It’s Gonna be one of those posts…..
As many of you know, I’ve been involved in local politics seriously since 2014. I became a local democratic zone leader in 2022. It’s been a big job, but it’s largely akin to running the PTO, but with more far-ranging consequences. You’ve got planning for events, wrangling volunteers, and keeping…
Guide to Gift Giving
It’s close to Christmas, and as we finish up our shopping, it’s worth reflecting on the purpose of gifts in the first place. I read an article this am about how millenial parents are frustrated that their Boomer parents are showering their kids with useless stuff that just ends up…
FFS
We’re living in interesting times. The lead candidate for the republican nomination for presidency just wants everyone to give up and anoint him their candidate now, despite finally starting to face the consequences of years of fraud and treating the legal system as a cudgel to use against anyone he…
AI is Going to Change Everything
Working in digital marketing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and what it can and should be used for is all the rage right now. If you want to understand AI better, the best source is really Chris Penn– who has an excellent set of videos and regularly explains what’s happening in AI…
Podcamp 2023
A small group of us, die hards from Podcamp Philly and Podcamp East, came together this past weekend for Podcamp 2023 in Philadelphia. There were amazing sessions talking about how AI and Chat GPT will pose challenges to those of us who are involved in digital marketing, or looking to…
Glad to Leave Office? I get it.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is getting into trouble because he spoke his truth, saying he’s looking forward to a time when he’s not mayor. As someone who was a Township Supervisor for 6 years, I understand this sentiment perhaps as much as anyone. Being a local elected official may look…
Almost 80 Best Movies of the 80’s
Rolling Stone just put out a post of the 100 best movies of the 1980’s- and there are a lot of obscure movies that as a teenager/college student during the 80’s I never heard of. As a child of divorced parents, I spent a ridiculous amount of time at the…
Losing but not Lost
I lost my bid for re-election as a Township Supervisor. Elections are like the world’s longest job interview. I knocked 946 doors, speaking with friends and neighbors; sending mail out to people about what I stood for, and what I believed. I chose not to attack my opponent, even though…
Running for Office
I am a local Township Supervisor in Pennsylvania, running for re-election this year. Supervisor is a part-time position, and comes with a statutory stipend of $2,500.00 a year. that equates to about $5.20 or less an hour of meeting time, and other work we put in to help guide the…
Dementia
My mother-in-law has dementia. She had been pretty good at hiding her slow cognitive decline for a long time, but gradually, not even those of us who would have preferred to be in denial could avoid the truth. We needed to move Nancy out of her home and into a…
Social Media Valentine’s Day
I met my husband, Matt, as an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania. When people ask how we met, I say I hit him over the head with a newspaper, but that's only part of the story- the punch line of a romance that continues now for 24 years, although we've only...
Why I Think Hillary May Not Win, and How She Could
Let me preface this post by saying I think of myself as an average suburban mom. I am a democrat, which is unusual in the republican stronghold where I live. I have an ivy-league education, and my own podcast about education issues. I am sure some of my "demographics"...
Bad Service is Intolerable
I have the Comcast triple play at home. Cable, TV, Internet. The service can be spotty from time to time. The service went out sporadically for several days at a time recently, without any prior notice or acknowledgement of the problem, except for dealing with my...
End Users & Predicting Who Will Win
Tech Crunch is reporting that Revver is in trouble and willing to sell itself cheaply, having accumulated almost $1 million in debt. Microsoft is launching a hostile bid for Yahoo. This smells a lot like the late 1980's merger and acquisition market, now moved over...
Social Networks, Marketing and PR
Chris Brogan asked a question on his blog -Is social media built more for PR types? Is the value there much easier to define than the value for marketers? It generated a lot of comments, mostly in the "PR is part of marketing" vein. For me, social media, including...
Public vs. Private Education
K-12 education in this country is an institution. Massachusetts was the first state to enact compulsory school attendance laws in 1852, followed by New York in 1853. (1) By 1918, all states passed laws requiring children to attend at minimum elementary school, and a...
Franklin’s Virtues
Franklin's Parking Virtues? Originally uploaded by wsh1266. I took this picture in a parking garage recently, where they named the floors after Benjamin Franklin's list of seven virtues: Freedom of the Press, Humility, Compromise, Idealism, Humor, An aversion to...
Thinking About Culture and Assimilations Online
Microsoft is buying Yahoo, and the question of the day is what does this mean for both Microsoft and Yahoo, along with the many users of their products. Ultimately, the success or failure of the venture will depend on just one thing- Culture. How does Culture Form? ...
The Economics of Ideas- What Makes Your Voice Worthy of Consideration?
I am really interested in the whole idea of what makes someone "worthy" of expressing opinion on the internet, and the issue of credibility of sources. Here are a couple incidents from the past few days that bring this issue up in different contexts, but they all...
Using Technology in the Classroom
One of the takeaways from this past weekend at Educon 2.0 has been that there are lots of cool tech tools available, but not every tool is right for every job. The tools, the availability of almost any and all information at your fingertips means you can use almost...
Whitney Hoffman
Hi There! I’m Whitney Hoffman. I currently work for Mingl Marketing and Comfort Media Group in Philadelphia, PA
