#ALL MY BUDLITS ARE AWESOME!

[thepnwvarmints]

💌 Send this to the twelve nicest people you know or seem to have a good heart and if you get five back you must be pretty awesome.💌🥰🥰

Thank you so much, Ericca-love! I'm gonna go ahead and tag @ilovewhiteroses and @i-like-the-eyes in this, too, cuz those loves and snuggles go to all three of y'all! And just so y'all know, I'm mentally sending you each this ask right back, only without the catch of needing there to be 5 sent your way. No pressure ever and y'all are awesome, even if you don't get five back! So there! <333

[houseofdax]

Ooc: Alright, so I’m not gonna be around so much today, cuz I gotta go get groceries and run errands, but can I just say somethin’ real quick?  I’m kinda floored and honored by the fact that y’all still chose to stick around.  Like... it’s sorta blowing my mind.  I know I’m shipping exclusively now, so I wasn’t expecting that people would stick it out and still wanna follow my ass?  Like... at all?  

The fact that y’all cared enough to wanna stay friends, maybe even discuss non-intimate threads with me, and are willing to look past the fact that I dropped a lotta ships... it’s kinda leavin’ me shook over here.  I didn’t think people actually cared that much, tbh.  There’s been a lot of people who were so quick to attack, point the finger, then bail and who didn’t care to keep in touch, that I had started thinkin’ I was too gullible to try and be actual friends with people in the rpc.  I didn’t expect this so... thank you.  It truly means a lot that y’all stuck around.  Just wanted to say that.

Anyway... enough of the chick-flick moment.  Lol!  I’ll be back later, my budlits.  Fuckin’ love you all, my dude and lady buds.  You guys are fuckin’ awesome.  Here endeth the sap. :P

-Dax

[lookingfortroublr]

The difference between insight and an ad idea

Find the insight an the ideas will come. That is the principle we are working from and why we focus upon people insights – simply because they serve as the best springboard for relevant, origival and impactful solutions.

So by now we should be all clear about that what we are looking for is insights, not ideas. But what is the difference?

 The easisets way to put it is that the insight is a realization about a problem or desire that people have and the idea is the solution that presents it self to it: The insight unearths and serves the unmet need that begs a solution.

And revelations about unmet needs are awesome inspirations for ideas – simply because the motivate us to generate solutions to the problem or opportunity at had.

That was alledgedly also the case when the Californian design company IDEO when they helped Bank of America with insights that could inspire  ideas for how to better help people in their daily financial lives.

What they could observe was that a lot of people had the aspiration of saving BUT meanwhile they also where rounding up when paying at retail simply to fasten up the payment.

This conflict in what people wanted to do (save) an d the what they actually also did (rounding up for speed), was a tension to tap intp with a the idea or concept that was marketed and now commonly known as ‘Keep the change’.

The concept here is that whern a person when paying with debit card can transfer the gap amount from the actual price and the round up they do straight into this or hers into savins account at Bank of America – allowing small savings to come out of a dayly behvaiour that otherwise only would save time, but otherwise make them lose money.

A nice idea by IDEO that goes to show how all great solutions spring from an insight. Because if there is no need then novbody will want your solution.

The insight here is what gives the energy to fuel ideas and the method is to look and listen for wht people actually want  but can’t express – even in the case of buying cars you’ll see how people when asked why they bought an  Audi German quality, driving experience and safety, when deep down the real reason may be the status and prestige they covet). So search for the insight before the idea – and remember the difference between the two.

What was the difference again?

Examples like the service design solutions above might murk the answer a bit. So lets look to what we can draw of learnings form from the good old advertising world.

Here we can look to the difference between creative insights and ad ideas:

You may be working for some long lasting consumer good, but need to help the client have people replace their old products with a new (yes that was often the case and not exactly how most of us will want to be working in the future but serves the illustration purpose so please try to follow here …

You look to how people feel about their existing products in the category, say mobile phones. Here we can observe that many people love their mobile BUT wihen a newer model is launched they crave to get their hands on it. and in effect start looking for excuses and alibis to get rid of their old phone.

