NFL mecca in South Beach

With the NFL Super Bowl to take place this Sunday, I have found myself in Miami the past 2 days at an industry conference. Below are the run-ins of football celebrities that I've spotted (but quite frankly - only approached one or two).

On the plane ride down -- Mike "Greeney" Greenberg from Mike and Mike in the morning. (He seemed a lot taller than I would have figured. I had him pegged at 5'7 - but he appeared over 6 feet)

Last night, we dined in the same restaurant as Edgerrin James. (Note - it was dark - but I'd like to state for the record that my step-mom told me she thought he was good looking). Cue picture of Mr. Edgerrin James...

I also saw Michael Irvin walking on the street yesterday.

Now onto what seemed to be a football telecaster orgy.... I dined at one of my favorite restaurants in the world tonight -- Joe's Stone Crab. Anyhow - here is the all-star case of who sat within 10 feet of me (literally). Although they didn't sit at the same table. It was broken into ESPN and HBO Sports tables...

- Chris Berman (wearing the most wrinkled khaki pants I've ever seen)
- Tom Jackson (he was big)
- Dan Marino (most popular guy in the place)
- Chris Collinsworth (walked with a pretty noticeable limp - but it planning on golfing tomorrow)
- Chris Carter (seemed to be the most friendly and smiling of the bunch)
- Peter King (In my Felch voice - "oh dear friend ... did you read MMQB?")
- Hank Goldberg (now HE walked with a horrible limp. He must have been mourning Barbaro's passing)
- Fat Joe (Random - I know - but no joke - Dan Marino gave him the biggest smile and hug that he gave anyone else in the place)

As much as I love the NFL and as much as I watch these guys on a regular basis - I truly didn't have the desire to approach them. Beyond empathizing with their desire to eat in peace - I just didn't have anything that important or memorable to say to any of them. Saying something just to tell people that I said something seems like amateur hour to me. So instead of saying anything to them .... I just came home and blogged about it. ;)

Enron and Gift Cards

I know I'm not alone as a Malcolm Gladwell fan. He's one of my favorite thought-provoking journalists and author of The Tipping Point and Blink. Although he was quite late to the game - I've been happy that he occassional blogs....

I subscribe to his RSS Feed - which turned me on to his article in this months New Yorker about the Enron case. He goes off on some tangents - especially at the end - but I thought what was at the heart of his message was interesting. In short (and I'm really para-phrasing), what the Enron dumb-asses did was wrong, unethical, and hurtful without question - however - the legality of their charges were a bit in the grey area. The Enron business model was one set on futures - which created an enormous unclarity around actual real-time revenue status. Once a few journalists from the Wall Street Journal started picking up on this -- the shit storm started. Before the shit-storm started, however, there were signs that the business model was sketch, but no one picked up on it....

Anyway - when I was reading this - I thought about an industry I'm familar with which is Retail. The whole "futures" market got me thinking about how Retailers treat gift cards.

U.S. shoppers bought gift cards in grocery stores, department stores, online stores and just about every other store and shopping center this holiday season, spending a record $27.8 billion on the plastic presents, according to the National Retail Federation.

By mid-January, though, their recipients had redeemed fewer than half - 37.3 percent.

So here's my question - How do retailers account for this?? Do we have potential accounting contraversy around retailers in years to come as gift cards become more popular??

Happy Birthday Syd!

I wanted to wish my neice, Syd Stern, a very Happy First Birthday. Of course she doesn't know it means - but - it still gives me an opportunity to show the world how cute she is.

Nick Satan

A lot of people have asked me this week how I feel about Nick Saban leaving the Dolphins. Rather than go off on a tangent - I'll direct you to Dan Le Batards piece - which pretty much represents exactly how I feel.

In terms of who I hope replaces the guy .... I'm leaning toward Jim Mora Jr. right now. To be honest, though, I fully expecting the Dolphins to hire Mike Shula or something like that...

How I saved $5000

The headline sounds pretty interesting - right? Well, in reality, I just wanted to share the fact that I figured out how much money I've saved from cutting my own hair.

With the upcoming wedding, Amy and I agreed that it probably makes sense to have someone other than her or myself cut my hair for the special event. On referral from JP (who shares my stylish hairstyle), I went to a barber yesterday for the first time in 11 years for a wedding "trial run."

