Subliminal Marketing Revealed!

Is this guy for real?!?!? In the small business consulting "biz" and particularly in the restaurant industry, one gets onto some interesting mailing lists, but here's something I've never seen:

Now, Marketers are not always giving us a straight-forward sell-- we all get that --but subliminal sales triggers? This might be just TOO MUCH. So when my BS detector started going crazy, I did a little research into this guy... and couldn't find much at all.

And that's what bothered me. The guy's name is Kamron Karington, no clues there except that he has Utah roots; that state is famous for creative name mispellings. The 6 google returns for his website (click pic) and the 556 on his name search yielded unreliable results, most of them were his own or affiliated pages. He DID buy a full-page ad in Fast Casual's Apr/May Issue [What, you don't read Fast Casual magazine? ;) ] And I read the whole thing through. I was also seduced into reading this questionable source and his homepage here.

I call it questionable because the voice is similar to the copy on his homepage, convincing me that at least both endorsements came form the same author, if not the whole page. And I think the reason I am so interested in this is not that I am skeptical, but maybe that I really want this to be true. BECAUSE IF IT IS...

SB Marketing consulting just got a LOT easier, I simply have to get this guy's info [which is free, if you believe what you read] and then find clients willing to pay me to slowly recite Mr. Karington's Black Book of Guaranteed Subliminal Sales Secrets to them for two-hundred and forty dollars an hour...

It's almost too easy. I would be interested to hear from anyone on the success of the tactics espoused by Kamron's program. Anyone NOT affiliated with his company, that is. --Shawn Butler

On Turning 28: Perspective

This week I turned 28. I had a very small celebration, entirely because my wife planned it, got others involved and did it for me. If it were up to me, I am through with birthdays. Which I think has worked out for me. My daughter was born on my birthday, which I happily spent in the hospital with my hand being squeezed in my wife's as I shouted out encouragements about her breathing and pushing. At any rate, I believe I have effectively solved my problem of ever celebrating my birthday again.

I did, however, buy myself a birthday present. An expensive piece of electronics. I exhibit only a few of the classic Machismo behaviors, I don't use profanity, ESPN bores me, and I think beer-drinking is laughably stupid. But one man-trait I exhibit shamelessly is a passion for the electronic. I love technology. Tying in my birthday and the birth of our daughter created the necessary justification to indulge my inner hombre and I bought a video camera.

But that does not do it justice. What I bought is a Panasonic GS-320 Mini-DV Camcorder, and yes, that is another man-mannerism, it made me feel powerful and cocky to type out all those numbers and dashes. That's why girl items have soothing names, like Easyglide and Pearlmax, but boy items have Part Numbers and Product Codes, because men love numbers. And complications.

So now I have begun video taping things. And I find this fulfilling. There is a part of me that feels very satisfied when I am holding the camera and the red light is flashing. Something primal is comforted knowing that these moments; the words, inflections, miniscule motions of face and body are being captured and retained. It is a sense of reassurance that passing time IS something important. That it SHOULD be valued and held on to. It is sad that early man ( i.e.- man before the invention of the camcorder) was unable to experience this satisfaction. So it goes...

Perspective Part 2

Before Digital, cameras worked very differently. One could not see what he was recording on a 2" Liquid Crystal Display. There was no instant replay or rewind. Taking a picture was a supreme act of faith and an exercise in commitment. The image was captured, handed down from the eye of the camera and pressed resolutely and inalterably into the film. With Digital, every picture can be reviewed for approval, and without film being wasted, there is no sense of consequence. There is no metaphor in digital imaging. There is no "Cause and Effect," no "Reap What You Sew" moral lesson to be learned.

With film cameras, we still had the element of chance. There was an aspect of danger in photography. You could come out of that photo shoot with literally anything. There was no such thing as a perfect picture. This is much more akin to life=

Sometimes you can do everything exactly right. Fill up a whole roll of film. Drop it off at the store, come back in a week to pick it up, and find twenty-four images of fuzz and darkness. Like you were photographing Big Foot. With the film crew from "Blair Witch."

