Happy New Year

It's amazing to believe 2007 has come and gone. Time is exponential like that - each year a little faster than the last. We will ring in the new year much like last years: some pizza, a beer or two, some champaign, possibly a board game, and, of course, an explosion of excitement at midnight.

Many enjoy looking back on the last 12 months. And reflection is a good thing. Personally the past 12 months have brought me more than 100 new networking contacts, a facebook account, a fantastic new career, and the complete conversion for PC to Apple.

 

While reflection is great, it's also fun to predict the future.  In his Borowitz Report, Andy gives us a satirical look at how he thinks 2008 could go. I think you will enjoy it. 

Cheers to a Happy New Year!

The 'Ho' Ban

This is absurd. Apparently, if you're Santa, and you're in Sydney, you're catch phrase is no longer, "Ho, Ho, Ho!" Instead, it is, "Ha, Ha, Ha!" New Zealand is considering asking their Santa to stop the 'Ho' as well.

Apparently the 'Ho' is frightening to children and offensive to American women.

As a result, Santa's may strike until they get their 'Ho' back. I kinda think they should. Though I'm not sure how we'd explain Santa to our kids.

"...Lawanda, Santa doesn't have time to hear what you want for Christmas. In fact, he may not even bring presents this year. He's fighting for his 'Ho!'"

On a side note, I did the whole Santa/Easter Bunny/St. Nick thing when I was a kid. And a 'Ho' from Santa is nothing compared to The Tooth Fairy. We tell our kids that while everyone is sleeping, a fairy is going to come in their room, dig under their pillow, take their teeth, and leave behind a quarter. Now that's creepy....

Don't eat your earbuds, a new Surgeon General's Warning

Or it would be if CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, had his way. I'm not making this up.

"If CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta had his way, when you unwrapped your new iPod or iPhone this Christmas, there might be the following warning label:

'SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Ingesting or inhaling your iPhone or iPod earbuds may be hazardous to your health.'"

Now what does CNN think of its audience to have this guy come up with this? Perhaps, we do need Winter Awareness Day.

Today is:

Winter Awareness Day

Now this is insulting to anyone living, say, north of Florida - who is well aware that winter is on its way. Since when do we need a 'Winter Awareness Day?' Are there folks who are unaware it's coming? Does it just sneak up on us every year?

I quote: "Preparing for winter weather should occur well before the cold and snow begin. Tips include understanding that a winter storm watch indicates severe weather may affect your area; a winter storm warning indicates severe weather is in the area or expected immediately. " This is followed by a whole list of stuff on preparing for, living through, and driving during a winter storm.

We have a whole month to practice. Get ready....

Things that are stressful...

...to purchase

1. Carpet - Frankly, as long as its soft, good quality, cushy (less to do with the carpet and more with the pad), and looks nice, I could care less about it. As of late we have found ourselves looking for new carpet, which, incidentally, seems incredibly over-priced. Already I have had to learn way too much about it, and have decided there is way too large of a selection from which to choose.
2. Mattresses - While it's been years since we've purchased one. In fact, I don't even know what brand or firmness of mattress I sleep on. Nor do I really care. It's comfortable enough for me to fall asleep on. But a "Sleep Number Mattress" advertisement forced me to add this to the list. The sleep # concept seems ridiculously excessive. How do you know if your sleep number is a 2, 3, 4, or 6? What if its actually a 95? The thought of this alone would keep me awake. Besides it too seems incredibly over-priced.
3. Cars - You spend $10 K (or easily much more) on an engine and 4-wheels with a steering mechanism, all of which immediately decrease in value, just to allow yourself to move places.

I think that's my top three. What stressful purchases do you make?

One step at a time

When I was a kid, I remember toys made with wood, metal, some basis plastic. Today, new toys made by the ChiComs and recently imported to the United States, have been found to contain traces of the date-rape drug. I guess that's better than lead, right?

Absolutely Amazing

The shuttle landed the other day. I am blown away that this massive thing comes back from 200 miles away from the earth with no power, and lands on a 20,000 ft runway next to the ocean. Its glide to ratio is 1:1. For those that have forgotten, this means it drops 1 ft for every 1 ft that it moves forward. In other words, it drops like a rock. Incredible!

