Litany
You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon
You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
However,
you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.
It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.
And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.
It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.
I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.
I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry,
I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Blog Archive
I just recently moved into a new apartment in September and still do not have access to internet. I wrote my blogs at home and uploaded them together in harmony. Enjoy!
What is communication?
One year ago, my concept of communication was significantly different from what I’ve experience to date. From relationship communication to professional communication - my idea of what it is has evolved. I would have said that communication is a bridge that connects people - a highway that flows in two directions in which the sender disseminates his message and receives feedback from the receiver.
With the advent of new media - I’ve now witnessed that communication is something that comes from all directions. One tiny example is social media - Myspace, YouTube, Google. We are a fortunate society that is exposed to different avenues of information dissemination and communication. One hundred years ago, courting was a very calculated and often political process meant to combine families and financial inheritance. With the internet came some amazing ideas - like online dating. Now, for a small fee, people across the world can find the love of their lives.
I’ll even go as far as to say that new media has changed democracy as a whole, or at least how people communicate with each other and their governments. There is the occasional setback in which websites like YouTube have been banned from entire countries (recently Korea banned YouTube in response to a video in which a woman spoke against her government).
Otherwise, citizen journalism has allowed people a voice that they traditionally have not enjoyed in years past. As compared to our ancestors who battled censorship, people today can now hold their governments (and societies) accountable for wrongdoings or issues that should be addressed.
My profession in marketing and advertising (and specifically public relations) has everything to do with communications. I’ve realized in the past year that communication is not merely dialogue shared between or among people - it’s a dance. There are so many ways to send a message to people - it can be a verbal signal, or it could be as subtle as body language.
In my communication with people and professionals on a daily basis, I use several mediums like e-mail, phone, face-to-face meetings and conference calls. There is even a new technology I use called “Webinar” in which people across the world can log into a website and listen to opinion leaders speak on a subject, all the while looking at slideshows and presentations simultaneously.
The most significant learning experience for me in communication comes from observing the flow of communication between the media and the public. More importantly - the flow of communication between the media and the sources of information in which the report. From major corporations, publicly traded companies, small mom-and-pop companies to Hollywood celebrities - I have found myself somewhere between society and the power of the media.
I’ve taken my cues from industry leaders and the occasional textbook or best-seller. Recently, I read an amazing and insightful book called “The Power of Nice” - a book that was written by two New Yorkers who run a public relations firm that hosts several high-profile clients. The book was an eye-opener to me because it has to do with communication and the real world.
Outsiders probably never think about the media or communication at all. Communication is so natural and instinctual that those outside of the communications field probably don’t give it a second thought. The media is nothing more than talking heads on TV, or a newspaper sitting on top of the coffee table. In my world, the media is something different. It means a newsroom full of real people, journalists who are trying to meet deadlines. Sometimes it’s a journalist covering a major story that could lead to national recognition. The book “The Power of Nice” has to do with how public relations professionals, and the companies they work for, treat the media.
In a lot of ways, treating clients well is just as important as treating the media well. In the real world of media, one is usually dealing with people whose jobs are just as important as the ones we each hold. In dealing with a national celebrity, I learned a big difference between Hollywood publicists and small-town public relationships professionals like myself. What I learned is that every city (or market) has a distinct media that carries on in its own way. I found myself face-to-face with a professional publicist who, in many ways, saw their client as someone who needed to be “protected” by the media. I realized that she and I work in two different worlds in which she’s had to deal with modern paparazzi. I was on the other end, wanting to protect my friends in the media from being stepped on or treated like anything less than real journalists.
I remembered that the University of Texas at Austin has a public relations program called “Texas Public Relations”, which I now understand is probably extremely valuable for those who want to work in this state. Eventually though, one’s work transcends geographical barriers and I began to appreciate my work and see myself as someone more powerful than a small-town San Antonio public relations girl. The power of being nice, which I learned from the New York professionals, isn’t something that means showing a smile. It means something more - it’s about communicating yourself to others in a non-threatening way that shows people respect. This always results in a positive response and a long-lived working relationship with others. It shows me that this formula can work with anyone - no matter what profession, no matter what location in the world.
Blade Runner - The Movie
For a self-proclaimed Harrison Ford Lover, I am ashamed that I’ve never seen Blade Runner until now. Since I was really young, I’ve always loved Science Fiction movies about the what the world is going to be like after nuclear war. One of the first movies I ever saw with my dad was Total Recall, then Running Man. Later when my youngest brother was a baby, Terminator II came out. In high school, Judge Dredd and Demolition Man came out. I recommend all of these - they are awesome. What I love about these movie the most are the insights into what the future might hold for people - from transportation to high-tech homes to advertising. Minority Report is the most recent movie that has come out that takes us in that fantasy world. I believe Blade Runner takes place in in the late 2000’s, but I still have to wonder how long it will be before our world becomes so different from where we’re at now. I recommend all of these movies - you won’t regret it.
