getting amp'd

Spent the evening in an absurd pursuit; I participated in a focus group for this product, which is aimed at the "youth" market.

Yes, other than the market research people, I was in fact the oldest person in the room. I had to eat a lot of M&M's out of the bowl to keep up with the whippersnappers.

I did my part, though, to represent what oldsters like: when they asked us to rate which magazines we'd be like to be able to read on our cell phones, I zipped past People and Vogue and wrote in The Economist. I had to bypass the "television" section altogether because I had no idea what's on any of the channels; other than visits home, I haven't lived with a TV in...lemme see...fifteen years now. At least. I also wrote in "flamenco music" and "BBC" in the appropriate places.

I'm sure they're scratching their heads back at Amp'd HQ. But, you know, I'm still in that cohort. Barely. I have six more months of being a "youth". And then I suppose I get turned into Soylent Green, have I got that right? Or am I mixing movies? It's hard to remember when you're as old as I am.

The best moment was when we got a ten-minute break halfway through. Half of us whipped out our cell phones. One guy brought out his laptop for good measure. The public health student I'd teamed with to describe the "information" consumer of 2010 (like I was going to choose "sports"?) was on her phone saying to someone, did you get the text I sent you about my computer? and lapsing into Persian. Bless her; she was the one who suggested that in addition to the Beeb (I wasn't the only one, incidentally: there were two Europeans in the room and an Australian who all concurred) and the Old Gray Lady, news content should include Al Jazeera. She was neat.

I am feeling all hip and down and shit.

And here, appropos of nothing and via Making Light: dealing with fleas.