As this will be one of my last blogs of the year, I'll keep with my custom (if 3 years qualifies as a custom) and share my random musings about the last 12 months:
I should have known the Mayans wouldn't get it right. They also picked the Jets to make the playoffs......
Considering Steven Spielberg's ability to tell a story, I thought "Lincoln" would have had a different ending....
2012 was so bad, I wish it could have ended in June.....
You know there's something wrong with our priorities when "Gangnam Style" was web searched more than "Korea tests nuclear bombs"........
The most recent hurricane and my ex Mother-in-Law are now 2 reasons for me to dislike the name "Sandy".....
While we're on the subject of gun control, let's add water guns to the list. I hate when the kids spray me in the face.....
Could you imagine if they produced "We are the World" today? It just wouldn't be the same with Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Rihanna, and Katy Perry.......
If Apple made an iPad Mini mini...it would be called an iPhone.......
The Fiscal Cliff would have been settled years ago if we had better rock climbers.....
Activision needs to make a public statement saying that "Call of Duty" isn't an instruction manual.....
It's been reported that Facebook can capture personal search data after you hit the "Like" button.....I don't like this....
The word "tablet" has a whole new meaning today.....when I was a kid, it referred to medication.....
People are getting more passive-aggressive. It's even in our music. That's why Carly Rae Jepson says, "Call Me......Maybe....."
I discovered very quickly that it's cheaper to buy Lucky Charms than Pandora's charms.....
EZ-Pass is still great. But I think they should change the name of the cash lane to "Dumb-Ass.".....
If online dating is filled with people who are well-educated, happy, well-travelled, financially sound, intellectual, and fun.....why do they all need dates?
Woody Allen once said that "the last time he was inside a woman, he was in the Statue of Liberty." I don't remember the last time I was in the Statue of Liberty.....
Mayor Bloomberg couldn't have picked two more unrelated targets......Guns and Soda......
Politicians keep telling us to look on the bright side....that's hard to do with their heads in their asses......
Amazingly, my divorce was shorter than the fighting in the Middle East....
Instagram didn't turn a profit, had only 13 employees, but sold for a billion dollars....they didn't teach me how to do that in college....
Thanks to Mitt Romney, Big Bird became more popular than Larry Bird.....
A-rod will soon need a rod in his hip......
On New Years Eve, New York shouldn't drop a ball, but instead something we'd like to get rid of....like our Blackberrys....
HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL...
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
A Halo Over Newtown
A country mourns and will continue mourning over the unimaginable shootings that took place and took lives in an elementary school in Connecticut.
Facebook, Twitter, radio and television talk shows have lit up with thousands of people giving their opinions on what measures need to be taken to prevent acts like this from ever happening again.
Thus far, I've heard plenty about gun control which has seemed blatantly obvious since Columbine. However, politics has reigned king on this one and may continue to do so. I've even read a few more militant solutions which call for more guns in the form of security guards and policeman in schools and in other public places.
And then, similar to the anti-cigarette lobby, Hollywood was vehemently attacked for making R-rated films that glorify blood, guts, and killers that all suffer from severe psychological disorders with access to guns.
As for me, I've begun to realize that a different culprit lies in the shadows at places like Best Buy, Gamestop, and Target. And that's where you can find games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto. Despite the warnings on their labels about being appropriate for older children, many parents buy them for their pre-tween and tween boys.
I know this seems trite and an easy solution to explain away these violent acts, but let's look a little deeper and under the epidermis of these mass killings. The recent shooter in Newtown was found wearing a military vest that held significant ammunition, as well as several guns, including an assault rifle. In the mall shooting in Oregon the gunman was wearing another load-bearing vest which is a military style garment meant for carrying heavy equipment. The shooter at a movie theater in Colorado was wearing a helmet, vest, leggings, groin and throat protector. It was then that I remembered seeing a recent ad for the latest version of "Halo," and then the picture became even clearer.
Let me share a few stats with you. The game Halo is currently in it's fourth generation. The third version did $170 million in sales on it's first day, and Halo 4 surpassed that number with $220 million during it's debut. In total, these games have now made $3.4 billion for.....Microsoft, maker of Xbox.
Just ask yourself why deranged killers that walk into movie theaters, malls, and schools need all this weaponry and equipment to fight against defenseless patrons, teachers, and school children. F
irst, there isn't a threat. So no one's going to fire back. Masking yourself is also a fruitless exercise because in an abundant number of these cases, the shooter kills himself afterwards. Therefore, they're hiding from no one. The weapons themselves have predominantly been those used by the military and not civilians leading me to this solitary belief:
THESE KILLERS BELIEVE THAT THEY'RE IN A VIDEO GAME THAT DOESN'T REALLY EXIST
So, what can we do to stop it? Can you stand in front of Microsoft in Seattle and demand answers? Can we force Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer to invest enough money into the anti-gun lobby to move the needle? Will they ever stop making games like this?
