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Game Over

A majority of yesterday I ran around all day acquiring paper samples for projects and running errands before my trip to New Orleans. I worked on homework from 3-10pm and it was an all around long day. Around 11 pm I was burning archive CDs of my portfolio. I was in the middle of backing up my homework that I had worked on all day when my (laptop) computer stops. I figure it's normal freezing and I reboot. Well when I reboot a very discomforting ticking sound starts. Think of a metronome, that's the sound my computer was making.

Well I start to get a little antsy as my laptop now sounds like a time bomb. I call Brandon in my room, as he was conveniently going to stay the night. He sits down, looks at my computer and goes, "Ummm... That's not good." He's working on my laptop and diagnosing while I'm digging through my Computer coverage plans. My laptop coverage expired May 7, 2007.

Meanwhile, Brandon is going to town with my computer, honestly I'll never understand how he can understand computers so well. He tried everything he could. The laptop rejected all of the rebooting disks. He even had me try erasing the hard-drive. The computer froze, clicked, and breathed it's last. Brandon says he can fix it no problem, it's just going to cost me a new hard-drive around $150. If I take it to Apple, they'll charge me triple that for diagnosing and shipping it out. I figure I'll let Brandon fix it as I trust him and pray that this works.

-The big things I've lost-
my homework. I've been up since 8 re-doing it.
the art programs I use constantly. Now i need to find someone to go swipe a copy from.
some personal artwork.

The best news, it's fixable. I've lost everything but my computer should run again. Also, I got my master portfolio backed up before it crashed. I intend to burn a few more copies of my master portfolio and send them off to various people for safe-keeping in case anything happens to my apartment. I don't want to re-do 3 years of work. So that's the news. I'll keep you posted.

Advertising Trivia

Most research projects I have to complete are fairly boring. History of asbestos flooring, the affects of “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso on society and other winning topics have flooded my past. I recently got a pretty good research topic, Extreme Ideas in advertising. I’ll hit a few highlights.

1840
“The Greatest Show on Earth.”
Of course I’m talking about P.T. Barnum’s circus. Sure the circus was great, but the big deal is that he is the father of advertising. Barnum was the first person to document the increase in sales based on the increase in hype and public events. In a way my profession has roots in the circus. Cool.

1920s
“Always a Bridesmaid Never a Bride”
Listerine was invented and intended to be a general antiseptic. After exploring various uses, Gerard Lambert asks if it does anything for breath. Well, sure enough a scientist rummages through some doctor magazines and finds Halitosis, a fancy name for bad breath. Lambert begins building hype about the dreaded disease Halitosis and educates the public. Mind you in the 1920s people bathed once a week and the soap from animal soap often smelled worse than B.O. Lambert pushed an ad campaign about Halitosis causing people to be single. He started in 1922 and made $115,000 in profits. By 1929 he was making more than eight million a year.

1930s
The Secret about Santa
Ever wonder where the idea of Santa came from? The first story introducing Santa, a golly man to slide down chimneys came about in 1822. Slowly people begin interpreting him in a variety styles ways and colors. A certain company sold beverages and needed a way to push their drink as winter refreshment. They decided to use Santa and began refining his look. He must be friendly, round, wear big black boots, and of course feature the red an white corporate colors. Thus, the Coca-Cola Santa was born. Haddon Sundblom painted every image featuring Santa and Coke. Sundblom did nothing but paint Santas year round from 1930-1950. By 1940 Sundblom’s Santa took over. It became common knowledge that Santa has to wear red and white and thus the public had a unified vision of Santa. Funny how there are campaigns to keep Christ out of Christmas, but we can’t lose Coke. Ah the joys of "halmark holidays." Advertising Nirvana.

Pity Pepsi. They must hate Christmas.

I don't know where to find these things.

Jackie and I went on a massive quest for Pixi Stix. I found NONE at Kroger, Tom Thumb, Walgreens, Sweet Factory, Walmart, Target, or the Dollar Store (my normal supplier). No Pixi Stix for me.

What would you do?

If there's a giant alligator on the highway what would you do?

a. Call animal control
b. Throw cones at the alligator

"Police threw orange traffic cones at the gator, but it just snapped at the cones and flung them away."

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