iceland

let's go see the northern lights.

e-mail exchange from work

hey all - want to make sure you guys are aware that everything must be final-approved by 12/19. this means that our offer will have to be negotiated and all language approved by that date.

who from the agency will connect with XXXXXX to negotiate the deal?

we're presenting the concept tomorrow and will tell them we need immediate approval to reach out to partners.

please advise - we'll need to start talking to XXXXXX asap.

----------------------

it is my job to form partnerships. i do not believe it is realistic to try to secure a partnership of this magnitude in ten working days.

we'd better chat in the AM.

----------------------

is it unrealistic that we can have any partner secured within the next few weeks? that's how much time we have as everything is supposed to go to the printer for mass production in mid-january.

----------------------

yeah, it's unrealistic to have it done in a couple weeks. these things typically take six to eight weeks... on the short end.

----------------------

uh, then why did we just present it today??

----------------------




uhhhhhhh.....


and you wonder why i get anxiety about work sometimes.

hey hey it's monday

so monday is turning out to not be so dreadful.

the only dreadful thing are all the conference calls i'm booked on - and the fact that i have this scratchy i'm-getting-a-cold voice.



i wish you guys could hear the smooth jazzy saxophone solo i'm listening to while i'm on hold right now. it's so fucking SMOOTH! what a treat.

HAT!

cold weather means it's time to break out the BEST HAT EVER.

i don't care how stupid i look in it, i love it.

work-related blogging

so a big part of my specific job at my agency deals specifically around marketing cameras and camcorders. the way our team is structured, we're kinda divided up in different categories - computers, television, digital imaging. i fall into the digital imaging category.

cameras have a lot of really amazing features these days and one of the challenges we're presented with is how to illustrate those features so that people understand them easily and understand the benefits of owning one brand of camera over another.

nikon just recently did a new campaign illustrating a feature called "face detection". this is where the camera has the ability to automatically find faces and focus in on them. i've never seen a better visual for this feature than this ad:



look closely for the full joke. it's pretty brilliant. well done, nikon.

i wish we had the opportunity to be this edgy/creative/funny.

hooray advertising!

sunday. fuck.

sunday, this is so fucking unfair.

you at least have to give me a few hours.

the sinking dread feeling isn't supposed to kick in till the afternoon.

and here it is, right when i wake up. fuck.

fuck sleeping in.
fuck missing important texts.
fuck working on a sunday.
fuck laundry.
fuck anxiety.

i just need to take a deep breath. eat a sandwich or something.

i just want to not show up to work tomorrow, get on a flight to iceland, and stay there until i run out of money, which, thanks to my personal financial situation wouldn't take me very long. fortunately, iceland is also in a bad financial sitaution. so it makes more sense to go now than ever!

ugh.

darth vader

this morning i woke up to a pleasant surprise.

there was a christmas parade going down broad st. right in front of my apartment.

it was a normal christmas parade until darth vader showed up with a bunch of stormtroopers.

this may not be a big deal to you, but it is to me. i PARK on that street.

darth vader walked down a street i park on.

can you say that about your street?

no, you can't.





i know what you're thinking.

"phil.. you said you were in your apartment, yet all these photos are street level."

yes, the answer is that i saw darth vader from my window, ran down three flights of stairs as fast as i could, nearly tripped, and ran up to the side of the street to get epic star wars photos.

if i were to make a list of "dorkiest things i have done in 2008", this might top that list. or at least make top three.

ugh. caffeine.

battle-worn and fading fast. caffeine is not helping.

thanks to my ridiculous job...

...i will be WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND!

doesn't that sound fun?

big meeting on monday. shit's not ready for said meeting. it is what it is.

needless to say, i will only work if i get to wear one of these awesome outfits.



oh, loverboy. why are you so fucking GOOD?

went to bed at 2:00am last night.

god, grant me the serenity to accept the things that i cannot change.

red bull, grant me wings.

what's better than videochatting with mari?

videochatting in FULL SCREEN HIGH DEFINITION! WHOAAAAAAAA!

liveblogging the new britney spears album

i have received a downloaded mp3 copy of the new britney spears.

i will be liveblogging my first impressions as i listen.

1. womanizer

i can relate a lot to this song, because i am a womanizer. and i do, in fact, try to front. but britney sees right through that. which is why she makes millions of dollars and i make something in the mid-$30s. i counted how many times she says "womanizer" and it's 39,210 times.

2. circus

from what i can tell, this is britney laying it out for you honest-style. she's an entertainer and you're the audience and she's ready to party. we're seeing some more themes about love, loss, and god in this song. okay, maybe not any of those things.