Aviation experts think this is not a big deal. As one who travels regularly, I wouldn't want to be on an airplane at 35,000 ft with no power and have to glide down. No way. We take too much for granted...

Ouch!

I've always been told that cheerleading is more dangerous than it looks. Someone should remind this girl not to let her 'Type-A'-ness to affect her safety. Especially for something that is going to get torn apart.


http://view.break.com/390903 - Watch more free videos

Clearly, Not that Funny

The writers strike. The Writers Guild of America, they are picketing. What I understand that one issue is sharing of the revenue generated from DVD sales. What I have seen is that the late-night comedy shows have been the first to go to re-runs.

Are you kidding me? You mean to tell me that all these brilliant comedians, Letterman, Colbert, Stewart, Leno (OK maybe not Leno, but you get the point), can't do their shows without writers? Do you know how many writers we have at The Breakfast Bowl? One - just me. But even if we had more, and they did strike, The Breakfast Bowl would keep being filled, because I am the focus and drive of this Blog.

I'm thinking, "What a bunch of wimps!" It's your show, so do it yourself. Sit there. Write some jokes. Create a monologue. Do your job. Be funny. Unless, of course, that's crossing the picket line. I tell you...

Bobby, I'm thinking, this could be your big break....

A Name Change

In an effort to fly and little lower on the Google radar screen, AND to hope for more active participation, I've changed the name of my blog from "Kevin's Breakfast Bowl" to "The Breakfast Bowl." Now we can all share. Learn why its called "The Breakfast Bowl."

A serious post...

...on the impact of integrated trick-or-treating.

Trick or Treating. I love it. I loved it as a kid running the streets stuffing as much candy into a pillow-case as possible. And I loved it last night as we filled the pillow-cases of the more than 150 Darth-Vaders, pumpkins, ghosts, cow-boys, and witch-fairies.

Why so many? First, we live in a safe, popular upper-middle class neighborhood with many young families and kids. This keeps it fun. Second, because it is safe and popular, many volunteer and church groups, bus people from lower-income more dangerous parts of town into our neighborhood so that their kids could also play, run, laugh, and trick-or-treat, and do it safely. This helps keep it diverse, though a blink of diversity it may be.

During the moment, it was fantastic. If nothing more, it gives me an excuse to spend more time tossing snickers bars like footballs into waiting pillow-cases and bags of even more people.

After it was over, I was bothered by the deeper impact this may have on the kids. To me, all the ghost, goblins, whatever, were a treat: kids doing what kids do best-having fun. However, having spent the last 4 weeks reading to a 6th grader on Friday, I've quickly learned kids today are way smarter than many of us give them credit for. So, to them, I fear I was a upper-middle class, reasonably successful, young professional -- all things they have the potential to be -- but also white -- something many of them can't be.

What impact does taking African-American child from his or her neighborhood to a neighborhood of predominately white successful people in order to trick-or-treat have? What message does this convey about their fellow black neighbors? What message does this convey to them about their own blackness? What does it tell them about my whiteness? What does it tell the kids who live in our neighborhood about themselves? Will the low income kids fall into the self-defeating cycle and at best maintain status-quo while the kids on our street move up? With everything else, is this even an issue that deserves focus?

For God's sake, it's just trick-or treating, right? Well, maybe. But I think it may have deeper impact on the self-image of the upcoming generation. Obviously the answer isn't stop bringing outsiders in to our neighborhood for trick-or-treating. Nor do I think it a good idea to expose well-off children to the dangers associated with some low-income neighbors on Halloween night. Perhaps the answer is in better education. Perhaps it's in more integration. Perhaps it's yet another on-line political movement or facebook page.

I don't know the answer. I do know that after last night, tossing out candy is much more than just tossing footballs.

No Sex in the Airplane-Room

Now this is a curious news-feed. Essentially, Singapore Airlines is asking passengers not to have sex in the private cabins of their new Airbus A380, the monster jet. They say that the private cabins-suites are not sound-proof nor completely sealed...

A couple questions come to mind:

1. Why would you not make a private cabin sound-proof? Sex aside, if I paid for a private cabin, I wouldn't want to hear anyone else, period. Regardless of whether they were talking, crying, or having sex.
2. Will Singaporean air marshalls be on-board to cane offenders? I hope so. That could bring a whole new meaning to in-flight entertainment.

