Ok, I was done for today but just came across this and must add it because of its connection to my previous pondering on colors: The true hue of the cosmic stew- mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Read the following bit and count how many letter F's there are:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-

SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-

IC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE

EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

I will write the right answer as a response to this entry. Just click on the "Responses" link to see the answer. I think it is very interesting how our brains work. Hey, whatta ya know, we're not perfect. Now I just wonder what the color ______ [use the gibberish word of your choice] looks like. Can you imagine what another color would look like? When was the last time you tried describing "purple" to someone who was born blind. Maybe thinking about thinking about things in different ways can help us get out of problems (boxes) and "see" that there is always a choice.

Speaking of choices: When you have no choice, you have made the choice to have no choice. I am reminded of an awesome quote that was quoted in this week's West Wing. It is from Lion in Winter.

Geoffrey: "You fool, as if it matters how a man falls down."
Richard: "When the fall is all that is left, it matters a great deal."

I leave you with those thoughts for the weekend. Much of this entry is made possible by a very dear friend of mine. Thank you.

Ok, fine, one last quote: Guinan (Star Trek: The Next Generation) once said (or will say), "When a man is convinced he will die tomorrow, he usually finds a way to make it happen."

Pontification for the day - on the Internet we have the power of anonymity. But what sort of 'power' is it, really? Many use this shroud to become other people, delving into personalities they may otherwise keep hidden (cybersex chat rooms, among many other examples). Others use the anonymity to be themselves - truly themselves - in ways previously impossible, or unpractical, or unrealistic. For example, people can now discuss really freaky rashes in complete comfort of anonymous Yahoo clubs, which can be more comforting that once weekly anonymous group meetings. People also share their photography, artwork and music, possibly before ever showing them to even the best of friends. [shameless plug for GAZM.org goes here].

I think that is a great part of being on the Internet. It's not just e-commerce, spam and porn. It's so much more than that. During a one hour session you can delve into the many different sides of your psyche, nourishing each. Of course, you should also get some fresh air every now and then (I recommend leaving the computer at least once a week - possibly to get buffalo wings).

Now, if we spend a lot of time online nourishing our many personalities and needs, do we change when leaving the computer? Is it an adjustement getting back into normal mode? I think we do it naturaly today but it may be more difficult in years to come. As long as the Internet is just something that exists when you're in front of a computer screen (or connected wireless device) it is easy to detach. Future generations may have to be more publicly honest and true to themselves than we ever considered. Jeez, can you imagine that?

"New" Year?
An F-16 jet just crashed into the ground in New Jersey, by the Garden State Parkway mile marker 55. The pilot ejected safely. The View was just interrupted with a "special report" to announce it. (isn't it somehow fitting/ironic they are called "Special Reports?" Maybe they should also be called "special reporters?") Wasn't the new year supposed to bring a change in attitudes and activities and be somehow better? Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot, January 1st is a day LIKE ANY OTHER. Somehow someone forgot to phone the cosmos and let 'em know to make things better for 2002. Damn! I guess it's up to us humans.

Further thought about weird marketing/businesses - has anyone seen a GOOD TV (or not TV) ad for a drug product? I just saw a commercial for one and it said (paraphrasing slightly): "bleeding may occur spontaneously and without warning." Redundancy aside, how insane is this? "Um, yeah, Mr. Pharmacist, give me the pills that cause involuntary bleeding, thank you. Oh, and some condoms too please." Discuss. Please.

Although I don't intend to link to many 'cool pages of the moment,' I found this page particularly funny: BBspot - Top 11 Post 9/11 Advertising Campaigns.

There was a lot of hoopla regarding marketing (aside from many other things) in the post 9-11 world. This is a funny Top 11 list given the breathing room since the attacks. Many of them are true regardless ("Kill yourself before the terrorists do - Phillip Morris").

Which brings up an interesting point that has bothered me since seeing a series of billboards in LA. Set up by an anti-smoking organization, they basically give a tally of smoking-related deaths (or is it a statistic of how many die each day?) and depict a tobacco executive (who looks like an alligator) saying "darn, and our best customers too!"

Isn't it a strange thing that the best success tobacco companies can have is when they kill their customers? My mind can't quite comprehend "use our product, love our product, buy more of our product, and if you are really really loyal to our product, you'll die!" It's not just a freak accident, like loving my Saturn or Delta and then getting killed in a horrible accident. It's part of the product usage cycle - death. Of course, since the death comes well after getting started with the product it's easier to hook people. They are addicted and only then do they die, after spending thousands of dollars on the product. I guess the tobacco companies are lucky that suckers are born every minute who take up smoking. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against smokers (in fact, I am against criminalizing it!) but as a non-smoker I do not understand how people can smoke with everything that we know about it these days. Thank god pot is illegal!!

