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February Pop Culture Round Up

02.28.2019 by Elizabeth // Leave a Comment

February Pop Culture Round Up As I’m writing this the Michael Cohen testimony is happening and yes I did watch his opening statement in my PJ’s this morning… Consuming pop culture in this political climate can be hard if you’re a political junky AND pop culture fanatic like me. I continue to find that I’ll watch TV or catch up on Twitter instead of read a book (50 pages to go…) or binge Russian Doll. There’s always a shiny object to distract me…

Reading

I have 50 pages left in The Power and I am hoping to have an update to this blog post over the weekend about it. I am LOVING this book, it’s got a Margaret Atwood vibe to it and it’s a story I think we need today. Update: I stayed up late last night and finally finished it! I REALLY loved this book. It does have one storytelling trope I don’t love, however it wasn’t as awful as some others handle it. And the story being told through multiple people is one of my FAVORITE storytelling devices. If this book had a theme song it would be this.

Last week my friend and I went to hear Angie Thomas who wrote The Hate You Give. Her new book On the Come Up just came out and I can’t wait to read it next! Powell’s did a great job with the event and it was fun to hear Thomas talk about writing the rap lyrics and how hip hop and rap have influenced her life and her writing.

I am insanely behind on my comics and haven’t even been to pick up my box since the end of the year, whoops! That’ll change in the next couple of days and I’m a little afraid of what’s in store…

Watching

I’m enjoying this season of Top Chef as usual. Perfect timing for the James Beard Semifinalists list to show up this week! Speaking of food tv…my friends and their son are obsessed with the Great British Baking Show and introduced me to it a few weeks back. I totally get the appeal of the show and agree the original hosts were WAAAAYYY better!

I finally finished Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It wrapped up the story well but this last season being split in two (which I hate) made me forget what had happened a lot of the time!

In advance of the Oscars my husband and I watched ONE movie the night before – Bohemian Rhapsody and it WAS AWESOME. Once we finished we immediately watched the full Live Aid video on You Tube.

I gave up on The Passage. I really wanted to like it but it’s not working for me. I may go back at the end of the season to binge but for now I’m going to pass. I started watching Drunk History again. I go in spurts with this show, but this season has been hilarious – the drugs episode was so fantastic. I’m also loving (and sad about) the last season of Broad City. It’s an almost perfect show. Also almost perfect? This season of Schitts Creek and Brooklyn 99.

Listening

Last week I saw Justin Timberlake in concert and he was AMAZING. The man loves to perform and he is SO FUN to watch. At one point there was a campfire on stage (yes with flames) it was great. So, I’ve been listening to a lot more JT lately. And, yes more Queen obviously…

Thanks to the Grammy’s I discovered I really do love Cardi B. Pro tip: the Weezer Teal Album is SO DAMN GREAT.

As for podcasts, I finally finished the second season of Slow Burn which I really liked/found fascinating. A friend had recently recommended an OPB interview and I discovered the OPB Politics Now podcast which is a great way for me to learn more about statewide political issues. Which is super helpful given what I’m up to this year.

The Daily episode about the Oscars was REALLY insightful – I’ve always appreciated Wesley Morris and he does a great job of explaining what the Oscars got wrong this year.

So, what pop culture is keeping you sane in this political climate and during snow storms?

Guest Post: Goodbye Google+

02.06.2019 by Elizabeth // Leave a Comment

Today’s guest post is from Danielle Isbell at Odd Dog Media. Whenever I have an SEO/search/web question Odd Dog is my first call. When this email from Google came out last week I immediately reached out and asked what I needed to worry about, if anything, and thought you might appreciate that information too!

Have you received an email with this subject line?

[ACTION REQUIRED] Important changes to Google+ and impact on G Suite customers.
(read the whole email notification that was sent out here.)

You may have already heard the consumer end of Google+ is going away, but what does this email you received mean? And what’s with the unhelpful, screaming emails, Google?!

Tldr; If you are using Google+ features like blogger commenting / communities / Google+ Pages / Google+ Single Sign-in, then these features are going away. If you’re not sure if you’re using them, you’re probably not (hardly anyone does) and you’re probably fine and don’t need to take any action at all.

Google announced in October of 2018 it would be shutting down Google+, which was Google’s attempt at creating a social network to rival Facebook. If you have a Gmail account, or if your company uses Google for its email, then you most likely have a Google+ profile whether you used it or not. Think of Google+ as an App for Google Email accounts that was always there, just nobody really used it.

Google+ is shutting down in part because it never really took off in a huge way like other social platforms, but also because of a data breach that happened via Google+. Google announced in December that the entire platform would be going away on April 2nd, 2019.

In shutting down Google+, it will have different repercussions for businesses as you may be using some Google+ business features.

What does that mean for businesses who use Google Suite for email?

(If you aren’t sure if your company uses Google Suite, you can check here.)

Google is shutting down the consumer side of Google+, so that means the upcoming changes will primarily affect how your company interacts with consumer content through Google+.

Website and Blog Commenting

The consumer side of Google+ includes sites that use Google+ as their commenting service, much like Disqus. If you use Blogger as your blogging platform, the commenting feature was removed February 4th, 2019 and will be removed from other websites using this feature by March 7th, 2019.

For Google Suite users, they will still be able to view the comments they made in their Google+ activity log. We assume that means they are only viewable until April 2nd when the whole sha-bang gets shut down.

Communities

Google Communities were Facebook groups before Facebook groups became a thing.
Because all Google+ consumer account content will be deleted starting April 2nd, 2019, this will impact any communities your organization runs outside your domain that aren’t owned by at least one GSuite user.
Community owners and moderators have until April 2nd to download any community data they wish to save. See more about downloading your Google+ data here.

Google+ Sign-in

If your business has any apps or sign-in portals where people can sign in with their Google+ account, this will be phased out throughout February 2019.

Google+ Pages

Google+ Pages are different than your Google My Business listing. If you created a Google+ page for your business, make sure you download and save any images or posts you want to keep. These will all be disappearing as well.
You can choose to delete your account or just wait for Google to delete it for you, it’s up to you. In the unlikely event you had been spending any energy at all creating content for this platform, consider putting all of that effort into Google Posts on your Google My Business listing instead.

Will the Google+ shut down impact your business SEO?

It shouldn’t. Because this is a social site that never really gained any steam, and Google themselves are the ones shutting it down, any authority that may have been passed through this platform is probably inconsequential when it comes to your rankings.
If you’re a local business, focus on your Google My Business listing instead!

Looking for more updates about the shutdown? You can watch this page for a timeline of updates from Google as these features slowly shut off.

Meet Danielle Isbell, Odd Dog Media

Danielle has been in the Local Search game for over four years with Odd Dog Media. She wears a lot of hats at Odd Dog, working on search optimization (SEO), paid ads, social media, website design, and content creation for a wide range of local & regional businesses.

When she’s not optimizing GMB listings or websites for local search, she’s traveling, taking photos, and designing cool stuff.

January Pop Culture Round Up

01.31.2019 by Elizabeth // Leave a Comment

And we’re already one month into 2019 – wow that was fast! I started off the year with a week in Hawaii on a girls trip. It was restful and exactly what I needed. And it included reading TWO books, so I’m feeling pretty good about my pop culture goals for 2019 (30 books!) Here’s what’s keeping me sane this winter…

Reading

On vacation I read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Hillbilly Elegy. Why yes, those are completely different books. I loved Eleanor Oliphant – she’s not a character you see a lot of in books, and the story was great. Watching this completely broken person try to reinvent herself was wonderful. I have already shared my copy with a friend.

Hillbilly Elegy should be required reading for Americans. If you aren’t sure why we are where we are today in this country, this book can help. I didn’t know much about the story till I started reading it. The authors memoir of growing up in Appalachia and the life and advantages and disadvantages he had were fascinating. He also makes great observations and some recommendations for what we can do as a country to fix systemic problems in education, healthcare and human decency. I will gladly lend you my copy of this book, just ask!

I returned from vacation with lofty reading goals (I packed 6 books and only read 4) and instead picked up The Power at Costco based on an awesome recommendation by one of my clients. I just started reading it and it’s SO GOOD.

Listening

On vacation my friend recommended the second season of Slow Burn about the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. I was alive when it happened but was in college and not paying attention to politics. It is GREAT.

I still keep up on Pod Save America, The Daily and if I miss it, I’ll listen to The Rachel Maddow Show. I feel like there’s something else I listened to I’m forgetting to tell you about…

Watching

On the plane ride home I finally watched Crazy Rich Asians and it was just as fun and sweet as everyone said. If you haven’t watched it yet, get on it, it does not disappoint. Also, now I want to go to Singapore…

The season finale of The Good Place was sweet and lovely and that show is just about perfect. You should be watching it.

I am also loving Crazy Ex Girlfriend and have no idea how they’ll wrap up the series. I thought it was almost done but this season has 18 episodes, not 13 like the previous two, so there’s time to properly wrap this up.

This season of Schitts Creek is fantastic so far. Moira’s self involved-ness puts mine to shame. This season of Top Chef has been super fun and now I want to go to Kentucky and drink bourbon. I’m so glad that Brooklyn 99 is back! The honeymoon episode was genius and Andre Braugher is the perfect actor.

A few years back I read The Passage and now it’s a TV show. I watched the pilot and wasn’t in love with it, but I’ll give it a few more episodes to see. The book was SO detailed I’m curious how they’ll pull off a few things.

What pop culture is keeping you sane and warm this winter?