Shamrocks & Shenanigans: An International Celebration

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays, second only to Halloween & Homecoming (this counts as a holiday if you went to Mizzou, trust me). I'm not entirely sure why since I'm only about 7% Irish, but it was something my family always "celebrated" growing up. My mom would encourage us to wear green, give us cards and a small gift and serve corned beef & cabbage or other Irish treat. It could also have something to do with the fact that I think I got all the Irish genes in the family with my pasty skin, red hair and green eyes...  

Despite my impending finals (on St. Patrick's day & the day after), my jam-packed work week and just having returned from a weekend of traveling... I refused to let a St. Patrick's Day go by without a celebration. Especially since a Chicago St. Patrick's day is on my list of things to do before I die. 

To date, I have managed to celebrate in a variety of cities and with all different types of celebrations so I allowed myself one day of revelry last weekend so I could check one more place off my list.

The Southside Irish parade was definitely an experience that I won't soon forget, but it got me reminiscing about St. Patrick's Days of years past... 

• 2009 - Southside Irish Parade in Chicago
• 2008 - Irish bars in St. Louis
  
• 2007 - University of Missouri - Rolla 
• 2006 - Irish bars in London in Pickadilly Circus 
• 2005 - Unofficial at U of I 
• 2004 - McNally's at Mizzou

And made me wonder where I will be next year... 

Moral of the Story - Don't Be Dumb

In today's shaky economy and volatile employment environment, why anyone would post something negative about their work on any social networking site is beyond me. While the two cases below of an employee getting fired over a Facebook status is a little extreme, it just goes to show that you shouldn't bash your work or fellow co-workers on any online portal if it wasn't obvious already...

Philadelphia Eagles Usher Fired Over Facebook Status

"Bored" Woman Fired Over Facebook Status

Interesting Advertising News

Sorry, no commentary today... I need my beauty sleep :)

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Jimmy Fallon is my Tweetheart

While I hate trying something new because "everyone else is doing it", I also hate being the person who doesn't try something new because "everyone else is doing it". So a few weeks ago, I joined Twitter, just to see what the buzz was all about and spent 30 mins trying to understand it before giving up and writing a blog post about it. 

Since then, I have never actually "tweeted" or even gone to my profile page... and pretty much wrote it off. Today I feel like the world wanted me to give it one more try. I heard Perez Hilton talking about Lindsay Lohan's twitter posts on the way to work. Then saw an article about Twitter on my daily AdAge update email. And when I was leafing through the Tribune at dinner, landed on a story about Jimmy Fallon promoting his new late night show starting tonight and became intrigued.  

First of all, I love Jimmy Fallon! During Saturday Night Live's low point in early 2000s, I tuned into Saturday Night Live only to watch Jimmy Fallon on Weekend Update because he was so real, it was hilarious! Second of all, I began to become curious. What did Jimmy Fallon and all these other celebrities get about Twitter that I didn't? Was I missing out on something? (I hate not being in the know.)

I cut out the Tribune article to add it to my "Sign of the Times in 2008-2009" binder where I keep interesting newspaper clippings, magazine fashion ads and paper memoirs of events that I consider to define our lives in this day and age. As I was sitting in bed, working on homework and catching up on emails I got my final nudge - a Twitter follow request from a friend. I took out the article and decided to check out Jimmy Fallon's Twitter posts. 

I found them rather interesting, so I added him as someone I wanted to follow. Then while I was on, I checked out Perez Hilton and even decided to even take a look at some of my (5) friends that I already followed to see what types of things they posted. 

Even after reading a few celebrity and friend's profiles, I still don't totally get it. But took the plunge and published my first post. I have no idea if someone will ever read it or will respond (not even sure how that works). But who knows, maybe Jimmy Fallon will see me following him and say hello. After all, I lost my Tweeter virginity with a post about him...