A job is a habit. I don’t think about how to drive here or where my desk is or how to access the files I need on my comptuer. I’m not surprised to see the same people, day after day. Same music on the speakers. Same tea at 3pm.

In the end, nothing is different. Nothing screams “last time,” because for everyone else, it’s not the last time. It’s just a regular old time. A day in the middle of all the other days. A Tuesday, even. Important partners must be called. The product must be created. There’s an investor party tonight. Another day, another dollar.

But my last dollar’s in my purse.

It’s like I’m trying to find significance in the normal things. Which pictures do I take home with me, and which ones do I leave on the wall?

Honestly, I just want to get out of here. I hate goodbyes. I hate the weird anticipation of goodbyes. There are so many things that I wish I could say, but I can’t because they’re boys and sentiment is weird to them.

- You’re a good person and you can do great things for the world;  you’re just hiding in the skin of a somewhat pretentious asshole.

- You’re a good father.

- You’re a good husband.

- No one respects you, really. Can’t you see that?  (Okay, I would never say this one, but sometimes I wish I could).

Some of these people I will never see again.

I don’t like thinking too much about that. It gets heavy. Relationships and the brevity of life and the crazy amount of time we spend at work instead of with our loved ones. The habits that are formed.

On Thursday I start a series of new habits.

Sometimes the hardest step is recognizing that we’re headed the wrong way. We have to figure out when it’s time to pivot.

I recently read a piece about the most famous “pivots” in tech. Flickr, for example, started out as an online video game. When its creators realized that more people were using the photo sharing feature than seemed interested in the game, they pivoted to an online photo sharing site. It’s not just products – writers talk about characters who create themselves or stories that write themselves. Often these characters or stories take a completely different path from the one the writer originally planned. The writer is just a vehicle for an entity that needed to be created.

Personally, I’m horrible at pivot moments. I have this weird, masochistic tendency to stick with things long after their due date. I wait until life is screaming “CHANGE” in my ear, until I have nightmares and anxiety attacks and all sorts of other ugly side effects of the path I’m on before I accept the fact that something’s got to go. But lately, it’s become clear, even to me, that a pivot is needed in my life.

There were three main signs that I needed a change:

Signs of an impending Pivot

1) Jealousy

This is kind of an embarrassing one. But it’s also the most telling. Jealous of others’ situations is a pretty big sign that you’re not happy with your own.

It could be relationships, or jobs or , god, living situations? All of the above?

II know there are people who are just incredibly lucky. The girl who inherited a top floor apartment with views of the entire city and pays no rent. We’re all jealous of that. But if you find yourself jealous of just about everyone else’s situation, even the “normal” ones, it’s a pretty good sign that your own isn’t so great.

2) Lack of Motivation

Yeah, we all have slumps. Man you should have seen me this morning. Nothing could get me out of bed. Nothing! It was finally Saturday, and I’d been drinking on Friday night and my bed was ohh sooo cozy.

But dude, if you’re going back to the same situation, this situation that you still haven’t pivoted from, and your never filled with motivation. If you have absolutely no desire to do what needs to be done. If there’s no greater goal you’re building up to – you need to either make that goal, or find a situation in which there is a bigger picture result coming out of the day-to-day grind.

3) The “This is so Random” moment(s)

Really? Is it that random that this is the third time today something has seemed to signal that you need to make a change? Sometimes, even if our “logical” sides haven’t reached a decision, our emotional sides, or our guts, are super far ahead of us.

Maybe you weren’t consciously looking for signs that you need to make a change, but something was, or else you wouldn’t be seeings sings everywhere.

I guess this is my not-so-subtle blog post way of saying that there are some pivots coming along in my life. Something has needed to change for a long time. And it’s going to change, very soon. And I can’t wait.

The more that content shifts from channels and networks to the internet, the more we have to consider the effects and consequences of this change. Take commercials. No, seriously – take commercials. No one watches them anymore. Whether it’s DVR, Netflix or iTunes, consumers are increasingly finding ways to avoid ads on television.

Networks might not mind losing out on ad revenue if they’re gaining the money back through online subscription models. But the marketers aren’t going down without a fight. No one loves watching ads, but a good many of us work for a company that needs advertising and new business in order to stay in business. (If you work for Apple, you have about five seconds to gloat, beginning now). So if consumers are finding ways to avoid ads, it seems like product placement within content is a perfect (and maybe even more effective) way to generate revenue with in the new wave of television.

