Recently a client request came through my office for an illustrator that does real time drawings of meetings. The idea behind the concept is that written notes are more apt to be biased and meaning distorted than if an artist sketches the conversation.

This was a particularly interesting concept to me, as I like to think of myself as a “words” person.

1. I like lists.
2. And neatly spaced grids.
3. And bullets.
4. And paragraphs upon paragraphs of 12th-grade-reading-level prose with phenomenal topic sentences.
5. Uncharacteristically, I am also starting to appreciate a well-organized flow-chart.

But words CAN be extremely limiting. Limited by personal vocabulary, by listening comprehension, by connotation and by the language itself.

The best example I can think of is how you explain the middle-ground between liking and loving someone. There isn’t a word in English, at least one that I can think of, that adequately explains the feeling of liking someone more than a casual acquaintance without the full-on connotation of love. Thus, the term “LIKE like.”

Person 1: “I like Chris.”

Person 2: “Do you like Chris, or do you LIKE like Chris?”

Okay, I admit that is probably a horrible example…

Which is a great example of how words can be limiting! (You fell right into that one, didn’t you?)

Anyways, the whole reason that I wrote this post was to share a link with you. But I won’t share the link until I explain who posted it first. My college friend Wendy (you might remember her from the Books for Cameroon project this past fall) amazes me with her ability to learn new languages and successfully interact in many cultures that are very different from each other.

Wendy was born in Taiwan, moved to Missouri in elementary school, studied and interned abroad in London and Paris, and, most recently, spent 2 years in Cameroon, West Africa, serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. She speaks more languages than anyone else I have ever met. She learns new ones for fun. One day, Wendy will probably rule the world, and be able to talk to everyone about it in their native languages.

She shared a link via her Twitter account from the Wall Street Journal on how language influences culture. The article goes beyond the cliche “how-many-words-for-snow-do-eskimos-have” and provides some very interesting facts on the effects of language and perception of reality on criminal justice, politics and economics – see the bit about Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson and the wardrobe malfunction for proof.

Not because it won a ton of awards. Not because every blogger and Twitterer writes about them. Not even because Banana Republic launched a line of clothes inspired by the show.

Mad Men has rocketed in the uber phenomenon status because cute little muppets are now teaching kids about emotions (and advertising) on SESAME STREET.

See it for yourself:

Nurses for Africa

At work, we’re helping out with a site for 16 nurses from St. Louis that are in Zambia, providing medical care and education and HIV/AIDS prevention. Zambia is in southern Africa. Each day, the team in Zambia sends us videos and emails about their adventures with the help of a satellite phone and Internet cafes.

We post them on http://nursesforafrica.net/. It’s so cool to get to work every day and learn about what adventures are transpiring half the world away. When researching for the project, I even connected with my old friend from middle school that was born in Zambia to find out about possible Internet service providers. Small world!

Books for Cameroon

While the nurses are in southern Africa, my friend Wendy is in Cameroon – on the western coast of the continent. She’s a Peace Corps volunteer. Yesterday I got a tweet from her, asking for some help spreading the word about her new project called Books for Cameroon.

Wendy lives in a small village where her house doesn’t have running water. But she does have the Internet! So, using her blog, Twitter and Facebook – she’s raising $11,500 to send 22,000 books from the US to Cameroon.

I worked with Wendy via instant message and email yesterday to write and edit press releases and pitch emails for her to send out to various local and national media outlets.

By the way, please donate to her cause if you feel so inclined!

I am continually amazed at the way technology makes the world a smaller (and better!) place. In a million years, I never imagined that I’d be IMing friends in AFRICA – working with the Peace Corps and volunteer nurses – to promote literacy and HIV/AIDS prevention. Even if my part is small, after all I’m not the ones in Africa doing the heavy lifting, I am so glad that I can contribute to their work in my own little way, from my own little home in St. Louis.

So I’m calling out some of the top 100 brands that SHOULD be on Twitter that aren’t… yet.

#4 Apple
I’ve seen the commercials. The Mac is supposed to be the cool guy. Since IBM is on Twitter @ibmevents, I’m going to have to say that Apple is a step behind on this one. I know I’d appreciate a little Twitter love when my iPod shows that sad iPod face…

#7 Microsoft
Those Zunes aren’t going to sell themselves.

#10 Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola spends millions on web site promotions like the CGI Happiness Factory, but they aren’t willing to sign up for a free Twitter account and assign a PR or marketing staff person with the task of monitoring the tweets related to their brand. I can’t imagine how many people are already talking about how they’re craving a Diet Coke right about now. Or maybe that’s just me!

#18 IKEA
There’s an entire (un-official) blog dedicated to do-it-yourself-ers that modify Ikea products for added efficiency. They could be talking about new product releases, decorating ideas or even helping people figure out how to turn a box full of parts into a new bookshelf!

