[Shameless self-promotion alert: my son, Matt, who is presently boarding a jet for England to participate in the Euro launch of Gears of War 2, is an employee of Epic Games]Sometimes I feel like that kid at the playground standing on the wrong side of the fence, watching the championship baseball game instead of playing in it.

Thanks to the business I am in, thoughts (some normal, some less so) about the impact of marketing and media constantly fill my mind.

According to ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations), the average weekday circulation of 507 American daily newspapers was only 36.2 million during a six-month period in 2008. This number represents a drop of 4.6% from a year earlier.On the flip side, the NAA (Newspaper Association of America) reports that usage of newspaper Web sites grew nearly 16% in the third quarter of 2008, compared to the same period last year.

My dad was the very definition of a troublemaker. He reveled like a child in the business of mischief, smiling from ear to ear as he picked and poked and prodded you into an argument. But to his credit, he always knew when to stop."Okay, that's enough," he'd say as tempers began to flare.

Just last week I was reading the results of the latest Nielsen Shopper Modality Study.According to the report, "Consumers approach different categories of consumer packaged goods with different mindsets, and marketers that understand and leverage these can enhance their products' performance."David Parma, global head of Nielsen Consumer Research warns that CPG (consumer packaged goods) marketers "don't want to get it wrong in the fleeting nan-second of purchase decision.

Paul Verna, Senior Analyst, reported in eMarketer yesterday (October 16) that blogging has become mainstream. Here's what he says:Blogging has become so pervasive and influential that the lines between blogging and the mainstream media have disappeared.At first glance, this looks really important.

Like so many others of my generation, I was raised on and greatly influenced by the Wonderful World of Disney. And I willingly embraced the "can do... anything goes... follow your dreams" approach to life. Of course, I also embraced the Looney Tunes "ehh, what's up doc...

I just came across a Reuters story with the following headline:Making math uncool is hurting America, report saysAs a huge advocate of education and math, I was intrigued. So I began reading the article.

Richard (Dick) Fuld, ex-CEO of Lehman Brothers would like to blame the ills of the financial industry on a crisis of confidence.

You know what really kills me (I mean besides a forearm shiver to the bridge of my nose)? When I read about a company (Microsoft, for example) that pays an agency (Crispin Porter, for example) $300 million for a campaign that turns out to be mediocre at best.Am I jealous?