I Wish I Had a Picture of That

The other day I got to thinking about some times in high school that I wish I had pictures of. As I tried to recall more, I realized that some of these were classic moments not only fun for me to remember, but the whole school.

Since no one had camera phones all the way back in 2001, most of these events went undocumented. In tribute of these forgotten times, I've compiled my:

Top Ten High School Moments I wish I Had a Picture Of:

10. Levi Tarbell putting Sarah Knapp out with the sleeper hold in Home Economics.

9. TJ Dargin's giant turd causing mass hysteria and somehow managing to spread word throughout the school without even a break between classes.

8. The Student Council booth, where students signed the petition to pass the charter that made it so that once you got elected into student council, you would stay there.

7. Mr. Miller freaking out on Josh Clark after he rear-ended my car (like every other morning) in the elite parking line. I believe the conversation went like this, Mr. Miller - "What are you doing?!?" ... Josh Clark, "What are youuuu doing?".

6. When Clint Woodward's slip of tongue got him in trouble for telling someone she would have to "Shit on the floor". (Back then a swear during class actually got you in trouble.)

5. I'm pretty sure Keith Grosvenor farted on a Brain Bowl judge once... and if not that, Jesse Bronson doing the super slide at every Brain Bowl event in 2000.

4. Shawn McDanel falling on his face while running onto the football field for the homecoming game. Poor guy.

3. I'd like to have a chart that depicts where I actually spent my time Senior year. I would guess this would be the approx. breakdown: In Class - 55%, Student Council Activities - 15%, Travel - 15%, Computer Tech Room - 10%, Sick - 5%.

(UPDATE) I actually put this together after I finished writing. See it and descriptions HERE.

2. The dance when I hyper-extended my knee the night before the ACTs.

1. The time I hit my one and only high school home-run at a JV Game in Corydon.

Failure (Marketing)

I got this marketing piece in the mail the other day, and had to share how poorly it was done. I think the individual(s) responsible for this portion of the piece should seriously consider a career change.

I was originally intrigued by the articles Cinderella story, but ended up laughing at the production quality of the content. If you haven't made your way up to the piece to find the faux pas yet, go ahead and take a peek.

If you can't seem to find the hilarity of the piece, I'll go ahead and point it out for you now. Check out the white text at the bottom called out with the dark background, "Looking for ways to boost attendance at your events...". Then check out the picture. Empty seats everywhere.

Whoever put this together, did not take into account the juxtaposition of the called out text to the rest of the page. Whoever approved this piece, did not spend much time looking for the right things.

For everyone out there working designs that will eventually touch someone outside of your team, department and company, please spend some time making sure what you have put together has all of the elements of what you are trying to sell. If you are selling pink lemonade, show pink lemonade. If you detail cars, you better show me something spotless. And if your job is to increase attendance, you better show me a packed house in every picture.

Today consumers love to make fun of marketing as much as they do ignore it. Don't get caught with your pants down.

Ten Ton Sword (Technology)

Businesses and people, both LOVE technology. The smell of a freshly opened box, the hum after the first power-up, the crisp speed of the initial load... It's all very exciting, no matter what the new technology be; HDTVs, DVRs, computers, iPods, iPhones, or software. But everything technological comes at a price, beyond that of the sticker price.

It seems more and more often I amaze myself, when it comes time to get into bed. I find myself asking "Where did the night go"? Running through the list each night, I have started to notice how much time I spend not only enjoying my wonderful technology, but configuring it.

For example:

DIGITAL PHOTOS: Pictures are a great place to start. Pictures are perfectly suited for a digital medium, because pictures are taken to be shared. We can share pictures via e-mail, on websites like flickr, shutterly, and facebook, or we can order prints of these pictures from a multitude of sites and have this shipped to us or pick them up at most local stores.

THE PROBLEM: Managing pictures has become one of the most difficult things for me to manage. For example, the decision must be made on how you are going to categorize your photos. Will it be by date, event (birthday party), subject (the baby), quality (good), action (to print), or some combination of factors? And once the decision is made, you have to commit to that decision, and not resort back to "dumping" in your My Pictures folder. All of that work, just to know what pictures are where.

And while pictures aren't the only digital media we have to manage, it makes my point. The time I spend taking, importing, categorizing, touching up, tagging, emailing, and uploading pictures can take up a whole evening. Throw in a music library (adding, deleting, editing, moving), movies (ripping, converting, uploading), tv shows (ripping, converting, naming), and so many other things, it really becomes a gruesome task.

I guess what I really want to know, is what other technology snags people run into, and what you do to cope?