Walkthrough of the Waldorf Astoria Orlando Presidential Suite

In normal times, we could have never stayed at this place.  At the time, hotel occupancy rates were dropping and we were able to reserve the Presidential Suite at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando.   I’m not going to dig into a detailed review of the hotel.  But, despite a minor billing hiccup (which was easily and quickly resolved), we had a very positive stay.   I will say that we were very pleased with the cleanliness of the place, the care they took to clean and sanitize, and the friendliness and attention provided by the staff. 

This is my first time doing a walkthrough video.  So, please forgive the amateur narration and the even more amateur editing.

 If the video is too rough to get through, below are few photos of the Hotel and Room:

Waldorf Astoria Orlando at night

Loved the hotel lobby

View of pool from lobby

Photo of pool and hotel taken with a 360 camera

Presidential Suite: view of dining room and living room from the master bedroom

View of the two sinks and the whirlpool tub

View of makeup table and shower

The Waldorf Astoria had Ferragamo toiletries!

View of master bedroom 

Watching the huge TV and making a mess of the coffee table.

 

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Invisible Monsters Remix Chapter Order

Recently, I finished reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters Remix.  Of his novels Invisible Monsters is probably my favorite so far.   Side note: I would probably rank Fight Club as my second favorite and then perhaps Haunted (just my opinions).

If you haven't read it yet and don't want to know a thing about Invisible Monster Remix, please don't read below this sentence.

I consider myself a fan: my collection of Chuck Palahniuk books (in no particular order)

In the introduction the author notes that the format of the book was meant to mimic the experience of reading a magazine.  Subsequently, the chapter order of Invisible Monsters Remix doesn’t read sequentially, but rather jumps around.

The experience of reading Invisible Monsters Remix is like reading a magazine. Instead of hopping from page to page, it jumped from chapter to chapter

I remember thumbing through the book before reading it and stumbling across chapters that were written backwards.  I sarcastically thought, “this is going to be fun.”  But when I finished the book I realized that I never read those chapters.  I thought I may have read it out of sequence, but as it turned out there are a few chapters that have been added that are not part of the sequence … and barely related to the core story (some aren’t related at all).

There are 10 chapters that outside the story’s core sequence that make up 3 separate sequences.  Each of those sequences is its own story loop.  I thought it didn’t matter which story loop was read first.  Also, I thought it didn’t matter which chapter to start with in each loop.   Personally, I preferred starting the loops on the lowest chapter number of each one and preferred reading the last loop sequence listed below to finish the book.

Invisible Monsters Remix - Hardcover

At the end of the introduction, Chuck Palahniuk points out that the reader can opt to mark pages with an X to keep track of what’s been read or not and just get lost in the book.  Personally, I like the idea of having read all the pages so I was one that decided to keep track.

Below is the chapter sequence.  If you opt to get lost in the book, don’t look below this sentence …

Core Story Chapter Sequence
Chapter 41
Chapter 1
Chapter 40
Chapter 2
Chapter 39
Chapter 4
Chapter 38
Chapter 5
Chapter 37
Chapter 6
Chapter 35
Chapter 7
Chapter 34
Chapter 8
Chapter 33
Chapter 10
Chapter 32
Chapter 11
Chapter 31
Chapter 12
Chapter 29
Chapter 14
Chapter 28
Chapter 15
Chapter 26
Chapter 17
Chapter 24
Chapter 19
Chapter 23
Chapter 20
Chapter 22
Chapter 21

Loop 1
Chapter 3 - Printed Backwards
Chapter 16 - Printed Backwards
Chapter 30
Loop 2
Chapter 13
Chapter 25
Chapter 42
Loop 3

Chapter 9
Chapter 18
Chapter 36 - Printed Backwards
Chapter 27

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The Holiday Creep

A lot of people, including myself, are really getting sick of the holiday creep.  Now, I’m not talking about the strange dude, who is always alone and never makes eye contact, that you see roaming the mall once a year in cut off jean shorts who seems to be stalking you  --  I’m talking about the start of the holiday shopping season that gets earlier and earlier each year.

Photo taken in September of a Holiday Display

I was shopping for a birthday present in early September, saw this holiday display, and was kind of horrified.  When I was a kid, I remember as fall would approach the Halloween merchandise would be displayed; Halloween would arrive and the Thanksgiving décor would make an appearance; and then Christmas displays would appear as Thanksgiving would draw closer.   Personally, I was fine with this progression because I absolutely loved unique feelings that each of those holidays brought. Now it seems that Halloween and Thanksgiving have been all but forgotten and Christmas is something I’ve grown to dread rather than anticipate.

