Go ahead. Call me a "crazy cat lady". I don't mind. I even have the action figure.

I've always had a weakness for kittens who need homes. I say, "I'll take him and find him a home". And then I do. With me.

I firmly believe animals make their humans' lives calmer and more joyful with their love and their crazy antics. I would never be without pets in my life. I didn't exactly plan on having five at once though.

Mister is the wise old man of my crew. He's named for Mister McGoo, a clumsy cartoon character from my childhood. He is a big, clumsy galoot. He loves everyone. He's the official greeter at my house. He gets to the front door before I do when anyone knocks.

Fergus is my super model. He never takes a bad picture; and he knows it. He's the opposite of a greeter. When anyone knocks at the door, he growls as he runs the opposite direction.

Wallace is a behemoth. He weighs in at about 20 pounds. A friend found him when he was about 5 weeks old. Since she wasn't a cat person, I offered to take him until we could "find him a home". He was the most ferocious kitten I've ever encountered. He could fit in the palm of my hand; when I was brave enough to try and pick him up. It took three weeks before I was able to pet him without bleeding. Once I'd won him over I couldn't give him away.

Josie is the only girl in the household other than me. She's also named after a cartoon character from my childhood. Anyone remember Josie and the Pussycats?

She is a diva. Her throne is atop the dresser where none of the other cats dare approach her. She loves Mister and me. She detests the other cats in the family.

That leaves my newest foundling, Boo. He's named after Boo Radley. And I did get him last Halloween. He brings toys to me to throw for him. He then brings them back to me to throw again. He also puts his toys in my purse, my shoes and his water bowl. I came to work on a snowy day recently wearing my galoshes. I told a coworker one of the galoshes felt tight on my toes. I pulled it off and pulled out a purple catnip mouse. A present from Boo.

As I said, I'm a crazy cat lady.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who resist change and those who embrace it. I see myself as the latter. Change is inevitable, you can only slow it down, but you cannot stop it. In this industry, there's the leading edge and there's the bleeding edge. To lead is to survive and to bleed is to thrive. You aren't two steps ahead of what is already happening, then you are behind. In an industry and environment like this, change is frequent, change is fast, and change is necessary.

Over the past five years of my life I have lived in a different place every year with the biggest change was moving to Fort Worth, Texas last July for my job at the Balcom Agency. I had never been to Texas and it's a long 17 hour trip from Indiana. Aside from moving across the country by myself, it was also what most people would consider my first "real job".

After moving down here just 7 months ago, I'm already moving again. This time it's only 15 minutes from where I currently live which is the shortest move I have ever made. Although there is a lot of trouble/hassle that comes with moving, I find it to be exciting as well. New neighbors, new apartment, and I'll be a lot closer to downtown. I think half the fun of moving around a lot is knowing the fact that you can move around. There's so many people that are tied down with commitments like houses, family, kids, or other commitments that they don't have the freedom to just pick up and move.

As someone who gets bored easily, I live for constant change. But change is not always something big. Change is not always moving, getting a new job, having kids, or buying a new car. These things are life changes that don't happen near enough to keep me satiated. It's the small things like NetFlix, Gamefly, Pandora, Reddit, and Last.fm that provide me with my daily changes that get me through each week. The different movies, music, games, news articles, and other things allow me to constantly have new experiences. I'm constantly looking for ways to better the situation of myself and those around me. That is change.

I'll leave you with this.

If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing. ~Saint Augustine

A young single woman, I often ask my married friends and family, “How do you know when you’ve found The One?” Invariably, despite geographic, ethnic, age and gender differences, they reply confidently, “You just know.”

This seemingly smug response always irked me, until I felt it. 

Call me a workaholic. Call me a geek. Call me pathetic. But I felt it at work. I love my job. No, really… I do.

Let me count the reasons why:

1. Variety Is the Spice of Life.

As social media manager at Balcom, I’m responsible for managing a wide variety of online communities for a wide variety of clients. On a daily basis, I chat with customers about fajitas, cowboy boots, diamond rings, country music, margaritas, payday loans, puppies and even social media marketing.

