No pearls or high-heel pumps required

This is the first of the hand made items I promised to five people before the end of 2009. This vintage-style sissy-girl (-: apron is one that "Leave it to Beaver's" mom, June Cleaver, would have been proud to wear pearls and high-heeled pumps with. It's for my friend Juli, aka @DelilahSparkle.

I've made several aprons from this pattern before. It's easy to assemble and sew and always comes out cute.

Of course, my "xbohica" brand is embroidered on the pocket.

Made from Simplicity pattern #4282.

Green fuzz and ants

There were five kids in my family. I have two brothers and two sisters. My dad worked full time. My mom worked full time. My parents had the “economy” of their marriage figured out perfectly, meaning that they had life/family chores divided. Mom did all the cooking, sewing and most child-rearing. Dad handled finances and could fix or build anything.

I understand why my mother wasn’t in the mood to cook when she came home from work to us, her brood of hungry raucous children. I am totally empathic to her plight. I was a working single mom of two and I’m not ashamed to admit that often, I felt completely overwhelmed when I got home from work and had to feed just a couple of hungry children.

My mom is the best seamstress I’ve ever seen. She can knit, crochet, quilt, pitch a tent, coax an ornery burp from any baby and has made the most beautiful wedding dresses for young brides I’ve ever seen. She’s awesome. She is gifted and wonderful. I’m not judging my mom. But let’s just say that cooking was not always the thing that she was passionate about.

My mom was one of those saintly women who volunteers for the Girl Scouts. She was heavily involved in Girl Scout camp every summer and led a Girl Scout troop. One summer, our troop was camping. We had brought just enough food for each night. There was no extra food. So when I opened the pot by the campfire to stir our dinner (a mixture of macaroni, ground beef and tomato sauce), I was freaked out. Bits of the hamburger were wiggling, moving. I looked more closely.

“Mom!!!” I wailed, aghast. Gross! She came over and looked down at the pot. She locked eyes with me.

“Hush,” she said in an intense whisper, with a hard look. “Hush!” (No one in my family ever said the words “shut up.”)

“But there’s…”

“I said hush!”

She took the wooden spoon from my hand and stirred the pot. Then she put the lid back on and walked away toward the group of girls doing a crafting project.

I looked at her back walking away. I looked at the pot. I knew we were going to eat those ants for dinner. That night, around the campfire, all my friends kept asking me why I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t say a word.

Many times when Mom got home from a long day working in the office at Montgomery Ward, you could see the fatigue in her face. She’d walk in the kitchen, open the refrigerator door and then start pulling things out. On some weeknights the things that were pulled out of the refrigerator were leftovers. Bowls and plates with food from last night. Or last week. Or sometime we couldn’t remember.

If the leftover food had a little moldy spot, there were no worries. Simply scrape off the green fuzzy spots and it’s as good as new. At least that’s what Mom said. Throw it in a pan on the stove and warm it up. It’s dinner. Eat that or make yourself a peanut butter sandwich.

I ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. Or I’d wait until everyone else in the family had finished and then I would throw my food in the trash bin. I was very careful to do it artfully, so as not to have my sin discovered. The correct technique is simple and effective: reach into the bin and lift the top layers of trash up, scrape your food off into the bin and then simply replace the trash that was on the top. Ta-da. No one was the wiser. And I could do this all very quietly.

When I was 16 I had access to my Dad’s old car and I had my driver’s license. Almost every night I ate all by myself at the Taco Time fast-food restaurant. I told Mom I had to do that because I had to eat before theatre rehearsal. It was kind of true, too.

And I still won’t eat leftovers.

I do not want green fuzz and ants.

Don’t stir them in. Don’t scrape them out.
Don’t make me eat them. I will pout.
I do not want them after school. I do not want them in a pool.
I do not want them with some salt. I will not eat them; you must halt.
I do not want green fuzz and ants.
I will not eat them, no. No chance!

