What is EVIL?

It is not murder. It is not lying, cheating, stealing, or breaking any of the 10 Commandments, or Hitler, or Donald Trump. It is NOT a state of being. EVIL is an ACTION, or lack thereof.

True EVIL is indifference.

We are ALL indifferent at times. Every time you pick up your cellphone behind the wheel, you are demonstrating you don't care about anyone else but yourself. You are 26 times more likely to injure or murder others looking at your mobile while driving. You are actively participating in EVIL, as you are indifferent to anyone but your own desires.

Hitler was indifferent to the horror, the suffering, the murder of 6 million Jews that he initiated. So was every commander who followed his orders, and every German who turned a blind eye to protect themselves, and let it happen.

We are on par with Hitler every time we text while driving.

Church, even Christ won't save us from our sins of indifference.

The effects of indifference reverberate. You cause an accident while texting, and hurt my kid, and I no longer care about you, your kids, your life. In fact, I hate you. I want to see you harmed!

Every time indifference is demonstrated it generates more EVIL.

Indifference lets corporations like PG&E murder 8 people in San Bruno when the utility diverted the money needed to fix the pipes into bonuses for top paid execs. When COMCAST demands full payment for delivering half the service, they are practicing EVIL. So are the customer service representatives working for them, who claim they're 'just doing their job, as they are told to,' like Nazi Germany, where neighbors became indifferent—didn't really care what happened to the Jewish kid that their kid used to play soccer with.

Every time we don't stand up to indifference, we are participating in EVIL.

Indifference is like a genetic disease, handed down through the generations.

Parents who don't give a shit about their kids, raise kids who don't give a shit about anyone (even themselves).

Educators who care more about their pensions, putting in 2/3rds of a workday, and working only half the year, teaches indifference to everyone but themselves.

Students (without wealth) who are indifferent to learning, don't study, don't do the work, choose YouTube or gaming over doing academics, become front line canon fodder in the military as the only paying job they can get, or end up criminals, or homeless.

Drivers, indifferent to everyone else while they fulfill their desire to upload a Snap, murder close to 4,000, and injure up to 500,000, one half a MILLION people, kids, dogs...etc., a YEAR. Think you know how to drive and text at the same time? Your indifference is supporting your ignorance, which is only surpassed by your arrogance.

EVERY DAY, half or more drivers I see are chatting or texting away, and I fight the urge to ram my car into them. If they stop where I do, like the store, and I pass them in the aisle, I want to spit in their face, for no other reason than to get them to PAY ATTENTION TO SOMEONE OTHER THAN THEMSELVES.

When a COMCAST customer service rep tells me to get ANOTHER modem, knowing it won't make my internet connection any better because they know, and COMCAST knows, they don't have the bandwidth to support the neighborhood's wireless devices, I become irate, rude, indifferent to their plight, as they are to mine.

Every time we encounter indifference, we become more indifferent.

Stand at the Pearly Gates, and the first question St Peter is likely to ask is were you GOOD or EVIL in your lifetime. Lie, and go to hell. Say you're GOOD, and believe it? If you spent more of your life addressing and responding to your own needs and desires than anyone else, count on going to hell.

Assuming, like me, you are a non-believer, why worry about anyone else if the only reward is in THIS LIFE? Take as much as you can get, seems to be the attitude of so many these days, religious or not.

While self-interest is the foundation of our nature, indifference is not. It is taught, shown, modeled by all of us, at times. We begin life as solipsists, then grow to narcissists through our teens and early 20s. Maturity means we've expanded our awareness beyond just ourselves, and often put our own desires aside to actively care for others.

Indifference, to justify doing whatever you want (from lying for COMCAST, to driving a fuel-guzzling SUV, to texting behind the wheel of it) chips away at our humanity with every slight. This toxicity of EVIL ultimately endangers every living thing on this planet. Demonstrate you don't care about me, I don't care about you. We self-protect, which ultimately serves no one, not even ourselves.

CARE beyond yourself, and show it, and we not only insure our survival, we give our childrens' children, and way beyond them, a chance to experience living, and the opportunity to thrive.

Content Marketing Idiocracy




“It's 'content marketing,' my student assures me, as if I might be too old, or teaching too long to know. “It's how marketing is done today. We don't sell anymore" (and she says the word 'sell' like it's evil), "we brand now.”

