Get Mommy Some Gin

Sorry, that’s a bad title, but read through all this good stuff and you will be thurrrrstay by the end.

Read

“Despite it all — the broken glass, the tantrums, the bite marks, the feces Pollocked across his bedroom wall — I quite love my sweet, strange boy.” - Jeff Howe

Paying for a Special Needs Child, an article by the smart and amazingly talented Jeff Howe, detailing the costs associated with raising his son Finn. Also read the follow up article, Defending Finn’s Dad, written by Gary Dietz.

Watch

If you liked Drive, but thought, “Gee, I wish there was less driving and more violence in this movie,” I assume this movie is for you. Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling and Kristen Scott Thomas with some crazy, mob wife hair

Learn

Did you know that Kevin Bacon’s dad was kind of a big deal architect and urban planner in Philadelphia?  From 1949 to 1970, Edmund Bacon’s visions shaped today’s Philadelphia, the city in which he was born, to the extent that he is sometimes described as “The Father of Modern Philadelphia.” He also worked in Shanghai for a year after college, which greatly shaped his views on urban planning.

Adventure

It’s not unusual to love The Unusual Times, the content created by the lovely folks behind Hendrick’s Gin. Watching this, don’t you want to go on an adventure through the jungle, looking for exotic botanicals to make delicious gin?

Drink

In honor of the video above, drink something with Quinetum, the quinine Cordial from Quaker City Mercantile and Hendricks Gin.

(if you can’t find it…and I can’t, try something like Tomr’s Handcrafted Tonic Syrup – different, but still an experience).

Nothing is free, so the discussion on this is short. You have three options:

1: Deal with ads

2: Pay for shit

3: Don’t use it/watch it

Let’s not talk about it again, ok?

Read

I read this great post on What Makes People Attached to a City from a talk Katherine Loflin, a placemaking expert, gave in Minneapolis. After being a champion of my hometown, then leaving to move across the continent, it is a topic close to my heart. I’m really interested in the research coming out of Loflin’s Knight Foundation project, Soul of the Community. 

Laugh

If you can’t find a million reasons to use this stock photo everywhere, I think you should reevaluate your priorities. Thanks to Rhett Soveran for pointing it out!

Listen

This girl DOES have rhythm. I love this and I love seeing how much fun she is having up at that piano. That’s what music is all about. I would love to see Hiromi Uehara live!

Learn

Where do you learn about (and start to collect) the world’s greatest art? Artsy.net of course! If you’ve never been, give yourself some time to peruse. 

…don’t forget to find out what’s current on exhibit in your town AND CHECK IT OUT IN PERSON.

Drink

The Gin-Gin mule…

Lime juice, simple syrup, mint leaves, gin and ginger beer. Hellllllllo, Summer!

(If you’re a person that likes to measure, I’d try 1/2 oz lime, 1/2 oz simple syrup, 6 mint leaves, 2 oz gin and maybe 1-2 oz of ginger beer. Try one and adjust to make it your own!)

Three customer service ideas that need to die:

The customer is always right. Often, the customer doesn’t know what they want, or what will work best for them. Listen to what they are saying, then use your expertise to work on the best solution possible. Explain to the customer what would work best for them and why it would work best. Use your knowledge and power to educate, not patronize people and create champions along the way.

Really, this should be, “The customer deserves to be heard.”

Follow the script. Is there anything worse than having a telephone call come to a natural end, then the customer service representative awkwardly asks “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” Yes, when they realize they haven’t tried to upsell you on anything and they offer to sign you up for another paid feature you aren’t interested in. I get it, I worked as a customer service rep (for more years than I’d like to remember). CSRs have scripts they have to follow, then get in trouble for not following them. Instead of teaching people scripts, teach them empathy and empower them to make wise decisions. See how loyal your customers become.

Good customer service representatives follow the script, great ones follow the conversation. 

Listen to your loudest customers. Those who make the loudest noise are outliers and not necessarily representative of what most people are looking for. While it is tempting to jump whenever your biggest critic is complaining, make sure you are moving in the direction that most customers want. This is the same for both your biggest critic and your biggest fan, neither are typical customers. If you want to know what people really like, look at what they pay for (or even a/b test what people would pay for by seeing what they click on).

Listen to what the data tells you. 

Read

Mark Morford, Exploding your Emotional Bandwith: “What an odd, charged, fascinating moment, this space of not knowing. It forces us to isolate the emotional toll into pure feeling, pure shared humanity, divorced of social or geopolitical wedge.” Less a post about Boston, more about how we are emotionally ill-equipped to deal with tragedy in the age of Twitter.

Do

 Use these Frank Lloyd Wright Letterheady examples as inspiration to make your own letterhead. Then send a letter to someone you love, or just have some seriously badass letterhead for any of your business correspondence needs.

Listen

Robin Thicke ft T.I. and Pharrell, Blurred Lines. If this doesn’t make you feel like Summer, I don’t know what would.

Laugh

“Mommyjacking” def: When moms use a random Facebook post as an opportunity to brag about their child. We all know this person. Don’t be this person.

Drink

Beretta’s Pamplemousse Gin, Grapefruit, St Germain and Basil – I dream about this cocktail, years after having it one year on Jasmine Palardy‘s birthday. It is the perfect brunch drink and the perfect summer afternoon sipper.

Directly lifted this from Reddit’s AMA with Col Chris Hadfield so I can read it everytime I am having a bad day. It is so great to see someone so clearly in love with what they do and share that love with the world. 

[–]ColChrisHadfield[S] 733 points 22 hours ago

Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time tonight, turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. Look at who you want to be, and start sculpting yourself into that person. You may not get exactly where you thought you’d be, but you will be doing things that suit you in a profession you believe in. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become.

Per Ardua Ad Astra (through adversity to the stars)

Dreamed up by a six-year-old.