The Bloated Penguin

We’re all taught in school that whenever we’re doing research, we have to try and step into the mindset of a true user. Depending on the product that could mean anything, but in order to get a true experience, things often need to be seen through the eyes of someone most likely to use the product or service. This is where researching the competition becomes difficult for me. On one hand, I’ve got some major loyalty issues – in a good way! Whenever I’m going through a competitor’s product, the first thing that pops into my head is how lame the other product is. I don’t know if this is because the product is actually lame, or because of the fact that I enjoy working on my own product more. So this obviously isn’t exactly being neutral, but it’s a struggle I guess. Do I stay loyal or do I try my hardest to be neutral and in the meantime actually change my perception and give more lenience to the competition because I don’t want to come off as favoring one side over the other?

Hey-Zeus – this must be confusing for the one person out there reading this. Let me paint a picture.

I’m working for product A and in order to make product A the best product out there, I need to compare it to product B, C, and D. So I take a look at B, C and D and my initial reaction is that A is already way better because of reasons X. My problem is that when I present my findings I want to be able to at least support the fact that product A is in fact the best product. So how do I appear to stay neutral? I find parts of B, C and D that work and focus on them. My problem is that sometimes B, C and D don’t have any good qualities, but in order to appear neutral I have to talk about “something.” In doing so I sometimes focus too much on coming off as fair and find good qualities in some aspects of B, C and D. This hinders X because I’m giving B, C and D too much lenience….

I just realized that I may have made things more confusing…. I apologize and present you with a short video clip of the opening sequence to a great 80’s show starring a young Jerry O’Connell.

I’m sure many of you out there are aware of, “The Most Interesting Man In The World,” right now. The salt-and-pepper haired gentleman with the smooth voice and a taste for adventure. I’m kind of addicted to him right now but not just because, “policemen often question him simply because he’s interesting,” the other day a friend told me that during his bartending days, they used to have to drink Dos Equis during staff meetings because nobody would order it. Well, I think things have changed a bit and I’m pretty sure half the people who have tried a Dos Equis beer since these ads started running only did so because of the great campaign. Below you’ll find some of his ads – my favs are the ones that run on the radio.

“I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.Stay thirsty my friends…”

I’ve read a few articles hating tons on the latest book cover for Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon. Some of it is funny, others ridiculous, but the bottom line is it’s getting people to talk. Hell, even I’m posting about it so it can’t be all that boring right? Anyways, I thought I’d throw my 2 cents into the mix after reading this on Latino Review the other day. I don’t like backwards marketing with franchises. What I mean is I don’t think I could ever buy a book that ever mentioned or had anything to do with a movie. The reason isn’t because I’m some kind of book snob or anything, it’s because it’s I think that as soon as franchises cross mediums (like book to film) they become their own. Literally a lot of the stories change – some stories just don’t work on screen. I’ve read New Moon and coming from a dude’s perspective the flick doesn’t exactly look how I would have envisioned the film. But that’s just me. Readers, producers and movie goers need to start understanding that these are two different stories, two different experiences.

From what I can gather from Stephanie Meyer’s latest book cover, I think her and her publishers and all of the people standing to make a buck from the Twilight franchise are really slapping movie goers in the face. What I read from this is that they are saying, “Hey, we know you probably don’t know how to read, but you should pick up this book because the cover caters to your obsession with the franchise.” I don’t think that’s very cool.

Ugh – so I spent pretty much all of last night working on a file that I planned on bringing into the office today in hopes of being able to work on it some more. But, I’ve just discovered that my old laptop will not be able to run the program I’ve been using. I’ve done the old “Hey Google, what do you have to say?” but I’ve just discovered that the reason the file will not open is because my OS is uber-old – like geriatric old (thanks Kristy). I think its finally time to retire the old girl and get a new one. So that’s going to be my next major purchase. RIP Black Macbook from 2005.

Is this a sign that video games are becoming a cultural staple? I mean we’ve got professional musicians playing the theme to Metal Gear Solid instead of Beethoven these days. I’m not going to complain cause I think it’s pretty awesome, but you have to agree that gaming is now a part of us whether you like it or not. Enjoy!

I remember a time when Shaquille O’Neal was the biggest draw to basketball since Wilt. He was an overpowering beast of a boy at the time crushing opponents and tearing down backboards like they were made by Nerf. Well those days are long gone and Shaq has been traded for the third time (he signed as a free agent with LA so this makes it his forth team). But really – who cares now? The hype surrounding Shaq has been drizzling down to a nothingness that resembles his rap career. Shaq is mostly known now for his constant Twitter updates and no longer his scoring prowess. Sure, he’s headed back East to play with the reigning King (LeBron), but I don’t really see him making a big difference.

In return for the Big Disappointment, Phoenix receives a terrible player in Sasha Pavlovic and a soon-to-be-retired, hasn’t-been-good-since-Detroit Ben Wallace. All of the analysts are saying this is for financial reasons and I buy that, but it should also be noted that Shaq is not the player he should be remembered as. Good luck in Cav-town Shaq, I’m sure you’ll create more media frenzy than ever – just don’t forget that you’re paid (mostly) to play basketball.

I’ve been following the production of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland for a while now and recently there’s been a ton of news. Apparently a few people have gotten their dirty hands on a script and have been spreading around the plot. If you’re truly interested, finding out what this film is about won’t be hard – but don’t be a douche bag, wait to see it up on the big screen. Anyways, Burton and crew have been dropping tons of new tidbits of late like images from the film and the stars. That pic above this post is Tweedledee and Tweedledum and it’s looking pretty damn cool already. Anyways, check out this pretty cool cut of Three SIx Mafia over top of the Disney version of Alice.

I go to a lot of movies. To put this into perspective, the movie theater is like Cheers. Okay, maybe not everyone there knows my name, but I sit in the same spot so much that sometimes I feel like Norm. Anyways, someone a little while ago brought up a good point. I go to at least 2 movies a month and with the increase in ticket prices, I should probably look into a more economical way to see them. The solution was to finally get a Scene card by Scotia Bank. In the past I was almost against the idea because of the terrible marketing campaigns they run. Those force-fed commercials before each flick are vomit inducing and those alone actually held me away from getting a card. That, and the fact that the card is owned and run by Scotia Bank and I don’t want them calling me every other day to get me to sign up for a new account.

The card works like Air Miles where the more movies you see and the more cash you spend at the theater, the more perks you can get – and in my case all of these perks would be movies. I haven’t done a ton of research into how many points I would need to get free tickets, but I’m assuming it’s something like one ticket for every million points or something ridiculous like that.

So after looking at this Summer’s movie lineup I decided to finally crack and get one. I just recently received the confirmation email that my physical card will be arriving in the mail but I was sent my number. The first I thing I did was purchase my preview tickets for Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen in IMAX (playing tonight!). I’ll probably write a few words about it tomorrow morning. In case you have no idea what movie this is, here’s the latest trailer.