Blog
August 2008
Olympic Equestrian Events begin
Definitely check out NBC’s online coverage of the equestrian events. I watched the eventing dressage riders this evening and the coverage was fantastic: my feed was great, clear picture of decent size (don’t bother with the “enhanced” view, because it’s grainy and not worth the increase in size). While watching live, I noticed they had someone typing in comments on the tests; the replacement for voice-over commentary, I assume.
I like eventing dressage. I watch the riders go and think, “Hey, I could do that!” Not right this moment, perhaps, but it doesn’t look quite so unattainable as the regular dressage tests.
Unfortunately, the schedule of events on NBC’s site was designed by a programmer, for other programmers. I know, because it has all the hallmarks of “clever tool that isn’t user friendly” that marks so many programmer creations. If anyone can figure out how to get it to display events for any day besides today, please let me know. I would like to know (for example) what is going on tomorrow and when it starts. Eventing stadium? Eventing cross country?
Eh… whatever. They’re archiving the events, so even if I miss them live, I can catch them later.
And for that, I can forgive NBC quite a lot--I can even forgive them the useless schedule. Whee!
Sitting the Trot
Last week’s lesson in the sitting trot: more weight in the stirrups + more relaxed knee = better sitting trot.
This week’s lesson: brace the ankle.
With a loose ankle, all the bounce dissipated at the ankle, which meant I could follow the horse’s motion (when I was lucky) but not really influence it. Brace the ankle, and the bounce goes back to the knee. So long as the knee was elastic, I had more control over what my seat was doing. Which meant I could actually influence the horse with my seat.
This all came together in the shoulder in. Usually I get the horse into the shoulder in ok, but we stall out. I can sometimes recover and keep the horse moving forward, but obviously tempo and rhythm become an issue. What I get is an uneven, messy sort of shoulder in.
This time, the horse started to stall, I was able to use my seat to ask him to keep going forward, and we had what was unquestionably the best shoulder in I’ve ever ridden. Pretty cool. The horse was moving better after the shoulder in than before, which is what lateral work is supposed to achieve.
Also: I’m done being complacent and I’m losing weight. I’m motivated but not really enthusiastic about this, and the whole thing would probably be easier if I had a work-out buddy, but, whatever. My initial plan is to cook for the week and freeze in meal-size portions so I can microwave dinner when I come home from work and not have any excuses to reach for, oh, french fries. Not that french fries are my personal nemesis, or anything.
My cats are entirely enthralled by this idea. They have never, ever seen anything as fascinating as me exercising, and will come running from wherever it is they are holed up to “help.” I tried giving them catnip last night to distract them, but this just caused them to tap my ankles repeatedly and give me the “Whatcha dooooooing, dude?” look. Later, I learned stoned cats have no sense of self preservation, and it’s generally not a good idea to attempt jumping jacks in their vicinity.
Advertising Redux
I love advertisements and advertisers. Mostly I love to mock them, but sometimes they do something clever and make me feel good about my consumeristic self. Ego boost = good.
And although I am not against advertising on all of my sites, or on anyone else’s blog, I am vehemently against advertising on this blog. As we know. I assume that any advertiser who solicits the blog deserves what they get.
So, the latest solicitation (it sounds like I get so many… I don’t, I promise. It’s just the ones I get are doozies) was an email offering to write a post for my blog on an incredibly random topic because the sender was sure my readers would find it useful. I thought that was bizarre in itself, because this blog is clearly a self-absorbed public journal, so I couldn’t figure out what about the “me, me, me” posts would encourage someone to suggest a guest blog, much less one on the incredibly random topic.
And then I saw the email address of the sender and things clicked. Sender works for a company that happens to be in the business of the incredibly random topic they were recommending for this guest post. Well, now I’m convinced: clearly it’s total coincidence that they read my blog and thought, “Hey, this blog needs a post about X! And I just happen to know all about X, thanks to the company I work for! I’ll write them a post out of the goodness of my heart!”
