Blog

  • I am not a qualified cultural anthropologist, but I’m going out on a limb and suggesting that we live, perhaps more than ever, in a culture drunk on increasingly transient notions of celebrity. These days, star status goes well beyond the latest actor, musician, author or 7 second political Tweet repost-winner....

  • Disclaimer: I’m a writer, not a scientist, but I try. There are at least 200 billion stars in our galaxy. Can you even wrap your head around that number? I can’t. I go outside at night and watch the few that are visible through the Disney-Area light pollution. There’s Orion,...

  • Our team has had the distinct pleasure of branding yet another workforce, and this time, it was in Virginia. Our team had a blast creating the Virginia Career Works brand, and we are sure that it will help ignite the workforce and connect employers and job-seekers with the resources they...

  • With a fresh batch of New Year’s resolutions on the way, I thought I would share a personal observation of mine developed over my half century plus stomping around this part of the galaxy about how I’ve come to view the way people approach life. Here at IDEAS, we’ve worked...

  • “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old...

  • My daughter is on the cusp of being a “tweenager” so her musical interests are now influenced by what her peers are listening to on Radio Disney and other pop radio stations. However, she has been properly inoculated with a robust appreciation for what I would call “real music” over...

  • AIGA, The Professional Association for Design, is the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design. With 70 chapters and more than 2,5000 members, AIGA advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. But, when I started attending AIGA events, many years ago, I had no...

  • Now live online, The AlabamaWorks Career SUCCESS Guides website helps Alabama students, their parents and anyone preparing for a new career learn more about high-demand careers and salary ranges, the steps students need to take to reach their career goals, and where to get the resources available to help them...

  •   Emily McDeed is a young storyteller IDEAS has worked with in the past, she's written fiction for the past 10 years and enjoys analyzing animated films. You can follow Emily on her on her portfolio and new blog, Films, Falls, and Free-For-Alls.   When I was 12, I was...

  • Our 11-year old child loves musical theater and has developed a plan for getting on Broadway by the age of 25. She is very passionate about preparing for auditions, being part of the cast, and being a consummate performer at shows. This means that I have become a “Theater Parent”...

  • We have all been there. Either sitting at the table waiting … or worse, watching, as a well-intentioned host or hostess tries to carve the Thanksgiving Day turkey at the head of the dining room table a la Norman Rockwell and ends up mutilating the family meal. Kudos to the...

  • There are lots of ways to smoke a turkey. One is to beat them badly in a race. Another involves rolling papers and possible harm to yourself. My favorite way to smoke a turkey is on Thanksgiving Day. For anyone interested in doing something different on our national day of...