The Meter’s Running

For anyone who actually reads my weblogs, I want to apologize for yesterday’s. Truth be told, it was lame. I painted a standard picturesque scene of Any College, USA, and threw in a notable mountain. I’m sure much more elegantly spoken people have written about how pleasant Seattle is before me. Perhaps how the mountainous skyline seamlessly thread tree line to Seattle skyline to sea lions… Who cares? It’s nice. And even worse, I threw in some sympathy-seeking, “I’m not feeling well *cough cough*” sentiment with some sentimental garble … Continue Reading

I proudly proclaim a prophetic premonition: The prominent promoters prolifically promoting their provocative production will promptly proclaim this promotional prize. I promise. In other words, this promotion is all about PR.

While my official stance is still that I love all my passengers’ videos the same—as though they were my own children—there are some videos that especially stand out in my mind. You might even call them my favorites. (Hey, even Jesus had his favorites! Isn’t that right, John?) For instance, Colin’s “The Story of Mary” video blows me away. My jowl droops while his jaw drops the well-spoken … Continue Reading

I try to get all my rides before nightfall. The dark is not conducive for this promotion for a few reasons:

1. The camera’s auto-focus has trouble with the poor lighting, making the passengers appear as though they’re in a lower-budget Blair Witch-like film.

2. There’s much less foot traffic at night.

3. Students are already leery when I ask them to get into a car to make a video in broad daylight, so the darkness doesn’t help the creepy factor one bit, especially if they can’t read the usually conspicuous “Livin’ Large” screen print decorating the Aveo.

4. … Continue Reading

Compared to the students at San Jose State, University of Oregon students really utilize the free ride aspect of this promotion much more. It’s almost as if the chance of winning a brand new Aveo5 is an afterthought to the complimentary taxi. On the first day of the promo, a student told me that he was already planning on getting a trip to the doctor’s office from me on Thursday. (If he makes it that long. It looked serious.)

Granted, the campuses’ layouts are very different, so it’s tough to make a fair comparison between … Continue Reading

Against all odds, I attended the U of O v. UCLA game on Saturday night. And right now, I want to make a prediction: Half the cab videos, at some point, will include passengers raising their arms in front of them, matching their finger tips together at the top, touching their thumbs below, and curling them together to form some sort of circley-shaped, hand-ring thingy. I haven’t quite figured out what it represents, but I’ll have all week to get educated by the students on all things … Continue Reading