Keeping up the alma mater spirit

Over the past few months living and working downtown, I've had plenty of run-ins and adventures in the city. Whether it was seeing the manager that hired me at T.G.I. Friday's when I was 16 at an El stop or ending up on the same cart of the train as a college friend, something is always making me smile.

One Mizzou tradition is a very simple chant: saying M-I-Z and responding Z-O-U! This is done at all of our sporting events, with the students on the MIZ side and alumni on the ZOU side. It's also not uncommon to scream "MIZ!" when you see someone in Mizzou attire in public, sharing the Tiger spirit across the country. This was big in Dallas & Atlanta for our football Bowl & SEC Championship games, especially in the airports to recognize fans. As a joke, I often shout "MIZ!" when I see someone in University of Kansas attire, just for fun. 

Last week at work, I was eating lunch with my college roommate Kate in the Renaissance Hotel lobby. A young woman was walking by in a Mizzou fleece jacket, so indeed I said MIZ! and she stared at me like I was crazy. She laughed and was clearly an alumna, but didn't seem to want to ZOU back in front of her co-workers.

Fast forward to two days later, I was at a Phi Mu alumnae event and met a graduate of my chapter from 2009, so our time in Columbia never overlapped. She said, "Yeah, the other day I was at meeting for work and someone actually said MIZ to me." I looked over at the coat rack and it was the same Mizzou fleece. Slightly embarrassing, more so hilarious. I asked, "Was it at the Renaissance Hotel?" Yup. It was. "That was me," I told her. We cracked up.

There you have it! Just another city adventure to MIZ someone in public and meet them in person two days later! 

Photo Credit: News.missouri.edu

What I've learned from taking a break from the book

Sitting in the back seat on Facebook these past few weeks, here are a few things I have learned:

1. People give themselves a lot more credit for what they post than they deserve.
I've been in multiple conversations lately where someone is describing a weekend outing or situation, and they have actually said, "You probably saw the picture on Facebook." With complete confidence. Maybe I am biased as I have a large Facebook community, but I would never assume that someone sees each of my posts on Facebook, especially with how targeted the news feed is these days. Staying off of it shows me how much people rely on posting as a means to share their whereabouts, rather than actually sharing news aloud. 

2. Facebook is integral for learning about others' relationship statuses.
While Facebook's status updates are a key way to hear relationship news, clearly it can't be that important to your day-to-day life because if you were really close with someone, you'd hear about their "official" boyfriend/girlfriend status or engagement from them. That being said, I've missed plenty of relationship news shying away from Facebook, and heard about engagements through friends telling me the news or through ring photos on social platforms with more intimate communities, like Instagram. Because this is a "status update" that isn't an option on other platforms, it's most prevalent and frequently updated on Facebook. 

3. We have plenty of other outlets to communicate.
Not logging onto Facebook every few hours has taught me how many other communication outlets are accessible to reach others. If I want to reach out to someone in the digital space or send them an article, I can text, email or tweet at them instantly. All of those options exist to share photos too. Facebook only dominates if you let it. 

City streets: continued

Casual broken hose on Lake Street…things you would and wouldn't expect to see in the city. #cityliving

The intersection at Lake & State Street in Chicago

Instagram photo map

The Instagram photo map has to be my favorite social media feature right now. Creating it provides an incentive to geo-tag photos, and it creates this beautiful map showing all the territory you have conquered! 

Instagram photo map: Chicago area. Clearly I'm lacking on the South Side. 

Restaurants and destinations win because their locations look more popular on social media. FourSquare wins because they are getting checkins. Instagram wins because you're uploading photos, and you win because it makes this super cool map. I look at the photo map as digital scrapbooking, a simple visual showing where you have been and identifying what else there is to try. Try it out! 

The Loop - River North border on the photo map

Ancient Internet stories

The other day in a training session at work, an executive at my company said, "And in 1996, clients would ask, 'What are we going to do on the Internet? There's nobody there.'" 

That sparked all of the stories from our youth of the Internet being new and exciting. Remember….

