What I'll Miss Most

Hey there, kiddies.

I've had a lot of extra time to think lately. My drive to work, while a much further distance than it was previously, takes about the same amount of time, only now I get to drive most all of it on the interstate, as opposed to before when I had to take surface streets the whole way there. Much slower. Too many lights. And now, too much construction. The point is, now I can space out and just drive a fairly empty road without having to stop every seven seconds. During that time I've figured out two things. One, Smiley's show is actually funnier than Bob & Tom, though overall they both kinda suck. The other, I figured out what I'll miss the most about my old job.

I hadn't thought much about the subject before. I just didn't pop into my head. But as I drove I started to break down the various elements of the job that I actually enjoyed. These elements were few, to be sure. The job itself was actually really shitty, but there were some high points. Please note that I am NOT including people in this list. Yes, I liked most of the people I worked with in Indy. The people I couldn't stand where, oddly enough, the people I was told that I would not be able to stand before I started the job. Amazing how that worked out.

Anyway, excluding people, I realized what I'll miss the most. I really liked the parking. Sure it cost $10 a week, but it was covered (no ice scraping or 2000 degree car) and I could park there anytime I was downtown, which came in pretty handy during football season. That was pretty cool. Next, I miss my iPhone. I still have the phone, as I had to buy it myself because the company I worked for would only buy them for "certain" people. Nice. If I hadn't bought it myself, I would have been stuck with a three year old Blackberry. It sucked. But the iPhone was friggin' awesome. I love that thing. Next, I liked the money. It wasn't a lot, and we were all actually way underpaid for the demands placed upon us. But that's the way it goes when the firm you work for is failing. Finally, I enjoyed MacBook Pro they gave me. I liked having a laptop, espcially one with the pop of a MBP. That's pretty much it. Literally every other aspect of the job was a nightmare.

Here's what I realized next. I'll someday be making much more money on my current career path than I ever would at my old job. I had pretty much reached the last level I could (or, more accurately, would want to) reach, and since raises were being all but eliminated, I wasn't going to be bringing in any more scratch. And since I still have my iPhone, I can always get the service myself, so that's not a big deal. And MBP's can be purchased at your nearest Apple Store. So in the end, the only thing that I miss about my old job it the parking.

Parking.

Yep.

Goals

Goal the first: To add a new post this weekend. Hopefully on Saturday.

Still Around

Hey there, kiddies.

Sorry I haven't posted for a bit, but I've actually gotten a gig. It's weird, I didn't think I'd ever work in retail. It took some deep soul searching, to be honest. I thought about it for a while, and I realized that I used to really like working in at restaurants, but I really didn't like cooking food. Weird, I know. But the rest of it was rather fun. All the running around, always having things to do, blah blah blah. So this was almost an obvious move for me. I'm a bit more glad that things at my last job worked out the way they did. I may not have gotten this opportunity if I was still wasting my time at the other place.

So, to recap, I'm working now, but I'll still keep posting.

More On Ads

I think my favorite new stupid is the Microsoft ad with the semi-retarded redheaded chick looking for a laptop. Before I get started, I'd like to point out that I am a major proponent of ladies with red hair being prominently displayed on TV. As far as I'm concerned, the networks should cast nothing but hot redheads in every series they produce. Redheads are awesome. This is a fact. And since this is TV we're talking about, I know that the particular chick in this PC ad is an actress, and is not actually responsible for the bucket of bullshit dropping from her otherwise lovely mouth. So nothing I say from here on out should be misconstrued as an attack on this actress and her perty, perty hair. All references to her will be made toward her character, the aforementioned semi-retarded redheaded chick looking for a laptop.

So, the commercial starts with this idiot looking for a computer, specifically a laptop. Her requirements are that it be under $1000, "speed," a 17" display, and a comfortable keyboard. So right off the bat we know that this gal isn't going to MIT. The under $1000 part is fine. The "speed" request is about as vague as a statement could possibly be. There are a multitude of factors that go into the "speed" of a computer. And she wants a comfortable keyboard. I don't even know what to think about that. I would actually think more women would be pissed about this statement as it makes women look like the idiot consumers that advertisers want them to be. Wanting a comfortable keyboard is akin to picking a car because it has nice cupholders. It's pretty irrelevant to the operation of the product. Armed with these "needs," she ventures off into a world she's not ready for. And, perhaps, the world is not yet ready for the likes of her. But that's a topic for another day. Let's move on.

Strawberry Shortcake's first stop is to the Apple Store, where she is dismayed to learn that Apple laptops tend to cost a few scheckles (the only model under $1000 is the $999 MacBook, but it has a meer 13" display). So that immediatley kills her dream of ever owning a Mac laptop. Next she pops over to Best Buy or someplace like that, where magiclly she finds a HP model that gives her everthing she could ever want in a laptop. Of couse, when she gets home and tries to actually use the bleeding thing she will find out very quickly that the extra couple hundred bucks she saved by going PC was so not worth it. But that's not the point of the ad. The ad has nothing to do with the fact that she just bought a crappy laptop with an even crappier operting system. The point of the ad is that the pretty (but dumb as a stick) girl found the pretty (but equally as dumb) laptop of her dreams.

Why the hell aren't more women pissed off about commercials? I mean, I'm cheesed off just because I'm technically-minded. I'd be hella pissed if I were a girl and ads were being tossed out onto the air portraying women (hot though they may be) as being this gd vapid and uninformed.

The morals of the story? 1) Macs are way better than PCs. 2) Redheaded chicks are hot. Thank you for your time.

Main Street / Wall Street

For some reason I've been noticing commercials more often. It's possible that I've been watching too much live television so I can't TiVo through the ads like I normally do. Anyway, in watching these ads I've picked up on a few things, one of them being the proliferation of the the Wall Street vs Main Street tags. Since the economy has been in the shitter I've been hearing this a LOT. I'm at the point where I become angry when I hear it. Maybe the first one or two ad writers who though this quasi-catchphrase was clever (it's not, BYW, and it's actually quite old), but it seems like every gd writer who can't think of anything better to crap out onto the airwaves has decided to glam onto this horrifically fucked-out tag. STOP IT!!! BE ORIGINAL!!! I don't want to here about any damn streets, or fat cats (whatever the fuck those are supposed to be), or any other shit like that. It's bad enough I'm forced to endure your crappy, unentertaining ads, but at least pretend to try to make a decent ad.

That said, I will give props to Sony. Last night I saw an old Sony VCR ad from, like, 1982. The tag on the ad was about recycling old commercials as part of a whole green promotion. That was clever. Much love.