If you know me you probably know that I’m Greek. (Opa!) If you don’t live under a rock you probably know that mid-term elections are tomorrow. If you watch this (hilarious) video you will know why Greeks rock…or at least used too. But after everything we invented, I’d say we can afford to coast for a couple thousand years.

Best line: “Democracies don’t fail because people care, they fail because people claim to care – but then are too strung out on Retsina or twitter.” #storyofmylife

But seriously – elections are tomorrow. You can find out where to vote with Google Maps. (love you google) You can’t complain if you don’t vote. So get the facts about the candidates and be Greek for a day! VOTE.

(Background: In case you’re new, I graduated in May with my undergraduate business degree in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State. After graduation, I decided to move to Chicago and embark full-force on a start-up about a week after graduation.)

Well, it’s 5 months later and I’ve learned a lot – but the most important advice I’ve learned is if you’re considering founding a service-based start-up straight after college: don’t do it. Although Chic Geek is doing very well, it’s nothing but a consecutive stream of headaches, questioning, and learning curves dealing with things I really have no idea how to deal with. (which is where google becomes my best friend…and half of the time I still have no idea what I’m doing – but hey, I’m trying) From my experience, here’s how I see it:

GO FOR IT IF:

• you come from money - i.e., your mother/father don’t mind paying your rent/expenses for the next year or so until you start making actual decent money
• you have an extremely experienced and committed business partner or mentor that walk you through all the struggles you’re going to run into – even when it gets really tough. And if you have a business partner, define roles, %s, responsibilities, everything you can think of right away…and get it in writing.
• you’re willing to work odds and ends jobs on the side to make ends meet (like I bartend to pay the bills – although I do like bartending a lot, it’s changed my whole sleep schedule so it’s really hard to get a lot of work done during the day)
• you can’t find a job [which is where I'm at at the moment] and don’t think starting a company is really impressive to most HR/recruiters…at least not in my experience, most I’ve spoken to could’ve cared less.

DON’T DO IT IF:

• you expect to live the lifestyle all your [business school] friends are living as they all sign for conformable salaried jobs with nice signing bonuses
• you are moving to a city where you don’t know almost anyone - working from home is great on days where you don’t want to get out of your pj’s, but it makes it difficult to meet new people (and if you move to a city – it’s expensive, realize you’re not going to be able to really experience it until your business is up and running and you’re making money)
• you paid for undergrad with student loans, although I’m hoping there’s a way to get them deferred until I can find a real job, they are constantly in the back of my mind & growing crazy amounts of interest by the day
• it’s a business you can do on the side, which was probably the biggest thing I didn’t realize, I was able to consult while going to school full-time, holding 2 part time jobs (totaling about 28 hours/week), president of a student organization, hold a chair position on student senate, and sit on president’s council while maintaining a fairly active social life. Think about your workload, if you’re doing your start-up activity on the side – don’t think you’re going to be able to hit a near full-time workload right off the bat (..or even a 5 months later)

On a brighter note, when you tell people what you’re doing they’ll think it’s really cool. (or they’ll give you the ‘yeah…right…’ look, which I’ve gotten quite a few times) I love start-ups and I will probably always be involved in consulting and startups on the side – but it is a chaotic lifestyle. Maybe the grass is always greener – but from where I’m sitting, the stability of a full-time pay check more than compensates for the monotony of a cubicle and potentially lame coworkers.

How do I get my picture (avatar) show up in the little comment area on blogs? I get this question all the time from new/aspiring bloggers. You’d think it would be in a your blog management system – but it’s not. It’s controlled through one site for all blogs, a site called Gravatar. The video below explains it best, check it out and head to gravatar.com & upload yours.

Branding hint: You want a gravatar. It helps put a face to a name, automatically making you more personable and connectible. If you’re a brand, you want a consistent avatar used for your and/or your brand throughout all of your social media profiles, so your gravatar should be the same as your twitter picture, facebook page picture, etc.

This is the coolest project I have ever seen in my life. IBM‘s project: The Smarter City is a way to use data to improve the efficiency of Cities, their focus is on cities because for the 1st time in history, more than 50% of people on the earth live in cities…which, also for the 1st time in history includes me.

This video explains how they’ll make transportation more efficient, with real-time capabilities. But, the project includes more than just transportation. It covers improving Education, Healthcare, Energy & Utilities, Public Safety, Development. They all require collaboration and connection between all integral functions of each city.