• In elementary/middle school when everyone had a dial-up connection? 
• How you could practically do a dance while the computer was connecting to the Internet? 
• When everyone was on AOL Instant Messenger until the wee hours of the night? 
• When your house could have a computer without Internet on it and it wouldn't be a big deal?

There are countless memories. What other ancient Internet stories come to mind? 

Social media flirting

Life growing up in your 20s as digital natives: where this is a normal conversation to have with friends.

Unbelievable news stories

A quick list of news stories in the past few weeks that still make me go, "What? Really?" after hearing them:


1. Malaysia Flight 370
Along with the rest of the world, I continue to be baffled that in today's technology age, there is still no accurate tracking of this flight or any of its passengers.

2. Crimea voting to leave Ukraine and join Russia 
This one shocks me because it happened so quickly. "Oh, we're going to be part of another country now, k thx!"

3. A recent Lake Shore Drive car chase / standoff for a murderer
When one man shuts down one of the biggest access points in Chicago after an hours-long car chase with police over a recent murder

4. A woman leaving an alligator at Chicago O'Hare
This was a few weeks back, but how did a woman casually bring an alligator on public transportation and leave it at the airport? 

5. Edward Snowden speaking at SXSW
How can someone who had to flee the United States perfectly fine video-conferencing with one of the largest US festivals? 

What do you strive to be?

What do you want your title to be in three years?

This is an interesting question that I've received a lot in meetings or training sessions over the past few weeks. Knowing the nature of the role you aim to be in is an important question to answer, but I believe there is a more significant question that this one doesn't encompass that everyone must answer to themselves first.

What do you strive to be?

Instead of looking at what you’re doing, it looks at the nature of how you will go about tackling it. What do you want your impression to be at a given work place? What impression do you want to make on friends, family and in relationships? What attributes do you strive to “own”? What type of person do you want to be?

For me, the answer to this is accountability. I want everyone I interact with to leave and know that I will follow through & get the job done. I value accountability over ambition because you can be a go-getter without delivering on every promise.

It is definitely possible to strive for more than one attribute as well, but choosing a primary and secondary quality helps you prioritize actions in many components of your life.

So what do you want to be? Actionable? A leader? Expert on a specific subject? Whether it’s a noun or an adjective, narrow in on some attributes and set goals around them. 

Monopolies of tomorrow

This morning in the news, I read about the finalization of a merger - Men's Wearhouse acquiring Jos. A. Bank. In just the past few months:

• Facebook has purchased WhatsApp
• Omnicom & Publicis Groupe applied to merge 
• Office Max & Office Depot merged 
• American Airlines & US Airways are merging 
• Comcast is attempting to acquire Time Warner 

These mergers and acquisitions are not all focused in one line of business; they are across various industries.

What does this mean for business when today's workforce has seen every big company attempt to become a monopoly? Apple, Google and Facebook already dictate a lot of the Internet and data marketplace. What will happen when companies continue to consolidate into mega-companies?

Sure, mergers are not new. And we know the FTC spends plenty of time investigating regulation and business effects before passing these joint agreements. But today's workplace knows something new and different than the notion that if you are a startup, you are not successful if you're not acquired for billions. While that remains true, it now applies to large companies. If you are an established company and are not investing in smaller businesses, big-scale partnerships or buying companies out, you are also not successful. We'll continue to see how these monopolies affect our future as employees, businesspeople and consumers.

Cross-posting

When an image from one of your blog posts gets posted on another website, and you don't know until your sister points it out here.

20-something problems.

City streets

Spotted on my street this evening…wonder how this car's going to get out. Time for the polar vortex to end!

Is winter over yet?

Breaking down Chicago area codes

When you receive a phone call or text message, the three-digit area code it comes from signifies a lot. Someone's phone number teaches you about their hometown or place of work, which can instantly be means to connect.

The more I meet people in Chicago, the more I realize how confident people are in where they currently live or grew up. People love to boast about their whereabouts, so I broke down how I explain the various area codes here. Enjoy! 

