Getting IT

Some people, especially those in the publishing field, like to blog about the latest works of fine literature they have just consumed.  Me, not to so much.  I like to watch TV.  Nothing caps a night of wrestling a squrimy boy to bed and cajoling a 9 year old to PLEASE take a shower like sitting down in front of the set with a cold bowl of ice cream.   Not so much reality TV, with the exception of “The Amazing Race” — more scripted dramas and comedies.  The shows that most critics have written off as a dying breed.

So, what do you do to promote your product in an age where everyone is saying it’s obsolete?  You make use of as many of the social media tools that are relevant for your customer/viewer.  That’s what ABC has done.  Of late, ABC has:

* Inserted a DVD into TV Guide with the pilot episodes for 3 shows, including “Pushing Daisies” and “Private Practice.”  These shows premiered last season, but for viewers who might be thinking of trying them out this season, this gives them an easy entry to figure out what is going on and how to follow the plots lines. 

* Produced podcasts for many of it’s shows.  My favorites are the ones for “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Lost”.  They use the executive producers most of the time, and it gives you some insight into what they and the writers were thinking when they created the shows. 

* Created a “starter kit” for a whole bunch of shows, downloadable free on iTunes.  These nuggets give you just enough information about a particular show to pick up what is going on when you watch it. 

* Allowed free viewings of shows using the full episode downloader at abc.com.

In an era where major networks are hemorrhaging viewers, ABC is smart to find ways to engage them in the places where they live.  They may not always be home on Thursday nights at 9pm, but in the era of TiVo and the Internet, that’s no reason to alienate them.  Contrast that to the CW last season who pulled off full episodes of “Gossip Girl” because they wanted to improve their real-time viewership stats.  This was greeted rather poorly in the blogosphere and with the show’s youthful fan base, and thankfully it’s back on the site for viewing this season.  That was a quite a night, when I settled in front of the computer to watch an episode I missed, and was greeted with “Where are the full episodes of ‘Gossip Girl’ apology.  You did not want to be around me that night. 

I certainly see some analogies between what ABC has done and the publishing industry’s need to be more social.  Of course, the marketing budget for an average TV show is probably more than my whole division spends in a decade.  But there are cost effective ways to get your message out online, and we need to do more of that to stay relevant and get our message our to our readers.

Happy Banned Books Week!

Yesterday marked the start of Banned Books Week 2008.  And what better way to celebrate than to remove books you find questionable from a library in a small Alaskan town pick up a book from the ALA’s list of most challenged of 2007.  Thankfully, two books (”Beloved”, “The Bluest Eye”) from one of my favorite authors, Toni Morrison, were off the list.  But Ms. Morrison is still on the top 10 most challenged author list.   Seriously people, what up with that? 

I didn’t see Judy Blume on the list, but she has been there before.  I don’t know how I could have gotten through adolescence without her. 

Why not stop into your local library, and find out how they respond to people who want books removed?  I talked to my local librarian who all but laughed at me when I inquired as to whether she or the library board bans books.  But I don’t exactly live in the kind of place that does that.  If you live in a “red state”, have the conversation.  Understand what goes on, so you can be informed.  This video from the American Library Association could be your reality.  

Remember, if you don’t like it, don’t read it.  If you don’t want your kids reading it, don’t let them.  But you don’t have the right to make that decision for me or anyone else.

A momentary loss of muscular coordination

I’m feeling kind of out of wack these days. 

Last week, I was ranting and raving about the upcoming election to my mother.  Mostly about how I can’t believe the crap the McCain camp is throwing around, can you believe this Palin chick, and who is going to fall for this.  Mother is through all of this strangely silent.  Then I realize, she’s in.  She’s falling for this.  She’s planning on voting for McCain.

Other than the fact that that I totally disagree with her, this throws my whole world into disarray.  You see, the one constant in my life is that my parents never agree with each other.  And now, they do.

They divorced when I was very young, so I didn’t grow up with them both in the same house.  This certainly helped with the balancing act.  The NY liberal and the Texas conservative are never in agreement. It’s the surest bet you could ever make.  They’re total opposites, and it’s been a constant in my life for some time.  But now, they’re in agreement on who they want to be the next leader of the free world.  How?  Why?

This is causing a disturbance in the Force.  My ying is out of balance from my yang.  No wonder my vertigo is making a reappearance.

I have no shot trying to chance my dad’s vote.  Even my stepmother is not capable of that.  But I still have 30 some days to work on my mom.  First step, the Obama-Biden bumper sticker Moveon.org is sending.  It will look great on her Camry!