Not so good “Bad Numbers”
Margaret Heffernan wrote “Bad Numbers”, an interesting article about people who major in business administration, but I have to disagree with most of her editorializing. What I thought was going to be a great insight on the difference between liberal arts-educated people and business majors turned out to be a rant from someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to sit through hours upon hours of marketing, management, accounting and finance classes. No - she is a self-proclaimed English and Philosophy major from Cambridge University (and like so many people who brag about their Ivy League educations, she quickly learned that her degree is absolutely worthless in the real world). Hence, she has written a hate-article against the people who have time-and-time-again beat her out for jobs in Corporate America.
First of all, I have to say that I’m thankful to Heffernan for writing this article because I love a good debate that entices my brain into thinking beyond my own world - giving me an opportunity to (for once) look at something objectively (except today, I‘m not going to do that - I‘m just going to give you the flip side.
First of all - I do agree to a certain extent that people with a liberal arts education are the luckiest sons of guns in the world. You get to touch on every discipline: math, social and natural science, English, geography, communication - even a few worthless electives like canoeing (ahem). I majored in a pretty liberal discipline - Mass Communications. But I, like many people out there with a little smarts, minored in business because I knew one day I would need to have a conversation with a CEO or the president of my company.
A few sentences into her article, I began to suspect Heffernan of being an embittered writer who might think of herself as overqualified and unappreciated in this world.
In the first sentence, she accuses “those who major in business” of concerning themselves with making “pots of money”, therefore giving themselves “little scope” to discovering “one’s own talents, one’s own values” or to “learn about a world wider than school or college”. I guess that means that studying mounds of literature will provide you with insight into your values and talents - but if you major in business, you’ve sold your soul to the man.
In her next paragraph she says that a huge (“depressing”) percentage of American students major in business, while a “sad” eight percent major in education and less than four percent in English. No offense, but can you blame those people? In my opinion, I see teaching at the elementary and high school levels as glorified babysitting. So excuse me if I want to be a working part of what is one of the best economies in the world. What if some of these greedy little business majors want to some day take over the family business that their parents and grandparents have been running for generations? What if they have an entrepreneurial spirit and need some business sense so they don’t fall flat on their face trying to accomplish a dream that can change our entire world? Did this lady learn nothing in her years at Cambridge? She forgets to mention that road to self discovery and the statistics of people who change their majors several times before they find something they actually feel passionate about.
In another part of the article, she says she feels sorry for these business majors who have “apparently given up on their hopes and dreams”. Um. How does that calculate into someone giving up on those things? I guess she wouldn’t know - she obviously never took a math class while she was busy in the pursuit of “knowledge” at Cambridge.
She then quotes Hegel (insinuating that we business majors/minors have no idea who he was) and how he believe that nothing great in this world is ever accomplished without passion. I don’t care WHAT people major in when they go to college - but trust me, everyone figures this out very quickly in their lives.
Finally, she accuses company owners of somehow settling for robots instead of employing English majors to run their advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies. I pity the Women’s Studies majors who go into my line of work and get their asses chewed out by a client for not having an ad out within 5 minutes of notice. This thick skin is developed with experience - there’s no doubt about it. In fact, it doesn’t matter what you studied in school - it take a work ethic to live in this society and a crap load of experience.
Then she finishes with something really hilarious. She asks if employers really want “the students who have shelled out $120,000 to learn what a year or two working at McDonald’s could teach them?”. That would be like me saying that English majors spend $199,999 more than they should to learn what four years of high school Literature could teach them. Groundless - and narrow, might I add.
To compare two years of employment at McDonald’s with 4 years of state/private college is so melodramatic it ain’t funny. I think Heffernan’s article is symptomatic of some sort of insecurity complex. Maybe her college boyfriend dumped her for a Finance major.
The Internet is One Big Advertisement - But There’s Good News!
Stop calling the internet “cyberspace” - let’s be real and just call it “ad space”. SpiralFrog.com, like so many internet-based companies out there, has learned how to have its cake and eat it, too. SpiralFrog.com does two incredible things - not only does it make it’s consumers happy by allowing them to download music and whatever their hearts desire for free (therefore attracting a large and growing audience), it gets paid too - by advertisers with deep pockets who are willing to spend a lot of money to send a message to large groups of people in the same place.
This makes total sense to me - and I have to applaud them, although I have to admit I’m a little jealous.
