Jeep
A great commercial is a work of art. In fact, television ads are one of the world's few truly unpretentious art forms. And every once in a while I bump into one that's so good it makes me want to go back to watching TV shows with the commercials still in:
Brutal Honesty
It's not such a great thing to be really attractive when you're young.
It messes up your judgement. Good looking young people tend to put way too much value on their appearance. In other words, they think that their beauty is a much more valuable asset than it actually is. I guess it's hard to blame them.
After all, if you're good looking (and especially if you're female), you enjoy many advantages. Financial favours, social status, and eager mates tend to come easily. So easily, in fact, that you might never bother to develop any other useful skills. Or, say, a personality. Those are just things that normal people need so that they can have self esteem, financial security, and personal relationships. But why bother, when your good looks already provide those things?
This blog posting is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. I'm not sure which I find more entertaining--the original author's transparently shallow question, or the brutally honest (but completely accurate) answer that she receives. This is a woman who thinks that her physical beauty entitles her to something that most people would love to have: a lifetime commitment from a desirable, wealthy mate. But she's made a mistake--one that beautiful people seem to make all the time:
She's drastically overestimated the value of her good looks.
Sure, guys love to be around a pretty girl. After all, physical beauty is very important--it's what draws people to each other. But it's not what keeps people together. Good looks fade with time, which means that if your appearance is really the only thing you can bring to the bargaining table, then the best you can hope for is a temporary deal.
Being attractive--at least when you're young--isn't a free pass to a life of luxury at all. Mostly, it's just an explanation for why you have the emotional and intellectual development of a 17 year old when you're 35: you've never needed anything more.
In the long run, you're far better off to be smart, or funny, or even just easy to get along with. At least those things will last.
Simpsons Avatar
The website for the upcoming Simpons Movie has a great promotion. Right on the front of the site there is a tab called "Create Your Simpsons Avatar." You can use it to make an image of yourself as a Simpsons character. Or a Futurama character if you prefer. Which I do.
Mocking Microsoft
Microsoft recently introduced a new technology called Surface. It's a pretty neat idea, and it's probably one of the first true innovations that they've come up with for a long time.
Clearly, Microsoft wants to make a product with the same kind of "eye candy" appeal that Apple always seems to have. You can check out the promotional videos for Surface here. The third video (where the people move pictures and music around between their handheld devices) is the most interesting one, since it shows how this technology could let you do something genuinely useful in a new and much more intuitive way.
Of course, the best part of the whole thing is this parody video that makes fun of the whole endeavor. It's funnier if you've watched some of the real videos first.
