Geico

I'm often struck by some of the odd concepts that advertisers use promote their product. Often times while watching television I find myself wondering what they were thinking and if what I had just watched will push someone to try what it is that they were selling.

And then other times I see an advertisement and find it extremely clever. This happened just last week when I first saw the new campaign for Geico insurance. Two of the advertisements from this campaign are below. While I enjoyed the one featuring Charo, the one featuring Little Richard makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.

Why can't more advertisements that attempt to entertain be like these, using a simple concept that is actually funny?

Effects of Lonlieness

As many of you know I've been home alone now for a month. It's been hard being so alone, so much so that I stay at the Institute for Communication Research lab for many more hours than I normally would just so that I might have some contact with someone else.

But my being alone became extremely evident when I had to drive myself to Bloomington Hospital's emergency room at about 1am.

About 9:30/10:00 last night I began to feel some extreme pressure in my right ear. That pressure turned to pain. It was a dull pain at first, but something that I could deal with. I decided to go to bed at 11:00, and ended up laying there for the next hour and a half as the pain became worse and worse. I finally could take it no longer and drove myself to the emergency room.

It turns out that I have a middle ear infection that is a direct result of the really bad allergies that I have been having lately. No big deal. I was given an antibiotic and some pain medication. I was in bed and asleep just after 3am. It was absolutely amazing that I was checked in to the emergency room, seen by a doctor, and on my way to the 24-hour CVS to get my prescriptions filled in less than an hour.

But what really hit me was, when I was registering and was asked if I had a local emergency contact and if someone were to come to the hospital looking for me could the hospital reveal that I was there, that no one knew I was there. I could have been there for days and no one would have been the wiser. Being alone sucks. Being sick and alone is even worse.

Busy and Getting Busier

As many of you who come here often have noticed, I'm not posting as frequently as I was. Before my trip to Europe it seems like I was posting nearly every day. Now I'm lucky to get three postings on here in a week.

I just thought I'd keep everyone up-to-date on what it is that I am doing that is taking up all of my time.

First I have my appointment as a research assistant to Dr. Rob Potter. I was doing some data analysis for him on his recent I-squared audio project. Now that I am through all of the data analysis we are meeting tomorrow to discuss how to turn it into a paper.

Then I have taken on an hourly position working for Dr. Walter Gantz. In this position I have been running many, many analyses on content analysis data looking at advertising, and specifically food advertising, targeted towards children. This project was made possible by funding from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

I also was recently told that I would continue my annual contribution to orientation for new graduate students here in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University. Specifically, I organize two sessions in the training of new and returning Associate Instructors (or what other universities call Teaching Assistants). I plan one session where all AIs get together and returning AIs answer all possible questions that new AIs may have. In addition I organize a practice teaching exercise (in the past called microteaching and microspeaking) so that AIs can see how people from different background and with different styles can teach the exact same material.

I was also informed last week by Dr. Gantz, who is the chair of the telecommunications department) that I would actually be teaching a course of my own during the fall semester. This was something that I was asked about a few weeks back but was not a definite thing until this past Friday. I am very happy to be thought of for this position because this does not happen very often in our department. In the fall I will be teaching TEL T348-Audience Analysis. (Click here for a description from the last time the course was taught.)

On top of all this I am working on my dissertation proposal. I truly hope to get this proposal done as soon as possible because I would like to have a new piece of equipment built for the Institute for Communication Research Lab that it does not yet have and that I would need for my dissertation. Because the building of this equipment would take time (and hopefully money donated from research funds from faculty and possibly even the College of Arts and Sciences), getting my proposal done ASAP really is a must.

So as you can see, my time lately has been jam packed with things to do. Who said being a graduate student was easy?

Phobias

I always find it interesting what my TIVO thinks I would like to watch and then records for me. One recent program it recorded had me laughing, and it wasn't even a sitcom.

I came home the other day to find an episode of Maury recorded. I don't typically watch Maury, but I didn't have anything else to watch so I gave it a chance. The topic was something that I thought might actually be interesting. Guests were there to face their phobias.

The first woman suffers from ornithophobia, which is the fear of birds. She admits that it's been a debilitating fear that has severly affected her life. But when a Maury staff member brought out a small bird she went crazy. It was one of the funniest things that I've seen on TV in a long time.

She was followed by two more guests who had some of the strangest phobias I've ever heard of. One was afraid of mustard and the other was afraid of pickles. I swear that they had to be faking, and their reactions to staffers bringing out mustard and pickles were ridiculous.

I'm still laughing thinking about it. I was fortunate to find video of all three women online and attached them below. The first clip contains the women who are afraid of birds and mustard. The second is of the woman afraid of pickles. See the clips for yourself and decide if their fears are real or not.

Don't Flaunt It

Police in Suffolk, England have put out a magazine for women as part of a safety campaign about drinking alcohol. Some sensible advice is given to women who plan to go out and drink. They’re told to stick with their friends, call a taxi instead of driving themselves home, and try to watch the amount of alcohol they drink.

