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minor update… February 15, 2009

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alright, i’ve got a little over an hour of actual free-time for once, however, i won’t address any issues in too short a time.  just making it known that i’ve almost fallen off the face of the earth, though not entirely…

if i recall, the last thing i mentioned was president obama’s status as a brand…since then, i’ve been incredibly swamped with matters concerning school, both academic and administrative; i won’t get into the latter just yet considering it makes my blood boil as of late.  when the ice is a bit thicker around next week then i’ll divulge openly.

on the plus side, i received two awards for my internship at HSP, one from college of dupage and – drumroll please – i did indeed receive the “national two-year intern” award from CEIA.  i’m thrilled about both, but i’ve made it a point to reiterate that i’m not sure what was so fantastic and deserving that i did during my time at HSP, but i appreciate the recognition nonetheless.  was glad to see the executive director for HOPE fair housing talking to karole at the awards reception last wednesday; hopefully something mutually beneficial comes out of that potential relationship…gotta love my new line of work :) .  it’ll be interesting to see if a partnership of some kind develops there.

it was far more rewarding to see casey receive the award for “outstanding faculty adviser”.  he deserves it more than anyone and i’m glad – even though i’m sure he’d much rather be left unknown – to have seen him recognized for the dedication he has to his students.

in other news, yes…i still have a job and my store is still open.  we’ve actually been grossing profits quite nicely, but we’re inevitably victims of the labor cuts and all the other procedural nonsense that’s got a chokehold on the company.  i find myself playing a wicked game of devil’s advocate that’s become quite exhausting as of late.  all i really care about is that i have a job to go to everyday, money in the bank, and have the occasional opportunity to do work in the community – as well as the freelance PR – for the “make your mark” volunteer events we host each season.  that’s all that keeps me going and keeps me from constantly thinking the worst.

the depaul/valpo PRSSA “taste of chicago PR” conference is finally this week!  i’m happy to say we’re overbooked, so it’s should be a blast.  i’m looking forward to doing some hardcore networking; it’d be awesome if this yielded some agency opportunities.  honestly, i’m just geeked about spending an entire day with a bunch of PR professionals…kid in a candy store’s all i’m gonna say.

i’ll have rolling updates about all this stuff since it’s become increasingly relevant in the past few months.  lots of juicy stuff about to happen toward the end of february into march.  looking forward to it…

giving tree recap… December 10, 2008

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the final trimmings!

the final trimmings!

in all the noise today brought i forgot to mention the wrap-up of the giving tree our store had.  as i said during the process, i was in shock at the generosity of our customers.  in two weeks, we were able to get names, put up a tree, spread the word not only for our own charity but got people talking about HSP as an organization, and successfully fulfilled and exceeded my own personal expectations of the event.  once again considering the economic climate and the fate of everyone’s jobs, it was refreshing to see people still giving a damn about two kids they’ll probably never meet in their own community.

next, well, we don’t exactly know what’s next.  this christmas season’s gonna be tight for us at work now too.  as i said earlier, starting to get a little unsettling thinking we might all be looking for jobs soon.  i knew it’d happen eventually, just didn’t think it’d potentially be so soon.  the pessimist that i am, i’m sure i’m jumping the gun which is why i fail to elaborate beyond speculation.  if given reason however…well, that’s another animal altogether.

visions (red)efined… November 29, 2008

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u2's bono makes a surprise appearance at the starbucks manager's conference in new orleans, la

i’ll say it now, that i’m so willing to be a whore for starbucks so long as bono approves it.  i know contradict myself somewhere therein as a result.  if you haven’t yet noticed because you live under a rock or are simply unfamiliar with product (red), starbucks has teamed up to form yet another co-branded force to be reckoned with.  as in the footsteps of gap, dell, apple, and a few others, starbucks has trademarked three holiday drinks and co-branded to the extreme.  today was “(red) friday” instead of “black friday” to those of you familiar with the idiocy of the american consumer on the day after thanksgiving.  at any rate, i hate admitting that i disagree with naomi klein on this issue of the co-branded world.  yes, capitalism is king, and how much of the $.05 actually goes to the purchasing of pharmaceuticals could indeed be argued vigorously, but given that i’m no investgative reporter, nor working [yet] at starbucks corporate in marketing, i have to take the endeavor at face value.

it’s an absolutely brilliant move; timely and tugging at the heartstrings of the selfish and jaded american consumer, to remember – hopefully – to do at least one good deed this season by buying one of the uber-branded drinks we offer in a partnership with quite possibly the largest charity brand since the red cross.  have i said “brand” enough yet?  i want to get that through to all of you.  this is huge, whether or not you recognize it.  not only huge in the sense of the money and marketing involved, but of the enormously huge corporate responsibility attached to it for both mega-brands.  i’ll not get into the contradictions of that argument, because for once, i’m not being as pessimistic as usual, but i guarantee that post is soon to come.  right now, i’m satisfied chilling and slinging drinks in my trendy (red) apron and giddy that such a hideously contradictory practice is in place for the holidays; i’m hoping for limited ulterior motive.

