Amazon Prime Day 2021 Commercial – Three Things I Appreciate and Two Things I Don’t

Amazon Prime Day is quickly approaching. Besides it being two days (so why aren’t they calling it “Prime Days”?), they obviously put a lot of effort into their new TV ad. Take a look!

The colorful ad is one you may need to watch more than once since a lot is happening in a short amount of time.

A few things I appreciate after watching multiple times…

  1. The swinging plant. In the very first shot when a woman opens her front door, there is a hanging plant on her right. After a circle twist transition, packages are now at her front door and she’s excited. But that plant? It’s rocking back and forth. This attention to detail is nice, adding to the effect of that swirly circle transition. The also do this with the 3 stacked boxes, so watch it again with that in mind.

2. I am always impressed when a particular camera shot SHOULD show a reflection of the camera equipment, but doesn’t. When we are taken around the front of Amazon’s electric van, there is no reflection of any equipment on the front of the van. Nice job!

3. Logo in almost every shot. In a 30 second ad, you might think showing your logo prominently is critical but this ad shows a different way to advertise. I wouldn’t call it subliminal as much as strategically placed branding 😉 Here’s an example.

A couple of things I don’t appreciate are… Why call it Prime Day if it lasts two days? Just add the ‘s’ already! Secondly, it all just makes me feel a little bit nauseous. Kind of like riding on those gravity spinning rides at a fair, or the tea cups at Disney World.

What do you think of the ad? Does this ad entice you to order things from Amazon on Amazon Prime Day Days, or make you want to excuse yourself to go vomit in the bushes behind the souvenir stand?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Cardinal hatchlings have hatched!

How about that for a redundant post title? Of course hatched birds have hatched. Last week I posted about a nest I discovered in my front yard (click here for that) and I finally have an update! The speckled eggs cracked and life sprang forth in the form of these helpless little cardinal babies. Check out a few photos below. I’ll definitely be updating as they grow, I’m very curious how they’ll look as they become adult birds. Will they turn red? What will their baby beaks look like? Will the mom attack me like the robin mom did?

One reason “Big Bang” theory is bogus

I’m sure this is not the first time someone has suggested that the “big bang” (the theory, not the TV show) is scientifically ludicrous. Perhaps coming from my subconscious related to something I heard along the way, I had a thought cross my mind the other day. But first, let’s review what the big bang theory is… an idea that claims the world, universe, etc came into existence when a bunch of particles combined together millions of years ago. From it, we get all the planets, stars, earth, sun, and human beings.

Not even getting into the divine beliefs about creation (vs. evolution), here is the thought I had that makes “big bang” bogus in one easy step.

What are the chances that a sweet, new Ford Bronco truck could come into being by random particles coming together on their own, randomly, at the same point of time, in the same place?

No one in their right mind believes a car can build itself from nothing. That’s virtually impossible. And yet, folks out there believe something more detailed, more intricate, a million times more diverse, from a shell in the deep ocean to the brittle fingernail of a newborn baby, to the rings around Saturn… just kind of happened? Umm, ok.

That’s all I have to say. But I will reiterate, I’m sure someone has said this or something like this in the past. It’s just been on my mind lately… as has the new Ford Bronco. I thought it would be bigger, but the more I see them around town, the more I like them.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

I killed Mickey…and Minnie is missing in action

It seems like once or twice a year I have an issue with a mouse or two getting into the kitchen of my house. It’s not as cool as movies make it seem, because they don’t come in to cook me dinner. I know I am referring to the movie Ratatouille but you get the point!

The mouse that inspired this post was actually in a place where he could’ve cooked me dinner, he was mousing around on the stove. I only knew this because when I got up from the couch to go into the kitchen he scurried under a burner down into the framework of the oven. I will give him credit, he knows his way around my kitchen!

So then I dug around under the nearby sink and found the tried-and-true style of mouse trap with the snapping metal bar.

I don’t like resolving the problem with this device but in the moment that is all I had access to. In the morning I disposed of its little body and asked God to forgive me for doing this to one of His creations. Gosh, how can anyone hunt? I would be devastated for weeks if I killed something as beautiful as a deer or killed birds for sport. Even this little germ-carrying mouse was very cute.

Anyway, back to the story. I left out another mousetrap because in my experience when there is one, there are two. But for a day or two, nothing. Then I noticed something peculiar. I had left the second mousetrap on the kitchen counter but not set to snap, since it had been a couple of days since the first mouse had gone to mouse Heaven. I figured all the killing was over, so yes the trap was out, but no it wasn’t set up to trigger. Here is the peculiar part: I had put peanut butter on the trap to catch the second mouse. The peanut butter was on it for days. Then as I thought about washing the device to put it away, I noticed the peanut butter was gone! Wait, what???

Had a second mouse been nibbling on the trap this whole time? That little rascal! I will update this story with more information if anything develops, but for now let’s call it… mouse – 1, me – 0.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Should Lorde’s new single “Solar Power” offend Christians?

I opened up YouTube and went over to their music tab to see what new videos have been posted lately. At the very tippy top was Lorde (who’s basically been missing in action for a few years) with her new single “Solar Power,” a subdued yet if possible, even a bit peppy, new track perfect for beach hangs. Check it out…

Watching the video for the first time was incidentally also the first time I’d listened to the song, too. So it was all brand new to me. As I’m listening, I think it will be a great addition to my Beach Beats Spotify playlist. But… then I heard something like the name of Jesus in the lyrics. Naturally, I looked the lyrics up and sure enough she says, “I’m kinda like a prettier Jesus.”

Now, one can take this in one of two ways. On the one hand, you could say she’s just playing off of what Isaiah said in chapter 53 of his book in the Bible.

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him…”

One of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible, it’s talking about the future Messiah and how he will serve people. It’s a prophecy of Jesus, let’s just get that out there. So Lorde is using playful lyrics to highlight a truth from the Bible… or, is she being offensive?

Offensive would mean that Lorde is claiming to be better than Jesus. To dive in deeper, she might be saying that she offers the same things He does, but she looks better doing it. Now, I don’t think anyone is brazen enough to make such a claim, even someone who does not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, God’s Son, Savior, etc.

On the bright side for Christians who might hear this song and be offended, it is something that Lorde admits Jesus had (or has) an existence. Just to mention His name is somewhat of an acknowledgement that He was a real person who lived on earth, right?

My guess is that Lorde is somewhere between those two thoughts. Not a professing Christian but also not a persecutor of the Christian faith. As for the song itself, it’s pretty catchy and I like it, but I haven’t decided yet whether I will add it to my Spotify playlist. I just want to make sure I’m not willingly listening to something that is in clear and present danger of antagonizing my Lord. That’s Lord without the ‘e’, mind you 🙂 With that said, I’m a big fan of the literal solar power (the sun) after the winter that never seemed to end here in Nashville. Bring on the hot sun and the beach, I agree with Lorde there.

What do you think of the song and the lyrics? Did the phrase in question stand out to you as being offensive to Christians, or is it a nod to Jesus in some way?

Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness