Commercials

I rarely watch TV live. I don’t even know when my favorite show, Lost, comes on. I watch it on Sunday nights whenever a new one shows up on my DVR. The only things I watch live are Around the Horn and PTI. I usually ride my exercise bike while I watch these and change it to Seinfeld during the commercials. So, even then, I don’t see many commercials. I also watch sports live. It is very rare for me to put a game on the DVR.

So, because I have watched a lot of basketball, I have watched a lot of commercials over the last 2 weekends. This post is about the commercials. I would expect that advertisers would realize that they have to raise their game to make commercials something you want to watch. I cannot be the only person who has cut his commercial intake drastically since the invention of the Tivo.

I appears however that advertisers have not raised their game rather they take 2 tactics. First, repetition. Show the commercials so much that you want to smash their product with a sledgehammer if you see it again. (see apple computers) Secondly, and go with creepy. These are the commercials that make you feel uncomfortable in some way.

The rest of this post is just me reviewing some commercials. I’ll talk about the ones I like and the ones that make me want to refuse to ever buy the product.

First, the five commercials I wish were never made.

MacBook Air – Every human in the USA has seen this commercial at least 5,000 times. Initially I had nothing against it, but now I think if I hear “I’m a new soul…” one more time I could smash a mac into a million pieces.

Charles Schwab – These half animated, half live-action hybrid commercials give me the creeps. I have no money to be buying stocks with, (And guidestone already manages my massive retirement.) but these creepy commercials where people talk about their broker being money grubbing turds (because clearly, Schwab exists completely altruistically and their brokers are like charity workers) definitely make me want to stay away from Charles Schwab.

Taco Bell – All of the current Taco Bell commercials are stupid. Especially the one with the fake looking CG cheese. I’m disappointed, because Taco Bell has had very good commercials in the past.

Volkswagen - I despise everything about this commercial which runs during every single break. (The one where the man keeps approaching the car, and the lights flash and the horn honks) If your message is “Volkswagen, the car for either weird or annoying people”, mission accomplished.

Now my favorite commercials that run during the NCAA tourney

5. E-trade baby- I like the one with the clown. Mainly because of the following quote. “I really underestimated the creepiness.”

 

4. Subway – I don’t particularly like the commercial, but the five dollar foot-long song is catchy

 

3. Holiday Inn express – The “Hot Bar” commercials are funny. The designated driver who gets a plate and starts loading up is the best one. (download it here)

 

2. Sonic – I really like the Sonic commercials. The husband and wife sitting in the car eating and talking about stupid stuff are pretty much all good.

 

1. Pontiac – The Spy Hunter commercial is great in every way. It is, by far, my favorite commercial currently running.

I really enjoyed this video

I’m sure you’ve all seen it by now. But it really makes me smile. What’s not to like? Robots, dogs. Pure fun

On the other hand, Here’s an example of robots and dogs that is just creepy.

Did you ever get the idea that the preacher was talking about you?

Sunday my pastor dropped this little off the cuff aside as part of his Easter sermon

I’m pretty sure he’s talking about me, and my blog where nobody gives a flip about what I think anyway.
I hope he comments on this to express himself to the world.

Do yall think this is directed at me?

(This clip sounds like the chipmunks on some computers, I don’t know why.)

Be Careful How You Read the News

Today I want to comment on two stories I’ve seen in the last few days.

The first is here. This story is about some rabbit bones recently found in India. Here’s the key quote:

The new bones also show that advanced rabbit-like features evolved earlier than thought

So let’s get this straight. It turns out that the oldest rabbit bones ever found look exactly like…(wait for it)…rabbits. It is fairly routine to see stories like this. Why are they never put up with headlines like, Another Blow to Evolutionary Theory? This story leads me to conclude that rabbits have always been rabbits. (Just like every other major animal kind.) It would be great to have some scientist say, “So you know all those semi-rabbits that we believe existed between other mammals, looks like we were wrong about that.” But that is never the quote. What is the conclusion? They must have just “developed earlier than expected.” Just for the record there aren’t any transitional fossils found. And the ones that are claimed are usually a tooth or a jaw that is used to reconstruct an entire animal

Then there’s this story about the seed bank

It seems that there is a seed bank created in case some horrible catastrophic event. Part of it also is to protect the diversity of plants we have now that is dwindling.

Here’s my nest question. How come no one ever says evolution has stopped? We regularly hear about how fast species are becoming extinct. It seems like since the belief in evolution has caught on so well, everyone should be looking for it. And we should have hundreds of new species popping up from all the animal and plant groups.

However, not only do we have no new species that evolved, (only those that were discovered or bred) but we consistently lose species. If this is the case, why have no evolutionists come out and said, “It appears evolution has come to a close. Life on this planet is much less diverse than it used to be, and we can only conclude that this is the result of the cease of evolution.”

Easter, the New Christmas

This post by John McLamb plus a phone call from my friend, Brent, got me thinking about Easter and the subdued celebration we give it. Think of the incarnation. (a.k.a. Christmas) For some reason this holiday has become a worldwide phenomenon. I am not wanting anything like this for Easter, [almost everything about Christmas has gotten out of hand] but it would be great if Easter involved a little more celebration. As it is, it as become only an excuse for little girls to get new dresses. Remember that Christmas wouldn’t matter if there was no Easter.

Let’s read 1 Cor 15

¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (ESV)

The fact is, if there is no Easter than our religion is hopeless. We really should have a greater celebration. Something better than just canceling pm worship, or maybe hunting eggs.

