30 Days of Thanks: Sweet Memories

I have so much to be thankful for. So much more than I could ever articulate or capture in a blog post. Even while I’m drafting this entry in my bedroom, I hear my boyfriend, his son, and our niece and nephew giggle over a movie they are watching in the living room. Between the laughter, I hear them recounting their favorite parts of the festival we attended today, and every couple of minutes my sweet dog, Stanley, punctuates their snickering with a good  squeak  of his toy from behind the couch. The distinct smell of “taco night” is still strong in our apartment even though the dishes have been done for hours. My life is full. I am blessed.

Of all these blessings, this year I am choosing to document some of my simplest and sweetest memories of my father. Dad was unexpectedly taken from us this summer, and while my heart is broken that he is gone, I am abundantly grateful for his love, his lessons, and all the sweet, sweet memories.

The Haunting on Glenmeadow Drive

Like most small kids, my little brother and I loved to play good guy/bad guy games. We were four and five, respectively, and it was his turn to be bad guy. He had me tied up with a jump rope in a bedroom closet and aggressively robbed me at finger point, shouting demands in his best “bad guy” voice. It was all in good fun until Dad, doing some handy work in the attic, heard us playing through the ceiling vents. Dad threw the breaker switch, knocking out the power in that part of the house, leaned facedown into the vent in the bedroom, and let out his loudest, scariest “MUWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!” Toby ran screaming and probably scarred for life, while I tried furiously to squirm out of the triple-knotted jump ropes. Terror doesn’t get more pure than that, and Dads just don’t laugh harder than that.

Roughhousing With Class

When we played, we played classy. Tummies had to be settled, all dangerous furniture was moved out of the living room, and my Dad blasted his record (yes, as in a RECORD) of the William Tell Overture through my parents’s turntable with surround sound audio. Games of choice included, but were not limited to,  Bunkin’ Bronco, Tick Tock, and of course, the Tickle Fight. Dad would take my siblings and I (four total) all on at once. The Universe stopped and bedtime was forgotten about. We would play until our cheeks were burning and our sides were sore from laughter, and after awhile, without us even knowing it, our eyelids would start to fall. He’d gather us all up at the same time (he was the strongest man in the whole, wide world), and drop us each into our respective beds with a kiss on the forehead. I’ll never sleep so well again.

The Playground Dad Built

Snack time on the see saw.

I had friends with cool swingsets, or even a neat pool slide, but no one had a backyard like ours. Each piece of that backyard was

truly assembled with love, sweat and tears. There was the seesaw Dad built with his own hands. Kids from all over the neighborhood came just to take a turn on that seesaw.

We also had the Sesame Street swingset, because it just doesn’t get cooler than swinging with Big Bird. And we had the four-seater spinny thing we never really knew what to call. We just called it “Mayonnaise-Mustard-Ketchup” because it was white, yellow and red, but it was AWESOME! And the tire swing, you just can’t have enough fun on a tire swing.

Then there was the beautiful sandbox Dad built us from scratch. It really was a work of art, handcrafted and flawless. But before he installed the masterpiece he worked so hard on, he bought every color of paint he could find, gave us each a paint brush, and just let us go, and somehow, it was a little more beautiful when we were done.

 

Dad’s New Best Friend

Dad and Rufus
Dad and his best bud, Rufus.

We had a relatively strict no pet policy growing up. We were able to weasel our way into a couple of small rodents here and there, even ducks, but Dad was particularly adamant about no dogs. We would beg, and we would cry, but Dad would squint his eyes and curl his lips under, and we knew his decision was final.

That all changed in my sixth grade year. Each day my Mom came to pick me up from school, my little brother already in tow, and each day she saw the neglected litter of new puppies born at the house across the street. They were dirty, flea-ridden, hungry, and just so cute. One afternoon Mom hit her breaking point. Instead of just pulling up in front of the school for me to jump in the van, she parked the car and hopped out with my brother. With a determined look on her face, she marched across the street and knocked on the dog owner’s door. A brief chat and twenty dollars later, we had a puppy.

