The Royce Files

 The uglies keep on coming. I think the ad people have discovered that if you put something outlandish on any ad, related or not, somebody is likely to click through and ching that cash in the pocket. But of course this could backfire and unknowing create a negative brand identity. Still more the ugly ones really hide for whom they are working. And a lot of them are for this cut rate mortgages. Well, what do we got today- a safe cracker older brother of Hulk Hogan. His problem is that he's always tear off his shirt before he's open the safe. It made the police's investigation pretty easy. Just look around town for the man without a shirt that looks like Hulk Hogan's older brother. Case closed. The next one is genuinely ridiculous. A caveman? It seems to be an outtake from a photo shoot for a caveman costume. He drank 2 large glasses of the orange juice on the hospitality spread outside the studio while the photographer shot the couple with the ...

It is coming soon and the Great Pumpkin will probably run for his/her life lest the feasters plan to devour delicious pumpkin pies. Actually it is unlikely the at 1621 celebration, which our Thanksgiving looks to, there were any pies. This article from the Christian Science Monitor looks at that feast and debunk the myths we have attached to the holiday. So perhaps this Thanksgiving it will not be about having the right food but being of the right mood- thankful and filled with gratitude.

The economy takes a bumpy course and Republicans gain big in the election, however the ugly online ad is not going away. It disappears for a while but comes back full force to get you with the just plain odd images of people. Some of the ones I've reviewed before are making encore performances. The "One Simple Rule" ad and ads summoning men to get "ripped" have also been racking up clicks and impressions. Most of the Net's ads are beginning look like they were pulled from the back of a comic book. But now the ads. First we have another very beardy man. So beardy it seems unreal. In fact with the sunglasses this guy looks like a wax figuire somebody decked out. I've seen a few guys like this in real life. I am not sure what inspires them to keep the look of an aging hippy or Methuselah. And then throw in a Hawaiian lei. Now we're treading on Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. One word can probably describe this- creepy. Oh and this one has an animat...

The maquerading season is over but I will bring a few more disguises before we descend into the turkey and gravy and mash potatoes days which loom ahead. The night of Halloween was rather a no show. It was cooler that the previous 2 'weens and it also appeared downtown was not jumping. In fact whole blocks were alone and empty. What masqueaders I saw were minimal. They all kept indoors, if in fact they were indoors. Even the scary house display round the corner was completely gone by 11pm.  Apparently the 30th was the night to be out downtown. I excused myself from that business as I had other things I needed to do. So much of my coverage come from what I came up with or from the workplace costume thing. So over to the right some of my former team-mates- Red Riding Hood and Corpse Bride. They get together and enjoy extravagant picnics. But here we have the Captain who needs no costume, just a short salute and people honor him with prizes and drinks. And so the C...

Ensign Palmer knows that he'll be placed in the line of fire. 3 times has he been left for dead only to rise up again to beam aboard the Enterprise. Being killed is one thing he failed at the academy. Everything else he did just fine. Although he works in engineering  he often gets assigned security detail by mistake. There is another Ensign Palmer aboard the vessel but she seems to always get assigned to the lunch room. Pretty unfair if you ask me. Palmer is an amicable lad and is passionately in love with bread. He has often given First Officer Spock a loaf of bread to convince him to re-assign him to more duties in engineering rather than security. It typically fails as Spock seems content to just go down the list and make assignments based on his judgment and no aptitude.