Fun hobby of the day: Twitter-tracking dirty words

I've never used this Twitter thing, and, personally, I never-ever thought I would. But then I found a great idea! And it has since proven to be the most incredible entertaining way to waste time since the AOL away message.

Because ingenious ideas like this can't go unshared, here's what you do:

Step 1: Sign up for Twitter and link it to one of your instant messaging accounts.
Step 2: Read this.
Step 3: Set Twitter to track a dozen of the dirtiest, nastiest words you can think of.
Step 4: Soak in the glorious river of humanity.
---------------------------------------
From my first 2 minutes:
"(frak): f***ing, c***ing, wanking IE f***ing 6!
(stinkerbell): i told robert I loved him....oh s***!
(mstickel): flowing some copy before the s*** storm makes it's way to me. (btw, the s*** storm is not a bad thing, just an urgent thing).
(msmerymac): There's never any f***ing coffee left by the time I get around to getting some!
(squaregg): addicted to a non-emo-s*** song.
(roadhacker): @akelatal LMFAO - that is classic... holy s***, i'm crying.
(burns1de): Just a reminder: biking in rain f***ing sucks a**, especially when you have a day of work ahead of you and even your undies are drenched.
(justkatehere): Just told a boy who sorely deserved it to go f*** himself. I feel like a rockstar. JAZZ HANDS!!!!
(mamakri): I realized that pregnancy is actually TEN months and the people who came up with pregnancy math are f***ing IDIOTS!! 10 months, people. 10!!
------------------------------------------
Soon, hopefully, I'll get hired for a new gig, have to work for a living, and will no longer succumb to such a pathetic waste of time. Until then, twitON!

Happy Birthday!

:-)

Turns 25... Since then, our little friend has evolved into an ever growing list of smilies. My guess is that if you are similar to me, some of these you have seen, some you have not, and some you have no idea what it is (even with the description).

With the ever changing state of communication, my guess is that this list will continue to evolve and change. Some will go the way of words like "rad" and "bogus." Others will stick around, and somehow though I don't think the meaning of :-) will ever disappear.

What's your favorite smiley?

A New Look

Just for fun, I've changed things up a bit.

For those that read, the writing style won't change much, nor will the content, but thought I would change the look a bit. No reason in particular. Just keeping things interesting.

French Teeth

Some interesting facts about the French and their teeth.

• one million French citizens never brush their teeth
• half of all French do not brush their teeth in the evening
• 57% of French children under five have never brushed their teeth
• the average French citizen uses between one and two toothbrushes in a year

It's important to remember this is the same country that invented "French-kissing."

Seattle welcomes the SLUT

Seattle has a new street car in South Lake Union, and they are calling it the Trolley. The accronym for it is the SLUT. So, in Seattle, you can now ride the SLUT, you can jump on the SLUT, or do anything else you want on the SLUT (in Seatle). As fast as this has caught on, I doubt the name will be changing anytime soon!

Slow Day

Not only is it a slow day in my office, but it must also be a slow news day. The USA Today reports that, "Divorce threat persists throughout marriage."

For those of you who may not be married, the only thing that can be said to this is, "duh! How many non-married people do you know threatend by divorce?"

NFYB

New times demand new rules. In a time when You-Tube, Facebook, Blogger, spread ideas around the globe in seconds, how do you protect ideas?

Just say, "Not for your blog"

Like safe sex, it's not a romantic conversation, but it is a discussion that should be had. It used to be conversations and emails were considered off the record. Today, though there is the bias toward posting and sharing. NFYB clears the air.

In a world were everyone is a journalist, most things become on the record.

MacGyver....in Australia

Apparently Australia has its own MacGyver:

"A court in the northern city of Brisbane heard how 27 year old Jamie Lacey, high on drugs, broke into the house in September 2004, scattering pornographic magazines around the bathroom and making a sex toy from a bottle of detergent, a piece of wood and a rubber glove, the Brisbane Times reported."

"A vacuum cleaner was also found in the bathroom, but the judge dismissed a defense submission that there was no proof the vacuum has been used for sexual purposes."
-----Reuters

Too much creativity for me...

fcuk Georgetown

If given the opportunity to spend a couple days in DC, I highly recommend spending a few hours in the Georgetown area. Its one of the more "college" parts of town with more shopping, cafes, and galleries than I have ever seen.

