Marketing . . . myself

Well, sorry for the lack of posts. In my defense, I've been busy delving into my sister's time sink of choice, Facebook, in the last couple of weeks. It's a nice way to share and show photos, info, etc. without the hassle of Picasa, Flickr, or whatever else I would need to sign up to use in order to post them here on the blog. So, check me out on Facebook for pictures, and continue coming here for random reviews, musings, etc.

In the category of musings, I find that my life has been somewhat taken over by a fun little Beta program called Warfish. Basically an online, very simple version of Risk, the game's free to play and allows me to test my mettle against two of my bestest friends, J and N. Sadly, our first foray into Warfish resulted in an early exit for me, but I can attest to the fun of playing the game against actual human beings rather than the computer I spend my time playing against in games that I review. I can actually remember getting the shakes as I was about to start one of my endgame turns--it was that fun. That was actually the turn where everything went south--a big gamble I took didn't pan out, and N ended up taking the game. So if you see an invitation to Warfish.net from me, accept it and let's play a friendly game.

Long week

Man, what a week. From client emergencies to late nights, this was one of the longest weeks on record. Not to complain or anything (because it's sure better to be busy than the alternative), but just to share with you my state of mind as I type away here for the next 4:30 or so.

I think I'm going to focus more on telling stories on this little blog of mine. I went to a presentation of a woman from The Radio Ranch the other day (yesterday) who talked about how marketing these days needs to be emotional, not just reasonable. She cited numerous examples of how creating these emotional ads helped get better results for clients, appealed to potential customers, etc. etc.

I wanted to ask her what to do with the individual who wants nothing to do with emotion, but instead wants to cram a list of features into a 2 x 4 inch newspaper square, or :30 seconds of radio time. I mean, we all have to eat, don't we, and since the client is footing the bill, it pays (pun intended) to listen to what they want instead of telling them that they're stupid and that their advertising won't work. I dunno--the client management part of my job is certainly the hardest part, and I speak of managing internal and external clients here.

So to finish up my story, I raised my hand, but she chose to answer someone else's question and I didn't have a chance to ask it in person. Oh well--I'm not sure she would have had a good answer for me anyway.

2 books, 2 weeks

Just finished two books in the last two weeks: The Life of Pi and The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. One's true, one's not, both deal with folks getting shipwrecked and having to subsist in extremely harsh conditions. And I enjoyed both immensely, but for different reasons.

The Life of Pi is lyrical, prosaic. It attempts to place the narrator's suffering in a philosophical context. As such, it takes on (at times) the feel of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, usually when its protagonist, Pi, is undergoing the harshest suffering. Told from the perspective of someone looking back on their ordeal, there's no surprise that Pi survives the wreck. Rather, the surprise is that he survives with so much of his humanity intact, particularly when he survived on the same boat as a 500 lb. Bengal tiger for 200-odd days.

Essex, which is a true story, takes a more historical approach. Exhastively researched and entertainingly told, it's not just the story of a shipwreck, but also a lens into life on the island of Nantucket in the 1700s and 1800s. Philbrick (the author) clearly and cleanly lays out the story, drawing logical conclusions on what the men were most likely thinking and feeling from the time the boarded the ship, through their harrowing ordeal across the Pacific, and after they make it back to their community.

I highly recommend both books.

In other news, I'm open to suggestions for my next book--feel free to post your recommendations as comments.

Hopes and Dreams

Go Fla., Kans., G'Town., A&M!

Just got a call from a couple friends and a family member of mine (I swear I'm not making this up) who are in a bar, enjoying all of the games, and wondering where I am. As I told them, I'm at the same place I was last year--stuck at work and staring at a computer screen.

Let's not let this happen again next year, shall we, future Billy?

It's March, so get MAD!

Really looking forward to March Madness this year. It's an annual tradition here at my office--we get everyone in the office (and some who aren't) to fill out a bracket, and post them all on my wall. Then, as the games are played, my friend Mark and I highlight the winners and award points based on rounds, so for round 1, you get 1 point for a correct pick, round 2, 2 points, etc. You get the idea.

Last year's bracket was an absolute mess (thank you very much, George Mason). I think the contest came down to the 15-year-old daughter of one of our staff, and a former college basketball player who fancied himself an "expert" on the game. Needless to say, the 15-year-old ended up winning the whole shebang.

