Debanter

Seriously? Seriously.

CNN’s reporting that 9 out of 10 emails are spam these days. I can believe that; especially when I look at the 700 unread emails in my Gmail inbox…which doesn’t include the 308 sitting in the spam box. (And keep in mind that if they’ve been in the spam box for more than 30 days, they get deleted. Yikes.)

I’ll sift through them every once in a while; mass deleting all the junk and occasionally opening a newsletter from a couple months ago that gee…I actually signed up for. But by the time I get to it, I’m usually bored, no longer interested, or have even forgotten I agreed to recieve it in the first place. Information overload…

Besides the risk of missing a message from family or a friend (which has happened and I’ve felt awful for the delay…), this problem shrinks the potential gains of corresponding with a group of people through email. I’ve listened to seminars, read articles, studied “top tips” on the headlines, key words, features of what to do and not do when sending out a mass email. But that’s like taking a big gulp in an ocean. There’s no ‘right’ way, but there’s a LOT of wrong ways. That’s why if 30% of the emails sent get opened it’s considered a success…and if just 1% end up downloading what I’m offering…hey, I can’t complain.

That’s not the only place where spam bugs me.

I love letting bloggers who talk about MusicIP know that we’re listening. Posting a quick “thank you, the line is always open on our end” comment is something I take a great deal of pride in as part of my job. But then there’s the spam bots, who could easily crawl my email address (using [dot] instead of “.” and “[at]” instead of “@” ain’t exactly rocket science)…I know the blogger can see my email address anyway — I submit it with my comment. But if I don’t post it, no one else can see it…which means I’d be missing at least half the point.

Some believe laws and filters will not defeat spam.

It will
only end when people stop buying diet pills, herbal highs and sexual
performance enhancers, said Dave Rand, of Internet security firm Trend
Micro.

“The products they are selling by spam are exactly the
same products that they sold in the Middle Ages,” he said. “This really
is a human problem, not a computer problem.”

I dunno…from the ones that I can glean the subject from the first line in Gmail, without opening it, most of them are trying to convince me that I’ve won some fantastic prize or that if I juuuuuuuuust hand over my bank account information, some guy in a third world country will gimme millions. MILLIONS!

Posted in Marketing, MusicIP, Work | No Comments »

mmm…sugar.

From Coolz0r:

Here’s a nice example of communication for a sector that uses a product
that has been the target of many pressure groups. Sugar is and always
has been (and most likely always will be) the root of all evil in food
- next to fat. However, sugar isn’t bad. It’s not evil. Producing
products with sugar in it isn’t a crime. Sugar can be delicious, but
just like alcohol or cheese, you can use too much of it, and it’s only
at this point that it does more harm than good. So where does that
leave you, as a consumer of the substance?

And my favorite ad:

Posted in Food, For Laughs, Marketing | No Comments »

Hello, my name is…

Blind panic.

Painful, can’t breathe, blind panic to be more exact. While getting Harley’s leash and preparing to venture downstairs so the pup-lers could do his business I realized that my left hand felt naked. Eerily naked and my fingers weren’t fitting together properly. As my right hand grabbed the finger closest to my left pinkie I realized what was missing.

My ring.

After repeating “Ohmigod, Ohmigod, Ohmigod” more times than I care to admit, I picked through my computer bag, squeezed back into the overly stuffed closet that was holding a favorite sweater (yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m in Southern California wearing wool), and tried to hold back the tears.

And for some reason my teeth started to hurt. I have no idea why, and no particular reason for pointing that out, it just seemed odd and actually started regular breaths again as I marveled at how my molars could possibly be this upset by my loss.

Grabbing my keys and purse, I headed out the door and carefully scanned the hallway while retracing my steps to the car. All the while I was noticing perilous situations (It fell in the cranky between the 4th floor and the elevator, it fell through the railing into the courtyard, that annoying dog down the hall ate it…) where I would never see my ring again.

The key in the ignition, the car in reverse, I actually closed my eyes briefly , wincing as I pictured my ring now flattened on the cold hard garage cement. I was headed back to the office.

Then Adam called. “I found your ring…I figured you were probably pretty panicked, so I rechecked your backpack.”

Breathe in…Breathe out…“I’ll be home in a minute.”

It’s not the cost, and it’s not the stunning, sparkling simplicity that is my ring. One of three pieces of jewelery I really and truly care about and wear each and every day, in almost seven months that ring has found a home on my left hand…which feels empty and wrong when it’s not there.

But I’m just going to have to deal with that for a little bit…because tomorrow this baby’s going in to get resized.

Posted in Personal | 3 Comments »

Tired. Busy. Sick.

Almost a month later, I’ve got something to say again…not that I haven’t been busy — Hear Here has become an important part of my week and I’m excited to continue getting the ball rolling over there. Unfortunately, focusing on the company blog has been a big factor in my lack of attention over here. Each time I’d look at the little typepad button at the top of the page, I’d hesitate…then have something else to do.

Work has been steady…busy - a happy busy. Leading up to a big show in New York earlier this month was probably the busiest I’ve been in a while. It felt really good. It’s never hard for me to tell when I’m loving something or struggling. Loving it means I become obsessive compulsive about details and start early, sometimes early enough that even I’m admitting I might be jumping the gun…struggling involves a level of procrastination that has only gotten worse over the years (”that essay’s due at 3pm…so I could probably sleep til 7:00am, then get started…maybe I’ll figure out what to Google tonight, then I’ll be…ahem…ahead.”).

Then this last week I’ve just been sick. Gross, icky, run down, sleeping all day and watching an entire season of Lost in 36 hours, sick…

Then I got this new album. Another live concert of Stars (I can’t resist. that violin in the live version of Your Ex Lover is Dead gives me the most delightful chills), this time from Austin City Limits (the other was from Lollapalooza…as a sidenote, the only tracks I found to be worth it on this one were Going, Going Gone, Elevator Love Letter, Your Ex-Lover is Dead, and One More Night…the rest are a poor representation of the energy involved in a live Stars concert….can you tell I love this band yet?).

Anywhoo….

I look in the recently purchased section and saw this:

Explict? I own pretty much everything they’ve released and I hardly think of them…explicit.

Then I heard Torque say the f-word in one of his song intros…but he doesn’t say it EACH time, so why is EACH song labeled this way? Seems like a bit of overkill…

So far the same songs that I loved in the Lollopalooza live version are shining here too…but all together this live version is making me much happier than the last.

So there you go, I’m not sick anymore (mostly), not so tired and am still busy but I couldn’t resist (thank you, Stars). Hopefully this becomes a habit. Again. Sigh.

Posted in Family, Music, MusicIP, Personal, Work | 2 Comments »