I’m back from the family reunion, offspring in tow. Along the way, we made her first pilgrimage to the Mecca for women, young and old, a place called “Sam Moon.” What is a “Sam Moon,” you may ask? Sam Moon is a phenomenon in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It’s a chain of stores that sell women’s accessories – jewelry, purses, luggage, belts, earrings, necklaces and the like, at wholesale prices. “Wholesale prices” is a term that is bandied about in the retail game, sometimes with a sense of mendacity that would make a professional liar blush. No, Sam Moon has got the goods. They are the real deal, the genuine article, the Real McCoy. But this is not a post about the wonders of Sam Moon, the upsetting of the natural order when it comes to baubles, bangles, and bright shiny beads. No, gentle reader, this is a story about awe, shared experiences, and fatherhood. [Read more…] about Leapin’ Lizards!
pop culture
A technical note…
I am informed by my friend, web host provider, bon vivant, teller of tall tales and singer of sea chanties (let’s call him “Major Disaster”) that we have a failure to communicate with the fine folks that provide him with the dedicated server hosting. In short, the company he uses for dedicated hosting sold out to some new guys. He’s found the service provided by the new guys to be, shall we say, “less than optimal.” (I’d say more, but I think you can read between the lines on that one.) As a result, the Major and the old hosting company have come to a parting of the ways. The Major has already contracted with a brand spankin’ shiney new web hosting company (this is a good thing), so this blog (and the many fine websites we have created for ourselves and clients) will have a new home shortly. The downside is that there may be a slight interruption of service, as we get all the files transfered over. (Read: I’m not sure how long or how bad, but I got a bad feelin’ about this, Sundance.)
Of course, this couldn’t have happened at a worse time, as I am on vacation, at my family reunion. The box I do all my site management on is several hundred miles away. So if this blog goes away for a day or two (or three), rest assured, it will come back, hopefully beter, faster, (cheaper would be nice), and perhaps a little more bulletproof, this time around.
(Why) Wonder, Woman?
My wife thinks she’s Wonder Woman. Not the cartoon character. Not the Lynda Carter TV icon. But she does think she’s invulnerable, super-strong, and impervious to pain. And she’s not alone. A lot of women that came of age in the 70’s and 80’s bought into that superheroine myth.
In the five decades I’ve been on God’s green Earth, I’ve learned that what you believe is every bit as influential regarding how you react to something as is the stimulae itself. In other words, the way you react to a given situation is largely going to be dictated by your belief system. Here’s an illustration that I think will clear things up…Three people are locked in a room. One grew up around an uncle who ran a snake attraction, and was used to handling snakes. The next grew up traumatized, as a favorite relative died on a camping trip, from a snakebite. The third has no exposure – positive or negative – to snakes.
A panel opens in the ceiling, and a snake is lowered into the room. One event: three dramatically different reactions. The first person says “Oooh, what a cute snake!,” and picks it up to play with it. The second person hyperventilates, panics, and attempts to claw their way out of the room. Third goes back to reading a book. [Read more…] about (Why) Wonder, Woman?
EUReKa!…I think they’re on to something.
I love creative things. In particular, I’ve always loved science fiction (which gives writers a way to violate reality to serve their story ideas) and humor (which requires both creativity and intelligence to do really well). So when the SciFi channel launched EUReKA, a show that combines sicence fiction with humor, I quickly became a fan. Then they did something that, at the time at least, was creative in a marketing sense. They created a website that was a “we’re going to pretend as if all this is real” kind of thing, that somehow made the show that much beter. It was cool. The show was cool. And they were doing some pioneering work in how to use the web to market a show.
Season Two just started, and they have pulled off yet again another innovative idea in marketing – they’ve blurred the lines between product placement and conventional advertising, and in the process have forged something new, different, and in many ways, pretty scary. [Read more…] about EUReKa!…I think they’re on to something.
Brand Equity and Egos.
Branding. It’s the single most important thing about marketing. A brand communicates how a company wants to be perceived – or how it wants you to think about its products. Branding is a combination of one part image, one part slogan, and 98 parts repitition. Great brands are not created overnight. They are built slowly, one message at a time, until the brand becomes etched in your conciousness. Brands are expensive to build. But their worth their weight in gold. Which makes it all the more interesting – and madning – when I see a company kill a brand that resonates with the public. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at three brands that have been killed-off by their corporate masters, and examine the who, what, and why they died (and perhaps why killing them was a dumb idea).
