History Doomed to Repeat Itself

Because we are incapable of learning from our mistakes. At least, the people in charge and the people that the people in charge listen to don't learn from their mistakes. If that makes any sense.

There's a lot of hub-bub going on around about the cap-and-trade solution to cut greenhouse gases and fight global warming. It "creates wealth" from absolutely intangible nothings (sound familiar?) and will be placed in the hands of Wall Street traders (sound familiar?) in a free market solution (sound familiar?) that will spur innovation in energy-saving technologies (sound familiar?). It is also an overly complicated system that relies on the market being able to regulate itself (sound familiar?) and puts the fate of the system into the hands of the oh-so-obviously morally-driven Wall Street traders who never compromise what is best for the people (or the economic stability of the entire world) to make more money.

Or, as the article outlines, there's a much simpler system that forces innovation, doesn't "create wealth," and would moderately benefit roughly 80% of the population of this country. It will drive up energy costs for the common schmoe, but the common schmoe will receive a yearly dividend from Uncle Sam to help pay for the higher energy costs. Industries that pollute pay a fee to do so and are forced to innovate to cut costs, lest their share-price be decimated in the market by those capable of innovation. Oh, and the fate of the entire system isn't placed into the hands of traders who have proven themselves willing to sacrifice the entire global economy if it will make them more money. But then again, I can be a bit of a cynic.

Really?

If we can figure out how to put a functioning Subway restaurant inside a shipping container and move it up a tower every time a new floor is finished, how come we can't figure out global warming/build high-speed rail/build a functioning infrastructure/fix healthcare?

India Now Owns Us on Christmas, too

Check this out.

Global Warming in 5 Seconds

Despite being overly simplified, if you only have 30 to 90 seconds to digest what those silly, unproductive meetings in Copenhagen were all about, CNN gives you this series of 4 bar graphs.

What they don't have is the 5th page that tells you, regardless of what any country produces, we are all fucked.

Not Enough

Really? $350 million is going to fix the excessive emissions problems in poor countries? Hang your collective heads in shame, industrialized countries.

MTA Needs an "Obama Czar"

I don't live there anymore, but I know a few people who do. And this is getting ridiculous. The basic fundamental question still remains: At $2.25 a ride and a metro-area population of 14.5 million people, how is it possible the MTA keeps running out of money? Are administrative costs that high? Did they get totally boned in contract negotiations like American car companies? What's the story? Seriously. People who need public transport won't be able to afford it.

“To have this situation in the most transit-dependent city in the country is a complete failure of government,” said Andrew Albert, chairman of the New York City Transit Riders Council and a member of the authority’s board.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Are You Honestly Surprised?

Turns out that the Bush Administration didn't make any effort really to back-up electronic data during its time in office. From a VP who had a person-sized safe in his office and had his home removed from Google Earth, stamped EVERY single document that came through is office at Top-Secret, regardless of whether it was actually sensitive information; then, when the lawyers said he couldn't do that, he created his own class of secrecy with a special stamp that prohibited anyone outside the Administration from seeing it.

Yeah, I'm not all that surprised.

Mega-Fail

Yeah, we're going to need you to go ahead and start fixing this, 200 countries in Copenhagen. Stop bitching about whose going to pay for it and just do it.

This is Awesome

Solar Panel technology heading to retail for DIYers.

I Just Want to Find My (Advertising) Soulmate

Advertising Copywriter is looking for his Art Director/Designer soulmate to help work on some campaigns for his portfolio.

Excellent mastery of the Adobe Creative Suite is pretty much necessary. It would also be amazing if you were adept at Flash and/or photography, but neither is necessary.

Yeah, I know. I'm asking for a lot.

Ideas are already developed in terms of the work that needs to be done, but if there is a good rapport, I'm open to continuing to work together on new projects.

Ideally, this would be an "exchange of services" working relationship, but if money is of the utmost concern or you have no need for my writing services, we can negotiate rates.

Please respond with a couple samples of your work.

To see the work I have completed, check out my website: http://gregmarch.carbonmade.com

Freelancing I am (see previous post)

This is the last week at my internship. It's also the first week that I am freelancing...at the place where I intern. So really I'm getting paid for my last week of interning. Which is awesome. I'm working on something really minor in the grand scheme of advertising. But then again, advertising tends to be fairly minor in the grand scheme of the world. Which means what I'm working on is ridiculously minor. But I'm getting paid for it. And even though it's nothing I would really be personally interested in enjoying, I am having fun working on it. And it's all mine. My project. My responsibility. I'm excited about this. Here's a silly picture I decided to include for no reason.

Yikes!

Uganda hates gays and lesbians.

Reasons for Things

Today, in the northeast, it snowed. A lot. Then it rained on top of the snow making it disgusting, slippery and heavy. Having to shovel the snow out of my driveway when I got home from work (I left before it started snowing), I experienced reason number (insert random, meaningless number) why living in New York City is about 600 times more awesome than living in New Hampshire: Living in NYC, I would be in an apartment. No sidewalks, no drive ways, no walkways to shovel. Not my responsibility. Someone else's. (Oh NYC, I am quite the jilted ex-resident. I was forced to leave you and have been distraught ever since. At first, I was okay. Life went on and I toiled away in my goings-ons . But soon, I found myself longing for you. I miss your vast expanse of buildings I wasn't allowed to go in to. I miss your expensive wares I couldn't afford to buy. I miss the selection of bars and beers and places to go. I miss your tiny comedy clubs I'd perform in. Oh, I miss you. But I'm sure you've already forgotten me. Sigh.)

