I loathe stepping onto the Trend Train, but I thought this was interesting and funny.

There’s a wildly successful author of marketing books named Seth Godin. He’s written some critically acclaimed and commercially successful books called Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside.

He’s also an aggressive self-promoter and shows up basically anywhere anyone talks about marketing, and if you’re as interested in reading business books and business blogs as I am, it’s impossible to avoid him. The blogs I read constantly talk about his books, how influential he is, what he’s doing that week, what kind of food he’s eating, what’s in his garbage, what he looks like when he’s sleeping alone in his house and safe from harm or so he thinks, etc.

It’s aggravating to me, because I tend to get very quickly fed up with people that are in the limelight for too long and are hard to avoid. Overexposure simply irks me, and besides simply being irked, I find myself increasingly irked by the mere fact of having BEEN irked by something, which sends me spiraling down a compounding vortex of irkdom.

I hadn’t read any of his books yet because the gist I got was that he was simply repackaging existing concepts and giving them silly names. i.e., the key concept behind Al Ries and Jack Trout’s seminal work Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind was taken a decade or two later and relabeled “Purple Cow.” On an immediate superficial level this strikes me as, pardon me for saying, jerkoffery. I strongly dislike self-indulgent cuteness — you’re a grocery store CHECKER, not a point-of-sale systems operator! — so I’ve been somewhat avoiding his books because I infer that it’s all sort of like that. And in any case, they seem primarily to serve merely as tools for him to promote his marketing consultation services. That’s actually pretty cool and exactly how I’d do it if I were him, but in my mind that makes me less likely to want to read it.

Now to introduce the second player in our story. I’ve mentioned them on this blog before but I’d like to introduce you all again to 800CEOREAD.com. They’re a business bookseller that has fantastic book reviews, a genuinely interesting blog that’s updated with their new reviews, a great website and reasonable prices. They’re a titch above what you’d pay on Amazon, but you get wonderful freebies that Amazon won’t do.

For example, they advertised on their blog that, for their first birthday, they were going to give away free copies of books they’d been sent to review before publication to anyone who emailed them saying “Happy birthday!” I did this, not having bought anything from them before, and they sent me a free copy of Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Careers Got Their Start. I finished reading that last week and it’s one of the better books I’ve read in a while. Easy to read, very inspiring, very diverse and definitely worth buying.

At this point, they’d won my loyalty through sheer coolness, so I bought an autographed copy of Winning by Jack Welch (former CEO of General Electric). I’m still working my way through it and it’s an absolutely phenomenal read, but that’s besides the point.

So yesterday I’m at work and I had a package delivered to me from 800-CEO-READ. I had no idea what it could have been because I hadn’t ordered anything from them. So I open up the package and find a note. They have a Perfect Book Club where they send people that have bought books from their site a free copy of a book that a major publisher wants in the hands of early adopters like me. This happens every month.

And, lo and behold, the copy of the book they sent me was All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin, the author I’d so assiduously avoided reading. How about that? His self-promotion and marketing prowess have so invaded my life that HE FOUND ME AT WORK!

At this point I’d had enough of trying to avoid him and I really had no excuse not to read it. So I started reading it, and I’m only a few pages in but so far it’s actually pretty good. There isn’t enough to comment on yet but there’s certainly more to come as it happens.

Just another one of those funny things that happens to me.

Oh, incidentally, I installed a web tracker on my blog to keep track of how many people come to the site and it’s quite a bit higher than I expected. I don’t know who most of you guys are but I really thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading me. :)

Also, I’ve re-enabled anonymous commenting. Not sure how that got turned off.

Update your bookmarks: http://www.jonjones.us/

I have my own domain now, as well as a brand new layout and graphics, courtesy of my fiancee.

Let me know what you guys think of it…

——————-

E3 impressions!

Terrific show. Met a LOT of really amazing people and saw some fantastic games I want to buy.

