got shit?

So, I recently found another annoying habit of people that I have decided to add to my ever-increasing list of pet peeves. My latest one is definitely relevant in my current life phase as a past and future advertising professional. I call it the "got shit? phenomenon".

This is the whole "got something?" fad that came from my all-time favorite ad campaign and reason I decided to go into advertising.

You know what I'm talking about, right? Goodby, Silverstein and Partners' 1993 "Got Milk?" campaign. Not only did it make milk cool, but it also came in handy during an 8th grade US History quiz as well.

But for all its genius, it also managed to spawn the evil of all evils . . . copy-cat copy - the worst offending crime known to popular culture, and humanity as a whole, I think.

We've all born witness to it. The bumper sticker that reads: "got God?" (or its Marinite equivalent, "got Dog?") the t-shirt that says: "got adobo?" the homeless dude on the curb with a cardboard that reads: "got cash?", a hooker on the corner shouting: "got date?" . . . ok, you get it, right?

For crying outloud, I just saw another bumper sticker this morning on 101 that said: "got lobster?"

Seriously, folks . . . WTF? Can't you people come up with your own original tag-line for whatever shitty ass thing you're trying to promote or show that you love?

I mean, I'm sure the people at Goodby were probably flattered sixteen years ago when the phenomenon first appeared, maybe even stoked that their tag-line had become such a popular culture icon . . . the Paris Hilton of advertising copy. But come on, people . . . enough already! I'm sure that like the rest of us, they cringe every time a car passes by with some stupid bumper sticker that asks us if we're missing anything with two words and a question mark.

For the love of popular culture . . . and humankind, in general, I beg all of you to stop attempting to think you're being witty by using a tactic that was employed in the '90s to sell us all on the wonderful benefits of dairy.

Thus, in a language only these offenders of pop culture would understand I pose this question: "got originality?"

Ruminate on that for a few seconds . . . or while watching this and revert back to this posting next time you feel so inclined to deface your rear bumper or a 100% cotton t-shirt with such blasphemy.

i want to start a tribe of positive people . . . who's with me?

I recently finished reading an awesome book that has changed my way of thinking. It's almost safe to say that it's even changed my life a little. Not only is a book that I highly recommend everyone to read, but it's also a book I'll probably be passing a long to my friends. (And I'm sure the author would highly approve that move.)

Let me back it up and explain why this book has had such a great impact. (It's not a self-help book . . . well, not in the traditional sense, anyway.) I've been down and out a lot recently. Not quite depressed, as in can't get out of bed, and need to be heavily medicated or have a labotomy . . . but just bummed out. I blame it all on our economy because that's the root of my issue(s). You tend to see things differently when you get laid off and pushed out of your comfort zone. It makes you question things a lot of things - especially when you get sick and end up paying a $75 co-payment at the "free" clinic, or have to move in with family and are stuck working at Starbucks for minimum wage. Seriously, the only thing that gets me out of bed is the promise of good things to come.

That's where positive thinking comes in. Lots and lots of positive thinking. It can be draining at times and I know it's not really going to solve any major issues in the world, but I also know it's a great start.

So, back to this book. It's called "Tribes", by the way, and it's by Seth Godin. It's all about starting your own movement and creating change in a stagnant world just by leading and motivating people to follow your lead. Inspiring shit, indeed.

It made me realize that you should never really give up on ideas you've had in the past, but should instead try to focus more on the bigger picture. I've been thinking a lot about an idea I had a while back (like ten years ago) and it's been a dream of mine pretty much since I was a journalism student. But you know how dreams are . . . most of the time life gets in the way.

I've decided that enough time has passed and that now more than ever is a great time to revisit this dream. The original idea had been to create a website-ezine targeting 20-somethings who were stuck living at home with their parents because the whole "adultolescent" trend was so big back then. It was more of a guide or how-to survive in the real world. Unfortunately, most of my friends and I had no real idea about the "real world". We were still in college, working at coffee shops and living with our parents, of course. Hell, we were all pretty spoiled.