Marketing and communications in the business school

BizEd ran a feature about Marketing the business school. My colleagues, Yvonne Martin-Kidd at Vanderbilt, Margaret Andrews at Mind and Hand, Gary McKillips at Georgia State and me are quoted extensively.

Free hand made item from me in 2009

It started on facebook (http://profile.to/c.j.jackson) and spilled over into twitter (http://twitter.com/JacksonCJ1).

I offered to make something for the first five people who responded.

Winners are:
-Franci
- Juli (aka @DelilahSparkle)
- Megan
- Oscar
- Kara (aka @kealex02)

Each winner (LOLing as I write that word) may choose from one of these:
- pair of cloth shopping bags
- apron
- baby wrap
- dog coat

I'll be posting the photos. And I'll be expecting them to send me photos of these items in use!

These gifts will be completed and given before the end of 2009.

Twits, you are on notice!

I love Twitter. Anyone who knows me knows I am totally hooked on the micro-blogging phenom. I started using twitter about 17 months ago and it is now, well, part of my life.

Other people have caught the twitter bug, too. The social media platform has gone from traffic of about 2 million users to more than 15 million users in a matter of 3 months.

Somehow, some twits out there have found me and decided to follow me on twitter. Gradually, that number of followers has started to grow. I have varied interests and so do they. We converse about the things we like. Some like sewing. Some like PBS. Some like NPR. Some like marketing. Some like social media. Some live in Waco and/or work for Baylor. Some love Iowa... like me. I have conversations with them about all of those things, because we share these as interests.

Let me be clear. I am not a big deal in the twitterverse. I don't have tens of thousands of followers. I am not one of the "twiteratti." Again, I am simply interested in having conversations with people who share my interests. I am interested in sharing useful information, ideas, solutions, and having some fun with it along the way.

So, for all you twitter users who are "gaming the system," I would like to put you on notice:

If you have the word CASH or MONEY in your name, I will not follow you. (Updated note: unless that's your real name, of course!)

If you tweet quote after quote after quote from famous (or semi-famous) people, I will not follow you. Have you no original thoughts to add to this conversation?

If you are into multi-level-marketing (MLM), I will not follow you. I do not want to be in your downline, I promise.

If you tweet about getting 1000s of followers in a day (or week or whatever), I will not follow you.

If you tweet that you are getting twitter followers automatically, I will not follow you.

For everyone else: I look forward to joining in that big, messy, tweety conversation with you -- that conversation that is never farther from my reach than a computer or my Blackberry. Thanks for being there, peeps.

Theory: hot chubbies with cheese are recession-proof

Selling hot chubbies with cheese might be the right line of business to be in during these challenging economic times.

I don't go to West, Texas often. West is the name of the city. It's about a half hour north of Waco, about an hour south of Dallas, on I-35. When Mike lived in Dallas, I drove back and forth from Waco often, stopping in West on the way. Now that my family lives in San Antonio and Austin, I don't go north on I-35 from Waco very often. But when I do, the Czech Stop beckons. And I stop.

Kolache (ko-lah-chee): a pastry that may be filled with any number of things, including sausage, cheese, jalapenos, cream cheese, fruit.

I stopped there yesterday on my way back from a work day in Dallas. The traffic was brisk. The line was longer than usual, snaking along the glass pastry cases, around the racks of fresh bread and jars of homemade candies, and almost out the door of the little place. People ordering "hot chubbies with cheese," blueberry kolaches, peach kolaches, cream cheese kolaches, jalapeno kolaches, getting cups of coffee after gassing up their cars outside at the gas pumps.

My theory: kolaches are recession-proof.

I bought a dozen "breakfast sausage" kolaches (filled with breakfast sausage and cheese). I brought them home, wrapped them individually in wax paper, then put them in a big plastic zipper bag and into the freezer. They have to last... until the next time I get there.

A sweet escape: kolaches

The town of West, Texas: "Home of the Official Kolache of the Texas Legislature"

Which tarot card are you?

