There are many reasons to go to Las Vegas, but one which you may not be aware of is attending the NFR. What, you don’t know about the NFR? It’s the National Finals Rodeo! This is an event put on by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys. You can think of it as the Rodeo Super Bowl. It involves all of your favorite rodeo events. This includes my favorite, bareback riding, as well as steer wrestling, bull riding and more. You have to be nuts to get on those bulls, I don’t understand why more of the guys don’t leave the venue on stretchers.
Rodeo is a blast, it’s one of those events definitely best experienced in person. The energy and the excitement is incredible. Personally, I’ve only seen smaller rodeos which are fun enough. I can only imagine what the big time is like. Kind of like the difference between watching high school football and watching the Giants take on the Patriots in person this weekend. Last year, Trevor Brazile won the rodeo ‘triple crown’… will be become the Tom Brady of horses and be back again in 2008?
The NFR will next be held from Dec. 4-13, 2008 in good old Las Vegas. If you want to check it out, start your planning and get your National Final Rodeo tickets now.
Here’s a new web design tool I learned about through Digg which seems like it could be useful. Check out Sprout. It’s a web-based WYSIWYG Flash app creator. Now you don’t have to bother buying Flash (and learning how to use it). Sprout purports to guide you through what you need to do, much like many of the other web-based tools out there. This is in beta right now, but it’s a good one to keep an eye on. Could be a good way to toss together mash-ups.
Another one I think I’ve previously pointed towards is Animoto, which is another cool web design app - this one lets you quickly generate your own MTV-style videos with still photos. Kind of a mash up between Ken Burns style documentary techniques and Yo MTV Raps.
They say that there is always price pressure on every purchase. If there’s one area trying to prove that a lie, it is in college tuition. Those rates just keep going up, regardless of inflation and income. What are you going to do? Tell the kid to go work at McDonald’s? How about performing a scholarship search? Scholarships.com maintains a big database of 2.7 million scholarships. You can search their list to see if there are any that your young collegian might qualify for. It’s free too. A great way to get access to tons of potential money-savers without having to leave your house or pick up the phone. There’s no risk and no cost, so try it out.
Here’s a really clever tie-in for the new Jack Black movie ‘Be Kind Rewind’, which is about some video store clerks who accidentally erase all the tapes in the store, and then set about re-filming the movies on their own. How about asking your fans to join in and film some cheesy knockoffs of their own?:
Vat do you meen you von’t do beezneez mit me? Communication is such a critical part of business. You obviously need to understand your customers and colleagues. But beyond that, there is a whole subliminal message of comfort and understanding you convey when your speech is familiar to someone. If english is your second language, you might want to consider taking a class in Business English. Executive Language Training offers courses which can minimize or eliminate your accent, and help you improve your business-world english. No matter what your current proficiency, they can help you improve your language to improve your chances in the workplace. They start with a needs assessment, and then pair you up with a trainer and program best designed to work for you. Check them out, and improve your career options.
Everybody complains about Google’s PageRank. It’s obtuse (how’s it calculated?), it’s somewhat capricious (wild swings in rank from week to week), and yet, aggravatingly, it’s the most common tool used to evaluate a website’s ‘importance’. It’s the most common because, in the view of most observers, it’s the best method, as flawed as it is.
But now there’s a new kid in town in the world of ‘how important is your site’. IZEA Ranks has created a new metric it calls ‘Real Rank’ which is oriented towards blogs. You install some code on your site, and they track the amount of traffic you get. Then they rank all of the participating blogs. That’s your rank (duh).
The idea behind this is that the most important metric in a blog’s importance is the amount of traffic it gets. Now you can shoot all kinds of holes in that presumption, but if you compare it to Google’s PageRank, where you don’t know quite what they’re measuring, you can see where it makes sense. At least you know what the metric is based on.
In case you’re wondering, Ponder Marketing is currently ranked 2,814. I’ve been slacking on posts so far this year, and my traffic has suffered as a result. But I’m sure I’ll be in the top ten any day now that I’m back on the wagon.
Speaking of great marketing… who doesn’t love a puppy? Is there anyone who doesn’t perk up when they see a puppy? Perhaps you’re searching for a Yorkie puppy for sale. Check out Salt Creek Kennel, which is near Tulsa. This is a USDA certified kennel, so no unethical puppy-mill concerns here. They shoot for all the AKC standards, so that your Yorkie doesn’t turn out looking suspiciously like a Doberman. They also breed Maltese, and English and French Bulldogs. The site has links to the AKC standards, so that you can learn a bit more about the breed before you buy. That’s a great idea - you should definitely make sure the breed is suited to your lifestyle.
When I was in Vegas at CES a few weeks ago, I was walking around the show on the last day. By then, my feet and back were killing me. CES is a real ‘forced-march’ if you haven’t been there; miles of concrete aisles.
I came across a Japanese company named Fujiryoki which was selling what appeared to be high-end massage chairs, and they were doing free demos Sign me up. I climbed in and one of their reps set me up for a demo cycle. Oh my god– that thing was incredible. Squeezing, pulling, Shiatsu, vibration, heat, pressure. 10 minutes of pure bliss ensued, after which I emerged from my stupor for a chat with a pouncing salesman.
As it turns out, I have expensive taste. These chairs are made in Japan, and go for $10k a piece! But, you get your own personal massaging heaven. So I guess if you have the money, it’s a great buy.
As I was walking away, it occured to me what a great tradeshow presentation they had. Talk about making an emotion connection with your prospects! In this case, they made my day, and probably had done so for hundreds of others over the course of 4 days. I think the sales pitch could have been improved a bit (how about a discount offer for attendees, or a pamphlet on massage techniques– something to remember them by), but I have to say, the setup for the sales pitch was stellar.
My wife and I are fans of Anthony Bordain’s travel/food show. Last week he was in Canada- judging from some of the restaurants he ate at and some of the sight-seeing, I was about ready to book a flight to Vancouver to check it out myself. If you’re in the UK, Dialaflight is a travel company which can help you get to Canada or wherever you want to go. They have packages and info on vacations all over the world. In Canada alone, they can take you to see the ice hotel in Quebec, or dogsledding in the Yukon. Instead of being internet-only, they encourage you to call to speak with a live person, to be sure you get the trip right for you.
If you can’t be bothered to follow the link (although you should since the post citing Orwell’s 1946 essay is quite good), then here they are, as written by the man himself:
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
For examples of these rules in action, pick up any collection of Hemingway short stories and read a few. (Not a bad way to spend a few hours in any event).
I for one know that I am guilty of breaking a few of these rules with regularity. I can’t resist tossing in the 25-cent word once in a while. Next time around, I think I’ll think twice about it.