The cost:
$10 for the haircut
$5 for the Goatee trim
$3 tip

I figured out - that I roughly have either had friends of mine shave my head or have shaved it myself for the past 11 years. I need to cut the nappiness about once every other week (26 times a year). So, $18 every other week is $468 per year. For 11 years - that's amassed to $5,148.

Over the 11 years, I've probably invested about $30 in maybe 5 sets of clippers...which nets my gross savings at $5,000.

If you know me - than you know I'm the type of person who is pretty proud of this fact. It's not about the $5,000. It's about "beating the system." If I truly felt that the value I recieved from the $18 a week was worth it -- I'd have no problem spending it. I can afford teh $36 per month. This being said, to date, I've been very content with the outcome of cutting my own hair - plus have the luxury of doing this without leaving my home!

I'll have to see how I feel in a few weeks. Perhaps I'll go to the barber more often in the future.

Blog Tag

Ever hear of a "Dog living in a doggy-dog world? Well I happen to be a "Nerd working in a nerdy-nerd industry." (and proud of it!)

Earlier this week - I got "blog tagged" by an industry collegue, Alan Rimm-Kaufman. Before getting "tagged" I had no idea this nerdy game ever existed. I'm 100% confident than no readers of mine no what it is either - so here's a quick run-down:

A blogger from the UK some months ago wanted to take advantage of the power of blog communities to try and help promote and increase exposure of such communities. You see - the more people who link to a website, the more popular the blog is assumed, and hence, the better the search engine listing. Various search engines - including my employer - have strict rules against "link farms" (sites that offer no value other than link exchanges - "I'll link to you if you link to me") to try and guard against manipulators of the system.

With this in mind, the UK blogger began the game of blog tag. In theory, this is a way to promote blogging (and bloggers) with staying "search engine legal."

How does blog tag work? Well - from my understanding - since I've been tagged, I've got to blog about "5 little known facts about myself" in addition to "tagging" 5 other bloggers. So .. here's my best shot.

5 little known facts about Brett:

• I've cut my own hair for the past 11 years (more on this in my next post...stay tuned)
• I've had contact lenses since I was 5 years old. I was told back then that it was an "experiment" (additional related fact is that my vision isn't laser-correctable)
• I'm a 4th Generation American and currently the last remaining "Goffin" male
• My childhood favorite hobby was jigsaw puzzles. (Yes - I'm a little annoyed that I didn't get into computer programming - apparently those 2 are connected)
• I pride myself as the best Fantasy Football commissioner on the planet.

Now on to who I "tag." Let's just say that I don't have much hope that my "tagg-ees" will participate in the exercise (in no particular order):

• Adam Brown - college buddy and mortgage banking guru. Recently began blogging.
• Adam Glantz - Written articles and have always tried to help motivate to become a consistant blogger... Oh - what "Thursday Thoughts" could have been....
• Colediggys Corner - Hard to believe that just a few years ago - his blog was being sent around like wildfire among many 20- and 30- something males. Sad to say that he truly hasn't kept up with his craft
• Guy Hollerin - An overly sarcastic, fairly unstable blog that I find entertaining if I'm in the giddy mood

Straightening up.... For the Cleaning lady

For as long as I can remember, I've almost always been fortunate enough to have someone come on a regular basis to clean my house. This person has always been a woman - and was commonly known as "the cleaning lady." More recently, I suppose in our more "polically correct" society, these people are known by their first names like my last one "Patsy" or our current one "Pamela."

Anyhow, growing up, the following statement would drive me INSANE: "Brett, straighten up your room...the cleaning lady is coming today." WHAT!? That's like saying, "Brett - make sure you take a nap before you get ready for bed" Isn't the whole point of hiring someone to clean so that I wouldn't be burdoned with the task? Should you clean before they get there - wouln't you be doing their job for them?

Now, I'm not saying I should go out of my way to make my apartment unbearably messy. This would clearly cause one of the following:

1. A "high-turn-over rate" of employees
2. Someone who will feel underpaid, be resentfull and thus figure out where I hide my "emergency cash" and take consistant withdrawals.

This being said - I geniunely believe there is nothing wrong with not taking the garbage out, not emptying the dishwasher (Amy's favorite), or not puting the towels and sheets in the hamper. Employment is called a "job" for a reason. If you tell a bellman at a hotel that you would like to carry your own bags - do you tip them anyway? No! (and if you do - you clearly need some lessons on how to spend money).

