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Friday, February 03, 2006 How Hard Can it Be? I saw the other day that Gainesville is looking to create a brand identity to generate tourism in the area. Their initial budget to a marketing agency to execute a concept is $20,000, an amount I admit makes me drool and makes me wish I was in on the bidding process. But this response makes me mad. I admit, what she said made sense to me, until her last paragraph. This is not some complicated engineering project. All it takes is a catchy phrase or logo. We could possibly save a lot of taxpayer money, which could then be spent on beautification projects.Let's be entirely realistic here. Although $20,000 is more than any project we've undertaken at our business, it's a small sum compared to most large scale advertising campaigns, and it is a reasonable cost for the intensive market studies, competition research, and focus groups that will be undertaken to hone done on an effective message. Not to mention the hundreds of hours that will put into executing several effective concepts for consideration. Laypersons always distill the creative process down to a stroke of luck. A 'catchy phrase or logo' is not often conjured out of thin air, and even if it is, it takes some refinement to execute it correctly (color choices, sizes, font selections, etc). Yes, it might not be as complicated as an engineering project. But $20,000 might buy you two days of a bulldozer's time, or cover the cost of planting two trees in a beautification project. It's really a drop in the bucket for a marketing message that, if properly executed, will be usable by the county for five to ten years. ------------------------------------------------
A Face Only Picasso Can Love  The Miami Children's Museum has a an iconic logo that looks somewhat like an abstract face, consisting of an eye and an exclamation point. It's a cute, whimsical design that I think would be appealing to children, and is open to enough interpretation to cover the wide variety of subjects that the museum would display. The problem is, the Museum took this nice 2-dimensional design and attempted to render it three-dimensionally in the form of a character for their Museum birthday parties. I have a a real hard time thinking children will be excited to see this guy coming their way, who looks like he lost to Wesley in a "To the Pain" contest. It's the scariest children's character I have ever seen.------------------------------------------------
Thursday, February 02, 2006 Is This the Face of a New Generation?  Remember Mitch from the Napster office commercial? He's the office worker with the perfect song for every work occassion - "Don't Stand So Close to Me", "Shut Up", etc. Well, it seems I am starting to see him in nearly every commerical on TV. Bowling with his friend and rocking out to tunes on his Verizon cellphone. Going to Chili's and maximizing the potential of the new value menu. Trying to fix the office copier. And others have noted this too, in a plethore of ads I've missed.It appears Mitch, whomever he really is, has become the face of the newest target demographic. Hope you have longer legs than the Dell dude.------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, February 01, 2006 Newspapers - Get a Life Newspapers, Magazines, and book publishers have a new target for their slumping sales: Google. The World Association of Newspapers wants Google and other online news aggregation companies to pay compensation for using their stories, claiming that their business is built on 'kleptomania'. Gavin O'Reilly, their official spokesman, states that the content Google News provides on their page is often enough for the casual reader, and by posting their content, they are reducing the revenue they can generate from their own sites as users will not click through to them. Say what? Let's take a look at the Google News page. These descriptions aren't even full paragraphs, some of them aren't even full sentences. They are teasers in every sense of the word. And a great majority of the newspapers on this page are newspapers I would never even think of reading in the first place, because they aren't local. It isn't like I can go to the local bookstore here and pick up a copy of the Houston Chronicle or the Detroit Free Press. Google News and other aggregators are free advertising for the paper and the content they hold. As advertising, the Newspapers should pay Google to be included. And rather than go down that road, why not just leave the collaboration free to both parties involved? ------------------------------------------------
Loonacy  Heavens to Murgatroid! Why reinvent the Looney Tune characters as hard-edged, futuristic crimefighters? Just because the Incredibles is so hot? This is not the way to reinvent these characters for a new generation. Tiny Toons and Animaniacs showed the proper way to do it. ------------------------------------------------
