work

An early Festivus list

Seth, , , 1 Comment

Since I’m all about airing grievances here, there and everywhere, I thought I’d do what I do best: bitch in a bulleted list.

  1. The fact that my kids (and, therefore, myself) are aging.

    2. I just had a birthday (where I vented my spleen), Owen is repeating the last word of every sentence we utter and Raelyn asked about the origins of man the other. No kidding.

    It went like this:

    Rae: Mom & Dad?
    Us: Yes.
    Rae: How did the first person get born?
    Us: [Reverent silence while we waited for her to finish her thought]
    Rae: I mean, if people come out of Mommies’ tummies then where did the first people come from?

    I won’t recount the entire exchange, but Jennifer hit the highlights of the Judeo-Christian Creationism versus the Agnostic/Atheist Evolution arguments and ended with this flourish:

    “Dad & I feel strongly that people evolved over many thousands of years, but you’ll have to decide for yourself how things happened when you get older.”

    Can I just say, amid the doom-n-gloom, how much I LOVE my wife. I could only be happier had she mentioned Pastafarianism/The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

  2. The fact that intelligent people see problems and do nothing to solve them.

    3. If you still follow me on Twitter or Facebook, bless you. I’m dealing with a ton of lunacy/idiocy and I’m not nearly as level-headed as I should be.

    Suffice it to say I wish more people read Hugh MacLeod: Quality Isn’t Job One. Being Totally Fucking Amazing Is Job One.

    Hanging on the cube wall now.

  3. The fact that I can’t truly hate Anheiser Busch.

    4. Not me, not MNB, not The Beer Philosopher.

    At least I’m not alone.

    Must. Find. New. Whipping. Boy.

That is all.

There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. (as tweeted)

Piping up about the Pike

Seth, , , , , 1 Comment

Continuing my series on eggcorns and malapropisms in meetings (previous installment: “flushing out” versus “fleshing out”), I bring you the “down the pipe” versus “down the pike” debate.

I’m definitely in the “pike” camp, as I’d always heard of things “coming down the pike” even if I didn’t really internally the full meaning. I think I’d always assumed it meant turnpike and not the fish or the poleaxe, but who knows.

Maybe I’m just too trusting of institutionalized linguistics and didn’t question the knowledge. Either way I picked right correctly.

Here are my “sources”. See for yourself:

The Eggcorns Database
Absolute Write

Of course, even those sites still have discussion about “pipe” as not only being valid, but also a meaningful and equal modernization. Think of “close the vest” becoming “close to the chest”. Both convey the same meaning, one is just more “classic” and original.

Here are some other discussions on the topic.

Pike == Turnpike and/or 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair reference
Pipe == 20th century plumbing and/or the internet

Until next time, I’ll be working on more posts “coming down the pike”. Or is it “pipe”?

Back to work

Seth, 1 Comment

Being away for a week on vacation is bad enough, but then they expect you to come back in on Monday morning and jump right back in to the fray? Oh, and Raelyn started Kindergarten today (pics & video soon), so I’ve been up since 5:45.

Any more bitching? No? On to blogging:

The best way to combat the stress (both real and repetitive-stress-injuries related to keyboard disuse) is to watch a video. In this case a clever YouTube video, The Process, that satirizes the interaction of Marketing/Advertising clients and their agency.

I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been woefully ensconced within both camps, though my work now is adjunct and more visceral (more on that later). I’d also be lying if I failed to mention the fact that I was in tears by the end. Joy or pain; you decide.

Now that the laughter is out of the way, I wanted to bring folks up-to-speed on some of my professional projects, both ongoing and upcoming.

First, if you’re on Facebook and you watch TBS or TNT, please become a fan of our programming. Appropriate linkage below:

My Boys
The Bill Engvall Show
Tyler Perry’s House of Payne
The Closer
Saving Grace

Second, I’ve been doing a bunch of professional research. Turns out I get a ton of email on Mondays and most are related to word-of-mouth and social network marketing.

Here are the highlights:

I’ve also joined a Digital Word-of-Mouth community on LinkedIn, so my work day has been pretty link-riffic.

Hope your Monday is as social as mine.

Sticky keyboards

Seth, , , , , 1 Comment

Minds out of the gutter, internets. Ready? OK.

Yesterday I had a little mishap with a bottle of Odwalla Serious Focus and now I’m paying the price. Spill on keyboard two days ago equals no action in space bar today.

That last sentence alone took five minutes to type.

Productivity: dwindling. Thumb pain: throbbing.

Ok, maybe I’m the one with the gutter mind. 😉

Anyhow, the new Odwalla flavors are quite tasty. A co-worker even asked me about my favorite, which happens to be the previously-blogged Pomegranate Limeade.

This person is now a fan of Naked Juice but I remain steadfast to Odwalla, mostly in the morning (I guess I represent one of their “expanding usage occasions”). Afternoon is tea time and Snapple, after all.

Today it was SuperFood which smells gross, tastes OK, felt good and probably makes me seem like a pretentious douchebag. Such is the life of a pretentious douchebag in denial. Don’t believe me? Ask my moleskine notebook or my titanium frames.

Anyhow, Odwalla juices are good but should not be used as a keyboard lubricant. I feel like I’m typing in quicksand.

Humpday! (There I/we go again!)