We played with him all afternoon in the front yard. He was frightened and excited at the same, and so were we. How would Dad react when he got home? When Dad finally pulled into the driveway that evening, we hid the puppy underneath a blanket and between boxes in the garage. We tried so hard to keep our faces straight and act normal, but Dad could of course sense the giddy anxiety in us all, and the frightened puppy shaking violently beneath the sheet didn’t help much either. Dad glanced across all of our “straight” faces, looked down at the quivering sheet, and pulled it back with a swift, hard tug. Dad couldn’t even be mad. In that moment, he knew he had just met his new best friend. He named him Rufus, and that second began a 15 year journey the twosome would enjoy together, side-by-side every step of the way.

I am so grateful for my father, the time we had, and all the sweet memories. These are by no means all of my memories of my father, or even my favorite. They are just the ones that are making me smile today. Thanks, Dad.

Our Favorite Facebook Pages

Some of us at Schipul spend a lot of time on Facebook. A LOT. But don’t judge, it’s totally part of our job. Whether we’re sprucing up a profile picture for a client, building out an iframe, checking out the latest Facebook updates (and there’s ALWAYS an update) or trolling to see who’s doing what with their audience, this social networking site commands a good deal of our attention. As such, we’ve seen it all when if comes to the best and worst of Facebook fan pages. Check out the faves from some of the Schipul staff:

Katrina’s Favorites

No surprise here. Our fashionista/Creative Services Team Account Executive, Katrina Esco, LOVES how Nordstrom uses their Facebook page to highlight their services, and they keep fans coming back with beauty how-to videos hosted by their beauty director using a Beauty Central app.


Katrina also gives Sephora’s Facebook page props for always keeping their content fresh with new promotions as demonstrated on their Exclusive Deals tab. But Katrina gives Sephora the most points for recognizing the importance of photos and fan engagement on their page by feeding in customer pics taken in photobooths installed in select retail locations. You can even browse by location and date.

 

Scooter’s Favorites

As for me (Katrina *Scooter* Kokoska), I get a kick out of the Skittles Facebook fan page. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t like the candy even a little, just their marketing. The Skittles page encourages fan engagement by soliciting fan photos and featuring a different “Rainbro of the Week” each week as their profile picture. Also, their posts are random, silly and make me smile (and their not self-promotional). My favorite random post from them this week: “Sometimes I sneak up on my alarm clock when it’s sleeping and yell ‘How does it feel!‘”  

I also have mad love for the (client) Tony Chachere’s page. Now this page doesn’t flaunt a lot of bells and whistles. Why? Because it doesn’t have to. Tony’s skips the games and apps and gets right down to what Facebook is all about: Community. They post content about real people doing real things in real life, and their fans love it.

Erica’s Favorites

Creative Services Team Graphic Designer, Erica Bogdan, totally digs Red Bull’s Facebook page for their fun videos and games, and loves the aesthetics of the Anthropologie page because: “It’s sooooo beautiful and makes my closet sad.” But Erica’s favorite page? Franklin the Dog of course.

 

Garrett’s Favorites

Creative Services Team Assistant Account Executive Garrett Thomas has some interesting favorites of his own. While he doesn’t ‘Facebook like’ the Barbie page, he thinks they do a great job of bringing together Barbie’s multiple personas in a palatable format for their target market.

And he loves the Stride Gum page because, well, who doesn’t love a Yeti with a sense of humor?

What are some of your favorite Facebook fanpages?

Is Facebook’s Latest Update a Gamechanger?

Facebook makes changes to the way the network works on the daily. I do my best to stay up to speed, and I’m normally pretty polar in how I feel about an algorithm update here or an interface change there, but Facebook’s latest major announcement has me teetering.  Here’s what’s going on. . .

