And Here We Are...

Here we are again, and we're even in all the old, familiar places. Hmm. Maybe we should change our routine, add a little spice, no? Maybe not. Spice, after all, is different and foreign and exotic. I dont' really like exotic. I like my routine. Sure, I'm a little anal. I'll freely admit it.

Speaking of spices, Steph's trying to slowly convert me to liking curry. It's tough going, let me tell you. My palatte, although broad, isn't necessarily deep. I like a great variety of things, but only if they taste pretty much the same. That's why curry doesn't even register on my spice chart. It's not even in my spice galaxy. It's, well, different.

But you'll be happy to know that I am gradually developing a taste for, maybe even an appreciation of, curry. I'll actually eat it now, which is a far cry from how I used to react to it. Baby steps, friends; baby steps.

Not sure how I got on that topic. Oh yeah, a good segue. Hey, speaking of topics, you'll be happy to know that I don't have any sort of rant to give tonight. Oh, I have my opinions, there's no doubt about that. But I feel as though I'll stick to the less-controversial topics this evening, like curry and such. There's never been a curry war, as far as I'm aware. Nope, there isn't--I just googled it. And, as we all know, if Google doesn't have it, it must not be true. It used to be that we'd say, "Look it up on the internet." Now we've replaced that with, "Google it." It's far more catchy, I admit.

What brilliant marketing genius came up with that, anyway? How does one company become such a part of life that it becomes common vernacular? I don't know very many people (besides my mom, who is Pepsi's biggest fan) who go into a restaurant and order a "cola" or a "Pepsi"; no, you order a Coke. Even if the restaurant serves Pepsi. "Coke" has become synonymous with "Cola." And everyone understands what you're asking for. And years ago, you didn't go photocopy something, you "Xerox'd" it. I remember when I found out that Xerox was actually a company name--I was stunned. I had become so ingrained in calling the process by its trade name that I couldn't distinguish between the two. I tell you, brilliant.

I sometimes wish that I was a marketing guru. Then maybe companies would come to me with their stupid commercials before they put them on TV and wasted all of our valuable time. No, I won't go into anything specific (although my Timmy Ho's rant a few days ago got some good feedback), but man, is it just me, or are commercials getting dumber and dumber. Or maybe even dumb and dumberer. "Dumb." That's sure a fun word to type and look at. No, I'm not on drugs.

Okay, okay, I'll tell you which commercials I'm thinking of--car commercials!!!! "There's fast; there's scary-fast; and then there's remember-this-moment-as-long-as-you-live fast." Okay, let's think about what we're saying here. "Hey kids, want to drive a fast car? Don't worry about being responsible! Just go out and speed! Go faster than scary-fast! In fact, go as darned fast as you'd like! Nobody's going to get hurt." But here's the thing: people are getting hurt because we're sending irresponsible messages to our children (The Fast and the Furious--and all your useless, un-asked-for sequels--I'm looking at you). And as much as I'm a big proponent of taking responsibility for your own actions, I think that car companies can't advertise like that and then claim complete innocence when someone drives one of their cars fast and someone gets hurt or dies. Talk about ducking the blame.

The other one that really gets me is this one now that Suzuki has put on about the wolfboys. Okay, what? At least with the other ones I could decipher the message. These ones are just downright weird. Note to self: don't come up with marketing campaigns when using hallucinogenic drugs. Right. Strange.

You might rightly wonder, do I come into these blog postings with a plan on what to write? Nope. I just sit down and hope something hits me. Don't really proof-read them, either, which explains my occasional spelling mistakes. So far, so good. I didn't plan to go on this long tonight, because I'm tired and I want to hit the sack. But alas, here it is 11:00 again, and I'm still here. One day I'll learn my lesson.

But hey, I appreciate the business, even if it's not really a "business" by any traditional definition of the word. But thanks for coming by, anyway. And I'll see you back here again tomorrow.