It turns out that they will be shooting a fourth season of Laguna Beach. Via Laguna Beach Hook-Up, this article also notes that MTV admits that its current incarnation is failing to live up to the past seasons that cemented this “scripted reality” phenomenon.

I became enamored with Laguna earlier this year. The production values floored me – the artistically framed shots, emotionally-manipulative editing, and scene perfect music selections. To the untrained eye, the episodes could’ve passed for any show on the now-defunct WB network. But more than aesthetics, the melodrama that arose from carousel dating, back talk, and betrayals became terribly addicting.

Laguna, and its The Hills spin-off are definitely guilty pleasures of mine. I just hope that the last half of season 3 that has yet to air in Canada can make up for its poor showing thus far.

I don’t subscribe to the belief that Halloween gives you the de facto right to act any differently than you normally would. Isn’t it worse when those around you discover that such behavior was pent up, just waiting for a “socially acceptable” situation to be let out?

Of course, the behavior I’m referring to is an escalation of promiscuity. Isn’t it curious that on the one day of the year that you can masquerade as anyone, you don’t hear anyone say that they want to be more “respectable” or “intelligent?”

Pumpkin carving isn’t a family tradition of ours, but it does seem to be a company tradition of sorts, as I helped carve one at work yesterday for the second year running. Our original intent was a disco-themed Tina Turner, but due to poor planning and the substitution of red tinsel for hair where an afro should have been, our pumpkin resembled Ronald McDonald more than anything else.

Each department was responsible for producing a pumpkin, and they were voted upon today for prizes. I am in awe of the sick creativity behind the winning entry.

Our “Ronald McDonald.”

Introducing, “HomeCare Helen!”

Have you noticed the recent Lexus “Pursue the Moment” marketing campaign? There is a commercial, for example, on television, which flashes through a series of events and images one might experience in life, urging viewers to live it up.

As affecting as the commercial can be, I’m much more taken by the one-page print ads, featured last week in The Globe & Mail. One such ad, accompanied by a landscape photo, reads:

“Would anyone buy a ticket to the movie of your life? Pack it full of moments. Make it glorious. Make it epic. Make it funny and sad and tender and outrageous. Make it a blockbuster. Fill it with laughs and adventures and special effects of your own design. Be the hero, fight the bad guys, get the girl. Make it colourful and spectacular and dramatic. Make it unique. Give it plot twists and a back-story and total surround sound. You’re the director. You’re the star. You’ll get all the credit. Pursue the moment.”

Cheesy, I know, but it struck a chord with me all the same. The phrasing of the text also reminds me of the ongoing right hand ring campaign – short, staccato sentences that build towards the tag line.

So, have you seized a moment lately?

“I like to start my notes to you as if we’re already in the middle of a conversation.”