“For Views and Impressions.” I'll play, get on her train, and lead her to the truth slowly.

“That's right,” she says brightly, as if she's just taught me something profound. “The more Views, the more exposure! That's how it works.”


“Oh, like 9 months now, since I started working for the company. I do all their social marketing. It's why I'm taking this class. To become a better copywriter.”

“And in the 9 months you've been posting these types of videos, have you seen an increase in sales at the store?”

She pauses. “Well, not yet. But we get Likes and Shares all the time. Look.” And she pulls up her company's website on her cell and shows me their blog(ish) page where she posts. 

Thumbnail squares of row upon row of videos, showing everything from water skiing to dog's surfing, but few are wearing glasses, even sunglasses. Under each square is the Like and Share counts, and most are between 20 - 40 combined. She smiles with pride.

“And, just out of curiosity, have you noticed an increase in floor traffic at your store since you've been content marketing for your company?”

“Well, I'm not sure. Maybe a bit more.”






Now, there is nothing wrong with entertaining storytelling to, yes, I'm going to say it... Ready?... SELL.




In the 17 second cat video clip there were no glasses anywhere. Using content marketing videos, like the one my student produced as a SMM and SEO tool, hasn't, and likely won't sell eyeglasses, unless the cat was wearing them, which it wasn't. For all the time and effort to produce, edit, and social network that video, viewers will probably only recall the cat flipping the spoon filled with milk and Crispix out of the bowl. Not very good ROI on TIME alone, regardless that it was free to stick online, and got a lot of Likes, oh, and Shares.

Want to effectively BRAND your company?


*Branding is a method of marketing. And MARKETING IS SELLING. Don't forget!

The Psychology of Marketing




Not so much. We are fundamentally self-serving.












SEX is just SEX

SEX is JUST SEX, regardless of the portrayal in movies that the act of sex we should all aspire to partake in is profoundly loving, a spiritual meeting of mind, body and soul.

SEX IS NOT LOVE. Having sex together can be [but is not limited to] an action of love, by investing the time and effort to stimulate your partner to maximum pleasure/orgasm.

AN ORGASM IS NOT LOVE. It is a biological drive, a primal/base urge both sexes possess (to varying degree between individuals, and generally heightened between the teens through early 40s, then tapering with age). The Pleasure/Reward circuit that lights up our brains with every orgasm is likely encoded in our DNA— part of our evolutionary process— incentive programming to reproduce.

Consenting partners engaged in the act of sex, often equate the pleasure of physicality with feelings of love. This is especially true for first crushes, but the notion that sex and love are synonymous is the gold standard in mainstream morality. It's proselytized by religion, parents, and the media— 'making love' the climax (excuse the pun), consummating the canonical 'happy ending.'

It is NOT an action of LOVE, in the throes of passion, to break marriage contracts of fidelity. It is, perhaps, more egregious to nix the condom to heighten erotic stimulation without knowing the sexual health and history of your partner. These are displays of their lateral orbitofrontal cortex shutting down, blocking out all reason, abandoning all behavioral control to the Pleasure/Reward circuitry in the brain.

Kind of like a gorilla. (They have a hard time with complex reasoning, and predictive modeling— examining the possible consequences of their actions.)

Historically, men are more driven by their biology, claiming to require or desire sex 5 times more than women. However, when either gender is touched appropriately, we are equally hard-wired for stimulated free nerve ending nociceptors to trigger pleasure in our brains.

SEX is NOT LOVE, no matter what your pastor, or TV, or your mother tells you. SEX is JUST SEX.

LOVE is much harder to attain than an orgasm.

In fact, I can take care of my biological need all by myself. Loving myself alone, however, leaves me so very lonely.

From biblical times, humanity has made SEX into so much more than it is because the consequences of intercourse can begin, or end life, as with STDs. Even with the advent of birth control, sex is still riskier for women then men. In 96% of all unwanted pregnancies, the woman still carries the burden of raising the child. (Choosing adoption, or to terminate— each carries their own weight, for life.) We all expect the primary parent defaults to the mother, even today. Steve Jobs is beloved, regardless that for 9 years he denied parentage to his daughter, Lisa, even after DNA testing proved he was her father. Common wisdom professes women are programmed to care for our children. We must not walk away, which is why women and men generally have sex for different reasons.

