Who's gonna sell their soul? Not me.

So the other day I got an email from a financial planning firm offering to give me money if they could advertise on my blog. I guess my buyer beware blog from last semester caught their attention. In the post, I talked a little about my past experience as a financial planner, and spoke diplomatically about the pitfalls to look for when choosing a financial institution.
I decided to let this organization humor me so I asked them what they had in mind. As it turned out they actually wanted to change some of the wording in my blog post to highlight their services, which in turn would have completely contradicted what I was trying to say.
I immediately said no, and sent them on their way, after all, integrity is paramount.

And I will reiterate my point. In the world of investing, the typical winners are the financial institutions. They win most of the time because no matter how your portfolio performs, they still charge you a fee to manage it. The average Joe investor might have a shot at winning so long as he or she does not invest with their emotions. Joe/Josephine should not pay attention to any commercials or media that plays on their emotions. They should stick to their guns, and stay invested for the long haul.

j

So hot! Like pizza on the dance floor!

On regular occasion I spend my time playing music with my band mates. Many times when we get together we just spend our time jamming. Someone starts playing something like a drum beat, a bass line, a guitar lick, whatever, and everyone just starts playing along. Through this process we eventually turn really strong jams, or grooves as I like to call them, into songs.

Although it didn't start out this way, we soon began realizing that when we create music in this manner, we tend to forget some of the solid grooves when it comes time to get together again. So we decided to start recording these grooves. One of these recent recordings is called Pizza on the Dance Floor.

The song started off with a funk-disco bass line that Bruce, our bass player, had been playing around with. Tim, our keyboardist, didn't manage to join us for the rehearsal, and so Ian, our drummer, spent his time initially working out some beats on Tim's sequencer, then switched to playing his kit. I started to play guitar along with Bruce's bad ass groove, and within a minute or two we had something really cool happening.

The next thing you know I started thinking about how cold it's been outside, and how great it is to stay inside and warm up to a fine lady. That led to thoughts of dancing in a club with some hot ladies, which led to thoughts of love making which then led to thoughts of being hungry,( I'm always hungry after.)

So I started to sing about pizza on the dance floor, which to much of my band mates delight, elicited a rouse of cheering as well as vocal harmonies. From there both Ian and I started to rap about things relating to dance floors, pretty women, and eating pizza, and it just got ridiculous.

But that's the way I like it!

NFL Playoff Pool

So I decided to join an NFL playoff pool. I have never entered into a playoff pool for football, mainly because I have never known very much about the sport. This year is the first year that I have really started getting into NFL Football. I just love the strategy of the game, every yardage gained is such a battle.

I am currently learning about video shooting in school and I find the coverage in NFL football is so amazing, I'm learning alot about shooting just from watching football.

The main team I have decided to go for is the Green Bay Packers. I picked Aaron Rogers as my one QB choice. If you actually look at the numbers, he threw for the 2nd most yards of the season behind Michael Vick of Philly, a team they vanquished last week. With the solid defence Green Bay has (another pick I made)Rogers' throwing ability, and their sudden surge of their running game with Starks coming out of no where, this team is looking good.

j

Pseudo-Events - Spanish Clothing Store draws huge crowds with underwear gimmick

It looks like some Spanish people have no modesty when it comes to getting free stuff. On January 4th, shoppers in Madrid waited overnight at outlet store Desigual in their underwear to gain a chance to receive free clothing. The promotion was offered to the first 100 people in line who arrived so scantily clad.

Well this is certainly a promotion that worked, in searching for details on this story, I found links to major news sites like Reuters and the Daily Mail UK, and the story was even reported in our Winnipeg Sun. (See link to the video on the Sun's website below.)

When it comes to pseudo-events, the newsworthiness of the event is a good barometer for how successful it may be. In the world of novelty, this story certainly takes the cake. There is also a human interest factor in that whenever you have a bunch of people running around in their underwear, in slightly chilly temperatures. According to BBC's weather website, the average temperature in Madrid in January is 9 degrees Celsius. No doubt the less than balmy temperature aided the story's legs, and drew media attention.

In the news story the reporter also mentions the fact that Spanish shoppers were cash strapped, no doubt due to their fledgling economy, and their current high unemployment rate of over 20% (Eurostat). This is a country where a mere two years ago the rate was around 10%. These economic conditions would certainly inspire retailers to come up with unique ways to get consumers to open their wallets.

Timeliness was also a factor in the draw for media attention, as the "boxing sale" season traditionally starts around January the 7th in Madrid, and according to the story, this Desigual store got the jump on the competition.

Had I lived in Madrid and heard about this ahead of time, would I have shown up in my underwear for some free designer brand clothes??? Heck yes!