The Neon Hippo

Embedded Video

I’ve posted a marketing tip over at BumpTheSlump.com

http://www.bumptheslump.com/default.aspx?tcat=2&tid=130

If you think it’s a good tip, please vote for me and spread the word.  I’m trying to win some free gas!  Couldn’t we all use some free gas?

Alright!!  The Thirty Day Challenge is officially started.  There were a few technical challenges on opening night, but overall I’d have to say it was a success.  The chat room was buzzing (too bad my browser crashed and I couldn’t capture some of it).

One of the big advantages of watching it live is that there is Q&A after the show stops recording.  That’s right - the only way to get that content (as of now) is to be there live when it happens.

I asked a question at the challenge tonight concerning team building.  A lot of people are starting meet-up groups for the 30DC.  I wondered if that made sense of if it makes more sense to have a more geographically disparate group.

I was shocked to hear my question read as the first question for the 2008 season.  How cool!  My claim to fame.  Goofy, huh?

It seems the “ticket bomb” for the Rally for the Republic has been hacked.  Hopefully it will be fixed soon, but right now it’s going through a list of people that will appear with Ron Paul.  On that list is Santa Claus and a few other extremely rude remarks.

It’s a minor thing - there are no readers yet that I’m aware of, but the forums on MugAndBrush.com are live.  Visit www.mugandbrush.com/forums to see for yourself.

These days, bad customer service and delivering less than promised seems to be the norm. I’ve almost gotten used to being treated as just an account with anybody I do business with. It’s always surprising and somewhat exhilarating when I get over the top service.

D&K Snow Removal & Lawn Care

I found a posting on craigslist last week and called about getting my gutters cleaned. It was a nice sounding college kid & his buddy. Dan gave me a price over the phone and made an appointment for Friday morning (today) at 8:00 AM.
Read the rest of this entry →

Here’s a quote from CNN about the bailout for homeowners.  This particular part is about the FHA’s role.

“Lenders would also agree to pay upfront fees to the FHA equal to 3% of
a home’s appraised value. Borrowers must agree to pay an annual premium
to the FHA equal to 1.5% of their new loan balance and they must also
agree to share with the government any profit they realize from selling
or refinancing their home.”  (read full article here….)

So basically financing a house worth $200,000 would cost $6,000 up front plus $3,000 per year for the privilege of getting the loan.  That’s bad enough but “they also must agree to share with the government any profit they realize from selling or refinancing their homes.”  Huh?

Let’s say I keep the FHA financed house for 5 years… I will have paid $21,000 to the FHA for carrying the loan and then I’m expected to share any profits with the government?!?  It sure seems like a bad deal to me.  The article doesn’t say how big a percentage the government gets, but anything over 0% seems unfair to me.  Why should the government profit from my house?  There’s something fishy going on here!

On a personal note - my current loan is FHA.  I hope these new rules don’t affect me retroactively, but I fear they probably will.  Given that the FISA bill granted immunity for past illegal actions, I have to assume that this will also affect people who are currently using FHA backed loans.  Changing the rules in the middle of the game without regard to the lives that are affected seems to be the new American way.  I think it’s time to vote all the bastards out and try again with a whole new crew.  We couldn’t do much worse by completely changing the roll-call of the federal government.

I happen to subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog and today’s article said, “A tiny business can write a better newsletter than a big one.”  The word newsletter is a hyperlink.

Oh boy!  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and research on newsletters in the last week or so and was excited to see a link off of Seth’s page to a keyword “Newsletter”.  I clicked and it took me to a web store selling a messenger bag.  I went back and clicked on a few other links.  The keyword “website” took me to a site selling guitars, and keyword “customer support” takes me to high end tube audio gear.  WTF?!

Read the rest of this entry →

This is just so funny!

Embedded Video