I just feel sorry for the advertisers. I don’t know about you, but when I go online to check my new beloved blog, or check out my facebook or myspace profile, the last thing I look for or care about is banner ads. And I especially despise pop-ups. When are advertisers going to realize that they are actually making millions of people HATE them? If I get one more pop-up……
The good news is that we’re all pretty immune to this stuff. I had an epiphany - thanks to my friend’s husband, Clayton Miller. He said “I don’t believe in investing in a car alarm. When you hear a car alarm, do you immediately jump to look out your window to see if someone’s car is getting broken into? No. You just ignore it and get irritated if it goes on too long.” I agree with him!
So, I just believe in going with the flow. If you can get paid a lot of money by people who really think they are actually getting somewhere with these cyber-lovers - in the words of John Lennon, Let it Be - Let it Be.
Rock of Love - My Guilty Pleasure
Sometimes I think I’m pretty hip. Above the fray, if you will. But oh my God - I completely fell hard for “Rock of Love” halfway into it. There’s something about strippers and hair stylists fighting over a hot (and most likely balding) rock n’ roll stud that just gets me on the seat of my sofa. Reality TV has its own powers - I’ll admit that. But I thought I was above it - too cool for school, totally way too awesome to get into it. But seriously, there’s something magical about it. I was rooting for Jess (the pink haired, really gorgeous hairstylist) from the beginning. But a small part of me wanted Bret Michaels (Poison) to pick the unstable, sensitive but in-your-face red-haired, Nicole Kidman look-alike Lacey. Reality TV takes everything in life to a new level. Gossip, profanity, and people’s faults - everything to the max. Imagine my sadness when he finally got rid of Lacey and chose Jess and Heather to duke it out. Heather, the larger-than-life stripper who always dressed like one, was not one of my favorites. What kind of crazy and political move is it to get some dude’s name tattooed on one’s neck? I think she thought that this would take her far - and to a certain extent, it did. But I think her fake breasts and casual “I don’t give two shits” attitude finally revealed her for the girl she is (the kind you don’t take home to your mama). Ah well, he probably got her number any way - she, after all, was the girl who opted to “share” him with Jess.
Li-Young Lee
Lee is by far my favorite poet. I would pretty much do anything to meet him and have him sign the books that I own by him. He actually has a huge influence on my poetry writing and inspired ‘Lightning Thunder Father’. I own three of his books, The Winged Seed, The City in Which I Love You and Rose. His poetry is all about his family - especially his deceased father who made a huge imprint on his life. My favorite book, Rose, is what I’d recommend to anyone who is in the least bit curious in doing a Google search on him. He’s one of those writers whose writing you can read alone after a long hard day and completely feel comforted by afterward.
E-Commerce and the Career
Most people do not know much about my field, but to sum it up, I can say that E-commerce is something that should concern any public relations professional working for small business to conglomerates. The reason being is that, as a public relations professional, creating a campaign for a company, product or service is one of the most important services we can offer a client. As the years go by, the Web has made many opportunities for companies to enter that market they specialize in, and also allows existing firms to grow in a new way. In taking this class, I’ve realized how important internet technology technicians are to the happiness and sales of a company operating business online.
The parts of e-commerce that interest me as a person who wants to be an expert in my field, is to know every aspect of e-commerce marketing and communications and to also learn more about the equipment that a company needs in order to carry out an online business. I have had several jobs outside of public relations - in advertising and marketing. Advertising is big business - and many companies are starting to find this out as the number of internet shoppers begins to climb. Marketing is probably the most important tool to use in promoting a company’s site. Driving traffic and yielding results is what an online business relies on - and marketing is the best way to get there. Finally, the equipment and software needed to efficiently operate a system is very expensive but important. If a client approaches me about fine-tuning it’s site, I feel that it’s important for me to know the equipment and software, what it can offer and be able to assure the client that this investment will bring success and a return on that investment.
E-commerce marketing and communications can teach a company to be flexible, to take some risks and to make those risks with relatively small losses if there are any. Once a company’s site is attracting traffic and selling its product/service, advertiser’s are soon to be in suit - buying ad space for thousands of dollars by the month. This advertising revenue is so valuable to a company - especially since the site can operate with or without the space - it’s an extra plus to an already successful business. I worked for a client that wanted to buy banner space in online newspaper site’s all over Texas. The money this company was willing to spend just for a month of advertising (due to the short campaign) gave us a $20,000 budget to work within. Search engine marketing is also not only important to a business, it’s important to online consumers who might take their business elsewhere if a company is not easily found on search engines. A friend of mine from Austin who works solely in search engine marketing is only 24 and works for himself, attending conference all around the country and making more money than a lot of adults. Additionally, companies are starting to realize the value of merging online through affiliate relationships and sponsorships. Finally programs can now monitor a firm’s online traffic and the customer demographics and other information in order to target their consumers in a way they might not be able to in their physical stores.
