The Influence Project - 3 weeks later

I wrote something 3 weeks ago on why the Influence Project sucks. I am still seeing these Influence Project links on Twitter and on Facebook and am kind-of taken back by them. Today, I saw that a former co-worker put her link on Twitter.  I clicked on the link and was duped into the notion that she influences me. Yes, I know her- but that isn't a criteria of influence. I really didn't work with her all that closely, I know she is good at what she does but that doesn't make her an influence. I clicked because I was curious. And got pretty upset that it said my vote was counted towards her influence. So why am I writing this? Because I believe that it takes more than a magazine project to determine influence. Even the Klout program has some flaws to their measurement of influence. So what is the definition of Influence? It is is in the dictionary:

1. A power affecting a person, thing, or course of events, especially one that operates without any direct or apparent effort: relaxed under the influence of the music; the influence of television on modern life

So in essence being an influential person is pretty special. It is not just the click of a mouse and a link. I get influenced by something everyday. I read lots of social media books. I suppose the authors influence me in some way (I did buy their book afterall).  I have friends that influence me everyday. Another thing I find funny is that Andy Warhol influences me on his outlook in life and his free thinking. The ironic thing is he's dead. What is your criteria for influence? I hope it is not just a link and click. 

Posted via email from Jennifer's epiphanies

Life is Genius

So how to get your kid on a box of Life cereal? Simply collect 4 Target circle proofs of purchase and upload a pic of your kid and give them $4.99. Wait 4 to 6 weeks and voilà.- you get a cereal box with your kids pic on it (cereal not included). Why I think this is genius marketing?

1. I want a cereal box of my kid so I can stick it in the garage till my child turns 18, then he/she can look back to see how cute they used to be.

2. I have to shop at Target (the box of cereal will eventually cost me $200 because of all the other crap i'll buy)

3. I have to eventually buy 4 boxes of Life cereal (no problem- that's Breakfast and Dinner for a few weeks).

4. It's fun to see someone you know on a faux product box.

5. Not sure if there is an age limit, so I may have to put my own face on a box. Rinse and Repeat.

Curious to see if anyone else wants to be Mikey too. Let me know.

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Ugh- I'm Average

	Date	Weight	Body fat	BMI	Shoulder	Chest	Stomach	Hip	Thigh	Arm
ME	July	128	29	25	38.5	38.5	33	37.25	22	12

Classification                     Women                    Men
Essential Fat                       10-12%                   2-4%
Athletes                                14-20%                   6-13%
Fitness                                 21-24%                  14-17%
Average                                25-31%                  18-25%

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I got my fat assessed. Not something you do everyday, but I had the opportunity and I took it. The results- I'm average but just barely. And this is a time, I don't want to be average. I look at the chart above and want to be in the Fitness range. So how am I going to get there? I think it is going to take consistent diet and exercise. I have been taking bootcamp classes on and off now for a month now. I say on and off because it is at least once a week but it really should be 3 times a week. I feel great after each workout and once I get there do the work, but I don't like the fact I have to leave my house to go. I try to be fit and healthy, but it takes lots of motivation. I have to tell you, it is rough. I am a big homebody when it comes to thinking I have to go to the gym or do exercise. Thank goodness, I have had a couple of friends to join in on the FUN and go to bootcamp with me. Lately, my savior is the sweet potato "fries" at Evolution Fast Foods (it is a vegan fast food restaurant), those are my treat after the "hard" work at bootcamp. I am thinking that I may have to develop a exercise and nutrition blog to account for my "wins" and "losses" in my journey to become above average. It is funny that I need to write things out to accomplish these personal tasks of mine. But in order to be consistent, I need to track these things. We'll see to where this leads.

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Confirmed- we have adopted a girl (dog)

We officially have welcomed our new dog Lexi into our family. She came to us from the San Diego County Animal Shelter South. She is a happy dog (approx. over a yr.) with a long tail and is sweet with dominating girl traits. She was fixed yesterday, so she still has the original doggie pound smell and isn't really potty trained yet :(. And we think she was a previous mommy herself (her underside looks like a cow -spots and all).  My two dogs Stewie and Lola are not as thrilled as the rest of my family but they are slowly warming. I am trying to keep the peace and sanity (Stewie, Lola and my own). Her name derived from the doggie bed we bought. "Lex and Lola" brand. I guess I can think of it as a sign. This (dog) is my "gift" to my hubs for his anniversary (I am done having kids and furkids now) plus I was tired of hearing of it. His thought "give another doggie a better life". I can accept this reasoning as the shelters are overcrowded and you should adopt doggies from shelters or rescues (all of my dogs are from one or the other). But of course, another dog leaves no excuse to board them when needed to take my regularly scheduled vacations.  P.S. My gift is my Motorola X coming in a couple of week (which makes me ; ) ). 

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Influence Project = A lot of blog posts about how bad it is

Today, I thought I was going to blog about the dog I am getting today, all the movies I've seen backlogged in my head, or the beach in the middle of downtown on my secretsinsandiego blog. But instead,  I came across a few articles written on the Fast Company experiment called "The Influence Project." The initial idea came from the aforementioned article and the brainchild (?) proposals (First one in the second proposal to be specific. First Proposal and second part of second proposal is just humor). The funny company Mekanism wanted to do something viral (their website is silly). Yes, indeed this project has received some viral attention both good and bad. The concept is great, but execution really poor. In reality, who influences me may not influence you. I can submit myself but I choose not to. First of all, I become a lost portrait. Second of all, someone can be influenced by me and then we can play the Kevin Bacon game (The degrees of influence).  Am I seriously supposed to spam all my friends for support to become a portrait on the cover of Fast Company? I peruse the participants in wall mode and get bombarded by all the pics submitted, over 6,000 so far. I maybe know three or four people, and am easily amused with all the bad photographs and odd submissions (some are avatars, clip art and baseball cards). Seriously, Fast Company what are you thinking? Like a bunch of posts I have read, this is not a popularity contest. I know Fast Company means well but continue to write these articles like the one about Gary Vaynerchuk, It takes more that a four line bio to get to someone to say you influence them. PS. I did recognize my friend @jennyjenjen in this article so at least some good came out of the project (San Diego represent!). And yes, I am adopting a poodle today (That will make 3 furkids for me). Her name is Lexi.

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Finally!

In about 15 days I am going to get a smartphone- I'm very excited and I don't get excited about too many things. I have been using a dumbphone for too long (I dream of drowning my phone just to drown it). The reason I don't have a smartphone yet? Hubs hasn't given in to my pleads and to save money (it is an extra $30 a month). But in reality, it has been a crutch on my social media life. I love to use Foursquare and it does me no good to check-in at home and I can't rely on wi-fi hotspots for the rest of my life. I recently went to Disneyland with my family. My sister has a Motorola Droid and I kept asking her to use her phone so I could check-in on Foursquare, well she finally cut me off. She thought I was a nut. Anyways, my hubs asked me what I wanted for my anniversary (It's Saturday) and diamonds were not the first thing that popped into my head (they actually didn't cross my mind). He said "Droid" and I said yes (ipad was 2nd choice but I am pretty much over that hype). I guess he knows me too well and also was probably tired of giving him sad eyes every time I needed his blackberry for checking twitter. My phone of choice: I am getting the Motorola X which releases on July 15th. The Incredible is backordered till the 29th. So that made my decision pretty simple plus I am not sure if I can wait till January for the iphone for Verizon. Now I have something to look forward to and I can now play with tag readers.

Photo: Techcrunch

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