Laws Don’t Define What Is, IS  The real problem with legislation nowadays is how broadly they can be interpreted. Let’s take three recent examples:The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, meant to protect people from cyber-stalking, defines as a felony the sending of an anonymous email that intends to “annoy” the recipient. This has real implications for whistle-blowers of all kinds, not just internet predators. The Federal Government’s definition of terrorist organizations is “two or more individuals”. Can two people really be an organization? Does this mean that two serial killers working in tandem are a terrorist organization? Furthermore, the rules here are so broad as to include resistance groups against regimes the U.S. calls ‘repressive’, and have led to the deportation of people that have given moves to such groups. Locally, Alachua County has ruled that dogs deemed dangerous should be euthanized. One of the definitions of dangerous is the following: A dog that has, when unprovoked, chased or approached a person on any public grounds in a menacing fashion or apparent attitude of attack. One has to ask what constitutes a ‘menacing fashion’. Barking? Growling? Running Fast? What if the dog never actually touches the person? Laws so broadly applied don’t do anything but tie up courts that then are required to define the nebulous into specific terms. That should well before anyone has to vote on it. ------------------------------------------------
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Thursday, February 16, 2006 Sorry ... Sorry -- today was such a bad day. Jeff's car didn't start yesterday, and so he had the van today, as I came down sick last night, and couldn't handle an hour drive with both kids without going somewhere, and I didn't feel up to being "out and about". So, no vehicle, feeling sick, and two adorable children who just didn't understand how crappy Mama felt, and when things start to get rough for me in that situation, it just goes downhill fast. I am glad that I wrote that here -- as soon as I hit send, I went in, rubbed her back until she went to sleep, Parker came out and we played a game for the duration of her 17 minute nap. After half of Dancing with the Stars, and Parker dragging her around dancing, they both went to sleep -- thanks to Jeff. And Jeff really does more than his fair share -- more than MOST men, honestly -- and he's passed out behind me on the couch, and will have to get up at 4 am to do work as he didn't get a chance to this evening, and we have clients waiting. I should be asleep, but two things -- I feel like this is MY time -- alone. quiet. solemn. and I'm simply not tired. I am a true night owl, and am having some warm milk now to try and get my body "in the mood" for sleep. Jeff'll have the van again tomorrow and I'll still be sick -- but I vow to not let it get to me so much. If we end up watching movies all day and chilling, so be it. As long as no one screams, I'll count it a good day. Problem is -- Kira is an EXTREMELY happy baby. Until she is very tired or is waking up. She doesn't cry. Ever. She honestly wakes up full-tilt screaming. It doesn't seem normal!! My mom-friends here say that both of my kids have had this quality to their cry/screams that just puts you on edge with an urgency that is primal -- they feel it too, and find it unnerving. How is that for a ringing endorsement?? ------------------------------------------------
I'm just tired. I'm tired of having to fight Kira for sleep I'm tired of hearing her scream I'm tired of having my temper flare at Parker because I'm so frustrated at Kira I'm tired of not getting a break during naptime day after day after day after FRAKING day I'm tired of being the "one mom" with a FRELLING ONE YEAR OLD who DOES NOT NAP I'm tired of having this shitty task of trying to coax her to sleep day after day after day I'm tired of having to be on eggshells while she does take a 15 minute nap I'm tired of having crappy-ass sleep at night, because she doesn't sleep well I'm tired of listening to her scream non-stop when I TRY to get her to go to sleep on her own I'm tired of hearing how "easy" it is to just let them "Cry it out" -- oh yeah??? COME AND BE MY FREAKING GUEST!!!!!!!!! I'm tired of wanting to run away every night the second Jeff walks in the door -- as she is a wreck I'm tired of the hour it takes to get her to sleep at night, EVEN THOUGH she doesn't nap I'm tired of it all I'm tired of not having options -- because of money and because of availability/quality in our general area I'm tired of feeling like I can't share this here, without judgement I'm just tired -- she is STILL screaming, though Parker has thankfully hidden in his room for this torture session ------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, February 01, 2006 One Year Ago... I was in labor. I didn't know if I was having a boy or a girl. All I knew my baby by was "Sprout". But now .... ------------------------------------------------
Is it bad that this didn't phase me? Yesterday, Parker told me that I wasn't his friend anymore because I wouldn't let him do something. I wasn't hurt by the statement at all, but instead immediately thought of that supposed "truth": Don't be your child's friend, or they won't respect and listen to you. I did explain my reasoning and we resolved the issue (completed with an "I love you, Mama"), but it was weird that I didn't feel hurt at all by the statement, like I always thought I would be. ------------------------------------------------
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