Of all the shops, one stuck out: FCUK. I didn't buy anything, but they had some cool clothes, and a great name. French Connection United Kingdom.

Check Your Engine

So, my "Check Engine" light flipped on this morning. My mechnanic wants $90.00 to have a look. $90.00?!! I opened the hood when I got to work, and had a look around . To me, everything looked like it was in one piece. There was a engine, some hoses, and stuff. Hopefully it won't blow up.... and maybe even the light will decide to go back off. That would make me feel better. At least I know the light bulb isn't burned out...

It's HOT!

It's hotter than than a stolen tamale hot outside. Hotter than a honeymoon hotel on the dark side of Vegas. Hotter than a fur-coat in Marfa, TX. Hotter than whoopie in wool sheets. Hotter than the surface of the sun near the hinges of hell. Hotter than a freshly dropped camels turd. It's Africa hot. Hotter than a two dollar pistol. It's so hot, chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs. Hotter than dog-crap frying in a black-ironed skillet.

...the worst part of all. My car's AC no longer works...

How hot do you think it is?

Finished!

Well, we did it! Triathlon # 1 is under our belts. Times were:

-----------Kevin: 1:35:some change.
-----------Amanda 1:59:some change.

Other than two MAJOR calf cramps that made me realize how painful it really is to be Dan Vierling at Thanksgiving, things went great.

Now we're addicted. That means next race:

UK's Tri for Sight - http://www.triforsight.com/
Sunday, September 23
Lexington

Come play!

Take me out of the ballpark. I'm tired of my wasting time

This post is sure to get my baseball fanatic friends excited. But it needs to be written for two reasons. First, as it is scored today, baseball foully misrepresents teams’ ability to produce. Second, managers, while making millions themselves, waste millions by basing their rosters on wrong information.

As is stands, teams win by earning the most runs in nine innings. Time is ignored, who scored is ignored, and how it was done is ignored. And, indeed, these three factors are largely irrelevant. However, we also ignore the number of hits that it takes to score these runs. And by disregarding hits, we blatantly eradicate efficiency from the game founded in a country where efficiency is everything.

Instead, I argue games should be won or lost by calculating the teams RUN/HIT ratio.

Here’s an example. Let’s say the Arizona Diamondbacks are playing the New York Yankees. After nine innings the scoreboard reads:
------------------H ------R
Yankees ------ 24------8
D’backs ------- 6 -------4

Who won the game?

“Clearly, the Yankee’s won!” you say, “Twice as many runs!” Well, I guess if you use today’s misrepresented rule-book, you could be right. However, if you base the game on the RUN/HIT ratio, the score would look something like this:
----------------R/H
Yankees ----.3334
D’backs -----.6667

As you see the Yankees’ ability to produce runs is only half that of the Diamondbacks ability. Yet, in a world where the inefficient fall by the way-side, the Yankees remain one of the most adored teams in America. I say all the Yankees did in the above scenario was tap the ball around the field, forced the D’backs to play a little pitch-and-catch, and, in general, waste time. The Diamondbacks are the real winners.

More disturbing, when setting rosters, managers often rely on a player’s batting average, calculated by dividing the number of hits by the number of at bats. Again, who cares unless those hits produce something, like maybe a run or two. Instead managers should look at players the same way you or I are looked at work. How much can you produce and how efficiently can you get it done? Can you image the score if your rosters were full of players with a R/H of .50

Well, as baseball season nears the end of the summer, that should give you something to chew on. Until next post, “GO D’Backs!”

Slappin' Cheeks

Something's wrong with the state of Oregan. After spending five days in jouvenile detention, two middle-school boys, both 13, are apparently facing further jail time and being registered as sex-offenders for slapping girls on the ass. In an interview, one of the boys claims slapping is a way of saying 'hello,' much like a secret hand-shake.

