large brand managment

i propose no solution to the problem i address. but really, should this happen.

my mtg is with bank of america. an institution i truly wish i did not have to deal with. they are horrible, completely disorganized, the classic right hand doesn't know what the left is doing.

i tried to sign up for automatic drafts to pay my mtg. it would deduct from our checking account (no way in hell is that with bofa) twice per month, starting middle of november. i called to verify it was set up properly earlier that month and assured it was. middle of november, there goes my money to bofa, no problems. not so fast....

december doesn't get taken out. i called them and was told that the first november draft is floating out in bank of america cyberspace land and was NOT applied to my mtg. awesome. 'how do we correct this problem?' i ask. they said go pay HALF of the mtg and the rest, the floating rest, will be applied and your mtg current.

i hope you got that.

i had to call SIX more times to resolve that fuckin' little problem. everytime i called, the conversation started with, 'sir, did you know your mtg is past due?' 'yes, jerk off, and its not past due!'

i understand in large entities, especially ones strewn about the country (and bangalore, for that matter), need to link their systems and input accurate data. i don't mean to sound like an ass here but it's not that hard of job. or, they can't train their employees for shit.

i just want some appropriate diligence on their part. i do my part by paying. the least they could is properly ACCEPT and CREDIT my payments.

anyway, thirty days later, it was finally resolved and i'm no longer late. let's see if they grab their money on monday...

list of stupidist thing of 2009?

i hate the end of the year for one reason (actually, two if you count how freakin' cold it is). that is all the 'top ten _____ of 2009." even better, this year we get, top ____ of the decade lists."

these fuckin' things are repulsive. look, the end of the year is three weeks away! something drastic could happen anybody remember that tsunami a few years ago? that happened on....december 26, 2004. huh, i'd bet that was after all the 'top ten events of 2004 lists were compiled and released to a hungry public?

can't we wait till after the new year/decade starts? then decide what was best of 2009?

are you anonymous?

for starters, read wired. really good mag with very interesting articles.

i'm particularly fascinated by the article "gone" in last month's issue. one of their writers tried to 'disappear' for a whole month. anybody that found him got $5K; if he stayed away, he got $5K. in a digital, where you are really never anonymous, he managed to stay away for about 25 days before getting caught.

the lengths the 'hunters' went to find him was truly staggering. they tracked him all over the country despite him setting up a phantom computer and IP address in vegas.

just think about this the next time you're fucking around on the internet. somebody's watching you.

did advice to brand tiger follow the template of brand jordan?

so last night, verbal spouse commented about the silly tiger woods story and more mistresses "stepping" forward and nike's full support of brand tiger.

so i thought a bit. now, i'm from chicago and remember another cash cow icon for nike (their first and arguably most important one). i recall a few years ago (maybe more by now) when numerous allegations came out about jordan's affairs going as far back as shortly after his marriage. i don't remember the particulars but i do recall somebody commented about jordan's "arranged" marriage, more of thoughtful push really. somebody (i'd guess nike) wanted to make him more marketable, protect the image of what they created. so it was a "why don't you get married, mike?" type conversation. "jordan is more than incredibly talented athlete, he's a family man. see? he's married, with kids!"

the family jordan emerged even though, later reported and google-able (is that a word?) he was having affairs all over the place. cut to recent events and tiger woods.

is it possible that tiger was always this guy, as apparently jordan is/was? not the family man you see in the media but the image that's now come out? tiger seems to be following the same playbook, down to the build a huge house and insist on complete privacy while you compete for public adoration and money. similar stories: uber talented out of college, signs with nike, becomes marketer's wet dream, wife and kids, and oops! mistresses!

as i previously said, i don't care about the affairs, it's not my business. but isn't it curious that these two have the same story? anything to do with nike, their advice, their creation? or am i totally off my rocker here?

prowling tiger?

huh, so others are starting to notice some chinks in the armor now, too? i'm not going to sit here and speculate about WHAT led to the accident, the talking heads and gossip rags are doing a fine job, but this just appears to be more dents in the perfect suit of armor for the man. he's been pretty impenetrable for the last ten years plus.

something happened that led to the accident. at quarter to three in the morning, the accident just looks suspicious. the "cover-up" for brand woods just kinda makes the whole episode more questionable.

is the post office necessary?

this is another one of those old news stories that i take too long to address. but, really, is the post office necessary? or, alternatively, is the size of the service necessary. i think every zip code has its own brick-n-mortar building. so even your tiny towns have structures. and despite raising rates all the damn time, they are still losing something like $3B a year! it strikes me as a general waste of government resources and natural resources for that matter. how many postal trucks drive how many miles a day? and it's stop and go from mailbox to mailbox to mailbox. what a waste of gas!

