Cliens Terribilis

Morgan McLintic has a great post on "How To Be A Terrible Client." I was not sure whether to laugh or cry. Here's Morgan's Top 10 List (be sure to visit his site for the wry commentary that accompanies each "suggestion"):



1. Never praise the agency.
2. Don’t set targets.
3. Demand constant attention.
4. Never make up your mind.
5. Brief light, brief late.
6. Delegate the bottom of your to do list.
7. Maintain radio silence.
8. Pass the blame.
9. Make sure you are the single point of contact.
10. Pay late

To this list - which is close to a perfect list of reasons to fire a client - I'd add:

11. Make false promises. Wanna have a laugh at the agency's expense? Set a "performance metric" with vague promises of "reward-based incentives." Then, when the agency hits the target, find something else to complain about, so that the agency execs stop exulting and instead slink towards the underbelly of the nearest rock.

Finally! A Huge Dog Post

It's been a long time since I paid off the blog description (above) that promises "random stories about huge dogs." That's because for a while there, we'd gone without a huge dog in our lives. To this day we still mourn good ol' Owen.

But, life goes on and after several months of drool-free living, we decided to get another English Mastiff.

His name is Charlie. We've had him for a few months. He's not as solemn nor as drooly nor as mild-mannered as Owen, but then again, at 7 months' old he's still just a puppy (a 100+ lb. puppy!) and if Owen was any indication, Charlie will continue to get lazier by the pound. Ultimately, he'll be little more than a 4-legged couch (200+ lbs.).

Some people think we're crazy to have chosen the English Mastiff as "our breed." Some folks even steer clear of a pony-sized dog on the sidewalks. But we've never met a species of dog more lovable, lazy, loyal and dopey.

This weekend I walked along a wooded trail with Charlie, for a mile or two. He was off-leash and never strayed more than 5 paces from my side. How many 7-month old Labs or Golden Retrievers could ya say that about?