(via Reuters) “The average Briton turns up to work with a hangover three times a month…”
and
“…each day more than 520,000 people in Britain go to work hung over”
AND they get all the bank holidays AND they get five weeks or more vacation.
Damn.
On the downside: “…nearly one in five of those admitting that as a result they make mistakes and struggle to keep on top of their workload.”
Hmm. Everything’s a tradeoff, I suppose.
So I’ve been lightly reading the kerfuffle and conversation surrounding the new Nike ad featured Tiger Woods, with an overlay of the voice of his father, Earl Woods, taken from an interview in 1994.
Here’s the ad, if you haven’t already seen it:
Of the ad, Tiger has said: “…I think any son who has lost a father and who meant so much in their life, I think they would understand the spot.”
Hmm.
I’m not a son, but I’ve lost a father and I have to say the ad makes me very uncomfortable. I’m not sure I do understand the spot.
While it might be “…very apropos. I think that’s what my dad would say,” the context of an advertising spot, intended to sell Nike gear, seems…a little wrong.
I’ve no doubt Tiger might have turned to his dad for guidance during the fallout from his recent troubles. But would his dad have chosen that forum to have that conversation with his son? I think not.
I find the ad very powerful and I think it’s a very public reckoning for Tiger. But I still gotta say…it makes me uncomfortable. It just doesn’t feel respectful to the memory of his dad. Just my .02
By the by, hearing your father’s voice from the past can be an eerie thing. I recently found a video of my dad giving a presentation. It was filmed about five years before his passing. The Good Man and I watched it, and I found it difficult and a bit disturbing. And oddly, in some ways, comforting.
I’ve no plans yet to use it in a marketing campaign. I’ll keep you posted on that…..
Like many bloggers, as I write my posts and maintain my blog, I often I look at other blogs for ideas, inspirations, or what not to do.
Like…I hate blogs that are riddled with ads running down each side and between every post.
Then again, there are some sites that do ad placement in a tasteful way.
I’m torn.
About six months ago, I began my first foray into ad placement on my blog by placing a small, unobtrusive Google AdSense on my blog. It’s gotten a few clicks, nothing to write home about, and it’s been a good experiment.
Recently, I was contacted by the folks over at Made In New Mexico about an opportunity to do some link sharing.
I took a long time to think about it, as I was unsure about going there.
What finally changed my mind was that in this case I’d be supporting a business located in New Mexico selling New Mexico based products.
Helping the economy in my home state matters to me.
I’d bought from Made In New Mexico before, based on their ads in New Mexico Magazine, and I was satisfied with the experience.
I decided to place a new order using my own money, so I’d have current experience.
I went to their online store, shopped around, and bought two things:
A New Mexico license plate notebook (I chose the old fashioned yellow and red, but you can also choose the balloon theme plate):
( It sort of tickles me that it’s a trailer plate. Fitting for me, no?)
And a New Mexico flag (fresh outta the box, I need to steam the wrinkles out!):
The shopping was easy, the ordering process simple, and shipping happened the day after I ordered. Good stuff!
So based on a happy shopping experience and the kind folks who contacted me, you’ll now see a small ad in the right sidebar. If you click that ad, it will take you to the Made In New Mexico store and they’ll note that you came from my blog. If you buy, I might get a little something for it.
By the by, I wasn’t compensated for writing this post. If ya’ll buy some stuff, a couple sheckles might come my way. Mainly I’m happy to support a solid New Mexico business.
Thanks!
The wind is howling (tornado warnings in San Jose) and we’re getting 1-2 inches of rain each day and it’s *cold*.
In other words, it’s winter in the Bay Area.
During a brief break in the storm, I headed out today to run a couple errands.
While out and about I saw a CalTrans guy (called the highway department to the rest of the world) in full head to toe bright yellow heavy weather gear.
He was out there yanking leaves and branches out of the storm drains.
See, here in the Bay Area, we feature a lot of eucalyptus trees. They have these tree trunks that peel off long strips. We also have plenty of palm trees that will drop a huge frond at the slightest breeze.
