August 3, 2008
Hugo's Restaurant Men's Room 8.3.08, Sherman Oaks, CA
It’s really sad how quaint and old-timey this sign reads today. Common decency? Placed above State Law as though this would appeal to some sense of civic duty? You gotta hand it to Lynch Sign Co., bless their hearts, for printing this appeal to the great unwashed.
I have to imagine there was a meeting about this at Lynch where it was decided, after research showed 90% of people are not persuaded by law in private situations, that if people could hear their grandfather’s voice inside their heads saying “For the love of God, don’t you have a shred of common decency in you?” they might scrub up.
I’d like to believe we’re not regressing in this regard as human beings. Most days, I am greeted by friendly, well-intentioned people. Then again, I don’t live in Afghanistan. No, I’m lucky enough to live in a first-world country where we can sometimes depend on old-timey, quaint notions like common decency in our daily lives.
One area I think even we capitalists might be slipping though is commerce. I believe there is a dysfunctional relationship between brands and consumers today. It has evolved into this over the ages but at its core, there is a symbiotic dependence so obvious it boggles the mind that it’s gotten this bad.
Everyone who works at an “evil corporation” is a consumer of something else. And yet this “us against them” theme rules on both sides. We have to do something about this, and it’s not just about convenience. Yelling at your cable company is one thing, but healing these wounds when it comes to dealing with your health care provider or school or other privatized human necessity requires a greater sense of common decency.
I’m working with some friends to help repair this relationship. It’s called Trustworthy and I’ll be blogging more about it soon.
July 22, 2008
Moblogging’s been around for years, and I guess I could use Safari, but I’m hoping the new native WordPress app will make it easier. No linking, but I can post pics and text.
Took forever to figure out how to publish, but thanks to benton yetman on friendfeed, I think I got it. Here goes…
July 21, 2008
Okay, so Whole Foods announced today that they’ve been racking up followers on Twitter. That’s a good start. More brands should, I think, if the intention is to participate in a real dialogue with their customers like Zappos has so successsfully.
But where Whole Foods gets it wrong, is by immediately starting an incentive program for people to tweet about Whole Foods. “Sound like fun?” Well no, it sounds like you’re showing your true colors and the only reason you’re here (Twitter, social media space) is to sell TO me instead of listening to what I have to say, pro or con.
Two other, more minor notes:
1) They’re using the infamous Fail Whale in an icon to represent Twitter (I bet Twitter’s not happy being represented by the graphic used when they’re down), and…
2) The 5 “comments” to the post read way too cheery and on message to be real.
July 13, 2008
Lazy Brain is a theory/concept I came up with years ago after witnessing my father-in-law interact with his family.
He would misspeak out of sheer laziness, mispronouncing a well-known name or movie title and someone in the family would jump to his aid by correcting him or finishing his sentence.
Later, alone with my wife, I would tell her that the family was enabling his Lazy Brain and perpetuating the behavior. And that they were doing him a huge disservice, keeping him from exercising his brain.
Flash-forward to the last few years when Lazy Brain has taken on a reverse-meaning for the practice of not letting outside resources help when the inevitable brainfart occurs.
It usually happens with a song, a movie, an actors name or the name of an acquaintance. And the Internet age has made it even easier to look it up. The act of thinking hard, sometimes stopping what we’re doing, until we get it has become a weird ritual in our new family. One that I hope will - like using your non-dominant hand for brushing your teeth - stave off Alzheimers for at least a little while.
I’ve been trying to remember the name of a band after hearing an old song in a Budweiser spot for three weeks now. I could just go look at my CD collection, but I’m determined to dig it out of my Lazy Brain.
We all keep this information deep within our brains. We don’t forget it. We just lose the will (or think we lose the ability) to go find it. I believe that the more we stop and dig deep for it, the easier it will be to get the next one. And even if we never reach photographic memory, we might just get a little smarter by forcing our Lazy Brains to be a little less so.
July 10, 2008
Fun day for iPhone owners. Kinda like opening one present on xmas eve. I don’t know who leaked the update that was due tomorrow, but for those of us who are keeping our old and obsolete doorstop phones, it’s a smart move to keep us happy while we see all those shiny new iPhones being bandied around tomorrow.
So far I’ve only downloaded the free apps, but even then I’m impressed. The Jott for iPhone takes what I’ve been missing with the iPhone - namely voicenotes - and ratchets it up with transcriptions in text to use with other list features. My only worry here is that my next million-dollar idea will be on the Jott grid somewhere… hmm.
The next thing I’ve noticed is that the web works faster (pre 3G, mind you) within the apps than it does in the Safari browser. Makes perfect sense because all the heavy graphics and formatting are now local and it only needs to fetch data. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that Twitterific will win this round against Hahlo and Socialthing! until the latter two get apps available. Plus, Twitterific has raised the bar with some features in the app. Very nice.
If this was orchestrated by Apple (and I can’t believe it wasn’t) to keep old customers happy, mission accomplished. I know I’ll be satisfied with my new apps while watching the frenzy tomorrow.
July 4, 2008
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Now if we can just do something about that “Creator” part, we might be on to something! How about:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their very existence with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Yes. Yes, I like that a lot better.
June 24, 2008
Congressman John Culberson of Texas has discovered Qik streaming video and he’s hell bent on giving us a firsthand look inside the offices and hallways of Capitol Hill. My two worlds have converged and I’m a pig in shit watching John’s videos.
Tip of the Hat to Robert Scoble for shining the light on Culberson and the other “Twittering Congressman,” Tim Ryan of Ohio. Scoble spells out how technology is changing the world in DC.
June 23, 2008
Mystery solved! I live near and grew up in Hollywood, CA. So according to this article in the L.A. Times, it’s no wonder I don’t believe in god. Hell, I market movies for a living. I’m part of the “corrupting influence”..!
The larger point of the Pew survey - that 92% of all Americans part - is the true mystery. I wish there was someone who could put it all in perspective…
