Category Archives: Splashes

And Now A Word…

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Every business needs some kind of advertising. It could be print ads, television spots, radio commercials, or billboards, but modern businesses know that one of the most far-reaching methods of spreading their word is via the Internet. There are whole companies devoted to “webvertising,” media companies that make nothing but videos, and SEO experts that teach their clients how best to get their corporate sites ranked in Google, and out to the viewing public.

One such marketing firm, specializing in the market in the UK and Ireland, is MyAdBase.com, a “media broker” that offers everything from press release distribution to information on average radio advertising costs in your market of choice. While they work via the web, they provide services across all the media mentioned above, serving as a sort of advertising portal for their clients.

As well as serving the general business population via their marketplace, they also do one-on-one work with regular clients.

Not quite ten years ago, advertising to the web was “new media,” and people weren’t certain it would take off.
Now, new media traditional media are used in combination, for broad-based campaigns that put company names in front of us in as many ways as possible.

If you think about it…it’s really kind of cool.

OD: Open a Drawer

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Every so often, I like to play with the Observation Deck, a box of cards that offer prompts or suggestions for getting around writing blocks or starting daily writing practice. One of my favorites is “Open a Drawer.”

My desk drawer isn’t really in my desk, but in a rolling file cube that can slide under my desk when I want it to. Right now, however, it is against the wall, holding the printer, and atop that a TiVo box and a cable converter, because the television in my studio is an old one, with no real top space on which to balance electronica, and the room lacks a formal television stand.

I open the drawer to pull out the purple plastic pencil box where I store postage stamps and stickers for the backs of letters, and when I do, other things, precariously arranged around the box, fall into the gap it’s left. I see an eraser, on of the oblong ones from school, pink on one end, gray on the other, a pencil sharpener, a roll of cellophane tape, another roll of masking tape, a glue stick.

Moving outward from the miniature landslide, toward the edges of the drawer: a box of Cinnamon Altoids, a stick of Dell Memory, a small bottle of bubbles on a plastic lanyard – because what is an office-y type place without bubbles?

The bubbles make me smile, and draw my eye out of the drawer and onto the desktop. I see my yellow rubber ducky, a souvenir from a spa we spent two glorious nights at for our third anniversary. We had to climb stairs into the tall fluffy bed, and we made an excursion into town for books and ollalie berry pie, and for dinner we ate out on the pier at Avila Beach and watched the seals playing below us as we ate Chilean sea bass in a coconut curry.

People say there’s no such thing as time travel, but I can move forward and backward in time, just by opening a drawer.

Does Anyone Remember…

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Does anyone remember the Alchera Project? Laurie Murray hosted it, and the site has now apparently reverted to the registrar, since all it contains is links for more ads and products.

As a reminder, it was a monthly writing project in which Ms. Murray would offer five prompts – a first line, a quote, a picture, a grab bag of words, etc. and participants had a month to contribute their interpretations of at least one of the prompts.

I’ve been thinking I’d like to host something similar, and I have a domain name (currently blank) primed to host it: cafewriting.com

If you’re interested, leave a comment here.

Tell your friends, as well.

Sunday Scribblings: Sorry

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“Sorry – no Scribble” was what participants looking for a prompt were greeted with this week when we went to the Sunday Scribblings website, and people quickly decided to accept the challenge to write something anyway.

The word “sorry” inspired me to figure out a scene from my book. I’m linking you to the raw, unedited version, which may or may not be recognizable when it’s incorporated into the book.

I stress the raw, unedited part because, well, it is.

Read The Beginning there, and feel free to comment here or there.

Friday’s Feast: 0710.05

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Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you look forward to your birthday?
12. I revel in birthdayness.

Soup
What is one word you don’t like the sound, spelling, or meaning of?
The only word I really dislike – and I’m not going to apologize for putting it in my blog, but I am going to asterisk it out in order to keep everyone’s filters from freaking is “c*nt.” I don’t like it because it has negative connotations, because it is used more often to degrade, humiliate or insult, than anything else, and because it’s short and clipped and not warm and welcoming. I especially don’t like it when women use it to refer to other women.