I toggle between Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Foursquare, Gowalla and MySpace. I learn how to write great status updates, squeeze messages into 140 characters, respond gracefully to customer complaints, optimize web copy and create compelling online offers. Most importantly, I learn how to engage consumers, which brings me to my next point.

2. Social Media Sells.

But not because of slippery, slimy sales offers. Social media sells because it engages consumers in a way that they want to be engaged.

On the Justin Boots Facebook Page, for instance, I collaborate with my clients to share meaningful and valuable information with fans. This means that for every post reading “Boots are half off today!" we post a fan photo, an update on local rodeo standings, a list of country music tour dates, a question to fans about their weekend plans or a simple thank you. We even ask our fans, "What do you want to hear from us?" and deliver. 

Interacting with consumers each day in an authentic way fulfills me, all while driving revenues.  

3. We Learn – And Then We Learn From Our Mistakes.

Balcom Agency and good social media marketers embrace continual learning. We also believe in taking risks and learning from our mistakes. In my role as social media manager, I soak up breaking news on the latest technologies, trends and techniques in marketing. Much akin to my eating habits, I consume this information voraciously.

At Balcom Agency and in the world of social media, mistakes are accepted. And transformed into opportunities to learn and improve. When I err, I’m not harshly punished but encouraged to seek the lesson in the error.  Inevitably, these faux pas lead to even better performance and client service.

4. We Are Family.

At Balcom, we truly love each other.

Did you just roll your eyes? I understand. Perhaps my enthusiasm for my colleagues is akin to those nagging Facebook status updates: “I have the best life ever!" or "My boyfriend spoils me!" But really, we get along like peas and carrots. We joke. We laugh. We brainstorm. We challenge. We achieve. And sometimes we even have a beer together. I never thought I could love my coworkers like I do. It makes a big difference.

In closing, thank you for the opportunity to gush about my beloved job.  Beyond an awareness of my tendency toward self-indulgence, I hope you’ll take just a few things away from this post. Social media works. Mistakes are opportunities. And kindness, humor and honesty in the workplace pay off, not just in the form of happy employees, but also in happy clients. 

Valentine's day was a few days ago, and since I'm still in the mood, I am going to declare my love for the cloud. I love that we host all of our websites in the cloud. What advantage does this have, both for us as developers and for our clients?

We're in the spirit of love here in Fort Worth - and I've got a couple of great new products and services that I love. Here's a couple that I currently heart:

1. Followupthen - A free email reminder service. Simply send an email to something like tomorrow10pm@followupthen.com. You'll get a reminder tomorrow at 10 pm. Sweet.
2. FitBit - A little device you wear. It keeps track of your movement (think Nintendo Wii) and graphs it. It tracks overall activity for the day. For the record, I walked the most ever at the Rose Bowl - over 16 miles. 
3. Otherinbox - If you are anything like me, you get tons of emails from all sorts of places: Newsletters, Travel Deals, Groupons, etc. But what about real people trying to email you? That's where Otherinbox comes in. It automatically filters out all of the mass emails and puts it in another folder to check later.
4. Amazon Prime - $79/year. Free two-day shipping on any Amazon order. Beautiful.

Perhaps it's because my mom owns a personalized stationery business, or maybe it's because I've had a pen pal ever since I could write. Whatever the reason may be, I love hand-written notes. So after more than a quarter century of receiving (and forever keeping) some pretty phenomenal hand-written pieces, I share with you a few of my favorites.

This is a thank you note sent to me from Aimi, a Japanese exchange student who lived with our family when I was in 10th grade.

For my 19th birthday, my neighbors in the San Diego State dorms made me a Saturday Night Live-inspired birthday card, complete with illustrations.

My mom has beautiful handwriting, and she mailed my significant other and me The Barbecue Bible, along with a personal greeting.  

