Some watch for the game, some watch for the commericals. Airtime for ads runs at about $2.5MM for 30 seconds.
Which were some of the best 30 seconds during the game that didn't involve the Colts tramping over the Bears?
1. K-Fed's Nationwide rap - probably would've been funnier had we not see or heard all that crap about the fast food workers getting pissed off at the guy.
2. Robert Goulet and nuts - comedy. Robert Goulet always delivers.
3. Ax-hitcher - beer commerials seem to always reign supreme on Super Bowl. This year's was no different.
If you missed Prince's half-time show, then you'll just have to got rent "Purple Rain".
And one of my personal historical favorites...I want to claw my way up to middle management (so I can be in charge of TPS reports...)
Monday, February 5, 2007
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Subsidized by you
Outsourcing.What a nasty word, eh? We hear it all the time. Folks in various industries are "restructured" because of it.
A recent study by the New York Times revealed that the number of government contracting gigs has increased, while open competition between bidders has not. Most of these gigs are for operations in Iraq. Interestingly enough, spending by top contracting firms on lobbying and campaign donations has increased.
While the Times can't say it, I can: sounds like some hot, yet clandestine political pillow-talk going on up on the Hill. This type of behavior looks bad because it's easily interpreted as a case of interest groups directing policy. Also consider the long-reaching effects of outsourcing by the U.S. government when the contractors aren't held to the same level of accountability that public officials are, and compound this understanding with the lack of transparency within these privately-held companies.
It could be argued that the current administration has partnered with groups that will insulate Bush et al from any type of legal or punitive actions. I'm thinking of how the U.S. has farmed out torturing of detainees to countries like Egypt and Syria.
Top this off with the $2.9 trillion (that's: 2,900,000,000,000 dollars) budget the Bush administration submitted to Congress (the Pentagon's portion is $624.6 billion, which is up from last time), and wonder how long it will take to us to learn that the military-industrial complex is not the best way, moral or economical, to sustain one of the largest and most powerful countries in the world.
Interestingly, the budget includes only $50 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2009, which is the last year funding is expressly provided. Is this the first sign of when we could expect to see a full-scale extraction from the region?
Friday, February 2, 2007
Y'know...just ran into Barack Obama...he's cool
My buddy Mike from high school is quite active in the quest to make some positive changes in the world.
Just recently he and his family went to D.C. to attend the national Department of Peace conference, and they happened to share an elevator ride with Senator Obama himself. They got a chance to talk with him in his office about his presidential goals, and how much they support him. He seems like a nice guy, but then, we knew that already.
To learn more about Mike and what he does, check out his site. He's a motivational speaker, coach, and author. Some of his clients have included: Apple Computer, Lucasfilm, PG&E, UC Berkeley, Oracle, CingularWireless, Yahoo!, Visa, Webcor Builders...you know, some local industry lightweights.
Just recently he and his family went to D.C. to attend the national Department of Peace conference, and they happened to share an elevator ride with Senator Obama himself. They got a chance to talk with him in his office about his presidential goals, and how much they support him. He seems like a nice guy, but then, we knew that already.
To learn more about Mike and what he does, check out his site. He's a motivational speaker, coach, and author. Some of his clients have included: Apple Computer, Lucasfilm, PG&E, UC Berkeley, Oracle, CingularWireless, Yahoo!, Visa, Webcor Builders...you know, some local industry lightweights.
Prez Junior gets a performance review?
Recently, in his State of the Economy address, Dubya said:
Just to contextualize his comments, know that this was coming from a man who had a childhood just like you and me. He's a Washington outsider, as he claimed during his initial run for office...you know, his dad was the Ambassador to China, Head of the CIA, Vice-President of the U.S. for 8 years, President of the U.S. for 4 years and ol' Dubya went to Phillips Academy, then off to Yale, then hung out in the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam, then off to Harvard to get his MBA, then worked in the oil industry, and finally became a small-town governor from the state of Texas: home to Selena! Yay!
Does this mean that we can cut his pay if his approval ratings dip below a threshold? And how do we go about requesting greater transparency of his *rumored* coke habits of old, because that would just be great fun altogether: definitely a clipping for my wallet! Do we get to grade him on his judgements of leaving the Kyoto Agreement when the U.S. is the number 1 emitter of greenhouse gases, and he doesn't want to impose cap limits on businesses?
What about inciting a conflict abroad to distract the masses from Dick Cheney's leaky colostomy bag? Can we at least get a better understanding why his spin doctors have him describe the global warming phenomenon with a name like "climate change"? Is that a transparent description? It's kinda like "killed by one's own troops" and "friendly fire" or "shell shock" and "post-traumatic stress disorder".
Dubya probably doesn't care what the press will say about this. Bush thinks the press is 'elitist' because their background isn't in step with average Joe. See my second paragraph and repeat.
2008 is coming. Get ready America.
Sorry. This was supposed to be a shorter post, but I got carried away. You can probably tell that I'm passionate about this topic. I'm transparent that way...
"Government should not decide the compensation for America's corporate executives....[b]ut the salaries and bonuses of CEOs should be based on their success at improving their companies and bringing value to their shareholders...America's corporate boardrooms must step up to their responsibilities...You need to pay attention to the executive compensation packages that you approve. You need to show the world that America's businesses are a model of transparency and good corporate governance."
Just to contextualize his comments, know that this was coming from a man who had a childhood just like you and me. He's a Washington outsider, as he claimed during his initial run for office...you know, his dad was the Ambassador to China, Head of the CIA, Vice-President of the U.S. for 8 years, President of the U.S. for 4 years and ol' Dubya went to Phillips Academy, then off to Yale, then hung out in the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam, then off to Harvard to get his MBA, then worked in the oil industry, and finally became a small-town governor from the state of Texas: home to Selena! Yay!