The equipment and software needed to make an e-commerce site successful is expensive and takes time to install and learn to operate. Becoming familiar with the equipment and how to use it is something that I hope to become more experience in in the coming years. In my experiences, I’ve come to realize that the internet is starting to become an important appendage to business now. As a public relations person, sometimes we are asked to help the company from inside out. Knowing everything about the software and computer is something I need to know because a company must justify its expenses. The bottom line must be justified and the equipment should also do what it was supposed to do and help the company be profitable.
The experiences I’ve had in my field related to e-commerce is when a client approached the company I worked for about promoting his website. The website was called ApartmentsRUs.com and there was a lot of work to be done on his website. The website did not have the right design, it was not usable, and it didn’t work the way it was supposed to. Because the service is free, the owner of the website was hoping to drive traffic to the site and eventually sell advertising space in order to gain revenue. The site was not registered in any search engines or linked to other websites except Hotels.com. In other words, there was a lot to be done, and I wish I had taken this course earlier because we might have been about to help him more with a good e-commerce strategy, beginning with software and a new layout and design plan.
The future of e-commerce has been controversial - some say the internet is a phase, while others say that society will soon be unable to function without it. With internet banking and other online transactions, life is certainly more simple and convenient. Interpersonal communication is so easy and fast through e-mail and instant messaging, people are able to reach each other in a way they never have been able to before. I’ve come to find that a company website it normal and common, whereas ten to fifteen years ago, the internet and Web were still pretty special. Recently, I called a communications firm in Laredo to ask about two radio stations owned by the company. When I asked for their website, I almost fell out of my chair when they said they didn’t have one. Now it is uncommon and not normal for companies to go without a website. I believe that the internet is still in it’s baby stages - the internet today is the VCR of the online world and I know that one day it’s going to blow us away with the technology and capabilities it’s going to offer users. I do not think that the internet is a phase that is going to go away, rather, it’s a whole new world open for exploration.
What is communication?
One year ago, my concept of communication was significantly different from what I’ve experience to date. From relationship communication to professional communication - my idea of what it is has evolved. I would have said that communication is a bridge that connects people - a highway that flows in two directions in which the sender disseminates his message and receives feedback from the receiver.
With the advent of new media - I’ve now witnessed that communication is something that comes from all directions. One tiny example is social media - Myspace, YouTube, Google. We are a fortunate society that is exposed to different avenues of information dissemination and communication. One hundred years ago, courting was a very calculated and often political process meant to combine families and financial inheritance. With the internet came some amazing ideas - like online dating. Now, for a small fee, people across the world can find the love of their lives.
I’ll even go as far as to say that new media has changed democracy as a whole, or at least how people communicate with each other and their governments. There is the occasional setback in which websites like YouTube have been banned from entire countries (recently Korea banned YouTube in response to a video in which a woman spoke against her government).
Otherwise, citizen journalism has allowed people a voice that they traditionally have not enjoyed in years past. As compared to our ancestors who battled censorship, people today can now hold their governments (and societies) accountable for wrongdoings or issues that should be addressed.
My profession in marketing and advertising (and specifically public relations) has everything to do with communications. I’ve realized in the past year that communication is not merely dialogue shared between or among people - it’s a dance. There are so many ways to send a message to people - it can be a verbal signal, or it could be as subtle as body language.
In my communication with people and professionals on a daily basis, I use several mediums like e-mail, phone, face-to-face meetings and conference calls. There is even a new technology I use called “Webinar” in which people across the world can log into a website and listen to opinion leaders speak on a subject, all the while looking at slideshows and presentations simultaneously.
The most significant learning experience for me in communication comes from observing the flow of communication between the media and the public. More importantly - the flow of communication between the media and the sources of information in which the report. From major corporations, publicly traded companies, small mom-and-pop companies to Hollywood celebrities - I have found myself somewhere between society and the power of the media.
I’ve taken my cues from industry leaders and the occasional textbook or best-seller. Recently, I read an amazing and insightful book called “The Power of Nice” - a book that was written by two New Yorkers who run a public relations firm that hosts several high-profile clients. The book was an eye-opener to me because it has to do with communication and the real world.
