It’s December 6. You’re in a rut. You stuffed yourself with turkey two weeks ago and have been counting down the days all year until Christmas. The spirit of the holidays is buzzing through the air, but you just can’t feel it in your bones. You’re feeling more like the Grinch than a jolly Christmas elf. Time is running out. Here are five simple sure-fire ways to get visions of sugarplums dancing in your head in no time.
1. Change your phone wallpaper.
You use your mobile phone all day, so a little holiday reminder every time you unlock it is like transmitting subliminal Christmas messages into your brain. Use a festive photo or a wallpaper you find online. Better yet, why don’t you Christmasfy yourself and use that. Bonus points for changing your ringtone to “Deck the Halls” or “Jingle Bells.” Super extra bonus points for changing your ringtone to the lesser-known classics, “Mele Kalikimaka” or Love, Actually’s “Christmas is All Around.”
2. Get a tree. Get a pine candle. Get some tree branches.
Generally speaking, you need *the* scent. Pine, cinnamon, gingerbread, mistletoe; It really doesn’t matter. If you’re being frugal (and who isn’t these days?), go down to the hardware store and pick up some of the scrap branches that tree-cutters leave on the floor and deck your halls with them. Grab some of the sawed-off stumps from the tree lot and throw them in a pot of simmering water on your stove. Glade has a relatively cheap holiday candle collection (forget the expensive Yankee variety) if the thought of bringing nature into your home freaks you out. Nothing says holiday spirit like aromas wafting through the air.
3. Crank up the Christmas music. All the time.
For the next 19 days, I command you to put all other playlists aside and commit fully to non-stop holiday tunes. It’s December, for goodness sake, and if you are reading this then you are already desperate. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better tickle your ears with a little “Holly Jolly Christmas” because Santa Claus is coming to town, ya know. Slacker Radio has 11, yes 11, holiday stations of varying genres to choose from (Is there anything more awesome than a ‘Dysfunctional Holiday’ station? I think not). My tweeps helped compile this playlist of their favorite holiday tunes on Grooveshark which is definitely worth a listen. Or twelve. One for every day of Christmas.
4. Go to the mall.
The perfect solution for those who are too lazy to decorate their own place, a visit to the mall is an instant dose of cheer. Even if you have to fight a 60-year-old lady for a parking spot, navigate through stroller after stroller and argue with the teenage cashier at the Gap to get the extra 20% off from the coupon you found on the floor of the food court, it will be worth it. The mall is where all of the elements come together. Gifts, lights, sounds, smells, music and, of course, Santa Claus himself. You’re in the Big Man’s territory now. He’s got his eye on you.
Aventura Mall (photo courtesy of @Ines)
5. Get out the Christmas DVDs.
This should go without saying. Instead of going out with friends to the bar in the cold and blowing cash you should be spending on gifts anyway, you need Holiday Movie Night. Every night. Everyone has their favorites. Whether you prefer the classics like White Christmas or the raunchy contemporaries like Bad Santa, the spirit-enabling capabilities are strong with movies. Here is my list of the lists of the best Christmas movies. Time to load up your Netflix queue!
For our non-Christmas-celebrating-friends, I hope you can offer suggestions on surviving the Christmas season and getting into the spirit of your own holidays!
As the Online News Association annual conference unfolded last weekend, my coworkers and I were eagerly watching and griping at the same time. It would have been awesome to be there.
As tightly scheduled, financially struggling journalists, these big industry conferences seem more and more out of reach to attend but they also offer the greatest payoff in an industry where networking and skill sharpening is nearly the only way to stay afloat.
Lori Todd and I coauthored a blog post about how the expensive cost associated with these beneficial industry events ends up hurting several areas of our business in the long run, in ways that industry leaders may or may not realize. A tidbit:
Expensive conferences put out-of-work journalists at an even greater disadvantage. Attending industry events and keeping skill sets up-to-date are all we can rely on to market ourselves in a suddenly flooded field of applicants. Attending a conference is resume material. Following a conference online is not.
The rest of the post is over at Lori Todd’s blog. We’d love to hear feedback on other ways or ideas to establish more affordable training and networking opportunities that don’t necessarily involve staying connected through social media. Another 10,000 Words post from Mark Luckie stresses the importance of real-life relationships. I couldn’t agree more, I just wish they were more affordable.
Find us on Twitter: @malcolli, @loritodd. Let’s strike up a conversation.
