I finally got my brother to come up my way from our parents' yesterday. He came up for lunch (we grabbed some Mex) and I got him going on Guitar Hero (I knew he'd like it). The HB was a little bummed that he didn't get to teach him, but that's life.
He stayed for dinner and he, the HB and I hopped into the jacuzzi for a while. The HB really likes hanging with him, so it was pretty cool.
My brother's catching a red-eye tonight, so he and my parents will come up here for dinner and I'll take him to the airport (probably 3 hours before his flight since he acts like such an old man).
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Dear Olympic Advertisers
I've always thought that one of the DVR companies should use the advertising line, "Make TV your bitch." That's no truer than during the Olympics. I've put a lot of stuff on DVR and have seen more events than I thought that I would.
To the advertisers, I have NO idea who you are. Pespi or Coke? Chevy, Dodge, Range Rover? Tide or All? I have no fucking idea. I'm sure that you paid a ton of money for the spots just wanted to let you know that it's completely wasted on me and probably a lot of other people like me. If I'm one of your investors, I'm thinking twice about your decision to spend this money in 2010 in British Columbia or 2012 in London.
I wonder what would be the percentage reduction in price of the products that are advertised if they weren't.
To the advertisers, I have NO idea who you are. Pespi or Coke? Chevy, Dodge, Range Rover? Tide or All? I have no fucking idea. I'm sure that you paid a ton of money for the spots just wanted to let you know that it's completely wasted on me and probably a lot of other people like me. If I'm one of your investors, I'm thinking twice about your decision to spend this money in 2010 in British Columbia or 2012 in London.
I wonder what would be the percentage reduction in price of the products that are advertised if they weren't.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Edwards and the Tabloids
There's nothing I can say about John Edwards than has already been written. It's just good to keep in mind that while there are 'perfect' ideas (and I'm not saying that his are) there are no perfect messengers of them. But, now we know why he wasn't under serious consideration for VP.
Olympic Fever
I LOVE the Olympics. Sure, I HATE how NBC covers it in prime time (more about avoiding that in a minute) and I don't care for gymnastics, which seems to dominate the coverage. But I do enjoy watching some sports on an every four years basis, like swimming and track, and the drama is tough to beat.
Watching the Olympics is THE reason to have a DVR. NBC paid a ton a dough for the rights and they can't make that back in advertising if they are only appealing to sports fans. So, they do everything they can to keep the non-sports fans watching, which means showing less competition, so they can sell more Tide.
However, since they paid a king's ransom, they want to show as much as possible, which they are doing on their other networks (e.g., MSNBC, Universal HD, USA, Oxygen, etc.) and two special channels that show only basketball and soccer. If you go to http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv_and_online_listings/index.html and enter your cable/satellite and zipcode information, you can see where these channels are (on DirecTV in LA they are channels 750-756). The coverage on the non-NBC channels have far fewer commercials and show a particular competition from start to finish. They also show some off-beat (to most Americans) sports, like badminton and fencing. With the time difference you can watch a lot of competition and, more importantly, its in the sports you want to see. Very cool. Oh, and there's other events that you can stream off of the website.
It was nice last night to see Michael Phelps cruise to a world record in the 400 IM. That dude is amazing.
In other sports news, the Angels laid into the Yankees again last night. Hopefully they'll complete the sweep today.
Watching the Olympics is THE reason to have a DVR. NBC paid a ton a dough for the rights and they can't make that back in advertising if they are only appealing to sports fans. So, they do everything they can to keep the non-sports fans watching, which means showing less competition, so they can sell more Tide.
However, since they paid a king's ransom, they want to show as much as possible, which they are doing on their other networks (e.g., MSNBC, Universal HD, USA, Oxygen, etc.) and two special channels that show only basketball and soccer. If you go to http://www.nbcolympics.com/tv_and_online_listings/index.html and enter your cable/satellite and zipcode information, you can see where these channels are (on DirecTV in LA they are channels 750-756). The coverage on the non-NBC channels have far fewer commercials and show a particular competition from start to finish. They also show some off-beat (to most Americans) sports, like badminton and fencing. With the time difference you can watch a lot of competition and, more importantly, its in the sports you want to see. Very cool. Oh, and there's other events that you can stream off of the website.
It was nice last night to see Michael Phelps cruise to a world record in the 400 IM. That dude is amazing.
In other sports news, the Angels laid into the Yankees again last night. Hopefully they'll complete the sweep today.
Going Out in Style
While the wife and I have planned for retirement in a financial sense, we really haven't done much about the nuts and bolts of it. Are we going to live in this house? Get a condo on the beach or in the city? Will actually finally quit work or just putz around part-time? I know that she wants to retire as soon as possible and be done with work. At some point I would like to just slow down and take on fewer projects. But, when the HB's done with college (note the optimism) we'll probably have a better sense of these things.
I bring this up because we went to a retirement party last night for the husband of a good friend of mine from Rotary. Interesting guy in that he was truly a child of the 60s. He was an Eagle scout, surfer/stoner, joined the peace corps and did two tours and had a career as a teacher. He's one of those guys who comes off as cranky and cynical, where in reality he has a very big heart and is cynical. A guess working in a huge bureaucracy helps you keep the cynical part.