Life is like a film camera. I can set up the model, check the lighting, check my camera and do everything exactly the way I think it is supposed to work. Then Click. The picture is captured just as it was, whatever combination of light, distance, shutter speed, movement, etc. that occured at that moment has been compiled onto the rolling celluloid of the film canister and there's nothing I can do about it except just keep going. Aiming my camera, pointing and clicking. Some shots are arranged, like fruit in a bowl or a family portrait, while others are candids, a flashbulb halting the scene in the midst of the action and holding it still.

When the roll is filled, it has to be developed. I won't know what the pictures look like until I've gained some time perspective. When the photos are developed, I can see that "oh, I wasn't smiling" or "her eyes were closed" or "wow, there was a rainbow right behind us," but by then, the scene is set and inalterable. The moment has been through the stop bath and rinsed in hypo. As I proceed in life, I have no way of knowing what is coming next. But I have a ready camera, a half exposed roll of film, and stacks of albums filled with the things that have gone right and wrong in the past. Entire books of the things we call "Life Lessons" that can be pulled out and shared with others with a story beginning "Here is something I did wrong..." or "Here's one that went right..."

Toy-tiger... ToyGrrr... Toyger

Finally! Mankind is Putting our Science to Work on Something Worthwhile: Making "House Pet" Sized Carnivorous Jungle Cats! This is where we were meant to take our unprecedented advances in genetic engineering and stem cell research. Why on earth did they waste so much time cloning stupid sheep? We have millions of sheep, more than enough, look at the population of New Zealand. But what we don't have enough of is genetically engineered tiny pet tigers. Until now. Here are some pics:

Okay, the 1st image is actually just a normal cat, but it's good for comparison.

If you're loving these beasts like I am, here is a link for more info. And also, watch the video above! It is a hilarious example of Video Slideshow Technology in the hands of crazed cat fans.

"But Remember, Kids, we can Genetically Alter their Size, but Nothing can Alter their Savage Primordial Rage©" --I put it on the internet first, folks. When the big box companies come looking for their tagline, you are my witnesses that I had it first (and I put the "circle-C" so it's legal)!

Summer of Threequels, or "3=XP"(Three Equals Sucky)

This Summer is the Summer of Threequels. This word may be made up but it is supposed to mean the 3rd movie in a trilogy, usually containing the number 3 in the title. For Whatever Reason, the Summer of 2007 will be full of the releases of really bad movie Threequels. Here is my list of movie Threequels released (or planned for release) this summer and the review (or expected review) of each:

List of Threequels in Summer '07:
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 - Not quite as bad as 2, but nowhere near as good as 1.
Shrek 3 - Why are they still making these?
Spiderman 3 - Why so many villains? Why so many unresolved conflicts? Why so many flashbacks?
Rush Hour 3 - Wow. The world could have lived without this entire series.
Ocean's 13 - Should be called "Ocean's Eleven 2" and we can all just pretend Ocean's 12 never happened.
Bourne (#3) Ultimatum - Wow. I did not know people could be killed with produce.
& the 1 that doesn't even know it's a Threequel= Surf's Up
or Animated Penguin Movie #3
Some Might Call it a Stretch, but I Label Surf's Up as the 3rd in another Trilogy:
It's the Threequel to The Year Shia LeBeouf Dispels his Disney Channel persona a la JT and Xtina by Being in Real Movies Series. In case you missed it, the first 2 installments to this Trilogy were Disturbia and Transformers. Even Steven has been busy in 2007.

Some movies are good enough that there needs to be a sequel. Some even deserve a whole series. But in most cases, it is pretty understood that movies should stop after 1. Here is my brief list of movies that should have stopped at 1 but did not:

Brief List of Movies with Really Bad Threequels:
Back to the Future 3
Batman (#3) Forever
Superman 3

(To Be Continued)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._box_office_bombs

I noticed that every good blog has a numbers list, here's mine-

IN LIFE:

Tip #25 Never try to do the things you see on TV in your own home

Tip #24 Always check your order before leaving the drive-thru

Tip #23 Don't stress over things that you can't change or don't understand

Tip #22 When using blades, always apply motion away from one’s self

Tip #21 Before using the toilet, make sure it works and has plenty of toilet paper

Tip #20 Never speak badly of others, especially when they’re not around

Tip #19 Model yourself after people you know, not after people you see on TV

Tip #18 Treat everyone like they are the most important person in the world

Tip #17 Help someone at least once a day. Try to keep it a secret.

