Babies Drink Coke Too

I was at the airport and I saw a mother "bottle-feeding" a baby (or I guess you could say young toddler) Coca-Cola from a can. The kid could not have been more than 10-months old.

I was SHOCKED. Unfortunately I don't have a photo for you, because I think that would require permission from the parent. And what parent would want some random stranger at the airport taking a picture of your kid drinking Coke. Yes, because it does reflect badly on you as a parent. Don't try to deny it.

But the baby is only 1 in 1 billion cans that are supposedly consumed each day. Is it Coca-Cola's fault that people aren't educated? Or are they just the most genius marketing company ever? Hook 'em in early cause darn it, it tastes good. In fact, Coke has people choosing it as the preferred beverage over water. Many times this is because Coke is CHEAPER in certain countries because of the scarcity of water. Also, it is cleaner and safer and more widely available than water.

Some (negative) side effects from drinking Coke:
1) What I thought were obvious health negatives
2) Destruction of water resources
3) Bloodshed and warfare

and drumroll...
4) Life as we know it since it destroys sperm

Don't let that stop you though. Drink up! It definitely is the Coke side of life.

Social + Viral Marketing: TOMS

Check out TOMS Shoes' holiday season project:



Companies are finding that doing good is good for business. This is definitely not a new concept. There is something compelling about a company that is engaging in service for customers--it makes the customers look good when they buy from the company. Everyone wins. Posting a video about it is also genius--it's the best way to spread the word (hey, that's what I'm doing right now!) and it's already gotten 66,000 views. Though I have to say that 66k views isn't very much nowadays, when we're talking about a couple million within a week...yep our standards are much too high now sadly.

Look at all the advocacy that's present from the comments on the page:

"heck just buying a pair to help someone who needs a pair is worth it enough! Please support this company :)"
"GOOD JOB YAY WHOEVR STARTED THIS"
"YES!!!! I LOVE TOMS!!! this is awesome!"

For several pages, all the comments are similar. For once (in a lifetime it feels like) YouTube users haven't posted snarky, douchey, dirty comments on a video. Yay! We're improving!!!1111one!!!

In all seriousness though, TOMS has it down. They aren't a ding dong ditch company as their goal is sustainable donations. They're not just doing this promotion as a holiday gimmick but have run donation campaigns all year round with their motto "buy one, donate one" to groups such as Katrina victims, children in Argentina, and other countries.

1337 Speak

I just found out SMS stands for Short Message Service.

Yes, I know, I'm obviously dumb. Obviously.

Acronyms have become pervasive in our everyday language that the real meanings behind them are soon to be lost. I can't think of any examples right now, which severely cripples my argument, but once I do, I will add them in fosho.

This reminds me of how yesterday in CIS 120, my TA was saying how "Regular Expressions" in Python has been shortened to the oh so cool "leetspeak" of 'regex' as well as the harder to say 'RegExp'. There was one 40-year old woman in the lab at the time and after class she asked a question and after my TA answered it, she said "oh like leetspeak?" He had to explain to her that it was merely a joke.

Ah, got to love the communication gap between generations. I wish I could make up my own language and people would learn it. Way to be exclusive, Aditi, way to be exclusive!

A Shameful Reporter

This is me reporting in very late. All of summer is almost over (well one month) and soon I will have to trek back to Penn grudgingly to live in the daily grind.

What do I have to show for the last two months!?!? I feel I've lost direction and don't know where I'm headed. At this moment I feel like writing but I have nothing to say. Nothing important that is.

Things To Do Next Year

Plan to Maximize the 08-09 School Year
--------
- do more extracurriculars
- develop hobbies
- meet more people
- not watch TV
- get straight A's
- go through OCR (on campus recruiting) or get internship at google
- more leadership positions
- start an outside comp sci project
- join the indian activities
- be more outgoing
- be louder and more outspoken
- get to know professors of my classes and visit office hours and sit in the front row!!!
- go to the gym AT LEAST 3x per week

Day 5: I am a liar

FAAIILL!!

That's right; I'm always failing. You can throw a big piece of cow dung at my face because I am a liar. I said I would update daily, and you know what, I only stayed true to my word for one day. Jeez, pretty pathetic. At this rate, I'll die before I become a new person.

But the really sad part is that I've thought about updating every day but just haven't been able to get my lazy fat ass to type. Although, if my ass started typing, I think it would be incomprehensible either way...but hey, illegible is better than nonexistent. (This is not an excuse however for anyone to blog while drunk. No, that is just a crime against humanity. Please spare your poor readers.)

---

I spent a good chunk of time tonight adding lists to my account on listsofbests.com as well as to 43things.com. I felt inspired by reading all the 1001 (fill in blank) Before I Die lists. Movies to watch, books to read, things to do, places to go, games to play, food to eat, you name it--there is a "Before I Die" list for it. I think I would feel a big sense of accomplishment if I could ever check off in entirety any one of those lists. But then there are the people who say that following a list is boring, thoughtless, defeats the purpose of living, isn't individualistic, blahity blah blah.

I haven't made up my mind about whether that is true; I'm just lazy to make my own list. Also, I'm greedy about experiencing everything there is. Though this seems like it's going to be a lot of work, ya know, finishing 5,299,034,582 (approximation) movies, books, meals, places, conversations, blog entries, sentences, and nonsense pancakes.

Now tell me something I don't know.

Day 1: Summer of Doing Things Right

Hi. I am Aditi and this is the not-so beginning of the summer where I actually do things right.

I feel that I have lost sight of the big picture this last year and this is an attempt to get my head straight so I can do and achieve the things that I want to, instead of wallowing in a mixture of self-hate and self-pity for the state that I am in now.

Here are my end-of-summer goals in no particular order:
- Lose 15 pounds
- Kick out the laziness and TV habits
- Refresh and revive my programming skills (Java, C, Ajax, VBA)
- Outline extracurricular goals
- Get an A in CIS 260
- Finish SPUR successfully
- Finish at least one Facebook application (CollegeApps?)
- Revamp aditijain.net
- Get some hobbies...like writing.

So, this is the summer where I actually do things right: going to the gym, eating healthy, not watching TV, getting motivated and interested, just be good. I have to admit I'm not on all that good of a start.

This blog will probably not be read by anyone, which is fine. I like it that way better in fact; it's private, intimate, and more supportive. I don't need to impress anyone so I can just be me in the raw.

That is why, this will be a daily updated journal, chronicling the musings, struggles, and interests of a different kind of girl. Read with your own caution.