I think part of the problem is that it is a celebration of something we often forget to celebrate. We have a tendency to See Jesus as only the “Lamb upon the cross.” (Remember The Passion of the Christ, 127.5 minutes of beatings and blood, 30 seconds of the resurrection but people think it is the greatest film ever made.) Even on Easter day we have a tendency to speak about Christ’s death more than His resurrection. Don’t get me wrong His death is very important. But without the resurrection it would be wasteful.

So next year, at least on Resurrection day, let’s truly celebrate the resurrection:

I would like to start a movement to reclaim the name of Easter. Have it be called Resurrection day. I began to think about this on Thursday after leaving the following comment on Scott & Briana’s blog.

Much like the Chocolate & peanut butter bunnies, we have mixed up our paganism with our Christianity.

It starts with the name Easter, an englishification of a pagan word. From Wikipedia – The name refers to the Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic Year which may have been named for the goddess Eastre in Germanic paganism. -

We should call it resurrection Sunday, or something similar to that.

As for the bunny laying eggs. If you are a pagan and worship fertility, (as all pagan religions do) what is a better symbol for fertility than a bunny? How about an egg? If you mix the two, you get an Easter bunny.

Just don’t teach your kids to worship fertility in the springtime when everything is coming to life after the long winter and you will be ok even if you eat Easter eggs, and get a visit from the bunny.

But I’ll leave that up to someone with more influence.

More Basketball

This is going to be a two post day. One I should have posted yesterday, because it is about Easter, but it is the more serious of the two so I will post it later. First a word about …

Basketball – I pull for the teams I like, rather than the teams that help my bracket. And there are a lot more teams I hate, than teams I like.  I pull for the SEC even if it costs me in my predictions.  I root against the ACC, Big 10, Big East, and Pac 10.  There is a pecking order within those conferences though.  I have no particular vitriol for Arizona St., or Wisconsin, for example. (I’m pretty neutral about the Big 12) I Loved watching Duke lose and would have loved to see UCLA lose.   (Apparently Kevin Love is immune from moving screen, or any other, fouls.)  I stand virtually no chance of winning any of my groups at this point, so I’m just watching for the enjoyment of it.

The teams I hate most in order are (1 & 2 could be reversed depending on the day)
1. UCLA
2. Duke
3. North Carolina

The teams I want to see win it all this year in order are
1. Western Kentucky
2. Tennessee
3. nobody, but I guess I’ll take Kansas

Feel free to share your list in the comments

Beef Stew League By the Numbers

Breaking down our league
Here’s the numbers in the Beef Stew league. Thought yall might find this interesting

Members – 15 (the largest ever)
Mystery players – 1
Average age* – 32.7

By Occupation
Accountants* – 4
Ministers* – 4
Students* – 2

By Family Status
Single* – 5
Married* – 9
Parents* – 5

Picked Kentucky over Marquette – 11

Predicted in final 4
UCLA – 11
UNC – 10
Texas – 8
Kansas – 8
Memphis – 6
Tennessee – 4
Georgetown – 3
Duke – 3
Wisconsin – 2
Vanderbilt – 1

Predicted Champion
UNC – 8
UCLA – 4
Tennessee – 1
Duke – 1

* Does not include mills120

Very Cool

This is amazing technology. Amazing. If you want to skip the explanation for the good part, it is around the 2:30 mark

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Clearly there is something wrong with me. Tomorrow is the beginning of the NCAA tournament and I am in full March madness mode.

It works out for me, because I am only partially employed, but I feel like Thursday should be a holiday. I could tolerate working on Friday because the basketball-fest on Thursday will satiate me enough to get through the day.

There is no event in all of sports that excites me like the first two rounds of the NCAA. And I really like…

The Super Bowl

The Daytona 500

The World Series

The college bowls (though they are ultimately unfulfilling)

The night race at Bristol

The PGA majors

The SEC tournament

All these are great events, but none of them are as enjoyable as the first 2 rounds of the NCAA tourney. I think its because of the fact that there is wall-to-wall basketball, sometimes 4 games on at once. Also because everybody picks the tournament.

The only thing that can make it better is when Kentucky is a contender

Just thought I’d share

BTW: my final 4 is UNC, Texas, Wisconsin, UCLA.

This Is Probably Too Heavy to Blog About

Have you ever just lain prostrate in the floor before God and cried over your sin?

Recently I found myself doing so. I was just weeping, because I know that my sin is offensive to a Holy God and slaps Him in his face. I sometimes feel as if Jesus wasted his sacrifice on me. That is really not what this post is about. I just wanted to get that off my chest. (And, really, what better way to do so than in a public forum where literally anyone in the world can read it.) I also wondered of that makes me a freak. Am I the only one who does that, and does it mean that I don’t trust in God’s forgiveness, or that Jesus died for all of my sin?

This post is a post about something that has been on my mind lately. This is actually only a lead up to that post as I think about it further.

This post is one of those that is begging for comments. (I wish I didn’t check my stupid stats every day, but I do.) Here is my question. The other night, I was crying over my sin. And most often when I find myself in this situation, I find that my mind goes to 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. This verse is comforting and reassuring. However on this night my mind went to an old hymn. (written 1772)

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

What an awesome and reassuring song!

Here’s my question, especially for those of you who don’t go to churches that sing old hymns, or rarely sing old hymns. What song goes through your head in these times of trouble? Right off the top of my head, here’s another situation when I found the words of a hymn very comforting. if I think of others I’ll add it later.

After the death of a Christian brother I was deeply sad, and the only song that filled my mind was When We All Get To Heaven. (written 1898 this would have been a Contemporary Christian hit for my great-grandmother)

I’ll lighten it up the rest of the week