How to keep cool in a siflingly hot classroom

Much like the rules in the movie Zombieland , you will have a good chance of surviving if you follow these guidelines:

1. Layers (dress in layers and be ready to remove a few)
   
2. Double Tap a beverage before and during class
3. Locate A/C vent (if one exists) and sit next to it
4. Get to class early (see previous rule)
5. Don't shut your eyes (you may fall asleep)
6. Make sure to wear a t-shirt if you're prone to sweating (this will save your dress shirts)
7. Remember it will be over in a few hours....stay calm.
   

I used these tips while in basic training at Ft Jackson, SC and they worked great!

Why blog?

In my previous post I discussed why I believe Steve McQueen wouldn't blog. However, just because I don't think McQueen would participate in the activity, doesn't mean I don't think blogging isn't great, it is (accept for the name).

Writing and reading blogs gives everyone the ability to share in the global conversation without filters, and has for many people, including myself, replaced the print media that used to dictate the subjects for, and contexts of, discussions.

Rather than public opinion being formed by news stories, media outlets are now reacting to public opinion when choosing what to report on.

An early proponent of blogging and all things internet, Al Gore
in his book The Assault on Reason, referenced blogging as an important way for the citizens of a democracy to keep well informed and share information. He argued that if you can't trust major media outlets to report the truth, then report the truth yourself.

Years ago, when Gore was the Vice President, I attended a speech he gave on the campus of Missouri State University. He told a joke that went something like this:

In a room full of Secret Service agents how can you tell which one is really Al Gore?
Answer: He's the stiff one.

Steve McQueen may have been too cool to blog, but not Al Gore, and that's okay with me.

Steve McQueen Wouldn't Blog

I was born on March 24th a birthday I share with one of my favorite actors and one of the all around coolest guys who ever lived, Steve McQueen.

Last night after my birthday dinner of grilled salmon and asparagus my wife and I enjoyed a nice bottle of organic zinfandel and I began to look for excuses to put off writing this blog post. The wine combined with my full stomach and the three Lowenbrau’s I drank while waiting for dinner to be prepared had pushed me into the dreaded, “I’ll do it later” zone.

As guilt washed over me for relaxing when I should have been working, something dawned on me. Steve McQueen would never blog.

Let’s face it, blogging is not cool. Just uttering the word blog alone may be enough to actually decrease a person’s coolness factor. Those who are cool and blog, do not enhance their coolness by blogging. The cool part of their personality is derived from some other aspect(s) of their life and then they blog about it rather than the other way around.

Often during conversations with my friends and family, who are very interesting, educated and well traveled folks, the term blog or blogger will surface, but unfortunately, not in a positive way. I’ve been smirked at and dismissed on many occasions for just mentioning the idea. While I would love to read the thoughts and musings these people would post they are basically just “too cool to blog.” As a result, we blog consumers are being deprived of some vast and fascinating knowledge bases.

So, the dilemma for me is, “how do we convince these people to dive in and participate in the new media without risking perceived damage to their coolness factor?”

I think we could start with the term “blog” itself. It sounds to me like a side effect attributable to an upper respiratory infection. The word “blogging” sounds like something you do with a group of buddies in a 4x4 after guzzling a six pack of Busch or a game played on an ice covered pond in a remote area of Canada involving some sort of long handled stick, a frozen badger liver, and six pack of Molson.

Why can’t we as PR and marketing experts exert some influence here and come up a better moniker? How did we get stuck with weblog, blogger, vlog, etc. anyway? Why can’t the brilliant people who created Sea Bass out of Patagonian Toothfish come up with terminology that would making blogging cool, or at least less un-cool?

What would Mad Men do for a client struggling with finding a name for an online journal that may be accessed by anyone on the planet (with an internet connection) in which a person could write anything they wanted for all to see, at no cost? Whatever hypothetical options the Mad Men might come up with, I have a strong suspicion blog would not be one of them.

For instance, as a kid I remember my parents purchasing one of the very first microwave ovens available in the US. It was called an Amana Radar Range. My father (also a Steve McQueen fan) was quite proud of the “Radar Range” he was able to purchase for his family. I’m not so sure he would have been nearly as proud of a simple microwave oven. Though no radar was actually involved in the cooking of the food, the name Radar Range was great and something a cool person could own and brag to his or her neighbors about.


The beauty of the old Madison Avenue days was that the folks inventing the technology didn’t get to name it. If so, Amana technicians might have labeled their invention a “table top electromagnetic radiation cooking device” or somehow reduced the name to a one syllable acronym. However, in the hands of the advertising experts the unit became known as the Radar Range. Amana’s parent company, Raytheon, accidentally discovered microwave cooking while conducting research on radar technology using magnetrons during WW II.

They knew that in order to sell it, they had to make it sound cooler, and they did.

Why can’t we do the same thing for bloggers?

In the case of Steve McQueen maybe we could call his blog an UOLBKWC or (updateable online list of butts to kick and women to ravish).

Regardless of the title, I’d love to read it.