“Enjoy You Potato”

Last weekend, we went to at the Eastern States Expo, aka the Big E.  If you haven’t been, it’s the state fair for the New England states held near Mr. IT’s hometown in West Springfield, MA.  Being a city girl, I’ve only been to street fairs, mostly of the Italian and Polish variety, so it was exciting to do something different.   Anyhow, each state has a replica of their statehouse permanently built on the fair grounds.  At the Maine one, they are known for their fully-loaded Maine potatoes.  In fact, they have a special line out the side door to get your potatoes, ostensibly because the demand is so high it would clog up the front door.  When we got on line for our potato, I noticed a sign next to the door, and had to snap a picture.

Maine Math

I’m not sure what is worse, assuming that people can’t add $5 + $5 + $5, or offending them with a typo in the first place.  They weren’t exactly the Soup Nazis, so I am unsure as to why they decided to put customers in a state of panic, counting their potato money repeatedly to not offend the cashiers.  Despite the sign, the potato was yummy and so was the lobster roll consumed by Mr. IT, and the blueberry pie my sister-in-law was unable to finish that found it’s way to my grubby paws.  Next year, I’m saving the appetite and heading straight to Maine.  With my sharpie for some typo corrections.

Favorite. Word. Ever.

Note to Mama

It was truly a red-letter-day!

Bite me

It’s September, start of another fall TV season.  Thankfully, we have a new vampire series to look forward to.

What, you don’t look forward to things vampiric?  I do.  Always have.

Favorite muppet?  Count von Count.

My first Goth role model

Favorite book?  “Dracula”, of course.  Since junior high.   Now I’m reading “Twilight” and all that.

Anne Rice and Buffy also rank high on my hit parade.

So it was an awakening of sorts to see the billboard in front of the Lincoln Tunnel on my morning commute.  It was for a product called “Tru Blood” and it billed itself as a synthetic product for vampires.  Since HBO usually has this space, I scanned the billboard for some sign of what the product was, and sure enough, you could see “HBO” in small print at the bottom.  I figured it had to be a new show, but what, I did not know.

I could have Googled “Tru Blood” but instead checked out HBO On Demand on my cable system.  Over the summer, they had posted short 3 minute videos about how vampires were real, and with the advent of the True Blood product were coming out of the coffin, so to speak, to live among humans.  Each video mentioned a number of different web sites, which were integral to the viral nature of the marketing.  I learned the show was from Alan Ball, who was behind the wonderful “Six Feet Under”, giving it all the earmarks of a show that I will love.

“True Blood” premiered on Sunday, but I was bathing IT Boy and packing for a trip and did not get a chance to view it.  For those who did, what’s the verdict?  Is it something I will embrace?  Will it last, unlike “Moonlight”, which when it started to get good faced cancellation and time-slot shifting?  Or is it a television gaja, a poser, a pretender, not worthy of my time?  I need to see episode 1 before episode 2 airs on Sunday.  Do tell, my friends, do tell. 

Why Men Cheat and How to Prevent It

I’m thrilled to say that a Wiley author will be on Oprah WInfrey’s show today.  You can read the full Wiley press release here, but be sure to turn into the show to see them talking about cheating men!  Oprah’s not going to hold back here!  M. Gary Neuman is the author who will be appearing, and I’m pretty sure he’s not the guy who recorded “Cars.”  Apparently, we’re doing some kind of free 24 hour download of the book, ala what Suze Orman did some months ago.    It’s not mentioned in the release, but check out Oprah.com where I *think* you can find more details. 

Oprah remains the holy grail in publishing, and I’m thrilled for my consumer list colleagues that they have gotten this get.  I still remain convinced that someday I will have an author on, but until Oprah needs help with fighting a hijack Trojan, I am unfulfilled in that department.

Edited to say: Here’s the link to download the book, “The Truth About Cheating”…you have between now and 7pm Pacific time tomorrow night to get your copy.

Customer service done RIGHT

Earlier this year, I had a most unfortunate experience at the Residence Inn in Austin TX during SXSW.  It was made even worse by the fact that the hotel staff really didn’t think that there was a problem.  There was little if any effort to reach out to me and say, hey, we value you as a guest, we know you had a choice and you chose to stay here, and even though things did not go the way they should, we are here to say that’s not the way we operate. 

Nah, there was nothing like that.

This week, I am in our Indianapolis office for some business reviews.  I’m staying at a Marriott property near our office.  It’s the second time I’ve stayed here, and in general, I have been pleased.  There’s free wi-fi, free breakfast and a decent fitness center.  The facility is new and the beds are comfortable.  I don’t ask for more than that. 