Women are usually looking to establish a deep[er] connection when we initiate or consent to intercourse. Even with hookups, most women are looking for an intimate bond, a shared emotional space, at least in the afterglow of orgasm. For women, languishing with their lover in this space is equally, if not more satisfying than the orgasm itself. (Women often use sex to draw men out of their own heads. We have for millennium, consciously, and not. You can pretend it's not true, but you'd be lying to you.)

SEX is just SEX, but if Desire— the expectation of the activation of our Pleasure/Reward circuitry— is not satisfied, a predictable pattern of behavior generally emerges.

Women who are unsatisfied sexually with their partner, are usually more unhappy with their partner's behavior in other areas of the relationship. Trying to ignore Desire, simply to stay together often leads to a life of internalized bitterness. And for 19% of married women in the U.S., their fidelity typically falls to a married man who lavishes them with attention, praise, sometimes gifts— actions their partner is not taking, and commonly mistaken as romance, when really, he's just trying to get in their pants. (Heads up, Ladies... Any guy who'll cheat on his partner with you, will [eventually] cheat on you.)

Sexually frustrated men typically withdraw, become more distant. They're less malleable. Less likely to pay attention, be supportive— from offering help with a task, to responding, without passive/aggression, to concerns and issues. This behavior leads to further discord, and less sex, perpetuating the implosion of the relationship.

SEX may be just SEX— our biological drive to reproduce— but with all the mitigating factors that come along with intercourse, the reality is SEX is 5% of the relationship when it's good. And 95% of the relationship when it is not.  

The Bottom Line

“I want to speak with a U.S. rep, NOW!” I said for the 20th time to PRINCESS-050707 in the Philippines. This is my 5th call to yet another 800 number a foreign SEARS rep gave me, assuring me it was a U.S. line.

“I undastan. I'm sody, mem, I cn only get you—”

“I'm on Twitter right now. And I'm telling the world NEVER TO BUY SEARS because you sell CRAP products, and even though I bought the expensive fridge in California, I can't talk to ANYONE FROM THE U.S. I wanta talk with a U.S. rep NOW!” I'm the gorilla, beating my chest. I know it, but I can't stand what's happening in business today.

“I undastand, mem. I'm sody, but...” She doesn't care. She probably doesn't even know what Twitter is.

And the funny bit (not ha ha funny), SEARS doesn't care either. They think that saving money hiring slave labor out of India, or China, or the Philippians is good for their bottom line. And while this attitude is all the rage with Corporate America these days—COMCAST, HP, AT&T, the lot of them— THEY are WRONG.

“...I cn help you, mem, if you pease tell me your issue.”

I've spoken to 5 foreign reps and explained in detail (10-20 min calls each time), I need to file a claim with SEARS for the $500 in food we just lost, and the $500 for the fridge we just spent because their crap KENMORE compressor failed in less than two years, and it'll take two weeks to fix! EVERY rep had put me on hold to search for the non-existent Claims contact number or email. They probably had no clue what a Claim is. Feudal Law rules their country. Oh...here too, now.

MADE IN AMERICA SEARS has NO CUSTOMER SERVICE in the United States. And they build their crappy products in China, India, Mexico, but NOT THE U.S. And they think this, too, is good for their bottom line, but again, THEY ARE WRONG.

I am NEVER buying anything from SEARS again. And I am not alone...

In 2003, SEARS stock was $19.85 (think 2003 dollar value, to understand their loss). Today, it's at $19. And going down. Well, duh!

The truth is, this new trend of screwing customers to save money by manufacturing crap products, and then making it impossible to get any real support after purchase, isn't helping SEARS bottom line.

I threatened PRINCESS to start a hashtag #IhateSEARS. I looked it up as I was Tweeting about them. #IhateSEARS, #SEARSsucks, and several more like these are ALREADY ON TWITTER! I read the timeline of tweets as PRINCESS rambled on nonsense. Wish I'd read them before I bought from SEARS!

SEARS is dying. And the best bit, they are killing themselves!

January 2000, HP's stock was $30.10 a share. Today, it's $12.34. They, too, destroyed their customer service when they outsourced it. And their products, from their once-praised printers, to their laptops turned to crap as well, when they shipped their manufacturing overseas. The company is failing. HP will likely be a footnote in business history sooner than later. Not so good for their bottom line, either, clearly.

