Workin' it

Last night I attended a networking event hosted by the LinkedIn group I belong to, LinkedColumbus. It is a known fact that I hate to network, but I decided to be brave and go.

To make the evening more tolerable, I had planned to meet a former coworker there, but either she didn't show up or I could not find her in the crowd (we're both vertically challenged, which is an additional hindrance). Over 400 people RSVP'd to attend last night's event, and I would say at least half that number were there during the hour and 15 minutes that I lasted before I ran screaming for the door (I'm being hyperbolic--I walked screaming for the door). It was loud. It was warm. It was crowded. It was a cash bar.

I was definitely outside my comfort zone. I'm not a terribly outgoing person, so approaching strangers is not my favorite thing to do. I tried, though . . . I struck up a few conversations, and spent the rest of my time trying to look approachable. I managed to hand out a few cards, and got a few as well. One gentleman even complimented my handwriting on my name tag.

What I did right:

• I went!
• I extended myself
• I made eye contact, smiled, and tried to be approachable
• I put not only my name but my company name on my name tag

What I could have done better:

• I could have approached more people
  
• I could have written my title (writer) on my name tag too--might have gotten more nibbles that way

So . . . am I glad I went? Yes, because it forced me to be more outgoing. And no, because I don't think I made enough connections--too many people! I think maybe a smaller event would have been better for me. Lesson learned.

For those of you who are more experienced and/or more comfortable networking, what's the best piece of advice you can give me for making my next networking event better?

Motivation

When I reported for work at my client's office the other afternoon, they were deep in a conversation about what motivates and satisfies them about their work (individually and as a company). It was interesting how different the answers were for the creative services team versus the client services team.

While they were collectively motivated to satisfy the client, the creatives were individually more satisfied by doing "good work," while the client services folks were more satisfied by satisfying the client. I consider the former to be an intrinsic motivation; even if the work is awesome, it doesn't mean that the client is going to like it. The latter, on the other hand, is an extrinsic motivation. Regardless of how they feel about the work itself, the client is happy and that to them is a job well done.

For me, good work usually is work that satisfies my client--on occasion, I guess, a client will want something that isn't my idea of good copy, and that is less than satisfying . . . but for the most part, bad copy is bad copy, and nobody is satisfied with that.

So tell me--is what motivates you the same thing that satisfies you? If not, how do they differ?

What a world

This weekend, I saw a commercial for a product called Bumpits. At first I thought I was having a NyQuil-induced hallucination, but no--Bumpits are gadgets that one can clamp in one's hair to add volume and style. And, I'm sad to report, Bumpits are not edible:

In what kind of world are we living where that warning needs to be stated? They don't look particularly appetizing. I can't imagine they smell like food. And why that particular warning over any other? How did "not edible" win out over "not for use in the anus" or "not recommended for baldies"?

Goals and randomness

GOALS
As I begin the last month of the first quarter of 2009, my thoughts turn to taxes, which reminds me of the goal I set for myself back in January.

As a means of measuring my progress toward goal (and providing visual evidence of my success or failure), I created a little chart for myself. Happily, I exceeded my monthly monetary goal for both January and February. Filling in the spaces between those tick marks is nearly as satisfying as crossing something off a list!

RANDOMNESS

• Heart monitor booty call: The newness wore off at precisely 3:35 Sunday morning, when someone called my heart monitor (which, lest ye forget, nothing more than a glorified Sprint cell phone) asking for Tanya . Also, my sensitive skin does not respond well to the adhesive on the electrodes (I will be switching to hypoallergenic ones today).
  

• The crud: My flu turned the corner on Saturday afternoon. I am much improved, and can breathe through at least one of my nostrils at all times. So far, the hubby is uninfected, which is a blessing. He's quite a whiner when he's sick.

• Prospects: I got an email from a gentleman I met with a few weeks ago, and it looks like I will be working with him on some web copy and possibly another project. I should also be getting details on other projects from two other clients within the month.

• Weather: I noticed the other day that my daffodils and crocuses (croci?) are starting to pop up, albeit not in the same places they popped up last year and certainly not where I planted them several years ago . . . stupid squirrels. Sadly, it snowed last night so Spring has not quite sprung--but it's lurking nearby!
  

Once again, the BBC underestimates me

There's a "note" going around on Facebook that says "The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?"

The rules state that you are to place an "X" next to books you've read, a "+" next to books you loved and a "*" next to books you plan to read. I've read 36 of them, which I have to confess disappointed me a little.

I think this list is very random, and rather silly (for example, #14 is the complete works of Shakespeare, and #98 is Hamlet)--but it gives me a nice list to work from the next time I'm at a loss for what to pick up at the library.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (saw the movie)

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (saw the movie)

3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X+

4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (these should count as more than one) X+

5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X+

6. The Bible (I've read enough to know I don't want to read the whole thing)

7. Wuthering Heights X

8. 1984 - George Orwell X

9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X+

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (I can't remember if I read this or not) *

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read a lot, but not all--this should count as more than one)

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (saw the scary 1970's cartoon)

17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X

19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger X+

20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X

23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (I've started this at least 5 times) *

26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X

30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy *

32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (this should count as more than one too) X

34. Emma - Jane Austen (saw the movie)

35. Persuasion - Jane Austen

36. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, though) *

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X

40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell X

42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving X+

45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X

47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X+

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding X+

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52. Dune - Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen *

55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (saw the movie)

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold X

65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X

69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville X

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (saw the movie)

72. Dracula - Bram Stoker (saw the movie)

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce (my English teachers think I read this, but they're mistaken)

76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath X

77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal - Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (saw the movie)

80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X

82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker (saw the movie)

84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White X+

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arth Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (HATED IT) X

92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain B

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams X

95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare X (and why isn't this considered part of the Complete Works of Shakespeare?!)

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X

100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (saw the play)