Archive for May, 2008
With the divorce rates so high now a days, so many men have to deal with their ex-wives. I know, women have to deal with their ex-husdand too. But since I am a man, I will speak of the ex-wives here, which I have myself. First and foremost, most often, the Mom has the custody of the children. So they have all the responsibilty of raising the children, which is a whole lot more then simply feeding and clothing them. They are the ones picking them up at the end of the day, encourage them if they are down, dicipline them when they are misbehaving, have to help and make sure they complete their homework and school projects, even taking and picking them up from their sporting events (if any). Being a single Mother is by far the hardest job in the world. As a Dad, we easily jump into being the “fun” parent. By only having the kids on the weekend, most Dad’s (inclduing myself at times) would rather play with their kids, then using up valuable weekend time finishing homework, helping the kid’s keep up with the reading skills (by reading of course), etc. It is easier and more fun to simply fool around all weekend and make sure your kids have a blast when they are with you.
But are you really helping your kids in the long run? Maybe not. That is why I have committed to my ex-wife that I will help raise our children, even if it is only on the weekends. I want and need to get involved with the kids school work and all other aspects of raisng children. Children from even the best single mom’s need their Father involved. I appreciate my ex-wife’s efforts and sacrafices on raising my kids and that is the reason I have committed myslef on doing the same. A good relationship with my ex, will only benefit my children in the long run.
Wow, I just saw a picture of this spider. Apparently it is not dangerous to humans, but I’d stay the hell out of its way.
Has anyone read about a company in St. Augustine selling a Ghost in a bottle? Apparently, this company has partnered with actual “ghostbusters” and sell these bottles for $20 each. I mean who would buy these bottles? Do they really have a ghost in them? If anyone has purchased one, please let me know your thoughts.
Bill Parcels became Vice President of Football Operations for the Miami Dolphins in December of 2007. He immediately started causing a stir with the veterans on the team. Especially with arguably their best player, Pro Bowler Defensive End Jason Taylor. Apparently Jason was upset that Bill has yet to sit down and talk to him, even felt ignored when he ran into him in a video room. It’s amazing how established veterans of a football team react with Bill Parcels’ lack of awe/respect of them. Bill has always treated all players the same until they have proven their play to him. Veterans usually feel their play in the past is proof enough for their respect, but not for Parcels. He needs to see them perform, before he gives them respect. Jason has since missed all voluntary Team workouts, instead decided to participate in the “Dancing with the Stars” reality show, missed last week’s OTS (Organized Team Activities), and Coach Tony Sparano (1st year coach) has even stated that Jason will be missing minicamp and training camp. It appears Jason is trying to force a trade, but the leverage is on Parcels’ side. Jason is due a salary of $7.5 million for 2008. If he does miss training camp, he can be fined for each practice missed. Who knows how this will turn out, obviously, the Dolphins are a better team with Taylor, but a lot needs to be done before this issue is resolved. We’ll see how this pans out.
I recall the old Nintendo games such as Mario Bro’s, Donkey Kong & Zelda, which I really enjoyed. But this Wii has actually changed the gaming industry. You are no longer using joy sticks or controllers, but more a device that that allows you to create an avatar (called Mii) for yourself and it’s movements are controlled with a wireless controller called the Wii remote. This allows Nintendo to target a broader demographic, which include females and adults, who normally do not play video games. It also forces users to get off the couch to play games such as tennis and bowling, which is very different from the gaming world of sitting on the couch or chair for hours.
Ever since the release of Nintendo Wii about 1-1/2 years ago, it seems to have become more and more popular. The latest is this Wii Fit system. It comes with a Wii Balance board (10-lbs) that users stand on. By shifting their weight on this console, they control the in-game characters. This Balance Board can determine your Body Mass Index (BMI) with reasonable accuracy. It also labels your health as “underweight”, “ideal” and “fat”, although not sure how kids/women will react being labeled “fat”. The main point is that Nintendo is trying to put daily activity into their games. The next game I hear will be Wii Music. Which will try to allow the users to create their music, unlike the Guitar Hero game that allows users to copy a list of games that are already in the system. Boy has the gaming world changed since I was playing them. Now I will have to relearn them while playing with my kids.
They call him a YouTube Legend, owner of over 100 clips on YouTube and of those, 19 have already been viewed over a million times. If you haven’t seen any of these, you at least need to see a few to understand all the hype. Kimbo, real name Kevin Ferguson, is about to fight a professional Mixed Martial Arts fight on CBS, it’s debute of showing MMA fights, on May 31st. It will only be his 4th professional MMA fight and will be paid 6-figures for the fight. How can that be? He hasn’t proven anything, hasn’t fought anyone! This must irk the elite fighters of MMA. Many have lashed out on him too. Claiming he would get badly hurt if he fights anyone with some skills. No one has lasted beyond a minute with him so far. But it will take an elite MMA fighter to take him down and see what Kimbo is made of on the floor. It’s one thing to throw and take punches, it is a whole different game on the floor avoiding submissions and elbows. As an MMA fan, I will see his fight on May 31st (CBS), knowing it will not last long against James “The Colusses” Thompson (6′5″, 270-lbr), who is considered a crazy fighter with a glass chin. I know CBS did this on purpose to elevate Kimbo’s popularity even more. But I can’t wait until he fights someone with some serious MMA skills. That will prove Kimbo’s YouTube Legendary status or his Over-Hypeness.
I have been working in most likely the highest level of customer service for over 12 years now. When I am out shopping, I have no tolerance for bad customer service. So when I read about Zappos’ high attention to premium customer service, I commend them. They have changed the mentality of treating customer service as a “cost center” and recognizing it as a means to building loyal customers. The most impressive tactic they are using is paying employees $1,000 to quit, after a month of employement, if they do not like their job. Wow, very impressive. I mean, in my business, CS is so valuable to retaining customers that it is extremely important to have employees who want to work there and do a good job. Plus after a while, it is very difficult terminating an employee now a days. So the $1,000 incentive maybe the way to go to get rid of the employees that will not excel in CS at an early stage.
1 Comment 