Tip #16 Remember that You determine your own happiness

Tip #15 Go to bed when you’re tired

Tip #14 Stop eating when you’re full

Tip #13 Always wash fruits and vegetables before you eat them

Tip #12 Chew your food

Tip #11 When you’re hungry, prepare a meal, then sit down and eat it.

Tip #10 Be generous with your compliments

Tip #9 If you're not sure about something, ask

Tip #8 No matter who you work for, you’re your own boss and best customer

Tip #7 Before anyone else can love you, you have to be able to love yourself

Tip #6 Always give time to listen to what others have to say

Tip #5 Pay off your debts before you acquire any new ones

Tip #4 Write “thank you” notes. For anything.

Tip #3 If you are an impulsive shopper, learn to keep your receipts

Tip #2 Do what you know is right, even if nobody sees it

Tip #1 Pray to God, but lock your doors.

Completely Necessary List of Books to be a Literate Member of Society

I was asked by a friend to compile a list of the books that were important for him to read in order to be a Literate and Contributing member of modern culture.
This is my first attempt -- The main criteria for this list was to cover the books that are referenced either directly or in allusion in the literary community. For obvious reasons, that turned out to include all the "staple" books that are required reading for middle school and high school students.
NOTE: This is not a listing of "great books," or even "good books," and not a list of my favorite books, which would be MUCH different. This list is designed to guide young readers in their desire to cover the [quote, unquote] literary basics.

In alphabetical order by the first non-“the” in the book title.