From this insight can spring an idea like ‘Happy accident’ that was the concept for a Samsung campaign.

Mobile phones is just one example. As we are talking about deeply rooted human emotions and behavior here the insight for the ad idea here doesn’t connect to one specific brand – that's the role of the idea and the execution to connect to the brand and differentiate to competitors.

That's why you’ll se how advertising business have been using the insight above in many categories, sometimes with variations as human nature is complex.

Remember the en saying: The opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth?

In this case there may be one insight about people yearning for the new. But the opposite can also be said to be true.

Like the  famous campaign for IKEA years back where the insight was that people may want some brighter new stuff in their lives BUT the emotional – often sentimental - attachment they have to their old stuff tend to get  in the way of getting new and exciting stuff.

This insight hints on the task: Challenge attachment to old boring stuffe. Campaign idea line: ‘Unbôring, here brilliantly execution in the film ‘Lamp’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU-cori12KU

Sure, now adays with we would probably all agree that we should rather find insights for making useful things that people want, rather than make them not want want their old stiff in order to make them want new stuff thay they may not have needed in the first place.

But keep in ind this is about what can be learned about insights from the  old analogue advertising world then never mind the ideas and executions – apart from noticing how insight and an idea differ: The former is about how people feel, the ladder is the response that inspires in the form of an idea.

In the advertising era before we got the idea of really helping people with real problems through solutions that would improve their lives, then there was a lot of campaigns running on simple insights about how people feel and behave when they desire something, fx icecram or chocolate: “I know I should control my self but I just can’t help myself around irresistible food”

A lot of campaigns sprang from this inspight and was exuted om the formula: “So great that … you’ll just break conduit, try to hide, deceive in order not to share etc.)

Again there can be another side to the coin of ihow people act around irresistible food.  Another advertising insight – and insight that you at all times can observe in kids but also adults -  is that it’s great to eat nice  food but often it is even as much (more) fun to play with it or perform personal rituals’. This insight provides the foundation for ideas and lines like How do you eat yours?

In travel industry and insight about youth travel could be found in how some holidays they youngsters would want to go but that mum wouldn’t approve of if she knew what to place between the sexes there i.e. insight into both the youngs desire for adventure and the feeling of breaking away from home- if only for the summer.

This insight can be said to be the foundation for the Club 18-30’s notorois print idea “Shagging”.

One thing is that there may be mum restraing you from going on holiday when you’re young.  Another side of the emotions around holiday could be that it’s great to be on holiday, but not so great a feeling having to go back home again. Idea: ‘Holidays you don’t want to go hme from’ by the travel company Spies’:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COZgNaiyQWk

Classic campaigns have been done by the British Army based on the insight that when you’re young you feel you have a lot of time ahead of you and that you are free to live your own life but you also have that voice inside telling you to make something of your life … Idea? “Be the Best”

Or as the Danish Army took rthe same insight and twisted the old question ‘What do you want to become’ and instead put it: “Who do you want to become?”   that as campaign idea provided a great platform for social conversations and dialogue in the recruitment.

No entering the old advertising world without beer … and Bud Lite has through times run the most funny campaigns – funny because they’re based on a truth: “Men struggle to get out and have a beer with their friends …” Idea: “The BudLite Insitute”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj7lt7oIIdw

One thing is the insight about men having a hard time getting out another is the struggle to get to stay out once at the bar. The insight is what Andes Beer tapped into with the Teletransporter idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKDgYKSEN6M

And later Norte took up the problem found in the insight with the Photo Blocker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5DJbKPS8d4

Norte’s insight that young men wish they could be at the bar with their friends without abandoning their responsibilities as boyfriends also led to the idea: “Best Excuse ever” where charity from the beer caps could serve as alibi for going out and staying out without lying to their girl friends when they said they’d been going collecting for charity.  