I wouldn't call myself a slob or a neat-freak....I'm somewhere in between. Although I was much worse as a child, I've learned how to generally pick-up after myself and can appreciate the satisfaction of a clean apartment (especially in the ridiculously small apartment spaces of Manhattan). I believe that as long as I don't go out of my way to make my apartment the toughest job they have -- that it's ok to not "clean up for the cleaning lady."

Am I alone here?

Best SNL skit in years

Amy and I have often discussed how disappointed we are with the writing of Saturday Night Live. As she has been watching the show since she was a little girl, Amy has always DVR'd the show - primarily as an old habbit. This sesason, I think it's fair to say that we fast-forwarded through 90% of the skits, enjoying maybe 1 or 2.

This past weekend, though, a true gem was discovered. Much respect to Justin Timberlake who brought a much needed quality performance to a struggling SNL season. He was in 90% of the skits - most of them were funny - and this one below is absolutely PHENOMONAL.

Ladies and Gentlemen...thanks to the power of YouTube... I bring you the world-wide Holiday Season Instant-Classic soundtrack: Dick in a Box

Who's hot right now?

For Amy's shower, I was asked to answer a handful of questions on a video that Amy would try and guess my response. One of the questions was what celebrities would I have on a "kiss list" (not my terminology). Well, when it was time for me to answer, I was a bit tongue-tied. Not because I don't think any celebrities are hot -- but moreso because I didn't know the actresses real names. Given the fact that I'm not 15, and shouldn't be obsessed with things like this -- I got over it pretty quickly, but I was intrigued to find out the real names of 2 ladies in particular.


The first is "Lyla Garrity" or in real life (um, according to Hollywood): Minka Kelly. Minka plays Lyla Garrity on NBC's Show Friday night lights. When I used IMDb to find her real name, I was happy to learn that she's 26 years old in real life and not 16 like she plays on the show. (I'd be a little woried if I thought a real-life 17 year-old was hot)

Anyway, I truly believe that Lyla, I mean Minka, is the next "Buffy" or "Felicity" type character who's cute enough to get her own show in a teen-oriented environment. To date, Friday Night Lights is her biggest success, having minor roles in a handful of shows beforehand.

The second "no-real-name" hottie is Emmanuelle Chriqui, or as I knew her "Sloan from Entourage." I actually thought she was a little too hot to be casted as "E's" girlfriend. I love "E's" character on the show - and I'm glad he gets the hot girl - but I think she is hotter than any of the girls that "Vince" (the mega movie star) has gotten on the show. Maybe that's how Hollywood really is -- who knows. Anyway, Emmanuelle is from Canada and is 29 years old. She's been in a bunch of minor roles (including a few episodes of the O.C.) and according to IMBd has 3 or 4 projects coming out next year.

(In addition to these 2 ladies --- Jessica Alba was also in the Top 3... but given that everyone knows who Jessica Alba is - I decided to focus the other 2)

So - that's it. This blog post represents who I thought was hot in 2006. The fact that this blog documents a point of time is both scary and cool. I wonder if I'll still think they're hot in 10 years...

NYC - Open 24 Hours

When I lived in my last apartment, I loved to tell people that on the three corners other than the one my apartment building was on, there was:

1. A 24 Hour Bakery/Deli
2. A 24 Hour Drug Store
3. A 24 Hour Grocery Store

I mean - if I ever needed ANYTHING at 2 AM - I was covered. New York Fuckin City!

On that note - I wanted to pass along something I just found out yesterday. In this City (the one that never sleeps), there is a 24 Hour Post Office. That's right! The USPS - the public-facing business with the most obscure and non-standard hours (each office is different) - actually has a location that is open 24 hours! I don't know any other cities that have such a luxury - but would be interested in hearing of any.

The location is on 8th Ave between 31st and 32nd Street - right across the street from Madison Square Garden - and is actually the "main Post Office" in NYC. It looks like a library inside - which is kinda freaky (and straight out of an old movie), but to go at 9PM - and not have to wait on long, stressful lines -- was an absolute pleasure.

Yahoo's Peanut Butter Manifesto

Last week, a SVP over at Yahoo wrote an internal memo to the company outlining current organization flaws and his broad-based solution. He compared the company initatives to Peanut Butter, being spread too thin. Thus, the memo being leaked to the public (via the internet), has been coined "The Peanut Butter Manifesto."

