Allison’s Choose Your Own Adventure!

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Friday February 24, 2012 | No Comments

by PascaleCom

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Stuff My Boss Says

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Thursday February 23, 2012 | No Comments

You may have noticed that we at PC are an outgoing bunch.  This is because we take after our boss and master motivator, Georgette, whom most of you are familiar with by now (and/ or love dearly).  However, for those of you who have never met GP, you might not know of her bubbly personality and contagious enthusiasm.  Georgette has a style all her own that the PC team has grown to love.  However, we could not miss the opportunity to poke a little fun and compile a list of our favorite GP-isms, slightly inspired by a short-lived William Shatner sitcom.  So, without further adieu:

 

Stuff My Boss Says:

– I need you to be more proactive

– Come on guys, gotta be proactive here.

– You really need to be proactive on this account.

 

– It’ll just take three minutes. (Please note: nothing that “should take three minutes” really ever only takes three minutes)

– That should have only taken you three minutes.

– It took you how long? I could have done it in three minutes.

 

– WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

– woo

– woo

– woo

– woo

– woo

– WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

– Werk

– Werk it out

– Werk. Werd.

 

– Spell check!

 

– “Touch” clients weekly

 

– Karma baby!

 

– My sked

 

– Thank you for all your hard work

 

– So and so (PC employee) are “rocking” that client

 

– It’s all good (when it’s questionable it really is)

 

– Fab!

 

– You should have plenty of bandwidth.

– Do you have bandwidth?

– What’s your bandwidth like right now?

– It’s pretty quiet right now, so you should have bandwidth.

 

– You’ve gotta work more efficiently.

 

– Efficient, strategic and proactive.

 

– Rest assured, we’re on it.

 

– Hit the ground running.

 

– Low hanging fruit

 

– First and foremost, our job is to get press.

 

– You’re all the experts here.

– You’re the star here.

 

– Let’s keep it topline.

 

– On the horn right now, will IM you in five when I’m off.

– Get on the horn with them ASAP.

– Just get on the horn with them real quick.

 

– “Whatevs”

– Fierce

by PascaleCom

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Michael’s “Choose Your Own Adventure”

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Friday February 17, 2012 | No Comments

This is the second blog in our weekly “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, in which a PC team member chooses to do something new or out of the ordinary in order to inspire them, rejuvenate them or broaden their horizons.  This week’s participant is our intern Michael, who is exploring some new culinary delights. 

I’ve always enjoyed trying new foods. While I’m not a fan of alligator, I love (read: love) escargot and will go crazy for chicken vindaloo. On a college budget and schedule, however, exploring new avenues of cuisine is a difficult thing. So for my Choose Your Own Adventure experience, I chose to break my ongoing trend of culinary complacency. No more sushi, Jimmy John’s, and Chipotle for Mike. The time for more varied and exciting fare had come.

Embarking on my quest, my first endeavor was a relatively safe one. Alex, a close friend of mine who studied abroad in Vietnam last year, suggested I try pho, a Vietnamese soup filled with rice noodles, topped with rare beef, and garnished with various vegetables and sprouts. I’d heard of pho previously. Vietnamese cuisine is gradually becoming more popular in Philly, my hometown. Several of my close friends have recommended the dish to me at one time or another. With their expert testimony in mind, Alex and I traveled to Pittsburgh’s Strip District seeking Southeast Asian satiation.

The Verdict: Unsurprisingly, the safe bet yielded a delicious and enjoyable dining experience. Pho combines a lean, savory meat with rich broth and hearty noodles. The result is pure deliciousness. The garnishes and sauces provided (who here loves sriracha?) add sweetness and spiciness to a diner’s content, and though it can be a bit difficult to eat – chopsticks and rice noodles make a hard pair for a westerner like me – I look forward to practicing soon.

 

My next foray was supposed to unsettle me. The PC team wanted to see me dig into a meal that would make me squirm. For a good while I was at a loss. Where in Pittsburgh could I find something I would be uncomfortable eating at a comfortable price? The answer came in the form of the recently re-opened Station Street Hot Dogs, who, in their efforts to provide interesting franks, offer a dog adorned with sweetbreads. I won’t lie; despite my carnivorous tendencies and overall adventurousness, the thought of eating throat hardly appealed to me. Still, knowing this was what the team wanted to see, I gathered what resolve I could and traveled to East Liberty to shove some throat down my throat.

 

The Verdict: Once I got over the fact that I was eating throat meat, I found the taste highly enjoyable. The fare was lighter and more pronounced than traditional cuts of meat: a bit salty, even a bit sweet (it’s easy to see where the name comes from). I wasn’t a huge fan of the texture, which was too airy and “melt-in-your-mouth” for me. All things considered, however, I would definitely try it again.

 

Last, I set out to try a variation on a dish I already know and like. This may come across as a bit of a cop out, but after mustering my courage to try the sweetbreads, I felt a bit entitled. Walking back to my apartment, I noticed a humble middle-eastern eatery relatively close to my apartment I’d never tried before. I decided to order a chicken curry with rice. While I’ve had plenty of Indian curry and a fair share of Japanese curry, I had, up until this point, never experienced a Middle-Eastern take on the dish.