another thing that has starbucks tugging at my own heartstrings…SOCIAL MEDIA!  yep, it’s official, starbucks has broken the barrier of social networking!  not sure yet how i feel about it, aside from the fact that it needs much, much, MUCH more development, i’m not sure how comfortable i am with customers searching for me via “V2V” as it’s called.  still, i can’t help giving it a chance in hopes of someday being one of the people continually developing it.

my "giving tree" flyer (click to enlarge)

the giving tree (click to enlarge)

finally on my tardy list of holiday newsworthiness – concerning starbucks that is – my store’s “make you mark” teamed up with humanitarian service project.  nice to indirectly help them out through customer charity.  definitely didn’t expect it to be as successful as it’s proved to be so far.  feels good…makes me feel like i’ve got a good handle on cutting my teeth in PR lately.  my next big project – aside from the PRSSA conference in february and the american lung association “climb chicago” – is a local 5k or something of the sort in march.  i’m in no way gloating for once, but i’m proud of myself with the giving tree; i wasn’t optimistic at all and the response has been so positive that i hope i can keep on plugging away for HSP even though i’m not an intern anymore.  so, how busy am i that i still think of writing a stupid story about the past year at starbucks?  given that i’m on break until the new year, i think i’m just going to have to crack and give in to writing again for pleasure rather than obligations.  i’ve been worrying everyone in my complete lack of blogging and inability to concentrate effectively on my writing.  surprisingly, i found i do have a limit for writing, and it hadn’t occurred to me until it was recently pointed out by my best friend.  but i’m back, and i’ll be annoying everyone in the blogosphere even more as the break crawls on and i suffer more cabin fever when the first blizzard hits.  so here i close for the night considering i have to be up again in four hours to open the store.  i leave you with this:

(do something good everyday)

social media ethics in public relations… July 14, 2008

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just a rough overview of my final presentation…not totally done, but you get the basic idea. just felt like sharing…also, you can find my sources of information in a previous blog…just want to make sure lee odden, brian solis, and deirdre breakenridge get their dues as i admire all three for their theoretical input on the concepts of social media as i’ve learned much from them over the past few months:

rollercoasters are fun… July 8, 2008

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so today’s been a rough day…however, generally productive and looking up on the depaul end of things. we had a bit of an emergency at HSP that couldn’t have come at a worse time considering all that has to be done for phase two of “feed the kids” which happens tomorrow. things were generally salvaged and smoothed over, it was just the series of events that led to it that made the day discouraging. without going into unnecessary detail, we had a mixture of food mishap due to lack of proper communication and the wonderful illinois prairie heat. but, overall, we have more food to distribute tomorrow which made it all worthwhile in the long-run. we’re still experiencing a bit of a food shortage, but this mishap turned blessing in disguise really helped the situation…even though it didn’t seem that way rushing and sweating and panicking in the warehouse to make sure all perishable food was stored as quickly as possible. all is well and tomorrow’s families will no doubt be the benefactors…good fuzzy feeling, ha.

on the depaul front…leave it to my PR professor to help me make things right for myself. the only reason i haven’t ever mentioned his name is for the sake that this blog is public domain and i don’t want to infringe on his privacy…but enough of that disclaimer. due to a connection he had who also had a connection that happened to be the associate director of transfer admissions, i just might be getting that last nudge i need to be readmitted in the fall. i’m not getting my hopes up, however…i always prepare for the worst and hold my breath for the best.

beyond that, i’ve got a lot of catch-up work to do this week before and after my site-visit this thursday from the head of co-operative education & internship department up here. i’ll have a few final mentions of the work i’ve been working on at HSP. as always, i thoroughly encourage anyone who reads this to look into HSP and similar programs like it in your own communities.

given the times we’re in and the direction we’re headed as a society, it’s up to us to take care of each other…not the government’s. the government’s only there to serve as the rule-maker and deal-breaker…if we can’t take care of each other, then what’s the point?

losing my ambition… June 19, 2008

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ever have one of those days where everything was going just fine all day and then all of a sudden, you feel about as foul as you would getting on the redline at jackson and state? i had me one of them days today…

i woke up today already feeling a bit blah because my allergies kept me up for the better part of the night, but i went about my morning without any grief. got dressed…spent $36 on gas…went to my first class. class itself seemed a bit of a waste since all we did was watch “remember the titans”. i have no objections to watching movies in class, but it just seemed like a waste of two hours.

i guess i started getting a bit sour when i realized that this “group midterm” that i have coming up next week is going to be a complete disaster since my three other group members will be either out of town, working, or complaining that they only have one day off a week. lucky you…i literally have none.

i had to sit around for about an hour and a half before i drove to a different campus for my second class that starts at 7pm. so, i went upstairs and fiddled some more with my humanitarian service project cause on facebook. consequently, the computers were being obnoxiously slow, so i gave up at 4:30pm and decided to go to the cafe for some “lunch”…in other words, a clif bar and a red bull.