You are The Lovers

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.

The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.

Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that's actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

History, free widgets, contests - U.S. EPA site for Earth Day

I googled Earth Day widgets and found the official United States Environmental Protection Agency website.

It's chock-full of great stuff!

Want a free Earth Day widget for your blog or website? There are two available: A free environmental tips widget and a free Earth Day countdown widget.

For you photography enthusiasts, there is an Earth Day Photo Project:

Has your community organization cleaned up a stream? Have you enjoyed a day in the woods? Has a wild animal ever sparked your imagination? If you've caught anything like those moments in a photo, share it with us!

Each year, for Earth Day, we conduct a photo project. We want to see how you would show EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment.

And for those of you who are video enthusiasts, this one's for you: The Earth Day Video Project

Throughout the month of April, in honor of Earth Day on April 22, we’ll feature videos you create. Your video can be instructional, inspirational, or testimonial. We’re looking for videos that call others to action.

Your video might be funny or serious, entertaining or educational, quirky or enlightening. We don’t expect you to enter television quality videos, we want you to share your stories.

There are "Green Tips" podcasts (looks like they are posting one per day) and an Earth Day Take Home Kit.

Earth Day is April 22. Got plans?

Choose 100% renewable energy - easy to do

I've been using only 100% renewable energy for my household for more than 5 years. You probably can, too.

Yes, it's true that all energy providers use the same grid to deliver your power, but you can control where that energy comes from.

This is not an advertisement. I highly recommend Green Mountain Energy. I'm a happy, long-time customer. Switch now. You'll feel better about yourself! :)

Earth Day radio commentary

I've been on the radio more than once a week for over 3 years - doing a regular segment for the business school where I work. It's part of my job. So it's lost all luster for me.

Not so for this radio commentary, which is absolutely a personal endeavor written and read straight from my heart. I'm psyched about this being on air.

Download the MP3 file to listen to the Earth Day radio commentary.

It will run on the central Texas NPR station and hopefully, on the NPR station affiliate in Ames, Iowa, too.

The written version is posted here.

Interactive Austin '09: Austin Rocks Social Media

I'll be presenting a Twitter case study at Interactive Austin '09. Austin is quickly emerging as the world's social media center.

Hope you can join us there. The hashtag is #IA09 on Twitter.

AUSTIN, Texas -- "How Social Media Can Enhance Enterprise Profitability," the second annual conference of Interactive Austin 2009, is being held to educate companies on the benefits of social media while establishing Austin's reputation as a social media center.

Supporting organizations including the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Austin, the Austin Technology Council, the Austin Interactive Marketing Association, Bootstrap Austin and door64 are encouraging local companies to utilize the event to better understand how Web 2.0 practices and social media can impact business growth.

Business District Magazine's one-day conference is designed to bring the use of social web technologies down-to-earth. The event hosts compelling dialogues and case studies from prestigious speakers and panelists who are the thought leaders in the field of digital marketing and social media.

"Austin has a vibrant social media network," states Steve Golab, president and CEO of FG SQUARED, the title sponsor and advocate of the event, "that makes it a natural place for sustainable economic development. Organizations like Leadership Austin, Bootstrap Austin and Interactive Austin foresee that our city has the potential to become an epicenter for social media business." The theme of this year's conference is to explore how social media expands business activities online, helping companies to survive and thrive during the current economic times. Companies will attend the event to learn of the benefits of social media, the uses of Web 2.0 tools and the applications of digital media.

"Business District Magazine focuses on connecting Austin companies and professionals with pragmatic business development concepts," comments Jason Myers, editor of the magazine. "Our event will educate businesses on how social media marketing can be integrated into the corporate culture to improve profitability." The April 27th event will be held at the Norris Conference Center and will include keynote speakers Dion Hinchcliffe, Founder of Hinchcliffe and Co. and Web 2.0 University, followed by Sam Lawrence, CMO of Jive, and then by William Hurley (known as whurley), Chief Architect, BMC Software and Chairman of the Open Management Consortium.

