there's probably no God. christians OK with this.

so uh... the atheists are rocking British transportation getting you to think about how maybe, kinda, sorta, there might not be a God. it's a really compelling argument. "now stop worrying and enjoy your life" also appeals to nihilists, existentialists, hedonists, and skateboarders (the Enjoi website looks like an HRO knockoff, and that makes me giggle).

i think the campaign has wide appeal. apparently so much so that the Christians (namely the Methodists) are maybe, kinda, sorta okay with it. "The Methodist Church said it thanked Professor Dawkins for encouraging a "continued interest in God". Spirituality and discipleship officer Rev Jenny Ellis said: "This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life" (BBC NEWS).

while i think advertising Christianity is lame (and therefore i would have to rightfully extend the "lame" title to advertising atheism as well), i like how the Methodists chose to handle the PR of the situation. PR+! rather than casting eternal damnation on all people who so much as read the sign, like some folks might, they're like "cool. talking point." which is probably more than they're getting off of pro-christian signage. (no PR is bad PR?)

so maybe you should kinda sorta get to thinking about the deepest questions of life. if, yanno, you're maybe in Britain. i don't think it'd fly on this side of the pond.

cool toy du jour: Zoolit

you may be saying to yourself, with all this social media, where ever will i keep it? and you'd be right! how many times have we laboured over long lost profiles, things we no longer keep track of, shiny toys that got dusty (coughcough: Friendster, Buzznet, Mashable, PROpenMic, Plurk, and identi.ca are just some of the profiles i joined to ignore). how do you find the active ones and share those all in one easy place?

the answer: ZOOLIT.
incredibly simple. incredibly easy.

you want to know where i live on the internet? http://zoolit.com/thegirlriot and look no further. as i recall shit i actually use, i put it up there. don't know whether to judge me by a defunct Threadless account or by my Etsy feedback? wonder no more! every where i am ACTUALLY is there. how about you? send me your Zoolit stalkerbook in the comments. cheers!

good, bad, ugly: more places to be.

link haze!

THE GOOD:
Tyler Durden's 8 Rules of Innovation. seriously brilliant & fun way of saying the usual stuff. i love Brian Clark for writing this. give it a read, even if you have no idea what Fight Club is. and if you do, well, you shouldn't be talking about it. and if you're on that kick, seriously, check out this awesome Fight Club kinetic typography. here and here.

THE BAD:
when will hair care people get it through their heads. WASHING MY HAIR does NOT give me--and i doubt any other women--orgasms. not Herbal Essences, not VO5. so just stop already. i want to know what moron thought that picking it up for VO5 would somehow make it more true. or is THAT why you guys thinking we take forever in the shower?!

also, 4 cheerleaders just taught me, courtesy of HungryMan, that "fuck" stands for "fornicate under consent of the king." i did not know this. but you can know this. [turns out i'm not stupider than marketing cheerleaders. it's not true. see comments.] check out the cheerleaders' series, i'm referring to the ep called "f**k." verdict still out on the campaign, though. i mean, it works for men, and that's the target, so i guess it's good? hat tip to adrants.

THE UGLY:
apparently, in the election, it all comes down to Halloween masks, ever since Reagan. the tricky thing this time around? of course, as usual, it's all about Palin. how-to costumes are popping up all over the internet, with tips galore. don't forget the gun, the baby, and of course, the glasses. UPDATE! "The GOP tells her what to say... now you can too!" -- pa.lindro.me speech creator.

"quietly" pissing me off, Verizon.

Verizon has done the unthinkable. they've succeeding in pissing me off. mind you, i love(d?) Verizon. a devout Verizon advocate and recommender type. swear by Verizon's service in the NY area.

Dear Verizon,

Verizon, you suck right now. you suck for "quietly shutting down" sms txt confirmation from vzw to vzw customers.

i first noticed this september 18th and no one could tell me why i wasn't getting my little delivery notifications. and i certainly wasn't notified. nor asked--far be it.

don't you THINK that MAYBE if you're going to remove a feature that we're all used to having you MIGHT want to run that BY US?! or TELL me or something. i don't care if it saves you 1KB each way. we paid for that inclusion and now we're paying the same amount but get one less feature.

more over, there are unconfirmed rumours that it's so it can be a paid-for add-on feature. uh. why don't you just allow people who don't give a shit, of which there are quite a few, to opt-out? rather than removing it from those of us who care and are paying for it already?

how much more money is going to be wasted now that i have to ask if someone's received my txt? or do i sit in wait, wondering if i'm being ignored, or if it's a Verizon fuckup, or if their phone is off?

OKAY i know that sounds silly and teenager or something but i swear it's not. it's actually a big deal to a lot of us. especially my gen when half our lives are spent texting and half the benefit of being on Verizon is that all our friends are on Verizon so we know when we're talking to one another.

i heard that so many people complained that they're turning it back on October 1st. can anyone confirm or deny this? i'm trying to find out. i want my check marks back.