I'll be the first to admit that while I'm no-longer 'in' with the middle-school crowd, slapping ass-cheeks seems, well, not at all like a hand-shake. That said, it is absolutely absurd to know that in a country where Hilton and Lohan get a slap on the wrist, and treatment at a place called "Promises" (I'm still unclear on what is promised) for behavior that can kill, 13-year old boys are prosecuted for slapping butt-cheeks. It is a waste of dollars, and it is a gross representation of the un-equality that exists in today's justice system.

In my day growing up, slapping butt-cheeks would probably result in, having my butt slapped by a leather belt, after which I would not longer slap butts.

What would you do if you had your butt-cheeks slapped?

Premature Releasing

Somehow, while surfing through life, I missed the Harry Potter wave. That said I do have some thoughts on the premature releasing.

Put simply, premature releasing happens (just ask Dan Vierling). And in today's digital, fast-paced, uber-connected, Internet-crazed, insert-the-buzz-word-of-your-choice, world, where someone at the CIA knows who you are calling before you are connected, I must say, 'Hats off to Ms. Rowling for keeping her secret as long as she did.' She's been working for years, and until Thursday, say 18-hours before the release, no one knew the ending.

I think that if I had a top-secret book, I would take the same approach as Seth Godin. Simply, don't put it ALL in paper! For most, books have transformed into trophies. We read them, enjoy them, some-times talk about them, and then they sit on the shelf as show-off items, hinting at who we are.

If I wanted to keep my book a secret, I too would create a hybrid book. First, type it. I say, 'type it,' because everyone knows books are no longer written, they are typed. Second, have it published, less, say, the last three or four chapters. On release day, the last chapters would be put on-line. Every buyer then gets a code for access. It's that simple. You get the trophy for your shelf, and I keep my secret.

I guess the only drawback is that instead of spending $20 M on book security like J.K., I should plan to spend $20 M on computer firewalls.

That's my thoughts. How do you keep your secrets?

Anyone up for a threesome?

How about an early morning threesome? Here's the application. Don't think you can handle it? Come cheer Amanda and me on!

E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Start-time: 6:45 am

Based on endurance and stamina, I hope finish in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Cheers!

Update (7/19): Triathlon Distance: 0.5 mile swim/14 mile bike/5K (3.2 m.) run
Since last nights work out, I am changing my predicted finish time to 2 hours or possibly slightly under.

"Who Sailed The Boat?"

Our trip to the islands consisted of chartering a 40’ sailboat on which we stayed while island hopping. By far, the number one question has been, “Who sailed the boat?” Since many of my friends know very little about sailing this is a legitimate question. It’s how the conversation goes that I struggle to understand. Here’s an example:

Me: “Yea, we just got back from a short sailing trip where we chartered a boat …
Other person: “Wow! That’s cool! Who sailed the boat?
Me: “We did. You see, I grew up sailing, and its just something I’ve really always know how to do….”
Other person: “Cool, but who sailed the boat?”

This is where I get a bit confused. After studying communication intensely for four years, I feel as though I am loosing the art of it.

Me: “We did. We chartered it from a company, loaded some food and our stuff, and away we went...”
Other person, “Yeah but who sailed it?!”

I thought I would take this entry to explain how sailing, and then bareboat chartering works. First, sailing.

To sail you really need 4 things. Namely, you need a sailboat. After that, you need a captain, or someone with some reasonable sailing experience. Then depending on the size of boat, it’s easier if you have reasonably sober crew (this can be as simple as 1 other person). Lastly, to get anywhere, you need some wind.

Got those four and you are ready to go sailing. First getting on a sailboat the things you see can be a bit overwhelming for the inexperience. But it’s really not complicated.

Here’s a quick summary on boat identification. The simplest boats have two sails: A main sail, this is the sail over the back of the boat, and a Jib sail, the sail in the front. All sailboats have a large metal vertical pipe in the center. This is the mast. It’s used to hold the vertical side of the main sail. Off of the mast extends a horizontal steel pipe: The boom. This holds the bottom of the main sail. There are some steel cables on the sides, front, and back. They keep the mast from falling over and are called shrouds (side cables) and stays (front cables). There is a rudder. This steers the boat, which on big boats is attached to a steering wheel. Turn the wheel left, the boat goes left, turn the wheel to the right right, and, well, I think you get it. Lastly, that there are some ropes. Only the ropes have names and can be categorized as a halyard, a sheet, or a line.