Outsiders probably never think about the media or communication at all. Communication is so natural and instinctual that those outside of the communications field probably don’t give it a second thought. The media is nothing more than talking heads on TV, or a newspaper sitting on top of the coffee table. In my world, the media is something different. It means a newsroom full of real people, journalists who are trying to meet deadlines. Sometimes it’s a journalist covering a major story that could lead to national recognition. The book “The Power of Nice” has to do with how public relations professionals, and the companies they work for, treat the media.
In a lot of ways, treating clients well is just as important as treating the media well. In the real world of media, one is usually dealing with people whose jobs are just as important as the ones we each hold. In dealing with a national celebrity, I learned a big difference between Hollywood publicists and small-town public relationships professionals like myself. What I learned is that every city (or market) has a distinct media that carries on in its own way. I found myself face-to-face with a professional publicist who, in many ways, saw their client as someone who needed to be “protected” by the media. I realized that she and I work in two different worlds in which she’s had to deal with modern paparazzi. I was on the other end, wanting to protect my friends in the media from being stepped on or treated like anything less than real journalists.
I remembered that the University of Texas at Austin has a public relations program called “Texas Public Relations”, which I now understand is probably extremely valuable for those who want to work in this state. Eventually though, one’s work transcends geographical barriers and I began to appreciate my work and see myself as someone more powerful than a small-town San Antonio public relations girl. The power of being nice, which I learned from the New York professionals, isn’t something that means showing a smile. It means something more - it’s about communicating yourself to others in a non-threatening way that shows people respect. This always results in a positive response and a long-lived working relationship with others. It shows me that this formula can work with anyone - no matter what profession, no matter what location in the world.
Blade Runner - The Movie
For a self-proclaimed Harrison Ford Lover, I am ashamed that I’ve never seen Blade Runner until now. Since I was really young, I’ve always loved Science Fiction movies about the what the world is going to be like after nuclear war. One of the first movies I ever saw with my dad was Total Recall, then Running Man. Later when my youngest brother was a baby, Terminator II came out. In high school, Judge Dredd and Demolition Man came out. I recommend all of these - they are awesome. What I love about these movie the most are the insights into what the future might hold for people - from transportation to high-tech homes to advertising. Minority Report is the most recent movie that has come out that takes us in that fantasy world. I believe Blade Runner takes place in in the late 2000’s, but I still have to wonder how long it will be before our world becomes so different from where we’re at now. I recommend all of these movies - you won’t regret it.
Not so good “Bad Numbers”
Margaret Heffernan wrote “Bad Numbers”, an interesting article about people who major in business administration, but I have to disagree with most of her editorializing. What I thought was going to be a great insight on the difference between liberal arts-educated people and business majors turned out to be a rant from someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to sit through hours upon hours of marketing, management, accounting and finance classes. No - she is a self-proclaimed English and Philosophy major from Cambridge University (and like so many people who brag about their Ivy League educations, she quickly learned that her degree is absolutely worthless in the real world). Hence, she has written a hate-article against the people who have time-and-time-again beat her out for jobs in Corporate America.
First of all, I have to say that I’m thankful to Heffernan for writing this article because I love a good debate that entices my brain into thinking beyond my own world - giving me an opportunity to (for once) look at something objectively (except today, I‘m not going to do that - I‘m just going to give you the flip side.
First of all - I do agree to a certain extent that people with a liberal arts education are the luckiest sons of guns in the world. You get to touch on every discipline: math, social and natural science, English, geography, communication - even a few worthless electives like canoeing (ahem). I majored in a pretty liberal discipline - Mass Communications. But I, like many people out there with a little smarts, minored in business because I knew one day I would need to have a conversation with a CEO or the president of my company.
A few sentences into her article, I began to suspect Heffernan of being an embittered writer who might think of herself as overqualified and unappreciated in this world.
In the first sentence, she accuses “those who major in business” of concerning themselves with making “pots of money”, therefore giving themselves “little scope” to discovering “one’s own talents, one’s own values” or to “learn about a world wider than school or college”. I guess that means that studying mounds of literature will provide you with insight into your values and talents - but if you major in business, you’ve sold your soul to the man.
In her next paragraph she says that a huge (“depressing”) percentage of American students major in business, while a “sad” eight percent major in education and less than four percent in English. No offense, but can you blame those people? In my opinion, I see teaching at the elementary and high school levels as glorified babysitting. So excuse me if I want to be a working part of what is one of the best economies in the world. What if some of these greedy little business majors want to some day take over the family business that their parents and grandparents have been running for generations? What if they have an entrepreneurial spirit and need some business sense so they don’t fall flat on their face trying to accomplish a dream that can change our entire world? Did this lady learn nothing in her years at Cambridge? She forgets to mention that road to self discovery and the statistics of people who change their majors several times before they find something they actually feel passionate about.