UPDATE: my Verizon rep, Cain (Kane?), tells me that delivery messages will NOT be returning October 1st. they WILL be phased out indefinitely in due course; apparently the phase out is 'on pause' right now. there is NO truth to the $1.99/mo rumour. this is what i'm told, anyway. i requested updates and made suggestions.

UPDATE 2 [next day]: 1: Cain/Kane, the service rep, just called me back. that's awesome in and of itself. yay customer service! to tell me that 2: Verizon WILL be giving SMS delivery confirmation messaging back as of tomorrow to the cancelled sectors. so many people complained that they decided 1KB wasn't worth it, i guess.

more facebook suckage. users? what?

FACEBOOK WAKE UP.

you are no longer about the end user.
it's becoming more and more evident as you slight your users.
and your users LOVE you. and your users want to HELP you.
but you are making it increasingly difficult.
yet another reason why: opening the gate to the walled garden.*
*i will address this further a little ways down. feel free to scroll to the star.

since yesterday alone, when the threat appeared, 120,974 more people joined the petition against the new facebook layout. and now there are even more groups. i was going to link to all of them, but there are too many. i'm over 20 groups, with thousands of members apiece, and i'm only at page 5 of the group search. my favourites thus far are "i miss the old me" and "i hate the [...] stalker layout."

you are clearly making it easier for advertisers to utilize facebook in the new layout. i also get that you're trying to "grow with your users" as the college age kids enter the job market--and that's cool, sort of. it's sleek, more organized, and trying to be more relevant. no argument there. the redesign was not a bad idea. i just feel like more PR could have been done surrounding users' concerns other than a blog post or two. users are feeling slighted in favour of The Business.

i already briefly talked about why i'm not keen on the redesign, but the other part is something ReadWriteWeb points out: "as Facebook becomes less of a place for them to hang out and more of a tool for networking in the business sense of the word, the cleaner design and additional controls make sense." Facebook isn't about business. it's about fun. did we lose that somewhere between when it started as a college networking site and now when it's trying to become LinkedIn?

because that's what marketers are interested in.
[and sure, that rocks for 'us' professionals, but if you USE Facebook, this is just lame.]

*and now Google is being allowed to search and index parts of Facebook. namely groups, discussions, wall posts, and events--you know, sites of interaction. i'm sure my alma mater will LOVE knowing when the next big kegger is going down--if they hadn't sorted it out by trolling the book already. not to mention if you ever wanted to NOT be a part of that ridiculous group you joined in high school, TOO BAD. you're internet-linked to it for life. CONGRATS!

WHERE ARE MY NEW PRIVACY FEATURES TO MATCH!?
you seem to be selling me a whole lot more than you're helping me. that's dangerous for you.

[sidenote: i already realize Google owns more of my life than anyone else short of the government; that's my choice using blogger, gmail, etc. i may not have a lot to lose through this index, but i'm betting a lot of the kids who use it will in the future unless everyone above shifts prerogatives about what the internet is and means to incoming generations. on principle i am against it.]

facebook is threatening me

IT WILL SOON BE. THE ONLY. FACEBOOK.
you will submit. you will use The New Layout. you will not Protest. all Complaints will be Futile. Press 3 to Assimilate Now.

facebook, srsly. wtf are you thinking?

never mind that i bloody HATE the new facebook to the assured point that if you make me convert to the new layout, i will use it less, and i'm sure i'm not alone in that. hullo. you don't pay us. we bring value to you by even being there. why alienate? regardless. this is beside the point. it's also simply tactically stupid.

if you want to make the new facebook layout the One True Facebook [cue "there can only be oooooone!"], why did you allow for this random period where users could opt-in and select to use the new Facebook or not? ok, maybe as a beta test it works, but then CALL IT A BETA TEST. not being up front about it not only makes users cranky, but leads us to believe that we do not HAVE to switch.

even when faced with the idea that we would have to surrender Ye Olde Facebooke, users petitioned and created groups to let Facebook know that we are not into the new layout. 691,269 members are actively against the new layout. but not only that, we gave shitloads of feedback about how to improve new Facebook to be equally useful so we wouldn't mind the switch. i haven't seen one thing really change. not one. this makes users who actively participate in creatively critical, useful ways feel inadequate and undervalued.

in this 20 minute extraordinarily long defense, Facebook says they're listening. i'm just not sure i buy it.
so what i mean to say is, the actual way it occurred gives a poor impression.

clearly, Facebook can operate with both layouts at once. why not keep this? if the new Fbook is SO wonderful, then naturally users will gravitate to it. i'm not saying to get RID of the new fbook; some people like it, that's cool. but why force users who aren't so keen? users could keep the layout they prefer. moreover, since the new Fbook resembles other sites (like FriendFeed, for example) than its own unique entity, it may also lead to further creativity--different skins would be fun.

in short, i'm not taking this threat lightly. and that's just what it feels like.
you aren't helping me connect--unless by that you mean, helping me connect forehead to monitor.

mad men, ogilvy: at least it's not 'shipping?

for those of you living under very tiny rocks this past week, i will give you a brief summary of the Mad Men AMC fiasco before proceeding. skip between the lines if you've followed.