In most of 2000, AT&T was $50-ish a share. It's now $33.16. They also make it impossible to talk to anyone that will actually help resolve issues. I'm being charged monthly for long distance calls we've never made. We don't have long distance on our home phone, but AT&T keeps charging us, though I've spoken with India no less than 25 times over the last 4+ years about this issue.

In many areas, COMCAST is a monopoly, so their customers are screwed for right now. The hashtag #IhateCOMCAST is very popular, however, and is sparking Class-Action lawsuits. Enough losses, and perhaps they'll deliver on their promises of a stable internet connection. Their lobbyists in DC won't be able to sell senators and congressmen on letting them lie, cheat and steal, if the entire country is looking to lynch them.

This blog is a SHOUT OUT of THANKS, to the social advocates, the viral disruptors, the vocal moral minority with the brains and the balls to fight injustice, and then post their experiences with Corporate America on the net. SEARS, COMCAST, HP, AT&T, would like us to shut up. We're hurting them, YEA!, but too slowly to save many from getting screwed.

WE CAN STOP THEM! Faster, together! Today's consumers are “busy” (a convenient excuse), or flat out lazy, with enough cash to just pay the bills instead of fight for what is right. Posting cat videos, or pics of the grandkids may be fun, but it really isn't helping anyone, if this is the extent of your content. This type of complacency allows these corporations to continue stealing our money, but more importantly, our time and energy.

Several times a weeks, until SEARS pays the $1000 they owe us (as they will never compensate us for the time they've stolen or the frustration they've caused), I'll be posting a tweet like this:
NEVER BUY FROM #SEARS AGAIN!! #SEARS SUCKS!! #KENMORE SUCK!! $$$$Crap fridge compressor failed less than 2 yrs! NO CUSTOMER SERVICE!

If even a quarter of their customers in the U.S. posted their problems with SEARS on FB, or Twitter, or Pinterest...etc., SEARS would no longer be in business. The truth, the 'bottom line, is beyond robbing us of our cash, our time, our sanity, the trending business environment is instilling mistrust between us, thus contributing to an aggressive, angry society that deeply hurts us all.


I am an Empath.

Wait! Before you roll your eyes and click off this blog, I don't have any paranormal powers. It isn't magic that I can read people. I'm not psychic. I can't glean people's “energy,” whatever that means, or any of that mystical crap.

What I can do, is tell you what you're thinking and feeling, generally before you know.


If I'm in physical proximity to you, your body (posture, eye contact...etc.), and facial expressions give me tons of data about what you are experiencing inside your head. We all have this ability to read physicality, though most people hardly pay attention to one another, except on rare occasions. Ever had a blind date? The first second you see your date in person, you can tell if they like how you look.

In person, or not— over the wire, or web, I ask a LOT of questions. And I listen to your answers. My brain picks up inconsistencies in what you're saying, telling me you are lying to yourself, and subsequently...me.

The first time my DH (of 20 yrs now) met my mother, she said to him, “My daughter (me) was born old.”

What she meant was, I was born plugged in. I don't know why. A genetic anomaly? My senses feel hyper-charged—touch, taste, sound, even vision (clarity in peripheral sight) seem heightened, compared to most (and not just by my reckoning). OCD? Bipolar? Maybe. I've spent a lifetime trying to process the massive amount of information I get from others, and it's exhausting. And I hate it. And I wish I could shut it down, live like most everyone else.

Sort of...

I've picked up patterns in human behavior along the way. Lots! It's another reason I can tell what you're feeling, often before you know. I can now predict likely responses to an enormous array of specific stimuli. It's a fantastic tool for writing believable characters. And understanding what motivates people is equally beneficial for developing marketing campaigns with great response rates.

Yet, I struggle with living plugged in. It's emotionally costly. I lose myself while inside others, acutely feel their pain, their sorrow, their fears and hopes. I've tried to shut my senses down with drugs, both prescription, and not. I had an allergic reaction to Prozac that almost killed me, and no reaction at all to weed over time.

I've become a recluse for the most part. I limit my friendships to very few. I stay plugged into my two teens, my DH, my bratty, but cute Shepard pound hound, which serves them well, though at times, probably not me so much. I disappear, absorbed in them. (To be fair, the dog's needs are simple. No hidden agendas, no unconscious complexities. She makes her feelings obvious. Thank you, Annie!) And while I'll continue to choose living, be here for my friends and family, I must admit, there is, and has always been, a beckoning to shut it all down, turn off the input. Unplug, for good.

