Tweet and Meet

People leave for something better.  I’ve been hearing about the World of Warcraft killer for years now.  There has been none.  People complain, whine, bitch, and moan, but they keep paying their money to keep their account live.  Here’s why:

No one has been able to make a product to appeal to the masses like World of Warcraft.  No one probably ever will.  The era of Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games is coming to an end.  Yes, there will be a couple games that come out that will shake things up, but nothing will eclipse WoW.  It’s like the blockbuster movie, epic book, or pop culture album, nobody cares anymore.

So back to Facebook.  Will it die?  Like everything else, online…yes.  It will be a slow painful death, but you’ll never see anything as large, as everything else that comes after will be much more fragmented.  It’s ok, you didn’t like playing that Orc Warlock anyway.

With the new FTC blogger guidelines going into effect on Dec. 1 2009, I had to pause for a second, and figure out how we got here in the first place. Slate.com does a pretty concise overview of what’s being changed in the FTC Act, which is the first update since 1980.  WSJ.com even has an update that the IAB is finally getting involved.  Every story I read about these guidelines, triggers my BS alarm.  The whole thing sounds so silly, rediculous, and proposterous, that I can hardly believe it’s actually going to happen.

Slate.com claims the blog-for-money business was worth $1.35 Billion in 2007.  The FTC claims it’s not after bloggers, but agencies, and brands that use this online tactic.  At $11,000 per violation of non-disclosure, it can add up pretty quick for something agencies have very little control over.  It doesn’t stop at blogs, but could happen on sites like twitter, facebook, and virtually any platform.  Obviously enforcing this will be next to impossible, so this begs the question, why are they doing this?  This has been the question I’ve been asking myself for the past couple months.  The next question is, who gains most from this update to the FTC Act?

The Suspects:

Big Media: The past couple years have been rough on traditional media advertising.  Many budgets are shifting to online, and it’s not a trend because of reduced spending during the recession.  We’ve all seen the projections, and newspapers, television, and radio are all on the decline.  If you essentially kill any organized online advocacy, where else are companies going to spend in their advertising and marketing budgets?  Bingo!  The ole’ standbys.

Traditional Advertising Agencies: Let’s face it, they’re the biggest pusher of big media budgets.  Blogger advocacy programs are a drop in the bucket, in terms of dollars, for these guys.  They’d prefer to do it, like they’ve been doin’ it for decades, take their media commission and run.  They dislike anything digital, and fight change.  They just want it back to the way it was before the internet.

The Big G: Government has a pretty bad track record in terms of keeping up with technology legislation.  They’re usually years late to the table.  So it’s suspect that this is even being handled by them, at this juncture.  It’s a small section of spending, and there’s no way to enforce other than by fear.  I highly doubt this was their idea.  It completely reaks of power play by Big Media, and traditional advertisers have nothing to loose by keeping their mouths shut through this ordeal.

I think this whole thing smells like BS!

Just like the death of the phone booth, the phone call is on it’s way out. How often do you reach a voice mail when you dial someone? How often do you actually leave a voice mail? Do people respond faster with text message? Do you get more rapid response off of sites like Facebook and Twitter, or even IM?

I’m tired of leaving voice mails, people never check them, or if they do, they respond after the urgency is past. I’m close to done with this medium of communication, at least done paying for it.

Eve’s Chest X-Ray, originally uploaded by TaulPaul.

Dr. Del Nido and Dr. Triedman stopped in today to check up on Eve. I believe it was the first time we’ve seen them together. It was nice to have a chat with both of them. You can tell they have a great rapport. Dr. Del Nido talked a bit about some of the projects they’re working on for pediatric cardiac imaging. It was nice to chat about tech, as it’s one of the things I’m comfortable blathering about.

