How to Burn Your Brand

In America we have a lovely tradition called democratic consumption. Warren Buffet can't get a better Coke than I can, Bill Gates can't get a better piece of salmon than I can and Carlos Slim can't read a better book than I can. What they can do is create an exclusive environment that I'm not allowed into so really the only thing that separates the social classes is the spaces we inhabit. Namely our cars, our offices and our houses. At least that is what we tell ourselves so that our well armed populace doesn't wreck the social order on a weekly basis.

Abercrombie and Fitch CEO, Mike Jefferies, broke our little social illusion of being one class by speaking out about clothing sizing. Now every brand is exclusionary to some degree. Democratic consumption is a myth and who you exclude is as important as who you include. If it's not size, it's price or image. There are some places where showing up with a Harley Davidson jacket will get you shunned and others where showing up without one will get you beaten.

Now I'm no CEO genius but there are plenty of plausible answers you can give about why you won't make larger size of clothing that won't get in the face of the public but will still be just as exclusionary. How about "We limit the sizes we carry in order to control inventory costs", or "We haven't expanded our sizing options because there hasn't been customer demand for larger sizes but we consider that option whenever we introduce a new line". Yes Abercrombie board, I am available for half of Jeffries' salary if you want to hire me. But stating that your aim is to exclude a certain customer base is well, unamerican and subject to backlash from the the masses that have been raised to believe that they cannot be excluded and are worthy of consuming the best of what life has to offer.

A few years ago I went out looking for a used car with a budget of $5,000. I of course dressed for success in a pair of ripped shorts and a T-shirt and since I knew some of my co-workers drove BMWs and they seem like pretty nice cars. I went to the BMW dealer. After telling my budget to the salesman I was roundly rebuffed as he explained that cheap used BMWs start at $12,000.  Now I know that BMW makes a pricey automobile and that about two thirds of the population could never drive one because of the cost alone. But because of the salesman's attitude, that experience cemented in me that BMW is the brand of insecure losers. I then went down to the KIA dealership and because the salesman had no illusions about the exclusivity of his product, he asked me questions about my income and credit and sold me a car that cost about three times as much as I initially wanted to spend.

So goes Abercrombie. No longer will I look at the wearers of Abercrombie & Fitch clothing and envy their weedy frames. Instead I will feel a small twinge of pity for a fellow traveler who has decided that they need to burnish their image with a brand name.

Tell me which brand you think jumped the shark from mark of quality to desperate plea for attention in the comments.

Zip up the Bodybag

I started the A to Z challenge with a sanguine attitude. I didn't finish it at the end of April and I'm wrapping it up over a week late. I consider it a success though, I had 1,999 page views which since I started with less than 1,000 views in the entire history of the blog makes it a total success. I had a lot of fun planning out the posts but I really hated making each post fit into a letter and I just plain ran out of gas before the end.

Will I keep blogging? Yes. Will I do another challenge? Yes. Will it be a rigorous month long challenge where each post has to start with a certain arbitrary letter? No.

I plan on doing some fiction writing and blogging from time to time and please be sure to follow me on twitter @wildpokerman and say hello!

Youth and What I Did With It.

This is just a post to update the chronology of where I was at at different times in my youth. The biographical information may or may not be related at another time. Dates are to the best of my recollection.

04/1990-05/1990 Bryce Canyon, Utah

05/1990-10/1990 American Fork, Utah at my parent's house.

10/1990-03/1991 Provo, Utah in a basement apartment

04/1991-04/1993 American Fork, Utah sometimes at my parent's house and sometimes in my friend Dave's basement.

04/1993-10/1993 Bryce Canyon, Utah

10/1993-01/1994 Apartment in Salt Lake City

02/1994-04/1994 Sun Valley, Idaho (Yes Grandpa we have jobs, it would be crazy to just move to Idaho without a job.-We totally didn't have jobs.)

04/1994 to 05/1994 Yellowstone National Park, WY

05/1994 to 05/1994 West Valley, UT-Dave's brother's couch

05/1994-06/1994 West Valley, UT-The Storage Shed

06/1994-10/1995-Salt Lake City, UT-The Peter Pan

10/1995-04/1996-Las Vegas, NV-Fremont Street, across from the crack hooker bar.