Facebook is introducing a ‘Subscribe” button. I think this is major. Here’s how it will work:

  1. You can subscribe to Public status updates from people you are not Facebook friends with.
  2. You can choose what kind of updates you see from your current Facebook friends. You can choose to subscribe to All Updates, Most Updates or Only Important Updates.
  3. You can allow people who aren’t your friends to subscribe to your Public Facebook status updates. Don’t worry, you have to opt in for this to be available to those who stumble across your Facebook profile.

Why this is great

Follow your Faves

You can subscribe to a celebrity or famous blogger’s Public status updates. They’ll likely never make Facebook friends with you, and now you don’t have to troll their profiles to see what they are publishing publicly.

Filtered Content

You can trim your newsfeed down to the status updates that really interest you. For example, if the girl who sat behind you in Sophomore Chemistry updates her Facebook every time her cat sneezes, you can choose to see ‘Only Important” updates from her without feeling badly about hiding or unfriending her (but if she really updates every time her cat sneezes, you really shouldn’t feel badly about unfriending her. Just sayin).  You can also subscribe to specific types of content your friends are posting. Choices are Life Events, Status Updates, Photos and Videos, and Games.

Market Yourself

For personal marketing purposes, you can extend the number of people who read your content by allowing non-friends to subscribe to your feeds. This way, if you would like anyone in the world to easily access to knowledge you share regarding specific topics, but don’t want to be friends with the whole world, you can allow other Facebook users to subscribe to your public content.

Why this really isn’t that great

Dilutes the Power of the Fan Page

I totally get that there is a difference between a celebrity’s personal profile page and their Facebook fan page, and that there will be different content, but:

  1. Being able to subscribe to their personal pages seems to dilute the purpose of the fan page.
  2. Seeing as most celebrities share what they want the world to know via their public fan pages, what new content would I really be subscribing to here?

I know that this feature doesn’t just apply to major celebrities, but you get the point.   Lines are getting greyer here. Could be a good thing, but my gut reaction is to feel a tad uneasy.

I’m Just Jaded

I really appreciate getting to trim down what I see from which friends. This is cool, and by far the best part of this new feature. But honestly, Facebook, I’m not inclined to use it, because you’re just going to change it up in two weeks anyway.

Hello, Twitter, is that you?

This whole subscribing-to-people-without-having-to-be-their-friend thing reeks of Twitter. I like using Twitter and the way it works. . .  when I’m on Twitter. Basically, I feel like this update begs the question: ‘ISN’T THAT WHAT TWITTER IS FOR?”

Let’s look at the numbers: Facebook has 750 million active users. Twitter just announced that it reached the 100 million active users milestone. If I were to make the assumption that everyone on Twitter is also on Facebook, I could reasonably assume that 650 million of the active users on Facebook are NOT  interested in Twitter. So, why are we trying to make Facebook more like Twitter?!

This Automates Trolling

Well, that about sums up my point there.

Those are my two cents on this update. I’d love to hear yours. If you’re interested, you can follow my public content on Twitter, which is where I will continue to focus on posting it until I see Facebook embrace the subscription thing for personal marketing.

THE END

Facebook Makes Sharing Easier

So, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t consider it a real week unless Facebook has made some sort of major interface change I have to adapt to. Don’t get me wrong; change is good, but sometimes it’s exhausting, and sometimes I don’t love the changes. Today, however, I’m happy to explain a User Interface change that I’m sure we will all agree is, well, just swell.

Inline Privacy Settings

Facebook has moved many of its privacy settings inline! Here, let me explain.

Before these changes were implemented, if you wanted to edit who in your friends lists could see what on your profile (i.e. Status Updates, About Me, Hometown, etc.), you had to comb through lists of options buried deep in your account settings. It was cumbersome to say the least. Now, these settings are visible right next to the piece of content you’re editing. Take a look:

 

 

Tag Approval

You remember that time you said you couldn’t make a your cousin’s wedding because you didn’t feel well, then your friend tagged you in a photo dancing on a table that same night, and your family was, like, SUPER mad? That’s not a thing anymore guys. You get to approve photo tags before all your friends see your indiscretions. You’ll simply see a Pending Posts link beneath the “Wall” link on your profile, where you’ll be prompted to approve the posts.

But wait!. . . There’s more! You’ll also be given the ability to approve tags that other friends try to add to your photos and posts. I feel liberated already.

That’s not all folks! You’ll also have more choices when removing  a tag someone else added. Choices include: a.) Remove tag, b.) Ask friend to take photo down, c.) Block friend. It’s like choosing the flavor of mustard I want from the store; I’m paralyzed with indecision.

Impersonation

So you spent forever splitting up your 4,500 friends up into appropriate lists so that you know that you’re sharing the right content with the right people, right? But you could never be certain the settings all worked the way you wanted, especially since they change so frequently. Now you can. Introducing. . . the “View Profile as” button!!! (applause roars in the background). This lets you impersonate any of your Facebook friends, so you can see what they can see.

 

Status Update Modifications

Status updates just got cooler, y’all. There are a couple nice new features to note:

1.) You can tag locations from your posts. Before, you had the check into a location from your smartphone using the Places feature. Now, you can search locations right at the status update field. Apparently, Never Never Land is a place.

2.) All media uploads are consolidated under Add Photo. I think this provides a cleaner, simpler interface.

3.) The Share Link feature is gone, now all you have to do to share a link is copy/paste the URL into your status update. You’ll get the same result.

All these updates boil down to a simpler, cleaner interface, more accessible privacy controls and more intuitive status update box. I heart all of these changes. What do you guys think?

Friday Fun: That’s Not What She Said

I like “That’s What She Said” jokes just as much as the next person. I could listen to them all day (and I do), but I really do miss the days when jokes didn’t have to be perverse or controversial to be funny. Somewhere around the age of 12 or 13, it seems like everyone’s funny bone becomes a funny boner. Humor and perversion become inseparable.

What happened to finding humor in a play on words that didn’t hinge on prepositions like “up” or “in?” When did we start having to look over both shoulders before telling a joke? When did NSFW even become an acronym?

Well, I, for one, still love the clean classics. A good knock knock joke or a clever and innocent play on words will tickle my fancy every time. So, in honor of the oldies but goodies, in honor of a time and age when we wouldn’t have understood a single Michael Scott joke, here are a few of my favorites:

Joke # 1

Q: “What did the mommy buffalo say to her child as he walked away?”

A: “Bye, son.”

BWAAAHAAAHAAAHAAA!!! Get it!? Bye, son. . . . Like bison – as in plural for buffalo?. . . . . . Man, this joke is genius. . . . . Now, catch your breath, I’ve got more.

Joke #2

Q: “Did you hear what happened to the peanut in Central Park?”

A: “He was a salted!”

Brilliant! Come on, someone call Mariska Hargitay, this peanut was A SALTED!!!!! Hahahahahaha! This is purified awesome.

Ok, Ok, there’s more…

Joke #3

One day a piece of string was going for a walk to blow off some steam. He ended up walking into a bar to get a beer. Immediately the bartender said: “Hey, aren’t you a piece of string?!”

String said: “Why, yes I am.”

The bartender replied, “We don’t serve string here, GET OUTTA MY BAR!”

Now String was pretty upset, but as he continued on his walk he ran into a friend. She said, “String, what’s wrong? You look so sad.”

String said, “Oh, I’m just having a bad day, and I got kicked out of this bar….”

She knew just the thing to make him feel better, so she frayed his ends. And sure enough, he felt like a whole new piece of string. Unfortunately though, the feeling didn’t last long, and soon he began to sulk again.