What I find interesting (beyond the memo itself) is the concept of how it is virtually impossible these days to keep such broad, company-wide messages in-house. I don't think it's a good or bad thing, frankly .... Just different.

I work for a similar type of organization - and have noticed that any "company-wide" messages (although fully plastered with "INTERNAL ONLY" messaging) are completely written to be expected to be posted on a blog somewhere.

Is this a new type of investor-relation strategy? Is there any other option other than for a company to embrace it? I don't think so...

Yes - Companies need to do their part by keeping employees loyal and putting fear in every employees mind regarding releasing such information. But beyond strong policies and high security within email -- I'm not sure what else a company can do.

Regarding the memo itself -- I actually thought it was good. I felt the SVPs passion in it - and it wasn't just complaining - it offered a plan and a solution.

I guess in today's world, the lesson is that whatever you produce/put your name on - you should go into it making sure that you are comfortable with having your name attached to it.

This blog is a perfect example. I know that maybe 15 of my friends and family are the core audience, but there are times when people outside of that are the audience. When I speak at events and people want to see what I'm about, or one day if I'm ever interviewing for a job .... People will Google my name and associate the content on this blog to my peronsal brand.

And the bottom-line... I know that going into it - so I'm comfortable with it. It's just the world we live in now and it's only going to get more transparent...

Michigan and the BCS

I've had this conversation with a handful of folks, so I thought I'd write a little bit about it on my blog.

I'll start by saying I've always been in favor of a NCAA Football play-off - even if it was for 6 teams. Every year there is an issue with the current system - and nothing is ever done about it. My buddy, Salis, had a good point yesterday (which is rare) ;) ... He said, if you ran a business and there were problems with the same operational function of your business every year - that you'd be forced to change that system - even if it meant a short-term decrease in profit.... But ... seems as if the Bowl Championship committee's doesn't have to play by normal rules. They seem to believe that controversy is good - because it promotes the series (which is such BS!)

This year - the lack of clarity continues around the "right" match-up of #1 vs. #2.

Being a Michigan fan - I clearly believe that Michigan should be playing on Jan 8th against Ohio State. I think Michigan has demonstrated it's talent, success, and it's claim to represent one-loss teams against Ohio State. I've watched about 5 or 6 of Florida's games this year - and I truly think they are not a good football team. I actually believe that LSU is the best team in the SEC this season -- they just happened to play all their toughest opponents on the road... USC isn't a good football team either.

Anyway - that's my opinion - and it means nothing in the grand scheme of things...

This being said, I've been very surprised at how I've felt the past few weeks about going to the National Championship game... Of course, I really wanted Michigan to play in the game -- but there was something missing. If Michigan played against OSU in the Fiesta Bowl and won -- I'd be very happy -- but not 100% satisfied. After losing to Ohio State - it was like even a National Championship would not have made the season a complete success. Yes - playing on the road is a disadvantage and we only lost by 3 points ... but that still doesn't erase the fact that we lost to Ohio State.

Many of my fellow Michigan fans don't agree with this feeling - and that's cool. I understand the ability for "revenge" on a neutral field, but not sure that alone would make the season whole to me.

If anything, though, I'm hopeful that Michigans impact on yet another totally botched BCS system -- helps pave the way for a better NCAA play-off system in the near future.

Go Blue!

Doctors - MBA or Med School?

I've been meaning to write this post for some time now, and after 6 hours in doctor's offices yesterday, I'm now motivated to actually write it. (I realize now that this post is on the longer side. Feel free to print out and read on the subway)

First - My day yesterday.
This weekend I noticed that my vision was a little off (yes - i have horrible vision generally speaking - but it was even worse than usual). I was traveling for work this week, so I called to make an eye doctor's appointment when I got back. I don't have a regular eye doctor - but more on this later. So after filling out paperwork for 15 minutes, then going through the initial set-up with the non-doctors (nurses i suppose) - I waited some more before seeing the actual doctor. I then took part of some annoying tests that involved big beams of light directed into my eye - with instructions to keep my eyes open. Tons of fun. After that came diagnosis #1. After more questions/answers - I took part of more tests. Hmmm ... Diagnosis #1 isn't it ... I think it's diagnosis #2. Let's take more tests ... Hmm ... it resembles diagnosis #2 - but I'm not really sure - let's send you to a specialist.... "Can it wait till next week? NO - you have to go today - it could be serious..." (In the spirit of not wanting to screw with my eye-sight, I obviously followed orders to a tee)

Retinal specialist was downtown. I had a 1:30 appointment. After filling out forms, waiting to be called, going through the almost identical pre-testing, and then waiting 45 minutes for the actual specialist -- let's just say I'm not overly bubbly.