You already know me. Lori Todd graduated in 2006 from the University of Miami and has worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Austin American-Statesman before returning to the Miami Herald as a news page designer in September 2008.
We know it’s been about two months since our first #HeraldTweetup (which totally rocked because of all of you lovely people) and South Florida is getting antsy. In case you haven’t heard, we’ve set a date, so you should save it! Set a reminder alert on your cell phone and RSVP on our twtvite for Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. at Crazy Pianos (@CrazyPianosMIA) in Coconut Grove. The Miami Herald staff of reporters, bloggers, designers, editors, producers and tweeters are looking forward to happy hour with our followers on Twitter.
We ask that you RSVP so we can get an estimate of how many people to expect. We will be announcing some very exciting events that the Herald is planning and there will be plenty of people on hand to demo our new Dolphins ’09 iPhone app if you want to check it out (come find me or @loritodd and we’ll show it off). Hope to see you there!
Just a quick note to share this article from New Times Broward-Palm Beach about my stomach-testing experience on a pizza crawl with one of my favorite buddies, who also happens to be THE pizza celebrity of South Florida.
I took a mini pizza tour with John Linn, who wrote the article, and Craig Lapp (his alias) of WorstPizza.com.
I’d go into more detail but Linn summed it up better than I ever could:
Mallory’s Hawaiian was completely off-base, with huge chunks of pineapple and undercooked, cheap-tasting ham. (The later surprised me because I had previously enjoyed La Fontana’s salumi, including speck, a smoked, cured Italian ham.) …read the rest
Had a blast, stuffed myself silly, got to eat a pizza that isn’t on the restaurant’s menu and only made for Lapp and got a mention in the article. What can I say. It’s pays to be pizza expert!
The power of Twitter shined bright again yesterday as I sat in the conference room at Burson-Marsteller PR on Brickell Key, surrounded by about 15 public-relations minds that were ready to pick my brain apart.
I was scouted on Twitter by Felix Leander (@fleander), the lead digital strategist for their Latin American division, to come and take part in B-M’s NewsFeed program, coordinated by Senior Associate Bradley Gerber (@bradleygerber). About four times a year the company brings in journalists from all backgrounds to give a little inside scoop about the nature of the current state of business.
They’ve welcomed guests in the past who have given the company insight into the online realm of media like Joachim Bamrud from LatinBusinessChronicle.com. In keeping up with the ever-changing landscape, B-M wanted a glimpse at how journalists are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook in their day-to-day work routine.
I couldn’t help feeling nervous. This was the biggest interrogation I’d ever been the target of.
But I’ve got to hand it to them. I was met with some fantastic questions that not only gave them a peek into the duties of an online producer in the media world but I learned a ton about my job’s importance to public relations associates. Who knew that there actually ARE people up at 3:30 in the morning waiting to see the stories from the morning’s print edition go live on the Web? Now I know better.
We discussed everything from an average day at work for me, to the strategies I use when I tweet for @MiamiHerald, to the guidelines we give ourselves for moderating comments on our stories. All completely relevant to PR folks who are keeping a watchful eye on what the media are saying about their clients.
Most of the associates had joined Twitter but were nervous about the inevitable first-tweet and still hadn’t sent it. This is an issue I hear all the time, even among my personal friends who have yet to succumb to the grips of Twitter addiction. I used to not understand it, but the more I realized that PR people are the epitome of what representation means, I laid off a bit. Their personal image IS the image of their clients. The disconnect is fuzzier so I can see the apprehension.
One of the strongest points we touched on to counteract first-tweet-phobia is to approach your tweeps as if you are already buddies, putting business tweets on the back burner until you can garner some real personal connections with fellow users. There ARE things to tweet about other than business (I like to tweet about music, our garden, my niece and nephew, South Florida) and the Twittersphere is much more likely to embrace newbies who don’t start out by blasting us with what they do for a living. Once I get to know you, I’m more likely to care about your line of work because it is important to you. In this case, PR.
There are plenty of PR associates who use Twitter successfully from personal accounts without saying anything that would harm the image of their clients. Toby Srebnik (@FSUToby) and Heather Whaling (@PRtini) are some great examples from Florida, check them out. If you know of others please add them to the comments.
So don’t be scared to tweet, PR peeps. Just don’t scare me away with a pitch stream either.
Big, giant, huge, monstrous thanks for the opportunity to learn and discuss with smart minds at B-M. I hope to see all of you at our next Herald Tweetup!
P.S. I just thought this was too cool. My picture on their digital welcome sign!