Ten years later . . . and most of my friends and I have had the chance to try out the "grown up" world, moving out of our parent's houses, finishing college, finding jobs, leasing apartments, buying cars, getting laid off, and coming full circle to move back in with the parental units. The point is that we've had a little more experience in life and have something to show for it, I guess.

(Although right now my greatest achievements, aside from going back for my Master's, is learning about Spanish wines and learning how to make soap.)

This brings me to my main point: in times of increased unemployment and economic downturn people become more resourceful and creative. (i.e. soap making, art made from recycled materials, home vegetable gardening, etc.) Most people also create movements of their own by starting their own non-profit organizations to help those in need. Activism also increases as people fight to create change. (We've already witnessed this with the Obama campaign.) We have some great tools available today to promote these great deeds. Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Myspace are great for this . . . the only problem is that there is so much other shit available on these sites that all the organizations and cool projects people are doing get pushed down by stupid quizzes and status updates from people that Twitter every five seconds about irrelevant things.

So, here's where my original idea gets tweaked a little. I want to create a forum specifically for people doing great things to make positive change in this world - whether building furniture out of recycled materials, or starting a non-profit that changes people's perceptions of sociological issue. I want to showcase the good deeds of the world and help people see that positive change can happen and that they can help create it!

Who's with me?

going native

I think I might have been a little too quick to underestimate the socio-anthropological effect that Twitter has had on our current culture. I'm a beast. I admit. Now, lets move on before I offend any more Tweeters.

I have a few friends who seems just as addicted to it, as I am to Facebook. They live and breathe it. There pro argument is that it saves them from having to send out instant messges or texts to multiple people. It's short and sweet.

Whatever their reasons for using it, I have to respect that . . . and observe. This is exactly what I plan to do. For several months, I have been blogging about random things such as my life and basically whatever tickles my fancy. And sadly, the only person who has read my blog is my mother. (Love ya mom!)

Not that I have anything earth shattering to say, or incredibly inciteful wisdom to imparte on the world, but I like sharing things with people and hoping they share back with me. Afterall, isn't that the whole point of blogging and being online?

Thus, I've decided to use Twitter and Facebook as the two forums in which to promote my blog in hopes that someone (other than my mother) will read it.

lameass216: picking my nose and playing halo on my xbox

Crack is whack . . . and so is Twitter. I had signed on to it months ago when the company had started to see what it was all about . . . and then had completely forgotten about it until a few weeks ago when I was messaged by an old friend.

This somehow began a whole frenzy of cyber-stalking people that went above and beyond creeper status. Suddenly I found myself not caring about what others were writing every five seconds, but about what I was going to write next to compete with their "oh-so-interesting" statuses.

Some poor choices included:

chocobean: getting fucking hammered at The Swinging Doooooooor!

Which was followed by:

chocobean: making out with EVERYONE in the bar!
like 15 seconds later!

Ok . . . and for the record, I didn't make out with any strangers that night. But I did manage to make an ass of myself to everyone on Twitter.

I soon came to find that I was "tweeting" like every minute on average whether on my computer or via cell phone web browser. I was addicted to letting everyone in cyber-world know what I was thinking or doing at that very second!

And then I took a breath and started reading other people's lame ass statuses.

That's when I realized that Twitter is NOTHING like Facebook. (My true addiction). These people were talking about geeked out techie shit that I could care less about. I wondered if they ran out of status update material if they would resort to talking about their bowel movements or how many times they managed to jerk off in those two seconds.

Plus, I missed my peeps actually commenting on my stuff (or the ability to comment on their stuff). That's the love right there. You can be on Twitter to stalk folks, or even write about yourself and I'll still respect you . . . but I'll love you even more if you're commenting on my statuses and links on Facebook.:-)

whopper of a virgin

So, ask anyone in advertising and they'll tell you that the Burger King account is the most creative and biggest account out there today. Personally, I hate the whole creative for this campaign because I find it incredibly sophomoric. It's like one of those fake commercials they do on Saturday Night Live . . . wait! Hold it. It is!

really?! wtf!

catching up

I love free stuff. Who doesn't? I still heart Pandora.com and it's free music-radio thing. But now I'm addicted to Fancast and Hulu. What are those, you may ask? Television. Yes, television on your computer. For free! Now, I can catch up on all the "Bones" episodes I've missed because I don't know what day it's on or "Medium" because it's on at the same time as "Trust Me." And best of all, right now I'm catching up on the Super Bowl commercials, without having to sit through the stupid football game and cheesy half-time show. Seriously, we all know the commercials are the best part.

