Category Archives: Personal

Going Once…Gone. Seattle Loses Legend Dick Friel

Posted by Andy Boyer in Charity, Seattle

If you don’t know the name Dick Friel, well then you simply need to re-evaluate how much money you give to charity, because it’s not enough.  There’s a small number of A-list auctioneers in this town, so if your event was any good, you had about a 1 in 3 chance of seeing Dick and Sharon Friel at the mic.

The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that Mr. Friel has passed away at the age of 76.  I had the pleasure of working with him and his wife on the Cure Autism Now Auction back in the early 2000’s.  He was a genuine professional, with a jovial smile and demeanor that was all about business – the business of making money for charity.

I was naive to how auctions worked when I first saw him prepping.  He asked for the attendee list and list of items.  He then ran through his mental rolodex as easily as I remember baseball stats.  “Oh, Mr. Brown loves vacations.  He’s good for $1000 every event so let’s save this Italy trip and focus on him.” “The Jacobsons would go nuts for this necklace, but they always leave by 9:00.  Let’s move it to Item 3.”   “I know Mike and John are Pearl Jam freaks.  Let’s get a bidding war on that studio session and then convince Eddie to let them both in.”  From a marketing perspective, it was a thing of beauty to watch.  And the winners were always the charities.  

Farewell, Mr. Friel.

Entitlement Takes on New Ground

Posted by Andy Boyer in Human Behavior, Personal

I’m not a big fan of entitlement. I was taught by an old boss long ago at the Tucson Toros that no one is entitled to anything, you have to earn everything you’re rewarded with.

So there is something funny about the coincidental juxtaposition of the article I’m forwarding here to the post I wrote over the weekend about the online education company. This CNN article (I’ve seen a version several places online) reports that:

“A recent college graduate is suing her alma mater for $72,000 — the full cost of her tuition and then some — because she cannot find a job. Trina Thompson, 27, of the Bronx, graduated from New York’s Monroe College in April with a bachelor of business administration degree in information technology.  On July 24, she filed suit against the college in Bronx Supreme Court, alleging that Monroe’s ‘Office of Career Advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement. I am also suing them because of the stress I have been going through.'” 

This made me wonder what I could sue either of my alam maters for.  After all, I graduated with a degree in Finance, but I was unable to predict either stock market crash.  Surely the U of A owes me for my losses.  And, in the 20 years or so that I was in college or out of college, I’ve NEVER been able to attend a Rose Bowl.  In fact, now I have 2 Pac-10 schools I could enjoy in the Rose Bowl, and neither of them have made it.  Surely I could sue for that.  And what about the fact that I can’t speak Spansih fluently?  U of A is 60 miles from the Mexican border.  Why couldn’t I get out of there with a bi-lingual education?  Bastards.

On the more serious note, I would like to (though I need to check with our HR department and legal teams to see if we are allowed) blacklist Trina Thompson from our resume inbox, and have much tighter guidelines on any poor sap who lists Monroe College as their primary education.  

Poor Ms. Thompson, do you have any idea how much more difficult you have made it for you or any of your classmates to get employed?  

Iceland Day Seven-ish

Posted by Andy Boyer in Creative Writing, Personal, Uncategorized

We’re getting into the home stretch here in Iceland.  It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon, which enables/forces us into a coffee shop for some much needed picture uploading.  We spent the middle of the week on the northern coast, based out of Akureyri.  From there we launched into day trips to Husavik for some whale watching, Grimsey Island to officially hike in the Arctic Circle, and around Lake Meadv (sp ?) which included some of the more ridiculous things I’ve ever seen first hand.  More info to come when the shock of 168 consecutive hours of daylight weares off….

Iceland Day Three-ish

Posted by Andy Boyer in Creative Writing, Personal, Uncategorized

There will be a series of rather long posts as more time presents itself.  If you want to cheat and see the preview version of the first three-ish days in Iceland, check out the pics on my Facebook page.

I say three-ish, because it’s hard to really keep track of days when it never gets dark.  We landed about 6:00am Sunday in Iceland.  So the pics begin at around 8:00am at the Blue Lagoon, then inlcude some random shots, and then really pick back up again Monday night on a tour of Geysir and Goldfoss (waterfall).  It really doesn’t get dark here.  Around 11:00pm, if it’s dark, cars need to use headlights, but you could still play a game of catch without any problem.

Off to Aukreyri (sp?) on the North coast today (Tuesday).  More soon.

Glasses Raised High for Two Seattle Events

Posted by Andy Boyer in Personal, Seattle

I’m not exactly the biggest afficionado, aficccionado, affecionado….patron of the arts.  While I enjoy most of the  events I attend, somehow I end up at birthday parties, dinners and sporting matches more often than “cultural events.”

