Follow The Directions

Just a couple days ago I wrote a post about how much I appreciate specific directions, especially when cooking. When it comes to my food I want to leave as little chance of ruining the product as possible and really like it when the people who make it take the time to offer suggestions on the best way to cook their product. Well, apparently the universe felt like having a little fun with me, because just a day later I went to reheat something in the microwave and the entire directions on the package consisted of the following sentence:

Heat until warm.

Really? That's all you're going to give me? I can't get a time or even a power setting? Can't even bother to ballpark it for me? Was one more sentence going to cost you that much more in packaging expenses? Thanks for putting almost no effort into this. Because of that lack of specificity, this week's musical interlude is a song with specific directions. Brian McKnight gives you 5 steps that he wants you to follow and even gives you a backup plan if you think you might have messed up along the way. Sure, that step is start over, but at least he gives you options.

[Sidebar: You can tell that McKnight got a lot of action from this song simply by the male/female audience ratio. Not counting musicians I only see three dudes the entire video. However, my favorite comes right around the 2:06 mark. Keep your eyes peeled for the guy in the front row who is the only person not singing along. He is clearly not happy to be there and was obviously dragged to the show by his girlfriend. He's doing everything short of checking his watch. I'm willing to bet they broke up soon after she saw this video.]