#25 Skittles
The new Skittles web site is devoted to Web 2.0 with links to YouTube, Facebook and even Twitter. But the company doesn’t even have its own Twitter account? Lame. Well, lame and a completely incomplete launch.

#29 Lego
Anyone on Twitter that follows @GuyKawasaki (who doesn’t follow Guy?) will see all the crazy Lego creation links he posts. Wouldn’t it be phenomenal if Lego was also posting links to these creations?

#47 Subway
Wouldn’t you like to know what Jared is eating for lunch today? I sure would.

#75 Budweiser
Maybe because I’m from St. Louis and I’m still a little salty about the InBev takeover… but seriously! They could be posting about new commercials, where the clydesdales will be making appearances… I’m going to stop there. I guess I’ll have to settle for the alcohol-induced Texts from last night blog for now.

I started using TweetDeck, which is an application that allows you to organize, search and mark tweets as read. This has improved my Twitter break efficiency tremendously. Now I can go right to my friends and family first, then check other feeds that I am interested in and if I have extra time, read randomness from everyone else.

Because I have been on Twitter a lot more, I have been posting a lot less on the blog. But I can’t blame my slacking on Twitter alone. I am involved in SO MANY THINGS right now! In addition to having a full-time job and social life, I have taken on lots of side projects, including:

• Serving on the advisory board for the Gateway Tennis Association
• Planning a summer fundraiser for the United Way – stay tuned for details!
• Opening a shop on Etsy
• Continuing my consulting – writing resumes and cover letters and assisting people with their job search

Anyways, my inspiration for this post is based on an article by Adam Singer: 19 Reasons You Should Blog and Not Just Tweet. Here are my favs:

1.  Blogging demonstrates true commitment and passion to your industry that you really can’t fake long-term.  Most won’t be able to sustain it over long periods of time with frequency, but those who do so are rewarded in spades and stand out from the crowd.

5.  Secret everyone knows:  most of Twitter is just linking to blogs and content on the open web.  Being the end product people are actually interested in and focus their attention on is where your ideas will be studied carefully, not in the cacophony of Twitter.

7.  Twitter is in a sense social sticky notes, or the SMS of the Internet (however you want to consider it).  It’s snack-sized content.  Are you or your business interesting enough to provide the full course?  It’s telling who engages deeper vs. those who simply choose to engage 140 characters at a time.

8.  Cumulative results over time from blogging, each post incrementally adds value to your site as a whole.  Not necessarily true on Twitter.

13.  140 characters is often more than necessary – but also it is often less than necessary.

14.  Everyone on Twitter is looking for the next big thing or most interesting piece of content to link to.  Wouldn’t you rather be the big thing than merely another person pointing at it?

17.  Careful of how much time you devote to Twitter instead of contributing to your own channel.  Spend the most time nurturing that – time spent in Twitter comes at the opportunity cost of fresh content to your blog.  You can use Twitter and other micro networks to draw subscribers and interest, but the premier value is in working on your own material in a unique space.

Okay, Adam. You got me there.

My boyfriend was the kind of kid who would take a part things just to see how they worked. I never understood those people… until it came time for me to understand the Internet. It started when I was about 12. I had this really cool graphics software on my computer and there was a way to design web sites on it. So I made a web site and posted it online just to figure out how it worked.

So when everyone started talking about the “blogosphere” I just didn’t get it. Why post things in chronological order? Why would people turn to everyday individuals to hear what they say when they could turn to “credible” published sources? I thought blogs were little Internet diaries where dumb people posted their innermost thoughts for the world to see… and the proceeded to piss off all their friends and families when they saw what they posted online.

I started off just reading blogs, you know, just to see what good would come from it (check out my LINKS page for some of the blogs I frequent). Then I realized that I too had a unique perspective and experiences worth sharing. Not going to go in to details about my personal life or try to piss people off, but I could definitely share things from my school, work and networking experiences.

My subject matter has expanded and changed over the last 12 months If you check out post #1, you can see why I started Resume Rehab and focused this site a little more on marketing, networking and the web.

Then, like any good addiction, I got hooked. And I started writing on multiple blogs. I made new friends through the blogging world. Learned the joys of WordPress and SEO, keyword searches and organic linking. Not only has it been a fun year, I’ve also expanded my professional skills and can help colleagues, clients and friends with navigating the confusing world that is blogging.

I’ve been dabbling in Twitter now too, and let me tell you, I’ve opened a whole new can of worms.

Thanks for stopping by and reading what I have to say. Thanks for year number one and here’s hoping for an even more wild and fun year number two!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Facebook, wow.

You can now follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/colleenjaycox. Or check out the latest updates in the bottom right corner of the site, via the Twitter Updates RSS feed!