Moments of Clarity

Kirk to Spock, "Let them Die!"

Image via WikipediaRant-Observation compilation:

Have food prices come down now that gas prices are less than half of what they were when the experts said, "Expect these prices for the rest of our lives here in the USA?"  No.  Are the providers trying to leave things where they are to recover from their plummeting margins over the last year or so?  Sure, and as Al Franken would say....."And that's.......OK."

"We'll never seen oil below $100 in again."  Really.  $1.00/gallon gas is not that far off it seems and oil is barely hanging around $40.  Again the experts are simply part of the "sensationalization machine" that our media has become. E85 was $1.41/gal last night locally.

"Too big to fail"  Really?  Imagine the innovation and market opportunity that could arise from the failure of companies that have had crap leadership and let themselves hemorrhage to death.  Let the car companies figure out how to make things work right and let Obama spend our $150 billion in clean energy research.  I think in 10 years we could be out of the oil hole.

We should absolutely take a lesson from James Tiberius Kirk in Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country regarding the Big 3.  In his dialog with Captain Spock, he is sage. (Yes.  Seize any opportunity to leverage Star Trek to make life points)

Capt. Spock:	There is a historic opportunity here.
Capt. James T. Kirk:	Don't believe them! Don't trust them!
Capt. Spock:	They are dying.
Capt. James T. Kirk:

Let them die.

"24" Junkies...Unite

It's silly that one of the most popular shows in the world, "24", doesn't give away more ring tones and such to keep people talking about the show.  I guess they don't need evangelists!

It took me a while to sift through a million UK based ringtone sites promising this and that...to get what I wanted....but finally I've located a high quality MP3 of the CTU ring tone and have posted it for your consumption here on a Central Desktop Public Workspace.  I just got the Motorola Q phone and my first mission post email set up was to find this file.

I get looks and comments everywhere I go with this ringtone.  It will make you feel a bit like Jack Bauer  I promise...just not as cool.

The file is small so click away.

You can buy it from a Verizon "GET IT NOW" program called MIDI Ring Tones too...but that's not free.

Another NASCAR Home Run

NASCAR is quite possibly the greatest marketing vehicle of all time. Read this piece in the Hollywood Reporter and you'll understand.  It highlights the marketing and product placement coming up in the Will Farrell flick, "Talladega Nights:  The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"

If you think NASCAR is for rednecks, think again.  It's a massive marketing juggernaut that's willing to liberate big dollars from the wallets of those wearing tank tops or top hats.  After seeing this movie, everyone is going to smell like Old Spice...and I'm going to have to switch back to High Karate.

Apprentice

I try to keep my TV addiction to 1 series per season.  "24" was my drug for a couple seasons...but the post traumatic stress disorder that followed for about 2 hours after each episode was enough to make me stop.  Also, the MUST watch nature of these shows really bothers me.  I have the DVR now but that device empowers me to backlog numerous episodes and I end of feeling like I do with my stack of magazines that I haven't read.  You CANNOT miss an episode...and with 2 kids and normal busy life, I've accepted that life will go on without them.

This season, I've rekindled my interest in The Apprentice.  Maybe it's because I enjoy the 60 minutes of watching others make stupid mistakes (at least from the armchair quarterback position I'd have won this gig every time).  Perhaps it's watching Trump and his ego make snap decisions about people's futures and be comfortable with it.  It could be the voyeurism of watching these teams back each other into corners and then resort to base instinct, anger, and "the loudest voice" wins tactics to get their pass to next week's show.  In the end though, I must admit that when it comes down to male vs. female teams (this year it did)...I'm really excited to see, "The women will finally overcome tendency to in-fight and turn on one another like a bad Survivor episode."  This year, they didn't, and that madness got the last 2 female candidates canned on the same show.  The men are by no means exempt from this behavior...but the way this year's ladies presented themselves...I was very surprised to witness their implosion.

Another thing that always gets me is that in the beginning, I always think that every one of these candidates have no business being there.  Then, as the layers are peeled away week after week, I see strengths emerge (often only to be completely obliterated the following week when a candidate goes psycho).  In the end, a smooth, team oriented, emotionally stable, hard working, organized candidate who walks the "leadership" tightrope well, rises to the top.  More and more, the "idea man" is getting the hatchet job for a poor concept versus the slack job teammates who didn't execute no matter the vision. 

That's a bit backward for me.  Poor concepts (or concepts less good than the other team's) happen but often group think and other team dynamics push an idea through.  But it amazes me how many teammates will abandon the idea and believe that they'll do fine in the boardroom by tossing the idea person under the bus.  I think that someday, a candidate will emerge that handles these situations far better than we've seen before, no eye rolls, no "harrumphs" when the leader is speaking, no secret but overheard meetings in the "suite". 

So far, I think we've actually seen this in a few of the winners.  The formula seems easy...until natural human survival instinct takes over and gets the best of us.