Hinchcliffe will open the conference with "Reinventing Business with Web 2.0." Lawrence will speak on "... Twenty Practical Ways to Use Social Software to Drive Profitability" and then whurley will open the afternoon session with his keynote, "Future Technology Trends and their Impact on Business and Culture." FG SQUARED is the title sponsor and Accolades PR, Live Oak 360, Social Web Strategies and Visual Innovations are contributing sponsors of this year's event.

For sponsorships & conference details: http://budurl.com/IASMC Online newsroom or reporters: http://budurl.com/IA09BWEONNews About Business District Magazine Business District Magazine is published bimonthly to a circulation of 10,000 readers throughout Central Texas and provides content and editorial that is relevant to the local business community, showcases innovative business models and fosters the area's entrepreneurial spirit. Business District also publishes an email newsletter three times per week to the Central Texas Tech community (www.bdtechdaily.com), and hosts several conferences every year that promote area business growth, including the Central Texas Entrepreneur Funding Symposium, and The Austin Open4Business onference.

Subscriptions to the magazine, newsletters and conference information can be found at www.abdmag.com.

Little liberals in training

The Earth Day demonstration I blogged about yesterday was not the first demonstration staged by those of us at Harlan Elementary School in Ames, Iowa.

We had practice. And freedom to express ourselves. Life was good.

Earlier that year, it came to our attention that our teacher, Ms. Dashner, was leaving the teaching profession. We adored Ms. Dashner (as we adored all of the teachers in that fabulous, open, experimental school) and were dismayed that she would be forced to leave school just to have a baby. It didn't seem fair to us.

This also just coincidentally occurred a few years after my only younger sibling was born, which may have contributed to my feelings of abandonment by Ms. Dashner.

I have three older siblings (Terri, Kathy and Nick). I was born years after their family clique had been established. As a result, I felt my childhood was a combination of being an outsider, observing a family unit, yet at the same time, being practically treated as if I were an only child. Conflicted and probably psycho in some way, I know.

It was easy for me to disappear completely in any situation. But when I wanted it, I got lots of attention. Then my younger brother, Pat, came along when I was in second grade. The "olders" (what I call the older siblings) had been hoping we were getting a dog, but alas, it was the announcement of a new baby on the way. It was probably at that time that my eyes turned green. I was jealous. I didn't fit into the olders clique. And I wasn't the baby of the family anymore, either.

Don't get me wrong. I'm totally over this :). I was a kid and I'm just sharing my feelings as a kid. I love my siblings - both the olders and the youngster brother. I only tell you this to explain my 10/11 year old state of mind in 1970.

In my mind, it was terribly unfair that Ms. Dashner was leaving us, her adoring students, to have a baby. I mean, the total injustice of it!

How did students handle being aggrieved in 1969/1970? Our class immediately started planning a "sit in" demonstration, of course. We all made signs. We informed the principal of the time and date our demonstration would occur.

We went to recess that afternoon, toting our signs. When the bell rang to signal the end of recess, we all came together in a clump and sat on the playground with our signs. Quiet, but excited. Feeling rather rebellious. Feeling powerful.

We sat there for the rest of the afternoon. No one interfered. No one tried to talk us down. No one tried to enforce rules. They just let us... be.

A couple of hours later the buses came. The principal and Ms. Dashner came out to us with a garbage bin and didn't say a single word. One by one, we got up and threw our signs in the bin. Ms. Dashner had tears in her eyes as she hugged each of us in turn. We got on our buses and went home.

The next Monday we were presented with our long-term substitute teacher, Ms. Anne Pier. (See blog post from yesterday about Earth Day.)

We were a bunch of little liberals in training... testing the limits of free speech in the small world we lived in. I felt closure. I felt accomplishment. I felt respected.