The Tipping Point

I'm not the first to try something (that's an early adopter) but if I try and like it, I'll tell everyone. Recently a friend got me into The West Wing. It started innocently enough, on my brand new Mac, we downloaded the first episode from iTunes.

I had never downloaded a show from iTunes and if asked (pre-West Wing), probably would have said "I have no interest in watching a TV show on my computer, what's the point?" I got hooked and ended up downloading the entire first season from iTunes. One episode at a time. At one point, I was watching an episode before bed and then downloading three while I was sleeping for the next couple of nights. Overnight I became someone who downloads TV shows on iTunes and talks about it. It's easy! It's cheap! It's really cool. (Season Two I bought on DVD)

Single female, 35, seeks available apartment

I was looking for an apartment, online, and was struck by how much like looking for a date online is. I spent two months looking through listings just to get a sense of what was out there. I spent entire days making decisions about which apartments were worth looking at.

Most of the ones I meet, I mean LOOK AT, are a disappointment. They looked so great in the pictures, they seemed like the dream apartment but they're not. As I draw closer to the date that I need to move, the places I hadn't considered two weeks ago start to look like possibilities. And I have the creeping feeling that I'm about to compromise and make a huge mistake. Desperation sets in.

And then...just when I gave up on finding what I was looking for, and starting to think about crashing on a friend's couch so I could look longer. Driving home from a day of frustrating house hunting, I see a management sign on a beautiful little building. I look at the website of the management company that night and see a perfect apartment for rent. I go the next day to see it, turn in application and in 48 hours, I'm signing the lease. Just like that!

What you want will find you if you let it. When you least expect it.

Looking for giant blades of grass

How easy is it to find anything you want? I've been driving to work past a corner in Beverly Hills that was covered by tarp, hiding construction, that was printed like giant blades of grass. Very cleverly, I thought, the billboard above the site and the bus station in front of the site, matched and had that same blades of grass growing on a white background and the words "a little better." Very mysterious. I wanted to know what it was so I Googled: "a little better" station marketing. Viola! I found exactly what I was looking for: BP's new gas station, Helio House. Apparently there's also video, it can't possibly be that exciting, can it?

Got MS?

A friend of a good friend of mine was diagnosed with MS a couple of years ago. That's Multiple Sclerosis, the disease that Richard Pryor had. My friend did an MS walk, I donated money and have since been on their mailing list.

I donated because a friend asked and because I know someone with the disease but none of the follow up marketing MS has done, emails and direct mail, have compelled me to donate further. My theory is, people are emotional creatures and we make decisions (while perhaps informed by logic and reason) for emotional reasons.

This is why the latest email from the National MS Society, while decidedly an archaic and even cheesy concept, totally works. The email was an invitation to play a game, Scoop Deluxe. It's simple and makes it's point by showing you what it's like to have the disease. Let me know if you think it works.