I’m sure you all remember the Liberty Mutual commercial below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMwoexR1evo]
Recently, I saw what appears to be the next in the series which had another alluring tune behind it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw97CfZtyGw]
In both cases, the band behind the song is Hem. When the first Liberty Mutual commercial came out, I was hooked. The song is “Half Acre” off of their “Rabbit Songs” album. I bought it 188 songs ago and I’m still drawn to it in quiet moments. I originally gushed about the song in a post from June 20th, 2006.
Now Liberty Mutual uses a song from their album “Home Again, Home Again”. The song is “The Part Where You Let Go”. I’m not as enamored of it as I was over “Half Acre” but it has proved relevant on more than one occasion in my life so far. I think it’s a decent choice for the commercial but maybe Liberty Mutual should consider branching out into other artists. It just seems a bit somber for what their point is about being responsible. I get enough somber notions just from the daily news.
I have had this on my iPod for a few weeks now and I still love it. I really think it stands alone whether as a cover or not.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-8nkkOA_AM]
The band is Obadiah Parker. Apparently this clip has been a YouTube sensation for a while. Shows what I know. Hell, it was a year later when I first saw Star Wars Kid here, here, and here (He lives in virtual infamy). Oh wait… and HERE. Anyway, it seems that YouTube has launched another crazy sensation with Obadiah Parker.
This song is, of course, a cover of “Hey Ya” by Outkast, a standout tune in its own right. Obadiah Parker’s version, however, is so very different and so solid in its own arrangement, mood, and tone that frankly, I consider it its own song entirely. The infectious “Hey ya” chorus will forever be credited to Outkast, but the rest I think goes to old Obadiah.
If you’d like to download your own copy of this song or the original version by Outkast, they can be found for a mere $0.99 on iTunes. The song is, of course, entitled “Hey Ya”.
So… I sent an email at the end of the day yesterday reminding people that I would be out and enjoying a four-day weekend. It said:
Subject: Just a Reminder
Message: …since I know that nary a day goes by where I am not needed for some critical cutting and pasting or a background color emergency, I want you all to know that tomorrow, sadly, I will not be here. I will be basking in the glory of, well, not working and being at home painting my new bedroom. I will be surrounded by cats and kittens and chew toys and cake mix. It will be glorious.
This morning I get some work email, which is unusual, so I check it. I got a response from [HR person] that says:
Thank you for the note. I’ll begin the paperwork.
So I’m thinking “Hmm… paperwork for vacation? Did [they] respond to the wrong email?”
Then [they] send a recall request - which I love, by the way, because all it does is make you read the message immediately.
Then I get a phone call on my home phone, which I am too lazy to answer. So I listen to the message which is [them] apologizing. [They] thought I was quitting in some kind of flip way and thus [their] flip response. [They're] obviously pretty upset about it but I’m too lazy to get up and get the phone so I wrote [them] back:
Wow, that would be the single most ridiculous resignation letter ever. I’ll have to file that away to use one day, when I not only want to burn a bridge but completely annihilate it. No harm, no foul. I was thinking you had me confused with someone else in all of your HR flurry.
At least they’re prepared for when I do it for real. I may throw a ‘nary’ in there, just for kicks.
Am I the only one that finds this just a little creepy…
Jenna Bush, 25, is marrying Henry Hager, 28, a former White House aide who used to work with Karl Rove
Source
Created, of course, on the Burger King site www.simpsonizeme.com.
And here’s what VMK (Virtual Magic Kingdom) thinks of JBot.
Sometimes I think the whole life-hacking genre gets a little out of control. One person can only be so clever before they spend all of their time tweaking their life instead of living it. Uggh… it gives me palpable anxiety just thinking about it.
But I still get the urge to tweak what I’m doing on occasion so I’ll peruse the newest posts on sites like 43Folders. I was there today and I found a great quote about this whole life-hacking thing and what it’s all about, sort of. It’s short and sweet and made me laugh, so here you go.
I’ve said before that, in my estimation, a life hack is any kind of trick that forces the Smartypants part of your brain and the Dumbass part of your brain to stay in proper communication.
The rest of the article
And as a little side note, I read this site’s Creative Commons License before posting. Ooooo…
This is “Big Boy” a.k.a. “Stumpy” a.k.a. “Buckey” a.k.a. “Knuckles”. I call him Big Boy right now because, of my two cats, he is, well, the biggest. Seems simple enough. Frankly, this naming scheme is pretty complex since I usually rely on calling my cats “kitty”. Having two, though, this wouldn’t work out too well so I went with “Big Boy” for the big guy and “Little Bit” for the kitten. Yeah, yeah, call the ASPCA.
Anyway, if you don’t believe that this is me in cat form, then check out the image below of me and my poor kitty that passed away.
It’s also worth noting that the arrangement in this picture is not an uncommon occurrence. Maybe I’m just narcoleptic.
Well, I went through all of my posts and singled out those with questionable quotations of content from other sites. In most cases I was able to trim down to enticing excerpts that will drive readers to the site of origin. This is how it should be.
There were a few posts whose content I wanted to keep but that were so long that I didn’t have time to go through them and make better use of only selected material from the articles in this quick pass. I made them private instead of deleting them. This way I can keep the content for editing later but I am no longer contributing the content theft. Other bloggers may want to consider doing this as well.
One suspect post I simply deleted because I wasn’t very enamored of the subject and knew that I would never take the time to update it to work within my new standards for content use. Much like most of my belongings that no longer fit in this new smaller house, out it went. It won’t be missed. It wasn’t linked to by anyone—not to be confused with 99% of my blog.
One final suspect post was also deleted because the original source no longer existed. If I had gotten permission then I would keep what I had, but I didn’t have that permission, so out it went too. In the grand scheme of things, this post was a fairly minor offense. I also didn’t much care about it so it wasn’t hard to delete. If I had loved the content, I am not sure if I would have been so ready to delete it. But, it was my job to have gotten permission in the first place.
From now on, I am going to do my best. If I am going to quote, then I am going to comment thoughtfully on it, which, for me, eliminates the debate because I am responding to content, much like you would respond in an essay or position paper. I’ll cite my sources and I will only quote what is necessary to construct my argument.
As for quoting things that I think are “cool”. I am going to try to do less of that, or put more effort into talking about it. Just posting a link to something else without any insight is pretty lazy. This will be the hardest, though, and I know I will slip into my habit of doing just this. I’m striving here. I cannot guarantee success. Some of the purpose of my blog has been to point out funny or interesting things—like 99% of the other blogs out there, but I want to strive for better and so I do.
Look at me, I’m LINKING. This is post #1 in my questionable quoting recovery program.
Here are some interesting ideas from DIYMaven on Curbly.com. Curbly.com is “a Web community for people who love where they live. Curbly is the best place to share pictures of your home, find design ideas, and get expert home-improvement advice.”
How to Turn a Tote Bag into File Tote
How To Make a Plastic Bag Keeper
How to Make a Folded-Paper CD Case
