coming full circle pt 2: intent and output

Brenda Paz, 16, was an informant on Mara Salvatrucha, aka MS-13 in the state of Virginia in the USA. She wanted to turn over a new leaf, but was found out and murdered in 2003 . Paz was stabbed, and her throat was slit. Brenda Paz was 4 months pregnant.


Anthony Haynes died in Brooklyn for a blue bandanna wrapped around his head, the symbol of his allegiance to the Crips, a street gang originally from LA. At age 12 in 2000, Anthony was one of the youngest victim of the bloody gang war that was raging in south Brooklyn New York.

Their stories served as a backdrop for my personal thoughts on the interconnectedness of our lives and the fact that we need to accept that everything we do has more impact than that we think it does.

" Very few men today comprehend the totally integrating significance of the 99 percent invisible activity which is coalescing to reshape our future "
-Buckminster Fuller-


The fight against cocaine in Florida.
Cocaine as a drug got popular in the 1970s and early 80's. The drug became particularly popular in the disco culture, as cocaine usage was very common and popular in many discos such as Studio 54. So much so, that Time magazine wrote about it as the drug of the high society. And with the demand so grew the supply.

The main point of access for the South American cartels was the state of Florida. Strategically located a few miles from the Caribbean and being within driving distance of the major east coast cities, it was the perfect place to set up shop.

As members of the drug trade made immense amounts of money, this money also attracted much violence to southern Florida.

Outraged by the drug trade's increasing violence in their city, Miami citizens lobbied the federal government for help. President Reagan responded by creating a cabinet-level task force, the Vice President's Task Force on South Florida. Headed by George Bush, it combined agents from the DEA, Customs, FBI, ATF, IRS, Army and Navy to fight drug traffickers. It proved to be a success for a small period of time.

This law enforcement pressure drove many major players out of the picture, and forced the South American cartels, which were not about to lose out on the most lucrative market for their product, to find an alternate route for the import of cocaine. They found their answer. And then some.

There are known known’s. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don't know we don't know.
- Donald Rumsfeld -

Freeway Ricky, Crips and the fight against the Red Danger

The cold war was at it height in the 1980’s and the US involvement to stop communism from spreading as well. In it’s effort to fight communism the US got involved against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. And as it turned out to fund the fight, cocaine profits were used.

The CIA, to amass as much funds as possible for the fight, allegedly recruited dealers. And to raise the money needed fast, the dealers switched tactics.

First of all to get away from the police heat they set up shop on the West Coast of America. Using Mexico to smuggle their dope. And instead of selling to the people of Beverly Hills or other places similar to the customer base they had catered to in Florida, coke dealers started selling the drugs in the ghetto markets of L.A.'s.

What at the time might have seemed as a foolish strategy to apply turned out to be the start of the longest war in the history of the US. One the government and various defense agencies did not foresee and, in the end could not control.

According to his wikipedia entry Ricky Ross was: Born on May 3, 1960 in Troup Texas and as a young child moved to South Central Los Angeles with his mother. Originally interested in tennis, he pursued a scholarship while attending high school. His coach would later find out he was illiterate and removed him from the school. To make money, he turned to selling drugs to pay for tennis lessons. It was through Henry Corrales, a college friend, that Ross was introduced to cocaine. Through Corrales, Ross found a connection to purchase cheap Nicaraguan cocaine: two Nicaraguan exiles and alleged agency recruits Oscar Blandon and Norwin.

And what helped him become the biggest dealer on the West coast of the USA was that he had access to one of the biggest gangs of LA: the Crips. And the arrival of an epidemic.

The crack that let the genie out of the bottle

Right around the time that the Latin drugs dealers, who were preparing to sell the drugs on the west coast of the usa were setting up shop, street-level drug users were figuring out how to make cocaine affordable: by cooking the powdered form into little rocks that could be smoked: crack.

Nothing was the same afterwards. Cocaine smoked gives a high unmatched by 10 times as much snorted powder. A tiny amount was needed for the high, so the price for cocaine dropped so low that everybody could buy it. More addictive and less expensive. A dealers dream.

Within a year, Ross' drug operation grew to dominate inner-city Los Angeles, and many of the biggest dealers in town were his customers. When crack hit L.A.'s streets hard in late 1983, he was the man at the right place to capitalize on this epidemic. Which he did, with a little unintended stroke of fortune.