The Doctor was actually a nice, personable guy. He explained as best he could what the charts indicated that it was a common case of Central Serous Retinopathy. Yea - I'm sure you all know what that is so I'll move on... (Feel free also to click on that link to find out more) Long story short - I took another 20 minutes of PAINFUL tests to ensure that's what it was. Unfortuantely - inconclusive...but it still smelt like it... So - what's to come of it? Nothing! I have to wait 4 weeks to see if it improves on its own. No treatment for now. Just waiting. My entire day spent to find this out... (Don't want to complain - it was just frustrating)

Anyway ... now on to Chapter 2: Doctors are merely used car salesman with some expensive schooling.
That's right - I said it. 99% of doctors I interact with as a patient are money-hungry low-lives. I have NEVER EVER heard the words "you don't need that" from a doctor in his/her office. Something is always "precautionary" or "good to make sure." And don't get my wrong - I'm always buying. No one wants to cheap-out on their health.

What really irritates me is seeing that actual profiting right before my eyes. Example - do you ever look at the statements your insurance company sends you? The pricetag doctors put on the smallest things are crazy! X-Rays $1000 (that's like $1MM/hour type revenue)... $300 for their personal "Examination" of you - which was about 30 seconds of them looking at your chart.
At the doctor office yesterday they tried charging my $300 for contact lenses that I hadn't even purchased yet!! (and by the way - i can buy my contacts online for HALF that price!!) The effect this has on me is really annoying. I find myself overly sensitive what doctors are doing to me..."Why are you doing that?" "Do I need this test?" "Is it covered by insurance?"

Maybe this is New York City specific - where the 8MM people are enough volume for doctors not to need recurring patients. They know that if you don't come back - someone else will be there.

What I hope for one day - is that I have doctors that I trust and that over time would want to know my family and I personally. I love the Hollywood concept of their being a small-town doctor who knows everyone. Someone who puts my health and well-being ahead of profit. Someone who is honest - gives customers (patients) all relevant information and then a choice.

Please don't get me wrong - I definitely think that doctors should certainly make a decent living - but I hate to see them treat patients as the sucker gravy train.

EDITORS NOTE: Upon further discussion with Felch (who happens to date a doctor), I must conceed that almost all of the doctors I have gone to come from the insurance programs web sites. Perhaps if I got doctors by referral -- my experiences would be better.

Guest Blogger - Amy Taykan (The Future Mrs. Goffin)

Whoever “APPROVES THIS MESSAGE” Should Be Ashamed

I admit I may not be someone involved in the political landscape in a regular basis nor am I one who stays up on all of the issues, but if you have turned on the TV in the past few weeks you can not help but be involved. Mid-term elections are next week and this vote is crucial for the Democrats and Republicans as to who will have control in Washington. Politicians should be in government for the people and to help right what they may feel is wrong to better our country, instead the elections have turned into a mud-slinging advertising war. I am embarrassed that the people who represent us as citizens have sunk so low in the messages they are paying to communicate. The Today Show is even conducting a poll to vote for the funniest and dumbest political ads. I think that says it all. When we vote on the ads before the election why don’t we just turn politics into a weekly reality show where every week another candidate gets eliminated based on America’s votes?

Ad Age reported that about $2 Billion is being spent on these political ads, up almost 18% from 2004. This is a lot of money to talk about one’s opponent and calling them liars, thieves or one ad where a candidate was accused of not returning someone’s phone call. When did we decide to stop focusing on what a candidate can do to make this country better and only spend money to communicate the negatives of their opponent? All of us would be much better served to hear what each candidate stands for on their own instead of trashing their opponent. Way back in my political days (High School) could you imagine a banner that read, “Don’t Vote For “Her” For Senior Class VP – she slept with 4 Football players - and 2 at 1 time -- Amy approves this message.” (Editor's Edit) I think I would have been laughed out of the election. That is how I feel about the current candidates. I can barely tell who is trying to get elected until the final part of the ad says, “I approved this message.” What the heck is this? If you were the one in the ad conveying your platform then you wouldn’t need to approve this negative message.