3. out from under

oh man, an acoustic jam.. this early in the album. what a treat! someone is definitely singing about kevin federline... and listening to dido albums. i was dancing before, and now i've stopped. this is not good for track #3. FAST FORWARDING.

4. kill the lights

one of my favorite virginia bands ever was called races to april. they had a song called "kill the lights". it was better than this song. that's all.

5. shattered glass

this song is pretty good. but i think if they let justice remix it, we could be talking serious hit potential. not bad, brit.

6. if u seek amy

i was starting to wonder when the idea of liveblogging while listening to a britney spears album would start to become a bad idea. turns out it is during this song. BAD BAD BAD.

7. unusual you

i don't think this song is about when she shaved her head and attacked an SUV with an umbrella, but i'd like it to be about that.

8. blur



9. mmm papi

okay, the title had me interested. this is like britney spears trying to write a B-52s song? i can't even handle this on any kind of level. FUNNY BUSINESS. FAST FORWARDING.

10. mannequin

whoever wrote the backing vocals for this song needs to be shot. also i have issue with these lyrics: i like it and i do what i like and you do what i like and you like it. i'm not even joking.

11. lace and leather

SLAP BASS! THIS SONG FEATURES SLAP BASS! seriously, the seinfeld theme song guy is fucking live and in full effect on this track. love it. okay, so... lace and leather. clearly we're singing about the good girl/bad girl dichotomy. britney obviously excels at this. i also identify with her struggle as i am constantly balancing my badass bearded self with my softer emotional side.

12. my baby

OMFG. it's a song about her kids. of course. she's a mom now. don't get me wrong, i fucking LOVE moms. i have a mom and she's great. but we don't need another song about being a mom, y'all. not by britney spears. first line of the song: tiny hands / yes that's you when i first heard it, i thought she said "tiny heads", which was infinitely more awesome. also, there's this gem of a lyric: i smell your breath / it makes me cry / i wonder how i've lived my life i am not even kidding dudes. if and when britney's children grow up and they're angsty teenagers and she's long since retired... i hope that when they're in a big fight about being grounded or getting bad grades, one of them says "MOM, THAT SONG YOU WROTE ABOUT US..... IT SUCKS!"

13. radar (bonus track)

i'm so lucky that when i stole this album on the internet, i got a free BONUS TRACK. i am not entirely sure, but i think this is the exact same song as womanizer with different lyrics. it was 12 songs back, but i'm reasonably confident about this.

OKAY, THE NEW ALBUM HAS BEEN LIVEBLOGGED.

please download the album yourself, and read along in real time for the full effect.

overall score: C+
considering all she's been through: B+
odds of listening to again not as a joke: 24%

i take everything back.

life is good. i just got back from a campfire with paramore.

we were just hanging out, roasting marshmallows and singing paramore songs.

good thing i brought my video camera... RIIIIIIIGHT?

alright, i give up.

this morning on the way to work, this guy on NPR was talking about how civil war is stirring up again in the congo and it may be one more intense world problem for obama to have to face during his term in office.

so i changed the channel to the AM station where i heard all about how the economy is continuing to tank.

it's like one thing right after another.

my life is STRESSFUL right now. i have things going on in my personal and professional life that keep me UP at night sometimes.

now when you add the following world issues to the mix:

- worldwide shortage of oil
- polar ice cap melting
- complete financial meltdown
- recession and layoffs
- bailouts bailouts bailouts
- highly coordinated terrorist attacks in mumbai

it's like WHAT THE FUCK.

how am i supposed to STOP worrying?

so then i see this gem of an article in the washington post today: nuclear or biological attack called likely

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

then of course, ironically, i saw an article about exposure to media and negative effects on your health. OF COURSE.

all i can do is keep telling myself, hey phil.. it's not so bad. george bush is almost out of office. things are gonna get better.

and you know what... i hope it's true:

antietam.

so i thought i was kinda coming out of my civil war obsession as of late, but it turns out, it's still in full swing.

for the past few months, i've been devouring books on the subject and been on a few civil war-related adventures that i've documented here on the blog.

in all the books i've read, the one that stuck with me the most was a book called "landscape turned red" about the battle of antietam. it was the bloodiest conflict of the war and of any battle fought in american history. all told, 23,110 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing during the battle.

my parents, who have been following my recent civil war history nerdiness, brought something really awesome to my attention that is happening next weekend.

on december 6th, they are doing the 20th annual memorial illumination of the battlefield. for the past 20 years, they have lit 23,110 candles at dusk across the entire battlefield in honor of those lost in the battle.

the visual impact, as you can imagine, is supposed to be both breathtaking and haunting.

sounds totally amazing, right? so of course, i have to go.