• 1984--George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer--Mark Twain
• A Farewell to Arms--Ernest Hemingway
• A Lesson Before Dying--Ernest J. Gaines
• A Separate Peace--John Knowles
• A Tale of Two Cities--Charles Dickens
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland--Lewis Carroll
• All the King’s Men--Robert Penn Warren
• The Ambassadors--Henry James
• An American Tragedy--Theodore Dreiser
• Animal Farm--George Orwell
• As I Lay Dying--William Faulkner
• Atlas Shrugged--Ayn Rand
• The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass
• Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman--Ernest J. Gaines
• The Awakening--Kate Chopin
• Beloved--Toni Morrison
• Bless Me, Ultima--Anaya Rudolfo
• Brave New World--Aldous Huxley
• The Bride Price--Buchi Emecheta
• Brideshead Revisited--Evelyn Waugh
• The Brothers Karamazov--Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Call of the Wild--Jack London
• Candide--Voltaire
• The Catcher in the Rye--J. D. Salinger
• Cat’s Cradle--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Catch-22--Joseph Heller
• The Chosen--Chaim Potok
• The Clan of the Cave Bear--Jean Auel
• The Color Purple-- Alice Walker
• The Count of Monte Cristo--Alexander Dumas
• Crime and Punishment--Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Deliverance--James Dickey
• Democracy--Joan Didion
• The Divine Comedy--Dante
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?--Philip K. Dick
• Doctor Zhivago--Boris Pasternak
• Don Quixote--Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde--Robert Louis Stevenson
• Ellen Foster--Kaye Gibbons
• Empire of the Sun--J. G. Ballard
• The End of the Affair--Graham Greene
• Ender’s Game--Orson Scott Card
• Ethan Frome--Edith Wharton
• Faust--Goethe
• Flowers for Algernon--Daniel Keyes
• The Fountainhead--Ayn Rand
• Frankenstein--Mary Shelley
• The Giver--Lois Lowry
• Go Tell It on the Mountain--James Baldwin
• Gone with the Wind--Margaret Mitchell
• The Grapes of Wrath--John Steinbeck
• Great Expectations--Charles Dickens
• The Great Gatsby--F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Grendel--John Gardner
• Gulliver’s Travels--Jonathon Swift
• Heart of Darkness--Joseph Conrad
• The Hobbit--J. R. R. Tolkien
• House Made of Dawn--N. Scott Momaday
• In Country--Bobbie Ann Mason
• The Invisible Man--H. G. Wells
• Invisible Man--Ralph Ellison
• Ivanhoe--Sir Walter Scott
• Jane Eyre--Charlotte Bronte
• The Jungle--Upton Sinclair
• Kindred--Octavia Butler
• The Kitchen God’s Wife--Amy Tan
• The Last of the Mohicans--James Fenimore Cooper
• The Left Hand of Darkness--Ursula K. Le Guin
• Les Miserables--Victor Hugo
• Less Than Zero--Bret Easton Ellis
• Like Water for Chocolate--Laura Esquivel
• Lord of the Flies--William Golding
• Love Medicine--Louise Erdrich
• Moby Dick--Herman Melville
• Moll Flanders--Daniel Defoe
• The Naked and the Dead--Norman Mailer
• Of Mice and Men--John Steinbeck
• The Old Gringo--Carlos Fuentes
• The Old Man and the Sea--Ernest Hemingway
• On the Road--Jack Kerouac
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest--Ken Kesey
• Out of Africa--Isak Dinesen
• Pride and Prejudice--Jane Austen
• The Prince--Niccolo Machiavelli
• The Red Badge of Courage--Stephen Crane
• The Remains of the Day--Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Return of the Native--Thomas Hardy
• Robinson Crusoe--Daniel Defoe
• Roots: The Story of an American Family--Alex Haley
• The Scarlet Letter--Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Screwtape Letters--C. S. Lewis
• Shogun: A Novel of Japan--James du Maresq Clavell
• Slaughterhouse Five--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• The Slave Dancer--Paula Fox
• Something Wicked this Way Comes--Ray Bradbury
• Song of Solomon--Toni Morrison
• The Sound and the Fury--William Faulkner
• The Stranger--Albert Camus
• Summer of My German Soldier--Bette Greene
• The Sun Also Rises--Ernest Hemingway
• The Sweet Hereafter--Russell Banks
• Ten Little Indians--Agatha Christie
• Tess of the d’Urbervilles--Thomas Hardy
• Their Eyes Were Watching God--Zora Neale Hurston
• Things Fall Apart--Chinua Achebe
• The Time Machine--H. G. Wells
• To Kill a Mockingbird--Harper Lee
• To the Lighthouse--Virginia Woolf
• Treason--Orson Scott Card
• Treasure Island--Robert Louis Stevenson
• V.--Thomas Pynchon
• War and Peace--Leo Tolstoy
• The Waste Land--T. S. Eliot
• Watership Down--Richard Adams
• The World According to Garp--John Irving
• Wuthering Heights--Emily Bronte

I was going to keep this list down to 100 books, but there are probably closer to 120. I would be interested to see submissions from readers, because I know I left off some that were important (i.e.: everybody's read them). Scan through and see if your favorites are on the list.

Things I Have Done For 8 Hours

It is the weekend. After an especially long week of work.
Some weeks just feel longer than others.
Much like some days can feel longer than others.
I have made a list of other things in my life that I have done for 8 hours straight.
1. Slept. Not often, but when I did, I'm pretty sure it was awesome. Although I recently learned that this could kill me.
2. I took an 8 hour flight to Oahu. It was a rather uneventful plane ride, but there was an exotic and tropical locale awaiting me on the other end. That was a good 8 hours.
3. I spent 8 hours learning how to use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, which is the tool I used to create my website. Thanks, Macromedia. Sorry I didn't pay you for the program! I promise I will next time.
4. Made love. Okay, I haven't actually done that for 8 hours straight, but I've taken my wife on exciting and romantic weekend getaways. I'm probably at about an 8 hour cumulative total for our 2 years of marriage. Ha!
5. My buddies in college and I took a Road Trip from Provo to L.A. to go to the beach. 5 of us in a Geo Metro for 8 hours each way. It was cramped, but I think we each pitched in about 5 bucks and covered gas.
6. I spent 8 solid hours after Christmas playing CITY OF HEROES. I breaked periodically for food, water, and bathroom, but even those took 2ndary status. By the time my free 1 month had expired, I was a level 14 blaster. And I am not allowed to buy the CITY OF VILLAINS upgrade. Doctor's orders.
7. I took the GMAT, that took about 8 hours. If I add on my breaks, travel time and an additional 2 hours for emotional distress.
8. It took me about 8 hours to Read the entire 209 pages of Charles Johnson's Middle Passage. But it probably took me atleast another 8 hours to figure out what that book was really about.

