Posts (page 2)
Today is the long-awaited launch of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV. It's a game that has as much controversy as it does innovation. But there will be no controversy talk here. Today's message is strait - Rockstar has some ingenious marketers working for them.
For those unfamiliar with the series, Grand Theft Auto is the original sandbox-style game. That means a player's character can move anywhere about the landscape in front of them. You aren't restricted to one specific area of the city. If you see a building, you can drive to it. You can park in any parking garage. Pedestrians walk the streets and react to your character. It's a all-encompassing world for gamers to play with.
It's here in this virtual world that new advertising opportunities emerge. For example, because this is a virtual city, there are also virtual billboards. Why not have real ads for real companies on them? Crackdown (another sandbox-style game) did this. The streets were littered with real ads displayed on in-game billboards. It's a new take on an old idea. Today, we gloss over ads on the highways but when we're gaming we don't expect to see them. This new media outlet definitely stands out and is a symbol of the kind of out-of-the-box thinking marketers need to use.
And that brings me to Grand Theft Auto IV. A staple of the series has been the in-game radio stations. They play music from real-world bands that are mostly unknown to the general population. Well it's now possible to purchase the music you hear in-game. While playing Grand Theft Auto IV, if your character hears a song you like, you character can send a text message from his phone in the game to the radio station playing the song. All information necessary to purchase a DRM-free copy of the song from Amazon.com is then sent to your Rockstar Social Club account. Neat huh?
I wonder what other interactive opportunities GTA IV will bring. And outside of the GTA universe, what kinds of new ideas will we see develop to merge the digital and the real? There's already Second Live and a host of other massively multiplayer online role playing games. Now mainstream multipayer games are following suite, finding new ways to bring people together in a digital world.
Matrix anyone? :)
Over 700 people in over 200 cars made it out to show their love for Scions at Scion Exposed 5.0 in Orlando. The event welcomed both Scion owners and enthusiasts. “Enthusiast” is a term for those who don’t own Scions but want them desperately (like me). At the event were games, live music, food, contests, prizes and special guests like Troy Sumitomo, owner of the automotive design studio, Five Axis and creator of the Scion FUSE concept vehicle.
Sumitomo also brought along his xA Speedster, a modified Scion xA that can raise its hood and allow the driver to plug in a gaming steering wheel so you can play Xbox 360 racing games from the drivers seat! You can also play on one of two rear-facing monitors that come out of what once was the trunk.
The Scion owners at the event entered various competitions with cash prizes up to $2,500. Door prizes also went out to those attending and included a set of Pirelli tires, first generation Kenstyle body kit for Scion xA or xB, a custom beach cruiser bicycle painted by DuPont Hot Hues, Guitar Hero III for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™), an iPod Nano, and a GPS/Navigation system.
The whole deal was hosted by Southeast Toyota Distributors.
Their Scion Exposed events in the southeastern U.S. have drawn Scion enthusiasts from as far as
Quebec, Canada! Other events present at
this year’s Scion Exposed was an
Xbox 360 and PS3 gaming competition sponsored by GameStop; paper airplane
contest for children; an artist (Preston Farabow) creating a sculpture from
Scion parts; and a vintage P-51 Mustang from World War II performing areal acrobatics.
Awesome! :-)
To all my friends:
If you're in the Orlando area the weekend of Saturday, April 19th, drop by the Avion Jet Center for Scion Exposed. Even if you don't own a Scion, come. It'll be an awesome event! There's music and food and prizes and a vintage WWII P-51 Mustang! Oh, and I will be there too. :)
Like the title says, this blog has been due for some time. Lately I've been feeling angry - a lot. And while talking with someone the other day I realized my problem...I'm not as tolerant as I used to be. Over the years, I've swallowed many situations that others wouldn't and I did it in the name of tolerance. "People have enough on their minds," I would say to myself. "A situation like this isn't worth making a big deal."
Not true.
All that swallowing has made my soul grow disproportionate. My spirit chafes during conversation, like some overweight glutton walking on Miami Beach at noon in July, sweaty thighs soaking his awkward-fitting jeans. The skin rubbing against the damp, course material is uncomfortable and every step becomes this agonizing lurch forward to a destination that never seems to get closer.