Add some pine needles from all the redwoods, a heap of your garden variety debris, and you got yourself clogged storm drains that then back water up onto the streets. Hello flooding!
As I watched the guy wade into rushing water and pull out another tree branch, I thought…now that’s a sucky gig!
Further down the road I saw the trash guy doing his job, also wearing full bright yellow storm gear against the rain.
And I thought, wow, also sucky.
So I mentally put together my list…top five jobs that are already very tough to do, but are made, like, eleventy billion times worse in this crazy storm.
Here we go:
1. As mentioned…CalTrans employee. Especially the people who work out on the major highways unclogging drains, placing pylons around huge potholes, trying to drain flooded low spots on the highway, etc. You get the idea. Ugh.
2. Trash collector. Look, on a good day this is a rough gig. Now put stinky trash in the rain and with flooded roads and people not driving safely and hoo boy, isn’t THAT a nice day at work?
3. PG&E field response. Yeah, when the power goes out due to high winds, these are the people that strap on, once again, the bright yellow high weather gear. Then they get to climb a frapping ladder and hope that one, they don’t fall off, and two, that all the water doesn’t conduct a little extra electricity their way. And the yo-yo’s in all the warm houses get all pissed off when they have no power, so there’s some abuse in this job too. Truly, a thankless gig.
4. Bridge toll taker. Ok, so there you are in the storm of the year, inside a box roughly as big as an old fashioned phone booth attached to a suspension bridge that is engineered to sway. Riiight. The bridge is swaying there over the frosty waters of this inlet from the Pacific with no wind break. And oh by the way, you have to leave that big window open on the tool booth and reach your hand out there once every half minute to take money out of people’s hands. No freaking thank you.
Finally, bar none…
5. Tow truck driver. Sure, this weather makes them a lot of money, but they also have to deal with all manner of idiots. Ever hear of a “solo spin out”? I hadn’t until I moved here. This means one person losing control of their car and whipping around, usually ending up off the pavement (and hopefully not down an embankment).
When it goes right, it’s a “solo” problem. When it doesn’t go right, it’s a horrible, traffic clogging accident. And the tow truck guy has gotta strap on the bright yellow gear and then yank all those cars out of the way while the stopped traffic curses at him, the car owners harass him and the dispatch is calling him begging for his help at another spot.
Gah.
Just, really. Gah.
I can say I’m not man enough for that job. Oh but I love to hear stories from tow truck drivers. Those people have seen some stuff…whoooieee.
Anyhow, as I bunker down with the heat running and a warm cup of tea in hand, here’s a huge thanks to the CalTrans employees, trash collectors, PG&E technicians, toll collectors and tow truck drivers on this crazy blustery day.
Oh, and also the police and fire rescue who are working non-stop in this mess. And the EMT’s in all the emergency rooms, too.
Thank you for doing a mostly thankless job.
(clearly this guy only has to model and never has to use this gear because he is WAY too chipper in that outfit. I’ve never seen a grin like that on someone who really had to use that gear)
Back in the good ol’ days, that wild time known at the 1980’s, I was full of youthful optimism, and I was attending New Mexico State University.
My undergraduate major was Finance.
Ooh, those were heady days when I wanted to be a stockbroker when I grew up. This was back before I realized that “stockbroker” and “salesman willing to sell underperforming securities to your family in order to make commission” were synonymous.
While the dream was still alive, I took courses at NMSU from some really fine professors with a lot of experience.
Among them, several courses with Dr. Lowell Catlett, now the Dean of the College Of Agriculture, and a noted experts on futures trading.
There was also Dr. Clark Hawkins, a man who had actually worked as a commodities trader on the NYSE floor. In his words, he had tried pretty much every investment vehicle out there…and lost money ’em all.
Dr. Hawkins was a strange little man. Wiry, small of frame and nasally of voice. He referred to himself as “Uncle Hawkey.” He often told us that, as Finance students, we should have our Wall Street Journal under one arm and our financial calculator under the other.
And this was to be done while wearing a tshirt imprinted with “Uncle Hawkey’s Ten Investment Rules”.
