We Americans....we bring you the Pasta Express . Because making pasta is so hard. I predict this little number will be giving the chocolate fountain a run for it's money come holiday season...what do you think? Yeah, me neither.

If you have to tell your customers how it say it, your product better be good . That's all I'm saying.

I guess I never want to be the one to break up a party. I was tagged by Robert Merrill . Now, I am going to have to share the love with 4 other unsuspecting bloggers (whose content I enjoy, because we all know I don't link to people whose content I don...

I don't often recruit on editor positions, but the hiring manager for this position in MSN contacted me today and asked if I knew of any strong candidates. I'm pretty sure that some of you out there have editorial backgrounds; some of you have even sent...

I secretly want to blog about all sorts of things that probably interest me more than they do you. Those of you that have asked whether I blog for fun, you should know that if it was about fun, it would be all about fashion and shopping and college football...

I love these (from Presentation Zen). Why is it that the jazz man/woman is so eloquent? I suspect that it's the combination of the heart and mind that goes into their work. We should all be so inspired: “You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere...

What do you do when your company accidental sends out hundreds of thousands of $4 checks to it's customers? Seriously, what else can you do? Just eat it. Though I suppose it depends on the size of the company and their marketing budget (but I'm guessing...

Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus goes solar At least they have found something to do with that annoying sunshine (ahh, just kidding. We had a beautiful sunny weekend here as well)

This was enough to give a lawn-maintenance freak like me heart palpitations. I'm one of the weirdos that is accused of loving yard work, but really I hate yard work; I just love having grass that looks like carpet. If it wasn't for Jonas, I'd roll around...

In a good way. 1) Our head of staffing just started his own internal staffing blog. 2) We just got e-mail that our head of HR (that's our SVP, folks) is stopping by our building tomorrow (edit: oops, I meant Monday....note to self: don't blog last...

is here. Of course I'm happy to get your resume to the recruiting team based there, if you'd like.

Here's a good post , by Liz at the Social Networking Blog, about how to find contacts within specific companies. A couple things I would add: 1) do not *ever* use just one search engine. Different engines deliver different results. Yeah, yeah, go...

Here's another article on Ray Ozzie's impact on Microsoft . Here's why I'm a fan: "Ray really starts with the customer," says Windows and MSN boss Kevin Johnson. "He looks at things 'outside in,' as he says, not technology-out." Yeah folks, that...

You've heard of the interview question "what's your greatest weakness?", so you know there must be some interest in this self-awareness thing when it comes to interviewing. Self-awareness is important in interviews, sometimes it's more important than...

Ever wonder if weather people are actually born with names that denote environmental conditions? Like weather-person Dallas Raines? They insist that those are their real names. Alrighty, whatever you say. Wouldn't it be interesting if we all had to...

I had to call help desk yesterday. Seems I had neglected to install some updates so I was having trouble accessing the network from home. I was connected to a very nice man we will call "Bob", mostly because his name is Bob. Did you know that help...

Go ahead, it's good for you. Just have this link to the Pause2Play initiative availble for when your boss catches you. The doctor told me to.

I met with a Marketing GM, Keith White, and his recruiter, Allison, this week to discuss putting together an invitational recruiting event for their team, which is responsible for outbound (audience) marketing. Usually, when I end up strategizing a recruiting...

Unfortunately, yes . OK, admission time: I've tried coffee flavored beer. Two great tastes that taste bad together. Ooh, I'm getting that pre-barf salivating sensation. Coffee ice cream? Yes! Coffee Liqueur? Yum! Double tall, sugar free vanilla...

NPR's "All Things Considered" piece on Wal-mart opening 50 new stores in urban areas and offering seminars to small businesses on competing with Wal-mart. It will be very interesting to see how this is received. I suspect that it may be perceived as...

I have to laugh when I get e-mails offering a "free lunch" in the context of some kind of product demo. It's the time-share presentation of the technology age. They try to lure you in with lunch so they can get some of your time to review their products...

I can't tell you how many people have asked me whether I watch American Idol (I don't...really don't like it). But I sure was a fan of Rock Star: INXS (despite Brook Burke and her kind of stiff presence and the weirdness of those INXS guys...how come...

GM invited people to make their own Chevy Tahoe TV ads over on chevyapprentice.com . Lots of the ads are anti-Chevy, anti-SUV. Really, this raises a number of questions like "does GM understand viral marketing?" and "just because it's viral, does it mean...

Last week I was reminded that amidst all my ramblings about peanut butter and carbohydrates, I'm generally expected to slip in some stuff about marketing jobs at Microsoft (I think that is how Gretchen put it). She likes that this blog isn't "all business...

Every once in a while I find a product that feels like it was made just for me. I tend to be a bit of an experimental shopper. I like to try new things. Also, lately, I've become a little bit of a peanut butter junkie...now all our British friends, gag...