That’s how I feel. Sure, it sounds melodramatic, but who would read a blog if you didn’t try to make it interesting? I feel the same discomfort as that overweight man walking on the beach. Discomfort coming from the knowledge that, like the fat man, I caused the situation I now despise. He ate too much and I forgave too much. I did too many things for other people. What’s wrong with that you might ask? Well, lately I’ve been feeling that I’ve done it so much it’s now become expected of me. I’m taken for granted.
No, people don’t ask me to do things. I do them on my own. Because of that some might say I don’t have the right to gripe. Wrong. Like the American who doesn’t want immigrants in his country but loves the fact he can get his grass cut for $10, you who tell me I don’t have a right to vent can piss off. This comes with the territory.
And others will argue you can’t set expectations for other people. To those people I say this: Without expectations set by others, what reason would we have to set expectations for ourselves in order to better our own lives.
Some things just don’t get done unless someone takes the initiative. Here’s a list I’ve compiled of basic things no one ever wants to do:
- Organize people to do something
- Take the first step in starting a conversation
- Being the one who apologizes
- Admitting when they are wrong
I’m sure I can think of more things to say if I really thought about it.
Right now a certain Johnny Cash song comes to mind…“I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back, ‘till things are brighter, I’m the man in black.” Those words seem powerful to me “try to carry off a little darkness on my back.” That’s what I try to do. That’s what’s put me in this situation. I may not wear black to do it, but the idea’s the same. I fight fire with water. I try taking loneliness and dousing it with companionship. Taking anger and smothering it with patience. Wrapping sadness in laughter.
Well, that’s not how I feel now. Today, I’m much less forgiving. We’re all adults and, as such, are accountable for our actions. I’m tired of being someone else’s crutch.
I'm tired of being the one who initiates dialog that leads to reconciliation.
I'm tired of brining people together.
I'm tired of trying to put a smile on someone's face.
I'm tired because I don’t see it making much of a difference.
This blog isn’t to call anyone out. It’s to vent my situation to the world (because I doubt any of the people who need to read this ever will) before I just say, “fuck it all” and become cynical and bitter like 75% of this carbon-encrusted, oxygen-depleting planet.
And to those friends who fall into the other 25% of this world, thank you. To those strangers in that same 25% who feel, have felt, or one day feel the way I am now and remember this blog – you’re not alone.
Probably the most painful thing I realize now is that I will have to accept this as life or surrender to it. I don’t like surrender. It’s the easy way out. Today I am angry, but tomorrow is a new day. I will resent again and I will get angry again and I will curse my own nature again but I will continue to endure because, if I don’t, then who will?
It’s not that I think I can save the world. I just don’t want to add to the emotional pollution. The negative thoughts, the name-calling, the whispers behind people’s backs…
Today I’m tired. And I find comfort in the words of some of my friends who say my absence brings a measure of sadness. It makes me feel like I do make some difference sometimes. But it’s something I savor momentarily for fear of becoming self-absorbed.
I digress. It’s getting late and I need to close this blog out. (I’ve been contemplating it for almost two hours.) To close I’ll quote the late Robert Humphrey:
Wherever I go,
everyone is a little bit safer because I am there.
Wherever I am,
anyone in need has a friend.
Whenever I return home,
everyone is happy I am there.
It's not an easy creed to live by.
It's difficult to understand your parents. Sometimes I wonder what it will be like when I'm old and screaming at my children. What can change someone so much, make them so angry that they live in this world where all they see is what they want to? I don't get it. Maybe I'm too young to get it. What I do know is that at this point in my life I see that manner of being as unnacptable. And today I vow to myself never to become the parent that can't see life through their child's eyes. Maybe I'm beeing foolish and idealistic. Maybe. But if each parent wants a better life for their child then I don't want my child to hear the things I'm having to hear now.
July 18-20, 2008 - Atlanta, Georgia - TAIKAI USA 2008
The Atlanta Bujinkan Dojo announces TaiKai USA 2008!
The
Atlanta Dojo, America’s original school of Japan’s oldest martial art,
invites you to attend a very special training opportunity. Bujinkan Master Teachers Bud Malmstrom, Moti Nativ, Roy Wilkinson and Sheila Haddad join forces to share their 110 years of combined Bujinkan experience and perspectives on taijutsu.