now, i have no objections to interacting with people, but when i have my ipod going and i’m reading a book while stuffing my face with soy-based snack foods and excessive amounts of taurine, i more or less intended on shutting out the world around me. i had these two guys who worked in the cafe come up and start chatting with me out of nowhere. once again, any other situation and i’d be flattered and interested…but yeah.

so i leave at 5pm to fight traffic and it takes me nearly an hour…whatever, that’s expected. i’m feeling fine and dandy, almost with a bit of a spring in my step and i get in the building, sit down in the lobby, and wait. i’m only waiting an hour and it’s passing surprisingly fast. my teacher comes up the stairs, i go in the room, sit down, make a quick phone call, and talk to two of the girls in my class who i find to be pretty cool.

class starts…down goes my mood. this is a strange occurrence, especially considering that this is teacher happens to be my mentor who i look up to in every way and genuinely enjoy his classes. today’s different and i don’t know why. maybe because the entire class discussion revolved around the structure of a speech…something i already know and have known since high school, but the horse’s carcass must continue to be flogged for the sake of other students’ understanding. maybe it’s the fact that i have no common ground to stand on with anyone in the class as i’m the only communications major and when questions are asked, i don’t want to dominate the class and seem like a know it all. so i sit…and i sit…and i play with the blinds and stare at my car out the window and wish class was over…this is unusual.

then we watched a video of a student from texas tech give quite possibly the most terrible speech i’ve ever seen. my teacher goes around the room and asks each of us what grade we would give her. most gave B’s and C’s…it’s my turn…i give her an F with the opportunity to do it over again for a new grade and i rationalize my reasoning. i could almost hear everyone’s thoughts…then again, maybe i’m just paranoid. he gives her a C…i feel like an asshole. not for the “grade” i gave her, but i feel like an asshole because i’m pretty sure that’s how everyone else is addressing me in their own thoughts…

class ends, i pack my stuff, and i need to talk to my teacher about some internship stuff…but i figure, it’s not the time or place, but i don’t want to put it off until next week and it’s not something i can email him about so now i’m between a rock and a hard place. i figured i’d forget it and just picked up and walked out. the entire ride home was unpleasant and slow for no reason other than people can’t read a damn speed limit sign and decide they’d like to go 35 in a 50 mph zone…got home and there you have it.

i think it’s just a matter of everything’s finally starting to catch up with me. i’m always tired…i hardly sleep not only because i work at 4am five days a week, but i’m so wound up and freaking out about all that needs to be done that i’m not able to enjoy anything anymore. i don’t want to let myself or the people that have guided me through everything down but the candle’s been burning furiously at both ends since january and the flames have almost met in the middle.

i don’t know how much longer i can do it…

a toe in the pool of social media: part deux… June 17, 2008

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…so what does all that rambling have to do with my experience in social media? since changing majors and temporarily changing schools, i had the opportunity to play with what i wanted my new future to be since i ran away screaming from teaching. i picked journalism and found out it wasn’t at all what i had expected. during that time, i decided to take a class in public relations as i had no clue what it was truly all about, and i was hooked. by no means do i assume i know all there is to know about public relations; i’m only just skimming the surface during my work as an intern for a local nonprofit organization.

i bring up social media and my work up here at the humanitarian service project because i’ve been working as a “community outreach intern” for the better part of the summer. essentially, they have been looking for new ways to reach out – thus my title – and not only gain volunteers and interns and funding, but also to let those who they serve know that their aid and programs aren’t going anywhere.

due to extremely high oil and gas prices as well as soaring food prices, volunteers have been harder to come by the past year or so and it has become exceedingly difficult to maintain all of their programs. sure the organization has the support of rotaries, churches, some schools, and a few die-hard private sponsors – as well as democratic presidential candidate, barack obama – but they rely on old media outlets. one can only write so many press releases to the same fifty local newspapers before it all gets to be discouraging.

so i thought it was time for a change. this is the age of going green; the age of social utilities like facebook, myspace, hell, even craigslist was jotted on my little napkin of ideas. the point i’ve been trying to drive home is HSP need not be confined to illinois alone. there’s a much bigger audience out there that, before studying public relations, i never knew had such potential or influence.

another point…we’re all going through this economic crisis; some have it harder than others. but if i’ve learned at least one thing from my experience in communications is that it’s the responsibility of the community to bring about social change. not the government’s – not if you want it done right, anyway – not the corporations – though they provide funding which can lead to problems along the way – but the actual citizen.

common citizens have a previously unfathomable platform by which they can essentially change the world. it’s all about whether or not you’re going to do something about it…

as a sidenote, and since it’s my new baby and social experiment for the greater good, if you have a facebook, take a minute and check out the humanitarian service project’s cause. don’t be shy about leaving me some feedback…constructive of course.