The Problem with Product Placement – It’s a Little Too Krafty

If you’ve watched The CW lately, you may have noticed that the characters in Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries don’t Google anything. Ever. Even Blair Waldorf, the weathiest of Gossip Girl Upper East siders (yes, I’ve been known to sneak an episode or two) owns a PC and Bings her search queries. It’s the cheesiest thing you’ve ever seen.

See the CW logo in the bottom right? Could a take be any more obvious? Ugh. And then when the characters say lines like “Oh I found a great perogie place on Bing.” Oh it’s cringe worthy. Takes you right out of the story.

If product placement is destined to be a fixture in our favorite characters’ kitchens from now on, they’ve got to start learning to do it right.

How to do Product Placement Right

The Quality Logo Products blog has three great examples of product placement done well, and then not-so-well. The “Ugly” video was the worst, with the mother’s character breaking into her “commercial voiceover” mode to convince the audience her daughter to try a new facial cleanser. It was so awkward. No one talks like that! But that doesn’t mean that no one talks about products.

The thing is, people in “real life” namedrop products ALL THE TIME. It’s natural.

“Did you grab my Droid?”

“Let’s get some Papa John’s!”

“OMG – All of us are on the Neuva Ring!” (Yes, real girls talk about their birth control too.)

“I’m getting a Stella – what do you want?”

What advertisers need to learn is that demanding a full-on explanation of the benefits of your product sounds completely out of place in a TV show. We expect commercials to sound salesy and fake, but we want our TV and film characters to seem like they could actually exist. Just a namedrop is ok. I’m the internet generation – if I want to learn more, I can, and will go to your website/blog/facebook/twitter to learn about your product. This is the era in which TV and online work together! Tell your fans and followers to watch out for your product on Thursday’s episode of the new hit show. But for the sake of all things holy, leave the friggin storyline alone.

He is the IPO Hippo. Ask him anything.

This is that post. The one with the tangible ideas. I’m still against a “war.” Silicon Valley and Hollywood need to work together, and they need to learn some important lessons from each other.

What Hollywood Can Learn From The Startup Community – A “Paying Your Dues” Culture Will Kill Your Industry

One of the biggest differences I notice* between the work environment in Northern California versus SoCal is that in Hollywood, fresh-out-of-college 22 year-olds start at the bottom (and I mean the “bring-me-my-extra-hot-vanilla-latte-kid” kind of bottom). The younger workers are expected to pay their dues over time until they gradually rise to a position of authority. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, and I’m sure knowing someone helps (a lot), but, generally speaking, that’s how it goes.

And that’s part of the reason Hollywood can’t keep up with the internet age. Years of experience is helpful in many business situations, but so is having idea makers who are in touch with your biggest generation of consumers since the Baby Boomers. Hollywood is letting one of their biggest assets – the thousands of young people who would do just about anything to work in that industry, many of whom have killer ideas to boot – slave away on monotonous, data-entry type jobs for the sake of tradition.

One of the most promising aspects of the tech industry is that age really doesn’t matter. If you’ve got a good idea and the means to execute it, it doesn’t matter if you’re 22 or 52, you’ll get the chance to prove yourself, without jumping through years of dues-paying hoops. If Hollywood had paid more attention to the ideas and habits of young people, they may have been able to salvage some of their industry from piracy before resorting to tactics like SOPA.

What The Startup Community Can Learn From Hollywood – Invest in More Than Just Tech

We need to learn from the success of Kickstarter. Creatives need money too. Hollywood gets this idea – they spend millions on writers, artists, and other creative types. The internet startup community has “startup weekends” and incubators galore, but we don’t have large-scale funding opportunities for creators of art and entertainment, be it filmmakers, TV show writers (or whatever the future of the serial story will be, probably not TV for much longer…), authors, etc.. Why are we stopping the innovation at tech? The internet has clearly caused a revolution in the entertainment industry, but the internet community hasn’t caught up to it yet.

Just as with tech startups, small groups of creative people should be able to come together for a weekend or a few months, or however long the period is, put together a rough semblance of a “product” and pitch to investors. Some will get money to continue, and some won’t, just like with tech startups. The point is – this will help solve the problem of the ridiculous corporate blockade that prevents a lot of innovation from entering the entertainment business to begin with.