In another part of the article, she says she feels sorry for these business majors who have “apparently given up on their hopes and dreams”. Um. How does that calculate into someone giving up on those things? I guess she wouldn’t know - she obviously never took a math class while she was busy in the pursuit of “knowledge” at Cambridge.
She then quotes Hegel (insinuating that we business majors/minors have no idea who he was) and how he believe that nothing great in this world is ever accomplished without passion. I don’t care WHAT people major in when they go to college - but trust me, everyone figures this out very quickly in their lives.
Finally, she accuses company owners of somehow settling for robots instead of employing English majors to run their advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies. I pity the Women’s Studies majors who go into my line of work and get their asses chewed out by a client for not having an ad out within 5 minutes of notice. This thick skin is developed with experience - there’s no doubt about it. In fact, it doesn’t matter what you studied in school - it take a work ethic to live in this society and a crap load of experience.
Then she finishes with something really hilarious. She asks if employers really want “the students who have shelled out $120,000 to learn what a year or two working at McDonald’s could teach them?”. That would be like me saying that English majors spend $199,999 more than they should to learn what four years of high school Literature could teach them. Groundless - and narrow, might I add.
To compare two years of employment at McDonald’s with 4 years of state/private college is so melodramatic it ain’t funny. I think Heffernan’s article is symptomatic of some sort of insecurity complex. Maybe her college boyfriend dumped her for a Finance major.
The Internet is One Big Advertisement - But There’s Good News!
Stop calling the internet “cyberspace” - let’s be real and just call it “ad space”. SpiralFrog.com, like so many internet-based companies out there, has learned how to have its cake and eat it, too. SpiralFrog.com does two incredible things - not only does it make it’s consumers happy by allowing them to download music and whatever their hearts desire for free (therefore attracting a large and growing audience), it gets paid too - by advertisers with deep pockets who are willing to spend a lot of money to send a message to large groups of people in the same place.
This makes total sense to me - and I have to applaud them, although I have to admit I’m a little jealous.
I just feel sorry for the advertisers. I don’t know about you, but when I go online to check my new beloved blog, or check out my facebook or myspace profile, the last thing I look for or care about is banner ads. And I especially despise pop-ups. When are advertisers going to realize that they are actually making millions of people HATE them? If I get one more pop-up……
The good news is that we’re all pretty immune to this stuff. I had an epiphany - thanks to my friend’s husband, Clayton Miller. He said “I don’t believe in investing in a car alarm. When you hear a car alarm, do you immediately jump to look out your window to see if someone’s car is getting broken into? No. You just ignore it and get irritated if it goes on too long.” I agree with him!
So, I just believe in going with the flow. If you can get paid a lot of money by people who really think they are actually getting somewhere with these cyber-lovers - in the words of John Lennon, Let it Be - Let it Be.
Rock of Love - My Guilty Pleasure
Sometimes I think I’m pretty hip. Above the fray, if you will. But oh my God - I completely fell hard for “Rock of Love” halfway into it. There’s something about strippers and hair stylists fighting over a hot (and most likely balding) rock n’ roll stud that just gets me on the seat of my sofa. Reality TV has its own powers - I’ll admit that. But I thought I was above it - too cool for school, totally way too awesome to get into it. But seriously, there’s something magical about it. I was rooting for Jess (the pink haired, really gorgeous hairstylist) from the beginning. But a small part of me wanted Bret Michaels (Poison) to pick the unstable, sensitive but in-your-face red-haired, Nicole Kidman look-alike Lacey. Reality TV takes everything in life to a new level. Gossip, profanity, and people’s faults - everything to the max. Imagine my sadness when he finally got rid of Lacey and chose Jess and Heather to duke it out. Heather, the larger-than-life stripper who always dressed like one, was not one of my favorites. What kind of crazy and political move is it to get some dude’s name tattooed on one’s neck? I think she thought that this would take her far - and to a certain extent, it did. But I think her fake breasts and casual “I don’t give two shits” attitude finally revealed her for the girl she is (the kind you don’t take home to your mama). Ah well, he probably got her number any way - she, after all, was the girl who opted to “share” him with Jess.
Li-Young Lee
Lee is by far my favorite poet. I would pretty much do anything to meet him and have him sign the books that I own by him. He actually has a huge influence on my poetry writing and inspired ‘Lightning Thunder Father’. I own three of his books, The Winged Seed, The City in Which I Love You and Rose. His poetry is all about his family - especially his deceased father who made a huge imprint on his life. My favorite book, Rose, is what I’d recommend to anyone who is in the least bit curious in doing a Google search on him. He’s one of those writers whose writing you can read alone after a long hard day and completely feel comforted by afterward.