Facebook and Ageism

I applied for a Marketing Copywriter position at Facebook about a year ago, 20 years after my first Creative Director position out of college. Facebook rejected me. Bewildered, as I had every qualification, through experience, creating and implementing hundreds of successful campaigns, I asked the HR woman why I was rejected.

“We are looking for someone less qualified.” Her response.

Hmm...Less qualified. Why would that be? We'd discussed no salary expectations. In fact, FB's job app didn't ask me for any. Someone at FB had looked extensively at my online portfolio, as I had a huge spike in page views, from one source, in Menlo Park, according to Google Analytics. The HR woman began her personal rejection email with “Your portfolio is amazing! However...”

What she meant was, “We're looking for someone younger.”

It probably shouldn't have hurt as much as it did, since I wasn't actively job hunting when I answered the FB ad. That particular day, I'd had an argument with my DH about finances. He didn't want me to quit writing fiction for a full time job. I didn't want to quit fine writing either, but selling fiction isn't likely to get our kids through college, especially our daughter, who plans to become a cancer researcher, which requires a doctorate.

What stung so much, was their acknowledgment that it wasn't my skill set they were rejection, but my age. Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, who is now over 30 years old, which, according to his own words, makes him stupid, addled, and a bad employment investment.

Hmm...why would anyone with half a brain say such things? Oh, I know, at 22, he only had half a brain to work with. OK. I'll give him ¾. No. . His parents were wealthy before Mark, and provided him with every opportunity for success. (Hardship generally stimulates faster brain maturity, requiring creative survival - thrive solutions.)

The problem with 20-something brains— their neural connections aren't fully established yet. Until our 30s, decision making skills, complex reasoning that only comes with life experience, as well as regulating impulse control are just a few of the skills young people generally lack. Additionally, different areas of our brain peak (and degrade) throughout our lives. Even by Zuckerburg's simplistic view that youth is smarter, thinks faster (his level of cognitive complexity in accordance with his age), at 22, he'd already passed his prime. His brain's raw speed data processor peaked at 19. And he was still 20-30 years away from the ability to evaluate other people's emotional statepsychology being the cornerstone of marketing.

Well, our omniscient Zuckerberg built a global company, his converts proclaim. And that he did. He started FB in 2004, at Harvard, copying the site Hot or Not, which put up pics of students, female students at the time, next to each other for other students to vote which was hot, and not. As a woman, and mother to a daughter, WTF, Mark! But as a purveyor of human behavior, I get that, like teens, young adults are often still motivate by appearance, not substance. (The debate over the intrinsic value of Facebook is ongoing. It's contribution to humanity seems rather nominal, and it's social platform a proven productivity sinkhole in business.)

Mark was verging on 30* when FB became profitable through PPC advertising revenue. And Zuckerberg didn't make that happen alone. Almost 40 yr old, Peter Thiel, invested half a mill in 2005, and helped The Facebook 20-something founders get $13 million in Accel Partners financing a year later. And you can bet, Accel didn't leave it solely up to Mark and his young crew to make them billions.

Mark doesn't proselytize this truth. He's now old/smart enough to know that if you stroke the ego of the young, which is still fragile and forming, you'll get them to work 24/7 (though studies show working long hours does not improve productivity, and hurts a companies bottom line), for a 5th of the salary he'd have to pay experienced pros. Young people aren't particularly gifted, talented, or brilliant, for the most part, as Zuckerberg professes, even today. They're cheap to employ.

Facebook is among the top 100 H1B visa filing employers of foreign workers. Not because Chinese and Indians know more, as tech is an emerging market we are all learning dynamically, but, again, because they are cheap labor, a 10th of a U.S. Worker's salary and benefits. (Specific H1B visa numbers are extremely hard to obtain, as corporations are legally allowed to withhold this information from public scrutiny.)

Mark is growing up, though like most boys, his mindset seems stuck somewhere between his teens and 20s, his arrogance no doubt compounded by his early success. Limiting FB hires to young (and immigrant) workers is immature at best. Study after study show older employee's productivity, creativity and reliability is equal to or higher than that of their younger colleagues.


*Reid Hoffman was in his late 30s when he started LinkedIn in 2003. Even with 4.7 mill in Series A funding, it wasn't until Hoffman was in his early-40s that LinkedIn became profitable.