Aspartame

NutraSweet, the great-tasting, low-calorie artificial sugar substitute sweetener made with aspartame..

Ok, this is probably old news. But I think it needs a #rehash.

I always buy sugar-free gum (wishing they sold unsweetened gum).  I usually stay away from soda in general, but occasionally I’ll drink a diet soda if that’s the only thing in someone’s fridge.  Even though I know Aspartame breaks down to methanol when metabolized! In fact, I’m drinking a diet cherry cola right now.  What .. are we all stupid?

Aspartame was discovered in the 60s by a chemist. While working in the lab, he unknowingly got some on his hand and some how it got into his mouth. He thought, “sweet!” and the rest you can read on Wikipedia.

Here’s the molecular breakdown:

Aspartate and Phenylalanine are amino acids, no big deal.  But notice Methanol a.k.a. Methyl alcohol or wood alcohol?  Its highly poisonous! AND NOT to be mistaken with Ethanol, the kind we drink in hot tubs.

Below you will find a 90-minute documentary on Aspartame, called Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World. ALL of you should watch the first 10 minutes.

DOWN WITH ASPARTAME!

DOWN WITH ASPARTAME!

Think I’m buying into propaganda or unfounded conspiracy theory?

Michael & Kate

A dear friend of mine, in fact my best friend, is having a stem cell transplant on Tuesday.  He’s 34 and his name is Michael.

He doesn’t know that I am writing this.

Mike found out he had non-hodgkins lymphoma 4 years ago.  He’s gone through a bunch of experimental treatments.  Work has been tough but for the most part he’s been doing good.  He told me the other day that he doesn’t want to have cancer anymore and that’s why he’s doing this experimental procedure.  The risk is pretty big and when he does recover he’s going to be pretty weak (unable to read, etc) for several weeks.

Mike’s a musician, writer, and poet.  He loves Jane Eyre, and some other crappy Brit Lit, non-fiction audio-books, LOLcats, TED, and anything educational.

So, I thought that if he were to get a few random cards or funny stuff in the mail it would be pretty cool.  I mean, every time he was feeling like shit, the twitterverse could make a difference.

He’s in Chicago and the address is:

Michael Oxenrider
University of Chicago Hospital
5841 S. Maryland Room TN 663
Chicago, IL 60637

Update: Mike is home now! .. Thx everyone!!

Below is the letter I got from his amazing girlfriend Kate.
It was addressed to me and three others.

Thanks for making the effort!!
-joe

—
Hi everyone!

Michael’s Stem cell transplant is this Tuesday. I will be decorating his room for him to come back to and if  any of you would like to send along a card or note for him to read when he is recovering, that would be so great!!!

Thanks everyone!
xo

P.S – After sleeping on it, I don’t know if this is the right thing to do. Let me know if you think its good or bad .. I might take it down if enough people tell me its a bad idea.

Addition: I am leaving it up.  Everyone seems to think its much more positive than negative.  Kate agrees.  Thanks everyone!!

But when a unfamiliar startup asks me the same question, its a lot harder to deliver without doing the proper diligence.

“But its just a logo?!”

Dude, its a basic building block for your company, that’s why you want one so badly.

A logo is a nice end goal but in order to create an effective one, we need to understand what it represents.  The logo is a major component of branding and the corporate brand is rooted in intuition.  Not the intuition of the CEO or management team but of the customer.  The term “branding” was first used to describe a burnt image into flesh using a hot poker.  A corporate brand’s goal is to be burnt into the brain, to be experienced and intuitively translated into objective associations.  Companies compete for this neural real estate.  So, we have our work cut out for us.

For a brand to launch it needs a strategy that incorporates, the names, colors, icons, imagery, and most importantly the desired positioning  reflected in the message.  Many entrepreneurs operate under the fallacy that if you have a superior product the rest will come.  You have heard the cliches about great products staying on shelves or about large percentages of companies failing.  Both of these primarily, and for arguments sake only, exist because of lack of marketing.  Branding (and the logo) are worth getting right before you launch.