At the end of each semester, he gifted us with a copy of the ten rules.
Recently, I was searching around in all the old boxes under my house, picking through my crap looking for things I can sell on eBay.
How ironic, then, that I should come across my framed copy of Uncle Hawkey’s Ten Investment Rules in my search for something to sell for money.
Well, I sat down and read the rules.
Goddamn if Uncle Hawkey wasn’t right. He was right then. He’s right now. Right is right.
Now…snap your Wall Street Journal in place, place your finger over the “future value” button on your calculator and get set.
Here are the rules:
1. Don’t invest in things you don’t understand.
Ah, every single customer of Bernie Madoff…take note!
2. Remember the fundamental mathematical rule of finance.
You know what? I don’t.
I suspect this was about future value and present value of money. He was a stickler on that.
Because I understood and could calculate time value of money, I kicked the salesman’s ass when I bought my first car.
I got that salesguy demoted because he was such a dunce. Thank you Uncle Hawkey.
3. Know the difference between investment and speculation.
Oh I remember this one. I rant about this one. A lot.
Let me just say his own words, with the same shouting nasal tone…
INVESTING IN THE STOCK MARKET IS THE SAME AS GAMBLING!
If you do not think putting your money in the stock market is gambling, then you need to re-examine yourself and your money.
Sure, it may return better odds than Vegas, but not always.
For those of you wailing and gnashing your teeth in the current economic downturn because you had all your money in the stock market, I suggest you get this rule tattooed on your arm and look at it daily.
4. Don’t invest or speculate in financial securities that you can’t easily find quotes on.
Dangling participle notwithstanding….Uncle Hawkey was right.
Once again, I’m calling friends of Mr. Madoff….paging investors of Mr. Madoff….
5. Don’t buy a closed end fund on initial offering.
Oh yes, everyone gets oh so very excited about IPO’s. Especially during the dot com boom of the early 2000’s.
Look how well that worked out for most people.
Right.
But Uuuuuncle Haaaawwwkkkey, people in his class would wail…what about _____ and they’d name some company.
And by tracking the history of the stock price, he’d show them how they were wrong. How the price would be driven up on IPO and would, over time, settle back down.
He recommended waiting out an IPO for a company you liked, and buying the shares after you the initial flurry of IPO wore off.
6. Be skeptical of people who say they can forecast the future.
Well, if more folks did this, then people like Jim Cramer would be a lot less interesting, wouldn’t they?
7. Don’t do business with a man you can’t trust.
Too true. I would also substitute “man” with “company.”
And yet…how many of us do anyway? (*coff* AT&T *coff* Comcast *coff*)
Honestly…it’s getting a lot harder to find honesty these days.
8. If the brokers are pushing it hard, it probably should be avoided.
So simple. So true. Yet….
Paging followers of Mr. Madoff!
(seeing a trend here?)
9. Long range planning gives the dangerous notion that the future is under control.
Oooh, this one hurts.
Remember how great things felt in, oh, say mid-2008? When we all had some money and maybe a big mortgage on a great house and the financial future looked, well…bright?
Yeah.
I broke this one. Uncle Hawkey, wherever in the world you are now, I give it up to you.
You knew. You always knew.
10. Don’t lose money.
Well sh*t. I broke this one too.
However. Slowly but surely, it’s coming back.
Because Uncle Hawkey warned us about short term and long term.
My wise investments will, eventually, find their way home.
And finally….
11. (Bonus rule) Remember Rule 10
Fair enough.
And so…as we now dive headlong into a financially muddled 2010…
May we all remember Rule #10
Thank you Uncle Hawkey.
As a post script…
In my senior year of undergrad, Uncle Hawkey decided to go on a sabbatical from teaching.
He invited us, the students that he had so tortured, to join him for happy hour at El Patio. Ah, that venerable old bar (former home office of the Butterfield Stage).
Uncle Hawkey slapped down a credit card and said we could have all the beer we wanted. Nothing else. Only beer.
Oh, the pitchers flowed that day, and Uncle Hawkey paid for it all.
Maybe all of us college students were, on that day, a good investment.