Silly marketeers

Twist it...

Lick it...

Dip it...

There are so many double entendres in there, you can start your own orchestra.

That's... kind of new.

Ever had the feeling where you were just minding your own business, your mind switches to screensaver mode for a minute, and then you're slap bang in the middle of a freakin' warzone? Like a Memento-like moment. Except without the memory loss.

Bored

People have to be bored out of their minds. I really cannot understand otherwise why people would go the trouble of:

• messing up a bus driver
• attacking an ambulance worker
• tossing a brick from a highway overpass
• making threats against middle schools
• sending envelopes filled with a white powder to the office

I mean, hasn't everybody got a Wii by now? Has the credit crisis really put people at home, suffering intense boredom? Are people that desperate that when their livelihood ends, they start doing insane stuff? What good does that accomplish?

How to deal with the hidden agenda

Everybody has to protect their own interests. Sometimes people are very open about it, and will run all over you to do so. But maybe more vicious is the other type of person, the ones who have a hidden agenda.

People will look for the best way to achieve their objectives, and if that takes smoke and mirrors, so be it. Of course, you could be very evil about it, purposely misleading others to get what you want. Or you could just be all like "I don't voluntueer information, if there's no need to".

You'd have to accept that people have an agenda, and not be surprised by it. The key is to adapt to such a situation, or to have such a strong negotiation position, that it doesn't matter. Either way you have to be very zen.