Here are the very basics of sailing. You use a halyard to hoist your sails. HALYARDS hoist. That’s all they do. After your sails are up, you are done with halyards. Now that the sails are up you steer the boat where you want to go and use the sheets to adjust the sails accordingly. Each sail has its own SHEET, so there is a Jib SHEET and a Main SHEET. Releasing the sheets, lets the sails extend outward for sailing downwind. Pulling on the sheets, pulls the sails closer to the boat for sailing upwind. Because sails have to be filled in order to get anywhere, the only direction you can not sail is directly in toward the wind.

When you get where you are going, you release the HALYARDS, the sails fall down, and the boat stops. Drop the anchor attached to the anchor LINE, the boat becomes secure and now you are ready for a rum drink (one of the most important parts of sailing).

Sure, as you get better, there’s more to learn, but you could reasonably start to sail with the information above.

Once you get some experience under your belt, you can charter (rent) boats from individuals or charter companies. You pay some money, they turn over the boat to you for an agreed upon time, and away you go. If that sounds a bit overwhelming to you, then you can arrange to charter with a captain. In which case a captain will join you and your group and, well, he will sail the boat.

The Caribbean is perhaps one of the easiest places to sail. The water is deep, so there is nothing (or at least very little) to run into. There is always good wind, and the islands are spaced so you never lose sight of land (imagine a big lake).

That’s that. Let me know if you want someone to take you sailing!

The Land of the Laid-back

Hello again! Hopefully the few occasional readers I have picked up haven’t died from starvation of an empty bowl. I have just returned from a much needed vacation in to the Caribbean.

For anyone who hasn’t been, the Caribbean isles are a place of their own and while on my trip I was reminded of a few things I thought I would share.

First, time as we know it transforms into the schedule of what-is-felt-like-doing. It is perhaps the only place where the customs/immigration officer closes up shop and disappears not because its closing time, but because he got hungry and needed a sandwich. Forty-five minutes later he strolls back carrying a small bottle of Ting and reopens.

Second, it is perhaps the only place (or the only place where I have been) where you will see both a chicken and a goat literally cross the road while you are walking or driving along. Why’d the chicken cross the road? Another story for another entry. Just know that they do. Everyday.

More interestingly, I learned that the British Virgin Islands are the second largest source of foreign direct investment in the world (behind Hong Kong) with over US $123,000,000,000. Yikes! Billions!! Who knew? Clearly, there must be some kind of tax advantage.

Lastly, while spending my day lazily swimming off some beaches and drinking Painkillers (the official drink of the BVI), I was reminded of how much easier my fat floats while in saltwater.

Take a summer get-away? Tell me what you learned…

Cheers!

A Smoking Hot Solution

As a non-smoker who is reasonably concerned about my health I find myself in conflict when it comes to government regulated smoking bans. The selfish part of me loves them. Every bar, restaurant, store, work-place, bowling-alley, or any other venue becomes a magnet for my potential business, or at least a possible magnet. The big-government-hating, libertarian, free-market part of me hates these bans. How dare a large bureaucratic, money spending institution tell me or anyone where he or she can or can not enjoy a disgustingly tasting, tar-filled piece of rolled up paper?

As a free-market loving fool, I’m convinced that you can pretty easily put a monetary value to just about anything. So, consider this. What if we created an emission market for cigarette smoking?

You’ve probably heard of the emerging emissions market to control pollution. Companies are given a certain amount of credit to which they are allowed to pollute. Less efficient companies (those that produce more carbon than credits) can purchase additional credits from more efficient companies (those with carbon credits remaining).

Apply this concept to the micro-level and the question of whether and an establishment is non-smoking or smoking morphs into a question of how much is your preferred environment worth? Want to smoke? All you have to do is convince a non-smoker to sell you his or her smoking credit. Want your establishment of choice to be smoke free? Simple. Purchase all of the smoking credits and hold on to them. What’s it worth to you?

Not the Easter Bunny I Knew

This YouTube clip aired on CNN while I running at the gym this morning. Since my work has blocked YouTube, I had to find it on another site. Here's the link to the clip. What a brave little bunny.

Being of the entrepreneurial mind-set, this clip makes me wonder what the market-place would look like if every small business treated their biggest Goliath of a competitor this way.

