[I'm participating in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, in case you're all like, what's with the theme?]

Ad. What advertisement made you think this year?

Look, I realize this sounds disingenuous, since so many of my other blog-challenge posts say something similar. But nearly every advertisement I see makes me think. Ads are an obsession. I analyze them ad nauseam (well, to the ad nauseam of others; I never actually tire of it–half the time I’m unaware that I’m doing it, to be honest); take them apart, process their individual components, imagine the conversations, even, between client and agency, leading to the end product.

It’s not a sickness, I say. It’s…I don’t know. Something else.  I can’t do it with all ads. Rather, I can, but I end up feeling unwell. These I try to avoid. They cause a reaction, a sort of unpleasant buzzing in me, that is very uncomfortable.

[This is part of the reason why I am so fanatical about the William Gibson book Pattern Recognition, and its protagonist Cayce Pollard:

...if you look closely you may see it suggested that she is a "sensitive" of some kind, a dowser in the world of global marketing. Though the truth...is closer to allergy, a morbid and sometimes violent reactivity to the semiotics of the marketplace.

I get that. That allergy, that sometimes-violent reactivity. And in spite of or because of it, it's something I can never leave alone or stop analyzing.]

All that said: the ad that made me stop and think more than any other in 2009 is this one.

The text translates as: By hiring a prostitute, you’re financing human trafficking.

At first glance, the ad seemed coarse and shrill to me. It smacked of the early 1990s in some ugly way; perhaps in its attempt to be outrageous. Then the obvious sank in: it’s spotlighting something outrageous that we either don’t think about, or only do so in vague, veiled ways.  This puts the concepts of human trafficking right up our noses in a way that makes our brains scramble to match up the images in the ad with the images in our internal databases. What better way to call attention to the systematic packaging and cheapening of human life?

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[I'm participating in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, in case you're all like, what's with the theme?]

Laugh. What was your biggest belly laugh of the year?

I laugh a lot. My family is made up of a lot of very funny people, which I’m convinced is a large part of the reason why they happen to be tough survivors. Life is better when you can laugh at things. Sometimes the only thing you’ve got left is your laughter, and that can (as the cartoon my kid happens to be watching has rather fortuitously just trumpeted) “change the story and save the day.”

[Also, it helps when you're very easily amused and will go to any length for a joke. Witness this photo. I started peeling one of these gigantor oranges one night, saw a funny face in it, hunted down my googly-eye stash, stuck them on, photographed the whole thing, then removed the eyes and ate the orange.]

That said, the people in my life tend to be absurdly hilarious. I’m surrounded by wit, making it patently impossible to name one big belly laugh of the year. So, here are a few of the one-liners that made me laugh, snort and/or cry with laughter. Most of these are Tweets I’ve favorited.  On non-Tweets, names and details have been omitted both for privacy and, where applicable, out of necessity.

• “I had to have my lower legs cut off so Tom Cruise matched me when we body doubled.”
• “You know, ever since you fiendishly seduced Deepak into deleting his retweet of me, my skies are always grayish.”
• “Bruno made $30.4 million this weekend. It’s the biggest opening for a gay mockumentary since Top Gun.”
• “Yes, I use the other bathroom because I won’t use the toilet with the lever that snaps back all defiantly at when flushed. I mean fuck that.”
• “It’s not really a business. It’s like those doll head and shoulders we had as kids. You could practice styling hair and make-up. That’s what [company name] is.”
• “I’m working on my arts.” [The Lad, protesting an interruption]
• “You’d better exhale before you blow out your other ovary!”

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[I'm participating in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, in case you're all like, what's with the theme?]

Stationery. When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find of the year?

Oh yeah, I’m gonna quote from a Sisters of Mercy song: First and last and always… it’s graph paper. Regular old graph paper, yes. I adore it. There’s something about its billions of tiny boxes, neat blue or green against white or off-white that is secretly thrilling. My best ideas, my most fun ideas, are created on graphed paper. My handwriting is better. My thoughts more organized. Everything looks so much more official, so much more efficient.

So you can keep your high-grade stuff. It’s gorgeous, I know, but it just can’t compare.

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[I'm participating in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, in case you're all like, what's with the theme?]

photo by Hector R.

Social web moment. Did you meet someone you used to only know from her blog? Did you discover Twitter?

