Clark's Spot

While at the pool on Sunday, my companions and I were people watching. One group we eventually focused on was a teenage couple that was particularly touchy-feely. We tried to figure out how old they were, whose parents they were with, and whether any of us could have felt so unconcerned about the parents and strangers around the blissfully unaware couple.

One of the women in our group finally decided to go ask their age. (15 – nope would not feel comfortable with a set of parents around.) The part of the story that became more entertaining quickly was how she got around to asking their age.

She began by asking how the two teens knew each other. That brought stares from the two who didn’t know how to respond to the question. The girl tried again: You two look so cute together. How long have you known each other? The couple responded to the second approach (a year) and answer the other quick questions my friend asked.

I kept thinking about this on the drive home from the pool. I’m not sure what they thought of the first question, or whether it was the surprise of someone intruding into what they thought was solitude, but they simply didn’t answer. The second question – which began with a compliment – drew them in. The couple responded when my friend framed the question in a friendly way.

It isn’t that “how do you know her” isn’t friendly. It’s neutral. But “you look so cute” is friendly. It reminds me of the old positive-negative-positive lesson of feedback that I was taught in high school.

Framing your remarks – even in an offhand and incidental conversation – is the best way to get a response.

Last year, we borrowed my father-in-law’s second grill. We put it to use and ended up grilling more than 60 times during the year. This year, we set out to grill out at least 72 times.

The only dry part of the Memorial Weekend cook-out was the grill lighting.

This summer has been particularly moist. It’s been cloudy and wet – half the days in July had rain. But my wife and I have done a good job sneaking in meals at the grill. It’s been a few more lunches than expected (and even breakfast one time). Our big Memorial Day bash was drenched – the out-of-town guests still said they had fun. We’ve dodged rain drops to grill and to pick and choose the days and meals we cook outside.

Earlier today, we grilled out for the 60th time this year. We’ve done the classics – burgers and hot dogs, steak, and chicken. We’ve grilled brats, salmon, tilapia, and pork chops. We’ve even grilled bacon and sausage (but not the famous explosion). And we’ve grilled countless vegetables as sides to almost all of these meals.

Summer is winding down. Fall weather is great – but it isn’t always the best for grilling. Grad classes start a little more than a week from now. That will bring shifts in our work and responsibilities. My wife and I have a busy few months planned – organizing and combining books and movies, scanning photographs, wrestling with boxes of files from one of the community groups I’m involved with. There’s also a handful of weekend trips – weddings and orchard visits among them – scheduled.

Here’s looking forward to at least a dozen more times over the grill.

During a road trip this past Friday, I grabbed a magazine from the unread pile to catch up on some reading. Turns out my Outside subscription has expired. (I’ll get a renewal/resubscribe in after getting my next check – or I’ll go back to reading it online.) And it turns out I was way behind on my reading. The issue I grabbed was September 2008, which was great – it had an article that coincided nicely with the Hot, Flat, and Crowded book that I had read.

The article is the written exchange of two of the magazine’s editors in a competition to track their energy use. I had downloaded my electric bill about a month earlier, and I decided to join in the comparison a year late (and without the technological gadget). Without the special software, I would only be able to estimate my daily use. That’s still good enough for me to begin to understand how much power my wife and I use compared to other households.

First, I checked out PPL’s website, which lets consumers access special tools to understand their electricity use. I downloaded the account history and looked at the kilowatts used. Big increases in the winter months and valleys in the summer. Our rented half-double has no insulation (we’ve bugged the landlord about it to no avail – and without much opportunity to look for other options). That means the heating unit uses plenty of electricity trying to keep the old house warm during the cold winters. We topped out at 693 kilowatts in February 2008 – before we began dialing the thermostat way down during the day. Our best full month was July 2007 when we used 336 kilowatts.

An easy spreadsheet formula gave me the number of days in each billing period. From there, it was easy to track the average kilowatts per day. The Outside article (if you didn’t follow the link) says the average American household uses 30.25 kWh per day. The most we used was 23.1 kilowatts in February 2008, and our best month was 10.5 kilowatts in July 2007. The two competing editors fell between about 8 and 18 kilowatts. I have some work to stay in their league. My median was 14.86 kWh, and the mean was 15.28 kWh. There aren’t big fluctuations in our energy use except for a few key months when it really spikes.

Average daily electricity use

I wondered what the trend was from year to year. I took a few minutes to reconfigure the chart to map out the monthly use over the course of 2007, 2008, and 2009 – and I checked the mean for each of the 12 months. So far in 2009, we’ve been below the monthly average every month except for January.

I’ve actually followed the average pretty closely for most of this year. August heat and air conditioners have driven up our electricity in the past – that’s something we haven’t done this year with a cooler summer. Look like the windows are staying open this year, and I’m looking for ideas on how to winterize.

I’ve been away from Who Is Listening for a few weeks as I take a series of courses on public presentation and marketing management. Both courses gave me stuff to mull over – and some fodder for future posts. But I wanted to mention something now that was covered in a class in the past week.

The idea of Who Is Listening is that the way the message is framed is important. It isn’t enough to say it – you have to say it in a way that connects with the audience. This is no less true in video as it is in audio.

New GM appears to want to be more responsive and transparent to the consumer. (Comments about the American consumer/taxpayer being a de facto owner and entitled to transparency are fine. Go ahead and add comments below.) The company is launching an online suggestion box. It has a website dedicated as the home of its blog collection. And it launched a spiffy new commercial detailing how new the New GM is going to be.

The commercial has attracted commentary from the blogosphere (who believe it is cliche), journalists (who pen how the mighty have fallen), and wrestling fans (who don’t like the final line). Nevermind the spoof ad that has more views than the actual ad on YouTube.

The problem with the commercial? Watch it and take a look at some of the images. Tattered American flag. Hockey player pinned to the ice. Lots of unsold vehicles. Some of the images invoke thoughts of worn, old, outdated, and defeated. That’s not the message GM should want to convey.

It’s important to think about more than who is listening – or in this case, watching. You have to think about what they hear and see as well. Make sure that is in line with your message.