This past Thursday and Friday though, I was lucky enough to hit two places that I recommend to all who have the opportunity.  The first is Teatro Zinzani, a wild mashup of dinner, acrobatics, juggling, drinks, chaos, love, music, ballet and dessert.

I’m shocked that it took me 8+ years to finally check out the show.  Yes, it’s spendy.  But do yourself the favor of renting movies one night and spending your whole weekend budget on this event, which makes for a fantastic evening.  I promise you’ll have enough stories to talk about at cocktail parties to more than make up for the bill.  Plus, it’s simply something you won’t get to see anywhere else.

On a completely different avenue in Crazy Town, I have nothing but great things to say about the train wreck of an autobiography that is Carrie Fisher’s life in “Wishful Drinking.” This really is a must-see show.  Except, you can’t.  It’s too late.  It ended its run in Seattle last weekend, so you’re out of luck.   But if you are travelling this summer and run across a town where Fisher is telling the sad, but hilarious tales of her messed up life, make sure you pop in.  One, it will make you howl.  And two, you’ll feel a lot better about any issues you think you have.

 

Why 30+ Year Olds Have More Fun on Facebook than Our Junior Counterparts

Posted by Andy Boyer in Creative Writing, Personal, Social Media, Technology

I just don’t understand when people my age tell me, “Facebook is just for kids.”  I will argue that the best part about Facebook is in fact lost on these newbies, and us more mature folks are getting the best it has to offer.

To wit: My friend’s daughter is 15.  She has something like 700 friends.  Basically every person she has ever met is on her Facebook page.  There has never been a time in her life in which she was not keenly aware of what her people were up to.

No consider the 30-something year old who is tip-toeing into Facebook for the first time.  First he finds some work friends and maybe some folks he plays soccer with.  Then a few folks from his last job.  Then a few people from the town he used to live in, then college guys and then back to high school and elementary school.  People he hasn’t talked to or heard from in 20 years are now available.

I mention this because this has happened to me twice now in the last few weeks.  An old friend from college disappeared off the planet, reappeared on Facebook and it allowed us to have lunch and catch up.  Meanwhile, the next time I’m in New York in June, I will be able to meet up with a friend I last saw in New Orleans circa 1986.  

Now, today’s 15 year olds won’t get to enjoy this type of reunion.  So I’m sticking with my story – Lil’ Green Patches and SuperPokes may be fun and all, but it’s the reconnecting with long lost friends that makes Facebook as powerful as it is.

But How Much is My Facebook Page Worth

Posted by Andy Boyer in Marketing, Personal, Social Media

So Twitter doesn’t make a dime of revenue.  But there must be value there, since it’s extremely popular and nature abhors a vacuum.  So maybe I’m the one who should generate the revenue from it.  

For example, suppose Pepsi called me and wanted me to tell all my Twitter friends that Double Caffeinated Clear Blueberry Diet-Pepsi was a one calorie blow pop of hyperactive goodness.  How much would I charge them?

Well lucky for me, I can go to TweetValue.com and get an estimate.  Turns out all my 60 or so Twitter friends are worth a measley $18.  Which actually sounds like a lot of money to me because it’s around to a $300 CPM.  Pepsi media buyer, call in the next 48 hours and I’ll give you a special deal price of $10 for each January tweet, and we’ll see how it goes.  

Maybe one day I can get as valuable as Shaquille O’Neal’s Twitter feed, which is a reachable $302. Barack Obama’s value of $41,000 seems a little unattainable.

But, I do wonder what would I get to message my Facebook friends?

Why Models Don’t Run PR Agencies

Posted by Andy Boyer in Personal, Social Media

So someone writes something nasty about you on a blog no one reads.  What do you do?

a) Ignore it 

b) Write a post on your own blog explaining why the other post is libelous

c) Do some personal SEO work so that you can bury the post on Google under a list of your own links

d) File a lawsuit so that the post goes super public across the blogosphere, letting everyone in the world link to the post that says the nasty things about you, and making it the number one link that shows up when people Google you for the next 20 years?

If you answered A, B or C, then we can have a reasonable conversation.  If you said, D, then you are model Liskula Cohen and are not familiar with how the world of Social Media works.  According to this Mediapost article, “Cohen alleges that she was defamed by the blog Skanks in NYC. The entire blog consists of five posts, all dated Aug. 21 that jab at Cohen.”  Note that the posts came out in August 2008, and if anyone cared about it then, they certainly don’t care now.  But, Cohen has managed to grab the remains of that flame, fan it, dump gasoline on it, and insert half a forest into the campfire.  Well done.

On a side but not totally irrelevant note, this is an important lesson in why you need to spend the $50 a year to own the url’s of your name, to register yourname.everyblog.com, to have basic profiles on Ning, LinkedIn, Naymz, Biznik, etc….and lock down [email protected].  Because, you just never know when you may be named to a blog like Skanks of NYC and need to bury the link when people Google you.