Location: TAIKAI USA 2008 will be held at the Hyatt Regency Suites Atlanta NW.
The Hyatt Regency Suites is located at: 2999 Windy Hill Rd in
Marietta, Georgia. You can call them to make your reservation at:
770-956-1234 (International callers dial: +1-770-956-1234), or Click Here
to visit their website. We have negotiated a discounted rate for
TaiKai attendees of $99/night! This is an all-suite hotel, and their
regular suite price starts at $199, so this is an excellent deal.
This rate is good for up to 4 persons sharing a suite, and each living
room has a couch that folds out into a bed. Just tell them you’re
with TAIKAI USA!
Please Note: Be sure to make your hotel reservation as soon as you can to get this special rate. Their cutoff date is June 26th. After June 26, or once the hotel fills up, they will no longer offer the $99 rate.
Kunoichi Kai! Saturday, July 19th, will also be the debut of Kunoichi Kai! Kunoichi Kai is a special training opportunity for women only, and will be led by Sheila Haddad. This will be a one of a kind ’seminar-within-a seminar’, and will focus specifically on training for women in the Bujinkan, giving us the name ’Kunoichi Kai’. (What is a kunoichi? Click Here for more info)
The men will be training on their own on Saturday, instructed by Bud, Moti and Roy, and both groups will rejoin each other to train together on Sunday. This is the first ever Kunoichi Kai seminar, and it will be a unique training opportunity for the Bujinkan women to receive specialized training of this kind. Ladies, this seminar will undoubtedly make a difference in your training - Don’t miss it!
Or at least that's what it seems like. I don't remember the tracks being stained like that. For those of you who don't know what happened, someone apparently walked on to the train tracks at the Deerfield Beach station and let the train run them over. That's the account I overheard from one man waiting for the train with me just now.
"He just walked up and laid down on the track." One man said.
I talked to a security guard who told me this is the third walk on death this year. He wasn't able to corroborate the other guys story though.
When the southbound train finally arrived, it was packed! Everyone had a story of places they needed to be. The lady next to me missed her happy hour. The guy in front of me is going to be late to a hockey game. I can only imagine how many people missed their flights because of the delay. Madame missed happy hour told me she'd been on the train for about two hours waiting at one station. To put things into perspective, it takes around two hours to run the whole line from north to south (I think). From the point we're at now there is still an hour trip to the line's end.
In this tragic moment, I can't help but think the impact one man had on so many lives. Because one man walked onto the tracks on Deerfield Beach today, countless lives were changed. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Sad.
...and it's deadly! I love the quote: "Walking the dog, taking out the trash, get the mail. Any problems occur, anything that needs immediate action? Get on target.”
I'm tired of all the bullshit political rhetoric about this. Today on NPR I hear, yet again, how illegals (particularly those from Central American countries) are being singled out, even branded as criminals in some states like Arizona. I'm sorry. When did America close its borders to those seeking better lives? Was it when we slaughtered whole nations of Native Americans to make this sea to shining see a reality? Don't use immigration as the scapegoat to mask our broken governmental systems and don't use cracking down on illegal immigrants as a solution. Perhaps if the INS didn't do such a piss poor job then there would be less issue with the influx of people coming into this nation.
I hate when these crusaders for "taking back America" say they're doing it for the country and its people. Those immigrents you're persecuting ARE OUR PEOPLE. "Give us your tired, your poor, your hungry, your huddled masses yearning to be free." That message is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, an undying symbol of America. This country is built on the backs of people from other nations. Even early colonists were mearly European refugees. So it was OK for them to seek refuge hundreds of years ago but now it's forbidden?
Americans crusading for America, don't tell me this land is yours. We took it. I'm proud to be an American, but I'll aknowledge the horrible things we did to make this great nation. Let's not continue to do bad works now by persicuting those who are looking for better lives, like your ancestors did in the past. Has this country become cynical and sour in its old age, just a little over 200 years in? Come on America. You can do better.
So I've decided to create this new tag called discovery. It's for posting all those neat little tidbits I find on the web (new applications, cool articles, tricks, weird findings, etc). First was my post on Theo Jansen. Now there's this cool article I found through Lifehacker about eating in today's over-processed, calorie-counting society.