Damn Interesting

A friend sent me this link: DamnInteresting.com. A great name for a great site. Check it out.

It's a catchy name, and is exactly what it says it is: Damn Interesting. Wouldn't it be great if everything in life could be so clear?

Going Postal

The Washington Post wants us to think, there are three post offices.

First, there is the post office everyone loves to hate: The rate-raising-long-lined-junk-mail-delivering-bureaucratic-government-run-stale-office organization. Second, is the post office that runs one of the world’s most complex automation systems, and delivers 580 million pieces of mail a day with remarkable accuracy to every address in the nation, six days every week. Third, is the post office that delivers a hand-written letter from an old friend, a tax refund from the IRS, or an anticipated acceptance from the college admittance office. This is the office that gives the tiniest towns their own proud postmarks. It's the post office that found you even when the address under your name was so incredibly incorrect it was laughable.

Today, Louisville’s Courier Journal published that in 2006, the post office “moved more than 102 billion pieces of advertising and bulk mail, 11.6 billion pounds in all, compared with 97.6 billion pieces of first-class mail weighing 4.4 billion pounds.” And recently, I learned that more than 800,000 people are employed by the USPS, making it the 3rd largest employer in the US second only to The Department of Defense and, you got it, Wal-Mart.

If you are like me, then this means that 72% of the poundage moved by some of the more than 800,000 people was immediately thrown in the recycling. 72%!! I didn’t read it, I didn’t open it, and I probably didn’t even check to see if it was addressed to me. I simply tossed it.

Add everyone else like me up and the result is a HUGE amount of waste both in dollars and paper (also dollars.)

There is probably more than one solution to this grossness, but I strongly believe that privatizing the postal delivery is the best. It will reduce inefficiency. It will make the experience of mailing more enjoyable. With time it will entirely eliminate the entire first image painted by the Washington Post. As for the second and third images of being a successful logistics company and nostalgic service provider? Well clearly, the private entities will have to do those as well. Otherwise they will not succeed.

What do you think?

Interviews - Married in an hour

Many of you know I have been looking for a new job. Some of you know that looking for this new job has become more like a second career.

What do I want to do, you ask? Well, I want to help make a small entrepreneurial company grow to become a successful one. Then I want to start my own and do that same. I want to get experience in sales, business development, operations, strategy, and management. I'm really not interested in gaining accounting experience. That's why there is outsourcing.

As part of my figuring-out-what-I-want-to-do process, I have taken up lots of reading. I have done this partly because I simply don't have enough to do in my current job to stay busy, but mostly because I want to be better informed. One of the blogs I read daily is written by Seth Godin, author of The Purple Cow, Small is the New Big, The Dip, and many other highly-read business books.

Today, I found an entry he posted in September: "The End of The Job Interview". Since I have been interviewing notoriously, his message hit home. Instead of making a decision after a 1-2 hour awkward conversation, he writes, hire the person for a task. If they succeed, hire them for a weekend. Then make your decision.

Would you marry someone after talking for an hour? Of course not! Then why hire them?

The first thing I'm going to do when I'm hired is begin work in enhancing the process for my new company. Tack on Human Resources as something else I want to do.

Not A Derby Hat...

I just read this little blurb about a boy in London getting his head stuck in a toilet seat. Now I am all for kids being creative, and hats are fine accessory, but I find myself asking, "What possessed this small human to do such a thing?" Will we begin to see new messages on toilet seat packaging warning: "Do not wear!"?

First Entry

This is my first blog entry.....ever. Sure I've written before: high school newspaper stories, essays, college term papers, business reports (vomit), etc. But I have never written a blog.

I call it: 'The Breakfast Bowl.'

Actually, I call it 'Kevin's Breakfast Bowl.' So you will know whose it is. It's called 'Breakfast Bowl' because I am making it my goal to post in the morning sharing with you all of my thoughts and ideas. What mornings? you ask. Well, hopefully every morning. Sure, Now and again, I may have some afternoon or evening postings. But, hey, who doesn't like breakfast for dinner?

What do I hope of you? Well that you read it, chew on it, and then comment back. It can become our shared breakfast bowl. Tell me you hate it. Tell me you like it. It doesn't really matter. But your feedback will help keep me posting.

Cheers!