Wayfaring Stranger

I saw a Visa commercial on MNF. A guy gets a promo/spam letter from Visa saying you can win a refund for all your 2004 Visa purchases. Guy says to wife (that's an assumption) "Too bad you didn't buy that much stuff this year". Flashback to all her purchases and her squirreling/hiding them away (aka. violation of marriage commitment).

Then the "fine print" speak says "no purchase necessary" ... Arrrugh? Wait a minute, no purchase necessary to get a refund on purchases?

I know that companies cannot require a purchase for promos, else it becomes a lottery and/or gambling and that is not permitted in some states. So "no purchase necessary" is a legal disclaimer. But if the promo is to get refunds for "purchases" and there is a no "purchase" necessary disclaimer; does that not exclude people w/o "purchases"? Which really means you must have "purchases" to qualify? Which means this is a lottery/gambling? Which is illegal?

Does anybody else find this confusing (or as we say in Texas "kornfusing")? It ranks up there with "send in your box tops to enter (no purchase necessary)"!!

Is anybody else feed up with all the "run of the mill" commercial cr@p we are supposed to swallow? Does anybody else watch TV w/ their brain engaged? I could cite a million examples ... but I won't.

Next time you watch a commercial (especially from car manufacturers), count the number of "shots". I.e. you see a car, you see a guy, you see a family, you see them driving on the road, etc... Any angle shift (right side, left side, close up, full shot, etc...); count it! If the number is over ~8, you are being spammed w/o knowing it! And most commercials go WAY over 8. A rush of images is a way to overload you and make you "swallow" the pitch. There are many other techniques, but this one is easy to spot. Maybe I should do a post on marketing techniques ... maybe I will, but it will take a lot of time.

I've counted over 20 shots in a 30 second commercial ... you figure out the average shot duration.

Another easy spotting technique is to mute the TV and see if a familiar commercial is half as interesting as before ... most likely it is not. Try it.

You may think, ease up fella. Maybe I should. But all commercials have 1 goal, make you dissatisfied with what you have and so create a "need" for the "product". And the advertising firm doesn't really care what the "product" is, they only care about creating a "need" in you. Because more than likely you already have something that fulfills the need just fine, but to sell you something you must need their product MORE ... that's when they get paid.

Sorry for the rant, but keep your eyes, ears, and brains turned ON.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 9:54 PM | 2 Comments »   

Just gotta laugh ... and ask "Why the steering wheel?"

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 3:24 PM | 2 Comments »   

On Sunday morning I volunteer at my church's preschool. It's a lot of fun, you get to play on the playground, sing songs, watch a puppet show, and eat snacks; what could be better? :)) The kids in my room are 5 years old and they're great kids.

Sunday afternoon I hooked up with a buddy from FBCE and hit the motorcycle show at the Dallas Convention Center (free parking for m/c riders). The show was great, tons of motorcycles. They had a ball of steel show

Very cool. They did this one stunt I'd not seen before. With 3 cycles running horizontally in the ball, one of them would drop down and speed up and pass the guy in front of him and then merge back into traffic. With such a small ball there's only a few feet and a split second between bikes, I thought this stunt showed their precision driving the best.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 7:16 PM | 0 Comments »   

My first week co teacher Christy sent me this email she received from one of the Compass staff:

Some of the students from your class keep coming to our events. Some guys: Sasha, Sasha and Max are very open. We have a Bible study group for the seekers together and they come every time. They said that they are seeking God and that we have to persuade them that the Bible is the truth. Both Sasha and Sasha said that they were baptized one of them last year and the other one when he was 12 in the orthodox church by their one will. It's not common for the guys. And they said that they did it to be closer to God. They ask many questions about the differences between our church and the orthodox. They ask qustions about suffering, sicknesses, many other things. Please pray for them, that they won't be stolen by the enemy, but God would protect them and draw them to Him.
...
Our new believers are awesome. Do you remember that 2 girls accepted Christ during English classes? They are growing so fast and it gives me so much joy.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 10:09 AM | 0 Comments »   

I have been messing around w/some blog templates and I'd like your feedback. The skins are listed below, look at them and see what you think. Then, to the right, cast your vote for your favorite or vote to leave it as is.

• Skin1: "Lord of the Rings -- The Shire"
• Skin2: "Paradise Blue"
• Skin2a: "Paradise Blue" (clear panels)
• Skin3: Ocean
• Skin3a: Ocean (swapped columns)
• Skin4: PDA (vertical columns)

Note: each example has identical HTML, including the swapped and vertical column skins. Only the CSS was changed.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 2:35 PM | 0 Comments »   

Stevie Ray was just about the best guitartist I've ever heard. Many called him Jimi Hendrix's heir.

Sadly Stevie Ray was taken from us on August 27, 1990 in a helicopter accident.

Miss ya Stevie.

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 11:15 AM | 0 Comments »   

Ok, so the election is BIG news right now but all I have to say is "good riddance DST"!

I was reading up on daylight savings time and found that some meddling "morning person" lawmaker was riding out in the countryside at ~7-8 am during the summer and saw a house with the shudders closed and the lights off. He asked his driver why this was and the driver said it wasn't time for work yet. I.e. they were not up yet ... GASP! Asleep with the sun up?!? That must be fixed. So the lawmaker returned to Parliment (it was in England I think) and started lobbying for daylight savings time.

If I'm a night person and I see people going to bed too early, why can't I start night savings time or NST? Force everybody to sleep in 1 hour so that they can stay up till Letterman. Sounds like a good idea to me!

If you would like to contribute to my election fund, you can send me money via paypal :-P

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 10:18 AM | 2 Comments »