by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 26, 2010 | About Us
Every Friday, I write about whatever the heck I want… because it’s fun.
I pretend to hate video games… but I really don’t. I just stay away because I have no self control. Anyone who doubts this should watch me in the same room as a bag of Cap Cod kettle cooked salt and vinegar chips…
Yum.
Oh right, yes, computer games. I may have never got past level three in Super Mario Brothers when I was a kid (or even now) but I did have some games that I was good enough at to actually enjoy.
I started off with Tetris on the Gameboy. That thing got passed around in our family so much, I am surprised it didn’t melt the year we got it.
Briefly in college, there was Snood. I had to uninstall it off my computer, the only time I’ve even had to uninstall anything.
I even went through a Spider Solitaire phase that was so intense, I would dream I was playing it all night. I had reached a point in my life where I had enough self control to just not let myself even open the program for a year. And I’ve gone the last few years being a pretty productive internet user…
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 24, 2010 | This Week In Business
Sometimes, all it takes is one person to make a difference. This week, I salute that one person, and the many forms they came in:
My friend Matt and I had one person sign up for our workshop…and hopefully more to come.
We took the plunge and Matt and I went forward with our presentation idea. We reserved the room. We advertised the presentation to our networks. We bought the projector and screen (nothing like the thrill and terror of spending $850 in 5 minutes). I began to panic this week when no one was signing up. Did we charge too much? Was it too early to hope for more enthusiasm? Did we schedule this workshop the wrong time of year?
And just when I was second guessing the whole thing, someone signed up. And paid. Insert sigh of relief here.
Here’s hoping for a few more participants. For more information or to sign up yourself, click here.
I’ll be presenting to the Deer Isle-Stonington Chamber of Commerce, and as part of the Schoodic Arts Festival this summer.
Based on my Ellsworth Chamber presentation, I booked two more speaking gigs for the coming months.
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 24, 2010 | Too Cute Tuesday
Too Cute Tuesday involves fun friends, a cheap craft, and a cool cocktail. To get involved, check us out on Facebook or contact Nicole.
Who doesn’t love it when crafting is part of a larger movement? When Meg (friend and craft enthusiast on Vinalhaven) alerted Too Cute Tuesday of the Morsbag movement (‘socialable guerilla bagging’), we wanted to join in.
Morsbag seeks to empower people to create their own bags in an effort to cut down on use of plastic shopping bags. You make them and give them to people (and yourself if you want).
Materials:
Fabric (18″ by 4″ sections, 18″ by 20″ sections- 2 of each)
Sewing machine
Iron and ironing board
Thread
Pencil
Tape measure
Straight edge
Click here for the pattern! (a one page, relatively easy to follow .pdf you can print off or pass on)
Cocktail of the Night: Seadog Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale (Sorry folks, getting my sewing machine down from the top of my closet was challenge enough for the evening)
1. Gather supplies. Observe that this may take the longest time of anything you are going to do this evening. Print off pdf of instructions. (Sorry environmental folks, easier to pass around the table that way! I’ll write on the back of the paper though, promise.)
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 22, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Marketing Monday profiles a cool person, website, or business doing more online. Got an idea? Contact me so I can write about it.
People always ask me: How do you get by without cable? I say that my Google Reader keeps me in touch with what’s going on in the blogosphere/pop culture and I listen to NPR for my news. Both of these are true, that’s part of the reason I can go without a cable bill. I do, however, get my television zoning out pleasure courtesy of Hulu.
There is two main ways for media companies to make money online: 1) charge users a fee to access the site or 2) get advertisers to foot the bill and offer the users free access. Hulu has opted for the latter, and may or may not be making enough money to support themselves. Regardless of whether Hulu is turning a profit at the moment though, they are doing interesting things online.
Hulu is having customers chose their viewing experience… and getting customer data in the process.
Several times recently, I was given options for commercials. Did I want to watch a 1 minute 30 second long commercial about Nuvaring before the show began or did I want several shorter commercial breaks? Did I want to watch the stylish, tech, or speed-oriented commercial for Google Chrome? (Part of me also wonders also if there is some ad targeting going on based on my age, sex, and other demographics.)
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 19, 2010 | Social Media
Let me just say right off that I am far from being some kind of smooth lady on the relationship front. But I’ve recently did something where I accidentally encouraged my new boyfriend to do something nice for me, and then it kept happening.
Dan likes to cook. The second meal he made me, I decided to take out my digital camera and record him on video.
The next day, I watched it. What surprised me was that the video was actually good. I asked if I could post it on Facebook, thinking his friends would get a kick out of it. Almost immediately, he got phone calls, emails, and comments, mostly asking when the next video was coming out.
Next video?
