Mikey said something that really rubbed me wrong today, and it wasn’t his fault, he is surrounded by morons and I have been there and I know that shit rubs off on you. In reference to him contacting someone he said he “pinged” them. First off that doesn’t even make sense, but usually when one community adopt terms from another community they get it wrong anyways. What was probably worse is that I know 10000 lil marketroids are running around saying “ping” and I bet maybe 3% of them even know why. I feel bad for Mikey… I totally get that sometimes you just need to suck it up for the job as you need money to survive, but the idea of working with a office full of peope who like to “trendify” geek terms makes me imagine poor Mikey sitting an a cubicle, surrounded by 10,000 lil Japanese anime school girls all texting each other and sending my space clips of the latest boy band album back and forth. Which I am sure if Mikey was actually surrounded by 10,000 lil japanese school girls he would be ecstatic, but I digress.

Marketing people will always piss me off because they are always a day late and a dollar short. I personally don’t get the vibe from most of them that they are trying to improve the world in any fashion. I am no martyr, but I think there are many methods of making good money and giving back at the same time. I don’t think to have something be sexy or to sell it needs be dumbed down. I also don’t think it is really the marketing people being vicious, it is their inability/unwanting to change mediums of communication that force them into slowing down the train. If you have to write proposals and project plans, print magazine ads and author articles that take months to get approved, it is really hard to present the cutting edge of anything to anyone. I also think that the idea of being a “marketing” person is rather moronic in that I think marketing is an act of preaching about something else and to do that well and honestly (yes I know they aren’t honest, but come with me on this one) you have to truely be a believer. Example: I think of Bruce as a marketing person for Ruby. I definately wouldn’t characterize him as a marketing guy, but he believes, loves and has faith in this thing/concept to the point that he can market it because in his heart he isn’t selling you something, he is sharing it with you. I think marketing would be great if people who actually had real love or faith in a product were the ones speaking about it. In that sense, maybe the world just needs product image consultants and a lot of editors that can be hired for the preachers that need a little polishing. I think that is what marketing was suppossed to be, but I don’t feel it is. My personal vibe on marketing is a group of people who are trying to manipulate me into buying something or wanting something not neccessarily because it is good, but because they are like drug pushers. It would be stupid for me to not know this is just a business thing, but I really do think that ethical marketing would make a huge improvement in the world as a whole. I have come to terms with the dumbing down of the population as a whole, do we really that stupid flock to be led by a set of corrupt shepards right into the wolves den? We have laws for marketing of ciggarrettes to children, so just because it doesn’t kill them physically it is ok to fuck with someone mentally? Oh well… this has gone off on a completely different track.

Back to the subject, so “Pinging” someone. Meh. I hate being trendy, but I find it even more trendy to try and not be trendy. I am not going to change my lifestyle/culture just because some other group has taken my shit and used it incorrectly.

Michael Bolton: Yeah, well at least your name isn’t Michael Bolton.
Samir: You know there’s nothing wrong with that name.
Michael Bolton: There was nothing wrong with it… until that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.
Samir: Hmm… well why don’t you just go by Mike instead of Michael?
Michael Bolton: No way! Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks.

What I would like is basically a flag for people that classifies them into a specification. I want something that grants me access to saying “ping” without someone grouping me into the Johnny come latelys of this new culture of “geek”. “Geek” is so overused, but I don’t know of any more appropriate term for myself. I don’t THINK I am a nerd, I am not a true designer, coder, admin, user whatever. I am “good with computers” and other electronic things. I live a large portion of my life “online”. I am sick of being out at dinner and someone saying “Oh, Lynn is kind of a geek” and the next thing I have to hear about is how their nephew has a myspace site that he posted his phone camera pictures to and how we should meet because we could “talk tech”. So I SUGGEST a geek breakdown. To keep in “fashion” with the community, lets call it “releases”. I am not sure how to break it down, I am not sure if it should be historically or knowledge based or even “I think I fit here”, but there has to be someway to distinguish someone like me from a texting my space kiddy…. and I am sure the assembly punch card programmers would like me not to be grouped with them either. It needs more thought, but the basis is there. I think this idea should apply to most cultures… as I am sure goths feel the same way

This post brought to you by Arizone Diet Green Ginseng Ice Tea, Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies and “Testiccular… the Thundercat nobody talks about”.