Reason number 647 why global warming sucks: 15-20 years ago, a snow storm like this would've been snow all morning and all day. No rain. All snow. Light, fluffy, easy-to-shovel snow that wouldn't take me three hours to shovel out of the driveway. But no, it rained. A copious amount.

As a side note, it is ridiculous that of all the countries at the climate conference in Copenhagen, the islanders are the ones who are asking for the most stringent goals to battle climate change. Hang your heads in shame big, industrialized countries. You suck.

Slow Your Roll

People are entirely too busy these days. And I'm not just saying this because I'm waiting to hear back from people about a lot of different things that are important to me. It's the truth. It has been for a while. I'm even starting to partake in the all-too-busyness that has taken over our society. I'm working 36 hours this week at my part-time job AND freelancing (more on that in another post). This means that I won't be sleeping as much, I won't be seeing my family, friends or girlfriend and I'll have little free time. For those that know me, being this busy is a rarity as I usually do my best to make sure I have copious amounts of free time. But for some, this is the norm. And that's bad.

I'm not complaining about being employed. What I'm saying is that we stretch ourselves too thin. And it ends up being the important things that suffer. Friendships. Relationships. Health. Coolness. Sexiness. Sanity. Sense of humor. Availability for beers. All of the things that make people fun to be around. We get so wrapped up in things we have to do we don't have time for things we want to do. Like hanging out with friends and family, sex, exercise, increasing coolness, staying sane, keeping a sense of humor, drinking beer. All of the things fun people do.

Maybe I'll make a campaign out of this and put it in my book. The National Association of Free-Timers is what I won't call it, because that name sucks. Maybe I won't have a company. I'll just make ads telling people to make more free time and stop doing stuff they don't want to. Not that ads actually convince people to do anything. Oops. I've said too much.

The Wonderful World of Research

Working as I have as an intern, occasionally I catch interesting (boring) research projects where I get to gather all sorts of reference material and information and hand it off to someone else who is too busy to do it themselves. It can be a bit tedious sometimes, but it's intern work and I am an intern. Sometimes, I do get sent on somewhat of an odd mission. Here's a brief list of the things I've had to do in the past all for the sake of advertising:

Pretend I was getting married and looking for a resort/hotel/banquet-y type place to have my ceremony/reception.

Pretend I was looking for a job and call up various staffing agencies to ask about recruitment information/rates and other various tidbits of info.

Pretend I was a media buyer and call up various media outlets to get rate cards and media kits.

Find out what a pendant light actually is.

Research ways to spruce up the homestead without breaking the bank.

Today, I am tasked with finding how-to info on updating your backyard deck (because if it's a deck in the front yard, it's called a porch) and building an outdoor shower. Not the worst stuff ever. Most of the reference material has been easy to find. Which is why I have time to write this post. Which really won't set the world on fire.

I have determined though, that once I own a home, I want an outdoor shower, for the following reason:

Sex

Convenience

Sex

To feel fancy and sophisticated

To wash off in after coming home from the beach/working on the yard/playing some kind of sporting event

Conversation piece

Sex

I feel as though an outdoor shower, while not essential to my happiness, could potentially play a significant part once I become older and more vain. Also, I figure I'll look like this guy if I have one. That's how it works, right?

Here's What I Have to Say For This, About That.

Chrysler Correction.

Chrysler isn't handing over all its work to an Italian ad agency, just the retooling of a spot that ran for a car in Europe that they want to Americanize. Not as big of a slap in the face, but still one nonetheless. Bad PR for Chrysler at a bad time. Sometimes I wish I could get a billion dollar loan from the government.

Enjoy Kiddos.

Me doing funny things in front of others.

This is AWESOME!

Video.

Chrysler Shoots Itself in Foot. People get fired.

Saw this article on Adage.com about how Chrysler, after taking bailout money from the US, is hiring an Italian ad agency to handle its work. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. Accounts move around all the time in advertising. The problem here is that because of the account move, I'd say at least 100 people, probably more, will be laid off of Chrysler's previous agency, BBDO. Not exactly the best publicity for a company trying to clean up its tarnished image after accepting bailout money. That whole giving-away-American-job-to-a-foreign-country-during-the-worst-recession-since-the-Great-Depression thing tends to not blow over well. Especially when you're already indebted to the government for billions. Not a move I would've made. But I'm just a lowly intern.

Would those people at BBDO get laid off if Chrysler moved the account from one American company to another? Probably. But the new American agency that picked up the account would all of a sudden be hiring. And while no "new" jobs would technically be created, there would be new opportunities for people who didn't have them before. And in a shitty economy where no one is hiring, that's a hell of a lot better than seeing the jobs getting shipped to Italy.

Now, I'm no fan of protectionism. Globalization is a-happenin' and there's nothing that is going to stop it. If another country can do what we do better, for less money, it's on us to compete to win back the industry. Thing about the ad biz, is that regardless of what fantastic work the foreign agency pitched, there's an American counterpart that could do the same thing. Maybe even better. There really is no need to outsource the work to another country. Boo on you Chrysler. Boo.