[UPDATE! This very day, I had to add one more bullet point. See bold text.] Not only was 2009 defined by its learning experiences; it was also defined by social web moments. Here, a partial list.

• Interviewing Daniel Pink on my previous blog. That was pretty cool.
• People I coerced guided into social media: Hector R., Tammy Izbicki, my mom, Bob Brasier.
• People I met via Twitter with whom I’ve since collaborated (or have plans to collaborate) on various projects: Kelly Sims, Tamara Komuniecki, Warwick Merry, Mark McGuinness, Sarah Bray, Michelle Ward, Randi Buckley, Daniel Thurston, Kay Ballard.
• People I met via Twitter, and then in real life, whose work I’d admired for a couple of years from afar: Cheryl Sorg
• People I met via Twitter who encourage unhealthy celebrity obsessions: Patti Digh [re: Craig Ferguson] and Fake Nick Cave [re: the real Nick Cave].
• Faux-siblings I’ve discovered via Twitter: Daniel Thurston and the great mastermind behind Fake Nick Cave
• That one time that Kevin Spacey addressed me on Twitter? That was a great fangirl moment.
• That other time that William Gibson re-Tweeted some smart-ass comment I made? Also a pretty good fangirl moment. And then today we exchanged a couple of Tweets. Right on, I say. (Sadly, I made a right idiot of myself, but it turned out okay.)
• People I met after having followed their blogs: Colleen Wainwright (again, technically 2008, but it kickstarted 2009 for me),Danielle LaPorte, Dyana Valentine, Marianne Elliot, Stacy de la Rosa, Christine Mason Miller, Pamela Slim.
• And let’s not forget the many, many other cool, kind and interesting people I’ve met and continue to meet.

All of which is why I love this social media thing. Love, love, love it. It’s absolutely changed my life for the better.

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[I'm participating in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, in case you're all like, what's with the theme?]

Gift. What’s a gift you gave yourself this year that has kept on giving?

Life is more than our principles and theories; it’s the people around us. People are the gift that keeps on giving. People are the point.

Somehow I find myself surrounded now by people who will sit up from a dead sleep at 3 in the morning if I need them. Who humor me, embrace me, cheer me on, cheer me up and tell me to man the fuck up when it needs to be said. They pull no punches, and I never for a moment doubt that they love me. And so, I work at these relationships. I don’t always do a great job, but the goal is longevity. I keep at it, because these people mean everything to me.

It’s hard to explain how totally beyond my grasp this situation has seemed for most of my life. (Misfits will understand; the rest of you, just substitute, like, I don’t know, waking up a millionaire tomorrow morning. Crazy, right?) So yeah, this thing, this having people who get me and love me and are in it for the long haul — it’s pretty amazing. Gorgeous, even. Some of my online profiles say, simply, “Luckiest girl alive,” and it’s almost entirely due to these people.

So. Roger, Luke, Tanea, Kristen, Sara, Hector, Bob, Tammy, Dyana, Ava, Christia, Lupe, Emad, Kathy and the rest of the people who are not related by blood, but who chose to be anyway, who make my life so rich…I adore you, and intend to continue to make it worth your while.

xo,

Emma

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[I'm participating in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, in case you're all like, what's with the theme?]

Learning experience. What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?

From a year defined by its learning experiences, it’s tough to pick one. So here are the top three lessons I learned in 2009.

• There are a whole bunch of people out there to whom I make sense, and vice versa. Please believe me when I say I had not thought this possible. You people make my world a better place.
• It’s possible to have a no-harm, no-foul parting of ways. I love this one. Just because things don’t work out does not mean we have to be embarrassed about it. I didn’t know this. It’s great!
• Asking for what I want and need is not only permissible, it’s adviseable. Not to mention much easier than hoping people will read my mind. And nicer than being crushed when it, uh, doesn’t happen.

Here’s to simple, basic concepts. Like fellowship, mutual respect and honesty.

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[I'm participating in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, in case you're all like, what's with the theme?]

Web tool. It came into your work flow this year and now you couldn’t live without it. It has simplified or improved your online experience.

Hands down, it’s Freshbooks. Their tagline is accurate. They make billing painless! It’s a very intuitive tool, super-easy to use, and very reasonably priced. Bonus: their staff is unbelievably pleasant. Almost too good to be true, yes. But true all the same. J’adore Freshbooks and their awesome team.

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