GlossyVeneer

A little while ago, I commented on the Quizno’s commercials with the weird rodent things. At the time, they really freaked me out. But now, a strange thing has happened…. I find myself singing along with them. It’s really odd, I’ll be getting ready for work in the morning and the commercials come on and I can’t help joining in… “They are tasty, they are crunchy, They are warm because they toast them….”

Anyway, it seems that several people have taken notice of the Quizno’s creatures (spongmonkeys) and I’m hearing about them all over. Here are a couple recent references:

- Television Without Pity: In a recap of ‘The OC’, one of the quiz questions asks the viewer what they think the Quizno’s creatures most resemble. A. parasitic twins B. dead rodents C. retarded people My vote is for B.

- Slate on MSN: A headline on MSN’s main page prompted me to take a look at this page. Here the writer dissects the ad, breaks down the commentary that the general public seems to have on the spots and gives the spot a final grade.

I have to agree with the Slate author, the spots are sure getting Quizno’s a lot of attention. And I still want a Quizno’s here. Yum…..toasted sandwich.

Song playing now: This Time’s For Real by Ill Nino

It’s time for yet another installment of….
Why people need to learn how to communicate:

*Phone Rings*
Me: Hello, This is Jill.
Moron: Uh…hello. Jill?
Me: Yes.
Moron: I want to make a change to our web site.
Me: Okay, what do you want to change?
Moron: Well, I’m going to change it myself. Because I know how to make web pages.
Me: Oh. Okay, well if you want access to the web server you will have to get some training first.
Moron: I already have access, your boss gave it to me.
Me: I see. Well, what are you having trouble with then?
Moron: Well, see…I know how to make web pages. I’ve done it before. I made a web page for my cat once.
Me: That’s nice….
Moron: And, well, that page was really simple and I look at the pages you’ve made for the school, and I’m not sure I understand how to update them. I have a program I used at home, it’s a really good program that was free, and it was simple and easy and had built in background textures. That was fun. But I have FrontPage here in the office and I don’t know how to work that. I would much rather work with the code, cause I know that, but FrontPage doesn’t do that.
Me: Well, if you know HTML, you can change to the code view in FrontPage and work in that mode.
Moron: How do I do that?
Me: There are three tabs at the bottom of the screen, one for ‘Design’, one for ‘Code’ and one for ‘Preview’. Do you see those?
Moron: Yes.
Me: Well, if you choose the ‘Code’ tab, then you can view the HTML that composes the page you’re working on.
Moron: Okay, let me switch to that. *Much clicking, silence, clicking, typing, silence, clicking and other sounds in excess of what it should take to click one button* Hmm…. okay, I’m on there, but I’m not sure I’m in the right place.
Me: What do you see on screen? It doesn’t look like HTML?
Moron: Well, I see a little arrow thing that is kind of pointing to the left. And then, I see the letter ‘A’. And then there is probably a space there. Yeah, I think a space. Then it has the letter ‘H’. And after that it has the letter ‘R’. And then the letter ‘E’ and then it has a letter ‘F’. And I think there is another space there. And after that…
Me: *Interrupting because I am getting annoyed* Yes, you see an anchor tag.
Moron: A what?
Me: An anchor tag….that’s the link tag.
Moron: I didn’t think the HTML for links looked like that. Hmm…Well, I guess I should explain. My other thing, I could just draw a box with the link marker and then it made the link for me.
Me: I’m not familiar with a program like that, but if it made a link, it was most likely generating that tag in the HTML.
Moron: Well, I guess I don’t know HTML exactly. But I don’t like this FrontPage program. I want something else.
Me: FrontPage is what we are able to provide to content contributors for free because of our licensing agreement with Microsoft. If you would like something else, your department will have to cover the costs of purchasing Macromedia Contribute. Those are the software packages we allow departments to use for updates.
Moron: Hmm… well, since I already told my department head that I am an expert with this stuff and that I’d have some changes done by 2:00 today and I obviously can’t do them, will you do them for me?
Me: I can certainly do that. You’ll just need to email the change to me and I will process it.
Moron: Okay, I guess I’ll talk to the department…hey, why don’t you tell my department chair that I need better software in order to do these updates?
Me: I guess we can put in an email to your chair. After I finish these updates for you.
Moron: Okay, I’ll email them to you because they need to be done in 6 minutes. Thanks for your help. You’re so good to work with.
Me: No problem. Bye! *All said rather cheerfully while rolling my eyes in disgust. *
*Hang up the phone. Sometimes I even flip the phone off after a particularly annoying chat*

Song playing now: Hit That by The Offspring