And here are a few of my favorite ones:

hey, americanos don't have foam!

misadventures in grocery shopping

There is no chore I despise more than shopping for food. Give me a scum filled tub, a bacteria infested toilet bowl, let me dodge shady-looking dumpster divers while throwing out my trash - hell, I'd even prefer to clean a cat box than go to the supermarket on a weekend.

No matter how many lists, I write, I still always forget something. And then even if I go on a full stomach, I end up buying more than I need to. I was doing the Whole Foods thing for a while, but took a hiatus because of its urban name. I was obviously spending way more than any single person should ever spend on food.

Seriously, who needs pre-cleaned and chopped butternut squash? And a box of pomegranate seeds? Well, that's just lazy.

Having recently started Weight Watchers, I figured I'd go to a big-chain supermarket, to get some of the brand named goodies. Surely, that would be cheaper. What I found astonished me. Not only was my purchase $20 more than at Whole Foods, I bought nothing but processed non-organic foods that left me bloated and subsequently a pound heavier at weigh in that week.

Note to self: no more processed foods!

There is something to be said about the taste of air chilled chicken and grass-fed beef as opposed to their counterparts, frozen chicken and hormone induced beef which both have no flavor. The same goes for genetically engineered mutant tomatoes versus fresh-from-the-farm vine ripened ones.

And if you're thinking of telling me so, save it - Trader Joe's is no bueno. More processed frozen meals for lazy singles who end up spending way too much on frozen Ahi tuna steaks that will just make them sick. I'm speaking from experience, of course. I still end up spending much less than at the big box grocers like Walmart and FoodMaxx. Who needs that much food? So, here are the shopping tips I've come up with these last few years of trial and error:

1. Fresh is good. Doesn't have to be organic, if you're not into that -especially if you're worried about price. Think of it this way, the fresher it is, the more flavorful it is. That already means less salt and other seasonings needed.
2. 500 milligrams is the maximum sodium a person should ingest daily. Watch out for high sodium foods like canned soups and frozen meals that go above 250 mg.
3. Look for specials. I hate clipping coupons - but if I see something on sale that's similar to what I need I'll take that instead.
4. Ditto for private label brands (sorry, using fashion terminology). I always tend to go for Whole Food's 365 Brand as well as Target's brand. It's the same damn thing, probably even packaged by the same damn manufacturer.
5. 5.) Don't fall for BOGOs. Although these Buy One, Get One for half off items might sound like good deals, they're really not. It's just another way to get you to buy something you wouldn't normally purchase. Duh!
6. 6.) Don't go to a supermarket, or any market, drunk, stoned, tired, or hungry because you know you'll just want EVERYTHING. And I don't mean just a bag of Cheetos.
7. Unless you have a back problem, avoid the shopping cart. Stick to a basket. This way you only buy the things that fit in the cart. Plus, think of it as a good way to work your core and arm muscles.
8. 8.) Have a menu and a list planned out. This will help you get your shit together when you're in the store. If you can't decide what your menu for the whole week is just get staples and it will all come together.
9. Visualize your local market when you put this list together. A plan of attack usually works best. Know your battlefield and avoid the mines such as the candy and snack aisles. (Frozen foods too, for that matter.)I try to categorize my items by sections making a circle around the store. Think of it this way: all the staples such as breads, meats, dairy and produce can be found in the parameters of the market. The rest is all crap.
10. Keep it interesting. Shop more than once a month. Fresh is key. Hell, shop more than once a week at first, then you can cut it down to only once. I like to get all my staples once a week and make a few different items with them so that I'm never bored.

Happy shopping.