A little while later, he ran into another friend. She said, “String, what’s wrong? You look so sad.” He told her the whole story. She knew just the thing to make him feel better, so she tied him in a knot.

And it worked. String felt so great, he had the confidence to go back to that bar and demand his beer.

He walked in and said, “Bartender, gimme a beer!”

The bartender looked at him for second and said, “Hey, aren’t you that piece of string who came in here earlier?”

And then the string said, “No, I’m a frayed knot!”

…………………………………………………..

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…………………………………………………..Um

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…………………………………………………..ah-hem

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Ok, Ok, I’m back. I’m Sorry. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t even type (wiping tears from my eyes). That might be my favorite. joke. EVER. . . . . I’m a frayed knot. . . Who did that crazy string think he was fooling?

Ok, moving on. . .

Joke #4

Q: “Why did the tomato blush?”

A: “Because he saw the salad dressing”

Pure. Classic. Genius.

And finally. . . .

Joke #5

Now this one is for the super big nerds out there. And the fact that I even understand this joke is proof that working at Schipul has turned me into a bona fide GEEK. Special thanks to our programmers for this, as a couple of them recently tweeted this joke and had me in stitches.

“A SQL query walks into a bar. He approaches two tables and says: Mind if I join you?”


HilARious!!!! Y’all, jokes like this are why knee slapping EXISTS.

In conclusion. . .

I hope you enjoyed my sweet, silly and clean jokes. If you didn’t, I’m sorry. But don’t misunderstand my apology. I’m not sorry because I told them to you. I’m sorry because that little piece of your soul – the place where joy and simple things live – is empty. That must suck.

The End.

When Life Gets Hard, Work Harder

It was a short conversation. Maybe a grand total of 30 seconds, jam-packed with awkwardness and revelation at the same time (which, by the way, feels kinda weird). I was 16 or 17 years old, and Mr. Miller’s AP English class had just ended for the day. Mr. Miller was notorious for being rough, and for demanding perfection. His claim to fame – Deducting 31 points on any paper for one misplaced comma (he also performed the “Snoopy Dance” for our birthdays). But he was an amazing teacher, so I sat up straight to listen intently each day, and I was always sure to watch my commas.

The dismissal bell rang, and we all stood to leave.

Mr. Miller called me aside. ‘Hey, Kokoska. Gotta minute?”

‘Of course, Mr. Miller.” I had, and still have, an immense amount of respect for Mr. Miller. I would have had hours for him if he’d asked.

He looked down at me and pressed his lips together the way that father figures do when they are about to teach you a lesson. ‘I got an email from your sister last night.” (She was a student of his a few years before.)

‘Oh. That’s cool. I need to give her a call.”

His lips pressed together a little tighter; he took a deep breath. ‘She said you’re going through some pretty tough times right now, and that I should take it easy on you.”

A short but awkward pause ensued, during which my head was down and my cheeks turned bright red.

I could feel Mr. Miller’s eyes on me, but I didn’t want to look up. I had seen that pity look too many times, and I wasn’t interested in seeing it from him. I finally had to lift my head and meet his eyes, and there was no pity there at all. He just said, ‘I told her I wouldn’t.”

‘Thank you, Mr. Miller.”

He smiled, and I walked away to make my next class.

‘I told her I wouldn’t. . . .” Finally, someone gave a girl who was dealing with some pretty real circumstances a really real answer. I had heard my fair share clichés, but Mr. Miller told me two very important things in those 30 seconds.

1.)           His words told me, ‘Never be a victim of your circumstances”’ Life can suck. It does that sometimes. But when one part of life starts sucking, the other parts don’t get easier. Man up, and stay true to you.

2.)           His eyes told me, ‘I have confidence in you”’ A little bit of that goes a long way.

I got my first and only C that term, courtesy of Mr. Miller. But I know that I did my best for that C, and that I didn’t get the lower grade because I had a lot on my plate. I got the lower grade because we were reading William Faulkner that term (I still don’t know what The Bear is about, and I’m OK with that. . . Pick your battles.)