Here are the short answers to the test. NO, NO, and NO.
But here's what we can do:
1- If you have a child that borders on having any diagnosed psychological condition, particularly those that are on medication, you should not be allowed to legally or morally purchase these games.
2- If you legally own a handgun, rifle, assault weapon, or whatever, you should be on a list and be banned from owning this game or those like it.
3- This one is for Hollywood. Do not make any more movies about Halo or any facsimile video game.
4- If your child exhibits violent tendencies, or is on medication to curb any behavioral disorder, it is the parents' responsibility to keep him out of any movies that glorify gun violence.
You need more proof of the connection? The killers are all male, and are all in their early 20's. They just had several years in front of their X-boxes and their movies watching how to execute. Studying, learning. These kids must be taken away from these screens. Not tomorrow, but today. Very few people decide to pick up a hobby like violent video games and movies in their 20's. They had years of practice. So, by the time they're of age, the guns are loaded and ready.
I don't know how to make this point any clearer. We can scream from rooftops, blast social media with our desires, solicit our congressman and we'll barely move the needle. But take children away from a world of fantasy where you kill for points and you'll make a difference.
Like most things in life, change begins at home.
I know this seems trite and an easy solution to explain away these violent acts, but let's look a little deeper and under the epidermis of these mass killings. The recent shooter in Newtown was found wearing a military vest that held significant ammunition, as well as several guns, including an assault rifle. In the mall shooting in Oregon the gunman was wearing another load-bearing vest which is a military style garment meant for carrying heavy equipment. The shooter at a movie theater in Colorado was wearing a helmet, vest, leggings, groin and throat protector. It was then that I remembered seeing a recent ad for the latest version of "Halo," and then the picture became even clearer.
Let me share a few stats with you. The game Halo is currently in it's fourth generation. The third version did $170 million in sales on it's first day, and Halo 4 surpassed that number with $220 million during it's debut. In total, these games have now made $3.4 billion for.....Microsoft, maker of Xbox.
Just ask yourself why deranged killers that walk into movie theaters, malls, and schools need all this weaponry and equipment to fight against defenseless patrons, teachers, and school children. F
THESE KILLERS BELIEVE THAT THEY'RE IN A VIDEO GAME THAT DOESN'T REALLY EXIST
So, what can we do to stop it? Can you stand in front of Microsoft in Seattle and demand answers? Can we force Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer to invest enough money into the anti-gun lobby to move the needle? Will they ever stop making games like this?
Here are the short answers to the test. NO, NO, and NO.
But here's what we can do:
1- If you have a child that borders on having any diagnosed psychological condition, particularly those that are on medication, you should not be allowed to legally or morally purchase these games.
2- If you legally own a handgun, rifle, assault weapon, or whatever, you should be on a list and be banned from owning this game or those like it.
3- This one is for Hollywood. Do not make any more movies about Halo or any facsimile video game.
4- If your child exhibits violent tendencies, or is on medication to curb any behavioral disorder, it is the parents' responsibility to keep him out of any movies that glorify gun violence.
You need more proof of the connection? The killers are all male, and are all in their early 20's. They just had several years in front of their X-boxes and their movies watching how to execute. Studying, learning. These kids must be taken away from these screens. Not tomorrow, but today. Very few people decide to pick up a hobby like violent video games and movies in their 20's. They had years of practice. So, by the time they're of age, the guns are loaded and ready.
I don't know how to make this point any clearer. We can scream from rooftops, blast social media with our desires, solicit our congressman and we'll barely move the needle. But take children away from a world of fantasy where you kill for points and you'll make a difference.
Like most things in life, change begins at home.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
The Best Buys
By now, you've probably been rendered black and blue by Black Friday and most likely a little sore from Cyber Monday. And I can understand it. After all, you've just been bombarded with promotion from all sides with titles like "for a limited time", "just this weekend", and "while supplies last" enticing you to part with your money before it's too late.
The question that we really have to ask is not how much we've saved, but what we've truly gotten for our money. Because more often that not, we are overpaying. Not in a monetary sense. We're overpaying based on what these items are truly worth to us.