My two cents.
I’ve been in the business of using computers, in one way or another, since 1982. I wrote my first college paper on an Apple III. I owned one of the original IBM PCs (Hercules Graphics Card! 512K RAM! Two full-height 5 1/4″ Floppy Drives! Dot Matrix Printer! DOS 2.0! Ashton-Tate Framework! All for the low, low price of $4,000!!!). I’ve worked as a software engineer, product manager, project manager, marketing manager, and user interface evangelist for software publishing companies. I was around for the birth of Windows 1.0, the life and death of COMDEX, the rise of the common user interface, the Year of the LAN, and a slew of other things, long consigned to the dust bin of computer history. I’ve been a user, author, coder, beta-tester, evangelist, designer, and planner. In short, I’ve held just about every job you can hold in the software industry.
Now I’m writing reviews. [Read more…] about My two cents.
The Value of Old.
The older I get, the more I appreciate old stuff. I suppose that makes a certain amount of synergistic sense. When I was a kid, “new” was the thing. If some marketer prefixed their pitch with the magic word “new” – they had my attention. These days, I equate “new” with “not as good as what it replaced.” That’s not always true, of course – a new computer is better/faster/cheaper than an old one. But when it comes to things that require craftsmanship, pride, skill, taste, and durability, “old” beats “new” almost every time. Case in point, musical instruments. [Read more…] about The Value of Old.
The Problem with Miley.
Know what a “Tween” is? Unless you’ve been living under a rock (which might not be such a bad idea, actually), you know a tween is the trendy label for those ages 9 to 12 – not quite a child anymore, but not quite a teenager. A “tweenager,” if you will. I’m the proud father of a tween. She’s obsessed with all the typical things that girls her age are – fashion, Miley Cyrus, High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, and fashion. The problem is, I’m not sold on the idea that all those obsessions are the right ones.
Here’s the deal. I had a great childhood. Idyllic, really. I want the same for my daughter. But we live in a radically different world today, and I’m afraid she’s being exposed to a lot of things that are stealing her childhood right out from under our noses. [Read more…] about The Problem with Miley.
Music that’s eclectic.
As some of you know, I’ve been a musician since an early age. Up here in Amarillo (Centrally Located Between Two Oceans!™), I haven’t had many opportunities to play professionally.
All that has recently begun to change.
Andy (the Brother I Never Had) Chase and I have put together a group, and we’re calling it “eclectic” ek•lek•tik.
Tonight, we’re playing at Randy’s of Wilderado (which is actually not in Wilderado at all – it’s in downtown Amarillo on Polk Street in the Paramount building), from 6 to 9 PM. As the band’s name suggests, our playlist is eclectic. Come on down, and you’ll hear everything from James Taylor and Jim Croce stuff to Nat “King” Cole and Hoagy Carmichael – with everything in between. Tonight, we’ve added a really excellent bassist to the mix, so there’s now four of us. Andy and I share lead vocals duty, and we switch off between guitar, mandolin, percussion, and harmonica. Describing our sound is a little tricky, because there’s nobody else doing what we do here in the Panhandle. I guess it’s kind of like [Insert name of artist here] Unplugged, because everything we’re doing is acoustic. However, that doesn’t mean it’s mellow, nor is it all ballads, all the time. We can rock the joint, too. And do.
So if you’re interested in an evening of live music, come on down to Randy’s tonight and check us out.
Don’t Buy This Book.
I love to read. I read just about everything I can get my hands on – from mysteries to histories, tech books to cook books. My favorite for light reading are in the techo-thriller genre…books about heroic Americans fighting the spies and soliders of other countries or terrorists. Glenn Beck (one of my favorite radio/TV guys) had author Christopher Reich on his show recently, to plug the book Rules of Deception. Beck mentioned that he’d not yet read the book (never a good idea to plug something you haven’t read, Glenn), but he was amazed that, as the story revolved around Iran’s attempts to enrich uranium for the express purpose of building nuclear weapons, that the New York Times had given the book a glowing review. Little did I know when I bought it that there was a good reason the NY Times loved it. [Read more…] about Don’t Buy This Book.