Does this mean that we can cut his pay if his approval ratings dip below a threshold? And how do we go about requesting greater transparency of his *rumored* coke habits of old, because that would just be great fun altogether: definitely a clipping for my wallet! Do we get to grade him on his judgements of leaving the Kyoto Agreement when the U.S. is the number 1 emitter of greenhouse gases, and he doesn't want to impose cap limits on businesses?
What about inciting a conflict abroad to distract the masses from Dick Cheney's leaky colostomy bag? Can we at least get a better understanding why his spin doctors have him describe the global warming phenomenon with a name like "climate change"? Is that a transparent description? It's kinda like "killed by one's own troops" and "friendly fire" or "shell shock" and "post-traumatic stress disorder".Dubya probably doesn't care what the press will say about this. Bush thinks the press is 'elitist' because their background isn't in step with average Joe. See my second paragraph and repeat.
2008 is coming. Get ready America.
Sorry. This was supposed to be a shorter post, but I got carried away. You can probably tell that I'm passionate about this topic. I'm transparent that way...
666 You're the beast, Tom Cruise
That lovable and hyperlitigous group we all love... put your hands together for...
SCIENTOLOGISTS [whoo-hoo!]...
...has just declared that Tom Cruise is Christ for the Church of Xenu! Apparently, David Miscavige, head pod-person for the church, likened Maverick to the big J.C. because he's such an amazing spokesperson for the "religion". Most likely, this claim is heavily supported by the fact that Tom Cruise is a deeply sane and un-glib person, and because he's bankrolling a film (because every other studio didn't want their fingerprints on that trainwreck) called "The Thetan", in which David Beckham's wife, aka Posh Spice, will be playing the alien bride.
Did the world just drop a large hit of acid and didn't Tom learn from Travolta's "Battlefield Earth"? Since when does a cult...er...religion based on the ramblings of a failed sci-fi writer grow big crazy balls big enough to support this kind of parallel?
You know what Scientology is? It's the WWE of religion. That's right. It's religion-lite for those people who can't find one of the other faiths rich in spiritual goodness fully satisfying. It's for those folks who find that spending gobs of money on "clearing" themselves in order to achieve spiritual bliss the more appealing option. It's the new AA for the 2000s: it's where anyone who's anyone goes to build their social network because the conspicuous consumption is so damn sexy.
Minor digression: doesn't it strike you as an odd co-inkydink that "scientology" sounds a lot like "strategery"? Doesn't seem strange to me....why?...it's because neither are real! Yay!
Do you know what tenets the "Church" is founded on? Get this [snicker]: many years ago (in a galaxy far, far away) Xenu, this overlord from another world, decided to send all these Thetans (aliens) to Earth. Then he detonated their ships near mountains with nuclear weapons, which caused all these volcanoes to erupt (which is why you see this imagery depicted in Dianetics) effectively killing all the Thetans (also called the Xenu Incident). The dead Thetans inhabit and comprise human bodies. Have you clicked away yet?
No...good. It's the ghosts of these Thetans, who now inhabit us, that make us unable to become the best that we can be, so the Church was set up to clear us of the Body Thetan salty ghost energy. Members pay for classes to become Operating Thetan (OT)-1, OT-2, etc. The higher up you are, the "clearer" you are. Make sense? No? No, it doesn't.
....?
Um.
Whatever, I have to go check out that new sushi roll that looks like one of the Virgin Mary's sexy curls. Man, could they whip up hair in Judea back in the day!
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Somewhere, Clinton is high-fiving his boys
Oops. Does oops cover it? At least Newsome wasn't embezzling money from school coffers (I'm looking at you Oakland Unified - this poor district is more corrupt than a meth smoking pastor [zing!]). I don't really think this is a matter to lose any sleep over. Bad choices made on his part? Sure. Poor judgement? Yes. Is this a larger issue than we have with aggressions in the Middle East or finding alternative ways to power the country or the poor state of the American public education system? I'm going to go with No.
De-throttle your Netflix bottleneck
I'm a Netflix customer. I signed up because of the "unlimited 2-at-a-time" offering, and because they have a considerable library (although they don't carry "The Road Warrior" - what's up with that?), so when I started noticing that my movies weren't coming in as regularly as before I became a little *suspicious*.
Netflix engages in throttling, which basically means that if you rent a lot of movies they'll constrict your shipment of rentals in your queue. They do this because heavy renters eat away at their bottom line. Sorry Netflix, don't make such an attractive offer to your customer and then poison the relationship with introducing a bottleneck to your product. It's not exactly making us a stronger, better, and healthier couple. Aren't you committed to us? [note: the altered graphic above contains improper use of the word "your", as it's meant to be the contraction "you're" - yes, I am a grammar nazi].
Yet, all is not lost thanks to the awesome power of the Internet community. An individual conducted an informal study comparing Netflix and Blockbuster. It looks like Blockbuster won across the board. However, if you don't want to make the switch to another provider, and you find yourself being throttled with Netflix, try crossing out the address and barcode on the envelope. Long story short, this causes the envelope to be delivered to the actual nearest Netflix facility instead of rerouting it to another inventory drop point.
Yet, all is not lost thanks to the awesome power of the Internet community. An individual conducted an informal study comparing Netflix and Blockbuster. It looks like Blockbuster won across the board. However, if you don't want to make the switch to another provider, and you find yourself being throttled with Netflix, try crossing out the address and barcode on the envelope. Long story short, this causes the envelope to be delivered to the actual nearest Netflix facility instead of rerouting it to another inventory drop point.
I tried this yesterday: shipped two movies back on Wednesday, and Netflix notified receipt today. I also received notification that my next two movies are shipping today. Everything's coming up Milhouse.
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