That's me, Alert Alice

Overheard at Babies R Us today:
Woman #1: Does she know if she's having a boy or a girl?
Woman #2: She has no idea.
Thought in my head: No idea?!?? Really?!!?? Does she know there are only two options?
Don't ever say I'm not paying attention to the world around me.

A not-so-catchy phrase does not catch on

(First, my apologies to those who were enjoying Spinning Mud Flaps Lady. This post removes her from her pedestal, but just scroll down if you must.)

I know we are living in the world of the 2-Second Attention Span, but sometimes I think the advertising agencies who are paid gajillions of dollars to sell us stuff are trying to be too succinct which only confuses us. (Obviously if you look at the length of that last sentance, succinct-ness is not exactly my personal strong suit. But I digress...) My muse for this topic? A Metro PCS billboard in my town that has had me puzzled for the last 2 months. Literally.

Often when I drive by it, I end up saying the phrase over in my mind, trying to make sense of it. Next to Jessica Simpson (who is so excited by this ad campaign she's smiling from ear to ear):

Unlimit Yourself in LA

for no extra charge

Huh?

Do I ever limit Myself in LA? Should I limit Myself? I live about 400 miles from LA, is that limiting Me? Or is it that I should unlimit Myself in Lousiana? Again, I don't think my cell phone

would lead Me to be limited or unlimited there. (Yes, You is capitalized.)

And why LA? Why not SF? Or SMF? Or SLO? Are there really an inordinate amount of people in my town (again, 400 miles away from LA) who are feeling like they have been limiting themselves in LA?

OK, so I'm not completely bamboozled. I do have a slight understanding as to how cell phone services work. I think it's trying to convey that I could call anyone in LA (which I'm assuming to mean the City of Angels) at any time for any amount of time for no extra charge. But the silly thing is, I can already do that, so why do I need metroPCS to tell me to do that? I just think there are simpler ways of saying "buy our phone service" without creating a not-very-catchy catch phrase.

Probably my favorite ad campaign of all was for Fresno, California. Not exactly the top of the heap as far as places to visit, but the town's PR people decided on a campaign whose theme was "It's not FresNo, it's FresYes!" Makes you want to get on the next train bound for the central valley, doesn't it?

Or how about a spot I heard on NPR. It was something to the tune of "Get into a Volkswagen and let Volkswagen get into you." I guess, if that suits your fancy. But as much as I like fun cities, great cars and unlimited cell service, I won't be driving to FresYes in a VW Jetta unlimiting myself in LA anytime soon. Just say what you mean, marketing people. You get paid a lot of clams to do that.

left brain, right brain

Okay: so I have no idea whether left-brain/right-brain is valid or not, but this picture in the Herald-Sun story is pretty cool.

Now, supposedly if you're right-brained you see her spinning clockwise and if you're left-brained you see her spinning counter-clockwise.

That's sort of interesting, but it was more interesting for me to see it the "wrong" (for me, counter-clockwise) way. I could only see her spinning clockwise for the longest time--until I stared at the periphery and then all of a sudden she popped around.

Entertainment when I should be doing other things...

I think I've used up all my words...

...must be my problem. I talk and talk and write and write all day...and at the end of the day, there's not enough left for blogging. Hmm. So, in lieu of an actual post, here's a list of random things from recent everyday life:

*We had parent-teacher conferences for preschool today. That's right, preschool.
*I try very (and I mean very) hard to not get caught up in pushing my children ever faster. The whole early academics thing is bizarre to me.
*Yet, yet. I had a fleeting thought today where I wondered: is she on track? Will she read this year? If she doesn't, is that okay? She's 4, going on 5. Good grief.
*#1 *loves* finding things that start with the letter of the week. Sunday night she hit a bonanza, as she couldn't stop seeing things that started with G. Grampa! Grammie! Guy! Gal! Goat! She ended up taking several things for share time: a baggie of grass (lawn clippings, come on...), a green Mountain Dew can, and glue. Oh, and a list of G words she had us spell for her. She was nearly delirious with delight.
*#2 is on the verge of losing all of his absolutely adorable toddlery language, and I'm not going to remember most of it. Like hocktey-doctor (helicopter) and wif (with) and so on. Sob.
*My in-laws rule. My f-i-l does the dishes every night; my m-i-l knits very cool scarves and made slipcovers for two chairs and makes dinner. And they wonder why I want them to move in with us?
*We are approaching high holiday season here, which begins with halloween's candyfest. Halloween's *on* in this house: we pounded a large bag of black and orange m n m's this weekend. We blitz on from Halloween to birthdays to Thanksgiving to more birthdays right on through New Year's Eve. Whee!