First off, Daxter PSP was a huge hit. Everyone that tried it loved it and essentially every gaming publication that viewed it agreed that it’s the best-looking PSP game yet seen.

Daxter hands-on at Gamespot with screenshots

Daxter hands-on at IGN with videos and screenshots

One particular highlight was Miyamoto stopping by to play our game. Amazing. What an honor.

As for other games — what other games? I already told you about the only one that mattered!

No, but seriously, here’s a breakdown of my E3 impressions.

Ladybug delivery day. I’d forgotten. Got a phone call this morning.

mom: “Hello? Jon? Hi, it’s your mother!”

me: “Hi mom!”

mom: “Normally I wouldn’t call you in the morning, but um, I think I got a package of yours. It says it’s live ladybugs.”

me: “Oh. Happy Mother’s Day!”

mom: “…what?”

me: “I ordered that for you. It’s a box full of live ladybugs.”

mom: “…WHAT?!”

me: “Yeah! Have you looked at them yet?”

mom: “No, I’m just looking at the box. I haven’t opened it yet. There are LIVE LADYBUGS in here?”

me: “Yep! Two thousand five hundred live ladybugs.”

mom: “YOU SENT ME TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED LIVE LADYBUGS?!?!?!!?”

At this point she breaks into hysterical, spastic laughter and manages to choke out a “Jonathan, WHY would you send me twenty-five hundred live ladybugs for Mother’s Day?” to which I quickly chirped, “Because I can!”

I stayed on the phone while she read the instructions. “Two thousand five hundred ladybugs is enough for a 2500 square foot garden. JONATHAN, WE’RE IN A 900 SQUARE FOOT APARTMENT!” and she started laughing hysterically again. “WHAT am I going to DO with these?!” and she read further about how to keep them alive and said “Oh, no, you have to keep them refrigerated so they’ll live. David, honey, can you clean out the refrigerator and put these in there please? Oh dear, oh dear.”

I explained to her that I ordered them on the internet and opted against ordering the full 70,000 live ladybugs and also against five giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and she started laughing again, the mad laugh of a normal woman pushed to the brink of insanity. “THANK you for NOT sending me seventy THOUSAND live ladybugs OR giant cockroaches!”

me: “So what are you going to do with them?”

mom: “I.. god, I don’t know. *more insane, confused laughter* I guess I’ll go around the apartment complex and let them loose in the bushes? Or take them over to your brother’s house and released them? I have no idea!”

me: “And that’s the fun of it. See, since I moved out I get the feeling that you don’t have enough to do. Above all else, I like the idea that through the power of the internet, with VERY little effort on my part, I can create a problem in your life that you have to solve. Now, really, did you have ANYTHING else to do today before you got the ladybugs?”

mom: *long pause, then the laughter kicks in again* “Well, no, I guess not.”

me: “There you go. Have fun! Let me know what you end up doing with them, and take pictures if you can. Love you, mom! Bye.”

mom: “What? You’re just going to –”

*click*

—————————-

Been focusing on reading more lately, since I actually have time to. I find that one helpful anchor point of sanity during crunch is FORCING time into my schedule to be able to read or relax or do something constructive besides work. I’m getting out of my post-crunch funk a LOT faster than last time. I’m getting better.

Reading more of Nobodies to Somebodies which is now released and even more worth reading. Nearing the end.

Also bought an autographed copy of Winning by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. Why autographed? Well, because I’m a whore, that’s why. I’d like to say I didn’t start giggling and do a happy little dance as soon as it was delivered to me at work, but I’d be lying.

But before I do that, as soon as I finish Nobodies to Somebodies, I’m going to finish reading The Motley Fool Investment Guide : How The Fool Beats Wall Streets Wise Men And How You Can Too which has been recommended to me by several people. I’ve read it off and on but crunch usually kills my interest in reading.

