My Media Mania

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Big News » Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI yesterday after just two days of the cardinals' conclave. They're calling him a 'transitional leader.' Which is not-so-subtle code for we expect him to die soon so we can elect somebody we really want. Yeah.

Now, today's story...

Yes, I know it's been a few days. It's been hard on me too. Do you even read my blog?

First off, I just have to say that at least the good people at Blogger Buzz read it. Last week, I wrote this post about this post they wrote concerning USF's new blog service, which by the way, I have recently joined but done nothing with.

Anyhow, I had made a comment about how they mistakenly used Southern instead of South and they actually read that — and made the correction! That may not sound like much to you, but having someone, anyone really, reading your work and responding to it (even if it's just fixing a spelling error) is pretty cool. To me. So thanks to Eric at Blogger Buzz for noticing — and commenting. Everyone should be more like him.

I mean it. Comment away, folks. I'm getting old over here. Tell me a story. Look at all the stories I've already told you.

That said, I'm moving on. I thought I might run down some of things I've been doing this past week that have kept me from blogging. To begin, my producing class group has settled on a name. We're called Cirrus Media, not to be confused with Sirius Satellite Radio.

So as the "A-liner" at Cirrus Media, my job is to oversee our big projects, namely the treatment package we're working on for the chemistry department. You may remember if you know how to read, I've mentioned it before. The idea is to draw up the plans for a three-minute video they can put on their web site to convince out-of-towners to come here to USF.

Well somewhere along the way, Dr. Flanagan got the impression that we're supposed to be producing a video to be played at orientation for the chemistry graduate students who had already been accepted. This, I must say, is much different from the recruitment video we believed we were making — for grauduates considering which university they should head to.

Ultimately we just decided to listen to our client, since she knows better what she wants than Flanagan does — clearly. Recruitment it is. But that consensus was reached only after we scrapped our first drafts (recruitment) for a few new drafts (orientation). Yeah, we're back to square one.

If you thought that was annoying, join the club. We have hats.

Anyway, Monday night was eaten by my having to write and rewrite that wonderful orientation script that will never see the light of day. Wasteful. I could've been writing wonderful things to you.

Then Tuesday night, I put the final touches on my advertising project. The assignment was to invent a product or service that does not already exist and design and advertising plan for it. That includes creating a couple of spec ads to give an idea of how the marketing campaign will manifest itself visually. If you're so inclined, you can click here to see the print ad I designed.

It wasn't a big stretch for me considering it's been my job for over five years now. Speaking of which, if you're interested, you can also see a couple of ads I designed for James-Rivard Pontiac GMC, a car dealership in the area. In February, we gave it a Teachers of the Year theme. March was all about the return of spring sports. We featured the new Pontiac Solstice in the April ad. And I'm only responsible for some of the May ad, but it has a Memorial Day theme.

Don't Make Me Do It: Liz has gone to some extreme lengths in attempting to get people to comment on her blog, since after all, we KNOW that you are reading it. I don't want to have to do that. Just say a little something. Even a "hi, how are ya" will suffice. I'll be waiting.