I went to the 22nd Annual Reynolds High School sports banquet Monday evening in lieu of my father. My dad is presently full of mucus from trimming the English Ivy adorning the front of our abode. This is my sister’s senior year in high school and she was a member of the regional champion varsity field hockey team. Not bad for a mere goalie. The food wasn’t bad; I just wish I got a second slice of the lemon cake. It was touching to see the tribute ceremony for Matthew Gfeller who died after a brain injury at the start of the season.
I was studying abroad when my sister told me of Matthew’s death and I could sense how it affected her through Skype conversations and e-mails. Senior year is often made out to be the best year of your pre-adult life and the loss of Matthew as well as our close family friend, Cathy Skoog did little to diminish the bittersweetness of 2008. I only wish I had been around to comfort my family during the four months of my absence.
I am happy to say that I finished working on a short story I started before exams. I had the skeleton nearly completed but I couldn’t muster up a satisfactory ending. I fleshed out the story and will upload it as soon as I pick it apart and edit it. In the meantime I am making some great progress with my headlines for VCU. Whether they pick them apart or accept me I feel like I have made progress from where I was a year ago.
I have an interview for a summer internship at Wild Fire Ideas, a Winston-Salem ad agency on Thursday. If I manage to impress this will be my third internship. I have already stated that making $0 is fine by me if I am happy (I can sell crack or something).
I have completed Stay Close and I will be uploading the review shortly. My next book is the high school favorite Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I never read the book but it apparently shares many themes of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
I am planning to sell my Nintendo Wii this summer. I could use some cash and if anyone is in the market for a used system feel free to contact me. Otherwise I will post some eBay links.
Memorial weekend is upon us and I hope everyone manages to watch Christian Bale kick some Terminator ass. Part of me hopes that the success of this movie could save Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The rational old man inside of me knows that this is impossible. We are dealing with Fox.
Cheers all! Jump through a sprinkler on your front lawn or wear a sundress. Just make sure that whatever you do avoid wearing your Buddhist swastika t-shirt at all airports and bus stations this weekend.
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The Nintendo DS. The hand held system has sold over 30 million units in North America alone with three major revisions since its winter 2004 release (Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/). The DS is a big deal – much more so than even the colossal Wii (24 sold million in North America). So when, an established series on both Nintendo consoles suddenly finds its competition trying to elbow in on some of the ever flowing green it is easy to push the “lawsuit” button and call it a day.
Not Majesco. The Japanese/American video game publisher has become famous for cutting spending and creating profitable budget titles. Cooking Mama is a title wherein users stir, fry, saute and boil their way through mini-games designed to simulate actual cooking. Think Operation without the dying patient.
Activision/Blizzard recently stole the title from Electronic Arts (EA) as the largest video game publisher in the known universe. The two companies are known for publishing hits for both consoles and PC such as the Tony Hawk Skateboarding series, World of Warcraft and now the Guitar Hero series. So when, Activision announced Science Papa the other day there were more than a few people crying foul. Not only does the game share a similar title, but the description of the game sounds identical.
“With Science Papa, we’re taking real-world elements of science and giving players the chance to interact with them in safe and creative ways,” said David Oxford, Activision Publishing. “While the focus here is clearly family fun, the game can stimulate interest and discussion about science.”
- Promotional illustration for the upcoming “Science Papa” game.
What’s the best way to respond to such a blatant IP infringement? Write PR in the voice of your titular hero “Cooking Mama” ’splaining the history between your character and your competition. Yep, twisted creative PR releases will earn brownie points (maybe Cooking Mama whipped some up?). So what exactly did the release say?
“So you want some dirt on “Science Papa” to splash on your site? I’ll shovel it. We dated briefly (when he had much better hair). And now he clearly wants a piece of the best-selling pie by associating himself with an incredibly successful, and I’ll emphasize, happily married, woman. Frankly, he never appreciated my cooking and I grew weary of his tedious “experiments.” You want real mind-bending science, go figure out how to make Toulouse Cassoulet for your next dinner party of 20 and let me know how it goes, Papa.
Mama’s still got some spunk left in her. The lesson learned here is that when your competition attempts to drive sales through similarity take the moral high road and explain how they were and always have been the whore. Works like a charm.
Source: Cooking Mama Dishes Dirt on Science Papa and Activision Introduces Science Papa, No Relation
So this week has been fun thus far. I dusted off my Pioneer amplifier and MCS 90-watt speakers to listen to my now fairly exhaustive vinyl collection. I think I get to star in my own chapter of Stuff White People Like at this point as I am now a walking stereotype. I haven’t been doing as much pleasure reading as I had hoped, due to my writing of headlines for ad school and the string of temp jobs that have been coming my way. There is nothing like waking up and writing whilst listening to Dire Straits.
For instance, I drove out to Mocksville, NC today to work as a cashier at their Goodwill store on Yadkinville Rd. Mocksville has a Goodwill, you ask? Yes, it is thriving with some of the most colorful people I have met since Barcelona. One gentleman apparently comes every day and buys at least a box full of books. He also doesn’t ever read these books. I really hope I am like that guy when I grow older than 35. Another woman makes sure that she never misses new additions to the lawn/garden statues that filter in periodically. Part of me felt like I was in the movie Adventureland but I didn’t mind it so much – at least until A-Ha blared over the radio. Then I felt like I was 22 in the 1980s.
So I just started watching Lost. Last night I watched five episodes if you count the first two pilot episodes as two separate parts. I’m pretty much addicted (right after I up my Netflix account to two-at-a-time from one). Anyway, I hope that someday I get to Season 5 or 6 (it does have an ending, right?).
I guess on my actual job/internship frontier I have an interview at Wild Fire lined up for next Thursday. One more internship would be incredible. Last summer I made $0 but I had two fantastic internships. I wouldn’t mind doing it all over again. To be around intelligent, creative folks, well I know that is what butters my bagel.
I hope to have a book review for Libby Cataldi’s Stay Close up shortly. I am almost done. Thus far the story of her son’s battle with addiction reminds me a whole lot of Eric Clapton’s autobiography he put out a couple years ago. Well, without the Patty Boyd or the Jimi Hendrix. Anyway, passionate reading.
A new study conducted Forrester Research found that women are finally warming up to technologies called “laptops,” “video games” and “digital cameras.” The study unearthed a ton of relevant information about female purchasing behavior such as the fact that single women prefer laptops to desktop computers (duh). The most interesting part of the survey is that out of the 1000 men and women polled both sexes scored near equally when questioned over the likelihood of purchasing “console and hand held video games” and “digital cameras.”
I think I am most excited about my grandchildren able to live in a world where a female is just as likely to kick a male’s ass at Mario Kart regularly. I am frightened at the prospect of more game-related weddings. Eww.
Sources: [Original Study] and [Engadget Article]
