I had a hard time thinking up a title for this article, mostly because it’s philosophical rather than being practicle. I’ve identified a trend, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but I think it will change the way that companies deal with advertising and how they handle distributing information/propaganda. The last 5 years has brought about a radical change in when you get your information. If you think about technologies like Tivo (Personal Digital Video Recording) and now podcasting (downloading of MP3’s [or other audio formats] onto your computer using an RSS feed) you, the end consumer have control over when, where and how you consume the video or audio. This is not a new concept since books, newspapers and magazines have allowed for this to happen in the print world for ages.

I think this will prove to be a challenge for ‘traditional’ media like television and radio since they rely on advertisers (something that software can filter out) and since they have not adapted to the ‘e-consumer’ model. A smart move on their part would be to look for greater product placement within TV-shows for a PVR. Radio on the other hand is probably going to hurt from this shift since more control over songs/media means that people may dump regular radio programming for models like XM/Sirius which offer satellite radio channels with channels that have no commercials. A monthly user fee that affords station syndication fees is a model that many people are willing to live with. What makes RSS enclusures (which power podcasting) so powerful is that the internet allows for people to gather MP3 audio files, various video files and many other digital files while they’re away from their computer and then update any devices with content at their leisure.

You are in control of your content, and the time you consume it. This is a shift for the tranditional media outlets that I hope the react to pro-actively. If they respond in a reactive fashion in 5 years rather than beating the trends and doing something constructive now, it may be too late for many of the networks. While I expect that in 5 years only 40 or less percent of consumers will have the electronic equipment and know-how to achieve a completely autonomous media consumption habit it will surely effect the way advertisers choose to spend their money. Recently I heard that Sony was actually moving to spend more of their budget for video advertising at Wal-Mart, with their closed-circuit televisions that play ads 24-7, rather than spend the money on traditional television outlets [I cannot find the article that reported this, so please take this with the understanding that more research needs to be done].

As you consume media, please consider how you consume it, what you get in the way of advertisements and where your dollars go for entertainment. The trend is changing and I feel it will be an interesting next 5-10 years technologically.

[Thanks to Nick for getting me started on thinking about this].

So since we’ve moved away from Texas the search for outstanding Mexican food has taken us to various restaurants around the Denver metropolitan area. Tonight we went to one of the worst, if not the worst Mexican restaurants yet, 3 Margaritas. We arrived at approximately 5:30 ready to eat. We were seated promptly and then I went to the bathroom where I was presented with advertisements at the urinal for various male adult related services (including a ‘Hot women’ salon where apparently attractive women will cut your hair). When I got back to the table I looked at the menus and most everything looked ‘normal’ for a Mexican restaurant. When I ordered I ordered the Carne Azada, which is a pretty typical meal for me to order. Jessica got some sort of spinach quesadilla. Abby was ordered the toquitos.

After waiting slightly longer than I expected the plates arrived. Not just any plates but plates that looked like they had been under the heat lamp longer than expected as well. In fact the cheese had that ‘Hi, remember me from yesterday’ look to them, the beans were oozing into the ‘lettuce’ that was flumped onto the top of the plate and the rice, which had been carefully prepared sometime after Y2K sat there blandly holding the beans to their top, left side of the plate. The guacamole was strategically thwacked in the middle with the carne azada taking the right. It to had been contaminated by the rice, beans and ‘lettuce.’ You will not that I added single-quotes around ‘lettuce’ mostly because I’m assuming it was lettuce. It kind of looked like lettuce that had been under a heat lamp, and therefore wilted, or maybe some dried out cole-slaw – it tasted like warm lettuce when I tasted it.

The beans were bland, the rice was bland, the ‘lettuce’ was worse, the guacamole was great, but only in comparison to the poorness of everything else. The carne azada had been marinated for quite some time and so it’s flavor was intense. Unfortunately it tasted like it was being marinated for a beef jerky recipe. Given the condition of my plate I consider it hightly plausible that if the meat stays under the heat lamp long enough it actually dries out and turns into jerky. I can only assume that then it is shredded and placed into some other ‘shredded beef product.’ Alternately it may be sold as jerky in some stores.

In the end we just wanted to go home and cry in our beds but we couldn’t. You see one of the problems at this time was that we were at the mercy of the waiter who was busy doing something. OK, I don’t know that for sure, because it is possible he was doing nothing. No matter what he was doing he was not bringing us our bill. Finally, after bringing me my bill, which I was prepared to pay instantly he disappeared just in case I wanted to get out my calculator and double check the computer’s math. So my card sat in the plastic tray with the receipt (which proved the food was over priced) waiting for our server to collect it and then run the transaction…

Winter passed. Spring passed. I had another birthday. We had our second child, Eric Matthew. Abby got married and had my first grandchild. And then finally, after the waiter had surely committed identity theft and ordered mud flaps with the silver silhouette of a naked woman on them from Ebay, I got my card back with more paper proving I had paid to much for dinner. I signed the receipt and contemplated writing a lengthy disertation on food preparation or calling the attention of the manager. I decided not to since I had better things to do with my time than sit in that stinky restaurant for one more minute.