The urge of the freedom fighting dealers to get as much money as possible drove them to give Freeway Ricky (named so because he had a lot of property along highways), drugs on consignment and at bargain prices. This allowed Ross to undercut virtually every dealer he encountered and expand his empire with rapid speed.

His main points of distribution were the Crip gangs of LA. And so with his expansion and growing wealth so did theirs grow.

The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang founded in Los Angeles, California. What was once a single alliance between two autonomous gangs is now a loosely connected network of individual sets, often engaged in open warfare with one another.

The Crips are one of the largest and most violent associations of street gangs in the United States with an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 members. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, and drug dealing, among many other criminal pursuits.

What had before had been a local gang fighting over blocks in LA, was turning into a drug army, able to buy heavier guns and increase the violence to heights unseen before. And to places that had never heard of the Crips (and their great rivals the Bloods), but now will not see the end of them.

The rise of MS-13 as an international force of mayhem

Any major alleged US government involvement with narcotics ended with the Iran Contra scandals of the late 80’s. What did not end was the smuggling of drugs via the Mexico route.
Up until the 1970’s Mexico was a place that people went to get soft drugs, mostly marijuana.

But as stated above, with the forced exile of dealers from Florida, Mexico became the primary route smuggle cocaine through. And with the fall of the major cartels in Colombia, the Mexican smugglers and their related gangs are becoming the ringleaders.

According to the LA Times: “ About 90% of the estimated 780 tons of cocaine entering the United States each year passes through the hands of Mexican drug traffickers, according to U.S. studies. Mexican traffickers see Central America as a natural hub between their Colombian suppliers and the smuggling routes the Mexicans control on the U.S. border. A war among competing cartels to control those routes, known as "plazas" in Mexico, led to more than 2,000 killings in 2007.U.S.

Officials said that Central American organized-crime groups, working with the Mexican and Colombian cartels under a subcontracting system, are reaping huge profits. That money, in turn, is fueling a crime wave, especially in Guatemala and El Salvador.” MS-13, by accident/luck, being one of the biggest actors and profiteers of this wave.

The MS-13 gang, aka Mara Salvatrucha 13, is one of the most dangerous gangs in the United States - and one of the most organized. Like many gangs, MS-13 was named after "La Mara", a street in El Salvador and "13th Street" in Los Angeles. The gang originated in El Salvador and initially consisted of violent guerillas that fought in El Salvador's civil war.

The Mara Salvatrucha gang moved into the Los Angeles area in the late 1980's as immigrants from El Salvador began arriving in the city. The early Los Angeles MS-13 gangs sought to protect El Salvadorian immigrants from the ruthless LA gangs. As with many gangs who's original intent was to protect others, the gang soon came to prey upon the Salvadorian community themselves.

In order to break up the gang the US installed a policy of deporting members to their home countries. But a deportation policy aimed in part at breaking up a Los Angeles street gang, backfired and helped spread it across Central America and back into other parts of the United States.

Newly organized cells in El Salvador have returned to establish strongholds in metropolitan Washington, D.C and other U.S. cities. Prisons in El Salvador have become nerve centers, authorities say, where deported leaders from Los Angeles communicate with gang cliques across the United States.

The lesson of the Iroquois

"In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation... even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine."

- Great Law of the Iroquois -

What was intended as a short and local fight against drug dealers in Florida, turned into (via foreign policy interest) an international problem devastating urban communities in the USA, bringing Mexico to the brink of total social unrest and allowing the violence the USA wanted to fight, back into the USA bigger and stronger than ever.

The Crips are in New York. MS-13 is gaining in strength across the entire US and various countries in Central America.

Of course to just write that the killing of young Anthony or Brenda Paz, is the result of a failed foreing policy strategy of the USA in the 80's or that drug dealer Freeway Ricky is sole responsible for the spread of violence caused by the Crips and crack cocaine is to easy and most of all wrong. I am willing to bet that nobody even thought of the posibility of things turning out as they did.

But the fact is, that actions taken, took on a life of their own and propageted their reactions in their own way. The output of actions taken many years before Brenda's and Anthony's deaths, did have effects on their lives.