The Verdict: Quite frankly, I found the meal as delicious as it was simple. The Arabic take on chicken curry swapped Indian sweetness for a richer, more savory approach that proves there’s multiple ways to enjoy a world favorite. The only downside was the meal’s gratuitous size. By the time I was finished eating the chicken, there was enough rice left over to feed an Asian village for a week.

 

And so, in only a few days I managed to travel the world in a currency exchange and jet-lag free manner. While chronicling my adventures, I like to think that I learned some powerful truth about my inner self: about my willingness to embrace the unknown, and welcome new experiences as a means of becoming an informed and culturally aware global citizen.

 

But actually, I just really like food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by PascaleCom

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Tuesday February 14, 2012 | No Comments

Can you smell the roses? Or better yet, the chocolate? Yes, love is in the air, and the PC team is hard at work ensuring dates are made and cards are signed. After all, working in PR requires a passion for people, and what holiday boasts more passion than Valentine’s Day? In an effort to draw out the team’s inner romantics, we asked our lovely ladies of liaison what they had in store for the holiday.

Some are keeping things on the simple side. Allison, for instance, is looking forward to a sushi dinner replete with wine and the chance to send her sister a candy-filled care package. Jamie, the proud new owner of a bouquet of flowers, can be found out at dinner with her significant other. Deb will be at home with her honey, enjoying what she considers the perfect V-Day gift: an “exceptional home cooked meal.”

But some PC members won’t settle for just cards, flowers, and food. Enter Adrianne, our resident Valentine-in-chief. For the last two weeks, Adrianne has endeavored to demonstrate her love every day. She’s changed the oil in her husband’s car, ironed his shirts (“which I never do and he loves”), and stuck hearts all over his car just to let him know she cares. She even gave him a bag of pistachios with a note attached: “I’m NUTS about you.” If that’s not love, we’re not sure what is.

As an added bonus, we also asked the team what advice they could give to humble men-folk on how to treat a lady come the season. Georgette’s short & sweet answer – “treat every day like V day” – was embraced by the team as the best way for a man to approach relationships. So, while the team doesn’t expect grand gestures every day of the year, one thing is clear: It’s never a bad thing to be open about your passion.

And as a team of communication specialists, we like to think we’re fairly open about ours.  Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!

by PascaleCom

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Gabe’s “Choose Your Own Adventure”

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Friday February 10, 2012 | No Comments

This is the first blog in our weekly “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, in which a PC team member chooses to do something new or out of the ordinary in order to inspire them, rejuvenate them or broaden their horizons.  This week’s participant is our Social Media whiz-kid, Gabe, who is chronicling his adventures as a vegetarian.

I’ll admit—I never understood vegetarians. At all.  I figured that they must have been born without taste buds.

Why, then, would I choose to do this to myself?  I’ve been trying to figure that out as well.  I think maybe it was a plea from my subconscious to subdue the stubborn meathead within.  I hate to admit it, but I was THAT guy.  I was once in a seafood eating contest where I resorted to eating napkins in order to win because I had run out of food.

I think I started to realize that my diet was beginning to miss some balance.  As a bachelor college student with the culinary skills of a sea urchin, a disturbing number of my meals were coming from the microwave or fast-food joints, almost always meat-based.  Also, I spend a majority of my time in the classroom or working from my laptop, which keeps my physical activity lower than I’d like.

So, I went shopping.  I wanted to make sure I did this right and tried some new things along the way.  I got some fresh produce, salad mixes, juices, pasta products, etc.   I also thought I’d try out some of those Morning Star brand soy protein, imitation-meat products that I had feared so much.  If it was that unbearable, I figured I could just head to the tavern and drink my meals.  Just kidding.  Kind of.

However, that has not been necessary.  This is my fifth day sans-meat.  That’s nothing to write home about, but considering my original plan was three days, I’ll take it.  Some highlights:

–I had an awesome broccoli and cheddar omelet, which I never would have had if not for trying to avoid meat.

–I really enjoy eating peanuts as a snack.  I like them shelled.  It gives me something to do.

–While I had many reservations about the fake meat products, they’ve grown on me.  I’ve had the Morning Star chicken patties, buffalo wings and bacon strips.  They can be a little bland, I won’t lie, but the key is to disguise them and you never notice the difference.  The chicken was really good mixed in a Caesar salad.  The bacon, although it resembled a dog treat, was pretty tasty when I added it to an egg and cheese breakfast melt.  Also, a little bit of hot sauce can do wonders.

–I’ve always wanted an excuse to say, “She may have been bluffin’ with her muffin’, but I was fakin’ with my bacon!”

–Steamed vegetables make you feel good about yourself.

–I got the amazing rush of self-righteousness that comes with informing others that you are a vegetarian, even though they’re unaware you’ve been one for less than a week.

One of the big difficulties I’ve come across is making sure not to substitute all my meat products with too many carbs and cheese.  I once ate spaghetti for 30 straight days, so that is an easy and tempting alternative.  I’m sure I will learn of more vegetarian options as I continue on my quest to self-enlightenment.

In conclusion, I’m happy to say that my adventure in vegetarianism was and is an on-going success.  I certainly don’t think I’ll be going full-time vegetarian anytime soon; however, it has opened my eyes to a different, healthier lifestyle that I can now appreciate and incorporate as part of my own.  I think I can now safely say that I’ve eaten my last napkin.

 

 

by PascaleCom

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