I hope by the time the 2008 Presidential Election rolls around that politicians can stop acting like children fighting in the school yard and focus on the people of the United States.

Blog Insight

Maintaining a blog is a hobby of mine. It allows me to express my thoughts on any topic I chose in a public forum, although, fully knowing that 90% of thus "public" are friends and family.

The other 10% are randoms... Usually stumbling upon my blog because they Googled a topic that I've written about. An example - in Septemeber I wrote about "Answer Tones" and received 50 visitors from that post...(I was on the first results page then - but now on the 3rd page when you google that term)

The way I know this is because I use an analytics program. It tells me things like how many visitors I get, where they come from, etc.

Anyway, some pretty funny/interesting insight I discovered last week...

My buddy Jared Margulies started a new job about 3 weeks ago. I have twice included his name (now 3 times) in posts. In looking at the blog analytics data - over the last 3 weeks - over 15 visitors came to my blog by Googling his name. I instantly emailed Jared and said - "Hey - looks like people at your new company are checking you out.." (Sorry ladies - if you clicked on my blog, you most likely found the post on his wedding weekend)

Just thought this was interesting ... oh ... and if you've found this post by Googling Jared's name.... you're busted! (well - not really - cuz I have no idea who you are - just how many of you there are)

Iron Man

No - this isn't my upcoming Halloween Costume... It's what our good friend Bryan Spellberg can now be characterized as.

Bryan, (as many of you will come to know as the "Bridesman" in the next few months) is crazy dedicated to fitness training. And by crazy dedicated - I'm talking about carving out time in between work and fatherhood to voluntarily put his body through daily over-drive. The guy does more exercise in his Monday morning warm-up, then I do in a month!

For those that don't know, an Iron Man competition is pretty much the end-all, be-all for "fitness freaks" like Bryan. It's a tri-athlon of freakish distances. Bryan conquered the Iron Man in Northern Florida this past Saturday. (Of important note - If you watched Donovan McNabb puke during the Tampa Bay game on Sunday due to the heat - That is where Bryan did this thing - near Tampa!!) In case you are unaware of what's involved in this event - here's how it goes (obviously as told to me by others). Start of the day (and seeing the sun-rise) by swimming 2.4 miles! 2.4 miles doesn't seem like a lot - but it's 155 laps in an Olympic style pool. (I do 2 laps and I'm huffing and puffin!!)

After you do this beyond difficult swim in the ocean or lake (and not in an easy, tame pool) - you race to your bike and pedal 112 miles! For a frame of reference - the distance from New York City to Philadelphia, PA is about 100 miles... that's a 2 hour car ride - plus 20 more miles!!

So after that.... you do something that people train YEARS for. You run a marathon. 26.2 miles! You run watching the sun set, reminding yourself of how you started the day by watching the sun rise. The sun rise and sun set reference were provided by Shelby, Bryan's wife, who was obviously there with him - and keeping Amy and I up-to-date on his progress. I thought it was crazy to think about how it would feel to spend the entire day torturing your body - and having the good ol fashion sun reminding you of that as your trying to finish.

Bryan is amazing and has surrounded himself with solely positive-minded people. In the few years that I've known him (and Amy can confirm this was the case pre-BG), his family has always been his number one fan. In fact - The Sun-Sentinel (leading South Florida newspaper) picked up on this and did a full page story yesterday on how his sister, Michelle, was going to run the marathon portion with him. It was her first ever marathon - so congrats Michelle!
Here is the interview of them two, although the large color photo of them is not online. (oh - and it's Spellberg - and not Speelberg).

So, Bryan is a loyal Blog reader - and I'm hoping after he spends the week in pools of ice and hot tubs - he'll answer some questions I have in the comments section:
1) What were your times in each event?
2) What do you do about going to the bathroom?
3) Is the Iron Man something you can now cross off the list - or are you hungry for more?

In closing, Bryan, Amy and I are beyond proud of you. We are wishing you a painless recovery. Congrats on kicking the crap out of the Iron Man!

More Rational Exuberance? NO!