Last night, I came up to my room to find my keys not working.  I went down to the front desk to get new keys, but upon returning to my floor, found the keys were not to be the problem.  There was something wrong with the whole lock system.  The woman at the front desk came up and tried, but she couldn’t get in.  Then, the laundry guy (?!?) came up and his key worked, and I got in.  The woman from the front desk came back up and apologized profusely.  She said my room would be comped, which she did not have to do, as the apology was enough.

Next morning, I was heading down to the fitness center and I wanted to make sure I could get back in the room.  I found, much to my chagrin, that the lock was not working, and my door had been open all night (note, I do use the bolt and all that).  I stopped by the front desk to explain that to the morning manager on duty, and she promised to have it fixed by the time I returned.  Sure enough, it was, and when I entered my room, there was a gift bag filled with goodies and two hand-written notes of apology. 

“They didn’t have to do that,” I thought.   But how nice that they did.  And isn’t it better to leave a customer with the feeling that they went the extra mile to make me feel better, rather than my horrible experience at the Austin Residence Inn?  All they had to do was admit a mistake and say that it wasn’t going to happen again.  I’m not saying my room should have been comped, but maybe some extra Marriott rewards points would have been appreciated.  No matter.  I’m quite pleased with the SpringHill Suites and will certainly plan on returning here on future trips to Indy.  Checking my door, extensively, each visit of course.

1 week, 5 days

IT Boy just completed day 5 of school.  It’s out of order, but I’m counting it as a week.  And a success.

We had a couple of painful moments when the staff didn’t realize that his busing had not started yet, and they put him in line for the bus.  Realizing I was upstairs waiting for him in the designated room, they would take him off line and bring him up.  This disappointed Boy, and he would invariably be crying by the time he reached me.  I was the only parent to face a crying child in that room, as I probably would also have been the only one who had a crying child because he wanted to ride the bus.

On Monday, the dream was realized when the bus pulled up to the house to pick him up.  Upon seeing the bus, he started flapping with joy.  He was a little apprehensive when buckled, but he soon got over it when BobBob was there to soothe him. 

According to the staff in his classroom, he is adjusting nicely.  Today was his first OT session at school, and I am curious to see how that went.

Many people have been asking about the boy, assuming he was going to the school we originally planned to send him to.  Others are surprised when they hear he’s going 5 mornings a week.  I’m very quick to explain that we made the decision to send him to a school for children with speech and developmental delays.  I’m not sure why I must throw that out to everyone I meet.  It’s sort of like the guy I work with who for a time, always found himself inserting into every sentence that he was gay.  “As a gay man, I find that ad to be offensive.”  “As a gay man, it’s not easy to travel without people thinking you’re married.”  Sometimes it was less relevant a statement, but it was always there.  “As a gay man, the weather has been getting a bit chillier in the morning.” 

I want it out there.  I want people to know.

I’m doing it because I want people to understand that IT Boy is what a kid with speech and developmental delays looks like.  If he’s not so scary, and you care about him, you must care about others like him. 

I’m doing it to show people that I care about my son, and my husband and I will do what it takes to get him the care he needs.

I’m doing it to say that I will advocate for and fight for my son, whatever the cause may be. 

I’m doing it to show how proud I am of him and the progress that he has made, and that I couldn’t love him anymore than I already do.

And that it’s all going to be all right.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Every kid, at some time, develops an attachment to a character.  It might be Elmo, or Steve from Blue’s Clues, or even that dammed gecko on the Geico commercials. 

IT Boy has never been one to watch TV for himself.  He never wants to sit still that long.  Sure, an Optimum Online commercial comes on, and he’ll stop and stare.  But no Sesame Street, Dora or anything like that.

Until we noticed him saying “Bob Bob”.  I thought I was hearing things, until I realized he was watching Spongebob.  We started putting it on for him, and even though he rarely watches it for more than 5 minutes at a time, he was watching it.  I pulled out a stuffed Spongebob I got for Little IT and gave it to him.  At first he was freaked out (the thing is about as big as he is) but he quickly learned to engulf him in a big bear hug.

His speech teacher recommended that we go with it, so he now has a full setting of Spongebob dinner wear and a placemat.  This is getting him excited about sitting through his OT sessions where he learns to hold a fork and eat.  I sent him to school on his first day with a SB backpack and in a SB t-shirt.  Gotta stack the deck in our favor, you know.  When I put him on the bus for the first time yesterday, I told him to talk to BobBob, and that seemed to calm him.  We even got him a cake with SB on it for his 2nd birthday.

If I could only find crib sheets for him.  Something about SB being more appropriate for the over 5 set.  Whatever.