1:  Alisa!  You have so much stuff to do, and you’re doing what??  Doodling in your sketchbook?

2:  I am trying to decide on a hairstyle, thank you.

1:  You could at least be doodling a part of the newspaper that you’re redesigning.

2:  Look at my to-do list!  I’ve accomplished a lot today.  Besides, a haircut is necessary.

1:  A job is necessary.

2:  I’ve got it covered.

1:  Where?

2:  In my head.

1:  So basically, it doesn’t exist, and you’re doodling hair.

2:  Yes.

I hate arguing with myself.

Today at work I was looking through various companies’ presentation books–– they were trying to be the ones to help the city “brand” itself. Branding is a marketing technique to get people to recognize and remember what a product, or a city, is. For instance: Scottsdale, Arizona, is known for its high end living, rich horse owners, and expensive local shops. Florence, Arizona, is known for its multiple prisons. Florence is trying to brand itself as one of the most historic cities in Arizona; it claims that it has more historic buildings on the national registry than any other town in Arizona.

Anyways, one portfolio showed a catchy tagline for the White Mountains:

Going to a store to buy plums and coming back with a bag of prunes: not cool. The White Mountains: cool.

At first glance, it seemed okay. But the more I read it, the less sense it made. Plums? I’ve never seen a plum tree in Arizona. We don’t even have plum trees here! Plums don’t have any relevance to Arizona whatsoever. Furthermore, what do plums have to do with the White Mountains? I can’t relate to buying plums and coming back with prunes. I can’t even relate to buying plums or buying prunes. I’m not old and constipated!

I think they should have said:

Phoenix in the summer: not cool. The White Mountains: cool.

This makes sense on two levels because Phoenix is blistering hot in the summer and the White Mountains are up in Northern Arizona in the cool, pine-covered mountains. Also, for the social aspect of the word, it really isn’t cool to be hanging around Phoenix in the summer. That’s just plain stupid. Hanging around the White Mountains is socially acceptable any time of year because there is always something cool to do up there (skiing, snowboarding, hiking, fishing, camping, etc). Even old people with their prunes know that it’s stupid to be in Phoenix in the summer. They go up north.

Someone should make earbuds and an iPod mod that monitors your pulse.  That way, when your pulse gets to a certain level, your iPod shuts off.

This is useful for listening to music/recorded books at night.  Once you fall asleep, the iPod shuts off, saving battery life and frustration of trying to find where you left off at.