We get it from all kinds of places and we get it constantly!
That’s what she said!
Think about it. We get feedback from our speedometers when we’re driving…and when those don’t work, the city puts radar speed monitors out on the street that flash when you’re going too fast…aaaaand when those still don’t work…well, you get a ticket. But that is also feedback.
“Do you know why I’m stopping you, sir?”
“No, officer, please give me some feedback as to the nature of our interaction today.”
What? How do you talk to cops?
The key point of feedback, though, is that it really needs to be specific. Recently, I’ve gotten some very foggy feedback…one guy drove past my car and just gave me a thumbs up…completely out of the blue…and he did so very emphatically…like FRANTICALLY giving me a thumbs up…then he just sped on his merry way, probably not looking at his speedometer.
A short time later I’m driving along and this dude drives up next to me, shakes his head ‘no’ at me with a look of significant disappointment on his face. The look your teacher gave you when you didn’t do your homework. The look you got from your parents when you drew on the wall…seriously, very, EXTREMELY disappointed. Then he, like the other guy, sped away with no further explanation or gesture.
As I thought more about it, I realized that I DO have two pretty offensive and inflammatory stickers on the rear window of my car. The first is this one on the driver’s side…
It’s a sticker from a vinyl toy company called Wunderland War (http://wunderlandwar.com) that makes sort of punk-rock inspired vinyl toys…I think they’re pretty cool and I’ve bought a few and it came with a sticker…so why not, right? I know, VERY offensive.
Then, next one I have is this one…
Who knew that this would be such a lightning rod for all kinds of feedback I didn’t need. Honestly, I kept the sticker on past the 2008 election for two reasons:
1) I still support the guy and
2) I think Shepard Fairey did a really cool thing with the picture and I dig it.
(Babe, you like my two-point reasoning???)
Hold on to your hats…here comes a tangent!
Every year I get invited to join a fantasy football league, and every year I decline said invitation. It just isn’t my thing…plus it seems like a LOT of work!
No thanks, I have my own fantasy football…it’s POLITICS! I get sucked in every time. I follow the different campaigns, read the news, and generally obsess about all of it.
On the obsession note…check out this website
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com
They do incredibly accurate election predictions based on polling data…really cool…geeky, but cool nonetheless.
Anyway, one of the reasons I purposefully went on this tangent is that I’ve been seeing something this election cycle that I find pretty interesting and I’m going to illustrate it with another tangent.
Have you ever walked onto an elevator and its pretty obvious that someone just farted? You ever worry that if someone else gets on that elevator that they’re going to think that YOU, in fact, dealt it?
I have a strong suspicion that’s how Barrack Obama must feel at this point during these mid-term elections. It’s got to feel like he walked into a stinky elevator and when others joined him, they started blaming him for the fart…but the funny thing is that we all saw the guy that stunk up the place.
So when I write these entries, they usually percolate in my head for a while. I’ll snap a picture and the image will spark some kind of idea or theme and then I write it in my head for a few weeks. Sometimes I’ll start writing and then come back to it later…just like this one.
So I started writing this one and had most of the images and ideas down for what I was going to say and had the title of ‘Who Farted’ etc, etc. But then one day my wife and I went to lunch and when we came out THESE documents were on my car’s windshield, my windshield only, and no other car in the lot:
Chock full of “Obama’s a Socialist” business, Glen Beck is a god, blah blah blah. The moment was made even lighter by the thought that someone just had this stuff in their car waiting for someone with an artsy window sticker to come along to they can change my mind with their literature.
Then I laughed out loud when my wife yelled, “We’ve been tea bagged!”
Awesome!
So what was the image that sparked this politically-charged entry, you might ask? (But I know you didn't)
Well, it was someone giving someone some feedback.
See ya next time, jerks.
PS
2 comments:
Yeah, hope come no one ever talks about that guy who farted? That Texan...you know...what was his name? Wasn't he a Republican?
Do you think somebody just keeps a stack of those things in their car in case they see an Obama sticker? Or do you think that they ran home to their color printer in order to teach you a lesson?
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