The St. Louis Cardinals finally won a world series (after I started paying attention to baseball). The first year that I payed attention to baseball was 1987. My family was a Cardinal family and fortunately the local off network tv station carried most of the games that season. I watched a lot of them. Then when the Cards lost in 7 to the Twins, I was crushed.
But now that they have another title under their belt, I can feel a little better about that '87 series. Sure, we lost. Sure, I cried (literally). But we have finally won with me watching.
And Johann watching. Sorta.
In the evenings, I have been giving Ariel a break and holding Johann. He sleeps a good portion of the evening on my shoulder and I do my best to entertain him when he's awake. Therefor, I watched a lot of the playoffs with him right there. That was kinda nice.
Tonight, not only did the Cardinals win for the first time in forever, but Johann also did a couple interesting things.
I have a habit of drumming with my hands. Johann started to mimic me by slapping his hand down on mine. So I stopped drumming and started saying "Give me five". He would slap my hand several times. It was pretty neat. I don't think he understood that I was communicating instructions with my voice but I can pretend.
The other thing that he did was honk my nose. He reached up to my face and instead of grabbing my glasses (which is what I expected), he squeezed my nose. It took me a little bit to understand what he was doing but when I said "Beep" he laughed and squeezed my nose again. I think he has seen Frances honk my nose. He thought it was great fun.
Basically, it was an eventful night.
mwz
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Advertisement
I've had a couple thoughts about television advertisements lately that I thought I would share.
The first one occurred to me while I was watching a show on a VHS tape (thanks Mom and Dad for taping Battlestar Galactica for me). I was fast-forwarding through the commercials when I thought about Tivos. Even though the "commercial skip" features have been extracted, you can still fast forward through the commercials. I suspect this will become quite common (until the collapse of broadcast TV).
When a commercial is being fast-forwarded, you can still see some of it. It might still catch your eye but since the product may only appear periodically in the spot, you are not really being advertised to very affectively.
But if the add had a logo or a watermark stuck in the same spot throughout the spot on the screen (or even slowly moving across the bottom) the viewer would still know what the product was for and are still being advertised to.
I think that's a beautiful idea. Especially since people with Tivos are usually a good demographic to advertise to.
The second advertising thought I had was while watching Monday night football. It was the Bears/Cardinals game where the Cardinals blew a big lead and then missed the game winning field goal. I didn't really have a dog in the hunt except that I know a lot of Bears fans.
But that got me thinking, a lot of fans were really disappointed by the outcome of that game. It can feel pretty bad after blowing a game. Does any company really want their product presented to people when they are in such a poor state of mind?
I don't know if sporting events are really a good place to advertise. It's one thing if you can tie your product to the sport experience, like beer and brats with football. But for anything else it's a question. Half of the audience is going to be unhappy, sometimes extremely so.
I wonder if there has been a study on the negative effects of sports ads on a product.
mwz
The first one occurred to me while I was watching a show on a VHS tape (thanks Mom and Dad for taping Battlestar Galactica for me). I was fast-forwarding through the commercials when I thought about Tivos. Even though the "commercial skip" features have been extracted, you can still fast forward through the commercials. I suspect this will become quite common (until the collapse of broadcast TV).
When a commercial is being fast-forwarded, you can still see some of it. It might still catch your eye but since the product may only appear periodically in the spot, you are not really being advertised to very affectively.
But if the add had a logo or a watermark stuck in the same spot throughout the spot on the screen (or even slowly moving across the bottom) the viewer would still know what the product was for and are still being advertised to.
I think that's a beautiful idea. Especially since people with Tivos are usually a good demographic to advertise to.
The second advertising thought I had was while watching Monday night football. It was the Bears/Cardinals game where the Cardinals blew a big lead and then missed the game winning field goal. I didn't really have a dog in the hunt except that I know a lot of Bears fans.
But that got me thinking, a lot of fans were really disappointed by the outcome of that game. It can feel pretty bad after blowing a game. Does any company really want their product presented to people when they are in such a poor state of mind?
I don't know if sporting events are really a good place to advertise. It's one thing if you can tie your product to the sport experience, like beer and brats with football. But for anything else it's a question. Half of the audience is going to be unhappy, sometimes extremely so.
I wonder if there has been a study on the negative effects of sports ads on a product.
mwz
Monday, October 09, 2006
Circle
I had the following conversation with Frances today.
Frances: I want circle.
Me: What?
Frances: I want circle.
Me: What kind of circle.
Frances: A round circle. (Waving her arm in a circle.)
Me: ...
It turned out she wanted a top that she and Arial trace sometimes to make circles.
mwz
Frances: I want circle.
Me: What?
Frances: I want circle.
Me: What kind of circle.
Frances: A round circle. (Waving her arm in a circle.)
Me: ...
It turned out she wanted a top that she and Arial trace sometimes to make circles.
mwz
Sitting (Kid's news 4 of 4)
Johann can sit up now on his own well enough that we don't have to put pillows around him anymore. He has even started to occasionally prefer sitting on the ground over being held.
He can sit and play with toys which is so very nice. Although, he does have this amazing ability to get things that should be well out of his reach. If there is paper on the floor in his vicinity, he will get it into his mouth. The force is strong with him.
mwz
He can sit and play with toys which is so very nice. Although, he does have this amazing ability to get things that should be well out of his reach. If there is paper on the floor in his vicinity, he will get it into his mouth. The force is strong with him.
mwz
Tea Party (Kid's news 3 of 4)
We left Frances with her grandma some this weekend. While we were gone, she worked out how to have a tea party.
According to Grandma, Frances spread out a small blanket in the living room and set out a serving tray and some small cups on her own. Grandma asked her if she was having a picnic and if they should invite some friends. Together they gathered up a couple bears, a frog and doll.
Presumably they played with them but I'm going to skip to what I saw.
When we got back, Frances went over to the blanket with me and set up the bears that had fallen over and found the frog again. Then she set the cups in front of each one. With each guest she lifted their cup to their mouth so they could drink, then pretended to pick up something from the tray and put it in their mouths.
I was impressed. That was full on imagination.
mwz
According to Grandma, Frances spread out a small blanket in the living room and set out a serving tray and some small cups on her own. Grandma asked her if she was having a picnic and if they should invite some friends. Together they gathered up a couple bears, a frog and doll.
Presumably they played with them but I'm going to skip to what I saw.
When we got back, Frances went over to the blanket with me and set up the bears that had fallen over and found the frog again. Then she set the cups in front of each one. With each guest she lifted their cup to their mouth so they could drink, then pretended to pick up something from the tray and put it in their mouths.
I was impressed. That was full on imagination.
mwz
Knock Knock (Kid's news 2 of 4)
Two weeks ago, Frances learned a knock knock jokes. It goes:
Knock Knock (who's there?)
Orange (Orange who?)
Hehe
The way she says "orange" is adorable. It sounds like "oinge". And the "hehe" is her laughing at the joke, sort of. She doesn't normally say "hehe" when she is really laughing. It's her way of punctuating the joke.
mwz
Knock Knock (who's there?)
Orange (Orange who?)
Hehe
The way she says "orange" is adorable. It sounds like "oinge". And the "hehe" is her laughing at the joke, sort of. She doesn't normally say "hehe" when she is really laughing. It's her way of punctuating the joke.
mwz
Daddy (Kid's news 1 of 4)
This weekend Johann has started saying "Dada" and sometimes "Daddy". He says it like Frances says it so I don't know if he's copying her or if that's just how our kids sound. He doesn't repeat the "da" sound much (like "dadadada"). It's like he knows that there are only two in the word.
mwz
mwz
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)