Here’s what I do when I work with a company on their brand:

1. Do my homework – I read what the founders give me, do my own research and make my own assumptions
2. Understand the target market – what makes this company different and new?
3. Listen to what the founders want their company to stand for.  Brainstorm for adjectives, draw pictures, anything emotionally based.
4. Use my tools – simple things like a thesaurus and google! What do these things mean to other people?
5. I sleep on it
6. Iterate through steps 1 – 5 as needed

Sometimes, I can’t figure out how to achieve an A+.  Usually its because the product is so new and different just about anything would do, or the founders haven’t done their homework and don’t quite have a grasp on the ‘what‘ and ‘why‘.

Here are a few samples of my work:

company that makes products for disabled persons, including braille books.

standard moving company.

stealth company, you decide.

SoCal based business co-op.

In summary:  1) define your target market based on your research, 2) hire someone that understands the fundamentals of branding AND knows design software, and 3) make your decision based on “logic” and what makes you happy!  After all, you have to like it.

Please post comments on your thoughts and initial reactions.  If you have any questions .. just ask!

For further reading on the topics above check out:
The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille – huge favorite
Clotaire Rapaille – Reptilian Marketing – MUST WATCH! – video
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Marketing – fundamentals for the marketing n00b

Props to Chris Gammill for the conversations leading up to this post and help editing!

I have tremendous anxiety when going to a new place to get my hair done.  I usually let it go and go until I get agoraphobia.  I then dart to the hair salon and pray.

I am new to LA, I and can’t fly back to Indiana to “The Hairman” and get my hair cut from Heather.  I tweet’d for some recommendations on haircuttery (oh that’s that awful place in Chicago thx @koreanforrabbit).  The Paul Mitchell school in the Galleria seemed like a “great” idea, it would be cheap and was right around the corner from my “home”.  (Note to self: I don’t want a “cheap” haircut.)

The girl there was really sweet and gave a great head massage / shampoo.  The actual hair-cutting, not so much.  Overall, and to quote myself:

“Just finished with the longest and most interactive haircut of my life .. took so long my parking validation for 2hrs was exceeded .. lol”

I probably would never go back, but she did an adequate job.  $5 tip .. for encouragement.

She was excited ..

.. to have me leave.

Here you go, let me know what you think.

And Facebook, you have the exception written .. maybe you could make it more encouraging? .. Time to submit to Failblog.

I came to LA for 4 days .. I stayed for a month
Thanks to my buddy @brooksbayne, I was invited to a week of tech events.  Lux hotel, Twiistup, Mashable, etc. What a eye opener.  “I started a company 8 years ago and I just sold it,” this communicates out here.  No resumes, no flashy watches, no entourage, I used to think I needed to acclimate to this definition of “successful.”  Well maybe it is success, but its never been in my book.

I find the LA tech community is about embracing, sharing, encouragement, openness, motivation, and creativity.  Find like minded people and share old and new interests?  This is what I have been looking for.  I’m not talking about academia either.  People here are not thinking, they are *acting*.  LA is growing its community.  A community of action and doing new and exciting things.

Lafayette lacks a community for innovation.  I don’t know the community in New York, I lived in Chicago and couldn’t find it there, and Toronto’s was pretentious and elitist.  Motivation for creativity, that is what the community of LA has given me.  Embracing differences and thriving in similarity.  This is the fabric of the social web.  Provide community and people network, create, motivate, build, and thrive.

I asked a guy recently at an event in LA, “hey, so what do you do?”

His reply, “I start companies.”

Oh, I get that.  I was like cool.  I love this place!  The community rocks.

Then I said,  “oh cool, what’s that mean though?”

He said, “i can’t tell you”

Huh?  Well it turns out he’s from the east coast .. No way?!

Digg on Academia
Lafayette has one of the best universities in the world, it’s not about lack of intelligence.  People come from all over the world to come study there.  It’s academia: The opposite of learning, sharing and community.  I’m not special, I’m just not a circus act.  You must create a community tolerant of n00bs. In my opinion, education should first be about encouragement, the rest will follow.  If you filter .. You lose .. Simply, Stop Filtering (thx @gregarious).  Sorry academia, but you’re broken and you’re not furthering humanity anymore.

I am putting my house on the market and moving here.  I love you LA and all the people that have embraced this n00b.

Avoid the people that “start companies and can’t talk about any of them.”  If they smell like fools .. Ask them to buy you a drink and walk away.

peace
@joesaid