After 2 months of honing my typing-while-walking skills, I’m up to 1.8 mph, and averaging 8 miles a day.

It’s pretty awesome.

-Nick

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The ads weren’t particularly awesome but here are a few I liked.  I thought Career Builder’s “46 banana daquiris” was funny.  Because monkeys like bananas.  I thought Chevy’s “Apocalypse-proof” trucks were a creative twist and appropriate for 2012, even taking a dark but good-natured shot at Ford.

Bud Light Here We Go.  Need to train Moch to fetch the beer!

Volkswagen Fat Dog.  Cute and creative.

Hyundai Think Fast.  Pretty funny and actually features the product.

I’m on the fence about Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler ad.  I really liked their’s last year, and I really like the “Halftime in America” metaphor, but I’m not sure if Chrysler is the best messenger. I think their bailout is still fresh in everyone’s mind, and makes the bootstrapping/innovative/optimistic/self-reliant message of this ad seem hypocritical.  What do you think?

Ferris Bueller in a CRV didn’t do it for me.  Nor did Seinfeld, Uncle Jesse, the Coca-Cola bears, or even my usual fave the E*Trade baby.  But these were some of the worst:

Cars.com Confident You.  Good idea, not well-executed.

Pepsi King’s Court. Meh. Does Elton John need money?

-Nick

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Everyone’s favorite pink charity is at it again this week.

In the past, they’ve been known to sue other breast cancer charities for unknowingly infringing on their trademark.

Because they’re the only ones allowed to be working “for a cure”.

This week they cut off funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood, giving the BS reason that the organization is under federal investigation.

Come on, at least be honest.  The conservative Christian lobby is really powerful.  You’re certainly not the first group to cave, and you certainly won’t be the last.

After all, abortions make up well over 90% of what they do, right?

But for the Komen foundation, the backlash has been quick and cold.

For an organization whose words spell an outward and very public goal of ending breast cancer, their actions say something else.

Obviously it’s their money and they can allocate it how they see fit.

But I’d like to see a charity that stands for its cause in the face of whatever political pressures come along.  I’d like to see a charity whose mission transcends politics.

The fight to end breast cancer is a goal I think everyone can get behind.  It’s bigger than politics, or at least it should be.  It isn’t a Democrat / Republican thing.

That is, until you made it one.

-Nick

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Author Kevin Cameron Smith shares his financial wisdom is easy-to-digest chunks.  He starts out by addressing the goals of various economic classes:

• • • The poor seek to survive.
    • The middle class seek comfort.
    • The rich seek freedom.

It’s not a how-to book or a get-rich-quick manual.  Success is a journey, the author explains.

And since you probably don’t want to read the book, here are the 10 Distinctions.  How many of these apply to you?

1. Millionaires Think Long-Term.  The poor think day to day or week to week.  The middle class think month to month.  The rich think year to year or even decade to decade.
2. Millionaires Think Ideas.  The poor and middle class are consumed by things and other people.
3. Millionaires Embrace Change.  The poor and middle class are threatened by change.
4. Millionaires Take Calculated Risks.  When evaluating an opportunity, ask yourself three questions.  What’s the best thing that could happen?  What’s the worst thing that could happen?  What’s the most likely thing to happen?  If you can live with the worst thing, and the most likely thing if positive, maybe it’s a risk worth taking.
5. Millionaires Continue Learning.  School may end, but education never stops.
6. Millionaires Work for Profits.  The poor and middle class work for wages, while someone else profits.
7. Millionaires are Generous.  See The Go-Giver.
8. Millionaires Develop Multiple Income Streams.  The poor and middle class rely on just one or two, and they’re usually trading hours for dollars.
9. Millionaires Think Net Worth.  The poor and middle class think paychecks.
10. Millionaires Ask Empowering Questions.  Think “How can I realistically double my income?” vs. “How can I get a raise at work?”  ”What would make my life more meaningful?” vs. “What is the meaning of life?”

-Nick

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Did You Know?

Author JK Rowling has compared Voldemort to Hitler, and the Wall Street Journal has drawn parallels between Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

-Nick

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photo credit Jill Fredrickson

What’s it all about?

In 1941, Port Orford, Oregon Mayor Gilbert Gable launched a semi-serious — but mostly symbolic — secession movement involving the counties of southern Oregon and northern California.

Frustrated residents felt like their voices and their issues weren’t being heard in the state Capitols of Salem and Sacramento.  The main beef was over state-maintained roads, namely how their lack of improvement and maintenance was hurting the local economies.

The new state would be called Jefferson, after President Thomas Jefferson.  In late November, 1941, armed citizens in “patriotic rebellion” distributed informational Proclamations of Independence to passing motorists.  The pamphlet explained their intention to secede “every Thursday until further notice.”

Days later, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the fledgling movement took a back seat to the war.

Today

Seventy years later, how much has really changed?  Like everyone else, would-be Jefferson residents are still disenchanted with their state governments.

Jefferson gives the sparsely populated area a sense of community.  They’re not quite Californians and not quite Oregonians, but maybe something different entirely.  Something independent.

Jefferson is a state of mind.  It’s a beautiful territory.  With Mt. Shasta and the Siskiyous and kind of this high plateau in between, it’s the most picturesque part of our annual journey.

Did You Know?

Two bears led a torchlight parade through Yreka in 1941.  They’re names?

Itchy and Scratchy.  Not even making that up.

“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing…” –TJ

-Nick

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“The Tea Party: People who believe in Social Darwinism, but don’t believe in Darwin.”

-Nick

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-Nick

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I explained to the customer service rep that our house was “severely underwater”, and that I wanted to find out what my options were.

She asked if I’d filed a Damage/Loss of Value claim.

I replied no, and asked what that was.

Turns out, she thought “underwater” meant we were suffering from flood damage.

If only.

-Nick

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It’s not that it wasn’t interesting or insightful.  It was both.  But it was also 400 pages of dense academic prose and it wasn’t really working out for me as bedtime reading before it came due at the library.

Wright argues that over time, human society trends toward more complexity and more interdependence.  As our collective brain expands, life for everyone improves.  We play nonzero sum games, over and over and over again, and everyone is better off because of it.

The logic makes sense.  If you depend on your neighbor for meat and he depends on you for grain, you’re less likely to attack each other.  Fast forward a few thousand years, if we depend on China for iPhones and they depend on us for jobs, we’re less likely to attack each other.

Wright’s LONG term, BIG picture view makes the petty discourse that dominates our politics seem silly.

Are we on a predestined path to global peace and prosperity?  I don’t know… I didn’t make it to the end.

-Nick

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