Story Telling

I’m not one to remember my dreams very often (or if I do it so jumbled that I can’t even describe it by the time my eyes are open), and even then I wouldn’t normally talk about them, but this I had last night was too strange to ignore….

It starts out slow: There was an outbreak of zombies, and it seemed to begin in the old neighborhood, where I grew up, although there were a lot of people there and it was more like some kind of vacation resort.

Anyway… My parents and I (along with many stranger) were running around trying to make it through the night (we did), and then in the morning pack up our stuff and get away.

I don’t know what happened to my parents. I’m pretty sure they survived, but somehow I got diverted to Chuck Norris’s house with some guys that planned to kill him (I never did find out why) and make it look like a zombie thing. I was able to warn Chuck and get out of there (he didn’t seem to be too happy to have visitors), but not before bumping into the cast of America’s Next Top Model (they were hanging out at Chuck’s place too).

I thought I heard a muffled gunshot on the way back to my Jeep (nobody else seemed to notice), and I called 911 as I drove away to a new, danger-free life.

So the studios have agreed to go back to the table and talk to the writers.

Good. Its about time. For some reason, though, the AMPTP thinks November 26th is the time… but whatever. Its something. And thats not Nothing. Give the writers everything they ask for so they can go back to work making obscene amounts of money for you. Seriously.

And now, here’s my top five choices for Writer’s Strike YouTube videos:

#5: WRITERS STRIKE! A Response from the Studios
#4: “This Is Our Moment”
#3: Voices of Uncertainty
#2: Not The Daily Show, With Some Writer
and…
The #1 Top Writer’s Strike Video on YouTube:
A World Without Writers

And remember…. Support the Troops by wearing a Yellow Ribbon.

Support the Writer’s by reading a book.

I changed the layout of this page, primarily because it didn’t leave a lot of room for photos and images in the posts. This is a problem because I’m a graphic designer: images are what I do!

After doing this I found out… the hard way… that I don’t have my website configured properly to allow images to be uploaded directly to the blog. And on top of everything else, my web-host is going through changes of their own right now, so administrating my site is a bit of a hassle. Consequently, I still haven’t got my website configured how I want it.

Once I do you should start seeing more visually oriented stuff: photos, sketches, charts and (of course) graphics.

Is it wrong, when I see those Burger King commercials with the mom’s trying to kill the King, that I am hoping they will be successful?

The Writer’s Strike has been going on for a couple months now without major national coverage, but I’m betting that’s about to change. The Writer’s Guild has filed Unfair Labor Practices charges against the AMPTP with the National Labor Relations Board for walking out of negotiations 7 days ago. There have also been people asking questions why Hollywood is the only place in the free world where 6 corporations that would normally be cut-throat competitors are allowed to negotiate labor deals as one unit in the first place.
The Mitchell Report came out yesterday, naming about 80 Major League Baseball players who they’ve determined to have used “steroids, human growth hormones, or other performance enhancing drugs.” The fallout is far from over, but it seems to me that there’s no point in crying about the past if everyone can get behind eliminating this problem in the future. Many athletes will lose lucrative sponsership deals, but it seems that advertisers are quite happy to continue to support the sport…. and that means the show will go on.

If you’re one of the lucky ones with a Pro flickr account, you’ll want to check out the new statistics they are offering. Once you enable it (got to http://www.flickr.com/photos/me/stats), you’ll have a short wait while the data gets put together… then before you know it you’ll have access to all kinds of crazy information about your photos and who’s looking at them.

Stolen from BostonSteamer:

Q: How do you advertise in the jungle?
A: Gorilla marketing

Q: How do you advertise at the CDC?
A: Viral marketing

It used to be that giving a gift certificate was seen as a thoughtless or lazy gift. Sure they have their place, but there’s always been a stigma attached to them.

I’m not sure when that changed, but these days Gift Cards… specifically the ones with the magnetic stripe on the back… are big business. They are everywhere now, and selling in record numbers.

But are they any less thoughtless and lazy?

Now… bear in mind, that I’m picky enough that I’m always afraid to let other people shop for me. I’m not fashionista, but I know what I like, and other people don’t seem to. So I would much rather receive a gift card than (for instance) an ugly sweater or something. But consider these facts:

• The cards themselves are not free. To get a $10 card may cost as much as $12.
• There are sometimes hidden fees.
• If you don’t use the balance in time, the card may expire and you lose the entire value!
• Unlike tradition gift certificates, retailers don’t make the cash value of the card available. If you don’t spend the whole value of the card you lose it.
• … and of course if you spend over the value of the card you are giving the retailer more money (which is the whole idea).

It’s been estimated that last year there was $8 billion left unused on gift cards in the US. This includes cards that were lost or simply unused as well as cards that expired with a small balance remaining after initial use.

Bottom line: its much better and cheaper to just give cash. If you want to make it thoughtful and personal include a hand-written note.

I can’t take it. I hate the new Burger King commercial as much (maybe more) than any of their others. Well… “hate” may be too strong, but I really don’t get it, and I certainly don’t think it’s going to change my mind about their product.

People… people that are supposed to know better… have been calling it Brilliant, Genius, and otherwise heaping on the praise. I call it a waste of time.
Here’s the disclaimer: I’m not a Burger King customer. I don’t like the Whopper. I’ve tried it a few times, and its always been bad. I also don’t like Burger King ads. I have to assume that they aren’t marketing to me, but I can’t figure out why not.

Anyway… what’s up with the “Freakout” spot? People seem to be hyped on the viral video aspect of it (which is, strangely, something a lot of people haven’t figured out yet… and god help us when they do). And then they go on to talk about how great it is that they managed to get the customers to say such nice things about the Whopper.

Except they don’t say anything except “its my favorite” and “I’ve been eating Whoppers for years” and “this is nuts!” Yea, its nuts. The guy behind the counter goes out of his way to mention that the Whopper is flame-broiled, but that’s as close as it comes to giving anyone a reason to go there. I’m certainly not going to go there just because they play games with their customers, or because they have a video on the internet. They had two days of footage to get people to talk nice about their product, and there’s not one thing said that will get anyone to walk across the street to try their product vs. their competitors. That’s the ball-game, and they lose.
To me the whole thing is insulting. What did they think would happen? What do they think would happen at McDonalds or Wendy’s if they tried the same thing? Yea… the same thing would happen. The only thing the commercial really says is that people who go to a place and order something want to get what they asked for, and that if you make a scene you might get on TV.

Washingtonpost.com has a great article the new trend of corporations, looking for “authentic” images to use in the advertising and promotions, to steal content off the web.

For an even scarier story, follow the link from there to the one about Allison Stokke.