Each of these may not have cost much money to buy (or make) or have even taken much time to write, but I'll always love revisiting the memories they represent.

If you read my last post, you know I'm a major YouTube junkie. The so-called "amateurs" who produce YouTube content are so talented, I'm starting to think traditional TV is going the way of the cassette tape. And I've just been waiting for an excuse to write about my favorite 'Tube channels. So happy Valentine's Day!

1. HISHEdotcom
   How It Should Have Ended produces short animated parodies of how new and classic movies should have ended.
   
   

    

2. ImprovEverywhere
   Improv Everywhere plays elaborate pranks on the unsuspecting public – but pranks that make people happy instead of angry.
   
   

 

3. ItsJustSomeRandomGuy
   ItsJustSomeRandomGuy started out doing Mac/PC commercial spoofs using Marvel and DC comic book action figures. Pretty nerdy, right? But well written and totally hilarious. This sample video is the fourth installment in the Ironman vs. Batman series.
   
   

    

4. Vlogbrothers
   Hank and John Green are brothers living in different states, who decided to communicate with each other via vlog (video blog). Since 2007, they've amassed a huge fan base (known as the Nerdfighters), with more subscribers than Oprah. John and Hank always have something interesting to say; either informative, though-provoking, funny, or all three.
   
   

    

5. SmilingLimpet
   Ed Stockham, aka SmilingLimpet, is a little-known animator-videographer guy. This particular video is so charming I just want to hug my computer every time I see it.
   
   

    

6. RhettandLink
   These guys take vlogging to a whole new level. It was super hard to choose a sample video here, but I finally had to pick this one over Ultimate Caption Fail.
   
   

    

7. CharlieIsSoCoolLike
   He's really just a guy in a room with a camera. And sometimes a ukelele. But perhaps the simplicity of his videos is what allows his cleverness to shine through.
   
   

Valentine’s Day is a day to reflect on love. Typically, on love for a significant other, close friends and family. I do love my family very much. I have been blessed with great, loving, and supportive parents and an awesome older brother who is truly one of my best friends. I have some great friends (and co-workers too) who I am very thankful to have in my life as well. I also have one incredibly amazing and beautiful girlfriend who chooses to put up with me. But I also love quite a few other things worth noting:

1.   Being outdoors. But who doesn’t? Especially after two weeks of miserably cold temperatures with blowing winds and plenty of ice and snow that even a polar bear would have felt at home in Texas. My girlfriend and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather this past weekend to go for an 11-mile mountain bike ride at River Legacy Park in north Arlington. It was perfect out. Even the eight plus armadillos we saw scouring around seemed to be enjoying the warm weather.  

2.   Shoes. Yes I love shoes. Luckily, nobody frowns upon you having more than one pair. At last count I owned 72 pairs, neatly displayed side-by-side in my closet. I have everything from cowboy boots to boat shoes, Converse All-Stars to flip-flops and plenty of running and basketball shoes. Don’t even ask me to pick favorites because I would never be able to decide on just one.

3.   Fruit Roll-ups. Yes, I said Fruit Roll-ups…the colorful, fruity sheets of yummy goodness that you so often find in your local grocery store cereal aisle next to the granola bars and other “healthy” snacks. I got hooked on these at a young age and the love continues to this day. While in the Coast Guard, I was known to buy 3-5 boxes of the delicious treats before every patrol…patrols that only lasted a week.

What happens when your marketing concept needs a compelling visual other then stock photography or illustration or a great type treatment? What if the concept needs something that lives in the suspended realm of dreamland, but CGI fantasy isn't quite the real enough? The three photographers below are masters of the captured image. Each artist has an individual style that brings a magical life to their work and that demands attention. But, they can also shoot tabletops and headshots that you'd love just!

Chris Chlor :: http://www.clorimages.com

Sean McGinty :: http://www.seanmcginty.com

Stephen Austin Welch :: http://www.saw-art.com