Wearing a Costume To Show Who We Really Are

So . . . Boo!  It's hallowe'en tomorrow.  Candy, kids in costumes, pumpkins, and of course normally modest women dressing up like whores.  Okay, the last one is a bit harsh, but we all know that hallowe'en is one of those times of year when people allow themselves to behave in ways that they normally wouldn't (such as actually speaking with neighbours).  But is the excuse of "I'm not normally like this, this isn't who I really am" that true?  Who are you people, really?  The answer may be after the jump, along with some literary spoilers.

Pray To the Basketball Odds

So . . . the NBA season opened a couple of days ago and we're pretty much ready to crown the champions.  After a 1-1 record, losing to heavyweight Boston (literally, now that they have Shaq and Jermaine O'Neal) and beating lightweight Philadelphia (whose new coach is already missing games and blaming it on a concussion from months ago), the oddsmakers, pundits, and so-called experts claim that the Miami superfriends are ready to be champions.  Based on odds I spent all of about 4 minutes researching, they have a 35-40% chance to win a title.  More on the problems with these odds after the jump(-ball).

More Powerful than 1.21 Gigawatts (or Jigawatts?)

So . . . today is the 25th anniversary of "Back To the Future Day," the day that Marty McFly went back in time from 1985 to 1955.  In honour of the day, BTTF is being released on Blu-Ray, there were screenings of the film yesterday evening, and half of Toronto is wishing they had a time machine so they could go back to yesterday and vote strategically.  I had my own time travel experience recently, and it's gotten me thinking about counterfactuals (basically an extended "what if" - alternatives to one's own reality).  Time jumps after the jump.

Mickificki

So . . . it seems strange to me that we as a society still have major issues with the idea of swearing on television.  While coarse language may not be an ideal, and isn't necessarily something we deliberately teach our children to use, it is pretty much used by everyone.  Just like the notion that on television a couple in bed before or after sex is always covered up to shoulder-level, a lack of profanity on TV just doesn't reflect reality.  More on this, some profanity, and the death of the sitcom, and some fun clips after the jump.

If We Choose Crap, Then Crap Is Good

So . . . I like to read, you know, books.  Sometimes this makes me feel old, but really it's just an enjoyable experience that pales in comparison to reading from a screen (in fact, it is as pale in comparison as the complexion of someone who stares at a screen all day).  My taste in books (and TV, movies, and music) is quite eclectic; it isn't that I am not discerning (I'm not literature whore) but rather that my interests span a wide variety of fiction genres and non-fiction topics.  And recently I was presented with an interesting question (found, where else, in a book): how do we decide the merit of something like a book?  The answer (kind of) after the jump.

Freely Speeching Off

So . . . I have a problem with free speech.  Not the right to it, but rather how that right is misinterpreted.  Freedom to say whatever we want is extremely important in any society.  We can see from our privileged perch here in the western world (not jingoistic at all!) how the lack of this freedom wreaks havoc in other parts of the world.  Unfortunately, though, we are also spoiled by free speech, and not in the way you would expect (e.g. the "fair and balanced" speech of Fox News).  Instead, I have a problem with how the right is understood, and I would be exceeding happy to explain after the jump.

Curse These Young Whippersnappers!

So . . . I correspond a lot with people born after 1990 (no, that doesn't sound creepy at all!) because I teach in a university.  Nary a day goes by without some e-mails from my students, and it is very distressing.  I know I'm far from the first (or last) person to complain about this, but those young people today don't know how to write a message.  Whether this is caused by the popularity of texting and acronyms (with LOL and its descendants being pet peeves of mine) or the decline of proper English in general, it's a damn shame.  A lesson in e-mail writing after the jump.

Here's a Quality Definition

So . . . one of the words that gets thrown around a lot in my classes is "quality."  This is a practice that I try to squash early in the semester.  Even though quality is used (over-)extensively in the business world (e.g. "Quality is Job One") and even has legitimate uses (i.e. quality control in an operational sense), it is more or less a meaningless word when applied to marketing.  It usually is applied as a synonym for "good," or "reliable," or "durable," but I don't buy that.  In other words, I think "quality" is a low-quality adjective.  And the same could be said for a lot of other adjectives we use.  Examples after the jump.

ACR Part Two: Change the World

So . . . the other topic I wanted to talk about from my consumer research conference in Jacksonville has to do with the motivation for a lot of the consumer research that's done.  Basically, a lot of the academics in the consumer behaviour field, including some of it's most highly regarded members, have chosen to do work with the purpose of making the world a better place.  More on how upset this gets me after the jump.

ACR Part One: Not Being an Ass in Jacksonville

So . . . I'm here at an academic conference in Jacksonville, Florida.  The conference is the Association for Consumer Research (ACR) and is pretty much the biggest conference for people in my line of work.  I presented some of my research, saw other people's research, and basically marketing-prof-nerded it up for a couple of days.  I'm splitting my comments on the conferences into two postings - one today and one in the next day or few.  Skip to after the jump to find out my thoughts on Jacksonville and the various decision processes that go into attending a conference.

I'm Not Cowed by Vegetarians

So . . . I'm a carnivore.  I have no qualms about eating the roasted flesh of animal carcasses.  No moral dilemma, no health concern, just a love of meat.  I know that not everyone feels this way, and this was brought to the top of my mind recently.  I was walking the halls at the university and passed a display set up designed to convert people to vegetarianism (or veganism).  I also overheard a snippet of conversation between the people manning the booth and a passerby.  And as I am in the habit of writing blog posts about an overheard sentence that came to me out of context, here we are.  More about cows, people, and how they juxtapose after the jump.

A Few Updates

So . . . wow, Friday already and no posts this week yet.  Busy times.  Today I'm just going to do some housekeeping for my blog (blogkeeping?) and give a few updates about some of the stories and topics that I have covered in the few months I've been doing this.  And because I've been lax this week I've packed a bit more into this one. 

Bonus feature: I'm going to try a new thing that I may incorporate more extensively in the future.  But more about "after the jump" after the jump . . ..