Slow Down…

Distractions Leave a reply

Like most people,  work in a place where everyone else is under stress to sell and meet deadlines. Thankfully I don’t have any part of that culture but I do have to service these poor souls. It can be stressful but I try not to let it get to me.

I use to get angry when someone would email me, utterly freaked out that they needed a marketing piece that had forever changing prices on it. And said piece would be edited 7 to 8 times before being completed because gas prices in Coober Pedy went up.

Now I just get it – things change fast and a less focused mind may miss things. Example: While “kicking the tires” on a travel site that specializes in Disney vacations I just finished retrieving a price for a week at the most magical place on earth. Then I got busy with something else and when I went back to the screen, there was a yellow box just above my quote, informing me that the price I found had increased by $13 since my last search. I suspect it was a gimmick for me to buy right away, but in this day of instant reporting, I sort of doubt it.

Anyway back to my story… stressed out people…

I got an email from a woman who got one of our ads for a seminar we put on in various cities. It was for an event on the 9th, at 6pm. Her complaint was that the event was on the 6th, at 9pm… She had transposed the numbers in her head. Didn’t we know that it was way too late for her to attend and why would we even bother with such a late hour don’t we know that people have lives after the office and maybe even kids too that need their attention??

I’m fixated on the amount of time it took her to write back to complain and the wasted energy expended. If she had only read it instead of flying off the handle because she got a spam email (that she subscribed to) and not actually “seeing” what was in front of her.

My inbox is littered with emails stuffed to the tits with grammatical and spelling errors from people who type like they only have seconds left to live, by people who have utterly ignored their spell check or have turned it off in anger. Literally things like:

I need the ad by mex week

On the intranet I see can that you have…

I take complaint. Is not department my.

That last one is an exaggeration, but not that far off.

So take a moment. Breathe. Count to ten before hitting enter.

Radar Thursday

General 1 Reply

Some things I have in my tiny peripheral vision:

BoingBoing gets a video exclusive that trashes their core beliefs. Yesterday BB got the scoop on Bjork’s newest video “Thunderbolt” but yet the video is geo-blocked, meaning it can’t be played in certain countries due to… whatever stupid reason. Way to kill the “The Internet Should Be Free” mantra, BB! Ok I get it. It’s a big deal and should be posted and potentially brings eyes to ads, but it stinks of hypocrisy. Bootleg vid here.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is out. “10 out of 10” on a couple review sites and even some controversial reviews… From what I gather they’ve ramped up the cinematics and atmospherics for the sake of length, but holy crap that’s what made the progression from Uncharted  to  Uncharted 2 so cool. Trying to avoid any spoilers but I did manage to pick up three words that made me and SharkBoy squee with delight: Capsized Cruise Ship. Meaning of course, one of the areas you play through is turned upsidedown a la Poseidon Adventure. Awe. Some!

The next iPad may not be iPad 3 but a “refresh” of the #2 with slimmer design, longer battery yadda yadda. Like Christmas right after Halloween, the rumors are starting early for the spring!

20 Couples that put that spoiled brat Kardashian to shame. I can’t tell you how much I hate the whole concept of the Kardashian “empire”: fame for fame’s sake. Damn you Andy Warhol!!

That guy? Walking across Australia in a Stormtrooper outfit? He’s been tweeting pics. All are cool, but especially love the little story about the SkyLab littering fine sent to the US Government.

Sean may like this: The Architecture of Villains. A site dedicated to reverse engineering a lot of utopian villain lairs and layouts (mostly from the Bond universe).

And in case you missed it, SharkBoy and I went out as festive (read: gay) Stormtroopers. Mine had a South Western Flair, while SB’s was more traditional.

And if you’re not on Instagram, then you’re missing out. I find it exactly like Twitter, but visual and much more rewarding than stupid words!! Which I LOVE. (kidding…words aren’t stupid, just more labour intensive.)

Rob Ford, 911!

Celebs and Media, Toronto, You Stupid Dick 3 Replies

So my take on this

whole
Rob
Ford
calling
911
?

First of all, let’s be clear that he’s a public figure. Public! His job is to be accessible to the public as a representative of politics and policy. It was one of his campaign trivia facts that he called *everyone* back (let’s not even try to figure out how long that would actually take). And he loves inviting a ton of people over to his mom’s house for a BBQ and fireworks. We can all agree on this point, right?

Meanwhile, we also know that Rob Ford and his administration is not very forthcoming with his professional public appearances. They’re either very staged or awkward or both (see his graffiti hullabaloo) and, they’re far and few between. His redacted campaign promise of transparency is one of  the reasons why he’s the second worst mayor in Canada.

So when a TV show that is known for ambushing politicians and playfully trying to get them to talk on tape, shows up on your door, you could do no worse than play along. He claims he had no clue who Marg Delahunty was – to which I cry bullshit. If you are a political figure of any kind, you hope and PRAY that Marg shows up at your door because while she may say some off colour comments regarding your performance, she puts your face out there. And TV/YouTube face time a good thing for any politician. There’s also the fact that This Hour Has 22 Minutes has put all sides of politicians out there, Right, Centrists or Lefty, so if you claim you didn’t know her and you work in politics, you’re admitting to not knowing your boss and should be fired from your job.

So let’s all agree that he got flustered. And ran into the house. This is fact. It’s on tape. What he said to the 911 dispatch will not be gospel until the tapes are released. Which the police say the mayor can allow and the mayor says the police can allow. Can someone please FOI that bit of audio? Until then I can’t comment on what went down, but for amusement, take a look at the #RobFord911 hashtag. It’s a barrel of fun!

