Andy Boyer

Blog

  • No Gas, Really

    Way up here in the top left corner of the map, we tend to get a little isolationist in nature. Lots of people in Seattle never actually LEAVE Seattle for any length of time, and I have been personally shocked by how many people I meet here who have never ben to New York or Washington DC. Because of this, Seattleites tend to have a pretty narrow look at how the country works.

    And with that soliloquy to set the context, I bring you a report from Charlotte, NC from the the Mid-Atlantic Regional Headquarters of Andy Boyer.com:

    Wednesday evening I drove home from work looking for gas. I went to 22 gas stations and they were all out of gas. Yesterday morning I was waiting in line at a Shell station for 45 minutes. I was 5 cars away from getting on the property when they ran out of gas. I had abobut 1/8 of a tank left at that point. I found a Texaco station that around 50 cars waiting in line for gas. I waited for about another 45 minutes and was able to get gas.

    About 10% of gas stations here in the Charlotte are have gas this morning. They are expecting to be back up to full capacity this weekend.

    You may think you are having a bad day today because you have to replace your WAMU ATM card. Well, remind yourself of the good things you have going on while you fill up your tank at any of the gas stations here that you can stroll right into…..

  • The Problem With the US Economy, Explained in One Question on Yahoo Answers

    These people got mortgages…..

     

  • Changing the Draft Order

    Nothing about marketing here, really.  But I have a simple idea for the NFL, NBA and MLB to stop teams from throwing games at the end of seasons ot get a better draft pick.  Instead of making the draft based on worst to best record for the season before, why not define the draft order by worst to best record over the last THREE years.   

    I have a few reasons for this suggestion:

    • This would stop events where a great team has a few key injuries in one season, ends up with the top overall pick, and builds a dynasty out of it (see Spurs, San Antonio.
    • It’s hard to tank 3 straight seasons, so individual games are less important for draft order. 
    • Teams that are that bad for so long need real help.  
    • You can make your draft choices with some “general” idea where you may end up in next year’s draft, and make some strategic decisions on free agents based on this.
    • Having a ridiculous string of unjustified good luck for 1/4 season doesn’t kill you.   

    Anyway, that’s my big idea for the day. 

  • PETA Opens Its Mouth, and a Few More Independents Take a Small Step to the Right…

    You have to wonder what the people at PETA are thinking when they have “brainstorming” sessions.  It’s like they purposely come up with ways to alienate anyone in the middle 98% of mainstream thought.   From WNBC in New York:

    VERMONT — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow’s milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

    “PETA’s request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow’s milk in the food he serves,” the statement says.

    PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

    You may now insert your own jokes and analysis.

  • Nintendo Makes Great Use of YouTube Real Estate

    Adding video clips to YouTube is nothing new, and video game companies have been putting demos of their games up there for years. 

    But Nintendo has upped the ante with some real creative work on their channel.  Make sure to watch the whole video, then do some right clicking to see how they did it.

  • 2 Big Numbers, and How They are Related

    $20 Billion.  $16 Billion.  Two relatively large numbers that may be too hard to comprehend.  So here’s a funny comparison. 

    According to Valleywag, the entire newspaper industry is now worth $20 Billion.  I suppose that seems right for a 100-150 year old industry with papers everywhere from New York to Wasilia.

    But that number seems kind of small when you figure that Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s cofounders, are worth nearly $16 billion each according to Forbes.  So 2 men who have made it easier to search for online versions of newspaper articles, could essentially buy the entire industry they are destroying.   Does that mean personal fortunes are a tad over inflated?

  • Josh Howard, Mark Cuban, the National Anthem and a Blog – The Perfect Storm

    I am unashamed to be a huge Mark Cuban fan.  American success story of a guy who hustles, has worked his rear end off, is always searching for the best opportunity for success, and cognisant of when to get out and start something new.  Now he has more money than he can ever spend and gets to run around thumbing his nose at other NBA owners.    (The only unfortunate thing is that you can probably make a case that David Stern’s officials are under orders to make sure he never wins a title.  See: Wade, Dwayne, 2006 NBA Finals).