Once they have a product, these entertainment startups can use the internet to their advantage. I was so excited to hear the announcement today that the anticipated additional season of Arrested Development will air on Netflix, and not just because I’m a huge fan of the chicken dance. This is exactly the direction entertainment should be headed in – whether it’s via subscription or pay-per-view, or other revenue generation models that we haven’t even thought of yet. Instead of needing the support of behemoth networks and channels, entertainment startups can broadcast online.

Obviously I’m not suggesting that everyone in the tech world move over to the creative side. In fact, that’s another reason why I disagreed with Paul Graham’s call for tech startups to destroy Hollywood. You don’t ask programmers to fix entertainment, just like you would never ask a screenwriter to make a site in Rails. These two industries ask for different kinds of talent and expertise. But I think the internet community as a whole needs to embrace a “startup” as more than just a handful of programmers pushing out a website.

Entertainment is not going to die. People aren’t going to stop watching movies or serial shows anytime soon – they’re just going to change how they consume these products. If we want Hollywood to change with the times, I think we need to start by seeing the future of the entertainment industry as a startup boom waiting to happen.

________________________________________________________

*I don’t work in the entertainment industry, but I do have many good friends who do.

In the Bay Area, showing support for SOPA, well … you just don’t. You’d have an easier time defending North Korea in a human rights debate. SOPA would kill innovation! It would restrict the freedom of speech! It could take down Reddit and YouTube and even Wikipedia. When I first learned about the bill, I was sure statements like these were mostly sensationalism. I mean, this is the United States. We don’t just take down websites! But I looked into the issue a couple months back, and most of those seemingly sensationalistic assertions are true.

But.

Yes, in my mind, there’s still a but.

What really shocked me during the whole SOPA debate, and the ensuing “War on Hollywood” that’s buzzing around the Bay, is that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and techies and journalists alike spent so much time decrying Hollywood’s greed and no one bothered to look at the proverbial log in our own eye. Millions of people, including members of the tech and startup community have been stealing movies and music and TV shows for years now. In talking to programmer friends, we’ve agreed that many members of our circle are habitual downloaders of pirated content. I’m not saying that everyone in Silicon Valley steals their Showtime serial of choice instead of purchasing it, but it happens enough. Considering the millions of computer literate consumers involved with the startup community, I would guess that on our own, we’ve deprived Hollywood of tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

And no one in Northern California addressed this issue, or led a charge to start paying for content.

You could assert that not paying $25 for a season of Weeds is a whole different ballgame than taking down a website with hundreds of millions of users. But is it? It’s taking advantage of the power you have to produce an outcome that benefits yourself, and that hurts another. It’s greed. The entertainment industry is made up of men and women who work just as hard, and who are just as creative and intelligent as members of the startup community. It’s not just a bunch of old white men in suits as they’ve been portrayed. That would be like portraying the startup community with a picture of 25 venture capitalists. Hollywood is made up of writers and designers and editors and sound people and even computer programmers. And these people are losing millions of dollars in their hard-earned money due to piracy.

Paul Graham recently argued that SOPA and PIPA made it obvious that “Hollywood is dying.” Why else, he asked, would they resort to tactics such as these? I have a lot of respect for Graham (if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have my job!), but in this case I have to disagree. Hollywood is not dying. Even in Silicon Valley, I don’t know many folks who don’t have a TV series they’re stuck at the moment or who don’t curl up on the couch to a good movie on some weekend nights. We’re still watching TV and movies just as much, if not more than we used to – it’s just that many of us aren’t paying for them. If Hollywood is dying, it’s not because of lack of demand, it’s because of theft.

I agree that Hollywood needs to innovate. No one watches TV on TV anymore. In 20 years, TV channels and commercials probably won’t exist as we currently know them, except for events like football games or the evening news, things that pretty much have to be live. Licensing content to iTunes and Netflix is a step in the right direction. Hollywood needs to create more ways for people to consume content on demand. But instead of declaring war, instead of going to battle, I don’t see why Silicon Valley can’t be the “bigger person” in this argument. Don’t destroy Hollywood with your products while you steal and enjoy it in the comfort of your own home. Let’s stop being greedy and work together.

I highly recommend this blog post to any girl with a more-than-moderate fascination with the written word. It will make you feel very good about yourself.  I’m not sure it will do much for people who want to date girls. If they’re the kind of lover who’s meant for a reader, I’m sure they already appreciate literary women. And if they’re not, it’s not going to convince them otherwise.

Even though the “Girl You Should Date” post was much more directed toward girl readers than toward the men and women who love them, it got me thinking about my own dating experience – what I’ve learned from my relationships about the guys you should and should not date. Failed relationships, I’m learning, are often relationships that either shouldn’t have started at all or that shouldn’t have continued past a fun-filled month or two.

So based on my own limited personal experience, I’m starting a new category of blog post. Let’s call it:

This episode is titled Someone a Girl Should Date.

- Date someone who clearly, clearly respects you. If you’re not sure whether or not they respect you, be wary.

- Date someone who makes you laugh. Every day.

- Date a someone who’s willing to learn how to adapt to you. No matter how similar you are, there will always be differences to overcome.

(Example: I’ve never met a man who was born knowing how to make a woman feel better when she’s down. I’m sure they’re out there, just like I’m sure there’s a straight guy out there who eschews both sports and video games. But most men, when faced with with the doom and gloom of a moody maiden, naturally go all deer-in-the-headlights. “Ahh! Ew! Girly emotions! Does not compute!” That’s okay, as long as he’s willing to take some advice.

When I say “I’m having a bad day because of [insert scenario here],” you say “I totally understand why you’d feel that way. It’ll be better tomorrow. Let me pour you a glass of wine.” Stuff like that. Learning.)

- Date someone who wants you, but who doesn’t need you. Needing is sweet in romance novels, but in real life, people should be able to stand on their own two feet.

- Date someone who doesn’t expect to be needed by you.

- Date someone who challenges you, in a kind and respectful way, to be a better version of yourself.

- Date someone who doesn’t threaten you with break-ups, for whatever reason.

- Date someone who’s patient with you. You have flaws; everyone does. Date someone who’s not afraid to kindly point them out, but who’s also understanding of your humanity.

- Read over this list again. Replace every “Date someone” with “Be someone,” and replace every “you” with “your partner.” Date someone you’re willing to be that person for.

- And do try to date someone who appreciates reading. Readers are magical people.

I only know this because I bought a car over the weekend and have replaced my “Words With Friends” filled BART rides with NPR and the highway. And this “primary” was basically all they talked about on NPR today.

So there are a bunch of guys (and one woman) who have spent the last few weeks and a few million dollars to earn Iowans’ love and affection in. If you’re a registered Republican in one of the other 49 states, you might want to venture on over to Wikipedia or something a bit more legit than my blog. If you’re not a registered Republican, you don’t have any real decision making to do until November 6th anyways, so you might as well rely on my super awesome Dictionary of the Republican Primary for all your Republican Primary facts.

Ahem.

Megan’s Dictionary of the Republican Primary Season

Mitt Romney (currently unemployed, former Governor of MA) – Mitt is the front runner in this primary race. Republicans see him as moderate enough to actually beat Obama, mostly because of the fact that he’s flip flopped on every issue in the book. Since no one knows what Romney really thinks about, like, anything, no one really hates the guy. Basically, if you despise Obama so much that you’d rather have Raggedy Ann in office, this is the candidate you want to hope for.

MITT! Get it?

Rick Santorum (Senator from PA) – Rick is the champion among the conservative evangelical Christians (hey Dad!). If you’re pro-life and anti-welfare, you’re probably a fan of Rick. He seems to be doing well in the Iowa caucus, but he also made time to kiss babies in every county in the state (unlike most states, Iowa has a “caucus” [not to be confused with Caucas] instead of a primary even though it’s basically the same thing). Unless Rick can visit every county in the United States before November, most NPR analysts don’t see much in the future of his campaign.

Rick ALSO wears mittens!

Newt Gingrich (currently unemployed, former Representative from Georgia) – He used to be a pretty key player in the Republican party. I know this because I grew up in a Republican household (see paragraph above), and he’s the only candidate whose name rings a bell. He used to be the Speaker of the House or something, but he had to step down because everyone got mad at him about the whole “impeaching Clinton” thing. Newt was still a pretty big front runner in Iowa before some of Mitt’s Super PACS spent millions of dollars on commercials to bash him.

