With the upcoming Super Bowl, which I am mustering the nerve to watch since I am not a Patriots fan, we can all get a glimpse of extraordinary marketing. I haven’t heard whether GoDaddy will be doing one of their illustrious campaigns, but every ad should provide a lot of material for marketers to digest. So I’ll be watching as much for the commercials as I will the game itself. I’ll post more on that after the fact. For now, on to something more fun.

Everyone do the BLOG WAVE

Jeff over at BuzzMyBlog.com suggested we celebrate the upcoming Super Bowl with a blog wave. What is a blog wave? Each blogger adds their name to the list and the next adds his until the entire blogosphere stands up in unison to cheer on the Giants! (ok, maybe not.) Everyone get in on the fun and stand up for a moment… 

Here’s how it works:

1. Copy this entire post and repost it on your blog.
2. Join “the Crowd” by adding a link to your blog at the TOP of the list.
3. Drop a quick comment to the person you copied the post from (don’t spill their beer!).

How is this a Blog Wave you ask? Good question. When you publish this post, you will be adding your blog to the top of the list. The general assumption is that blogs at the top of the list are likely to get more traffic than blogs down at the bottom. So if we were to flip through the Google Analytics of everyone doing “the wave” in order, we’d theoretically see a blue tidal wave of traffic moving left to right! Who knows if it will work – let’s find out!

The Crowd:

• [Add your blog below this note!]
• Jason Boom dot com – Exploding on the Internet
• Buzz My Blog – Let’s Make Money Online By Working Together

So you simply copy the indented post to your own blog, and update the Crowd section with your own link. Get in the spirit. And, remember Patriot fans, nobody likes perfectionists!

The Patriot’s Bid for Perfection and A Blog Wave from Jason Boom dot com

Lorelle challenged me. Me! I’ll show her. I can write about traveling. After all, I’ve been places. Let’s see. Yes, there was that trip…and that one. Ahhh! Dynamite!

You know how in narratives the reader sometimes has the upper hand on the character? The piece of the story the reader knows but the character doesn’t seem privy to because of his or her shortcomings?  This is not one of those stories. I know what’s happening, but as the reader you will have no clue til the end. However, there’s a lesson in there. Somewhere.

A Mysterious Dragging

One evening, a friend and I had been driving for a few hours on a main interstate that bisects Illinois. It was dark. We were approaching a major city, less than ten miles ahead of us. My friend was smoking. It was winter. The air was cold coming through the sliver of an opening on the passenger side. Up ahead a car was in the right lane, while we moved along in the left. As we drew closer, I could see something hanging down from the driver’s side door, bouncing along the interstate asphalt.

It had to be the driver’s coat. They must of had one of those long coats, with the floppy tails. A business man for sure. The driver had shut their coat in the door. I saw their license plates–Ohio. How could this person drive from Ohio cross an entire state without shifting out of his coat? He must be damned uncomfortable.

“What is that hanging out their door?” I asked my carmate.

“Not sure. Looks like he shut something in his door.” It looked rubbery as it slid and fluidly bounced along the interstate. In the darkness the form of it began to take shape. It looked like a stuffed toy a child would carry. One of those old monkeys with the long tails and the short fur. Or, maybe it wasn’t stuffed.

Unfortunately for the Ohio driver, when they packed their Cadillac full of clothes and necessities for their trip, they did so in the comfort of their garage. The warm garage that the family cat had access to from the utility room door. And in that cold January evening when they had packed everything in the trunk. They started their car and closed the door. However they closed it on the cat’s tail.

The new Cadillac had appealed to that driver. When they took it off the lot for their test drive, they loved how it shut out the sounds of the world. How the traffic seemed to fall away like a dream.

My friend and I tried to inform the Ohio man, with his eye beams focused straight ahead. He ignored our horns and waving hands. Our blinking headlights, until at the dawn of that city, we rushed off the exit ramp.

 So how does this story and challenge pertain to making our blog more successful. Easy. There’s a dynamite lesson in that story for any blogger. The destination seems to matter the most. However, we should know exactly what we had to give up in order to get there.

Travel Post Challenge Response: A Mysterious Dragging from Jason Boom dot com