04-1996-09-1996 Lake Powell, Utah

09-1996-10/1996 American Fork at my parent's house

10/1996-08/1999 Salt Lake City, UT various apartments

I figure my youth ended when I got married.

Xtreme Blogging

I've fallen behind in the A to Z challenge. Tomorrow is Y day and then we wrap it up with Z. Do I like daily blogging? Yes I do. I've been surprised by the number of readers that I've had. I've had more this month than I had in all the years before. It's interesting how saying the right thing to the right person can get the word out to people who want to read what you have to say.

Will I continue after the challenge? Absolutely. To all my fellow participants we're almost done! Thanks for stopping by and tell me how you started blogging in the comments.

Writers

One of the most gratifying things about reading is the generosity and kindness of writers. In the age of social networks it's easier than ever to connect with your favorite writers. This past year I've been using Twitter as my favorite social networking site and I've had the privilege of discovering new books and new writers. On top of that I've actually been able to meet some writers after reading their books! Here are the two that I've met, Andy Mascola and Tiffany Reisz.

Andy wrote Unmagnificent Lives  and Tiffany wrote The Siren. I read both of them in 2012 and I'm glad I did, both of the books were excellent.

Thanks for stopping by for W day and tell me how you discover new books in the comments.

Vocabulary

When I read I am a plodder. I can't just gloss over a word I don't know. I've even found that there are a lot of words that I thought I knew but really had no idea about when I took a close look at them. I just cannot go on to the next sentence unless I'm positive that I know all the words from the one prior and understand why the writer placed them there. I had to find a system to organize new words and make them mine. 

My constant companion when I am reading is my smartphone. When I come across a word I don't know, or one that I am not one hundred percent sure I own, I will look it up in an online dictionary before I continue on. Then I'll put it on a list on my phone.

When I get a few spare moments I'll transfer all the words to a book and add the definition. I don't copy the dictionary exactly and I'll add notes about how it was used to help me remember it.

Thanks for reading for V day, we're almost done! Tell me your favorite word in the comments.

Taoism

I was raised in American Fork, Utah at a time when everyone in the neighborhood could point out the houses of people who didn't belong to the Mormon church. There weren't many to memorize. In high school history we were studying ancient civilizations and there was a lesson where some bible passages helped illustrate the point. All of us in the class went over to the seminary building to get our bibles. There was not one of us in that class that wasn't enrolled in the religious classes taught next door.

Intellectually I knew that there were other religions and spiritual beliefs out there. Hey, the Bible told me there always had been! When I was 21 a girlfriend recommended I read the Tao of Pooh and it was a life changing experience.

Yes, Taoism is a religion and I can't say I've known anyone intimately that has practiced it  I couldn't tell you one thunder god from another and don't ask me if there are any holidays to observe. What I do know is that reading the Tao Te Ching was a punch in the teeth to a white boy from Mormontown. If you've never read it before get yourself clicking here. It's free to download so no excuses. Ron Hogan's version isn't a literal translation, he's read several translations and produced the awesome modern Fight Club version of the text and that's why I recommend you start with that link. Tao is about rebellion and Tao is about making the old new so there is not a more Taoistic way to create a modern version than that.

Let me quote some of my favorite passages:

Do not glorify the achievers
So the people will not squabble
Do not treasure goods that are hard to obtain
So the people will not become thieves
Do not show the desired things
So their hearts will not be confused

What does that mean? If you mess up your priorities you're going to mess up the whole system.

Heaven and Earth are impartial
They regard myriad things as straw dogs
The sages are impartial
They regard people as straw dogs 

How about that little verse. From what I've read straw dogs are little idols that were used during religious ceremonies. After the festival or ceremony was over you just have a big pile of straw. It means quit treating life so reverently, after we're done here we're just a pile of meat so treat every day as a sacred event while it lasts.

True Words
True words are not beautiful.
Beautiful words are not truthful.
The good do not argue.
Those who argue are not good.
Those who know are not scholarly.
The scholarly do not know.

Wham bam internalize that my man. Just get out there and do stuff.  Don't sit around thinking about it. You're going to make mistakes. Stop doing just what you know and realize that you're going to need to know a lot more to get anything worth doing done. Don't worry about helping other people, the more you help the more you're going to be rewarded.

Whenever I feel less than centered or a little bit lost or lonely I reach for the nearest copy of the Tao Te Ching and it puts me right pretty quickly. It is the most life changing book I have read.