Mack the Flack

For some the holidays aren’t the most wonderful time of the year, but rather can deliver a bad case of the “holiday blues”. Unrealistic high expectations can sometimes turn holiday cheer into a not so ho-ho happy time.

Mack once celebrated Christmas alone stuck in a gas station café in northern Alberta during a wicked snow storm. But Mack, determined to beat the blues, wandered over to the jukebox (a really big iPod for those under the age of 25) and selected a song he has played at Christmas ever since.

Drift Away by Dobie Gray, a 1973 soul anthem worked its magic for Mack that snowy night decades ago in Alberta.

Songwriter and singer Dobie Gray died this month at the age of 71 of complications of cancer surgery, but his upbeat, wistful tribute to song writers continues to lift spirits.

This holiday give yourself a break. Do something you enjoy and give a listen to Drift Away

Happy Holidays (and see you back here in January!) from everybody at the Public Relations Certificate Program at SFU Vancouver!

The other day, over after-work beers with colleagues, the conversation turned to old technology. “Remember having to get up to change a channel?” someone reminisced. Mack recalled the “thunk, thunk, thunk” sound of the channel selector. Growing up, Mack and his brothers sometimes used hockey sticks (“whack, whack, whack”) to change the channel.

Mack got thinking about all the old technology sounds the next generation may never hear:

· Rotary telephones

· Cursive writing with pen on paper

· Typewriters

· Coffee percolators

· Flash cubes

· Skipping CDs

· Rewinding VCRs

· Film projectors

· Shaking Polaroid prints to dry

· Record changers

· Phone booth doors

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Okay, admit it. We all spend a lot of time online, even at work. Ever wonder what your co-workers are really doing when they pretend to be busy? Mack was. So he checked out the latest online viewing habits of adults. The top five activities online, according to the report by Flowtown, an infographic website, are checking email, using search engines, searching health-related sites, checking the weather and searching for a product or service. Remember, the report was about adult use. Still, surprisingly, the bottom five online activities are Tweeting, using SecondLife, working on a personal blog, buying or selling stocks and dating.

Other popular online uses by adults include:

• 76% search for general news
• 65% use social networking sites such as Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn
• 61% do their banking

Learn how to best use your time online. The SFU PR Certificate Program.

Back in the mid-1990s Mack bought himself a Palm Pilot personal data assistant (PDA) and bragged to all interested (and many who weren’t) that the device was “like having a mini computer in my hand”. He lost the thing, with all his data, less than a month later.

Mack’s Palm Pilot loss is minor compared with Western Union’s decision, in 1876, not to buy the patent for the telephone. And there have been some other amazing tech whoppers since:

• 1970s – Business tycoon Ross Perot turns down a chance to buy Microsoft for a paltry $60 million (today Microsoft is worth more than $224 billion)
• 1980s – Apple fires Steve Jobs
• 1990s – Search engine company Excite passes on buying Google for just $750,000 (Google is currently worth more than $300 billion)

Learn how to use today’s tech wonders to deliver awesome PR. The SFU PR Certificate Program.