E-Commerce and the Career
Most people do not know much about my field, but to sum it up, I can say that E-commerce is something that should concern any public relations professional working for small business to conglomerates. The reason being is that, as a public relations professional, creating a campaign for a company, product or service is one of the most important services we can offer a client. As the years go by, the Web has made many opportunities for companies to enter that market they specialize in, and also allows existing firms to grow in a new way. In taking this class, I’ve realized how important internet technology technicians are to the happiness and sales of a company operating business online.
The parts of e-commerce that interest me as a person who wants to be an expert in my field, is to know every aspect of e-commerce marketing and communications and to also learn more about the equipment that a company needs in order to carry out an online business. I have had several jobs outside of public relations - in advertising and marketing. Advertising is big business - and many companies are starting to find this out as the number of internet shoppers begins to climb. Marketing is probably the most important tool to use in promoting a company’s site. Driving traffic and yielding results is what an online business relies on - and marketing is the best way to get there. Finally, the equipment and software needed to efficiently operate a system is very expensive but important. If a client approaches me about fine-tuning it’s site, I feel that it’s important for me to know the equipment and software, what it can offer and be able to assure the client that this investment will bring success and a return on that investment.
E-commerce marketing and communications can teach a company to be flexible, to take some risks and to make those risks with relatively small losses if there are any. Once a company’s site is attracting traffic and selling its product/service, advertiser’s are soon to be in suit - buying ad space for thousands of dollars by the month. This advertising revenue is so valuable to a company - especially since the site can operate with or without the space - it’s an extra plus to an already successful business. I worked for a client that wanted to buy banner space in online newspaper site’s all over Texas. The money this company was willing to spend just for a month of advertising (due to the short campaign) gave us a $20,000 budget to work within. Search engine marketing is also not only important to a business, it’s important to online consumers who might take their business elsewhere if a company is not easily found on search engines. A friend of mine from Austin who works solely in search engine marketing is only 24 and works for himself, attending conference all around the country and making more money than a lot of adults. Additionally, companies are starting to realize the value of merging online through affiliate relationships and sponsorships. Finally programs can now monitor a firm’s online traffic and the customer demographics and other information in order to target their consumers in a way they might not be able to in their physical stores.
The equipment and software needed to make an e-commerce site successful is expensive and takes time to install and learn to operate. Becoming familiar with the equipment and how to use it is something that I hope to become more experience in in the coming years. In my experiences, I’ve come to realize that the internet is starting to become an important appendage to business now. As a public relations person, sometimes we are asked to help the company from inside out. Knowing everything about the software and computer is something I need to know because a company must justify its expenses. The bottom line must be justified and the equipment should also do what it was supposed to do and help the company be profitable.
The experiences I’ve had in my field related to e-commerce is when a client approached the company I worked for about promoting his website. The website was called ApartmentsRUs.com and there was a lot of work to be done on his website. The website did not have the right design, it was not usable, and it didn’t work the way it was supposed to. Because the service is free, the owner of the website was hoping to drive traffic to the site and eventually sell advertising space in order to gain revenue. The site was not registered in any search engines or linked to other websites except Hotels.com. In other words, there was a lot to be done, and I wish I had taken this course earlier because we might have been about to help him more with a good e-commerce strategy, beginning with software and a new layout and design plan.
The future of e-commerce has been controversial - some say the internet is a phase, while others say that society will soon be unable to function without it. With internet banking and other online transactions, life is certainly more simple and convenient. Interpersonal communication is so easy and fast through e-mail and instant messaging, people are able to reach each other in a way they never have been able to before. I’ve come to find that a company website it normal and common, whereas ten to fifteen years ago, the internet and Web were still pretty special. Recently, I called a communications firm in Laredo to ask about two radio stations owned by the company. When I asked for their website, I almost fell out of my chair when they said they didn’t have one. Now it is uncommon and not normal for companies to go without a website. I believe that the internet is still in it’s baby stages - the internet today is the VCR of the online world and I know that one day it’s going to blow us away with the technology and capabilities it’s going to offer users. I do not think that the internet is a phase that is going to go away, rather, it’s a whole new world open for exploration.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Lightning Thunder Father
This is a poem I wrote right after graduation from college. My personal blog is very private to me, but I decided to share this on my new blog because it's one of my favorite poems. Enjoy!
I remember when I was 15. I lied about my age to get a job.
I was a hostess at a nice restaurant,
and I walked from home to work, work to home,
every night.
Some people never could put their finger on my age,
I worked there for 8 months.
I remember a boy named David who liked me.
He walked up the stairs and didn't think I could see him.