    Anyway, his blog is always worth reading.  And I was just having a conversation about transparency yesterday which makes this thread on BlogMaverick even more relevant.  The context of my conversation was whether anyone in the U.S. will be able to run for public office in 20 years, if hackers are going to be able to get to emails you sent and received.  

    But here are people who use real email addresses to willingly spew stupidity and hate.  I would love to sit next to one of these guys in the office and get his reaction.  Good for Cuban for publicizing these.  Check out the post.

  • Fun and Easy Social Media Campaign

    Does this make me want to buy a bunk bed? Maybe not. But did it introduce me to a url I had never heard of before? Yes. And am I forwarding said url around to others who might want to buy a bunk bed? Apparently so.

    But check out this fun and easy game from Bunkbeds.net.
    I could survive for 1 minute, 28 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

  • Can You See the International Reality Show Here?

    From Yahoo:

    “A Nigerian Muslim court Monday detained an 84-year-old Islamic preacher with 86 wives after he failed to heed a call by local leaders to divorce all but four of them…..The authorities charged Mohammed Bello with “insulting religious creed” and “unlawful marriages” after local chiefs and Muslim leaders gave him until September 7 to comply with Islamic sharia law, which allows a man to have no more than four wives at a time.”

    I see it now – “Elimina-wife.”  82 eliminations to get to the remianing 4.  Endless possibilities on an International stage here….  

     

  • This Negative Election Has Finally Defeated Me

    Well, it’s happened.  What started as a fantastic 17 person Presidential race, with people sharing new ideas for how to run the country, has turned into a giant mud-slinging session that has left me dis-spirited and ready to move to Croatia to open a coffee stand.

    What happnened to this race? We had Bill Richardson’s immigration ideas, Obama’s unifying rallies and Hillary’s messages energizing women.  Giulani and Thompson added star power, Romney was the clean cut businessman with the ability to run the Olympics and a state, while McCain the Maverick was driving the Straight Talk Express.  Even Ron Paul, who people labeled as crazy, at least had an interesting Flat Tax Plan.  Real candidates with real ideas.  

    But now, I can’t watch TV or listen to the radio without hearing barking, shrieking, sarcasm and disdain.  No one has any ideas, and everyone has a criticism.  Olberman and Chris Matthews take turns firing shots at Republicans in hopes Obama will dance with them first at the inauguration.  Conservative journalists rail on Obama’s 143 days in US Senate as being unfit to lead.  Media members sitting on the left side of the bench use big words and smarmy sarcasm to imply that anyone who doesn’t agree with them 100% is stupid.  Those on the right  scoff at people and make it clear that anyone who doesn’t know how to climb into the middle class is just useless.

    Our whole country is attacking each other and every campaign message is about hate – McCain is too old., Obama too green.  McCain lies, Obama exagerates.  Biden is mean, Palin is crazy.  Then everything that happens must be assigned to someone.  The Financial situation is Bush’s fault, no McCain signed a bill in 1999 that caused this, no Obama’s liberal policies would make it worse, etc…Gas is expensive because we’re in Iraq, no because Democrats won’t let us drill, no because Republicans are beholden to lobbyists in the oil industry….

    I’ve been beaten.  The candidates’, pundits’, advisors’ and supporters’  combined message has finally sunk in.  According to what I am hearing from everyone, “Collectively we’re screwed, it’s someone else’s fault, and we’re really going to be screwed worse if you vote for the other guy.”  That’s the message I am getting – please tell me I’m hearing it wrong.  Plus, none of them are explaining to me that they can fix it, they are just explaining to me that the other group can’t.  So I guess that’s the message. Take my money out of the stock market and run.

    Oops – too late for that too….Now what?