Marketing Pet Peeves, Part 2

Someone please tell me what makes these "HD."



This is what I was talking about before. If we go by the definition of the actual buzz word, the only "HD glasses" would be prescription glasses for someone with something other than 20\20 vision. Let's face it; these are Ambervision, repackaged.

Neat Pictures

The Devil I Knew

My boss just got a new job with the company, and will soon not be my boss anymore. I'm not sure how to take it just yet. That is all.

Marketing Pet Peeves

I've recently discovered a marketing pet peeve of mine; the incorrect use of buzz words. For example, the term "HD" or "High Definition" is really popular now. Home Depot has their line of "HD paint", which from what I can tell is just really vibrant colors. In the 80's, it was the word "turbo." Turbo is meant to be defined as a turbine, or in cars usually refers to a turbo charger that increases the output of an engine. I can't tell you how many things I remember as a kid that had the word "turbo" stamped on it; that had nothing to do with a turbo. Even today, TurboTax uses this incorrectly.

Another thing, that isn't really the misuse of a buzzword, but is along the same lines is the popular trend of putting a lowercase "i" followed by a capital letter at the beginning of a product name. Apple was the first to introduce this with the iMac, and later the iPod and iPhone. But there are many companies out there milking the success of Apple, and in my eyes, degrading their own products for lack of originality.

Another similar thing I've noticed is local commercials. You know; the commercials made locally, that are usually only broadcast on your local stations. They are usually for local, mom and pop stores. I've noticed; at least in my local viewing area, that these commercials often copy a popular national commercial gimmick. And you can almost tell how proud the producers of local commercials are at making something hip and popular; although they are usually a year or more past the end of the popularity of the real commercials. Not to mention, they seem to apply it very sloppily to their own commercial; as if it were a bad after thought. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble coming up with an example for this one; but I know I've seen them.

It's Cold Outside

OK, it's the coldest day this season so far, and I was unprepared. I have been consistently wearing a heavy coat, gloves, and a warm hat while outdoors for the past several weeks; but not today. Let me give a run down of how unprepared I was.

1) last December I bought a Dodge Challenger. I found out pretty quickly one of the design flaws. Don't get me wrong; I love the car, but let's face it; every car has design flaws. The Challenger door frame doesn't go over the top of the window; similar to how convertible windows are, but it's not a convertible. Because of this, to create a good seal, the window automatically lowers a quarter of an inch each time you open the door, and raises back up when you close it. The flaw comes in when ice prevents the window from lowering. You can pull the door open, but it won't close. In the past, I've used a hair dryer, but it always takes too long. I need to buy some deicer, but I haven't. Now usually, I can avoid this problem by backing into our driveway the night before. The sun usually melts the ice on that side of the car by the time I have to leave for work. Today, it's overcast, and really cold, so that wouldn't have helped. So, today's solution, since I didn't have time to deal with it, was to drive my old truck.

2) My warm hat was accidentally left in the Challenger yesterday, so no warm hat for today.

3) I'm usually very hot natured; I get hot really easily. Because of this, I haven't bothered to get my heater fixed in my truck. It broke several years ago, and it just didn't seem worth it to bother. However, my air conditioner went out this summer, and I had it fixed. While it was in the shop, I asked them to diagnose the heater problem. It wasn't worth the $900 they wanted to fix it; especially when it's not a daily driver. Today it would have been nice to have.

4) I was so concerned with remembering to take the trash out, and my routine was off due to the cold. Ironically (I think) this caused me to forget to put my warm coat and gloves on. I do have a sweater and a sports jacket on, but it was still a long, cold drive.

5) My truck is almost out of gas. I didn't have time to stop on the way to work, but I will have to on the way home; in the dark, on a day that is not supposed to get above freezing. If I'm smart, I'll remember to take a lunch break away from work, and get gas then. At least it will still be daylight, and maybe a little warmer than if I wait until sundown.

meh

I've been kind of down lately. It's a combination of several things. One, I've been sick for a week and a half, which always makes things bleak. Two, the Minister of Music at our church announced his resignation, with possible plans to leave the church as well; and it feels like half the church is going with him; and I don't do well with change, especially in areas that I thought would always stay the same. And for the first time in my life I feel old. Not OLD old, just... well you know how people feel the need to accomplish things important in their life? I feel like I have a lot of life ahead of me, but that I'm not accomplishing anything. And I feel like if I was going to accomplish anything, that I should have started before now; because most things take years to accomplish. And I'm tired. My health insurance through my company gives us incentives every year to take a health assessment test. It asks several questions about your lifestyle, the last time you had a physical, and what the results were, etc. I got a 29 out of 100. I'm high risk for depression, stroke, and heart disease. I'm at moderate risk for diabetes, and the one good thing that I have is good teeth. Keep in mind that I'm also being treated for high bp and cholesterol, but the health assessment thingy doesn't know that because all it asked was for the values at my last physical. The values were good because I'm taking medication for it. So that 29 should probably be a lot lower. I'm surprised it didn't ask me if I had a pulse after I was finished.