Salad
Do you wear sunglasses when you’re outside? If so, what does your current pair look like?
I do in the car, shopping, going out, and at the beach. I don’t when walking the dogs. Not sure why. The pair of the moment is a cheap pair of silver wire frames…my favorite pair ever were Anne Klein’s that were sort of round, and black, and very chic. My most recent expensive pair was a set of Maui Jim’s I bought the day after my LASIK was done. They fell apart about six months ago, and weren’t in warranty any more, nor fixable anyway, and I haven’t been able to justify blowing $200 on sunglasses since then. I still have a special fondness for classic Ray-Bans, however.

Main Course
If you were to write a book, to whom would you dedicate it?
I am writing a book. Picking the dedication is premature. There are a whole group of people who will be receiving pages sometime in the next six weeks – it will be dedicated to them, probably, and to Fuzzy, and to the baristas at my local Starbucks.

Dessert
Name a beverage that you enjoy.
Well, I’ve just learned that a root beer float made with a can of Barqs and Breyers coffee ice cream (one scoop) has only 290 calories and 7 grams of fat, so I’m kind of in love with that just now. Otherwise, I’m a froufrou coffee drink kind of person. My standard is a venti nonfat almond latte these days, but those dulce de leche lattes are to die for, and when I’m feeling icky soy no-water chais are just magic.

Heard it Through the Grapevine

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As you know, some of my favorite hobbies are reading, cafe hopping, and recreational shopping, though I’m not at all opposed to sipping froufrou drinks or seeing fantastic shows, either. You may not know that I was also a fan of “Sex and the City,” but I was, and that’s why I was intrigued when I learned about Grapevine.

More than just a shopping site, Grapevine uses the Grapevine Girls, characters in webisodes – web episodes – featuring product reviews, nights on the town, etc. As we follow their adventures, we can interact – checking out prices of their accessories, reading about where they go, etc.

Grapevine is based in Chicago, but webisodes can take place anywhere and the choice of products and services they recommend and link to certainly isn’t limited to the windy city. Personally, I think it’s a great way to involve people in shopping – blurring the lines of entertainment and advertising and making it fun in the process.

Check it out!

Friday’s Feast (Catching Up)

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I never did last week’s Friday’s Feast, so I’m catching up with this post, and later tonight / early tomorrow, you’ll see the new one.

Appetizer
How are you today?
Mostly good. The day started fabulously, but energy is waning, and my shoulders are tight, and I want to kill Bank of America.

Soup
Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis.
This changes as seasons change. Earlier this summer, I was watching:
Army Wives
Eureka
Side Order of Life

but with all but the last on hiatus, and the last ending next week, it will change to:
Blood Ties (it returns on the 11th.)
House
Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style

Salad
What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced?
There was a bad bad storm here earlier this year that ripped a tree out of our front yard – a mature plum tree – and did a whole bunch of other damage. It wasn’t quite a tornado, but almost. That frightened me. But only briefly.

Main Course
If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be?
Most people pick exotic locales, or major European locations. Me? I’m in the mood to hang out in Toronto or Montreal, so I’d have to say Canada.

Dessert
What do you usually wear to sleep?
A scrunchie.

Money Money Money Money!

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We have all, at some point in our lives, been a little strapped for cash, even while gainfully employed. Maybe it’s because we overspent, or maybe it’s because your bank is holding a three thousand dollar reimbursement check for ten days because they can, the point is, it happens, even to the best of us.

Rather than kiting checks, or paying the guilt-interest at the Bank of Mom, one solution to temporary cash flow issues is to get an instant payday loan. Those are the loans where you get cash almost immediately, and they expect you to pay it back on your next payday. They have high fees, but in an emergency – when you don’t want a credit check, or want your employer to know, they’re amazingly useful.

