Walmart Rebrands, My Opinion Stays The Same

This past weekend retail giant Walmart (Look mom! No hyphen now!) decided to quietly drop a totally new logo on the masses. No press releases have been issued and the company is not responding to any stories yet, though it updated the logo on its website yesterday. According to the Wall Street Journal, Walmart’s recent rebranding efforts are part of the company’s recent attempts to shed the “dowdy image” it has in the public’s mind. I’m not sure if the update has quite shed that image since I don’t think it’s previous mark was the reason for its current image. Walmart’s shabby image is a result more from its horrible treatment of employees, continued allegations of preferential treatment of male employees, low-quality merchandise and their predatory tactics that hollow out smaller, local economies.

My initial response to the logo is that I don’t hate it, but I don’t love. It’s safe, not timeless and mediocre. It doesn’t change my impression of the company, but that isn’t likely to change with a new logo since my problems with the company stem more from horrible customer experiences, dirty shopping conditions and overall feeling of “slumming” when I enter the store’s doors.

A more level-headed response to the Walmart’s rebranding can be found over at Brand New’s website.

Iver Recording New Material… Finally…

I was recently reminded of how great some of Iver‘s music is lately. According to their MySpace page, they’re recording new material as well. Hopefully their new disc will be longer than four tracks this time! In the meantime, here’s a great recording of them performing “Sun Down” in Plymouth, MI.

Where The Hell Is Matt?

Here’s a humorous video of a fellow named Matt dancing around the world.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Governments Are Not Changed For Light Reasons

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

— The Declaration of Independence (¶2, 1776)

Celtics Finish Off Lakers, Clinch 17th Franchise Championship

I’m sure everyone’s heard by now this morning that Celtics won last night, beating the Lakers to clinch the 2008 NBA Finals and their 17^th franchise championship. Well, I wouldn’t call it a mere winning. The Celtics simply embarrassed the Lakers last night, winning Game 6 131-92. Just think about that a minute.

131-92.

38 39 points.

That’s just embarrassing. I’m sure Laker fans out there could have dealt with a NBA Finals series loss better last night if the team was in it until the end, losing by maybe 6 or 8 points. But after losing by 38 39 points, I’m sure what you do to convince yourself that the Lakers were in it after the first 16 minutes. I watched portions of the 2nd and 3rd quarters as well as most of the 4th, and every time I turned the game on, the Celtics just looked dominant. They had an answer for Kobe Bryant, forcing him to the perimeter, having to settle for three-point toss-ups versus driving the lane for two. Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, helping the Lakers to win Game 5 at home, faded once again on the road. By the time the Celtics rotated out their starting five with five minutes left in the 4th quarter, the Celtics were up by 40 points, forcing the Lakers to go for three points every time down the court. Boston’s second team out-played the Lakers even there, pushing the lead up to 43 points with 1:44 to go.

Half-way through the 3rd quarter you could tell the Lakers just gave up. They knew they weren’t going to overcome a twenty point half-time deficit. The Celtics smelled blood and they circled in for the kill. Questions probably will start to circle in the relative short-term future about Bryant being traded or other roster moves by the Lakers. But today the Celtics are champions. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen all finally get their first NBA championship. Congrats C’s. Congrats.

Now it’s officially summer, and we can concentrate on other sports that don’t have referee controversies popping up every other day.

Celtics Win Game 1 of NBA Finals 98-88

The Celtics are up a game on the Lakers in the NBA Finals after winning Game 1 Thursday night 98-88. It was a pretty good game. I personally only watched the 1st half and the last 8 minutes of the 4th quarter. I heard Pierce make the two 3-pointers back-to-back on the radio on the way home. If Game 1 is any indication of the level of competition those two franchise rivals will give, it should be a great series. I’m pulling for the Celtics in 6 or 7 games.

Also the Red Sox won 7-1 despite punches being thrown between the Sox and Rays. Also my softball team swept our two games last night. What a great night.

Niagara Falls Photos

It took me the better part of today (Sunday) to get these photos converted, uploaded and properly tagged in Flickr; but our Memorial Day Niagara Falls trip with friends Steve and Sally are up. Enjoy.

Celtics Back To NBA Finals, First Time Since 1987

The Boston Celtics are headed back to the NBA Finals, where they get to face the LA Lakers. Cheers. See ya Thursday night.

A View of the Falls

Here’s a shot from this past weekend spent at Niagara Falls in Canada. I should have more uploaded later this week.

Creating Simplicity In Chaos

The last two months have been brutal for me personally. I’ve felt like any moment I’m not at work, I’m working on something else for myself or a friend, running errands, spending time with my wife or doing any of a dozen different things. All good things in and of themselves, but a lack of priorities at times has finally worn me down to a point where I feel I’m just getting by day-to-day instead of enjoying life daily.

As much as I might want to fool myself, I really do have a problem saying no to things. Well, at least, things I think are really interesting. I love designing, and thankfully that’s what I earn my keep doing 40 or so hours a week. Yet I also love a lot of other things too like music, hanging out with my wife, enjoying the company of friends, a Red Sox game or two, reading, watching movies/TV… you know — a lot of things. The problem is when an opportunity pops up to do any of the aforementioned items, I’m there. I don’t want to be the person who missed out on that one instance that everyone else will be talking about for years… again. So I’m fill in the edges of my life to allay my fear of being left out and in the process I’ve forgotten simplicity. I’m so concerned with being left out that, at times, I forget that I need to stop, relax and get back to the basics.

This problem isn’t exactly new for me. I’ve struggled with this since high school, born out of a situation where all my friends shared common experiences at school while I went somewhere else. So when college came around, I was intent on those four years not being like my previous four years. And at the time, I felt like that worked. Yet on the eve of my five year college reunion, I find that of the hundreds of people I knew in college, I keep in touch with maybe 3 people regularly and I’m married to one of those 3. In some ways that’s rather depressing. I thought I’d go off and make these life-long friends that get together every year for a week down on the beach somewhere, and to do that I needed to do things, be places and meet people. In some ways I felt if I did enough things, pleased enough people, did whatever it was I was doing; then maybe at the end of it all that’ll be enough. And I don’t know what’s worse: that I believed that could actually happen or finally realizing that it won’t. Either way I’m beginning to realize that I need to get back to square one in my life. I need to create simplicity more purposefully then ever before.

Tomorrow begins a short five day getaway with some friends that should help me do that. I have another getaway planned in six weeks as well. Maybe these two trips will help. Maybe not. Either way, any help they provide in the short term will not help in the long-term if I don’t start setting boundaries and defending them at all cost. Doing that though is something I have a rather spotty record on, and I don’t fully believe I can do it. I guess in the end I need to do it though, because I can’t keep moving at the same pace I have been.

Vote Cobra ‘08

Found via Fran via Jim S.