now, i dunno about any of you, but is the postal service necessary? for myself, we don't get any mail of substance save magazine subscriptions. all of our bills are emailed, i pay all our bills online and most contact with family and friends that live far away is now done via social media. so what does the p.o do for us? deliver a whole of junk! that's it! most of it ends up in our recycling, catalogs i don't give a shit about (and can see online), credit card offers that i shred, etc. that's just a general waste of paper.

so, what to do about it? can we consolidate offices? especially in parts of the city and the less suburban places, i'd think two zip codes (at least) could be handled by one office. i certainly don't care if a piece of mail takes a few days longer to reach me. again, all my important stuff is emailed and i don't write checks. this could help reduce wasted money for services most of us neither use nor need AND it held save the government money on providing the services and sell the land where p.o's sit for revenue. we raise some money and save some money!

in the meantime, sign up for online banking and paperless billing. and google 'stop junk mail' and help out, huh?

thought this was pretty damn funny....

h/t devin townsend. if you don't know who he is, ya should.

tiger slays melbourne

so i listen to a lot of NPR because it rules. they cover a lot of things that the tradmed doesn't (i'm not that big a fan of the tradmed). more of a global look.

now, i'm a bit late on this one since the tournament is over and all. didja notice tiger woods played the australian masters in melbourne? no? well, shit, he won the damn thing by two strokes. didja know he accepted an appearance fee to play? here's the rub: the appearance fee for him was $3 MILLION. by winning the tournament, he won $300,000. look at those numbers again for me...what if he didn't win? what if he missed the cut?

oh hell, i nearly forgot to tell you WHO paid the appearance fee. that would be the local government.

seriously, i'm a lonely little blogger here and who gives a shit about my opinion on the subject but this bugs the hell outta me. woods makes approximately $75M (prolly more) in endorsements each year, add winnings and whatever else on top and i'll bet my house he's knocking on 9 figures a year.

lots of players/celebrities accept/demand appearance fees and i, on its face, have no issue with that. and i get the point of leverage (money) to appear halfway across the world. but when the appearance fee is 10x the winner take, don't you think there is something tragically out of step? ever more so, during this wonderful economy, that a government paid that fee? NPR said that because of woods' appearance, tickets were sold out for the tournament and officials/organizers/government would make a good chunk of money above and beyond what they paid him. so we're left with a golfer taking $3M in australian taxpayer money. i'd have no issue if this was privately funded, to be clear.

the other part of it is that he accepted the money, or even demanded it! the least woods could do is donate some back into the community. build a park or something for the, ya know, taxpayers. the story didn't seem to get a lot of play here but should brand tiger take a hit for it? i think so, terrible planning there. i think the demand or acceptance (whether it was offered by the australian government or demanded by brand woods was unclear) really stinks. what did the taxpayers get out of this? how do they directly benefit from spending their money to bring woods over? maybe brand tiger should re-examine their guidelines to play in tournaments.

anybody from melbourne reading? fly me out and i'll write and say whatever you want. it's getting cold in chicago...

brock lesnar, really?

so, big news of the day is brock lesnar may never fight again because of some intestinal problem. dana white apparently gave the 'scoop' to TMZ (incidentally, shouldn't they be following kate gosselin? they are a celebrity gossip organization or have a i missed something?). i'm a bit confused on this one. i'll start by saying i don't watch ufc or any mma at all. there's something disturbing about watching these guys TRY to hurt each other...breaking arms, legs, noses, whatever they can for a not-very-large payday. there are lots of stories about how these guys don't get paid very much to fight. contrast with boxing and the fighter's paydays.

back to the point: this is big news? i saw it on cnnsi.com and espn.com and a posts on lots of other blogs i read (now i'm posting on it. hell.). two questions: has mma/ufc hit critical mass where it is considered news for tradmed to cover, beyond the sizable group that follows it? it takes precedence over a lot of other sports stories out there? shit, michelle wie won a damn tournament! in terms of lesser sport stories, i thought that would be the big one. she's actually fulfilling some of that potential. five years + late but she won a tournament! c'mon, wheeeeeeeee wie!!!!!!

redundancy

i don't know why, redundancy really annoys the hell out of me. you don't need to repeat things like that! take, for example, your atm pin. it's not a 'pin number.' the damn thing is already called a personal identification number. you do not need to add the other 'number' to it. then, you'd have a personal identification number number. think about it the next time you say 'pin number' out loud.

or, 'writing a blog.' look, sport, you're blogging! that, as part of its definition, says you're writing. that word, blog, has become quite versatile. it can be a verb, noun, adjective, etc. reminds me of another word.

anyway, stupid people...