But how do you tell the reputable companies from the disreputable ones? And what exactly are you getting into when you apply for this kind of cash advance?

CashAdvance1500.com can help you with that. They don’t offer money directly. Instead they offer a wealth of information – how loans work, what information you need, etc, so that you can make an informed decision. As well, they have referrals depending on your cash needs, with special deals for women, or those who need total confidentiality. Of course, you can do it all from the comfort of your living room as well.

Most sites flash “borrow money now!!!” at you.
CashAdvance1500.com does not.

I think that says a lot about them.

Thursday 13: 0710.03

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Thirteen Things about MISS MELISS
Things that Begin with U

  1. UFO: I don’t really believe that there are aliens who borrow people for experiments, but I have to admit that I often stare up at the skies and wonder. Don’t we all?
  2. UHF: I grew up before remote controls were ubiquitous, and before cable television was widespread (in fact, because my parents were anti-television, we really didn’t have cable until I was in high school, and even then, it was only basic). The first television I remember had two channel selection dials, and there were often really interesting things on the UHF channels.
  3. Ulalume: One of my favorite of Poe’s offerings, and appropriate for this month.

    The skies they were ashen and sober;
    The leaves they were crisped and sere-
    The leaves they were withering and sere;
    It was night in the lonesome October
    Of my most immemorial year;
    It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
    In the misty mid region of Weir-
    It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
    In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

  4. Umber: I like the word, it reminds me of the deepest notes of a cello. I like the richness of the colors this clay-y pigment produces: Raw Umber and Burnt Umber. I like the autumnal feel of both those color names, as well.
  5. Umbra: The darkest part of a shadow, where the source of light is blocked completely. It’s such a mysterious and romantic word, even if it is dark.
  6. Umbrellas: I’ve had favorite umbrellas – black ones that opened automatically and a clear bubble-style one leftover from the early seventies, with yellow trim and a white handle that just screamed for Go-Go boots to go with it. I also like the use of umbrellas in movies and novels – Gene Kelly’s dance in “Singin’ in the Rain,” Julie Andrews using one as “Mary Poppins,” and the scene in Little Women where Friedrich and Jo finally admit their feelings, under the umbrella, in the rain.
  7. Undertow: I always thought the undertow was a sort of deep sea monster, and I never quite believed in its power until I was caught in one at Half Moon Bay when I was thirteen. Wet denim, in case you were unaware, is one of the most uncomfortable fabrics on Earth. Being rolled in white water is scary, but coming out of it, figuring out which way is up again, and making it to shore alive – that’s just exhilarating.
  8. Underwear: I like pretty underwear. True, no one sees it except me, and maybe Fuzzy, but it makes me happy. Also, it has to coordinate with my outfit. This is important. I blame my mother for this fetish.
  9. Undine:

    In Teutonic folklore, undines are female water-spirits who like to associate with humans. They often join villagers in their dances and merry-making. An undine was created without a soul, but by marrying a mortal and bearing him a child she obtained a soul and with it all the pains and penalties of the human race.

    Undines, like all mythological water-beings, have always fascinated me.

  10. Undulate: This word is visual onomatopoeia. It just sounds like a writhing, sensual dance with swaying hips and bare feet and sweat and spice and firelight.
  11. Unicorn: I went through the requisite unicorn phase at the end of elementary school and beginning of junior high school – about the same time that those shirts with a rainbow arcing from sleeve to sleeve across the chest were popular. In a dish on my dresser I have a pair of sterling silver unicorn earrings that I just can’t toss, even though I’ve no intention of ever wearing them again.
  12. Unicycles: I’ve never ridden one, I’ve always wanted to. Like juggling, riding a unicycle is one of my unvoiced circus trick dreams.
  13. Unique: I would rather be unique than boring, any day. I have moments where I am only interesting inside my head, but I hope I’m never average.

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