Freakish M&Ms

I don't know if you've seen these before, maybe they are just a Eugene special, but I tried these Strawberried-Peanut Butter M&Ms the other day and in not so many words, they are barfy.


To describe the taste, it is an oddly confusing mixture of fruit and peanut. Now, I kind of get it. PB & J right? Oh how clever. But, it doesn't work. I don't mind a mild sensation of confusion every once in a while, but this taste test was just completely perplexing. At first, it's a whole lot of strawberry. And then it's all peanut butter, but when it's said and done, it's mostly just nonsense.

What is it with candy companies getting overly creative? I mean, I know, from my business school vocab, "product extension", "product expansion", "product line diversification". But really, is M&M a product that needs any sort of diversification? Its three strongest products, Plain, Peanut, and Peanut Butter, are on the top 10 list of best-selling candies. They have a good thing going! No need to mar their reputation by adding fruit to the mix! I mean, it's not like there is a hugely competitive peanut butter and fruit-flavored candy market out there. When you got a good thing going, stick to it.

Considering what it takes to get a product from concept to store shelf, it is amazing to me how a strawberried-peanut butter products get the green light. Among the other products that really don't belong within reach of consumers:

- popcorn-flavored Jelly Belly's
- fish-flavored candies
- booger candy

There are a lot of better examples at good candies gone wrong but I can't think of any. If you have some, do share.

Bottom line: avoid the disappointment, deny the intrigue, stay away from this M&M mutant and stick to the M&M product you love.

Hairy Mia

I have so many things I keep meaning to blog about but no time to sit down and blog.

But one thing that's always easy to post about and pretty much speaks for herself, is my little niece Mia!

At only seven months, she has had several haircuts and is getting cuter and chubbier than ever! Apparently, in this pic, she was telling Denise a fantastic story of some sort. Too cute!

Here is a shrine of pics of my cute little niece Mia. I feel perfectly fine bragging about her and showing her off the to the world. This is one light I will not be hiding under any bushels.


I am looking forward to summer when I will get to spend a good few weeks with my niece and nephew in Utah. I love this little girl! And her big brother too!

Things You Don't See on the BYU Campus

Ever since I started school here in Oregon, I have been meaning to start a regular series of blog posts along the lines of: "Things You Don't See on a BYU campus". But I have been too lazy and too busy to ever get it going. But this week, I am finally getting it started. There have been two things in particular that have prompted me to finally post.

Had I started when first inclined, I would have made mention of a few things, which include:

- really short shorts
- really short skirts
- beards
- long hair on men
- cleavage
- marijuana t-shirt sales tables
- bikes (if you'll remember, anything with wheels was banned from campus except on the roads around campus, which, for a school, always seemed so odd to me. Bicycles just seemed synonymous with college life...)
- Atheist Club

Despite being behind, I am going to make it up right here, right now.

Something you do not see on the BYU campus, in particular, the Daily Universe newspaper, but you do see on the University of Oregon campus, in the Oregon Daily Emerald:


I think the BYU Journalism and Advertising department would prefer take a hit in ad sales for the month, than revert to adult entertainment advertising.

On the other hand, I did see something on campus that one would see at BYU:


This cookie made my day today. My friends didn't get it at all. But any cookie, with Nutrition Information for four servings for one cookie, is worth at least 5-seconds of justifiable freak out time. I found the cookie in the student activity center. I have probably been in that building three times. Once to get my student card, once to pick up Joshua Radin tickets and today, to do stuff for a class project. Finding this cookie was a gold mine! It's hard to find Granny B's cookies anywhere but Utah. I did find them at the corner 7-Eleven on Gateway and Barrington in West LA and that conjured up at least 5-seconds of freak out then. It was awesome.

Anyway, I used to limit myself to one of these cookies a day when a freshman at BYU. At four servings a cookie and six grams of fat per serving, no wonder I weighed 145 lbs. at the end of that year. That's a lot for me considering I weighed about 115 when I graduated from high school. Let's hope I don't repeat...

Cereal: Part II

Referring back to a past post: http://mohsocool.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-cereal.html

I received this envelope in the mail from my parents last week. (Please excuse me for being paranoid and blocking out my address, but you gotta be careful these days.)


When I opened it, all I found was a check made out to me. No note, no nothing. So, looking at the envelope again, I noticed this written at the bottom corner of the envelope:


I just laughed. They are too funny. talking to my mom later that day this is what she told me, "No more cereal, okay? Mommy, daddy think this money helps you for eating."

Truly. I feel full already.

Jim Warsaw: There Will Only Be One Warsaw

I first met Jim Warsaw in October of the fall quarter 2008. It was homecoming weekend and I knew he was going to be in the building. I had an idea of what he looked like from pictures I had seen, but it was hard to recognize him when I first ran into him in the halls of the business building.

He was severely hunched over and appeared to have a very difficult time walking. It was hard to believe that this is the man who founded the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and grew it to become the premier undergraduate and MBA level sports business program in the country. But as I approached him, he looked right at me until he was right in front of me and said a very confident and sincere, "Hello!"

We had a conversation right there in the hall and he was great to talk to. He asked me everything about myself and was genuinely interested in my experience thus far with the Center.

Jim did amazing things for the Center which bears his name. He has always been heavily involved in Center activities and has maintained close contact with its students and faculty. I have watched him with alumni and his friends and it has always impressed me how they treated him. My observations indicated that they respected him not only as a friend but as a mentor and as an example.

Despite the short amount of time that I have known him, I felt like he was my friend. I will miss him.

Jim has been battling Parkinson's disease for the past 15 years. Recently, he developed an infection after surgery on his back. On Wednesday, he passed away. (http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-james-warsaw26-2009apr26,0,6099570.story)

It is sad to see him go so soon. In June we will be celebrating the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Warsaw Center and in particular to honor Jim. We were planning on him being there, but instead, it will be a special evening in tribute to the legacy he leaves behind.

In May we will honor him as well with the 3rd Annual Jog 4 Jim 5k. The race has always been organized to raise awareness and funding for Parkinson's research. To make a donation in honor of Jim, please visit this site: http://www.teamfox.org/siteapps/personalpage/ShowPage.aspx?c=nrLXJ0PFKuG&b=4815191&sid=agKQLYMwEdKJLYNBJlH

Jim accomplished amazing feats in his life and was a friend to many. He will be missed.

What?! Cereal?!

I called my dad today just to check in and see how things were going at home.

Dad: Did you finish study for today?
Me: Yes.
Dad: So, now, you must be reading.
Me: Yes, I am.
Dad: Good. Are you resting?
Me: Soon.
Dad: Good, good. Did you eat?
Me: Yes.
Dad: What did you eat?
Me: I don't know, I just ate some cereal.
Dad: Cereal?! Cereal is morning food, you know?
Me: I know.
Dad: Why you only eat cereal? No money?
Me: No, I'm fine. I just ate cereal. It's fine.
Dad: You have no money? Cereal no good. Only in the morning. Go buy spaghetti and make spaghetti.
Me: Okay. I will.

So I get off the phone with him and go about my stuff and four minutes later my phone rings, and it's my mom.

Me: Hello?
Mom: Miliam! Why you only eat cereal?!
Me: What?
Mom: Daddy says you only eating cereal.
Me: (Grrr.) Yeah, I ate cereal tonight.
Mom: Why you only eat cereal? No good for you. You have no money?
Me: No, I'm fine.
Mom: Then why you only eat cereal at dinner time? That is morning time food.
Me: I just didn't have time, that's all. It's not a big deal.
Mom: Really? You not lying to mommy?
Me: I'm not lying. I just didn't have time. That's all.
Mom: Okay. Next time, don't eat cereal. That is morning food.
Me: Okay. I won't.
Mom: You need money, you tell mommy.
Me: Okay.

Who knew my parents felt so strongly about cereal?!

Here's the follow-up to this post: Part II

"Reply All": Not So Dope

So, here's something awesome I did today...

But first, a little bit of background:

A couple of weeks ago, four of my classmates and myself entered the Microsoft Advertising Digital Challenge (MADC). The MADC is a competition open to graduate and undergraduate level students. The premise of the challenge is to develop an advertising campaign aimed towards the college-aged audience for Office Live Workspace. If you have ever used GoogleDocs, Workspace is similar, but has the added benefit of sharing files using all Windows Office applications.

We had about a month to prepare for the competition, but with finals preparation and spring break right in the middle of it all, when it came down to it, we ended up putting our entire campaign together in 3-4 days. On the day it was due, we worked ten hours straight to tweek and finalize our written proposal and accompanying PowerPoint presentation to email to Microsoft. The deadline was midnight and exactly 11:58 pm, we sent it in. I seriously did not think we would get it in on time, but by some miracle, we just barely made the cut off. It was awesome!

Just last week, three days after we sent in our proposal, we found out that we had beat out 136 teams to make it into the top 10 of the competition! We were invited to New York to present our campaign to Microsoft Advertising Executives at the end of April to compete in the semi-final and possibly final rounds of the competition. I was in San Francisco with school when we found out and it was so exciting! Woohoo!

Crappy thing about it is that we have to fund our own trip out. Yeah. Poopy.

Thankfully, we have been able to receive assistance funding from our school to help us out. In all instances, we actively made requests to the Warsaw Center and the Graduate School administration. Both have very generously offered to essentially cover airfare and hotel to make our trip possible and so that we can represent our school.

So here's the kicker: We received an email today from the Director of the Business School informing us of the great news that we would be receiving financial assistance for our trip. In all of my uncontrollable excitement, I hastily hit "Reply All" and sent the following email:

"so dope. So i guess we just find a hotel and book then get reimbursed? so great!"

And right when I sent it, I knew I would regret it. Little did I know that the initial email that I had "Reply All"ed included not only the Director, but the Dean of the Lundquist School of Business, the Director of Fiscal Services and the Director of the Warsaw Center. Awesome.

"So dope." Who says "so dope"?! More like "so embarrassing." I felt "so lame" about it that I had to send apologetic emails to all unintended recipients. My Warsaw advisor replied with "word" which I thought was pretty funny, but I have not heard from the others. Man. So embarrassing...I feel shame.

A lesson to everyone, do not "Reply all". I could rather say be careful when you "Reply All" but I just say, do not do it. Too many predicaments have come of it. Just start a whole new email thread if the list of recipients isn't too long and move on with your happy life. It's just not worth the risk.