I am Audrey.

Client: “I took a Marketing Course so I’d like to submit some of my own ideas. The business cards have far too much wasted space so I want a calender on the back, people will love that and use it all the time. The newspaper ad is fine but I’d like you to get them to print it upside down, that way people will instinctively want to rotate the newspaper to read it. Pretty good ideas, don’t you think?”

Me: [Stunned silence]

For THOSE days...

Watching this at work and I'm tearing up. If I had one regret, it would be that I've never been to a Boyzone concert before and it'll never be the same again. Sigh. Their new album "Brother" will be out in 8 March 2010!

If you're wondering where all the black and white intercut scenes are from, check out "Back Again...No Matter What: Live 2008" - it's a two-disc DVD with scenes from their 2008 concert (I can't stand the word "comeback" because to me, they never left) on one disc and a documentary on the other disc following the boys' first meeting after almost 8 years of not seeing each other and them getting back in shape for their first tour as the reunited Boyzone. It's a bittersweet piece, especially with Stephen's passing. Stephen's rendition of Bright Eyes is a complete tearjerker - hello, try holding back tears with Stephen singing, "Bright eyes, burning like fire, how can the light that burned so brightly suddenly burn so pale?"

Dare you to resist this - it's hilarious! Maaaamaaaaa! The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody.

Ahh, Robbie's gone and done it again! Was listening to his new album "Reality Killed The Video Star" and was completely oblivious to the fact that "You Know Me" was his new single after "Bodies!" Had posted a comment on how much I love retro feel of the song on Facebook and a fellow fan told me that she loved the video. And I was like, "What video?!" Yes, I'm completely ashamed to call myself a fan. Sigh. Work tends to get into way of play - damn it.

Anyhoo - here's Robbie in all his quirky, campy glory. Love the doo-wop cabbage heads. If the tune sounds familiar, Robbie borrows part of the tune from French singer Francoise Hardy's Voilà, listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFIUe9hFda0

PS: Ignore the first 30 seconds this YouTube version of "You Know Me" as it's just an ad. It's the only version that I could find that wasn't on fast forward. Hope it stays on!

Love stumbling across lil' web sites that direct me to... lil' quaint stores! Check out plussixfive, an "online magazine for fashion, lifestyle, art and culture within the +65 state."

And if you don't already know about Culturepush.com, where have you been? Kidding.

All good things that make the lil' red dot of a country-state slightly more bearable.

I love movies & fun graphics - and one of my favorite companies Netflix combined both in this NY Times article! Arranged by zipcodes in the US, take a peek into what movies people are watching and what movies they're eagerly waiting for on their Netflix queue in 2009.

Sigh, those were the days when I always had at least 15-20 movies in my Netflix queue. Wished I still had a Netflix account, just so I can have a place to keep tab of movies to catch! I guess Flixster will have to do for now :)

Lovely to see that the top 3 rentals in my old haunt (94132) are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk and Slumdog Millionaire. Wish Revolutionary Road was there - it definitely topped my list in 2009!

Check out the cool posters from Scosese, redesigned & re-imagined by Ivan Vidovic:
http://madfusion15.deviantart.com/art/Martin-Scorsese-78553847

I just celebrated my 30th anniversary. One wife, three kids, 10 business start-ups, five business successes, five business misfires. I started my company the year before I got married, right out of school. I have come to realize over the years that I have not had a normal life. That’s because I am not normal; I am an entrepreneur.

It took me a long time to figure out that I am different from most of the people I know. I have never had a full-time job, a savings account for my child’s education, or anyone to answer to besides the bank and 50,000 or so customers. I am also a recovering entrepreneuraholic. Starting a new business can be intoxicating. As with anything intoxicating, moderation is key. There are prices to pay.

First of all, I am not having a midlife crisis. My whole life has been a series of crises — from hiring the wrong people to not getting paid to running out of cash to running out of customers (something new in 2009). These events cannot usually be compartmentalized. They creep into your personal life, if you have a personal life.

