- (https://b-ark.ca/ksKKwg)
I’m riding in the 2025 Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer, raising money for the Alberta Cancer Foundation, and have so far raised $2,744, exceeding my $2,500 goal and surpassing my 2024 effort!
Help me by donating here
And remember, by donating you earn a chance to win a pair of hand knitted socks!
How To Market To Women
So, I just saw a new Coffeemate ad campaign, and I’ve just discovered what ad agencies now, apparently, believe speaks to women. In the past, the advertising industry has used all kinds of things for marketing products to women: hot men, hot women (who, presumably, the female audience wants to be like), normal women who appear to be “in charge” (remember all those commercials for cleaning products containing extremely competant, MILF-like women who, clearly, are happier using product X?), images of happy families getting along well because they enjoy product Y. Well, apparently the advertising world has discovered the next big thing: gay men.
Yes, you read that right: gay men.
Now, granted, this has been somewhat evident for a while. Flamboyantly gay men have become very popular on female-oriented programs, particularly fashion-related TV, celebrity television, and so forth. But this new Coffeemate commercial? This is a new one for me. It features two very gay dudes in a coffee house with a very confident, MILF-like woman interviewing them, asking them about how incredibly awesome Coffeemate is. These gay men then go on to describe, in very flamboyant terms (the use of the word “fabulous” being favoured) how incredibly lovely and delicious this product is.
After seeing the commercial, I’ve been left feeling incredibly conflicted. On the one hand, if it wasn’t evident before, it’s pretty clear now that homosexuality has hit the mainstream in a big way, and as such, this commercial is a sort of victory. OTOH, flamboyantly gay men have now, apparently, become (extremely transparent) marketing vehicles for selling lifestyle products to women, something I find offensive for some reason. Then again, maybe I’m just being overly sensitive and should relax and sit down with a nice vanilla coffee… mmmm… that texture, so smooth and velvety… just fabulous…
Palm T|X 2 - The Replacement
The sequel has arrived. We were passing by a Future Shop downtown, and we decided to stop in, and lo and behold, they got in new stock! So I decided to take the plunge once more. I hope I don’t live to regret this.
OTOH, this time I bought the extended warrantee. Of course, normally, these things are scams, and primarily act as just a great way to pump up the sales dude’s commission. But, in this case, particularly given my first experience, it seemed worth the money. Of course, if I decide enough is enough, I just threw $60 out the window. Then again, if things go south in 6 months, it’ll all be worth it (the warrantee is for a rather ample 2 years).
‘course, the real irony in all this is that, just today, I discovered PocketMod. It’s been raved about again and again elsewhere, so I won’t get too deep into it, but it basically lets you make small, customizable 8-page booklets, which can contain anything from calendars to to-do lists to music staffs, and are intended to act as little organizers/notebooks/what-have-you. Which, of course, is exactly what my Palm is for. :) Oh well, a PocketMod or two is still useful for other things, and I’ll put my more ‘mission critical’ stuff on paper, rather than dedicating the information solely to my Palm (eg, important contact information, etc).
Snow Day!
Finally finally, winter has arrived. Sure, we’ve had cold weather, but without snow, it just ain’t the same. Then, in the last 24 hours, we get something like 10 to 14 centimeters!
Of course, that much snow certainly screws up the city infrastructure for a while, and so, given that the buses were running around 30 minutes late, Lenore and I decided to declare and Snow Day and “work” from home. :) ‘course, we did this with the expectation that many of our other co-workers would forgo the commute and do the same.
Well, we were wrong. Apparently we work with people who are far more dedicated to their jobs than I realized. Or they love sitting in traffic for hours just to say they did. Regardless, Team TK ended up being the only ones absent from work. Thanks a lot, guys!
Enough About The Palm, Already!
So I returned my Palm and got my cash back. I was planning to get it replaced at the store, but unfortunately they didn’t have any in stock, which is, apparently, the normal state of things (I’ve returned to FS and BB, since, and still no TXs in stock). Given all this trouble, part of me is wondering if I should bother replacing it…
Unfortunately, just the day before my Palm died, I bought myself a car charge for the thing… a frickin’ $50 car charger (I coulda swore the tag on the shelf said $29.99). Moreover, like an ass, I threw out the packaging and receipt, meaning I can’t return it. So, I figure, trying another TX is probably worth $50. OTOH, if I have trouble again, well… Palm can just kiss my lily white
. On a completely unrelated note, as I sit here typing away, Seventh Heaven is on TV. Now, those who know me have heard this, but I really think it needs to be in writing: I firmly believe that Seventh Heaven is, hands down, the worst television ever made, in the entire history of civilization. I challenge anyone, anyone at all, to come up with a counter example. Good luck! You’ll need it.