Brenda Paz, born in Honduras and raised in LA, did migrate to MS-13 chapters in Virginia. Anthony did become part of the Crips in New York, because the Crpis were able to be there for him to join.

Both geographical locations are not natural habitats of these gangs, but became so due to policies and decisions made by individuals on both sides of the law.

So what does it all mean?

Perhaps it is too much to think seven generations ahead, but the Iroquois did get it right in spirit. And (don't laugh) so did Donald Rumsfeld.

The effects of our decisions are not a snapshot and do not live in a vacuum. They are always shared. Shared by all of those (known and unknown, intended and unintended) who feel the effects and act upon these decisions in their own way.

At the time of decision or down the line.

We need to remember this and "be willing to implicate ourselves in the consequences of our imagination"* and actions.

Thank you.

*quote by bruce mau

What do we do now? Help Obama during first 100 days in office

The above clip was the inspiration;

Obama is the side chosen;

Facu is the partner in crime;

the work is: WhatDoWeDoNow

It's very beta, so if anybody wants to help or shoot it down, chip in.

vision of the future

weapon of choice pt 3: shades of grey

this is Killer Mike and this is the cover of his street album: I plegde allegiance to the grind vol I.





this is Young Jeezy's new single ft Mr West.



Good music, music I like to listen to. but that's not the point.

It's those black American flags.

It's how they are able to capture feelings (that I myself as an second generation immigrant had/have) of growing ambiguity in life, that to often get's confused with apathy. On the one hand they (getto peeps in jeezy's clip) are America's second class citizens, but on the other it's home nonetheless. It's a place people die for, but don't love living.

The black flags shout out: It's not that I don't love you , it's just that I don't care. Make me care again!

It's the Yoshimura Kanichiro principle if you will. By individualizing ourselves from clans, tribes, society we have become ronins, serving those who meet our needs. Yet this way of living is also a constant reminder that at the end of the day, though we might live for ourselves, for money or for things, it's in our sacrifice for others (those we might not like even) that we find our purpose.

I'll leave the obvious brand lesson unwritten..

p.s. on the subject of ambiguity, nation pride etc...here is an interview with basketball star Carmelo Anthony that touches on some of those issues.

Lost in translation

The web is discriminating. The victim is: ME! In all seriousness, I have noticed the last couple of weeks that somehow I do not translate well on to the www. Whether it is via this blog, comments elsewhere or skype talks, important elements of the person I am are getting lost when I digitze myself.

2.0 is funny that way. In many ways it strips people down to the core of their being; their inner personality. And that's where I run into trouble. Not that I don't have one ( I actually think quite highly of myself, hah), but it's just words (in my case) that are used to convey who I am and what I believe. The physicality of human interaction is left out.

I feel I am being robbed of instinct. The web stripped me of the ambiguity I thrive on in real life. A certain look you give, a pause you take while speaking, how you walk in to a room, the fact that I am 6"7 or left handed. Gone.

Recently I played some poker online. And I went down in flames. It was clinical, without context and safe. Yet when seated at a table in a real life cash game, I hold my own, being able to fully explore the one element 2.0 is advocating, but I am missing; the human element. Does this expose me lacking fundamental math skills required for this game or exposes me to be a good soft skill player? How do you make such a judgement about a person? Do we start keeping tabs about online and off line feelings towards one another?

Would a nice template, some more pics, tweets, tags, clouds and streams enhance me on the web? Perhaps.. and yes the offline versions of tags and pics etc, are clothing and haircuts, make up etc, so If I do not translate well I should use the tools at hand better (get a make over of sorts), but there is still the loss of that ambiguity of flesh.

So what's my point: Will the web, like a great poetry translation, ever capture the nunaces of the meaning of people and convey them to full effect, or will it stay what it is now: a part of the picture that is editable to make you more or less than you really are. And if it stays this ways, but keeps gaining importance, where do I, we go from here?

month of may

So here in Holland the month of May is the month we remember the Second World War, the liberation of Holland and the loss of so much life.

So in memory of those passed away, those who survided and those who chose to fight; some chilling, uplifting and spot on quotes to give us (wannabe) planners that much sought after insight in to humans, and perspective on this thing of ours.


* We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

* "Nietzsche's words, 'He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.'"

* "When we are no longer able to change a situation—just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer—we are challenged to change ourselves"

* "Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him - mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp."

