Friday, July 31, 2009

It's hot out

Just thought I'd share some sweaty love with the internet.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Stupid Muffins are taking over my life.

My fellow Poke interns and I won ten boxes of free muffins from the Little Debbie's Intern Hero contest. Typically I'm turned off by contests that ask you to tweet/blog about their brand in exchange for freebies, but I admire Little Debbie for realizing the power behind interns.

About 90% of interns are under utilized and/or abused. Little Debbie realized this, and asked them to complete a simple task (up load a photo) which promotes both Little Debbie and also the intern's place of "employment". Little Debbie gets to spread her name without looking like a spam bot, the intern gets props from the boss for spreading the company name, and the whole office gets free muffins. Everyone wins.
We even announced the muffins arrival via twitter and showcased their unveiling on the Poke cam. A big wig from Little Debbie, David Griner from AdFreak and few other POKE fans showed up to watch.

All this for a few muffins and some appreciation.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Umbrella Wars

As the drops fall from and the umbrellas emerge, so do their deadly eye poking spurs.Walking down the street proves to be a challenge when yielding an umbrella and having to navigate through the sea of rain shields.

The city should start an Umbrella War Challenge. Everyone races down Broadway with umbrellas up. The first one to the end wins.

I imagine you’d have five key types of players.

1.The “I’m really tall” guy who will hold his umbrella high as possible hoping to make it through the race without too much maneuvering based on his sheer height.

2.The "Tank" will hold his umbrella tight at his given height and plow through all on coming umbrellas. When two Tanks collide, there is bound to be bloodshed.

3.The “Hoodie on my Head” guy. He didn’t really intend to play the game, and he doesn’t even have an umbrella. He will take advantage of his lack of umbrella to quickly bob and weave throughout the crowd, often speed walking in the street to avoid the umbrella masses.

4.The "Spinner" is similar to the tank, but he has decided to sacrifice dryness in exchange for intimidation. He has watched far too many video game based movies and decided it would be a good idea to take his umbrella down and hold it in front of his torso and spin it, much like the Penguin in Batman.

5.The "Upper and Downer" guy will attempt to evaluate which type of player you are and then adjust the height of his umbrella accordingly. If he thinks you’re staying up, he’ll go down. These players are the most dangerous due to their unpredictable nature and sudden jerky movements.

I’m not sure which character would win, but I think one of those Japanese-style game shows should consider Umbrella Wars as a possible event.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

I'm a certified internet stalker.


In my second month at Poke, I'm wadding in the deep black waters of social marketing research. I spend my days sitting at the Poke picnic table combing the far corners of the interwebs to find bloggers and Tweeters talking about the things I want them to talk about.

Through my internet exploration, I've picked up a few search tools that have changed my life.

Blogsearch.google.com lets you search google blogs (take that Wordpress).

Alltop
brings you the top blogs by topic. Thank you Guy Kawasaki for making my life better.

Alexa.com gives you lots of numbers. The numbers are useless BUT the site is useful for comparing the popularity of two different websites.

Compete.com
shows you the number of unique monthly views.

And then we always have our standby search.twitter.com for searching tweets.

Klout.com tells you who you are "most influenced by" on Twitter. It's fun but makes me feel like a Twitter wallflower.

Research is great. It gives you permission to be an online creeper for hire.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Every little kid always wanted a room that was covered with beds, now I have one.


Most people don't understand what I mean when I say that I'm Michael's roommate, or even when I say that I'm sharing a room with him. I should really start saying "I share a mattress nest with Michael."

Despite what it may look like, sharing a room really isn't that bad. It means that you can live twice as long in New York or that you can spend twice as much money. For example, when I'm weary about buying a cup of coffee or shelling out for the Museum of Natural History. I think to myself, "I'm saving $775 by sharing a room. I can spend that money to enhance my NY experience in other ways (aka coffee and museums)."

To all the other unpaid interns out there: I suggest you consider sharing a room to cut costs.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Growing my subway muscles

Two great side effects of worm-holing on the subway:
1. Increased bicep strength.
2. Increased literacy. It's a great time to read when you aren't working out your forearms.

This is what happens when you move away and spend too much time on the phone.

Little baby pimple crops grow on your face in the exact shape of your phone, go figure.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Creative Crack = The product of lots of men in tight pants and snug tees sitting


After spending almost a month mingling amongst NY hipsters, I have discovered what I call the "creative crack". It says, "I'm an artist, a painter, a writer, blah, blah, blah and I like my clothing to hug my body."

Perhaps America should think twice about open back chairs if we are going to invest so much in tight clothing.

Monday, July 6, 2009

I want to be a New York sign writer

Even though most of these signs are telling me not to do something, they all make me laugh. Unfortunately I was with out a camera when I saw the giant sign covered with pictures of lamps and watches reading "Wife Insurance." I'm still not sure what wife insurance is.

Of course the Asian girl had to have a conical hat at the multicultural program sign. They probably should have put a cowboy hat on the white kid.

New York hates free fun.


Thank you for defining loitering.

What a lovely haircut menu.