Archive for December, 2008
#HoHoTO – Toronto’s Twitter Holiday Party
December 16th, 2008 • View Comments Toronto Social Media
Tags: #HoHoTO, social networking, Toronto, Twitter
Weird here is normal. Weird here is the extreme somewhere else. - Champions of Nothing, Matthew Good
I couldn’t help having the above quote echoing through my head last night before attending #HoHoTO, a holiday party for the Toronto Twitter community, raising funds (and foods) for the Daily Bread Food Bank. Any time you gather “people of that ilk” together in a large group, one never really knows what to expect. Last night’s event, though certainly not without a couple of people that didn’t quite fit in, really relieved any of the concerns I had, and has already become a must-attend every year for me. After the break, a few thoughts of mine on the experience I had with everything surrounding the event.
Remembering Planes, Trains and Automobiles
December 14th, 2008 • View Comments Remembering...
Tags: John Candy, Significant (to me) Flicks, Steve Martin
Boy, watching Toronto sports can be frustrating sometimes, huh? Note: I’m including Buffalo in there as well, if only because the ending of that Bills game was painful.
My family is notable for the fact that we can each make reference to any number of episodes to a number of different TV shows or pop culture moments for every situation. My dad’s got Seinfeld and the Sopranos covered; my brothers and I can name anything from the first 8 or 9 seasons of the Simpsons; Kyle and I know much of the Office; I can also provide a bunch of different movie references.
That’s why tonight’s Family Guy episode (a rerun from last month, I know), replete with not just a Home Alone reference but a Planes, Trains and Automobiles reference as well made me really smile. You see, PTA is one of the Hocking family movie traditions (and in fact, one of two that involve Steve Martin; Parenthood being the other), and Peter’s take on John Candy’s speech after Steve Martin trashes him and everything about him was just spot in. Family Guy’s take was just slightly different, but Lois’ setup and Peter’s delivery sent me back to watch the scene again.
PTA is one of those movies that you understand if you ever had problems on a road-trip; it’s also severely underrated, and offers one of Candy’s best performances ever. It did get positive reviews from critics at the time, but isn’t one of those movies that everyone has seen – which it should have been. John Hughes (he of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Home Alone, and others) put together a great script that just really worked really well with Martin and Candy. It airs often enough on TBS – sorry, PeachtreeTV – that you should be able to catch it on the tube, but it’s definitely a must rent. Eric Snider of film.com recently did a write-up of the flick which fleshes out a little bit more of the movie.
I’ll probably reflect on some other movies that are significant to me that may not have been to others; if you have any of your own, or any thoughts on PTA, please feel free to leave them in the comments.
Passive career searching…
December 12th, 2008 • View Comments Uncategorized
Tags: career, social networking
Chris Brogan wrote a great piece on lead generation in marketing and sales efforts that hit a nerve with me – but not because of the sales and marketing side of the argument. Instead, I think one can take a lot of the points that Chris makes and extend them to your personal marketing efforts – or your personal career search. After the break, I’ll talk about what sorts of things Chris mentioned specifically that you should be applying in your own life.
