SchwartzBlog

For those of you who are unaware, there is currently a business transaction between NewsCorp and Optimum that is starting to get some steam. NewsCorp, owner of FOX, has decided to raise the price of providing its programming to television providers. Optimum has refused to pay that new hike, so currently if you have Optimum, your not getting FOX anymore.

What these two companies are currently doing, in addition to trying to get the deal pushed through, is advertising. Not for their own companies, but against the other. They have been advertising how “evil” the other company is in hopes of getting the public’s attention. Because let’s be honest. It doesn’t matter what the truth is, it only matters what the public believes. So every day I have heard advertisements on the radio about how Optimum is getting rid of FOX. Well that’s not true, neither company is getting rid of FOX, they are just in disagreement. I have been hearing these radio ads all week, and I am sure so have many others.

Today, I saw an ad talking about how NewsCorp is bullying television providers all around the country. It was on the second to last page on the Sunday New York Times. Seriously, how many people actually get to the second to last page of the New York Times? It was the first advertisement I had seen from Optimum, and it wasn’t even that compelling.

While getting off a highway today, I saw 5 signs in the grass. 2 were for Mike Kaplowitz for Senate. There were two signs in front of it that said TAX HIKE MIKE and a red X in front. They didn’t say to vote for anyone else, just not to vote for mike.

There was a sign behind those 4, but all I could make out was “lost canine” I couldn’t read the rest because it was covered by the other 4 signs.

I bring this up because I feel like some big companies have lost any sense of decensy. What happened to advertising your product, and hoping that it sells on its own merrit?

What happened to advertising for yourself as a political candidate and not having to actually spend money on insulting the other candidate?

Honestly, I have no idea what happened to it.

thanks for reading

A friend of mine posted this as her status:

1 in every 10 people are gay.That means 1 of every 10 people is
instantly put down, given bad labels, left alone, put in minority and
more… for something they didn’t ask for. Many gay teens are turning to
suicide as a way of escaping. If you want to tell them that life will
get better and that you respect them for who they are, copy and paste
this. Most of you won’t, but lets see the 5% of you who will.

Let me start by saying that I have nothing against homosexuals, and I think that they make great conductors . Most of you who read this will get that, if you do not I am sorry, you can ask me later.

Social Networking is a great idea. It allows for communication on a whole new level. But it is a level that not everyone has mastered.

Would you go up to someone with that sign across your neck, and hand them a sign that said the same thing? Would you text that directly to someone?

How about this. If everyone had a T shirt that displayed their current Facebook status, would you post that as your status?

We recently had “National Coming Out Day” on october 11th and I think that might have been what sparked that status, but nonetheless I think that people need to start realizing that your status could follow you for years. Your employer may be able to view your status updates from when you were 15. Because everything you type into facebook, or everything you type into your internet browser while you are logged into facebook, is recorded. So you never know when it will come back. Now you have nothing to worry about as long as you never do anything online that you wouldn’t do in person. But its tough to gage that.

Here is my status update checklist.

1. Would my mother have a heart attack if she saw it?

2. Would my girlfriend have a heart attack if she saw it?

3. Would Tom Krieglstein (Semi-Employer and Social Media Guru) have a heart attack if he saw it?

4. Would my college admissions officer take offense.

Beucase let us look at who may see those posts in future years.

1. Family

2. Girlfirends

3. Employers

4. College Admissions Officers (for future years think graduate admissions officers)

Don’t curse

Don’t insult a sports team, or anything for that matter

Dont be aggressive, be assertive

Just a few things to think about.

As I go through the college application process, lets just say that my parents and I have not always seen eye to eye on every issue. And when that happened, one of my common phrases has been “You are not applying, I am.”

Here’s a quote from an another post:

The reason why college admissions process is so extensive is because each college is built for a different type of person. So if the college doesn’t accept you, it is simply because they don’t think you are a right fit for that school. So even if you went, you probably wouldn’t enjoy yourself.

So where do colleges get the best opportunity to see who you really are? Essays and Interviews. So here is what I have to say to any student who is applying. When it comes to essays, let parents edit grammar and spelling and phrasing, NOT CONTENT. That essay needs to be YOU. You don’t want to end up at a college that is the perfect fit for your parents.

