BzzAgent!

I have been a BzzAgent since May 2010.  What is a BzzAgent, you may ask?  Good question!

BzzAgent is a word-of-mouth social marketing company.  In a nutshell, companies hire BzzAgent to market their products to a certain demographic.  BzzAgent then gives the product to certain members of the site (the Agents), who typically receive the product to sample (usually, a full-sized sample!),  coupons to give to friends & family, and a BzzGuide with information about the product and some ideas on how to share about it with others.  And it's not "no-name" companies that use BzzAgent.  Some companies that have used BzzAgent for Campaigns in the past have been Orbit gum, Scrubbing Bubbles, Hanes, Maybelline, Keurig, and Dr. Scholl's!  These are reputable companies that want to promote their newest, coolest products to you.

My very first campaign, way back in July 2010, was for Orbit gum.  It was a ton of fun to participate in!  That summer, I was working at a day camp, and I was able to share coupons for free Orbit gum with a bunch of my co-counselors.  Since then, I've also participated in campaigns for Maybelline lip color, L'Oreal eyeshadow, TresEMME shampoo, and Water Bobble.  Now, like any product you might try, I wasn't a fan of everything BzzAgent sent me to sample, but I had a lot of fun trying out all these new products anyway!  (And I still use my Water Bobble nearly every day- it's sitting right here on my desk as I write this!)

Just last week, BzzAgent started an awesome new program called the Daily Bzz.  Now, in addition to being selected for Campaigns based upon demographics as in the past, there are certain campaigns that are open for this new Daily Bzz program.  You get to be as creative as you want to tell BzzAgent why you deserve to participate in the Daily Bzz Campaign.  And these campaigns are the really awesome ones- such as Campaigns for a Kindle, Cuisinart blender, and The Help.  I've been having so much fun with the Daily Bzz Campaigns I've participated in so far!  My "creative" entries have all been videos- linked here for the Kindle, here for MiO, and here for the Cuisinart blender.  The Daily Bzz is open from 11am-6pm each weekday.  Then, BzzAgent looks at all of the entries, picks their favorites, and lets you know the following business day if you've gotten into the Campaign.  I've been SO lucky with this so far, and gotten into the Kindle 3, MiO, AND Cuisinart campaigns!!  That's right- I'm going to be getting all three of these products, totally FREE, just in exchange for talking about it!  Did I mention how AWESOME BzzAgent is?!

So, do you think BzzAgent is for you?  Great!  Just go here to sign up and get started today!  Make sure to answer all the surveys that are provided for you, and you'll get invited to a campaign in no time!

9/11/01- Ten Years Later.

9/11 is one of those days in our lives that we will never forget.

10 years ago I was sitting in Mrs. Groninger's 2nd period social studies class.  She got a phone call from her husband.  I remember her saying that she would never answer her phone in class, and the first time her phone rang, she looked at who was calling but didn't answer it.  Then it rang again, and she picked up because she figured if her husband was calling then it must be an emergency because he knew that she would be teaching.  She took the call in the hallway, and then came back into the classroom and put on the TV.  Her husband was a truck driver and had heard the news on the radio as soon as the first plane hit.  He wasn't sure how the school was going to handle the news, but wanted to make sure that she knew what was going on.  Mrs. Groninger told us that there was an emergency in NYC.  We watched as the second plane hit the second tower.  Towards the end of the period there was a school-wide announcement asking the teachers not to put the televisions on.  Mrs. Groninger kept the TV on for the rest of our class anyway, but shut the door and told us not to tell any of the other teachers that we were watching the news.  Third period I had English.  That teacher refused to put the TV on because of the principal's announcement.  He talked a little bit about what had happened but tried to run a normal class otherwise.  I remember being especially scared because my dad had gone into NYC for work that day.  That was the first thing I thought of when I heard the news.  I didn't know where in the city he was, just that he was there and I didn't know if he was even alive at that point.  Later in the day I called my mom and found out that my dad was a few blocks away from the World Trade Center but that he was fine.  When I got home from school I watched news coverage of the attacks for the rest of the afternoon.  My mom didn't want me to watch it, until I told her that I had already seen the news in school.  I think she was more bothered by the coverage that day than I was.  I just needed to watch it to process what had happened.  My dad couldn't get home that night or the night after, since all of the tunnels out of NYC were blocked.  He stayed at my aunt and uncle's house in the city and came home the next day.  Even though I talked to him on the phone, until I actually saw him, I didn't believe that he was okay.  I slept with one of his polo shirts for the two nights he wasn't home, and kept it with me for days after he came home.

My last first football game =[

I've been in marching band since my freshman year of high school, and now, 7 years later, I am starting my last season of marching band ever.  Last Thursday was my last first football game ever. It was definitely a day filled with emotion.  Seeing the freshman so excited for their first ever college band performance, while the seniors were a lot quieter and, while happy to be performing, also sad to be starting their last season in marching band, was such a shocking disparity because as a freshman I could not ever have imagined the emotion I would feel that day.  From the moment I put on my uniform that afternoon, the one thought that kept running through my head was that it was the beginning of my last season ever in marching band.  I know all of the other seniors were thinking the same thing.  The emotion we all had was evident.

Each year at the first football game, running out of the tunnel for pregame brings tears to my eyes.  The overwhelming emotion of seeing tens of thousands of people watching you perform is indescribable until you are actually on the field.  This year was no different for me- in fact it was probably the most emotional pregame show I've ever had, even more so than my first game freshman year at Rutgers.  Unlike previous years, I knew exactly what to expect running out of the tunnel.  And I knew that it would be my last time ever feeling that first-game-of-the-season rush of emotion.  I got chills as I saw the packed stadium for the first time, and I bit my lip so I wouldn't cry and would actually be able to play the show!  I had tears in my eyes during the whole pregame show (but I wasn't crying so much that I couldn't play!).  And I made sure to march the best pregame show of my life.

I think maybe the hardest part of it all was knowing that years and years from now (and even next year), students in the marching band will be running out onto the field for the first game of the season, but I won't be a part of it anymore.  All I can do is make the most of the time I have left in marching band and hope that this season is the best one ever.


Seniors <3