spirited nature, even more so because he posed with a toy horse for his professional portrait.

We all need a little bit of horse love in life. Most girls want ponies for Christmas. I never got a real pony, but to keep the magic of horses in m life I’ve started a horse blog.

Posting a blog dedicated to unicorn/horse videos is not going to give me a life, but I did it anyway.

Feeding the Monster

Time, energy, sleep, inspiration, all fed to the Blogster (blog monster).

Dad says

My dad is an accomplished man and thankfully for me he wants to share his wisdom. I find it only fair to share his advice with the rest of the world.

Wise words from my father:

“Boys are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”

“Parking tickets are a good investment because they go up in value.”

“There is no reason for you to move out [Megan]. Just live in our house and wait for us to die so you can take over.”

“Tell your roommate to stop rabbit-hutching with her boyfriend. You should keep 3-4 boys on the hook at all time, but the last thing you want is to get pregnant and drop out of college. “

Jelly Helm Ruined my Life[plan]

I couldn’t stop nodding my head in agreement with Jelly, executive creative director of Wieden+Kennedy, during his presentation on the future of branding today at Cre8con.

According to Jelly, people develop preference for brands through experiences, such as holding an iPhone. If the iPhone sucks, all the advertising in the world couldn’t have turned Apple into the brand guru it is today. As Jelly said, people like brands that aren’t shoved down their throats. Instead, they like brands that soar on their own because they offer something that no one else can.

This leaves me wondering if we should shift our focus from advertising to creating unique products/brands that will sell themselves.

I am comforted that a bigwig such as Jelly had once questioned the validity of advertising after reading Noam Chomsky. While I haven’t read Chomsky, I’ve been wondering if advertising is anything more than “creative crap.” But I told myself, “Jelly is smart, creative and still in the industry so advertising must be fun.”

Then Jelly broke the news; he’s leaving Wieden+Kennedy to become a beach bum.

If Jelly is leaving he is either A) dirty rich B) given up on ‘good’ advertising , or C) having a personal life crisis.

Jelly leaving Wieden+Kennedy makes me wondering if I should just skip the whole “having a career” part of my life and jump start to “the living on a Mexican beach part."


I couldn’t find a link to Jelly’s website, but this might be better.

Shut up. Something is happening in Hillsboro?

Yes, Brian Van’t Hul of Laika is working on the stop-motion feature, Coraline, in Hillsboro, OR. Too bad Hillsboroians have to make their film debut in a stop motion flick; no one will be believe us when tell them that it was shot in the burro.

Corlaine is based on the book by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick. Check out the creepy button-eyed ghost kids in the movie.

R.I.P. Wildebeest

It’s official; I’ve been inducted to the Mac club. When I announced the purchase of my MacBook Pro on Twitter, I received the most tweet replies in the whole of my Twitter career (a painstakingly addictive eight weeks).

As much as I love my new Mac, I can’t help but feel sorry for my old 17-inch Dell Inspiron, which I lovingly refer to as The Wildebeest and sometimes The Mothership. Sure, The Wildebeest was slow, overweight and stood out in the J-School like Paris Hilton in a public pool, but it never did anything to hurt me. Hopefully I can find The Wildebeest a good post career hobby- fishing, bird house making or cupcake decorating anyone?

Bacon, Spam, Youtube

Three Key Insights from Scott Kveton of Vidoop

1. Bacon is the candy of meats.
2. We can call spammers our enemies.
3. Youtube didn't exist during the last election.

One thing Kim and I couldn’t figure out during Inverge was what these drain-like structures were. They were randomly scattered under our chairs and there are too many for us to believe they are drains.

Disney Magic is in the Pixie Dust

According to the VP of Disney Technology and Innovation, Chris Heatherly’s, who presented at Inverge today, the two most important things in new toy technology (“toymorrow”) are personalization and customization. Afterall, “dressing up avatars online is one of the most popular activities for kids online,” Heatherly said.

Heatherly showed us the toys that Disney is pushing on girls ages 2-8, I was disappointed to see that they were just two: Disney princesses and Disney pixies (aka princesses with wings.)

I spent some time at Pixie Hallow today, and created my own pixie. I named her Sophie Pumpkinbutter, gave her animal listening skills and a pair of pink converse.

I’ve yet to decide if I’m disappointed in Disney culture for settling on toys that tell girls to change their clothes all day, or if I’m impressed with how kick-ass my pixie is.

No wonder I think I need 12 pairs of shoes and 25 different hoodies.

Loving Heroin

After watching a string of friends drift in and out of relationships, I've decided that this so called "love" should be regulated as a controlled substance, much like heroin.

Consider this, both "love" and heroin
1. Impair judgment
2. Lead to unwanted pregnancy
3. Cause weight loss/gain
4. Provide ample inspiration songs and movie plots
5. Send people to counselors
6. Cause you to alienate friends and lose jobs
7. Promote the spread of STD's

The Tobacco Industry is Stalking Me

The tobacco industry is scary. Today I received an invitation to try Camel Snus for free. The invite came addressed directly to me a textured enveloped sealed with a sparkling blue Camel sticker, just like any invitation to the oral cancer ball should.

How’d I get on R.J. Renynold’s Tobacco Co.’s mailing list?

$3 revelation

Driving home from Goodwill today I thought about how I would change my Twitter status, announcing my bargain $3 desk, chair and decorative plate shelf purchase. Then it hit me: I’ve become a social media monster.

I keep a camera in my purse just in case I see something I need to blog about and when I’m out with my friends I think about what a great Facebook album it will make.

I have a problem. I am a social media addict.

Needless to say, I still updated my Twitter status. As embarrassing and time consuming as it is, I’m not ready to give up my addiction.

According to U of O's, Tyler Kirsch Facebook is used as a gateway to a social media addiction. Tyler diagnosed the disease as Facebook Fever.