The Web Economy

Mashable, "the world's largest blog focused exclusively on social media news," has quickly become one of my favorite blogs. Pete Cashmore does a great job providing helpful news and information for utilizing various forms of social media, as well as technology in general.

In a recent blog post entitled, "Twitter Ads are Evil: Here's Why," he explains what he calls the "web economy." According to Cashmore, the web economy is built on trust and attention. He says that "Brands need to befriend us, build relationships, and offer so much value that we broadcast our positive experiences out to our own networks of trust. They might entertain us. They might help us. They might become enablers of our own personal goals. And when they do, we’ll return the favor. 'Spend your attention on this', we’ll say, 'It’s important!'"

Before reading this, I hadn't really considered the power and influence individual consumers have thanks to the internet. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it at this point, but I thought I'd share this in the meantime.

What are your thoughts? How have you seen this in action?

Thanksgiving

We had a great time this past week. Mackenzie's sister, Katie, and her husband, Brent, were in town from Kansas City. We stayed busy, but also enjoyed some quality time together.

During the week, we took an Argosy cruise through the Ballard Locks, went for a hike at Rattlesnake Ridge, took a tour of Safeco Field (and saw Ichiro!), and enjoyed tons of food.

Extreme Kitchen Makeover

Okay, so it wasn't that extreme, but we've definitely enjoyed the results. Mackenzie had been wanting to replace the floor in our kitchen for a few years now, but I was convinced it wasn't going to be worth the hassle. As usual, I was wrong. Not only was the Allure flooring from Home Depot inexpensive, it was also easy to install (I should get paid for this promo). Honestly, the hardest part was just finagling the stove and fridge out of the kitchen.

After installing the floor in just under three hours--nearly half of which was spent over-thinking the process--the floor was completely installed. Mackenzie then painted all the walls and molding. I know what you're thinking: Why on earth did you paint after installing brand new flooring? Well, I only had Saturday to contribute to this project, so my part needed to be done first to allow Mackenzie to paint on Sunday and Monday.



Again, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I always have a tough time envisioning the finished product based on a tiny sample of paint color and flooring. Honestly, I didn't expect the paint color to be so vibrant. Mackenzie tends to like blues and greens, which is somewhat contrary to what you'd expect to brighten and warm a home in the Pacific Northwest--particularly during the soggy, gray winters--but it actually does the trick.

Overall, it was one of the smoother home improvement projects at the Ellis household. Typically, I get impatient with Mackenzie's numerous questions throughout the process, and she gets frustrated with my impatience (rightly so), but in this particular case, God allowed us to be gracious with each other and actually work well together.

I can't say I'm in a rush to start another project, but I'm pleased with the way this one turned out.