312- Classy Chicago

773- I can say I'm from Chicago, but I'm actually further north 

847- I grew up in Cook County and want you to know it 

630 and 708- I love my South or West suburb more than you love your dog

815- I'm a poser that's not really from Chicago

224- I was really delayed in getting a cell phone

219- I think I'm from Chicago but I'm actually from Northwest Indiana

February Quotes

With a trip to Boston, the Super Bowl and plenty of outings in Chicago, the short month of February flew by. Time to laugh at the quotes!

Past months' quotes here
_______

"He must be important every day because people sue him." -Lauren, on Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat

"And if you have a dog or a boyfriend, here's a leash." -Paul, pointing out leashes at the brewery gift shop in Boston 

"I can only imagine what high schoolers do on this thing." -Lauren, on Snapchat

"So how do you like talking to drunk strangers?" -Lauren, to our UberX driver

"Isn't that good that we ate a ton of calories but didn't have dinner so it's worth it?" -Lauren, on our Saturday (girls problems

"It's going well. [My fiance's  planning everything which is great. She even planned the honeymoon which I'm supposed to do from what I understand." -Tasso, on his wedding

"Are you inviting my cousins to your bachelor party?" -girl

"I'm not even inviting my brothers to my bachelor party." -boy

"It's not that great of an area though. You'll want to leave." -Boy from Springfield. Massachusetts on me going there

"Why is the mascot, the person with the least visibility, on the horse?" -on the Broncos entrance at the Super Bowl

"There are two minds of people with weed- Seattle who does it & gets stuff done, and Denver who does it and sits on the couch watching Spongebob." -boy at a Super Bowl party 

  

"My next big purchase is going to be a nice TV." -Boy

"Not a ring? ...just kidding." -Girl

“No LinkedIn at this age? It's like all this lost time. It's like getting Facebook...now.” –one co-worker on another who just got a LinkedIn profile

  

“Apparently we’re going to a bar where you get as many pitchers as the birthday you’re turning.” -Lexi, on visiting University of Iowa 

“That tableaus.” -Chris, #businessjokes 

“There are to go containers!” -A Greek at her engagement party

“I’m going out on a date with this girl from Tinder and she’s actually legit. Like, I found her on LinkedIn.” -a co-worker 

“Can we just pause and take a moment to realize that we’re at the point in our lives where I use anti wrinkle cream now?” -Kathryn

"I was on a first date and the guy had no social media at all. I was kid of offended. This is what I do for a living.” -a girl at work

“Is there a way to change the settings? I just got a 63 year-old.” -A friend on Tinder 

“My dad puts a spade between the end of the word and the punctuation. Like hey !” -Elizabeth

    

“This is such good olive oil. I wish you had a bigger purse.” -Hannah

“We pretty much unintentionally ignored her, well...I guess intentionally.” -Sherman, on a girl at a bar 

  

"If we didn't have your laundry we could pick that guy up. He was cute." -Mom about a young businessman on the street hailing a cab 

“These people are getting married and they can't even function by themselves. What is this!” -Meredith H, on our dorm-mates 

“I just saw Frozen.” -Sara

“Too bad that’s the story of Chicago.” -Chris B. 

“This jeweler is giving away a free Xbox One when you buy an engagement ring.” -Boy, around Valentine's Day 

“Why not just buy the Xbox One?” -Girl

  

"Wait, Michigan and Ohio border each other?" -a 24 year-old 

  

"I come here and everyone rates their neighborhoods by the mall they have in their suburb." -John Z. 

"Most people get peer pressured into going to do destructive things, we pressure people to come to church." -John Z.

"I like your funny pictures with your cat, but I would never want to meet your cat." -Katy, to her friend 

"Asian people eat a lot of this thing." -Lexi S, describing rice in a game of Catchphrase 

"Usually our (Friday) meetings are very unproductive but super fun." -Meredith 

"And everyone on the face of Instagram was there." -Penelope, on the Hawks game at Soldier Field