It came this way on the internet. I DID NOT draw these hearts. Creepy.

Super PACS – Candidates are always trying to restrict where other candidates are getting money from. Some huge debate along these lines occurred in July of 2010, and then there was a Supreme Court Ruling, and as a result, it’s now legal for groups of organizations, companies, rando people, whatever, to band together in a Super PAC and spend as much money as they want on ads for the candidate of their choosing. (Individuals can only donate up to 30K directly to a campaign, so this allows super rich folks to spend a lot more for the guy or gal they want.)

The crazy part is – Super PACS don’t have to coordinate or seek approval of the candidate to run their ads, and therefore, they can run crazy smear campaigns on opposing candidates without having their candidate look like an asshole. He can be all like “What? I have no idea who is making these crazy ads that are bashing my opponent! I don’t KNOW how they got the psd of my logo!”

Super Sneaky!

Ron Paul (Representative from Texas) – My libertarian friends love Ron Paul.  Like – they want to marry him and have his little outspoken babies. He’s the only primary candidate who’s got much clout with the “Gen-Y” audience, which is funny considering that he’s the oldest candidate and the fact that he’s not as socially liberal as many other libertarians. His supporters like that he speaks honestly and adamantly (and unlike Mitt, he seems not to have flip-flopped very much). If you’re not much of a fan of Democrats or Republicans, and aren’t afraid of supporting a polarizing candidate, Ron might be the guy for you.

Also, it’s a running joke with Ron Paul fans that he’s been a bit ignored by the media. Put last stories and such. I’m not so sure about that one.

The ONLY candidate with positive memes. I'm telling you - the Gen Y libertarians LOVE THIS GUY.

Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman - That candidates who have about the same chance of winning as my cat.

Tampa, Florida – This is the hot-spot (literally and otherwise) every Republican who’s anyone in the Republican party will travel to this August for the “official”nomination of the 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate. There are supposed to be all these technical goings-on, kind of like the Electoral College where different representatives from different states nominate their candidate and this and that, but everybody really knows who the candidate is long before the primary. So it’s basically like the Republican Pep Rally. After more than a year of bashing, all the loser candidates will crowd around the winner and shake their fists in support and say nice things to the press with teethy smiles.

The really suck part is, Burning Man 2012 happens at about the same time. How do you decide??

You may think it’s a nice new twist on the old, Irish “Margaret.” Maybe you like the letter “M,” or the fact that is has a solid “G” in the middle, for some extra force. Those things don’t matter. Speaking as a Megan who has met more than her fair share of girls with the same name…it’s just not worth it.

There are about 12,987 reasons you should not name your daughter “Megan.” Here are 3.

1) First of all, we spell “Nagem” backwards. And without the G, we become “Mean.” Would you name your child Fugck? Or Nagsty? Or Smeglly? This does not bode well for the personality of a growing girl.

2) And then there’s just the fact that there are too damn many of us.

If you don’t think Megan’s get territorial about our names, travel back in time to Northridge Middle School, circa 1999.

There were two other Megan’s in the 6th grade. One was more popular than me, and she was loud with freckles. The other was quiet and even taller than I was. She also played some sort of musical instrument. Between the two of them, the popular crowd and all of the band and orchestra kids already had their own Megan’s. I couldn’t even be known as the tall Megan.

I’ve been on more than one date with around 8 guys in my life. (Don’t judge – boys used to scare me). Three of them, including two that became long-term boyfriends, had already seriously dated a “Megan.” The third actually refused to seriously date me because a “Megan” had just broken his heart. This is the stuff of complexes, people!

3) We’re not known for our smarts.

Other Megan’s, don’t get mad – I’m not talking about all of us. This is generally speaking.

Example – who’s the most famous Megan in America?

Just for kicks, Google “author Megan.” The top result wrote this book:

rly?

Did you know that there are no senators named Megan? No members of Congress named Megan? There are not even any governors named Megan. I found one Mayor Megan. She reigns over a village of 3500. (See? I did say not all).

I even did a LinkedIn search for the keyword “megan” and the title of “CEO.” This was my results page:

Apparently when LinkedIn runs out of Megan's, Peter's and Stacey's fill in just fine.

If you really must name your daughter Megan, please make sure she does something amazing with her life. The name needs some legit cred.