He stopped two steps shy of the door, shook his headand walked away.
I broke his heart later.
Tonight, watching the lightning glowingthe thunder aching,
I remember walking home alone on a night like this
listening to the sounds of my own steps taking
my own breaths undoing what was done in a day
my hair feeling gusts of wind, but no rain.
My dad was standing in the sidewalk
and I asked him what he was doing
"I'm watching the light show"
I'll never forget him.
I hear the rain begin outside the window of my childhood
I'm here again
Remembering everything
Even a boy named Carlos who wore a yellow shirt the first day of school
Sat next to me and sang "They call me mellow yellow"
He walked me home from work one day
Handsome, older, smelling like cologne
He kissed me for the first time in a playground near my house.
I walked home shy with him
I had almost forgotten his memory.
Rain falls through the walls of this old house.
I remember everything here,
laying in bed, praying to God
asking Him for things I didn't need
Begging him not to give the lessons
I didn't want.
I remember when I was 15. I lied about my age to get a job.
I was a hostess at a nice restaurant,
and I walked from home to work, work to home,
every night.
Some people never could put their finger on my age,
I worked there for 8 months.
I remember a boy named David who liked me.
He walked up the stairs and didn't think I could see him.
He stopped two steps shy of the door, shook his headand walked away.
I broke his heart later.
Tonight, watching the lightning glowingthe thunder aching,
I remember walking home alone on a night like this
listening to the sounds of my own steps taking
my own breaths undoing what was done in a day
my hair feeling gusts of wind, but no rain.
My dad was standing in the sidewalk
and I asked him what he was doing
"I'm watching the light show"
I'll never forget him.
I hear the rain begin outside the window of my childhood
I'm here again
Remembering everything
Even a boy named Carlos who wore a yellow shirt the first day of school
Sat next to me and sang "They call me mellow yellow"
He walked me home from work one day
Handsome, older, smelling like cologne
He kissed me for the first time in a playground near my house.
I walked home shy with him
I had almost forgotten his memory.
Rain falls through the walls of this old house.
I remember everything here,
laying in bed, praying to God
asking Him for things I didn't need
Begging him not to give the lessons
I didn't want.
The Modern Era of New Media
As we evolve as a society, so does the media in which we live with and use each day. New Media, in my experience, refers to the convergence of mediums that use to be consumed separately.
For instance – the internet. It is a convergence of radio, television, and print. It has given birth to new forms of media that until recently, could not be defined. Some of those new forms of media are blogs, social media websites, search engines and podcasts. Streaming video and music are all made possible by traditional media, but have been funneled into the world wide web, make information gathering and social interaction much easier than ever.
“Blog” was a word I looked up on a search engine a few years ago. I was unsuccessful in retrieving any information on blogs. Now as a graduate student, it is a subject for journalism and mass communication scholars to study, as it has also contributed to the development of citizen journalism.
New media also refers to the portable technology available to people today through cell phones, personal digital assistants, laptops and mp3 and video players – all jam packed with internet, messaging, video and music capabilities.
Modern communication as we know it will and has changed the future of our society – in news reporting, in social interaction and education. Traditional media coupled with the Internet has provided people all over the globe with access to information.
Although we are sometimes unaware, we are inundated with messages – advertising, news, etc. Technology has made it easier for people to know what is going on in the world, but it has also made us dependant upon the new media we use today. Life is hard to imagine without radio, television, internet access, e-mail, and more.
The future of media is uncertain, but the prospect of its evolution and enhancement is undeniable.
For instance – the internet. It is a convergence of radio, television, and print. It has given birth to new forms of media that until recently, could not be defined. Some of those new forms of media are blogs, social media websites, search engines and podcasts. Streaming video and music are all made possible by traditional media, but have been funneled into the world wide web, make information gathering and social interaction much easier than ever.
“Blog” was a word I looked up on a search engine a few years ago. I was unsuccessful in retrieving any information on blogs. Now as a graduate student, it is a subject for journalism and mass communication scholars to study, as it has also contributed to the development of citizen journalism.
New media also refers to the portable technology available to people today through cell phones, personal digital assistants, laptops and mp3 and video players – all jam packed with internet, messaging, video and music capabilities.
Modern communication as we know it will and has changed the future of our society – in news reporting, in social interaction and education. Traditional media coupled with the Internet has provided people all over the globe with access to information.
Although we are sometimes unaware, we are inundated with messages – advertising, news, etc. Technology has made it easier for people to know what is going on in the world, but it has also made us dependant upon the new media we use today. Life is hard to imagine without radio, television, internet access, e-mail, and more.
The future of media is uncertain, but the prospect of its evolution and enhancement is undeniable.
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