IBM is definitely onto something big. I am so excited that this is happening. Efficiency and Collaboration, my two favorite things all working for a greater society.  You can find more information about the project here. I hope Chicago’s on board with all of this!

Google TV is set to release this fall, and I can not be more excited for it to be in my living room. If you don’t know what it is yet, check out this quick video from google that quickly explains it…

The biggest value is the search feature. Right from your TV you can search channels, recorded shows, YouTube, and “other websites.” When I think other sites, I think of big video sites like YouTube, ABC online, Hulu, among tons of others. But, word on the street is that Hulu is not likely to be able to run on Google TV. Although Google TV is technically able to “the final decision of whether to allow content to run on a platform like Google TV resides with the content provider.” So here’s my request:

Dear Hulu/content providers/decision makers:

Integrate with Google TV.

Your potential customers want it. I’m willing to pay the $9.99/month for Hulu Plus, if it will integrate…because if it were between choosing either Google TV & Hulu Plus, I would choose Google TV.

Because we all know what good luck I’ve had with videos and jay-muck….I thought I’d post another. Key line: build their entire business [case] from the ground up with minimal staff, limited resources in a hotel room. ..yup, that sounds about right.

If JMUCC was Mad Men, this is pretty much how it would go down. Montreal is the new Madison Ave (at least every February). Except I’m no trophy wife…but Erin fits Joan so much better, I had to let her have it. However, Betty and I share a love of martinis and Don Drapper….and substitute horseback riding for twitter and there ya go.

I love Mad Men and I love JibJab.

I was catching up on Google Webmaster Help YouTube vids from Matt Cutts this weekend (yes, it’s what I do for fun) and I watched one where Matt talks about doing something called a 30-day challenge. As much as I love commitments, I thought 30-days wasn’t so bad.

So,  I’ve decided to take on a 30-day challenge to read [offline reading] at least 30 minutes every day for 30 days.

Naturally, I”m using a social media site for reading to keep track of my progress on books. It’s a site called goodreads, I’m somewhat obsessed with it at the moment – you should check it out. I’ll update on how it’s going. Wish me luck.

I’ve moved to Chicago. My apartment is cute & my street looks like Carrie Bradshaw’s. Some key facts I’ve learned so far:

• Someone was mugged at gunpoint on my street in broad daylight (I’m feelin safe)
• Google Map’s public transit feature has saved my life 10x over
• 5 miles away in the suburbs is nothing like 5 miles away in the city
• Skype is amazing but makes me miss @myleethedog even more
• MeetUp.com really is an awesome way to find pretty much anyone with the same interests as you
• Being able to work a few blocks from the Sears Tower feels pretty cool
• Working from home in sweats is also pretty cool

Company update: Social Bonfire is doing well, we may actually even start using our own social media profiles. (sarcasm people, b‘s out of town – when he’s back we’re really gonna start full force)

I have watched this TEDtalk by Sir Ken Robinson numerous times and without a doubt can say it is my absolute favorite. He makes a riveting point: schools kill creativity. I have a huge interest in higher education, mainly because I feel there is so much room and need for improvement. There was undoubtedly an inverse relationship between my creativity and my business degree.

If you watch only one video I recommend, make it this one:

If it weren’t for my boss Ken Nelson (the director at the media studio I worked in part-time at MSU) my creativity would have most definitely been squandered away the business college. He was always pushing me to brainstorm crazy, think out loud during brainstorming sessions and kept my creative juices flowing. I really hope other students find a Ken in their school or job.

And to answer your question Sir Robinson….

If a man speaks his mind in the forest and no woman can hear it, is he still wrong?

Yes. He is.

in honor of SCM & Tobias

I always get a lot of quality non-school related work done whenever I have an exam or paper coming up.

So, naturally while [procrastinating from] studying for my MGT 409 exam tonight at the good ‘ole biz lib, Steph, Mike and I began researching google’s previous April fools jokes and pondering what it will be this year…

Our dysfunctional study group in five lines or less:

steph: sitting at her comp, having her frog voiced mac read sing an email from her mother out loud.

g: google, google, google, google ….I hope that’s my child’s first word.

mike: I think your meds have worn off.

….I think so too. I need to go to bed.

BUT before I go, thought I’d share some of my favorite google April Fools jokes:

• Google Romance Beta: live contextually ever after.
• YouTube: your new viewing experience
• Google translate for animals (especially the YouTube video)

So, entertain me this April Fools day 2010…what’s your favorite April fools day prank – not just from google from anyone/anywhere?