I understand that the Christmas season is important for most retailers.  They have shareholders to please and payroll to meet. Plus it’s not difficult to see that some retailers are simply in trouble (J.C. Penny, Kmart/Sears, and Aeropostale come to mind right now).  But there has to be a more creative way to try to boost sales rather than extending the Christmas shopping season.

It seems to bet getting to the point that in my lifetime I will see one, year long, holiday shopping season. (Side thought: maybe that’s what Christmas Tree Shops was aiming for).  It’s easy to see how this could evolve too:

Holiday Back To School
One day the holiday season displays will be coupled with Back To School.  I could imagine the marketing campaigns surrounding that.   They’d probably simply bundle the two together and have notebooks and pens next to wrapping paper and bows.

Christmas in July
This idea is already in place, but it would take on a whole new meaning.  I suppose we could think of it as a half-Christmas. You know kind of like a half birthday, which (as a Catholic) seems somewhat fitting.  “Christmas in July. Get your half-Christmas stuff today!”

Holiday Easter
Easter is already a holiday, but I don’t think it has the broad shopping appeal as Christmas.  I think there’s only so many eggs that you can buy for someone before they’re used as rotten projectiles on Mischief Night (ya … think about eggs rotting for 6 months).  Maybe with the general worry about obesity something may happen, like the government stepping in and declaring one sugary candy or chocolate holiday every 6 months … one for Valentines day, one for Halloween. As a result, Easter would have to be re-purposed.  There’s such synergy here I could see that before long some marketer will simply tie it together to try to lift sales:  “He has just risen, but don’t wait, get your shopping done now before he’s born again!”

Holiday Valentines Day
Here, I could see simply tying love with the love for Christmas shopping. Christmas trees adorned with engagement rings.  After all, getting engage is special.  Getting engaged at Christmas time is even more special. So, just make Valentines day a little more special ... by adding a Christmas Tree.

The Yearlong Christmas
Finally, stores would just have yearlong Holiday time sales rationalizing, “if Q4 is our best quarter because of the holidays, then why don’t we just leave the holiday stuff displayed and just celebrate the holidays all year long. This way every quarter could be like Q4.” Of course someone at the other end of the conference table would be like “Beautiful! I love that idea! Run with it!” Stores would then just have a holiday department. It wouldn’t be called ‘seasonal’ anymore and there wouldn’t be any lawn and garden supplies stocked there in the off season … it would need to be called “The Holiday Department.”

I have nothing against the holidays (both religious and secular aspects). I also have no problems with merchants making money either.  Where I do have the problem is trying to over-exploit the emotional ties to the end of year holiday in order to do so.  If stores need to have a sale to move merchandise, then have a sale.  I just hope that eventually retailers stop trying to make it special by making the Holiday shopping season earlier and earlier.  I am more inclined to not shop somewhere if the Christmas time stuff is out before Halloween.   Personally, I don’t see it changing though I really  hope I am wrong.

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Conversation. Sponsored by ...

Corporate messages seem to pepper our communications.  If you’re sending an email, you may see “sent from my iPad” at the bottom; if you’re making a phone call, you might hear an AT&T chime; and there countless advertisements on Google, Skype, and Facebook.

It seems that the only part of the popular communication sphere that isn’t propagated by corporate messages is regular conversation. I’m not talking about interoffice conversation … that’s something completely different.  I’m talking about daily conversations.  

From what I hear, brand ambassadors do something similar, where they look like they’re casually hanging out at a bar  but they’re really pushing Bacardi or Stoli.  But that is someone hired to do that job and (for the most part) represent one brand.  

Perhaps a new advertising medium that could work for companies is pay per phrase (or, maybe call it paid viral speech) where everyday people, not under the direct employ of companies, use key phrases in regular conversation and get paid in the process.  The idea here is that words and phrases such as “proactive,” “synergy,” and “straw man” aren't typically used in daily life but rather corporate settings .... and people aren't being incentivized for using those 'company' words.

So, in a similar fashion, companies can create key catch phrases to be used in normal conversation to help promote their brand(s) and have it make as much sense as "synergy".  I’m not sure how it could be tracked. But perhaps when the under the skin tracking implants, like we saw in the Hunger Games, reach critical mass we may have a more effective way to measure successful campaigns.

I’ve given this a little thought and have tried to create a few phrases to start.  
 

• That’s so Apple.
• How Warner Brothers of you.
• Don’t make me go Olive Garden on your ass.
• Hummmmvveeeeee!!!!!!  (maybe used when in a roller coaster)
• Gatorade it up
• No Way Band -Aid
• Don't pull a Blackberry
• I'm so Starbucks today
• I need to get all Walgreens
• That worked like Quaker Oats

Admittedly, I don’t know what they all mean. But the rhythm of the phrases sounded appealing. So, draw your own conclusions and feel free to suggest some more.  If we can start injecting these into daily culture soon, we are on our way!

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