Domestic Problems

Can somebody please reveal to me the secret behind folding a fitted sheet properly?

Impossible, I say.

Money Does Grow on Trees

I recently became a first-time homebuyer of a house with a cozy little townhouse complete with a mini-backyard. The innards of the house are coming along and shaping up nicely. A few odds and ends need doing, but overall, everything is settled.

The backyard, however, is a bit of a disaster. I've got some overgrown bushes and trees that take up too much space for the small area and other than that, just a spread of patchy grass covers the rest of the ground. Pretty basic and uninspiring, really.

As a nature lover, I relish the idea of planting a more engaging yard, but I have no real experience of ever doing this. It's somewhat intimidating when I go on different sites and/or listen to pros tell me the steps and upkeep of planting a garden.

But just when I start to think about ditching my goal of planting a garden, I start getting bombarded with catalogs in the mail. Gardening catalogs with bright, exciting flowers, luscious green plants, and eye-pleasing formations just so happen to find their way into my hands. And my brain.

All of a sudden I'm looking at these catalogs thinking-- yeah, I can do this. And the prices are reasonable, only a few bucks for a packet of seeds, a few more bucks for a delivered plant, and a few more bucks for the tools of maintaining a garden. These catalogs are marketing miracles! I'd be a fool not to start a garden, right?

Well, whether or not I forge ahead and build this backyard bonanza remains to be seen. But it's plain to see that money really does grow on trees... if you happen to be a plant catalog producer...

Men's Restroom Etiquette

I don't really have much else to say other than if you've got 10 minutes and need a good laugh, watch this little video...

Men's Restroom Etiquette

(Note: best viewed by males.)

Marketing vs. Car Accidents

Marketers spend millions (billions? trillions?) of dollars every year to essentially get your attention. I know this because I am personally responsible for a very tiny fraction of that amount spent.

And yet really all you need is a traffic accident to grab somebody's attention.

Every time I pass by an accident while on the road, people slow down to a crawl and gawk at what's going on on the side of the road. It's a "must-see" moment.

But put a fake accident in commercials like VW has tried doing recently, and people are totally repulsed. I don't know anybody who likes those ads... or most ads for that matter.

So how does a marketer get that traffic accident moment?

Sometimes it just happens by accident, I reckon.

All that planning and strategizing and money-spending goes completely ignored, while a quick, unplanned, violent mistake gets all the attention.

Drive safely.

A Sign of the Times: Video Game Injuries

I can still recall having small callouses on my thumbs from playing Sega too extensively for a couple of hours at a time back in the early 90s. No big deal, I could still function and move on with my life.

Now, reports are coming out that injuries and accidents are occurring due to the aggressive actions used to play Nintendo Wii games. Indeed, doctors are even making the news by providing warm-up tips in preparation of playing an intense game of bowling on your home TV. So what does all this mean? It means our health insurance rates will be going up again! Duh!

Kidding (or maybe I'm not!), but seriously, I think if kids are going to play video games, playing active games like the ones Wii provides is probably better than the sedentary games that I played in the days of yore. However, I still think this hurts the outdoor playing that kids miss these days. For instance, I frequently see kids of all ages roaming about the neighborhood. It's great that they're outside... but these kids just do not know how to play! They just wander around, occasionally wrestle, or bang a Wiffle Ball bat against a pole, or engage in something equally non-productive. I have not seen any kids
playing catch, organizing a game, or being creative in any way. And
this is similar behavior in kids all over.

Unfortunately, parents will look at the Wii as an exercise event for their children and be content with it. Until the Wii games are incorporated in a lifestyle of playing in a variety of different ways, indoors and outdoors, this should not be considered acceptable!

Put in another way, I'd rather my children skin their knee in a game of capture the flag than by straining their arm in Wii tennis.

Well, soon enough kids will be playing capture the flag on a Wii set, no doubt!

Sigh.