But that’s not all. The magazine also recommends that the women wear “nice pants” and make sure that they “recently had a wax.”

The magazine also says, “If you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it.”

That’s right. Part of the magazine is concerned about what people will be seeing if the woman drinks so much that she falls down or passes out.

The initial recommendations seem very sensible. They are recommendations that could actually be made no matter if the drinker was a man or a woman. But was it really necessary to make a recommendation so that onlookers don’t see what the woman is or is not wearing underneath their skirt?

Couldn’t the police have taken a more tactful manner in making women realize that they may become more vulnerable when they drink to excess instead of taking what appears to be a distasteful, tongue-in-cheek look at the potential problem?

Weight Update

For all those wondering after I gained 4 pounds while in Europe, I have only lost one of them again. It's been harder to stay on the diet since returning, but I am working hard toward losing more weight.

Other than that I'm very busy working on a variety of project with very little spare time. Sorry about the lack of posts!

Kiss Like a Kitten

This is a odd piece of video that I came across recently which was on CNN and other various news outlets.

It seems that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided, while walking through the Kremlin, to kiss a young boy on the stomach. Putin said that he saw the boy and thought him to be both independent and innocent and just wanted to "touch him like a kitten." So he lifted the boys shirt and kissed him on the stomach.

When talked to after the incident, the boy said that he hadn't washed his stomach because he was a fan of Putin and one day wanted to be president.

Very, very odd.

Impact of Loneliness

I once thought that I could live alone with absolutely no problem. No longer. I’ve found that living alone for an extended period of time really can take a toll both emotionally and psychologically.

I’ve been with the same person now for 10 years. We see each other every day and are big parts of each other’s lives. And during that time I’ve cherished the little bit of alone time that I got. It was because of that that I thought living alone would be no problem.

Now Phil has been gone for just a week. He left last week to teach a short summer course in Canada and then to do some fieldwork. I expect him back sometime in early August. I figured 6 weeks apart would be no problem. Boy was I wrong.

My whole world seems different. My entire mood is different. I find myself spending endless hours at work because all I have to go home to are my cats. (And don’t get me wrong, I love my cats, but conversationalists they are not.) When I’m home I’m depressed. When I’m at school and work I’m depressed too. Only when I’m around other people do I brighten up. It’s like I crave other human company, no matter who it is.

I never thought that loneliness could or would have such an effect on me. I just wish I knew a way to deal with and handle the situation. That is, besides counting the days until Phil is home.

Independence Day

I know that I've been relatively quiet as of late, and I hope to recitfy that soon. In the meantime I wanted to wish everyone a very happy Fourth of July!

Surreal Moment in Prague

I just remembered one of the most surreal moments while in Prague that I'd like to share.

World Cup mania has gripped much of Europe. While in Germany and the Czech Republic it became obvious that the World Cup means a lot to many Europeans. This became especially evident in Prague, where there was giant screen TVs in the major squares of town that came on specifically for the matches.

One evening I was having dinner at an outdoor table near one of these TVs. Featured was the match between England and Ecuador. Midway through the second half, while in the Czech Republic, most of the crowd gathered around the TV (which was at least 300 people) broke out into a chorus of God Save the Queen. I never imagined that while sitting in the Czech Republic that I would hear such a large crowd break out into the royal/national anthem of England. It was a very interesting experience.

Then when England won, the crowd went wild. There was screaming, cheering, and a few streakers too. This is definitely not something that you would see in the United States in response to a soccer (sorry, football) match.

I'm Back!

I’ve been back from Europe for a few days and I just realized that I hadn’t posted anything about by trip. I guess it’s about time that I let everyone know how it went.

It was great! The flights to Germany were better than I expected. After landing in Frankfurt there was a train ride to Dresden. It was my very first train ride ever, and I found the experience pretty enjoyable. Too bad the scenery between Frankfurt and Dresden isn’t the best, but it was still good for my first train ride.

The conference in Dresden was fun, though the conference center was poorly air conditioned. Dresden was particularly humid while the International Communication Association’s conference was going on, and I think many people didn’t enjoy their time there because of that.

Many of my friends and mentors at Indiana University had a good showing at the conference. In addition to presenting many pieces of interesting research, fellow graduate students Byungho Park and Seungjo Lee won the top student paper award for the Information Systems division. Also, Julia Fox, Byungho Park, and Annie Lang authored one of the top papers overall in that same division. And Annie Lang was named an ICA Fellow, which is a definite honor.

After Dresden I spent a few days in Prague. The city has a charm all of its own. While it is definitely a tourist destination, many of its sights don’t seem to have lost their charm. The castle there is beautiful, the synagogues are magnificent, and the food there was some of the best I’ve had in a long time. It was definitely a great city to visit.

Speaking of food, I thought that I had completely blown my diets while away. Fortunately I only gained four pounds while I was gone. I am now working towards losing that weight as soon as I can.

As I think of more stories from this trip, I will definitely post them. And soon I will have some pictures to share as well.