My interest in investing has been rekindled by a reader of my blog that contacted me last week. He’s an investor and loves Warren Buffett as I do, is a huge video game fan, and likes what I say well enough to invite me to join StockArena.com, a fantastic investor’s discussion board, and a hell of a lot more. I’ve been digging into it for the last couple days and getting a feel for it, how it all works and where to start. It’s full of unbelievably knowledgeable people and fantastic analysis, advice and commentary, and an intelligent moderation and reputation system that has cash rewards for the best posters.

In short, it’s a fantastically valuable resource I intend to contribute to and use as best I can.

Going to dive into investing as soon as I knock out some outstanding debts, like the Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook I picked up in March. Fantastic machine with a BEAUTIFUL 17″ screen that’s completely replaced my desktop PC. My only regret is that it isn’t faster (1.6ghz) but considering the amount of cutting-edge gaming I do these days (hint: none) it wasn’t practical to do more than that.

That’s all for now. May update this post again later today.

Wow! Our game, Daxter PSP, is IGN’s most anticipated PSP game at E3!

http://psp.ign.com/articles/611/611243p1.html

I’m totally flattered and impressed! That’s a lot to live up to, but I assure you that we’re going to the ends of the earth to do our very best. :)

What I find most stunning about this is the fact that we haven’t relased ANY pictures, ANY information, or ANY detail of any kind of the game other than the fact that it features Daxter, is for the PSP, and connects to Jak X to unlock new characters. To my knowledge, we’re not even doing any kind of marketing or advertising yet. All the buzz the game has been getting is completely from outside parties on the promise of the IP it’s being built on and the practically unprecedented agglomeration of old-school, hardcore talent that’s behind it. Unbelievable, and inspiring.

——–

And in other subjects, I have a friend, David Murphy, that’s an extremely talented indie musician that put out a kick-ass indie rock album all on his own, including all instruments and singing, and he wants me to help him market and sell it. I thought it was an interesting challenge, and given the fact that I’ve never personally understood why I should be compelled to undertake a hobby that isn’t a marketable skill, it seemed like something fun to spend time on.

I bought four books on the subject:

The Songwriter’s Market Guide to Song & Demo Submission Formats

This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion, Revised and Updated Edition

The Self-Promoting Musician

Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians & Bands

Seems like enough to get me started. It should be an interesting challenge to take a flying leap into a brand new industry for fun in my spare time with zero risk. I’m a little concerned at what I’ll find considering what a horrific beast the music industry is, but I think that with some careful study, bold action and guerrilla skillz, I can accomplish something meaningful, have fun and learn a lot.

The reason I post that is because I found a pretty interesting article on the subject of clever music marketing that I wanted to link to. It’s about a country musician named Dierks Bentley and the steps he and his marketing team took to creating ethical artist evangelists that helps spread the word about his music. It’s a pretty interesting read. You can find it at the link below:

How to Turn Entertainment Fans into Active Evangelists (Responsibly)

Ladybugs due for delivery this Wednesday. Word on the street is, females lay 10 - 50 eggs every day, so assuming half of the ladybugs my mom gets are female and fertile, she could be looking at 60,000+ brand new ladybugs within a month. Tee-hee. Can’t wait for the reaction and how she takes care of this problem. Stay tuned.

Beginning to emerge from my crunching stupor. Finished everything on my task list last night, and to my surprise, I was able to go home before midnight for once. So I’ve been taking as it easy as possible and relaxing today, hoping nothing crops up, and in the meantime I’ve been paying all the bills I’ve studiously ignored all month.

On a note of disturbing relativism, I’m becoming acutely aware of how much my internal sense of time relies on arbitrary structures, such as a “weekend.” I had a total of one day off in the last month, and excepting that, not having weekends to indicate what time of the week or month it is it feels like the entire month I just went through was just one very long, continuous, neverending week. Sort of like that last sentence.

I never know what day of the week or month it is, and all the time I’ve put in at work destroys the sense of the passage of time on a day-to-day level as well. “Thank goodness it’s Friday!” I’ll hear someone say, to which I reply with a very startled “It is??!”