* "We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing a something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering."

* "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

* "Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary

* "We have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."

Viktor Frankl

permission to kill your darlings granted

I love Seth's thinking and I love the whole concept but, it's misuse is crippling marketeers:

Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.. (via seth blog)

Permission marketing should be seen as empowering the marketeers.

To often it's the status quo enhancing answer to innovation. Nobody asked for this or that. We gotta get permission from the market. Let's test it. The very word has taken a wrong turn. Is it because of a human need for security during chaotic times, laziness, or fear of the future? who knows. But permission now means safe, means boring means less profit.

It should be about giving customers permission to do business with you. You gotta lead. Not ask it, pretty please, with sugar on top. Method did not ask permission, it took it. the fruit company has been doing it for years. And the beauty of this...people begin to see them as ahead of the curve, so they can freely act like it.

This all kinda fell into place as we were creating our new corporate brochure. Our's is a Rubick's cube. It really works for us as a reinforcement of who we are and what we do. And we started giving it out to clients, and they loved it.

It was really great seeing, old serious men going back in time and be given permission to be children again; playfull, eager to find a solution, when they had only given us permission to do a presentation on the housing market situation.

Was it the reason why some assignments were won by us? No. But it forced some room for us to go further, to take clients on a ride somewhere where others would have looked out of place even asking if it's ok to go there.

Give people what they want, but please do not ask them how they want it, or worse wait for them to tell you when they want it..they just do not know. Or else we would have had faster horses.

For marketeers it really is time to take back what is theirs, the right/obligation to stay ahead of the curve, of being a teacher to the public. The bar is now so low we can't help but trip over it to victory.

what if...we collectively expressed our individuality

image courtesy http://www.exactitudes.com/

This post is most def not rocket science but the following hit me:

Why is there not a growth in collective blogs? Doing some basic research (?) shows that blogs are basically social clusters.

Example: Musings of an opinionated sod, is connected to punk planning, to fredrik sarnblad, to

in my atmosphere, to she sees red, to the kevin bacon (egg, beans and chips) of planning russell davies.

Besides the personalized templates, twitters, delicious and last fm thingies and some egotripping, why not all join in on one blog?

It seems to me that the most fun is bouncing ideas of one another and replying on comments.

Yes there is such a thing as a blog roll, and there is facebook and the like, but still...

Perhaps I am just to lazy, but what if everybody just got the same space and posted??

if you like the idea and have a decent name...please post a comment... If you have objections, please tell me those also..

Strawberries in January: part 1

Ichi-go Ichi- e

he sees the light, some more anyway (thanks, she sees red)

Lauren, your post gave me some much needed glimpses, that time do make it better, thanks

why mentors matters

So I am trying to break in the advertising world. being a client already I feel it's time to prove that I can do it from the agency side as well...

In my quest to get better at this planning thing I have reached out to various planners, asking for advice, feedback and general stuff. and sometimes I get a bit passionate and ask to many questions or (I feel) i take up to much time.

It always amazes me when I read the response I get.. Intelligent, insightfull, constructive, and most of all..I always get a response...

So if ever you think why you should keep doing what u do...below is a column from my favorite sports writer Scoop Jackson


Keep at it...and thnx

A fresh perspective on sportswriting

-- It began with an e-mail about four months ago.

A high school student hit me up, saying that he felt my work was slipping, that I was on the verge of falling off, that I "lost my swag," that I wasn't the writer that I used to be, that Jemele Hill was now his favorite columnist.

I challenged the kid. E-mailed him back. Disagreed with not everything he said, just 99.9 percent of it. I asked if he worked for Deadspin. He didn't get the joke. So I contacted one of the kid's teachers, asking, "Who in the hell is this kid to think he can try to check me like that???"

The teacher told me, "This kid knows you, it is you that doesn't know him." She told me she had others like him in her class. Several others in the school. She told me that they had spent a semester dissecting my work. Every story, every sentence, every misspelled word. She told me she had a group of kids who were more into sportswriting than they were sports, even though one of them was going to play basketball at a Division III school next year. She told me how intense her kids were when it came to breaking down my work, how they laid my columns out and went at them like Sean and Christian do bodies on "Nip/Tuck."

She said they do it out of love for what I do and how I do it.

