Kitchen Project: 1 resume + 1 muffin tin= an experiment gone horribly right!

After months of receiving e-mails like this one,

 

[my problem]

kindly suggesting that I pay a small, small fee of $359.10 (OR $64.80 over 6 months) so that I might arm myself with a professionally written resume. Long story short, I was sick and tired of it. $350! $350?! Last month, I found tickets to Iceland for that price. I did need to revamp my resume, though. I needed a few extra sets of eyes.

Enter: tumblr.

[my plea]

I typed up a quick post on my personal tumblr, asking anyone and everyone to take a look at my resume. I promised baked goods in exchange for sage advice and a click of the "track changes" button.

I expected a few e-mails to trickle in over the next few days. What happened, however, was slightly different. I received over 50 e-mails within a few short hours. (!) Clearly I didn't send out 50+ packages, even with my post office hook up (I'm excellent friends with Shayla, the AM desk clerk at my branch) sending sugar all over the country adds up quickly.

My point being, ask and you shall receive. We live in an age of excess, you know that. Trying to put a measurement on content is just too difficult but the good news is that putting a measurement on goodwill is equally as difficult. 

PS: I ended up making

• Coffee Toffee
• S'mores Brownies
• Chocolate Caramel Crack(ers)
• Peanut Butter Blondies
• Coconut Macaroons (except mine were mint with a chocolate drizzle--just swap peppermint extract for the vanilla)

"Publishing books to make money...

...is a little like hanging out in a singles bar if you want to get married.
It might work, but there are way better ways to accomplish your goal.
If you love writing or making music or blogging or any sort of performing art, then do it. Do it with everything you've got. Just don't plan on using it as a shortcut to making a living.
The only people who should plan on making money from writing a book are people who made money on their last book. Everyone else should either be in it for passion, trust, referrals, speaking, consulting, change-making, tenure, connections or joy."

--Seth Godin

If you peek over to the left you'll see  that I keep my reading list under the headline "nightstand frosting". I tend to read for multiple purposes. Let me give you an example, this week, for instance-- Here Comes Everybody for the job search, The Conscious Cook for my stomach, and Juliet, Naked for the Nick Horby-loving girl that I am.

Just a few updates, however:

1.) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky (Penguin): I picked this up after reading through the Online Marketing Syllabus posted at Chapman/Chapman. So far so great. This read is applicable, interesting, and and insightful.

2.) The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat by Tal Ronnen (William Morrow Cookbooks): From what I read, Tal Ronnen is the vegan chef and after skimming through this, it seems as though Mr. Ronnen might just be able to cook even the most meat-loving of chefs right under the stove. This book includes recipes, profiles of foodies, and Tal's personal picks for vegetables, grains, and superfoods.

3.) Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Riverhead Hardcover): I cannot tell a lie, I'm six pages into this sucker. I started it late last night and promptly fell asleep. I'll report back shortly.

Social Media, Demystified: Prof. Sree Sreenivasen on linking, tweeting, and earning attention

Sree Sreenivasan, workshop for NBCC membership, 2010 from Sonnet Media on Vimeo.

I've become quite the little videohead. For ages I would save up my podcasts and listen to them while running, but recently I've taken to adding a little visual fun to my morning treadmill dates. This particular AM, I watched Prof. Sree Sreenivasen, Dean of Student Affairs at Columbia Journalism School (among other things), give a talk on social media at an NBCC membership meeting. It was worth the time, but if you're particularly low on time, here are some of the great points:

*Be a good pointer! Sreenivasen advises that to be successful in social media we must become "pointers". Quite often, we take on social media from a broadcast perspective, generating loads of content, and this is not nearly as important as listening and pointing (read: conducting scans and linking).
*Remember we have the attention span of a gnat. Sreenivasen joins Les Hinton in predicting that the scarcest resource of the 21st century will be human attention span. I agree.
*How to avoid becoming a social media slave. The lure of twitter is that it is e-mail without the guilt. If you miss a few tweets, so what?! Sreenivasen points out that anything with real importance is bound to bubble up again at some point.
*Twitter Tools 101. What to use and how. Sreenivasen suggests: Twiangulate, Hoot Suite, and Twittersheep.

Hope you enjoy. Oh, and happy hump day!

In case you haven't seen it--"The Future of Publishing"

"And editors, too, can no longer view their red pencils as the only tool in the kit. They must start thinking of manuscripts or proposals as intellectual property, a kernel of an idea that could be launched into multiple formats. Publishers should stop emulating the old music industry and start picturing themselves as movie studios and books as film development. Max Perkins, meet David Selznick."

-- Peter Miller for Jacket Copy "At SXSWi: A panel on the future of publishing"

Lots Before 5: What I've Been Reading

Sorry for the pause in blogging. I'm in the middle of a week-long nanny gig (including nights).

Keywords for context: gummy vitamins, Silly Bandz, iCarly, Junie B. (Jones, that is), pancakes with sprinkles, pink toothpaste, homemade cinnabuns, conga lines around the kitchen and pony rides around the living room, bus stop meltdowns, 6am wake-up calls and total exhaustion by 7pm. 

Tell me you're not green with envy...

Here's what I've been reading:

• "National Book Critic's Circle prizes awarded" (via Jacket Copy)
• "Apple iPad Now Available for Pre-order" (via GalleyCat)
• "Continuing the conversation..." (via The New Sleakness) A rundown on Macmillan CEO John Sargent and his savvy idealism
• "DBW Profile: Ryan Chapman, Marketing Optimist" (via DBW) I like marketing. I like optimism. I like this interview. eProps to Marian.
• "Who Are We Really? And Why Marketers Should Care" (via AdAge-The Big Tent)
• "A Q  and A With Lorin Stein, the new editor of The Paris Review" (via Nal Post)
• "Mark Twain on Queen Victoria" (via Jacket Copy)
• "This Week in Fiction: Questions for Junot Diaz" (via Book Bench)
• "10 of the best: heres from children's fiction" (via Guardian)
• "I Just Ordered an iPad: Here's Why" (via AdAge)
• "E-Book Readers: Will Secondary Features Win Consumers' Hearts of Leave Them Cold?" (via Tech Crunch)

And with that, I leave you, as I'm on girl scout duty this evening and need to plan...please don't think I'm kidding. 

Later loves,
The Nanny