In my head, I don’t even remember the month of April. It’s just gone, like it never happened, except that our game has a HELL of a lot more art in it than in March. :) That’s probably for the best, because I’d rather forget it ever happened and move on to thinking about what to do with my time, instead of not having it.

That’s hardly a complaint, though. They told me at the interview here that they’re going to crunch like mad for this project and future projects, and that when they say ‘Ready At Dawn’ they damn well mean it. They also said that some of the guys here actually live here during crunch. I mean that literally. At least four people here spend the night at the office for up to a week at a time, sleeping maybe four hours a night before getting back to work. That’s hardcore, and I respect the hell out of them for that. I especially respect the founders of the company because they work as much or more than *anybody* here. You know they’re serious.

So yes, I knew what I was getting into, and it’s a price I pay gladly for a job working on a *kick-ass* video game with amazing people.

And in other news, I’ve been forcibly making time to read and have any anchor point of sanity that I can. I’m still passionate about business, and I managed to finagle an advance copy of Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Careers Got Their Start from a blog I frequent called 800-CEO-READ. It’s an online business bookstore and review site, and has absolutely fantastic reviews and resources. I highly recommend them.

Anyhow, Nobodies to Somebodies is a fantastic read so far. The author approaches over 100 high-profile successful people in business, non-profit organizations, politics and more and interviews them, and weaves it into what is essentially an analysis of the transition from a nobody to someone successful, with a series of relevant and fascinating anecdotes gleefully sprinkled throughout.

The author does his best to come away with a series of methods of how people made the leap and is weaving a pattern of success to examine and understand better. I’m still only partway through it, but I love it. I’m such a sucker for business \ famous success’s biographies, and even aside from that it’s a highly compelling read. It’s definitely worth a purchase once it’s released. Again, wicked mad props to 800-CEO-READ, yo. Read their reviews and buy their books. They’re on the bleeding edge of the latest and greatest in business books.

Aside from that, I’ve been enjoying reading Business 2.0, a magazine I recently discovered. For biz magazines, it’s decent. It’s mostly light, fluffy reading, but enjoyable and inspiring overall for stories of how this company or that CEO pulled off something impressive. There’s an article about four tightly focused and well-positioned companies that are successfully competing with Wal-Mart that was surprising and interesting, if not particularly thought-provoking. Definitely worth subscribing to if you like that sort of thing.

I’ll finish off this post by saying that Kung Fu Hustle is one of the best movies of the year, and if you liked Stephen Chow or Looney Tunes, you should see it.

A more light-hearted post.

A few months ago I ran across a website where you can order all kinds of beneficial insects for your garden and have them shipped to your front door. My first thought was, “Man, what a great idea! It’s amazing how the power of technology and the Internet has brought us to a point that we can remotely fulfill practically every need imaginable.”

Then I looked more closely and saw that you can order them in batches of 70,000 or more, which is absolutely staggering. The fact that someone can order 70,000 of anything is pretty funny to me, especially if they’re alive.

And so my second thought was “What if I shipped 70,000 ladybugs to someone at random?”

The idea bobbed around in the back of my brain for a while. Every possible scenario of what someone would do with 70,000 ladybugs went through my head and I never stopped finding it hilarious. Every step of their thought process was a riot. “Hey, Jon sent me something!” then “Why’s the box buzzing?” then, when they open it, “AAUAUUGUGHHHH!!!”

However, I never acted on it, and the idea fell by the wayside.

Today at work I restored my old bookmarks to a new version of FireFox and saw the ladybug order page, and the idea was rekindled. Even better, I realized that Mother’s Day is this week. :)

The box of 70,000 seemed unnecessarily cruel for my mother, who’s a dear, sweet woman, so my sympathy got the best of me and I shipped her 2,500 live ladybugs instead. It’ll be arriving at her doorstep later this week.

I love that technology lends me the ability to create a problem in her life. :)

I’ll post more as it happens.