I’ve read several articles and had a lot of conversations with folks over the past week about the Google-YouTube merger. As many of you know – I certainly drink the kool-aid of my current employer – so please take this into consideration when reading this…

The large dollar amounts that are being used to purchase companies that are only modestly revenue generating – has spurned some people to ask the question – “is it happening again”? Is there another “bubble” we are about to create that is bound to burst?

Putting the YouTube purchase pricetag on hold for a moment – I am very sensitive of the aura of the “dot-com bust.” The industry I have worked in for about 8 years now has had it’s ups and downs … but certainly much more impact on the perception of the industry during the “down” portion. Getting recognition amongst (most importantly) traditional advertisers has taken time. It was so easy for an old school marketer to shrug off the concept of changing his/her marketing strategy due to the very public image issue.

So when so-called respected journalists write things that insinuate that it’s round 2 of the “Dot-Bomb era” – I get annoyed.

So what is different now? It’s very simple. Monetization exists and is understood. Sure, there is definitely a lot of “future potential” still baked into the equation – but in what business venture is vision non-existent?

In earlier years (1999/2000) the reason why the “Dot-Com bust’ happened was because the people spending the money (Wall Street) treated it like a wave …People in the board rooms didn’t understand the realistic aspect of internet advertising.

Fast forward 7 years - and it's a different story. Although the industry still has leaps to grow and evolve, it (in large part to Google and other monetization engines) has figured out a model on how to monetize eyeballs and content.

So - more on this as it matures - but please don't think Google buying YouTube for $1.65 Billion is a sign that the internet marketing industry is about to take two steps backwards. I think that after testing and learning - it will actually lead to some big steps forward in Ad Formats... Stay tuned.

Getting around NYC during the day

For the most part, Google makes it so I don't have to leave the NY office very often. They feed me 3 meals if I want and they offer the latest technology available so I can communicate with customers and co-workers.

There are times, though, when I find myself traveling through New York City during the day on a weekday. On these days, punctuality usually means more than on the weekends. Whether I'm traveling to a doctor's appointment, client meeting, or running errands -- time is always "of the essence."

Since our offices moved downtown -- I've found it much more difficult to efficiently travel during the day. This is because the only Subway stop that is near my office is the Blue line (A,C,E). When we were in Times Square - there was a plethora of options.

Anyhow - the Subway is the ONLY way to navigate the city during a work-day with any kind of sanity. Cabs, although often times viewed as "easier", are not at these times. The traffic going in almost any direction is horrific. So not only do you spend 6 times more to take a cab - but you're almost guaranteed to be late. And yes - that is bad - but I think the worst part about all this is the stress. Nothing compares to the frustration of sitting in the back of a taxi and the only thing you see in front of you is car gridlock -- and the only things you hear are cars honking loudly and your driver talking in another language on his cell phone.

And to top it all off -- the extremely long 30 minutes ride (that could be maybe 2 miles), seems like an hour.

When you take the subway - you may have to exert more energy and it may not take you that much of a difference in time -- but it is such less stress. The cars are typically not too crowded and there is usually not train traffic either.

So in conclusion -- if traveling through Manhattan during a work day -- either use the subway or don't even bother leaving your office.

Shop.org Conference

The Annual Summit of Shop.org starts today at the Hilton in New York City. For any retailers looking to hear about Search Engine Marketing tips - I will be on a panel this week with experts from Yahoo and MSN. I'm looking forward to it because over 1,600 people have registered for the conference already.

For non-retailers (ie friends and family) I appreciate support, but the conference charges all attendees so I'll be happy to give a private session on SEM Tips afterwards. ;)

Also - if you go on the site and look at my mug shot -- no need to tell me I need a new picture. I am well aware of the fact (especially after the first 10 comments from co-workers).

Gas Price Resource

Seeing as if 50% of my blog readership is from New York City (in which owning a car is rare), and another 2% from outside the US (Hola Manu), I don't know how relevant this post will be for everyone... however... I stumbled upon a cool site this morning (it's an Google AdSense partner) and I wanted to share: GasBuddy.

GasBuddy lists updated gas prices and trends by city and state.

As an example, Florida (where about 20% of my blog readership occurs) is the 31st ranked state in terms of cheapest gas at an average of $2.27 per gallon. It appears, though, that South Florida is bringing this average state price up, as Miami is averaging $2.37 per gallon.

Anyway - just thought the site/information was interesting and I wanted to share.