Last Call!

One last reminder to check out www.sloanecannon.wordpress.com for all new posts. And guess what?! There's a new post already waiting for you! I've posted a little teaser for you below in order to motivate you to move your mouse a few inches to click the link above ;-)

Drivin' to Funky Town

There are pros and cons to every job and mine is no exception.

Pro: I work with awesome people.

Con: I drive 47.4 miles to work with these awesome people.

Quick run down of mileage: That’s 94.8 miles a day, 474 miles a week, 1896 miles per month, and 22,752 miles per year.

I know exactly what you’re about to ask (if you’re feeling compelled to ask me something)–How is that drive treating you?? (I’ve decided that I should tell people where I work before I tell them what I do, because, without a doubt, every person finds the distance factor much more interesting. I can’t really argue with them either.)

So, anyway, how is the drive treating me, you ask?

Well guys, the drive is not treating me very nicely. In fact, it’s downright mean. I do not enjoy beating the sun out of bed. I do not like that I can not fully indulge in happy hours after work (friends will most definitely NOT drive an hour to come pick your tipsy butt up no matter how much they tell you they love you). And worst of all, I do not like the amount of money spent on gas.

Why not move closer to work? Good question. For another post. This post is dedicated to my daily drive to Funky Town (Fort Worth, TX) and the Top 5 things I do to distract myself from the (almost) hour long drive. Get excited. They’re quite thrilling.

Click here to check out the rest of the post. Happy reading!!

Moving Day!

Greetings devoted followers!

I'm sad to say that I have broken up with Blogger.com and have found new love with Wordpress.com After almost two years with Blogger I realize that this is shocking news to most of you. I don't have much of an excuse, I just was simply swept off my feet by Wordpress and after spending a few days together and discovering all he had to offer, I couldn't resist the temptation and Blogger had to be let go.

So, I have transferred all of my (worthy) posts to the new site, created an "About" page as well as a "Categories" page which divides all the posts into their most relevant category, and toned down the background to make it a more clean and professional blog.

I realize that many of you are dedicated to Blogger and are quite shocked by this sudden change. You might even feel you are sliding into the role of the betrayer by checking out Wordpress every now and then for my new posts. Never fear, I have a solution! On your very first visit to my site you can click on the easily accessible button on the right hand side that says "Subscribe to Exclamation Points!" and receive my posts via email. How convenient!

Wait! There's more! Directly under the subscribe button there is an additional button labeled "Follow me on Twitter!" I'm going to assume most of you know what Twitter is (especially if you're reading blogs...another form of technological advance in the past years) and will start following me immediately. But for those of you who don't and live under a rock, Twitter is a way for you to stay updated with my brilliant musings and ponderings throughout the day. It comes in handy when you find yourself refreshing my page every five minutes to see if a new post pops up...

My goal is to keep Twitter abuzz with tweets filled with sarcasm, wit, wisdom, and hilarious sayings--all things which are found in my blog posts. In my opinion at least ;-)

As always, comments, suggestions, ideas, etc about the posts, and possible future posts, are welcome and urged. I can never hear enough from readers! And, if you're lucky, you might find your idea/suggestion the focus of a future post. Wouldn't that be just thrilling!

Looking forward to getting used to my new "home" over at Wordpress--stay tuned for more information and upcoming posts! Check it out at http://sloanecannon.wordpress.com/ and http://twitter.com/SloaneC

Seriously, what's with the attitude?!

Since it’s Monday and before noon (meaning it’s still too early to start a countdown to quittin’ time) you can all go ahead and assume that I’m suffering from a severe case of the Mondays. So, if you’re looking for a post full of fluff, smiley faces, and positive thinking—look elsewhere.

Since I’ve been party to an abundance of pissy and pessimistic attitudes as of late, I think I’ll just make myself a temporary member of that fun club for the next few minutes and kick this post off with a little list of current irritations.

-There’s a reason why the working crowd are called “professionals”—we are supposed to act professionally. I don’t remember my parents sitting me down and explaining how to act/react if I ever get frustrated, angry, or annoyed with someone because they probably assumed I’m smart enough to infer that whatever the circumstances, I’m NOT supposed to act like a pissy maniac. And lucky for them, I was indeed smart enough to figure that out, and therefore don’t act like someone put a bee in my pants every time something doesn’t go my way.