However, in the end we learned one important lesson: Chipotle may be all over the place but they know how to make a wicked burrito bowl! Even though it is made right in front of you, you get fresh food, not heat lamp warmed ‘schtuff.’

As a person who works in graphics design periodically I am amazed as I see logos in places that don’t communicate a good image. For example there is a broadband provider that has an employee in our apartment complex. This person drives a company van that has a really bad logo on the side. The logo for the company is a mesh between the ying-yang symbol (or yin-yang or yin-yang or the may ways I found it spelled on the web) and the head of a rhino. Yes, a beast not known for intelligence or anything overly amazing (other than a cool horn setup that must have made Louis Armstrong moderately jealous) is blended in with a symbol for balance between good an evil. While I’ve seen the good and evil of broadband I would in no way consider it representative of a balance of good and evil. I also don’t see rhinos as a great symbol of broadband… maybe I can be enlightened about how this symbolism works.

Furthermore how do rhinos and the balance between good and evil complement one another. I don’t think of rhinos as good or evil, more like a neutral party on the battlefield that when antagonized will probably rip you a new whole in the seat of your pants. And as far as the ying-yang goes I’d like to see good outweigh evil hands down. In fact, as a Christian I believe that good (God) will banish evil in the end. However, my theology aside, this logo doesn’t work for the product. It doesn’t say ‘technology’ it says ‘Eastern philosopy meats slow horny herbivores.’

Before I make fun of others let me defend my own logo’s design (just in case some of you are thinking, “Dude, you’re a hypocrate,” or, “I don’t say, ‘dude.'”) because it too is not particularly technology oriented. However, it does convey the Rocky mountain range (which I live in) and it does convery a pinnacle, which I live in, too. It also shows a peak which conveys quality in workmanship and design.

Logos should convey something or have some symbolism that shows continuity. Larger corporations are able to do market surveys on logos making sure that customers and clients understand the logo, but if you can’t afford survey work consider at least presenting the logo to as wide a group as possible that you come into contact with. Don’t ask, “Does this look good?” as the first question because looking good and being appropriate for your business are not the same thing. In fact the first question I would ask is, “What does this image make you think of?” If the words that the image brings are not words you want associated with your business then you’ll want to consider another logo. Also consider color which can mean different things in different cultures.

Lastly, consider other corporate logos that are not what you’d think of for logos:

• IBM
• Microsoft
• Amazon.com
• Dell

These logos are brands people recognize without a lot of extra swooshing, ‘globing’ or otherwise trendy emblems. Look at the modification of the simple text as a major part of the brand look. IBM is just text with lines through it (or text made from lines, depending on how you look at it). Microsoft, other than having a little corner out of the text is just text. Amazon’s simple ‘smile’ that is attached to the name really signifies what they’re after: customer satisfaction. Dell’s tilted ‘E’ in no way reduces readability but presents a different letter making the logo stick in your brain just a little better than ‘DELL’ would.

I am not so naive to think that the debates were useful for anything more than swaying the dumbed down masses who somehow have not been jaded by a co-worker, relative or commercial to date. However, when I read Top 10 Secrets They Don’t Want You to Know About the Debates I was even more dissappointed. Who lost during these ‘debates’? The American public. Bush and Kerry both win with the goofy contract that exists in the debates.

Bush stuttered. Kerry spun. Bush spun and Kerry shifted. Americans watched two candidates spew lies, garbage and verbal diarhea for 90 minutes. The best part of the television was the fact that it was not interrupted with commercials. Unless of course you consider the fact that it is one big commercial for the presidents. Since the ‘debate’ doesn’t follow a true debate format and since most Americans are not familiar with debate format (including myself, I’ve only been to a few debates) it really doesn’t surpise me that people accept it as legit.

I was really saddened by the ‘everyman’ and ‘everywoman’ interviews they had this morning on the ‘news.’ People were absolutely spineless and wishy-washy (Which is of course due to selective editing by the producsers of the shows, or the journalists doing the interviews). Not one person that I saw interviewed said anything about truth, asked questions about spinning and honesty, or asked for the debates to cover issues that are critical to this nation, not Iraq or North Korea! When Kerry ignores the religious implications of the middle east he shows his diplomatic ignorance and when Bush spits out the same old lines about going to war with Iraq (though I believe removing Saddam was a good idea – he is a wicked modern Stalin or Hitler) we get nothing new from the candidates and further the ignorance of the American citizen.

Can we please get a real debate or some real candidates?