Your definitive ranking of DirectTV commercial Rob Lowes.
10. Far less attractive Rob Lowe
7. Rob Lowe (the normal one)
6. Peaked in high school Rob Lowe
5. St. Elmo's Fire Rob Lowe (I know that one has not been in the DirectTV spots, but he should be)
I caught this interesting piece on the PSFK site over the weekend, Reebok Platform Lets You Reclaim Your Humanity with Human Score, about a current Reebok marketing campaign and associated 'humanness' quiz. And since I have heard quizzes on the internet might be a thing, I clicked over and spent 5 minutes taking the test to find out my 'human' score, (pic of my result embedded on the right, click to see a giant version if you are so inclined).;)
According to Reebok, The Human Score is the world’s first test to put a numeric value on one’s ‘humanness,’ and is strategically designed by scientist David McRaney.
McRaney enlisted average people to help define what it means to be human and gathered different responses about generosity, humor, resilience, discipline and other characteristics. The test asks questions in a five-part series of questions aggregated from the collective data, from the type of guest you might mingle with at a party, to your attitudes towards fitness, and even what kind of news headlines might catch your attention.
My 'human' score labels me as a 'Brain Buff', and Reebok says that Brain Buffs "make for a pretty great human specimen. Brain Buffs do more than keep their bodies fit – they actively work to keep their minds sharp. With their curious nature and insatiable hunger for knowledge, they’re always on the go. For Brain Buffs, there is pretty much no end to self-improvement. There is always room upstairs to add more theories, ideas and wisdom. They make it a point to regularly challenge themselves to think big thoughts way outside the box. And they are rigorous thinkers inclined to do their own research and ask questions rather than take information at face value. Smarty-pants Brain Buffs use all their intellectual gifts to help reach their fullest human potential."
I guess some of that is true, I don't know about the 'fullest human potential' part - I probably watch too much basketball for that to be totally true.
Anyway, it is a fun little exercise, as these things go, and good for a 10 minute diversion as you hit the middle of the work week.
If you take the 'human' test, let me know how it goes.
Happy Wednesday.
There is snow everywhere, I am still trying to find most of my stuff after a recent move, I have 879 HR Tech Conference speaking proposals to review (only a slight exaggeration), and I am heading out tomorrow for my first work trip of 2015. In short, I have no time/energy/good ideas for the blog today. 
But carry on we must. Actually, we don't 'must', it just feels better to post something than not to post, so here goes something nothing. The first installment of what might become a semi-regular series titled 'An Incomplete List of Things I Don't Understand'. These things can be anything really, stuff that is really complex, things that are really popular and I don't get why, or just things I can't be bothered to figure out.
Feel free to add the things you don't understand, (including the point of this post), in the comments.
Here goes...
10. The tendency when one popular social platform is down, for people to immediately migrate to a different social network to report/moan/whine/joke about the first network being down.
9. Taylor Swift. She might be great I guess. I don't really know.
8. Why many people think music should be 'free', and artists should just give it away or allow it to be taken for no compensation. Actually, that was Ms. Swift's issue recently too. Maybe I do understand her.
7. Why I get pitched 29 times each week to reprint someone's terrible infographic.
6. 'Follow Friday'
5. Adults who think they need a 'Birthday month' or a 'Birthday week'. We were all, you know, actually born and have birthdays. You have not accomplished anything special here. Shut it about your stupid birthday already.
4. Carmelo Anthony bashing that is done primarily by 'experts' that read statistics and don't actually watch Knicks games. Have you seen this team? Who else do you want taking shots?
3. Conference call PINs or Access codes that are actually longer than the dial-in number itself. Holy Hannah, we make cracking into someone's boring conference call harder than stealing their ATM pin number.
2. Life coaches
1. Stupid lists on the internet.
Have a great day!
SMB, Things, self-indulgent tagged 8 Man Rotation, culture, list, smb Email Article 
Print Article The often imitated but never surpassed 'Ranked' series resumes - this time with your semi-researched, highly subjective, and obviously definitive ranking of the months of the year.
You may disagree with these rankings, but of course you would be wrong.
Here we go:
12. February - there is a reason the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition always appears in February. This is a terrible month, mercifully cut short, but still miserable.
11. January - Cold, wet, long - did I mention cold yet?
10. April - The cruelest month
9. August - very overrated since it is a summer month. Long, hot, sticky, and if you are stuck working you will get almost nothing done since no one else is around.
8. March - Winter's over - or so you think. No, it's not over. March dares to give you a tease of the upcoming Spring, but just wait until you head out for that St. Patrick's Day parade in the freezing rain.
7. June - Such a non-descript month. Only redeeming quality is the NBA finals, but even I admit that appeals only to a fairly limited group. What else worthwhile happens in June?
6. November - now we are in to the top half of months, so let's spin this positive. Thanksgiving, Black Friday, lots of great pro sports in season, gearing up for Christmas make November the best month since June.
5. May - A solid, if unspectacular month. Good weather, finally shaken off the last bits of Winter, and Memorial Day weekend kicking off the summer. Hard not to like May.
4. December - Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's Eve, snow, hot cocoa, mistletoe..... You get the idea. December is pretty cool
3. September - Some people might argue with the 'end of summer vacation' month ranking so high on the list. These people are not parents of school aged children.
2. July - Quintessential summer month. Has everything you need - solid national holiday, great weather, and still only is the mid-point of summer. You can waste July by working all the time and still have August to look forward to. But July is better.
1. October - Fall foliage, Halloween, pumpkin flavored everything, fresh apples, and for the first time in ages that strange excitement that comes with the first really cool, crisp day of the season. It should be October for 11 months a year. Except when it is July.
Leave your thoughts in the comments, but remember, you are probably wrong.
Note: The blog is taking some well-deserved rest for the Holidays (that is code for I am pretty much out of decent ideas, and I doubt most folks are spending their holidays reading blogs anyway), and will be re-running some of best, or at least most interesting posts from 2014. Maybe you missed these the first time around or maybe you didn't really miss them, but either way they are presented for your consideration. Thanks to everyone who stopped by in 2014!
The below post first ran back in June and features an amazingly cool two-and-a-half minute video showcasing a real world and real workplace application of wearable technology. Wearables like Google Glass might never catch on as a consumer device, but almost certainly will have a big role in all kinds of work applications. I liked this video so much I used it as an example in two or three talks I did in 2014 and it was almost always met with 'Wows' from the audience. Hope you enjoy it if you have not seen it yet.
Fresh 2015 content resumes next Monday - have a great weekend!
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VIDEO: Wearable Tech in the Oil Field
Quick shot for a busy Friday - if you are at all interested in how, where, and for which type of workplace use cases are likely to be impacted by the introduction of wearable technologies like Google Glass, then check out this short video from Wearable Intelligence, a developer of custom applications for industry that can be deployed on the Glass platform (Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through).
In the video embedded below, we see how custom apps overlaid on the Glass device, allow field workers to access training information, log status reports, verify safety procedures have been followed and more - all while keeping their hands free to actually get their work done.
Really interesting and definitely cool, right?
Glass and probably eventually other wearable devices are going to become one of the essential tools for the types of field workers that need to simultaneously access and interact with lots of data and content, but also can't have their hands tied up with smartphones or tablets, since they actually have to work with their hands.
It is early days, but as you can see in the video the possibilities are almost endless.
And one more thing, I doubt any Glass-hating types would dare to hassle any of these oil field workers that you see in the video for wearing Glass. The irony in all this? Glass and other wearables might end up developing into a real working person's tool as much as a prop for the snobby elites.
Have a great weekend!