Those of you who are more tied in to advertising trends than I am, is this a new thing? Are companies abandoning pay-per-post and trying post-our-post instead? Is there some inherent value for the blogger in this? (I know the inherent value for the company, but what about the person displaying these “guest” posts?)
I thought I was brilliant when I wrote back and said “Sure, send me the post and if I think it’s relevant, I’ll post it.” See, I wanted to Google the article when it arrived to find out if it had been tailor-written just for me or if the same article was being spammed across multiple blogs. I was also curious about whether the article would be an honest article about various options or if it would only recommend the company. I might even have posted bits and pieces of it if I thought they were relevant, but the odds of the incredibly random topic being relevant to this particular blog are, well, not very good to be honest.
But it’s been four days, and I’m not patient enough to keep waiting for an article that may never come, especially with my curiosity bursting about this apparent new advertising technique.
Is this the “it” thing? Those of you who advertise, would you consider this sort of post? Why or why not?
Even more intriguing: is this better or worse than pay-per-post? Pay-per-post bothers me a lot, and not just on blogs. I am about ready to quit listening to my favorite morning radio show because it seems like they can’t go five minutes without the hosts saying “And I just love random product! Let me tell you why, in a way that sounds totally stupid but is meant to make you think I’m saying this spontaneously and have not been given a year’s supply of the product and a hefty check to sell my soul.” At this point, I don’t even believe the hosts when they tell me what the traffic is like ("Did the City pay you to say traffic is good? Do you get free access to the HOV lane for putting a rosy spin on the morning commute?").
Sorry. It’s just that this blurring the line between independent and paid content really does bother me, because I think it does (or should) raise questions about credibility in all areas where it is used. Bloggers have it easier, because they can (and some do) indicate which posts are sponsored and which are their own words, which means I can (and do) take what’s being said in the sponsored posts with a grain of salt. Radio hosts, not so much. ("Gosh, guest of the day, our conversation has made me so thirsty! Have you ever tried product-placed drink? We have a whole fridge of it and it’s awesome!” Bleh.)
So we know where I stand: I want to know where you stand, especially if you see some sort of value in this new-to-me tactic.
Convenience isn’t everything
You know, banks will try to tell you it’s a great idea to consolidate all your accounts in a single place, because then you can manage them easily from one website. Bank with us! Get your car loan with us! Get a mortgage with us!
Yeah, that’s nice.
Not so nice? Knowing you spent more money than usual on the credit card this month, logging into your account, and seeing an amount nearly double what you expected to see even after accounting for the extra spending.
Holy heart attack, Batman!
I was envisioning all sorts of identity theft scenarios when I realized I was looking at the car loan balance.
Ooooohkay. Much better. I am an idiot.
On the plus side, when I clicked the right link to view my credit card bill, the actual amount came as a relief.
Olympic Fever
NBC will be providing full (2,200 hours) coverage of equestrian Olympic events on NBC.com (see press release).
The press release says the media will be available on demand as well as live, for those of us who can’t be glued to our computer constantly to watch it live.
Incidentally, have you seen the TV schedule for the equestrian events? I think they are on an offbeat channel (Oxygen?) but they are scheduled for prime time—6-8 p.m. or something—for several days straight. I think the last Olympics poor cableless me was bribing my way into friends’ houses at the oddest hours and then trying to explain why a trotting horse was making my jaw drop. Heh. This time, my jaw can drop in private.
I have to say, I’m excited. This is far more coverage than I was expecting, and I’m glad to see NBC is embracing the possibilities of online coverage. I have no doubt there is plenty of advertising money behind it, but, you know, I’ll happily soak in the ads for this opportunity.
Besides, I can make fun of the ads later. That’s hugely fun. (I’m also hoping some of the advertisers will be stepping up their ads, a la the Superbowl, but that may be too much to ask for.)