Library Books
I went to the library today to return some books, and of course I’m physically incapable of walking out of a library without checking something out, so I came away with “No Exit and Three Other Plays” by Sartre and “Galahad at Blandings” by P.G. Wodehouse.
Rather like mixing alcohol and caffeine, isn’t it?
Personal | Comment (0)Non-Round Coins?
Why do coins have to be round? I’m guessing that it was easier to make round coins back in the day, but now it’d be easy enough to make them any shape. Maybe it’s the mighty vending machine lobby that’s keeping them round.
Let’s have some square coins, or triangular, or half-moons. (Wouldn’t it be cool if, for instance, a quarter were half of a 50-cent piece?)
Does any country have non-round coins?
Musing | Comment (0)Christmas Tonight
I get to see Christmas tonight!
It’s only been our customary 2 weeks, but it feels like ages.
Personal | Comment (0)Crazy Day
Man, it’s been a crazy day.
I got up at 6 in the morning to take a train out to a client meeting in Connecticut. The client was having a researcher in to present the results of some studies they’d done. So four hours in presentations there.
At the same time as the presentations, though, I needed to coordinate the final details of a market research project that I was working on–I had hoped to get it done last night, but some little problems arose. That needed to be finalized by 11 this morning, so I kept ducking out of the presentation to make or take phone calls. Astonishingly enough, I managed to coordinate everything, and the study launched on time.
So after all of the presentations were over, I took a one-hour train back to the city, where pretty much a full day’s work was waiting for me. I couldn’t stay late, though, because I had seven people coming over to my place this evening to play Cranium.
So I did as much as I could, e-mailed the files to my home address, came home, took a quick nap, and then played Cranium for a few hours. Now I’m just finishing up the work from earlier today before I can finally go to sleep. Thank goodness most days aren’t like this.
Work | Comment (0)Where do Bad Ads Come From?
I helped with some focus groups today, testing concepts for an upcoming ad for one of our clients. There were three groups. We showed each group the same five storyboarded TV ads. It was amazing, the disparity in taste–each group picked a different ad as the one they liked the best, and an ad that was hated by one group was very often loved by another one.
So when you’re watching TV, and you see a really bad ad, and you ask yourself, “How on earth did that ad even make it to air?”, it was probably because the people who thought like you were in one group, but the client ended up listening to the other group.
Work | Comment (0)“They Can’t Take That Away from Me”
You know that song–by Gershwin, I think–”They Can’t Take That Away from Me”? Anyone else wonder who the “they” is, and why they want to take those things away from her in the first place?
I imagine some sinister cabal…”You see that woman? We’re going to take the way her lover wears his hat! And the way he sings off-key! Then we’ll go for the big coup–we’ll steal the way he sips his tea! It’s worth millions on the black market!”
Attempted humor | Comment (0)Where I’ve Been
Below is my map of all the US states I’ve visited. Now, technically it’s incomplete, as I drove across the country with my parents once in high school. But I’m not counting states I just drove through–these are just the states where I can distinctly remember doing something interesting.
create your own personalized map of the USA
Travel | Comment (0)