Cherry 

Best of the past week

Hi , Had I mentioned I have a silly amount of travelling going on towards the end of this year? I've just in Los Angeles for the weekend, the 4th of the course I'm participating in and have mentioned previously, Partncrship Explorations.I'll be showing off the pretty classy new blazer I got myself as an early Christmas present last week. I probably mentioned one of my coursework assignments since the last weekend in LA was to do at least one thing I've never done before every week. Seeing how I need to upgrade my wardrobe a little I heard about the free appointments with a personal shopper / stylist at John Lewis.It was a brilliant experience, I've never done such efficient shopping and in a short time learned a lot about the brands and the kind of colour tones fit me best - that was only for tops, sweaters and blazers. If I was on my own I'm pretty certain I'd have wandered around for three hours wondering what to get and in all likelihood would have left with very little. Definitely worth it.

 Sprinkles What's the GIF? 

Whipped Cream

In the news

I'll keep my news on the personal side this week, I've been too busy to spend much time keeping up to date with world news. Following the U.S. elections, I only read this not so encouraging article in the New Yorker: "Donald Trump's first, alarming week as President-Elect."I had a few projects to keep busy with at work, and I'm doing my best to add a few more plates of side-projects I'd like to progress. I'm researching some ski holidays to go learn between Christmas and New Year's Eve (I only went skiing once when I was a kid and I want to get back on it!), I've managed to have a brilliant recording for my podcast - exciting guests with awesome stories coming very soon!I've spent time with friends, an inordinate amount of time configuring my brand new OnePlus 3 phone and am still getting used to the 5.5" size screen - it still feels a little too large. Aside I'm very happy with the new phone so far and it's cool to have two SIM card slots so I have my US sim card and my UK one at the same time right now. If you're on the market for a new smartphone I'd take a look. This video review convinced me and a friend had already told me the original OnePlus was really good too..Meanwhile projects falling by the wayside for now and that I want to try adding on are my board game design project, the brand gaming methodology I only have a few notes jotted down for and I'd also like to get back into tabletop roleplaying games at some point - I haven't played any since like February.As a last point, I also want to review and correct course on this newsletter, it's fast becoming a stream of consciousness with a few links dotted around and I'm not sure it's the direction I want to keep. Thinking out loud, as it were.

Caramel Fudge

What's sticky in the communications industry?

My ex-colleague and manager from back in the day when we worked at iris Worldwide, Phil Jackson, wrote a piece about a current excess of applied thinking in Campaign, the UK communications industry publication.Phil writes about being overloaded and that I certainly agree with; it seems we're receiving and seeing a lot more messages from brands across a wider variety of media channels - so on the job side of things, it's all the more things to look at. I still wonder if there is an age gap growing there though.I don't think of myself as particularly old though I'm not so young anymore and the new apps and technologies that excited me a few years back don't hold as much fascination. I keep an eye on what Snapchat are releasing because I need to for work though I don't really use it. By that I wonder if the idea of so much thinking and input is a generational one? Do all generations think there are too many marketing messages? People generally think that about advertising in general, don't they?Maybe this advertising art director is looking in the right kind of direction with her gourmet marijuana edibles side business. I might need some of her products to taste and keep pondering the state of thinking in the marketing industry.

Chocolate

What's going on in gaming?

Exciting news on the gaming front: The grand daddy of tabletop roleplaying games, Dungeons & Dragons, has officially entered the Toy Hall of Fame. Of course I didn't even know there was such a thing before coming across the article, and I'm excited about it nonetheless.I also had no idea there is a National Museum of Play upstate New York, in Rochester. Now I have another reason to visit the area (the first one being to sample Buffalo Wings in the area they were first invented. Check the Great Chicken Wing Hunt documentary).Finally, I backed a new card game by the creators of Exploding Kittens: Bears & Babies. I'm looking forward to testing it!

Vanilla

What else is interesting this week?

I'm just back from ice skating in Santa Monica, I had a lovely time. It's always interesting to notice how something uncomfortable like ice skating for can still be fun as you get into it. I hadn't skated in years!I have many more thoughts bubbling though it's getting late in Los Angeles, time to wrap this week's Sundae.

I'll see you again next week!Don't forget to share with a friend if you enjoyed reading!CheersWillemCheersWillem