-I don’t strike most people as a happy-go-lucky, smiley face type of gal, but when it comes to technologically conversing I will go out of my way to insert those little guys in emails, texts, and instant messenger convos. Why? Let’s do a little reader interaction to get that answer—Which sounds better:

A.) “I’ll be there at 8.” or B.) “I’ll be there at 8 :-)”

Answer is B. Quite simply, I’d rather have someone thinking I’m annoyingly overly enthusiastic than a complete bitch. People at work need to get on that train. And while we’re on that subject, or train, go ahead and completely eliminate all sarcasm in emails, texts, and IM’s. No matter how well I know someone, I will never know how they read things in their head, and so no, I didn’t see that episode of SNL and therefore didn’t get that it was a joke. I was this close to leaving thumbtacks in your chair, upturned.

-When talking in front of a group of people, don’t assume they’re hanging onto your every word… cause nobody is. Get to the point, be quick, and sit down. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s meetings that last too long because of that ONE person who feels like their voice sounds like a golden angel and we’re all lucky to be privy to such beautiful sounds. And on that note, even though I’m not in school anymore—this also goes for that kid in class that asks a complicated question one second before class is over. That kid probably became said employee and I dislike the both of you.

In summary, be nice, be quick, and be humble. This is a job, not a battlefield. Get rid of the ‘tude.

What We All Should Have Been Doing at 8 Years Old

I've realized that it's hard to make time to blog when you aren't sitting at a desk all day long bored out of your mind. When contemplating things like what's the best way to make a mini pencil house out of un-sharpened pencils, or should I research Halloween costumes or imaginary trips to Europe, it's not that difficult to find time to empty my thoughts on blogger.

However, since embarking on a rocky road of starting my own company, continuing to babysit, continuing to do part time work, I find that my creative blogging talent seems to go out the window. Which makes me sad.

So, when a business acquaintance of mine asked me how to up the YouTube hits on her son's YouTube website the first thing I thought was to re-enter the blogosphere and help her out. (That is, if I even have loyal followers anymore after this 5 month hiatus...)

Aidan Hornaday is the cutest 8 year old I've seen. Not only is he adorable, but he has a big heart too. Get ready to feel all warm and fuzzy inside after watching this clip:

Aidan Saving The World With a Harmonica

Here's what YOU can do to help little Aidan---> Simply watch the video, then forward it to some friends, post it as your facebook status/on your facebook profile, or blog about it.

Why should you do this, you ask? Because do you normally run across an 8 year old (adorable) boy who spends his time figuring out ways to to fight intestinal parasites in Africa?

If that's not enough, check out these pictures.

Listen up Moms, this one's for you!

I recently posted about how Chelsea, at Design a la Mod, and I have started our own Public Relations and Design company, Blueprint PR & Design. Apparently, money doesn't grow on trees when you start a company, so we won't be making bank with Blueprint for quite a while. Which is where all you fabulous Dallas moms might be able to help me out by allowing me to help YOU out!



That's right, I'm advertising my babysitting and nannying services to the Dallas Blog world (I'm not opposed to babysitting elsewhere in the country, just let me know where to meet your private jet and I'll be there in a flash).



I currently nanny for an awesome family with 3 very hyper active kiddos (all boys, all under age 4) and I have a looonnnnnnng history with babysitting. See this post for further info on that.

Reasons you, or a mom you might know, would want me to babysit/nanny? So glad you asked!

-2 words: Bumblebee Camp. For around 6 years I held an annual summer camp in my backyard for 15-20 kids under the age of 7. I planned activities, organized games, and entertained for 4 hours every day for a week. If I can do that with 20 kids (at age 15!!), think of what I can do with just 3.

-I babysat all throughout high school and college. (Well, elementary and Jr. High if you count being a "mother's helper"...but I think it was more of an excuse to still play house and dolls without feeling immature and old.)