In other news, we saw Jennifer and Stellan come in today. They were in the CICU room next to us for a couple hours. I think they moved when I stepped out to get some of Eve’s stuff. It’s nice to see they’re getting help here, and another Minnesota family is nearby.  We found out about Stellan right when we learned we would be going to Boston.  I contacted Jennifer through Twitter, and found out several days later that they would also be coming to Children’s Hospital Boston.  I can imagine the concerns, as Eve had an Ablation to her heart in order to control her SVT and WPW, but Stellan’s case seems to be much more severe.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them as well.

Eve will be extubated around midnight. This means they’ll take the breathing tube out, and let her breath on her own. I can’t think of any other time where I’ll be happy to hear any baby cry more than that moment. She cries now, but since the tube goes past her vocal chords, there’s no air to make any sounds. It absolutely crushes me. They suction her tube about once an hour. This is usually the only time she wakes up. She gets pretty worked up, and she’ll kick her little legs. She’s even grabbed the tubes a couple times. I let her hold one of my fingers, while she looks up at me with her teary eyes wondering why all this is happening to her. I just smile back at her, and tell her everything will be fine. It’s all I can do to prevent myself from crying myself. They say she’s not in any pain. I hope that’s true.

So here’s the email my wife sent to Northwest Airlines commending a flight attendant:

We would like to commend the flight crew, particularly Cathy, on flight
1400 from Minneapolis to Boston (3:25 departure) on April 7.  We were
flying with our 3 month old daughter to Boston for open heart surgery.
We had alot of gear and required oxygen for her safe travel.  Cathy
checked in on us throughout the flight, helping get the O2 going and
adjusting the delivery mechanisms for a baby.  She even made sure we had
some extra snacks to tide us over as the evening commute from airport to
hospital was going to be hectic.  In an era of “on your own” this was a
nice treat.  It made our anxiety a little less during a crazy time.
Please pass along our gratitude.
Paul and Annamarie Saarinen (and baby Eve)

So here’s the email we get in response:

Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the service provided while
traveling with us.  On behalf of everyone at Northwest Airlines, I
sincerely apologize for letting you down in so many ways.

I hope I have been able to resolve any concerns you have about our
service.  Your business is important to us and given the opportunity of
serving you in the future, I am confident Northwest will not only meet
but exceed your expectations.

We were like wha? Then we got this:

Thank you for contacting Northwest Airlines regarding your recent travel
to Boston, your feedback is greatly appreciated.

I apologize for my previous response to your email.

We appreciate your kind comments regarding the service received from our
flight attendant.  I was pleased to learn she was able and willing to
assist you and your son. We believe our employees are our most
important assets, and I am happy to learn that our flight attendant
exceeded your expectations.

Please know I will be sharing your comments with our Inflight leadership
team so that this employee receives appropriate recognition, on your
behalf.  Thank you for sharing your thoughtful remarks.

I want to thank you, again, for writing.  We appreciate your interest in
Northwest.  Your business is important to us and given the opportunity
of serving you in the future, I am confident Northwest will not only
meet but exceed your expectations.

Well, at least they tried. *shrug*

via

There are so many things.  I have so many things to do.  On the other hand, those things don’t matter as much now, as they did months ago.  I have this little book that I use to shelve ideas.  This is my to-do list of lists.  They’re not little tactical things like changing my blog theme, they are the time consuming business plans.  I only have so much energy for them.  My book is like the pensive from Harry Potter.  I remove ideas from my head, and place them in this book.  They are there when I need or want them.

This year is different.  I want to recapture something that I once had and lost.  It seems a bit trivial, but I believe will matter more in the coming years, and decades.  It is something that they may not teach in school in the next 20 years, and you’ll be happy you kept up your practice.  If you look at yours, it may be a trainwreck like mine.

When is the last time you sent a handwritten letter?  Not a postcard, not jotted notes on a post-it, but a real letter.  I look at my penmanship, and it’s illegible garbage.  I can’t make it out most of the time.  I’ve created a font before (it was illegible too).  It will be a lost artform in 20 years, only for baby boomers with bifocals, in retirement homes.  I will remaster this dying communication medium, even if the U.S. post office stops delivering.