---
1 - bored unknown assailants 'brand jack' characters from the tv show and portray them on twitter, interacting with one another and fans.
...see also: @Don_Draper, @Roger_Sterling, @Paul_Kinsey, et al.
2 - they develop following, and apparently popularity is bad for AMC, so they legally request the accounts to be suspended, of which the main characters' are. something something copyright.
3 - the awesome folks at Deep Focus convince AMC to stop being asshats. a 'gentle nudge' goes a long way--especially when done with a metal ruler.
4 - but not before the damage was done. the accounts are reinstated but the backlash from AMC's handling thrives.
---

moving right along.

there are a number of things that could have made this situation handled better, and other folks have said that better than i could, so i won't dally there. though i doubt they'll be paying the folks any time soon; that would mean condoning their behavior, and if they go against character grain, AMC will likely want to keep a distance. wtfever.

the greatest backlash, apart from the usual blogging wonders, actually comes from the fans who made the twitter accounts. for some interesting stuff, check out We Are Sterling Cooper [dot com]. they humbly request: "But please, don't treat us like criminals."

which led me to the question: where is the line?

there are fan fiction groups everywhere for everything (almost). i don't follow it, but i know there are ones for Harry Potter, Twilight, Star Trek, and any number of oddities that attract immersion in an 'other world.' (i think the 'other world' is most attractive--that a slip in time or place is more suggestive of immersion.)

these people rarely get sued, if at all, or asked to remove their written work, and often these fanfics greatly vary from the actual characters' intents. for example, 'shipping (a term i learned from @tokyohanna Amber @ Naked earlier this week). imagine Betty Draper and Joan Holloway as lovers. yeah, i didn't think so either--but people write it.

that's not to say you have to like it. this Mad Men twitter thing isn't for everyone. i'm not saying to run out and subscribe to it, proliferate or promote it, but i don't see how it's different from fanfic other than the medium. do you think the fact that it happened on twitter is really the reason for the uproar? twitter, where transparency is expected, even when writing twit-novellas?

~

what i find REALLY interesting, though, is this as of this morning: @David_Ogilvy. it's unverified as to whether or not this is actually him; he styles his name like the other mad men, and followed the mad men characters first. he is pitching @Don_Draper for a 'lunch meeting' concerning hiring.

Don insists he is happy at Sterling, as his character would. but the $5 million question: is Dave impressed by the tenacity of the twittering mad men and looking to hire the Man behind the Draper, OR, is even Dave a "character" and now the link between 1960s advertising fiction and post-millennial advertising fiction becoming a reality? bizarre to think about. which do you think?

branding makes you better in bed.

a funny facebook forward i got
---

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You go up to her and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed, what about it?"
That's Direct Marketing.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You approach her to get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed, what about it?"
That's Telemarketing.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. Your friend goes to her and says, "Hi, my friend over there is fantastic in bed, what about it?"
That's Advertising.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You get up, straighten your clothes, approach her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after it drops, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Public Relations.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. She comes over and says, "Hi, I hear you're fantastic in bed, what about it?"
That's the power of Branding!

new Greyhound murder ads, PETA.

first impression: poor form, i'd argue. found here. what do you think? good way to steal the hype and make people draw connections between humans and animals--or is it just too soon? (or just too stupid?)

negative points for one of my fave beers.

i only like a hand full of beers. here. i'll list them for you:
magic hat 9. blue moon. yuengling. guinness. corona. sapporo (w/sake). newcastle.
...yeah, i think that's it. (take note if you ever want to buy me one.)

unfortunately, america's oldest brewery apparently sucks at life. or at least at PR. in short, it will have me hesitant next time i have to decide between a blue moon and a yuengling, which is a hard choice i frequently have to make.

at length, apparently there was a truck "posing" as a yuengling deliverer; the truck did some hasty Manhattan driving maneuvers, resulting in a brawl of epic proportions. alright, i lie. a small spat in which this poor lad winds up punched and deemed a faggot (which, to say the least, makes Riot cranky).

yuengling then begged off, stating it wasn't one of their drivers, and no, they couldn't give any further information so that Brad could notify whomever company the employee did belong to. at the very least, this is a case for some hands-on twitter love that their PR folks should get on. at best, i'm filing this under a hardcore "wtf?"