We ate and drank a bunch and met some cool people. I chatted with the guest of honor some and asked the inevitable question, "So, what are you going to do now?" He was pretty drunk, but the gist of things was that he's got a fat government job pension, so they have no money worries. His wife is 15 years younger and she make beautiful pottery, so their schedule is flexible enough so that they can travel. As he was in the peace corps and she's a Thai native, they LOVE to go places. He gardens (they frequently give us lemon grass, Thai peppers and Thai basis) and loves to read. So, I'd say they pretty much have a good head start on spending the next several years.
I look at how my parents spend their retirement and it seems OK. They do a big trip every year or so (they're going to cruise around the Baltic Sea later this month) and they are involved in their temple. My mom reads once a week at a local school and my dad plays a lot of computer solitaire and babysits his investments online. On the weekends they frequently have dinner with friends and they have a great social network.
Boredom in retirement is a bigger fear to me than poor health or lack of money. Perhaps that's why I figure I'll keep working some even after my wife calls it quits. I really enjoy what I do and it's not physically difficult work. I keep telling myself that I'll get more involved in philanthropic work and travel more, but who knows. Do I have enough hobbies that I'll be able to do when I'm older? Are there enough things that my wife and I will want to do together and separately?
Apparently, a little more planning is in order.
I bring this up because we went to a retirement party last night for the husband of a good friend of mine from Rotary. Interesting guy in that he was truly a child of the 60s. He was an Eagle scout, surfer/stoner, joined the peace corps and did two tours and had a career as a teacher. He's one of those guys who comes off as cranky and cynical, where in reality he has a very big heart and is cynical. A guess working in a huge bureaucracy helps you keep the cynical part.
We ate and drank a bunch and met some cool people. I chatted with the guest of honor some and asked the inevitable question, "So, what are you going to do now?" He was pretty drunk, but the gist of things was that he's got a fat government job pension, so they have no money worries. His wife is 15 years younger and she make beautiful pottery, so their schedule is flexible enough so that they can travel. As he was in the peace corps and she's a Thai native, they LOVE to go places. He gardens (they frequently give us lemon grass, Thai peppers and Thai basis) and loves to read. So, I'd say they pretty much have a good head start on spending the next several years.
I look at how my parents spend their retirement and it seems OK. They do a big trip every year or so (they're going to cruise around the Baltic Sea later this month) and they are involved in their temple. My mom reads once a week at a local school and my dad plays a lot of computer solitaire and babysits his investments online. On the weekends they frequently have dinner with friends and they have a great social network.
Boredom in retirement is a bigger fear to me than poor health or lack of money. Perhaps that's why I figure I'll keep working some even after my wife calls it quits. I really enjoy what I do and it's not physically difficult work. I keep telling myself that I'll get more involved in philanthropic work and travel more, but who knows. Do I have enough hobbies that I'll be able to do when I'm older? Are there enough things that my wife and I will want to do together and separately?
Apparently, a little more planning is in order.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
My friend who's a new daddy is going to let me use his Angel tickets (against the Yankees tonight). I called my brother and told him that I was "able to get" the tickets. For someone who went to Angel games when they couldn't even draw 10,000 people, that's an amazing clause to use. So, me, my bro, the wife and the HB are going to go. I hope that there aren't too many Yankee fans being assholes out there. When I went a few weeks ago, the Red Sox fans were pretty well behaved.
On a domestic note, I got my kitchen knives sharpened. I tried to do it myself and completely fucked it up (fortunately, no blood was spilled in the process). So, I got a repair place to do it for $19 (note to Lola...they charge by the inch, so you know you're getting your money's worth, heh.).
Fun weekend coming up. Going to a retirement party for a really fun dude on Saturday, and get to play dress up for a YMCA fund raiser on Sunday. It's a very fancy progressive dinner hosted by several hotels that want to out do each other. I'll be seriously stuffed and buzzed by the time that's over.
On a domestic note, I got my kitchen knives sharpened. I tried to do it myself and completely fucked it up (fortunately, no blood was spilled in the process). So, I got a repair place to do it for $19 (note to Lola...they charge by the inch, so you know you're getting your money's worth, heh.).
Fun weekend coming up. Going to a retirement party for a really fun dude on Saturday, and get to play dress up for a YMCA fund raiser on Sunday. It's a very fancy progressive dinner hosted by several hotels that want to out do each other. I'll be seriously stuffed and buzzed by the time that's over.
So, Have We Got the Terrorists Yet?
Yesterday a US attorney tried a dead man in the court of public opinion while a military court found Osama bin Laden's driver guilty, but not on all counts. Of course, W has not intention of letting him out of Gitmo, so it doesn't really matter, except now the administration can say, "See, we had a trial and it didn't completely go our way." No word on whether ObL's mechanic or dry cleaner will be charged.
The problem with Bush's war on terror is how poorly executed it is. His argument is that we need to give up some liberties and portions of the Constitution to catch the bad guys. But, in general, when the government goes after the bad guys, it's either the wrong ones (see Steven Hatfill in the anthrax case) or they get their asses handed in court by having to accept either plea-bargains or sentences for lesser charges. This is not to say that they haven't had any moderate successes, but I don't think their track record warrants what they are asking for.
So, rest well America. The little fish are getting what they deserve.
The problem with Bush's war on terror is how poorly executed it is. His argument is that we need to give up some liberties and portions of the Constitution to catch the bad guys. But, in general, when the government goes after the bad guys, it's either the wrong ones (see Steven Hatfill in the anthrax case) or they get their asses handed in court by having to accept either plea-bargains or sentences for lesser charges. This is not to say that they haven't had any moderate successes, but I don't think their track record warrants what they are asking for.
So, rest well America. The little fish are getting what they deserve.
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