Category: All things Trojan

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southern cal trojan public relations ranked number one

Me, Laura and Jennifer Floto in her SoCal USC PR office
Me, Laura and Jennifer Floto in her SoCal USC PR office

We spent a couple of days down at the University of Southern California and dropped in on a friend, Professor Jennifer Floto. If you don’t know Jenn, then you are not in public relations. In my humble opinion, Dr. Floto is one of the reasons that USC was ranked by Public Relations practitioners as the number one Public Relations program in the United States.

We see a lot of rankings about various programs, but in today’s very competitive environment, the program that has the alumni network, the educational breath and the contacts is the one that will help a student find, acquire and succeed in the field of Public Relations. Who is better to evaluated these academic programs better than the people who are already in the field and responsible for hiring the next leaders in PR?

Congratulations, Trojans!

! !!!!!9796

Two pictures are above: a version of a popular British motto in WW2 also used in the popular series Dr. Who… that we could resist getting for my daughter, fellow alumna Karen. On the right, the future 2nd building for the wonderful Annenberg complex which includes the top ranked Public Relations Program.

In an age of increasingly reducing budgets, its uplifting to see one University continuing to dazzle! FIGHT ON!

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Fight On for ol SC

Nothing like the fun of a Trojan Football Game… here’s our experience in just 60 seconds! CLICK on the picture to see what happened!

My daughter  Karen  — SC Trojan record holder in the women’s shot put — has taught me a lot about social media. Certainly, we on the second half of the century mark have enjoyed facebook, linked in, twitter… and now  PTCH.  Pitch gives us a way of telling and posting our story in pictures and to music using nothing more than your iPhone ( smartphone).

I am sure this ap will just keep getting better and better. FIGHT ON!

 

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twice fried alligator is yummy

twice fried alligator meat

My daughters always ask me to fix something special … and as travelors they are very adventurous. i guess the motto is: “visit the people of the world and break bread — or share their food!”

Have you ever made anything … with say… alligator? Well, Alligator meat has many textures… but it has some unusal qualities that you really have to see to understand. Many restaurants serve alligator ( those that actually serve it) in some sort of fried form and I thought that this was the approach I was going to take.

I fried the alligator as one would fry chicken for a Chinese dish… I ‘twice fried’ the sliced chunks of alligate. Here’s how to do it: roll the alligator in cornstarch, fry, roll again, fry one more time. A little seasoning and some dipping sauces make the experience grand!

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new looks and new plans for twitter

the template and the reality
don't spend a lot of time on your design for the new twitter look.... it's gone the way of facebook

From a marketing standpoint, I think twitter has done a good job in moving away from the basic position of being a news feed with their more expanded platform. In addition, the standard in ‘customized pages’ that myspace introduced years ago and folks like twitter followed have given way to the cold monolithic hospital colors of facebook. Actually, in truth, twitter is at a half way point of being more like the FireFox browser offering customized colors and backgrounds… but it is still a big reduction. You can see by the template I have for my site and the ‘reality’ behind it… not a lot comes across.

Not that I am complaining too much because I may actually be coming to the site more than the indirect ‘tweets from the phone’ approach. There are a few ‘tweeks’ I’d do… like a ‘transparent’ right sidebar ( at least 50%)… but that’s just me. I hope Karen has figured this out… but with her dissertation, teaching classes, conferences… I might have to wait a couple of days!  😉

However, it is a big improvement.

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Happy Birthday Kristin & Karen

 Birthdays are great times to remember. Remembering is sometimes all we have when they are millions of miles away. ( gilt trip intended ) However, they are building their lives and that is all any parent can ask. I remember that when Kristin was born it was quite the ego trip as they handed her to me and she immediately stopped screaming, much to the annoyance of the head nurse. And with Karen, I remember the screams from the nurses as she exited with this giant mop of hair! I remember Karen’s strong grip on my finger which we forshadowing athletic efforts to come.

My youngest daughter drew these two pictures of her sisters ‘personas’. The next picture I don’t quite understand… but then as the only male, this is very normal. ( Karla has since informed me that when Karen was born we told Kristin that we were giving her a ‘gift’ of a sister… always a mixed reaction for the oldest child!)

Happy Birthday Ladies!

love,

Dad