And when it comes to interviews, I personally don’t think parents or anybody else should have any impact. You need to convey who YOU are. Think of it like this. It’s not an application, its like when you fill out a questionnaire to figure out what job would be best for you. You may think it is stock broker, but that application could come back and say “you seem like you would love working in medicine.” Be yourself, and let those admissions officers do what they have been trained to do, and at the end of the day, you will end up where you were meant to end up.

Be yourself, and wherever you end up, you will love it.

So let me start this by saying that I am in good health and nobody has to worry about some virus, medical or computer related.

I picked this title because this post reminded me of one of Tom Krieglstein’s post entitled Going Viral where one of his posts got over 160,000 hits over the course of a week. Well, I’ve been thinking of how to improve the traffic of this blog. Currently, I get about 75 hits every time I have a new post. Problem is, they all come from Facebook for the most part. Now there are exceptions, and interestingly enough most of the comments come from people who did not get to my blog though Facebook, but for the most part that is where I get about 90% of my hits. So the reason I put this post up is to try to get some feedback. I have no idea how to get traffic up on this site, so I would like all of your help.

1. Comment. Tell me what you think I should do

2. Spread the word.

Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for your comments…

As most of you know, my schedule has been packed these last few weeks. It’s even getting to the point where I’ll go a day without logging into Facebook. And believe me, that is big.

The first part of my summer was spent interning for a company called RedRover. I loved it there, and my plan was to continue working for them when I got back from camp. Well there was this little thing called college applications sort of jumped out of the blue and took up all of my time. Anyway, now that I am getting some of this college stuff behind me I tried to get in contact with RedRover and start this back up again. Well, turns out Tom (runs RedRover) happens to have a packed schedule as well, who knew?

What I am getting to is that while Tom and I were trying to find a time to get a meeting going, he said this:

“Balance between work and family is the key to true happiness“

And it got me thinking. If you asked a random person off the street whether they preferred their home or workplace, I would guess there is a 99.9% chance they would choose their house. But the thing is, I wouldn’t.

I love being on the field, because it lets me get some fresh air and even If it is a stressful game, I know I can handel it.

I love being on a mountain, because I love to teach kids to ski and I love to ski myself.

I love doing tech jobs for random people, because I get to both help others and firm up my own skills.

When I am home, I don’t get any of that. Not that I blame my parents. Not ever house has a soccer field, ski mountain and endless tech problems. Well some houses might have tech problems but not my house. Anyway, my house is a source of homework and for the last few weeks college essays. I can never wait to leave.

I don’t try to balance work and family, I try to get as much work in as I can. But maybe that is only because I spend time at home regardless of how much I work anyway, so I don’t think about it.

So I am going to rewrite what Tom said,

“Balance between what you need to do and what you love to do is the key to true happiness”

Just for those of us who happen to love being away from home…

It feels like forever since I have thrown a post up, so here we go. This has been an unbelievably busy weekend. Friday night I went to rehearsal in brooklyn, then off to staten island to socialize and then the following morning back home. Saturday night was our homecoming dance, which was a big event for those of us in student council.

The homecoming dance is usually a precursor for the events of the rest of the year. Because as the first dance, it shows our administration what our students might do in the future. In past years it hasn’t exactly been great. Because in past years we had students take advantage of our generosity in providing them with a dance, by inebriating themselves before they arrived.

Students that make poor decisions, simply put, have in previous years ruined it for the rest of us, and this year both myself and the rest of student council wanted to do everything in our power to make this dance both fun and safe for our student body. So on saturday afternoon we were preparing. We had sold tickets, had permission slips signed, had chaperones ready to go, etc. And that night I did everything from selling concessions to directing traffic. Actually I did quite a bit of directing traffic. And I am pleased to report that not a single student was caught abusing a substance.

But after everything I did, I had nothing to do with that. Those students, and our senior class specifically, made the choice to take action and be responsible.

What I learned was that while I can do my best prior to the dance, I have no control over what some 700 students are going to do. So stressing over it does absolutely nothing. Student Leaders are constantly given the task of getting an event together that is both safe and fun. And for some teenagers, those words do not go hand in hand. So as Student Leaders our task is to empower students to be better, and then simply hope for the best.

The 2010 Homecoming dance was a success. Thanks to both the dedication of student council members, but more importantly to the responsibility and maturity of our students.

Thanks for reading…