"Showing Their Scales" and "The Hockey Farmer"

We are pleased to introduce the works of local B.C. authors KP Wee and Farhan Devji to you:

"Showing Their Scales" contains three tales of lies, lust, and deception. These are short novels which deal with betrayal and revenge, with three main male characters and how they end up hurting the women in their lives.
**Catch an episode of BlogTalkRadio
here with KP's interview on his books, recorded Dec 29, 2008.**

"The Hockey Farmer" is a story about Logan Watt, who hails from Cochrane, Alberta, and has to decide whether to rehabilitate the legendary family farm or pursue an unlikely career in professional hockey. The story also shifts to Vancouver and contains numerous Vancouver Canucks references.

Help support a pair of B.C. authors by picking up your own copies today!
-- "The Hockey Farmer" can be purchased
here,
while "Showing Their Scales" can be bought
here. --

The Hockey Farmer / Showing Their Scales

The Hockey Farmer / Showing Their Scales

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Weird Slogans, Annoying Fans...

Last week, I was emphasizing "Slogans" in class, about how the right ones were needed to pitch products.

And then I googled and came across a, well, shall we say, weird, slogan.

The Florida Marlins were dead last in the National League in attendance last season, drawing just over 1.3 million fans. (Still, this was more than what the Marlins had in 2003, their last championship season. By contrast, in their heyday, the Blue Jays were getting over 4 million per season.)

Yes, the Marlins have won two World Series championships (1997, 2003) in their very brief existence in the majors. (They began play in 1993.) However, their low payroll, stadium issues, etcetera, are probably some of the reasons fans aren't filling Dolphin Stadium. In fact, since 1999, the Marlins have finished in the bottom three in attendance every single season!

So, guess what the Florida Marlins' official slogan is?

Get ready for this....

"IT'S WHERE YOU WANNA BE!"

Nice slogan... except not many in Miami actually agree with that...




You never want to wish ill will on someone, so I say hopefully they are able to draw more fans with that catchy slogan. After all, they did finish above .500 last year and are sort of an up-and-coming team.

****************

On to the topic of annoying fans:

Thanks to the Internet these days, anybody (such as myself and House) can have a blog (hahaha - no doubt one of Trout's pet peeves). I thought it'd be interesting to check out what other sports fans' blogs look like, so I took a random peek at some.
  • "I can say without hesitation that I am the biggest (name of football team) and (name of baseball team) fan that has ever lived. I even worked for the (name of football team) in the 2007 season (as an usher)."
Okay. What the heck does that mean?? "I'm the biggest (blah) fan that has ever lived"??? How can you quantify or measure that?? Oh yeah, and this dude says on his blog he's 19 years old. Okay.

How about this one:
  • "I will see (name of football team) win a Super Bowl because I refuse to die until they win one."
Okay, you're not kidding me, right? Sounds like an arrogant SOB. This next one, however, is more humble and sounds better:
  • "I could die a happy man if the (name of baseball team) could just once win the damn World Series. But I refuse to die until they do, which ensures a long life, come to think of it."
It's all about how you say it; the first guy sounds like a jerk, the second sounds rational.
"The (name of football team) were better than your team in 1948, 1949, and 1960."
So???

This one:
  • "I think that (name of city) fans have been given an unfair rap by just about everybody since one particular incident (example given). In reality, there is no city in the world that displays passion for its teams like we do. We are the most knowledgeable fans in the world. We want perfection, and if you don't give us perfection, we will let you know. We may boo our players, but do we ever stop going to the games? No. Those that criticize us are simply jealous of our unbelievable passion."
I underlined a few phrases on there - because I wanted to know: How on earth can you measure or quantify that?? How??

Hogwash, I say.

Sometimes, fans are just annoying... or as Trout says, a lot of times, this blog is annoying...

Check out my fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

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Brief Resume Highlights

Writing Experience
- Bleacher Report: contribute articles on the Vancouver Canucks, Boston sports, hockey, and baseball at least three times a week (2007-Present); edit sports-related articles from other posters (2008-Present)
- UCL: developed Career Planning curriculum (2007); consulted on for other curricula issues (2005-Present)
- Consumer Research: submitted unsolicited proposals for improvements on company operations (2005)
- B.U.D. College: developed Grammar curriculum consisting of five levels (2004); edited curricula for other courses (2004)
- KGIC: developed Career Planning curriculum proposal for Surrey campus (2004)
Writing Accomplishments
- Named Bleacher Report Bruins Community Leader (2008)