bloody halloween

wyeth headquarters, pennsylvania

was up early halloween day. was in the office by 7:45, ready to leave for collegeville pennsylvania, a 2+ hour drive away from the city. by 10:00 we were in the wyeth facilities—3 VPs, a copy supervisor and i the most "junior" of them all. immediately i could sense the coporate america-ish setting and i was almost sick. suits all over the place. cubes with high walls. pure left brainers walking left and right.

we head to the conference room and get ready for presenting our tv concepts. the higher ups had already seen them prior; we're just re-presenting to another higher higher up. we present our 7 concepts, 5 of those mine and earl's. and that higher higher up gives his comments. we take a hit. 2 hits actually. with a snap, he's killed 2 of our better concepts. "boomerang" is now dead; all because "women might not be able to identify with throwing a boomerang." (jeez, can i get a right brain, please). and worse, "schedule" is also killed coz it was "funny." (ummm, can i get a creative bone as well?). to make things even worse, that higher up who last week said that she absolutely loved those 2 concepts was absolutely quiet and didnt even counter any of her boss's comments (oh my grrr, can i get some balls as well?). anyway, i guess the trick was on us. good thing though is that there are 2 really good ones still in the 5 that's left. hopefully those 2 don't die an unfair death and see the light of television someday.

it was a nice treat nonetheless heading down to the client's. we had a nice lunch at an italian resto at the king of prussia mall. and i enjoyed the company of my officemates' during the whole day trip. bit "out of place" though coz i was an average of 12ish years their junior (and the only "non-white" there) but since it's a personal goal to expose myself to "different" people, i must be doing a good job then. nice to know little bit more and more of the american culture (especially for a usually "soft-spoken, non-aggressive" asian like me).

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at night, headed down to the village halloween parade. according to the papers, 2 million people were there. my 3rd year to see it and it was harder to find the costume that really wows. last year, it was a person dressed as an ipod poster that earned my biggest wow. this year i guess it was a toss up between a group of folks dressed up as christo's gates and a guy dressed up as a kissing booth. creative loser that i am, i was in my "just came from a presentation blue shirt" costume. jeez, talk about boring. anyway, i greatly enjoyed the drinking and the company of friends on such a bloody halloween.