Thought for the day - isn't it cool how PORN, something so on the fringes of our public consciousness, yet so central to our personal lives, is the forbearer of innovations in all sorts of areas? Many have written about this topic and I don't need to rehash anything for my clever, albeit nonexistent, audience. Just think about it. Really. (the topic, not my nonexistent audience) And I'm not just referring to the early days of the Internet. It continues today. Methods of marketing once employed only by porn sites are now used by mainstream companies. That doesn't mean they're good or ingenious, it just means that companies are desperate. Maybe if they become more like porn companies we will like them more?!

Naive thought for the day - why don't companies take their massive marketing budgets and invest them, just for 6 months, in something else. Something more beneficial to the audience they claim to care so much about (flashbacks to Christopher Locke's chapter on cause marketing vs. social marketing in Gonzo Marketing) An even better idea is this - how about a vacation??? Shut the fuck up and think about what you're doing for a second. Stop interrupting people, or treating them like eyeballs, or begging them to love you, or annoying them, or just showing your ignorance and detachment by being so silly. Don't just hire a consultant and change your strategy tomorrow. Take a breather. Leave us the fuck alone and chill out. If we like you, we'll buy your stuff. If we don't, no matter how quilted your toilet paper is, we won't wipe our asses with it.

Wow, I feel like part of the club, after ranting and using naughty words. Am I a blogger now?

Dangling British Participles:
While giving a speech in Afghanistan, Tony Blair stated that the British will not abandon their country.
Hmmmm....

The best Jalapeno chips ever created. Just listen to them! I used to be a die hard Deli Jalapeno fan (the ones in the red bag, 50 cents), but after tasting Tim's Chips, I am converted. Couldn't find a store that sells 'em in NY, so I will use their convenient ordering page. Sadly, I am not in any way affiliated with them. Enjoy.

Cars today are pretty much like cars 20 years ago. They are more comfortable, more cushiony, have temperature control and airbags. Airplanes today are pretty much like airplanes 20 years ago. They are more comfortable, more cushiony, have TVs, telephones and beds. Toilet paper today is pretty much like toilet paper 20 years ago. It's double quilted, scented, hypo-allergenic and pink. We are still crowding around the "glowing box" like we did 20 years ago and we're still dealing with many of the same social and economic issues (where is the beef, anyway?). Books, magazines, newspapers and schools are still pretty much the same too. Then there's the Internet...

What do you think? Is it new? One thing comes to mind - MP3's ability to destroy an industry by leveraging the unique capabilities of the Internet (hello Shawn). Am I doing something wrong by freely downloading and distributing a piece of copy righted creativity that someone slaved over? Probably. What about when its my mother, and yours, that's also doing it? Doesn't she have morals? I know that us net-heads use technology because "its there," but is that how our parents use technology too? They are supposed to have higher standards than us, right? Oh well.

So what now? I don't see kids in college NOT starting garage bands. I don't see A&R guys downloading tons of shit from Audio Galaxy in order to find the next big thang. Nope, people are still making music (and trying to get people to download it for free, "please, download my intellectual property!!!") and record companies are still signing up acts ("oh, I'm sorry Vivendi/Universal/USA/AOL/TW/McDonalds, I'd rather not have a recording contract with you." NOT!) So what now? How will they make their money? Is it something that money can still be made from? (hello [insert obsolete industry/business/position here]).

This post is based on discussions I've had over the past week with a variety of friends, and I'd like to thank them for sparking most of these thoughts.

I am a simple, quirky man, not very smart, friendly or particularly excited by many things. Aside from family, friends, Star Trek and Seinfeld, my time is spent on entrepreneurship. The specific shape that takes is my baby, GAZM.org (born in Sep '98 and still online!).

It recently occurred to me that there aren't many blogs by people who are still actively running their own Internet company. BTW, that's one of the few times you'll hear me call GAZM an Internet company, so savor it (the web is merely the easiest host for GAZM right now). I'd like this journal to be a glimpse into what it's like to run a small company (and a website!) that wants to make money these days. This journal is a place for me to share stories and barely coherent intellectual meanderings regarding business, entrepreneurship, GAZM, money and other strokes of fancy.

I am not interested in turning this into a 'cool links' blog, as so many others are already doing that (check out blogsploitation for some of my favs). That's about as much of an intro as I'm interested in writing right now. You'll find out a lot more about me in the course of this whole journal.

OK, fine, maybe you deserve a few more words of introduction. Fine. I'll list, less snidely, those things which interest me aside from my company: Time (its relation to us and our relation to it), knowledge (what is it, how to we acquire it and most interestingly, how do we share it?), technology (its affects on everything and are we better off with it?), marketing (influenced heavily by Cluetrain, Gonzo, and Frankel), and what the hell we are doing here? homo sapiens (man the thinker), homo ludens (man the player), homo extendere (man the extender), homo faciens (man the maker)...