Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
The Super Bowl 44’s Social Media Failure
I do think it has become trite to say you watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. Honestly, the commercials just aren't that innovative and entertaining. There are always some that come off as fun, funny, and forgettable and some that are epic and change the landscape of advertising for years to come.
As much as I loved the game, I was really disappointed in the commercials. Not that I wanted them to be funny and epic, but because I was hoping for more social media integration. There I was, watching the game while posting on Twitter ...
Valloween
Way back in 1999, I wrote an essay called Valloween for one of my many now defunct webzine attempts called Ariadne's Thread. I still love that title, but that was a different life. Each February, I dust off the essay and post it somewhere, usually in my Livejournal or whatever web site is currently the focus of my energy. I've never gone back to rewrite or rework it and this year, 2010, the 11th anniversary of my Valloween essay, I thought it was time to refine it a bit.
Valloween 2.0
Love inspires grand feats, art, and music. Two men's love for ...
Five Hot Drinks for a Cold Winter’s Night
Just because the holidays are over doesn't mean the fun stops. We still have several weeks of frigid temps, snow, and ice to contend with before the salvation of spring. How are we going to spend that time? I say we rub elbows with our friends over delightfully warm adult beverages.
Alpine
I've always known this drink as an Alpine but honestly I can't find reference to it anywhere else on the web. I've seen it as Hot Schnocolate and other variations trying to play of the Schn part of the schnapps that is in it. Or ...
How to Manage a Pessimist
Pessimists are people too and deserve the same respect as everyone else.
Okay, that isn't as great a rallying cry as I thought it would be. In life, there are people who will be pessimistic and people who will be optimistic. You and I will end up working with some of these people. Optimists, while annoying, are fairly easy to manage. They willingly jump into situations believing they will be able to sort it out as they go. Pessimists tend to be Cassandras... predicting doom and gloom at every turn. These folk are a real bugger to manage because they aren't ...
Defending My Life
Are you familiar with the 90s movie by Albert Brooks, Defending Your Life? The basic premise is a man dies, goes to a purgatory where his life is analyzed to determine if he has conquered fear. If has hasn't conquered fear he goes back to Earth for another go around. If he has, he gets to 'go on' with his journey in life.
I am not reviewing the movie, but I am adopting its core premise for my own personal development. Courage is a much lauded virtue and I lack it in normal everyday situations. You need me to run into ...
Way back in 1999, I wrote an essay called Valloween for one of my many now defunct webzine attempts called Ariadne’s Thread. I still love that title, but that was a different life. Each February, I dust off the essay and post it somewhere, usually in my Livejournal or whatever web site is currently the focus of my energy. I’ve never gone back to rewrite or rework it and this year, 2010, the 11th anniversary of my Valloween essay, I thought it was time to refine it a bit.
Valloween 2.0
Love inspires grand feats, art, and music. Two men’s love for the beautiful Helen of Troy ignited a war that buried the city. Shah Jahan in 1631 had the Taj Mahal built after the death of his wife to honor his love for her.
St. Valentine’s Day is the day on which we celebrate and honor love. St. Valentine served a prison term in Rome for being Christian. While imprisoned, he received letters of support from children. These letters later became valentines. Truly, how noble it is to juxtapose the feast day of a saint, someone who epitomizes the love of Christ with a day to celebrate and honor love in general. The thought is sincere, but easily corrupted. Corrupted by the master of corruption. On a day where the grandest of all virtues, the virtue of love, is celebrated, people eagerly flock to join the celebration. People make grand pronouncements of the virtue of love. What these poor unsuspecting souls don’t realize is they are being lured into the most insidious trap of sin ever devised. (more…)
Here it is, so close to Valloween and you don’t have any way of showing the world how evil February 14th really is. I’ve come to your assistance with four special Valloween desktops for your computer. Consider it my Valloween gift to all five of you who visit my site!
You know the drill. If you want to download, right click on the size you want and save it. Happy Valloween!
I do think it has become trite to say you watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. Honestly, the commercials just aren’t that innovative and entertaining. There are always some that come off as fun, funny, and forgettable and some that are epic and change the landscape of advertising for years to come.
As much as I loved the game, I was really disappointed in the commercials. Not that I wanted them to be funny and epic, but because I was hoping for more social media integration. There I was, watching the game while posting on Twitter which updates my Facebook and FriendFeed. I was primed and ready to visit URLs, follow Twitter accounts, become a fan of a site… ready to engage with the advertisers within the social media framework. They offered me nothing. The closest thing that came close to interesting interaction was the Call Barney Stinson promo CBS did for How I Met Your Mother.
Where were the Twitter accounts for the brands that would allow me to ask questions about the brand and get real time answers? Caprica has a twitter account for the robot that appears in the show that lets the audience ask questions about people, places, and events that appear in the show. That account is @sergegraystone and it is an amazing little touch that adds personality to something that would have normally just been maybe a wiki page. Instead of innovation, we got a bunch of branding attempts that felt like a throwback to the Spuds Mckenzie days of misogyny, sexism, and stupidity. Why were there so many commercials with men without pants? Okay, that is an unnecessary tangent.
I think for all the money spent on these commercials, these brands failed to connect to an audience that expects and is beginning to demand more interaction with the companies they do business with.
It is time to jump into the way back machine and visit an article written in 2003 about pessimism. The Positive Side of Pessimism by Kathleen Mitchell touches upon similar themes I’ve explored here.
Kathleen writes:
When you see the world through a pessimistic lens, it’s usually because you’ve been hurt or discouraged and want to avoid feeling that way again. It is less risky for you to believe in the worst happening than to work at making the best happen. As negative as these thoughts appear to be, there is a lot of wisdom in them.
