American cultural sensitivity

So this moment amazed me (although perhaps it shouldn't have). We were eating at a nice Thai restaurant, and there was a Elephant god statue on a pedestal in the corner. Potentially this could have been purely decorational (although it was likely connected with religious sentiment, given the ethnicity of the wait-staff). Now I mention all of these things because I would expect that there is one thing that it was not: a coat rack. And yet, one of the diners placed her jacket on top the statue. Michelle debated going over and tell her that she would have 5 years of bad luck for doing that (ie she would have done it if i had not dissuaded her). We still had entertainment however when one of waitstaff noticed. She took the jacket to them and asked if it was alright if she brought it downstairs (ie where the coat rack is), and proceeded to bow several times to the statue. Just a "slight" bit of religious significance to the statue...

Old vs New Marketing

It is interesting to read about Audi using the superbowl to promote its new cars. It makes you realize that as much as we have changed, a fundamental human point about simplicity is key. You reach the most consumers through TV, even if you reach many consumers that are not in your target audience. One TV commercial versus multiple tactics customized on different sites to different audiences. Most companies would prefer the easy way, and until we have more people working, then that won't change. Although ironically, targeting might make things cheaper in the end (including the increased headcount of managing that targeting...)

I love this statistic: And in Brandweek, Steve McClellan reports that a Nielsen survey finds 51% of viewers enjoy the Super Bowl more for the ads than the game. Given that the Patriots are gone already, I am likely in the majority!

9 worst cities

This is fantastic. Seoul needs to seriously clean up its image:
(From the Lonely Planet)

Your 9 least favourite cities
1. Detroit, USA – Because of the crime, pollution and crumbling infrastructure.
2. Accra, Ghana – Ugly, chaotic, sprawling and completely indifferent to its waterfront location.
3. Seoul, South Korea – According to one traveller comment, ‘It’s an appallingly repetitive sprawl of freeways and Soviet-style concrete apartment buildings, horribly polluted, with no heart or spirit to it. So oppressively bland that the populace is driven to alcoholism.’
4. Los Angeles, USA – A highly contentious pick, placed here because of its ‘uncontrolled sprawl, pollution, appalling traffic and ugly freeways’, according to one traveller.

(Not sure how I feel about 2 US cities being in the top 4, but they are LA and Detroit...)

Why I hate AT&T

I was on a mission this morning, buy an iphone (yes as trite as that is, I want a smartphone, and michelle is already on AT&T). A quick point, every business has silos, but as a customer, you don't want to see them. I called up from Michelle's phone and they could help me switch her plan (to family), but they could not sell iphones, or do anything with a GoPhone. The phone I wanted was online (and only online), but GoPhone you have to deal with in a store. So three different people who can't resolve anything, who pass me along each time.

This reminds me of when I was not allowed to port my number from AT&T to Cingular (remember when they were separate?) For some reason they said they could only do so many in a month.

So AT&T has a history of poor customer service. HOURS wasted, and i bet not even AT&T's CEO could fix this problem. And you wonder why they are getting killed with attrition. If it wasn't for iPhone, i wonder if they would even be #2 in the market...How do you take a famous brand like AT&T and ruin it with such customer service? Sigh...

Looking at T-Mobile now =)

New sites to keep track of

Wow, this one is definitely interesting reading: http://fmylife.com
Too many stories of relationships gone wrong, dumb moves, etc. I wonder if I have a story to add on there? Likely, but if so, I doubt I would publicly proclaim it on my blog ;)

Too much rain

So over the past few weeks there has been a lot of rain, much more than I would prefer since it makes bike rides unlikely (and I only have a few more weeks that I can ride!) Michelle and I went into NYC to see the play "After Miss Julie" which was an interesting show with Johnny Lee Miller and Siena Miller, definitely made you think, but it was amazing to hear so many people say that they did not like it afterward in the restroom!

We wandered around town after that, including searching for a new winter jacket for me at Century 21, and afterward we looked at a map to see where the Southstreet Seaport was, and Michelle commented that maybe we shouldn't be close to the curb. Good advice, we just needed to take it...An ambulance drove by full speed (no lights on, so TOTALLY unnecessary), and sent up a huge spray of water, soaking my legs, back, and even hitting Michelle's mouth. #$@#%

Then it was dinner with our friend Han from Korea, who was in town interviewing new candidates (insert different word here) for my old group ;) It was great to see him, and have a great meal at Dos Caminos. Love the guac that they make!

59 boxes

Yup, 59 of them arrived on Monday, which meant approximately 2 days of trying to find a way to put everything into a 1 bedroom apartment. For a few things, when I saw how well some of my pens and pencils had been wrapped, I realized that maybe 59 boxes was too much. Somehow it all fits currently, even though the storage unit is packed to the gills. I will say that the move has been one of the most painless moves i could have imagined, but that should be the case if you are paying someone else to do it, right?