She said that these kids were special. She said, "Scoop, you really need to meet them."

So I jumped on a plane to meet my fate. Had to come face-to-face with this savvy crew of kids who apparently knew the difference between aptitude in sports journalism and attitude, the difference between Bill Rhoden and Bill Plaschke. The deal was for me to surprise the students, catch them off guard, storm their classrooms, talk sports, defend my work. That was the plan. Instead, they surprised me.

I was met with applause and banners and T-shirts with ESPN logos and my name on them ("English Students Publish writiNg: Just Ask Scoop"). Treatment royale. And instead of the microscopic breakdown of the editing of my work I was prepared to be greeted with, I was met with introspective and in-depth questions about sports journalism that usually come out of the mouths of college seniors in J-school.

They never asked why. They asked how.

"How do you decide what to write, and how to write it? Or do the editors decide that for you? How does ESPN respond to some of the things that you write that they don't agree with? How does it feel to be one of a handful of black writers doing what you do? How do you deal with the negative reactions that you often get on the message boards and from blogs that try to discredit you? How do you or ESPN decide what sports story is necessary to write about and what isn't?"

Mandy Crawford (left), Mariah Mitchell and their peers posed difficult questions about the biz.

They wanted to know how the game was played off the field, how the sports media game is played. They wanted to know why -- 24 hours after Chris Mortensen broke the news about New England being caught videotaping the Jets' defense -- ESPN.com didn't have it as the lead story and why the coverage of it was so low-key on the site. They asked why the sports media seems to be so accepting of what Bill Belichick did and made such a huge deal over what Barry Bonds is accused of doing. They asked where the line between journalism and favoritism in sports is drawn. They asked if there was a "free pass" given to certain athletes and coaches from members of the media. They asked about the "Sunday Night Football" interviews with the commissioner and the Patriots' owner. They asked if the OBN (Ol' Boys Network) really existed. They asked if I believed a double standard exists in sports between those that are loved and those that are loathed, and if so, did we -- those who cover sports -- create it?

They asked about sexism and racism. They asked why it seems as if the only time major networks and newspapers pay attention to women's sports is during the Olympics. They asked why there aren't more women columnists on Page 2. They asked why Jim Rome, Mike & Mike, Stephen A. (since canceled) and Kornheiser and Wilbon ("PTI") have shows but no woman on ESPN does. They asked about the lack of women and minorities on sports talk radio. They asked about my relationship with Jason Whitlock. They asked what I thought about the Don Imus situation and the role it played in how we cover sports. They asked how I felt about using the word n-word.

They asked about O.J.

They thanked me for writing the stories I'd written. They asked if I thought Michael Vick was really that stupid and if Roger Federer was really that good. They asked me about specific lines I had written two years ago. They asked me if I strongly agreed with every stance I took or whether there were things I wrote that I didn't agree with but had to write because they were assigned. They asked if my non-newspaper background has had any effect on how I've been received at ESPN and in the business as an "official" sportswriter.

They came with it. Straight -- no chaser, no ice, no water back. They didn't ask about how this person was or what type of person that person was. What's Shaq like in person? Have you ever met Tom Brady? Is AI as cool as he seems? Who do you think is going to win the World Series? Is Derek Jeter really that cute in real life? None of that. They didn't come with the standard, star-obsessed questions that sportswriters usually get when we walk into a school full of young girls cute like Kaley Cuoco and young guys smooth like Shia LaBeouf.

Instead, they asked about the writing. The art of storytelling and meeting deadlines. Angles and ideas. They asked about the seriousness of what it is that we sportswriters do and how we approach our craft differently every day, so that we can continue to generate interest. They came authentic.

Over an uninterrupted, seven-hour period, I told them everything I knew and everything I could. I emptied my sportswriter's clip. Came real as the logo on milk and as hard as government cheese. I told them that a double standard in sports reporting exists, and that the media's handling of the Belichick situation was proof. I told them to always remember that sports journalism, just like sports itself, is a business first -- that the writer's goal is to provide meaningful content and the job of the company that employs us is to make money. I told them that no relationship exists between Mr. Whitlock and me, and despite our differences, they should still read him. I told them -- well, more specifically the young African-American student who asked me the question -- how in my mind using the n-word for us was more about lack of discipline than it was lack of self-esteem.

