I like to say that marketers generally wear blinders. It's a good analogy—in their zeal to create buzz for the thing that they're being paid to promote, they tend to ignore any factors that may prevent them from being as loud and shrill—or, in their opinion, effective—as possible. Things like sensitivity to appropriate context, respect for your audience's intelligence, and respect for shared spaces (physical or otherwise) are usually the first things to go.
That said, I have to agree with Patrick: we're lucky to have uncommonly commonsensical marketers at Tor. Emphasis on 'uncommonly'—having worked in advertising for some time before coming to the world of publishing, I'm well aware that they are the exception, not the rule.
Man, you sound like I feel. These days I can barely make a dent in my inbox; a source of unending anxiety, for there is Stuff I Don't Know About Happening Right Before My Eyes! The same thing is happening to me with RSS feeds. I wish I could stop time for a while every day and just deal with i/o.
Email seems to me like a highly inefficient way to communicate, and a holdover paradigm from pre-digital days. I wouldn't be surprised if it's replaced by something more organic or more attuned to how we work sometime in the future. That said, I can't think of what that would be.
Sometimes you need to regroup and start from scratch. And prioritize some leisure time, to recharge the ol' noggin. And ffs don't let the album be the weakest link. Your merry band of co-workers will still be here when you get back.
@skwid #159
well played. many lolz!
@elise #127
We're still waiting with you. It ain't over yet.
@ byron #86
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/11/remarks_of_president-elect_bar.php
Wow. Just... wow. I won't be still until inauguration day either, but still. This is an amazing moment.
Glad to hear everything is under control. Best wishes as always, and a speedy recovery for TNH!
@ Wesley #3,
Sometimes it's a legal thing. I remember when I worked in advertising, no body text in an ad for, say, pharmaceuticals, could be smaller than 8p, and no legal text could be set smaller than 6p, by law.
@ abi,
You're welcome. Bwahahahahaaaaa!
@ Wesley #3,
Yeah, Univers Ultra Thin Condensed is usually the go-to typeface for movie boilerplate. I've also seen it done in Helvetica Neue LT Ultra Light Condensed (my preference over the two, actually).
@ Josh Jasper #78
Unfortunately, that particular Google bomb has died out. However, might I direct you to the Santorum.
Damn, I forgot the ""'s in the link I posted. Little help, TNH? Sry, thx!
Aw yeah!!!
Congrats, PNH! Or rather, I guess THAWPNH is appropriate, even if it's a mouth(keyboard)ful. Bring that bad boy into the office, I'm sure I'm not the only one that wants to bask in the Ultraman-y goodness!
Oh, and Irene won a Chesley! I think a round of beers is in order!
@ Leah Miller #161:
I also love The Daily Show & Colbert Report. Since I don't have cable, I download it via BitTorrent (*gasp* I know, I know: piracy, yarr, whatever). I grab it via an rss feed, so that I have the previous night's episode waiting for me at home when I get in from work. If you're technically inclined so as to get it all set up, it works beautifully.
If you want to pay for it, or not go through the hassle of setting up the feed, there's always iTunes, too.
I've only had cable TV in my home once, for a period of about six months. After I caught myself re-arranging my home office so that I could work and watch it all the time (usually CNN or the History Channel, but still....), I realized that this was a problem. I got rid of the cable subscription. This was a approximately six years ago (yup, right around or after 9/11, come to think of it), and I haven't looked back since.
John Mark @137: Having to be proactive about your viewing choices is definitely the way to go. Much better signal-to-noise ratio, and nowadays with things like video podcasts, Netflix, and BT, combined with good ol' word of mouth, I discover great content to watch on TV. I just don't use the TV as a time-wasting device like I did before I got rid of cable: if I have something to watch, I watch it. If not, the TV's off (or in use by one of my hardcore gamer roomates O_o). Although I'll still have "where did my Saturday afternoon go?" moments sometimes, especially when I'm watching a complete TV series or something, it's certainly not the huge time vacuum it used to be, or that it seems to be for most people.
PurpleGirl, Avram, I stand corrected. A quick Wikipedia check for Giuliani (which I suppose I should have done before posting, but I was pretty confident in my memory) reveals that the primary mayoral elections were delayed two weeks, not the mayor's term. Although Rudy proposed to extend his term, he was not allowed to do so by the state senate. I guess I got the two events confused. Thanks for clearing that up.
Nangleator, exactly. To make matters worse, there's already some sort of faint precedent, in how Rudy Giulliani held on to the mayor's office for a few months after his term was up, in the wake of 9-11. October surprise indeed.
Bush has done irreparable harm to this country. . . (dons tin foil hat) and I still have my doubts as to whether he and Cheney will relinquish power in '09 (/tin foil hat).
Daniel, Tania-
Thanks for the help, and sorry for the dead links (and extra cheese!)
Apache is a classic eye-melter. If you want to completely o.d. on some cheese, you should also youtube David Hasselhoff's music videos for his covers of Hooked on a Feeling, Secret Agent Man, and his pimping of KITT, Get in My Car. Apparently, he's huge in Germany.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 3 |
| 2008 | 8 |
| 2007 | 9 |
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