-Um, I'm awesome. I let kids crawl all over me like a human jungle gym. I tire them out so they take really long naps. I actually play with the kids instead of just watching them play. I come up with creative arts and crafts--even though I'm not the most artistic person in the world, to say the least.

-I have a pretty flexible schedule. You need me at 7am? Sure, no problemo.

SOOO, if you, or anyone you know in Dallas, is interested, please let me know! I'd love to hear from you!

Hello, my name is Sloane, and I'm a techie addict

I’m spending hours on Twitter every day. It’s not for my entertainment. I’ve almost started to loathe the sight of the little tweet bird icon. Side note: What is UP with the picture that shows up when you haven’t put a personal picture up yet?? What is that thing? Two dots?? Why some weird, un-determinable image? And the color choices? Brown? Why brown? I rushed to get a picture up in order to not have that thing showing…maybe that was the idea behind it. Anyway, after looking at so many profiles a day that have that freaking image I’ve started to want to just de-twitter those people. And it’s not even their fault; it’s Twitter’s. Anyway, deep breaths.

The act of coming up with tweets that don’t sound like spam, that work to the company’s advantage, while keeping the public’s interests in mind that will hopefully cause them to tweet back and engage in meaningful twitter relationships, doesn’t seem too hard, right? Sure, I’ll agree with you on that one. Just do that several times a day and voila you’re an avid Twitter-er. Now we can move on to somethi—oh, hold that thought. Should I go look through everyone’s tweets and tweet back? Do unto others as they do unto you? Thank goodness I’m still a Twitter loser with only 54 measly followers.

(3 hours later)

I’ve successfully tweeted to, oh, probably 10 people. Reading profiles, then reading their tweets, then reading their responses to other tweets, then wondering why the hech have they not responding to MY tweets if they’ve responded to this doofus, researching their companies, thinking about what exactly I should respond to their tweets with, thinking of future tweets that I can tweet to get them more interested in my tweets, then finding more people to ‘follow’, getting acquainted with their profiles…and then this thought runs through my head:

This is only Twitter. I forgot about blogging. Facebook. LinkedIn. I have multiple social media sites to pay attention to and each one is like a needy 2 year old that won’t stop crying. Meanwhile, I’m attempting to read more about these sites and tweak my skills and suddenly I feel as if I’m living in a world of techie addicts. I start to notice how attached people are to their phones, computers, sidekicks, ipods-- the constant alerts, ringing, typing, putting down and picking back up the devices, everywhere. Then there’s the like 9 hours a day people sit in front of the computer talking on AIM, gchat, email, facebook, blogging, twitter, LinkedIn, youtube, news sites, typing away, saving files, cutting and pasting, printing, scanning, (what did people DO before computers?!). I mean, I think towards the future when I have kids, and I picture me having to tweet, text, call, email, post on their facebook wall, just to let them know dinner is ready. Scary thought, isn’t it?

Perhaps I’ve over exaggerating. Maybe I’ve let all of my involvement in learning, researching, and participating on these sites get to my head (or the depth of my soul). I’m just going to try to not feel naked if I forget my cell phone at home, or if I forget to check facebook one day a week. That being said, I’m off to go do un-technology things. Like, eat. And sleep. And engage in face-to-face conversation.

Giving Six Word Saturdays a Try

Cate from showmyface came up with the incredible idea of doing Six Word Saturdays instead of a regular blog post. For those, like Cate, who actually post every single day I can see why Six Word Saturdays might seem like a breath of fresh air. For me, who is in posting rehab and trying to get my blog back on track, it also seems like a breath of fresh air since it takes no time, is easy Schmeezy, and entertaining! So here I go:

Thinks a beach sounds pretty good.

But then I decided my Saturday could also be described as:

Thinks a vodka sounds pretty good.

Then I realized I could just do this:

Either a beach or a vodka.



(If it were 8 Word Saturday I would add, "with sprite" so i could mix a drink, but oh well, I'll just be stuck with plain vodka.)

So there ya go! 3rd time's a charm. Post your Six Word Saturdays in the comment section and be sure to check out Cate's blog for her Six Word Saturday and others!