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DIY Files: 2009 Honda Fit Trailer Hitch Install

This past summer, one of the first things I did to my new 2009 Honda Fit was to add an aftermarket no-drill trailer hitch. I had no delusions of being able to tow a bass boat or anything…I just wanted to be able to throw on a Thule bike rack. Thanks to the good folks at etrailer.com, I found this nice little Draw-Tite number. A short, week-long wait later, the trailer was delivered straight to my casa. After an hour and a half on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, it was all installed and ready to roll. Apart from a little filing to widen the frame holes that would accommodate the mounting bolts, it was a pretty easy deal.

So why blog about this now 9 months later? Someone must have Googled “2009 Honda Fit Hitch Install” and found my Flickr photoset. I thought I’d leave another little bit of Google bait for anyone else looking for similar info. Enjoy!

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Posted on January 26, 2010 in Photos, Random. Tagged with , , , , , , , .

The Day’s Delicious

Assorted nonsense and marginally relevant shenanigans via my personal delicious.com bookmarks.

- Debate swirls around ICANN plan to fast-track new top-level domains: I understand the debate, but I’m more interested in eventual adoption. It seems that .com, .org and .edu automatically communicate a certain level of trust while .net signals that you’re leaving the main drag and heading down an alley. But a URL of http://nike.running looks pretty slick…

- Diagram: How the Air Force Response to Blogs: Via Jeremiah Owyang, this little gem is going on my social media “how-to best of” list.

- 500 Internal Server Error: 500 Internal Server Error

- Which Companies Will Win The Battle For The E-Book Consumer?: The latest battlefront in the digital content war is starting to come into sharper focus…

Posted on January 20, 2010 in Links. Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , .

The Day’s Delicious

Assorted nonsense and marginally relevant shenanigans via my personal delicious.com bookmarks.

- 40 Free High-Quality WordPress Themes | Smashing Magazine: ABC: Always Be Collecting (WordPress themes).

- Evolution: The Eight Stages Of Listening: A great post from former Forrester analyst-turned Altimeter Group high flyer Jeremiah Owyang.

- Twitter and LinkedIn Status Updates Are Now Synced: You can tweet to your LinkedIn profile in order to update your status on the site. An interesting combination and another consideration to think about as you craft your online social media identity.

- Designing “Coming Soon” Pages: Whatever happened to the animated gif of the dude on the construction sign with a shovel? That’s not classy enough for ya?

Posted on November 12, 2009 in Links. Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Nature vs. Nurture/Teaching vs. Training

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Inflight wireless has to be one of the most insidious ideas to come out of the airline industry in recent memory. (Yes, worse than charging for extra bags and making me pay for a mini-sized can of pop.)

Why?

Because I consider an airplane the last refuge for the always on/always connected lifestyle I have both chosen and am somewhat required to lead as a digital ad guy. Well, at least I still have a choice in the matter. I choose to not connect and instead spend the time reconnecting with my old-school analog/dead tree habits — reading the trades, catching up with pop rags like Rolling Stone and maybe even busting out a book. Try it the next time you get excited by the prospect of tweeting from 30,000 feet. You might like it.

So what caught my eye today? A great column by Seiter & Miller CEO Livingston Miller in last week’s Advertising Age (“Do ‘teach’ and ‘advertising’ belong in the same sentence?”). Coming off a panel presentation I participated in during AAF-KC’s Career Day this week, the topic was timely.

And I have to say that I largely agree with Miller’s take. Of course, a quick read through my bio should tell you why. I’m a 10 year advertising veteran (still weird for me to type that, by the way) with three music degrees too many for the career I’m in.

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve met some incredibly bright and talented individuals that are currently pursuing or graduated with mass comm/journalism/advertising/marketing degrees over the years. These are folks with extremely bright futures or have well-established themselves in the biz.

But I can’t help but be skeptical when I see their resumes come across my desk during a hiring process. While it may reflect a degree of training in the fundamentals of the discipline, it’s rarely been a direct indication of the things agencies value most: curiosity, instinct, savvy, creative thinking, stamina, persistence, determination or the all-so-important thrill of the hunt and drive to win.

And given the rapid changes that are happening in our business at what seems like on a daily basis, I don’t know how their professors can adequately keep up with it all AND equip their students at the same time. I mean, shit…just keeping up myself is an ongoing challenge. I’ve developed my own methods to do that with a certain amount of efficiency but no one can follow it all.

During my panel on Monday, one of the students nearing the end of her collegiate studies expressed a concern that she’s allowed herself to be “pigeonholed” and was wondering if it was too late to change her focus. It was a great question. My response? You’re only pigeonholed if you let yourself be.

So if you’re a college student reading this, ready to bounce out of your school and waving your ad degree high overhead shouting “Look at me! Look at me!”, it may be time to think what that degree has REALLY taught you about your desired career. The real skill set required might be much different than the one you thought you needed.

Posted on November 4, 2009 in Advertising. Tagged with , , , , , , .

The Day’s Delicious

Assorted nonsense and marginally relevant shenanigans via my personal delicious.com bookmarks.

- Where’s My Jetpack?: Echo and The Narcissists: A brief but fantastic commentary on social media navel gazing. Outstanding.

- 10 Useful WordPress Coding Techniques « Smashing Magazine: I’ve used a few of these but definitely want to keep this close at hand for future dev. WordPress continues to impress in terms of being a simple yet top-notch CMS solution for my small biz and music-related freelance work.

- Google Wave: A Complete Guide: Bookmarking this bad boy as I figure out this is all supposed to work. Shiny object syndrome in full effect.

Posted on October 28, 2009 in Links. Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .