Oh, wonderful words

To honor today's kickoff of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, truly one of my favorite sporting events of the year, I am going to share a bit of a new nerdy love with all of you. Yes, I was a local spelling bee competitor decades ago. Yes, I have a journalism degree from the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. Yes, I may be somewhat cursed with an obsession for words.
I have found something clearly created by someone with a warped mind, such as mine.

I dig using a thesaurus—always have, always will. Thanks to the "Internets" I don't always have to rely upon that paper copy from 1992. There are lots of great resources out there with different databases and words. I have found one that is just so much darn fun to use. If you like words at all, give a try to the Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus. See the photo I have posted here for an example of the word cantankerous. They claim that it "works like your brain." They also offer a fun word of the day email so we can all enrich and expand our vocabularies; I would suggest this at a minimum. It would do us all some good if we knew more words in this crazy English language of ours.

Nothing says fun like duct tape

As you know, sometimes I really enjoy sharing little tidbits from the great state of round on the ends and high in the middle, Ohio. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to share with all of you some of the things we do around here for fun in the summertime. You know about the boats I watch out my window, the lovely and always fun Cedar Point, but did you know about Avon's Duct Tape Festival? In addition to the standard Ohio festival fare of rickety rides, money-sucking games to win goldfish that will die before you get them home and grea-zy fried foods, this hotbed of activity features a Duck Tape Parade (the Duck Tape Company is located in Avon, Ohio).
However, most importantly, they had me at "Duct Tape Crafts." I'm so there. Catch ya' on the sticky side.

I am literally watching paint dry

Noisy, chaotic and inane. That's my brain today. I really am watching painters spruce up a ncie old building a block away. And it got me thinking about some of my famous posts o' the past. If you have read even a few of them (and why would you really?) you'd see how much I love vintage, classic designs. They are so clean, vivid and hark back to a ...... yada, yada, yada. Also, they're just fun to view. Simpler days of different pleasures abound in the fun designs that adorned stores, homes, publications and elsewhere.
Today I'm sharing a bit of parody on one of my favorites. That's just how I roll. Like I said, things are a bit noisy in there, so I'm trying to let out a little steam from my brain that is cooking my skull. Please enjoy Saturday's Bulletin where you will find some jeers and cheers with inappropriate, cruel and humorous captions added to early 20th century illustrations.

Words so tweet

I tried tweeting with Twitter ages ago, but gave up because I just didn't have time and had something like 2 followers then. I'm giving it one more shot on here before I write this off as some silly exercise in getting us to think our lives are more interesting than they really are, so I thought I'd invite you all to find me on Twitter and make it fun for us all. The more of you loyal floggers who follow me, the louder I will tweet (ha!).
You can find me there as ahacreative and I sure hope you will! I will even encourage you to email me some funny photos and I will put them up as my profile photo. I need some fun new virtual friends as it seems like any time I am not at Cedar Point or Fabens Park taking in t-ball/baseball in the next 2 months I will surely be on my 'puter working away! Tweet you soon.

Please accept this award as an apology...

How embarassing! I haven't been here to be in touch with all my loyal floggers for ages, and for that I do apologize. An avid reader and fan called me out on it today...so it is definitely time for a quick post just to let you know some things that are going on. Life sure is busy here at aha creative.
It's May and the view of Sandusky Bay and Cedar Point just gets better every sunny day. Okay, maybe it's a little distracting at times to watch a sailboat cruise past now and again, but, hey, I find it incredibly relaxing and inspirational. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. Maybe you'll want to come and have a coffee with me and check it out for yourself. Cedar Point opens tomorrow and so I know traffic is going to increase exponentially, but I sure don't mind. There's something vibrant and fun about summer in vacationland.
To let you know that I haven't just been sitting at my desk enjoying the view, I thought I'd share a little news about aha creative. I recently received 2 gold awards in the 2009 Hermes Creative Awards, sponsored by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (www.amcpros.com). Aha Creative received a Gold Award for the identity rebranding and logo design for the Ottawa County Transportation Agency (OCTA). In addition, Aha Creative also received a Gold Award for identity, logo and web design for its pro bono work for the Port Clinton Arts Council (www.portclintonarts.org). This international awards competition is for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional and emerging media. AMCP judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. Winners were selected from 142 categories in seven forms of media and communication efforts- advertising, publications, marketing/branding, integrated marketing, public relations/communications, electronic media and pro bono.
I couldn't be more proud of these awards and, especially, more proud of OCTA for the incredibly hard work they continue put forth in their rebranding and identity effort. They are all so committed to this project and making sure everything is done the best it can, within budget, spread over time and by including employee and user feedback. Kudos and congratulations to OCTA and the Port Clinton Arts Council!