So as not to give anything away (to my Hillsdale friends who read this blog, despite the intermittent updates), I won't be posting my picks or even my leanings here until after the tournament has already started. Sorry. But feel free to post your picks in my comments section!

The Answers

Ok, here are the answers to my previous contest--looks like we had no winners this time. I'll also disclose (because I'm sure you're dying to know) which of these I've read and which I've just . . . skimmed.

Molly (Ulysses--skimmed)
Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird--read)
Benjy (The Sound and the Fury--read)
Ralph (Lord of the Flies--read)
Humbert Humbert (Lolita--skimmed, felt scummy after skimming)
Tom J. (Grapes of Wrath--read)
Daisy (The Great Gatsby--read)
(NO idea--haven't read Beloved) (Beloved--haven't read, probably won't after reading Jess' comment)
Caufield (Catcher in the Rye--read)
Big Bro (1984--skimmed, liked Animal Farm better)

Stay tuned for future contests! Someone'll win that no-prize yet!

Wicked!

An interesting exploration of the nature and root of evil, Wicked sets out some interesting characters and a well-defined setting, but eventually collapses under its own weight, melting away without much fanfare. The story of Elphaba, aka the Wicked Witch of the West, Wicked follows in the tradition of books like For Love of Evil or the one about the three little pigs told from the wolf's perspective--only it's much better written. Maguire avoids an easy hole to fall into right from the start by not telling the story entirely from the witch's perspective.

By doing so, he lets us see his most compelling character, Elphaba, that much more clearly. The Witch--complex, driven without knowing why and uncompromising without knowing what she believes in--commands your attention from the very first. Born with green skin and sharp teeth to a missionary family in Munchkinland, Elphaba seems marked from the very first to stand out. The story traces the rise of the Witch: her short, unhappy childhood; her days at an academy for girls spent studying biology from a garroulous Goat; her battle against the Wizard of Oz and his secret police; and her eventual destruction at the hands of an apple-cheeked girl from Kansas.

Along the way, we learn that she and Glinda, the "good" witch of the North, were actually friends at the academy--though at first Glinda spurns Elphaba because of her poor upbringing and sharp wit. We meet Nessarose, the Witch's sister, last seen wearing the ruby slippers underneath Dorothy's house, and find that she's actually a pious, upright, and moral person, with no arms. And we discover why and how the Witch came to be, and about her relationship with the Wizard of Oz and the Emerald City.

The best part of this novel is seeing how skillfully Maguire brings the land of Oz to life, infusing it with culture and character and populating it with all sorts of interesting folk. There are depths to Oz that the movie only hints at, at least to Maguire's fertile imagination. It's an interesting excercise in world building, something that's remarkably difficult to do for even the best authors. That Maguire has created something new out of Baum's novels is all the more remarkable.

Where the book suffers the most is in the uneven pacing of its plot. An inordinate amount of time is spent on minor characters, and particularly on Elphaba's time at the girls academy. By the time she actually moves out west and sets up shop, you're wondering how the story can be brought to an appropriate close because it quickly becomes clear that there's a lot of story left to be told and too few pages to do it in. Sadly, this turns out to be the case--the ending feels rushed and the book unfinished, almost as if a publisher, tired of waiting for the book, simply demanded that Maguire finish the book or return his advance.

Perhaps the musical was better. Any thoughts?

Musings

Glad to see people are starting to come back and read this. That started me thinking about the point of a blog. All of the marketing literature/white papers that I have read have talked about how you can use your blog to make money (via selling adspace through Google's AdSense program) but you have to have A+ content and a committment to posting. Also, the conventional wisdom about the Internet is that bloggers are like a pack of rabid journalists with instant access to the hearts and minds of loyal readers. Apparently, we're the new creators of myth, rumor, and the occasional grain of truth that spreads around the 'Net in waves. And then you have my view, which is that blogging is really just a way of sharing your thoughts with whomever might be willing to listen, be they friend or stranger.

I don't know . . . what do you think? Why do you blog? Is it for fun? Profit? Both? And is it meeting your expectations?

For me, this has been a lot more work and anxiety than I ever expected, a great example of how a seemingly simple committment can balloon into something much larger than you ever imagined. Granted, my committment to the blog is largely internal--I'm not selling anything, and I have yet to break a legitimate news story. But something in me doesn't like starting something and not finishing it, especially since you, my readers, presumably want to hear what I have to say.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling nature of this post. Hope it sparked some thoughts in you, at least.