A Hi-Tech, Effective Networking Tool

I found something cool. This is a site that uses the "Internet" to create "Social Networks" for getting hired into jobs by "Knowing Somebody."

http://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnbutler

It is not "Truly" knowing anybody, like an "Old-Fashioned Network," but it is really close and it's "Free." Once I "Logged On," it asked me if I had anyone I'd "Like to Invite," so I just let it mail from my "Outlook Address Book." It turned out that several of my "Friends" were already on the site.

Then, I went under jobs and it tells me if people that I "Know," or people they "Know," work at the companies I'm "Interested In" and could "Answer My Questions" or "Help Me Get the Job." Cool, huh?

It seems like the idea I was looking for. I'll give it a try for the week and see if it gets me anywhere.

ALSO, if you're already on LinkedIn, add me, I have 6 contacts and I feel somewhat pathetic. Like when I first started MySpace and had 3 friends for months! ha ha

What do you want to do with your life?

Fast Company asked, “What do you want to do with your life?”

I answered, “You mean specifically or just in general? I want to be famous. I’m in marketing and advertising, and that will get me rich. But nobody gets famous by doing advertising.

I’m actually a writer. I’d like to write a book. About the insignificance of human struggle. How we invent this full complicated machine of society and then strap ourselves to it. We are kind of like mice who would build our own little mazes, and then pat ourselves on the back for having made it through the thing. I would write a long book about insignificant conflicts being resolved by unimportant people who finally achieve a meaningless purpose.

It would be a history.

I think this would be an appropriate revenge. I want someday for some fourth grader to have to write a report about me and my life. So that people will reverence my choice of music and pay homage to my taste in breakfast cereals. My fourth grade teacher once told me, ‘By learning about people who have done great things, we learn how we ourselves can achieve great things.’

I remember that she had us write four-page research papers on famous people. For a fourth-grader, a four-page paper is like writing our own novel. She assigned each student the name of a person who did something meaningful and important in history. One girl was assigned Barbara Walters, a kid was assigned Sir What's-his-name, the guy who invented baseball. You see, she tried to match up each kid with the personality of some great person.

I was assigned to write my four-page report on P.T. Barnum.
He’s a famous person who lived a long time ago. He’s best known as the guy who said, “There's a sucker born every minute.” He spent his whole life tricking people, lying to them, and stealing their money. He is also the guy who started the Barnum and Bailey circus. I learned everything about P.T. Barnum for that four-page paper: where he was born, how he grew up, I studied all the tricks, all the deceptions, and all the great scams this man came up with. I read about his family life, his favorite pastimes and all the witty things he said when he was drunk. 

I remember that we gave oral presentations to the whole school dressed in the attire of our assigned historical VIP. There was a kid dressed like Jonas Salk, a boy dressed up like Roy Rogers, even a fourth-grade Jane Goodall. I gave a two-minute speech on P.T. Barnum. Everyone thought it was real cute how my mom had gotten me a sparkling bow-tie and a little tuxedo jacket with tails. I had a top hat with sparkles on it, and even a pair of spats mom had put on over my penny loafers. I don’t remember what I said for those two minutes, but I remember I was terrified looking out at everybody’s moms and dads and I thought, “What did P.T. Barnum do that I am going through all this?”
And I couldn’t lay my finger on too much.

So I knew then that what I wanted more than anything was for some fourth-grader some day, probably after I’d died and my grand kids were all grown up, to have his teacher assign him to write a report on me, and he’d have to look me up in the encyclopedia and study everything I’d done.”