I appreciate this point of view. I’ve struggled often with the idea that optimism is the ‘correct’ view of the world and ‘pessimism’ is incorrect. If you act one way you are in harmony with existence and everything will be easier and glorious and the other leads to misery and hardship. Both points of view are wired into us for a reason and I can’t bring myself to believe that I am to ignore pessimistic thoughts in favor of optimistic positivity.
Her article does mention four specific ways to utilize pessimism and turn the negative to a positive. One of her pieces of advice is to learn from your pessimist. “Whenever you feel yourself slipping into your pessimistic and suspicious persona, ask yourself what insights are below the surface.”
Kathleen Mitchell finishes her article by telling us, “Above all, consider your inner pessimist as that part of you that wants to cover all the bases. Pay attention; hear the concerns behind the negativity. Then learn to turn your pessimist into a prepared optimist.”
She is admitting here that negativity is bad. Negative thoughts are defeatist thoughts that prevent us from taking the risks needed to reach success. Most pessimists probably are defeatists, unwilling to take the risks. I’ve often said I have a low tolerance for risk which I am trying to change, so I am in that group of defeatists. There has to be a way to utilize the pessimistic energy to help mitigate risks and make it feel less like climbing a cliff without ropes.
Sorry, no, that’s not what I meant. See, it is Friday which means nobody is using the internet and I can use it for whatever nefarious purpose I want and today, that purpose is all about HOT FOOTBALL ACTION!
Of course I never quite understood sports fans. They cheer for one team and hate another, but all in all the teams are part of the same organization, the same corporation if you will. It is like hoping my right big toe wins in a contrived contest with my left ring finger. But, people seem to get excited about it, so I play along.
I did say hot football action, so I have to direct your attention to Two Hot Girls in the Shower. Totally safe for work, I promise. Well, you probably still shouldn’t let your boss see you watching this, it might be misconstrued if she can’t hear the sound. So maybe you should crank your volume, just in case.
Hilarious! And hot. Right? I love the internet. What I love almost as must as I love the internet are things that seem normal and boring by themselves but become awesomely funny together. Like last names.
What I love most about the internet is the ability to go back in time. Does anyone remember this classic Superbowl commercial?
Good times, good times. Of course Apple isn’t too keen on people being free and open with their devices. I sense maybe some doublespeak?
Anywho, time is about up, but I can’t leave without mentioning just how messed up somethings are. One company wanted to pay the huge sum of money to advertise a gay dating site during the football game but were denied because it was too controversial. Gays… dating… I don’t see the controversy. Not like it was a Gay matrimony commercial. Nope, just a commercial about homosexuals wanting to find others to date. Yet, at the same time, an anti-abortion ad was accepted to run. Abortion. Controversy. If you look controversy up in the dictionary it says ‘please see abortion’. Holy cripes. I don’t want to go all Andy Rooney here but back in my day Super Bowl commercials were sexist, violent, alcoholic, and fun.
This Sunday I will be cheering on the NFL because that is a sure thing. No matter who wins or loses between the two branches of that organization, the NFL wins. I like sure things.
Oh, this just in from the internet, the Super Bowl is being turned into a food holiday. NPR had chefs from New Orleans and Indiana talking about their Super Bowl foods, and the internet is abuzz with Super Bowl recipes. Not everyone is in on the fun though. Some people are raising concerns about the healthiness of the food being eaten on Super Bowl Sunday. Can you believe that? Well, here is an example of what they are saying on the internet about Super Bowl food.
1. Nachos
Nachos are like Chips and Dip on Steroids
You are most definitely going to “make a run for the border” after consuming your fair share of nachos this Super Bowl Sunday.
Nachos are the worst foods because they have enough saturated fat and cholesterol to give most unhealthy people an instant heart attack.
All kidding aside nachos are the worst Super Bowl food because they have so many add-ons which can make them even worse.
With nachos you don’t have ingredients but you can pick your poison with high fat ingredients including greasy ground beef, guacamole, sour cream, nacho sauce and of course cheese or more than likely “pasteurized”. (via http://askthetrainer.com/worst-5-super-bowl-foods.html)
Yum! I’ll take two. With that, I’m done monopolizing the internet. Not that it matters, it is Friday, and nobody uses the internet on Friday.
Have you ever wanted something so much it seemed inevitable that you would get it? A recent study conducted by Emily Balcetis and David Dunning and published in a paper called Wishful Seeing analyzed people’s perception in relation to their desires. When estimating distance to something they really want, people general believed the object was closer than it actually was. The paper outlines five different experiments that were run and details the outcomes. (more…)
I don’t think there is a neat way to boil all this down to any one essential point but I will focus on one element that I’ve been struggling with for quite some time and it seems to be the same thing with which Penelope Trunk struggles. I haven’t devoted a lot of intense coached time on any one thing. I’m a dabbler. I jump about as my attention is drawn to new shiny things and I play with those new shiny things long enough to understand them but not long enough to be an expert. (more…)
Let the first impulse pass, wait for the second.
Baltasar Gracian
Of the great thinkers in the world, I feel that many have a lot to say to me, but Baltasar Gracian truly resonates with me. The name of this thing, blog, digital compendium, whatever, comes from the quotation above. When playing chess it is often important to avoid the obvious move. You need to keep your opponent guessing and avoid traps. Additionally, in creative endeavors the first impulse is usually the least interesting.
Way back in 1999, I wrote an essay called Valloween for one of my many now defunct webzine attempts called Ariadne’s Thread. I still love that title, but that was a different life. Each February, I dust off the essay and post it somewhere, usually in my Livejournal or whatever web site is currently the focus of my energy. I’ve never gone back to rewrite or rework it and this year, 2010, the 11th anniversary of my Valloween essay, I thought it was time to refine it a bit.
Time, not talent, seems to be the true indicator of expertise.