I told them of 6 a.m. deadlines, round-the-clock researching and the difference between SIDs in the NCAA and MDs in the NBA. I told them that my next column was going to be about O.J. and how I was going to question why such a big deal was being made over his latest alleged crime.

I told them I was going to end the story with the line, "It's not like he killed somebody." I told them -- as I had once written -- that nothing I write will ever be considered for "The Best American Sports Writing" because of how I write, but that should never be a writer's goal: "Learn to enjoy the process of writing and the end results will take care of themselves." My mouth to their ears.

I told them that as writers, we should believe in the craft first, self second. In that order. Always.

I told them any chance they have to get their hands on a Gary Smith story to read it. I encouraged them to read Charles Pierce, to read Mark Kriegel, to read S.L. Price. I hipped them to Roscoe Nance and David DuPree, I told them that Ralph Wiley was an inspiration to me and told them of the note he once wrote me that I use to this day as justification. I told them to read other writers outside of sports: Lola Ogunnaike, Nancy Gibbs, Allison Samuels, Rob Marriott, dream hampton, and the past works of Alex Haley. I clued them in on how great a writer Roger Ebert really was/is and how he has a Pulitzer to prove it. I told them that reading a variety of writers will help shape their own opinions and develop their own styles. I explained in detail to them that expanding their reading base beyond sports will make them better writers because -- as much as we'd like to think it is -- life is not all about sports.

Every question was answered. From "I really feel that tennis is better than college football," to "Yes, not having a newspaper background has had a negative effect on how I'm looked at." And how I can never let that affect the way I write because that's OPH: other people's hang-ups. I told them of how I grew up wanting to be Nelson George.

It was spiritual, cleansing and uplifting -- for me, not them. And by the time the end-of-seventh-period bell rang, I asked myself, what had I ever written to deserve a day like this? "Great things like this are only supposed to happen for the Bill Simmons' of the world, not me," I said to my boy Shawn, who shared the day with me. Why was I so lucky?

It was a day all sportswriters should experience but might never get the opportunity to have. A day where you are on trial for doing nothing wrong, but to explain to future writers of sports why you do what you do, how you do it. A day about them "learning" you and you learning something about yourself and how in the end you end up discovering they are the ones who can make us better writers, not necessarily the other way around. It is an extremely humbling and inspirational experience. Rick Reilly, you're up next.

Before I left Blue Valley Northwest in Overland Park, Kansas, Matt (one of the two students who sent me the e-mail that initiated this whole thing), still with the smile on his face that appeared the second I walked from backstage to surprise him at 8:30 a.m., said something to me.

"Scoop, you know the Belichick piece you just did? The one titled '22 Questions?' Well, I read it a few times and you actually have 25 questions in the story not 22."

"No sirrr," I said back. "I made sure there were 22 questions in that piece. Trust me, there's exactly 22."

"Sorry," he said while handing me a copy of the story he had marked up, as if he were already an ESPN editor. "There's 25, Mr. Jackson. I counted."

Which I knew he did. He was thorough like that. I knew he was right because I now knew that's who he is. That he didn't want to test me or check me, just make sure that in his eyes and in the eyes of every other student in the school I remained the best writer I could possibly be, that I remained his inspiration -- which is why his teacher knew I should meet him in the first place, why she wanted me to meet all of them.

Special was an understatement.

Damn kids.

weapon of choice

I like gangs and honour stuff. whether it be in my choice of music, films, books and..as I have been discovering lately.. in my thinking.

There is something about the premise that it's you and the people you have known all your life achieving something agaist the odds...not just rags to riches, but sharing the wealth..

This all came to me as I was cleaning up my collections of music and motion pictures and I found all this stuff that I had bought and really loved

top albums recovered from clean up:

Born to run

Definitely maybe

reasonabe doubt

top movies I found while cleaning up:

Carlito's way

La haine

The pattern is now everywhere I look. from the Acount Planning assignments that I have made, to the real world marketing stuff I do at my job...when I can pick a fight (with another brand or whatever it is I want my brand to rally against) I seem to do good work...

So what I am really trying to figure out is: do personal traits belong in the work you do for clients, or should one always (much like an actor) get in character and think from the brand point of view? of course you should adhere to the stuff that's already there, but should you check yourself at the door?