But in seriousness, Rob Ford’s actions makes me think that he’s probably getting a lot of death threats. He’s gone on tv and admitted as much.

Yet I have no surprise or sympathy about it. His bullying tactics in his political and public career will generate this kind of backlash towards him. You live an angry life, you get an angry life. I was going to say “you live by the sword…” but it sounded too much like a death threat, which it isn’t, just an old biblical times proverb, really.

You Pod, I Pod

Distractions, Tech 2 Replies

When podcasting started to trend back when iPods and iTunes hit it’s third generation, I gave them little attention. Now that I  have more than an hour to and from (and at) the gym, and about 45 min to get to work I’m finding them extremely entertaining. Here’s a list of my current faves in listy list order:

5. Humble and Fred. “For 20 years Humble and Fred destroyed commercial radio” is the intro for these two ex-jockeys who I’ve been following for …uh… 20 years. I remember when they started at The Edge and enjoyed their banter. Glad to see them back. I’ve subscribed to them without hearing a full episode, but trust them based on their past …uh… 20 years of experience. I like them, I trust them to bring a funny and occasionally thoughtful show. You should too.

4. Imagineering My Way. I’ve just found this Blue Sky Disney podcast after dropping two of the most popular Disney podcasts out of frustration (See below) and I’m finind it curious and engaging, two shows in. It’s filling my nerd gap between my Disney Travel trivia and my Disney tech organs. While the show isn’t put together by an Imagineer as the title suggests, it’s culled by someone who likes to think he is, which makes it identifiable and opinionated – but not in an obnoxious way. The companion website is a bit… 1998, but the podcast has moments of quirky brilliance.

3. Laser Time. I stumbled upon these guys via iTunes search when looking for “games, nerd, tech”. They deliver this in spades. I have no idea about their back story, but their first ‘cast mentions past transgressions on another podcast that I suspect got too big and too close to their careers, which they might have let loose a couple disparaging opinions on. Whatever. They start their first podcast with a knockout subject for nerds – Star Wars! But sadly they dropped a couple off colour gay jokes within the first 20 minutes. I overlooked that and shouldered on. I loved the banter but they need to reduce the amount of soundboard audio inserts by half. Its like listening to a cheesey morning show. But, three episodes into it, I’m liking what they’re doing.

2. Pod is My Copilot. I found “Pod” through Taylor’s Instagram feed. It’s weird finding a podcast via a picture app but you really do discover gems when you read people’s profiles. These three have literally no taboo topics (okay, facial gimps freaks out Taffy but she will gladly discuss sexing up her husband in the back seat of the family minivan in a mall parking lot) and the three have a great dynamic: Rodan the sex fiend, Taffy the sex fiend fag hag and Taylor is the apparent “prude” (air quotes – he can dish out the odd tryst and dirty story).  Their show is nothing more than discussing their experiences from the past week and allow meandering down conversational paths which makes you feel like you’re sitting in on three friends dishing at the table next to you. I’d like to know the history of these three but the site is without any kind of “about us” page. UPDATE: Yesterday with the release of their 200th episode, the three of them did a big production of being “replaced” with other hosts from three other low level podcasts. Right on the heels of being nominated for best LGBT podcast? Odd. I hope it’s a joke…

1. Nerdist. I’ve been following Chris Hardwick since he would fill in on Attack of the Show – where he talked about tech, gadgets and nerd topics, and then onto his own Web Soup, where he discussed web videos for full comedy effect. For the last couple years, he and his two best friends Jonah Ray and Matt Mira, have been discussing all things nerdist but with a heavier slant on stand up comedy (evident by the list of guests they’ve had over their podcasting history). It’s been fun to watch this show snowball over it’s lifetime and seeing the fanbase grow – a lot like a comic con but without the sweaty freaks and packed retail floor. Chris’ close proximity to celebrity A-list geeks and nerds affords him a great list of guests: Billy West, the voice of Fry and many others from Futurama; Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller, who tells a wicked short person vs monkey story; the cast of Dr Who; the cast of Walking Dead (pre-fired Frank Darabont) and many more, so the show is always interesting, even when they’re doing a “Hostful” show – sans guest – where they just sit around and converse.

I’ve recently stopped listening to the two highest rated Disney Info podcasts: The Dis Unplugged and WDW Radio for bi-polar reasons.

I unsubbed The DisUnplugged for being a bit too opinionated: in the beginning, I liked their honest approach to Disney, often lambasting the House of Mouse for whatever reason – I found it refreshing that they thought Disney was not without reproach. But in the last 6 months I’ve noticed they’ve tipped over into negativity that seemed unwarranted. Their last three shows where they reviewed their Adventures by Disney trip to London and Paris was a symphony of complaints bracketed by “But it was the best trip I’ve ever taken”. Literally, Pete the host, started out each of the 3, one hour episodes saying how he had only ONE complaint (his emphasis) but yet managed to gripe about every segment of their trip they reported on. Food, shopping, cleanliness, host attitudes, guide descriptions, weather, tours, tour subjects, the Mona Lisa, crime, room temperature and many other topics were trashed. But yet they infuriatingly finish the show with a negated, throw-away acceptance comment that they had a great time. Remind me never to book group travel with them.

I’ve stopped listening to WDW Radio for being too treacle. The site and the podcast are a cornucopia of Disney information, history and trivia but without any kind of back up of personal commentary, it gets a bit grating on the nerves. After a while the podcast comes across as a travel agent pitch or a hour-long resume to Disney. The tipping point for me was when Lou Mongello, the host, made veiled gay jokes when suggesting holding hands and skipping through the park with one of his male podcast guest. Repeatedly. Across 3 episodes. Ugh.