I can speak only for myself. Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes. But here are some words that I believe describe many successful entrepreneurs: independent, intense, strong-willed, obsessive, competitive, intolerant, thrill-seeking, adventurous, visionary, crazy, self-absorbed. With short attention spans. Perhaps some of these characteristics are necessary to be successful.

Now, suppose we were to make a list of words that would describe a good or easy-to-live-with spouse or parent. Would any of the same words be on this list? Hmmm. I don’t think so. Suffice it to say that the traits that make someone successful at work can be challenging at home. Can someone be different at home than at work? I think so, but only to a degree. I’ve come to believe that a real hero is someone who figures out how to leave his problems at work. It isn’t easy. I frequently haven’t succeeded. I’m not even sure that I always tried. I was young and ignorant.

It’s so easy to justify working long hours, missing family events and being stressed out in the noble quest of providing for the family. I accept the reality that if you want to be successful, you sometimes need to put the business (or job) first. I wish it were as simple as just deciding to put the family first — and maybe it should be. But entrepreneurship is not always about our wishes. Sometimes we have critical responsibilities that can’t wait: to a customer, to an employee, or for the bills that have to be paid. At some point, though, once the business is successful, it is no longer about providing for the family. It becomes more about ambition, ego and competition. We all make choices, some conscious, some not.

Everyone talks about balance. There is no balance. Balance is perfect. There is nothing perfect in work/life balance. It is about compromise, choices and, often, regret. Here is the irony of ambition: The same ambition that drives people to be successful won’t let them enjoy being successful. They pay a terrible price for their success, as do their families, but they are never successful enough. Me? I feel successful. I didn’t always. I never felt as if I did enough, made enough or achieved my potential. I have redefined what it means to achieve my potential. Sometimes controlling your ambitions can be a good thing. Sometimes smaller is better. Grow or die is an insane war cry for entrepreneurs. Many times it is grow and die. The bottom line is more important than the top line.

My business day is very different from what it was 20 years ago. I would go from one urgent matter to another, all day long — from a customer to a production person to an insurance agent to the accounting firm to the newspaper’s ad sales representative. It is normal and necessary for an entrepreneur to wear 10 different hats in the course of an hour. But it can make your head hurt.

I remember a morning when my mother called me at 9 o’clock to tell me that my grandfather was going in for emergency surgery. She asked me to call my sisters to tell them. At 4 p.m. one of my sisters called to ask why I hadn’t called her. I was speechless, and mortified. I had forgotten. About five seconds after hanging up with my mother, I had got caught up in my typical day of moving from one crisis to another. I felt stupid, irresponsible and out of control.

This chaos went on for a few more years until I learned how to hire, train, manage and empower. It also didn’t hurt that my company’s growth started to slow from more than 30 percent a year to about 10 percent. I have learned that bad things can happen in your life. I don’t ever want to be in a position that I can’t take some time off to deal with whatever comes up. I guess I’m trying to approach normality.

I have three wonderful children that I don’t think I screwed up too much. And I have a loving wife who has put up with all of the nonsense that goes with entrepreneurship. I hear the line from “My Way”: “Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew, when I bit off more than I could chew.” I think of my wife. I get teary-eyed. And then I go to work. I’m trying. Happy anniversary.

Jay Goltz owns five small businesses in Chicago.

Good read. Even better reminder on not letting chaos take over your life. It's strange that 15 years ago (15! Eeks, age is completely creeping up on me), I would balk at the concept of normality. But these days, perhaps that's what we all really want - some sense of normal, or at least our own definition of normalcy.

I'm guilty of the many crimes brought up in the article - and all because I was obsessed. Obsessed with getting it right. Obsessed with doing more than what's expected of me. Obsessed with doing it better and faster. There was a reason why I left, many of which were professional and yet, more of which for my own well-being and perhaps, like Jay, it was my way of trying to approach normality.

PS: It's super scary that the theme of my USC admissions essay back in the day was Ol' Blue Eyes' "My Way." Even scarier now that I realize the lyrics are starting to take on a very different meaning.