Mr. Miller taught me each day for two years, but he never taught me more than he did in those 30 seconds.

The lesson was simple: When life gets hard. . . Work harder.

So. . . thank you, Mr. Miller, for everything (except for the Faulkner; I didn’t like that at all).

The End

P.S.

Please excuse the sappy post. It’s the holiday season. I can’t help it.

Why I Can’t Road Trip Without My Droid

So, if you’re like me, your vacations are oftentimes road trips. There’s no better way to relax. You’re with the ones you love; you’re on your own time schedule, and you have the freedom to go on every little detour your heart desires. Perfect, right?

But one second everyone in the car is all like: “Look, a chipmunk!”

“Aaaaww, the hills are so beautiful; I’m so glad we didn’t fly”

“O. . . M. . . G. . . ! That cropduster flew right over the top of the car! That was AWESOME!”

All in unison: “This is swell!”

But then a few hours later everyone is all like: “If you play that Bon Jovi song one more time . . . !!!”

“I have to pee!”

“I told you we should have exited back there!”

And of course, from the back seat: “ARE WE THERE YET?!”

It doesn’t take long for the young, happy family to get started on a dysfunctional road trip.   But you don’t have pack muzzles and rope anymore to achieve the relaxing, scenic drive you were looking for. Why? . . . Because you have a Droid.

Here are the top 3 reasons I MUST have my Android phone to take any sort of road trip:

Reason #1: Keeping the Kids Quiet

While I don’t actually have any of my own, I often road trip in the company of young children. And this may come as a surprise to some of you, but children get crazy bored on road trips. CRAZY bored. And I don’t know about you, but I can only play the Alphabet Sign Game so many times before I start thinking of new and creative ways to make the Silent Game sound fun again, and that’s starts getting cruel pretty quickly.

Thankfully, my Droid help keeps my conscience clear and my sanity in check. It has some great, clean apps that can keep the kids busy for hours, and it sure beats letting them play Grand Theft Auto on their DS and hearing them talk about how cool it is when they run someone over. Here are some of my picks:

  • Homerun Battle 3D – mostly because it’s straight up addictive and will keep them busy for hours.
  • What the Doodle!? – This is pretty awesome. It’s a real time game that allows you to pretty much play Pictionary with other Android users anywhere. See for yourself.
  • Word Up! – It’s also addictive, and keeps them thinking.

Reason #2: I Get Lost A Lot

I have no sense of direction. At all. You know how you used to feel confused after spinning around for a long time with your arms out when you were a kid? . . . I feel like that all the time.   But thanks to my Droid, I spend more time lost in my thoughts than I do on the road. I got my Droid a year and a half ago. At the time, the Maps app was unimpressive and unreliable, but it has come a looooong way. Now the Google Maps app has full navigation capabilities and several settings. It will even show me a picture of the exit I will have to take. Plus, I get a kick out of hearing the voice in the navigation try to pronounce signs that have abbreviations in them.

Reason #3: I Get Lost A Lot

Did I mention that I get lost a lot? Well Android introduced the Layar augmented reality app about a year ago. Since it’s introduction, developers have added a lot of bells and whistles, but I love it just for finding simple places, especially when I’m on foot. Let’s say I’ve road tripped to Philadelphia and now I’m leisurely touring the city on foot (Note: Your feet will hurt a lot after doing this. Trust me). I know that Rocky Statue is somewhere, but maps are Greek to me and I don’t know where to go. So I just do a search for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Layar pulls up a real time screen with a dot that shows you where the museum is in relation to me. All I have to do is keep walking in the direction of the dot, and I’m there. I use this a lot when I have to park far away from a venue, and by the time I find a spot, I have no idea how to get back to my destination. Layar has a million other cool features, and my description simply can’t do it justice, take a look for yourself.