Another related insight about young men is that they know there are certain rules and obligations but they wish they could continue to live a life without consequences: Date without having to commit, commit without getting the father in law as ruler; Drink cola real Coke taste without gaiing weight … well that's where Coke Zero had it’s make it happen moment and came into the picture introducing the ide of”Making the impossible possible”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JsTjhsSdt0

For Sprite Zero an insight was that young men often have a conflicting emotions about their mums: on one hand they enjoy her cooking on the other hand they often wish they could have their independence before moving away from home. Idea: “Sell your mother” a tongue in cheek campaign that encouraged young men to brig their mums to the store an weigh her in in retrun of a box of Sprite. Again the formula “So great that  you’d in this case sell your mother for it”.

(Note: Even though I did the strategy for this campaign, now looking back I find this kind of formula advertising tedius and shallow. But again the execution examples here are only to show case the difference between an insight and an idea.)

Folgers Coffee coffe tapped into an insight that young people don’t feel mornings are the perfect moment as portrayed in many cother coffeads. The insight here is the feeling that mornings are not there to be enjoyed, they need to be survived. Idea: ‘Tolerate mornings.’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSW1m83GqzY

Getting back to beer: Carlsberg know as well as any other brewery that beer is about social bonding as mucgh as the drinking. They also had the insight that guys love to spend time with their friends and consolidate the bond but that the association between beer and friendship is not enough in it self anymore – it needs to needs to be explored and proved. Idea: “Stand Up for a Friend”

As we saw with beer commercials and as you know from stand up there is a lot of tension to tap into from the desire and the differences between men and women.

The football betting provider Oddset tapped into the insight that Guys enloy having something together around football that women are not part of. Idea:”There is so much women don’t understand”

But sometimes an insight can also be very simple universal truth like Sony Bravia that tapped into the truth that was so obvious that it was overlooked: “People love colors” Idea: Color. Like. No . Other.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spB4ezsQ6II

Or Nikon Underwater Camera utilizing the insight that “Everybody tends to smile  when they know they get  photographed”. Idea Smiling Fish.

(very nice campaign by y friend Jason Mendes. Check it out :-)

Now we could go on with commercials, but by now you should see the difference between an insight and an idea: The insight is the underlying need the idea is the answer to it and the execution is what you see on the screen or wherever.

[carriejonesbooks]

I love dogs.

I love my dogs. I mean look at them. I’ve had a great line of awesome rescue dogs that have blessed my life.

Dogs make you stronger

Prom dog

But sometimes? Sometimes horrible things happen. Things that seem like they should not happen in real life. Things that seem like they should only happen in horror movies.

One of those things? Well, once the dog, the big dog, the big dog with the massive bladder let loose the contents of her bladder on hardwood floor of the upstairs hallway.

We discovered this because there was a puddle on the downstairs floor.

“What is that?” the man asked.

“Um… pee?”

“That’s not pee.”

“It smells like pee.”

“It can’t be pee. It’s dripping from the ceiling.”

And I foolishly said, “It really smells like pee.”

The man then unleashed a massive stream of cursing that really belonged in record books. He vaulted up the stairs and cursed more.

“The BAD WORD BAD WORD BAD WORDING BAD WORD dog BAD WORDED AND BAD WORDED up here.”

“It will be okay,” I said.

“It is so not okay,” the man said.

I grabbed paper towels and bleach spray and bleach wipes and headed up the stairs.

The man grabbed a mop and bucket and continued to swear.

“Urine is literally dripping from our ceiling. OUR CEILING!”

The dog went out on the porch, which would have been a much better place for her to unleash the contents of her doggy bladder of Olympian size.

This whole event happened immediately after we came upstairs because the basement had  flooded. Our basement had never flooded before. There had been two inches of rain and I guess it inspired basement flooding and doggy bladders?

Yeah. I’m reaching there.

Anyway, this all happened during a day in which nothing went right, but I totally held it together anyways. This happened during a day where the one thing I was looking forward to for AN ENTIRE YEAR got cancelled because a projector at a movie theater broke.

It happened.

The dog had a massive accident. The accident found a knot in the wood and dripped through it onto the kitchen floor.

It was messy and disgusting and swear worthy.

And we survived. Right?

I love dogs and people and humanity, but man… if we don’t mess things up beautifully sometimes.

But what matters is loving through it, surviving through it, continuing through it.

And also bleach wipes.

Bleach wipes are important.

  One time when I was a emergency dispatcher, I came home and Tala and Scotty, my then-dogs, greeted me at the door, all doggy happy. Scotty, was my new dog and he was a rescue dog from Alabama who was in a kill shelter and for a long time we had thought that he was perhaps a grandpa who likes crawfish and BudLite a lot and was somehow caught in a dog’s body – like he was a shapeshifter who got stuck.  He had a puncture wound in his neck when he got here, two small holes. So, I think a vampire is to blame.

He’d also been shot.

His tongue had also been flayed and had healed, but one side didn’t work.

You know I’m a grandpa in real life – a human grandpa who likes BudLite.

Before that night, I had already witnessed him:

1. Get ice out of the refrigerator. 2. Use his paw on a door handle to open a door.

And now, he did this….

Do you see that? It’s a drawer that was COMPLETELY shut when I left the house. This means he grabbed it with his mouth and got it open at least a little bit and then he either wedged his nose in or something and opened it more.

Why would he do that? Oh, he was probably sick of dog food and bored because I was gone. Which is bored doggy behaviour, I know, but I present more evidence….

This was just part of the mess the dogs made. Notice the bottle of corn syrup was still standing up? Would a dog do that?

“No! A dog would not do that,” said Tala. “A dog would do this! Look at all that powdered sugar mixed with shoe! Yummy! I give it 5 stars!!!”

Side note: Dog saliva combined with powdered sugar on a wood floor creates a glue-like paste that is impossible to vacuum or mop up. It must be attacked with Clorox bleach wipes. I swear. I did not know this that night. And finally, though they ate peanut butter chips and brown sugar and confectioner’s sugar and Crisco shortening and Shepard’s Pix mix and Italian seasoning mix, they did NOT eat this….

Do you know what that is? It is chocolate!!! Chocolate KILLS dogs. And they left it, only tearing open the end. I sort of imagine Scotty holding Tala back and saying, “Baby. It smells good, but it’s poison. It will kill us. Let’s go lick up the sugar.”

See? I swear he was human!

You know it, baby. Now go get me a beer while I lick the sugar off this here rug.

I miss Tala and Scotty and all the dogs I’ve had before. I miss them even though they weren’t perfect. I miss them even though they had flaws. That’s the thing, if the living creatures we love are flawed? That doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of love. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of our love.

Nobody’s perfect. Not even a dog. But that’s okay. It just means that they are real.

WRITING NEWS

Yep, it’s the part of the blog where I talk about my books and projects because I am a writer for a living, which means I need people to review and buy my books or at least spread the word about them.

I’m super good at public image and marketing for nonprofits but I have a much harder time with marketing myself.

So, please buy one of my books. 🙂 The links about them are all up there in the header on top of the page.  There are young adult series, middle grade fantasy series, stand-alones for young adults and even picture book biographies.

Time Stoppers Front and Back Covers – US versions

Dear Bully

Things We Haven’t Said

Moe Berg

CARRIE’S APPEARANCES

I’ll be at Book Expo America in NYC on June 1 at 11:30 – 12 at the Lerner booth signing copies of the Spy Who Played Baseball. A week before that,

I’ll also be in NYC presenting to the Jewish Book Council . Come hang out with me!

I’ll be at Sherman’s Bookstore in Bar Harbor on April 28 from 1-2.

To find out more about my books, there are links in the header. And if you buy one? Thank you so much. Let me know if you want me to send you a bookplate.

PODCAST

The podcast DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE is still chugging along with over 3,000 listens.

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can.

  THE CLASS AT THE WRITING BARN

The awesome six-month-long Writing Barn class that they’ve let me be in charge of!? It’s happening again in July. Write! Submit! Support! is a pretty awesome class. It’s a bit like a mini MFA but way more supportive and way less money. We’ll be having a Zoom class to learn more about it and I’ll share the details as soon as they are official.

The Worst Things My Dogs Did I love dogs. I love my dogs. I mean look at them. I've had a great line of awesome rescue dogs that have blessed my life.

[thepnwvarmints]

Quick Update:

Things are kinda better, but also kinda worse, so I don’t wanna unload all my drama on the dash. Just wanted to say that court isn’t happening, thankfully. Our attorney advised us to opt for reapplying to disability after we get our affairs in order in January. Less cost and free’s up our holidays.

That bein’ said, I’m still facing other things and have a lotta health stuff with my family right now, so I’m still pretty mia. I will try to check in a bit more, just to see how y’all are doing, as time allows. Today’s pretty slammed and I’m already running behind, so I gotta jet.

I love and miss all y’all and miss bein’ able to exist online. It’s weird how much this place became a world to live in, now that I’m back to living in the real world. It seems very different now, but I’m kinda homesick! Lol! Mostly for my budlits, but ya know…. I miss havin’ time to play, as do my muses. We’ll see if I can find energy more to post things.

Thank you to @ilovewhiteroses and @boydholbrook-fan for keeping the Boyd Fandom very well fed! Y’all are awesome! And thank you to @wardenparker ; @i-like-the-eyes ; @ithinkwehitametaphor ; @kurjaks and @e-dubbc11 for bein’ so patient and supportive. I love all y’all! Take care of yourselves and Happy Holidays! 😘🤗🥰❤️🧡💛☃️❄️🌲🎁🎉🍾🥂

[houseofdax]

Ooc: I haven’t really had time to take a beat and be online with the craziness that has been the holidays lately.  But I want all y’all to know that I appreciate all y’all and I do hope that each of you has an awesome holiday season.  I haven’t forgotten any of the tags that people have sent in.  They’re all still tucked in drafts, if I haven’t gotten back to them yet.  I’ve been tryin’ to whittle away at them bit-by-bit, but life’s been a little overwhelmin’ with the whole Christmas shebang.  

@affaridicuore; @bruisedxpetals; @angedansant; @alongingwithin - To the best ship partner a guy could ask for:  You're truly my inspiration and my muse eternal, darlin’.  My guys would not be here without your girls.  I hope you know how much we appreciate, adore, and admire you endlessly, angel.  You have your presents a plenty on the way, cuz there is NO way ANY of my guys would allow your girls to go this Christmas without showerin’ the ones they love and worship with gifts.  Whether in private or otherwise, they’ll be on the way.  Count on it. <333

And to all of my new friends that I’ve made here this past year... thank you.  You’ve made a tremendous impact on me and keep me sane.  I don’t think I was prepared to trust people or let people in, to this extent.  I’d left the roleplay community, fully prepared to have people not really talk to me or get to know me online again.  The last thing I expected was to meet such a welcoming group of fun, considerate, honest, and genuinely decent people who cared about kickin’ it with some no name dude like me.  Especially one who doesn’t write fanfic, have a smut page, or any place in any real community anywhere.  I mean... I write out ships with one person and I post random stuff of my muses so... fitting in just didn’t seem like a thing?  

Basically, I’m beyond grateful that y’all even feel like hangin’ with me.  I’m no fanfic writer, obv not a fan-base blog that makes a ton of gifs/caps - even though I do my best to participate in makin’ stuff, and I’m not exactly ooc based, either.  I’m a “Private RP Exclusive Ship Only” blog with random nerdy shit that I get a wild hair up my butt to create and post.  For whatever reason, y’all chose to stick around, so thank you.  A very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all y’all, and just...  thank you for makin’ me feel like there’s still good people out there.  Much love, budlits.  Take care and I’ll be back online soon.  

-Dax