moved to New York to start working in public relations.* She is conquering the world with her curiosity and her love of life.
*No work-related posts on products here.
KRISTAN
is a writer, currently at work on her second novel (the first is "simmering") and several short stories. Check out her writing on Amazon or visit her website, kristanhoffman.com.
In addition to JBU, Kristan blogs at The Dieline. She lives in Cincinnati with her boyfriend, puppy, and leopard gecko.
WHY 2 COLUMNS?
On the left side of our blog, we post thoughtful things - deep, funny, or personal. On the right side, we post beautiful things - often music, pictures, and video that we like.
Think of it as brain food + eye candy.
We think each is important in its own way, so we make sure you can easily see both!
Twenty-four-year-old Veronika seems to have everything–youth and beauty, boyfriends and a loving family, a fulfilling job. But something is missing in her life.
With school I’m very busy reading and writing, so I’ve been waiting to find time to read Veronika Decides to Die for fun. I was anxious to read this book because I knew that I would relate to Veronika, minus the suicidal tendencies. Paulo Coelho hit it right on the nail, as Kristan would say. It is actually being into a movie starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, so I want to finish the book before I watch it.
In one of her lucid moments, a nurse asked her: “Don’t you want to know how you are?”
“I already know,” replied Veronika. “And it has nothing to do with what you can see happening in my body; it’s what’s happening in my soul.”
I actually found this Frito Lay ad campaign for some of its products to be quite fun. It’s a clear play on Sex and the City, but I think that just adds to its appeal. I honestly kept thinking how much fun it would have been to be on the team that researched and created this.
Women are snacking more than men, but are not eating as many Frito-Lay snacks, said Jill Nykoliation, the president of Juniper Park, the advertising agency that handled the Frito-Lay women’s project. “So if it’s, you’re snacking two times as much, but you’re not snacking with us, why, and what can we do for you?”
According to Frito-Lay research, women snack only 14 percent of the time on salty foods. Women snack 25 percent of the time on sweet foods; the other 61 percent of snacking includes drinks, fruits and vegetables.
To figure out how to sell Frito’s salty snacks to women, Juniper Park, a BBDO agency within the Omnicom Group, turned to pop neurology.
She was especially interested by the guilt factor. Frito-Lay and Juniper Park asked about 100 women to keep journals about their lives for about two weeks. According to their logs, the women felt guilty about quite a lot, whether it was snacking, not seeing their children enough, or not spending enough time with their husbands.
Though some have complained it was boring or “too safe,” I have to say, I really enjoyed this year’s Oscars! There were no crazy surprises or antics, but from start to end it was a classy production that truly honored the industry and its output this past year. Even the speeches were so respectful and respectable, giving air time to deserving causes just as much as deserving people. And I LOVED the personal tributes they did for the actors/actresses, which genuinely made it feel like they were all winners, even though only one could take home the trophy.
Also, Hugh Jackman was dashing, and (the writers) did a great job using his strengths (i.e., charming character and great voice) to bring out his own natural good humor, instead of just using the same old jokes and praying he could deliver.
I actually thought Jennifer Anniston’s dress was fine, but her hair/makeup seemed a little… amateur? I dunno. Something about it was not as polished as everyone else’s.
Heath Ledger’s family held themselves in a very dignified manner, both in speech and demeanor. Their clothes were also fitting for the occasion (i.e., elegant) but not over-the-top (i.e, they didn’t look to be taking advantage of the situation in anyway, just there as representatives).
Anyway, there was plenty more fashion worth discussing, but those were my highlights. I prefer to focus on the positives so I don’t feel like blasting anyone (other than Efron’s hair, of course) but I was actually glad not to see anything too hideous.
On Saturday mornings, I like to watch certain Disney shows on ABC (cough cough, Hannah Montana is funny.) I also watch all the Disney Channel movies, like Another Cinderella Story, High School Musical trilogy, etc. You see, in the Disney world cheesy humor and fun antics are a must, main characters are always good, problems are always resolved, and happy endings are inevitable. And maybe it’s because I’m a little burnt out from school, but it’s nice to watch something where you know what to expect.