Take a smart phone for instance. The physical device usually costs about $200 bucks minimum. Then, you have to pay for the monthly data plan. So for just year one, you've dropped almost a thousand dollars to mostly text your friends, look at pictures on Facebook and Instagram, and oh yeah, occasionally make a phone call. Before long, the next exciting new phone is released which you have to have, and the process starts all over again.
So before you drop a bundle on what you think gives you back everything that you put in, consider that there are actually several other gifts you can buy or upgrade this holiday season that will hold its value much longer than most.
For instance, furniture. On the surface, this is one of the most expensive categories you can delve into. Or is it? If you want to furnish an entire room with couches, chairs, ottomans, coffee tables, and more, it's possible to drop several thousand dollars before you can blink. That sounds expensive. And it is. That's why furniture retailers are always touting interest free financing for a year. It softens the blow. But the truth is that most of your recently bought furniture could easily sit in your living room or den for at least a decade, turning your investment into just $1000 per year or under $100 per month. Under $100 so you can entertain, showcase a room, watch your big screen tv, have family game night and more. Let's see a Droid do that.
Another amazing deal that never seems that way at the time is music. A song on iTunes costs $1.29. Some of us are pissed because many of these songs used to be just .99 cents. The nerve of Apple! But in reality, we drop a little under the cost of a Metro Card swipe, and we get something we really like....forever. That's right. You can use it as many times as you like and it never gets old. Not only that, but thanks to the Cloud and multiple mobile devices, you can take this song just about anywhere. How many times do you think you play a typical song over your lifetime? A few hundred? A thousand? If you amortized this and really did the math, Apple would owe you money.
Now that we're headed into the winter, a lot of us will wear a wide selection of coats and jackets. You need one for the football game, and another for skiing. An over coat for work, but a casual wool coat for the weekend. So, when you look in your closet, you realize that you've had many of these items for years. Many of them may have cost between $500 and $2000, and you cringed at the cash register. But if you think about how many days you've worn them, it may turn out to be just $1 a day. You'll have to periodically buy a new one here and there, but don't hesitate. It's the best deal in your closet.
At the start of the new year, several of us will join new health clubs to coincide with a resolution we'll never keep. Gyms are getting fancier than ever with spa-like locker rooms and lap pools. After the tour, they break the news that you have to pay a membership fee and then close to $100 per month or $1200 per year. While at the gym, you'll use treadmills, bikes, and ellipticals. You may use the pool. You'll work on nautilus machines and lift free weights. If you had all this equipment in your house, it would probably be over $15,000. Some of the machines would eventually break, and you'd be responsible for fixing it. At the gym, you just move to a different machine. When you calculate the added health benefit of the exercise, there may be no better deal in the world.
The last very valuable item that consumers consistently bitch about is the cost of their phone/internet/cable package. Everyone moans about the monthly cost and switches their provider every one or two years to get the best deal. In the end, they settle around $150 per month or about $2,000 per year. For this price, you can stay on the phone for an unlimited amount of time with anyone in the country. You can access the internet with lightning speed which in turn gives you access to Facebook, iTunes, You Tube, Google, Yahoo, and Netflix. When you have HBO and Showtime, you can watch high quality shows without commercials and on multiple devices. With the right set up, you can even view the internet on your television, or make a phone call on the internet. In terms of data communication and entertainment, there really isn't anything you can't do. So is $2000 per year really a bad deal to have your entire life On Demand?
So, the next time you think you've found the perfect gift for the perfect price, remember that the best deals out there are already sitting in your house.
The question that we really have to ask is not how much we've saved, but what we've truly gotten for our money. Because more often that not, we are overpaying. Not in a monetary sense. We're overpaying based on what these items are truly worth to us.
Take a smart phone for instance. The physical device usually costs about $200 bucks minimum. Then, you have to pay for the monthly data plan. So for just year one, you've dropped almost a thousand dollars to mostly text your friends, look at pictures on Facebook and Instagram, and oh yeah, occasionally make a phone call. Before long, the next exciting new phone is released which you have to have, and the process starts all over again.
So before you drop a bundle on what you think gives you back everything that you put in, consider that there are actually several other gifts you can buy or upgrade this holiday season that will hold its value much longer than most.
For instance, furniture. On the surface, this is one of the most expensive categories you can delve into. Or is it? If you want to furnish an entire room with couches, chairs, ottomans, coffee tables, and more, it's possible to drop several thousand dollars before you can blink. That sounds expensive. And it is. That's why furniture retailers are always touting interest free financing for a year. It softens the blow. But the truth is that most of your recently bought furniture could easily sit in your living room or den for at least a decade, turning your investment into just $1000 per year or under $100 per month. Under $100 so you can entertain, showcase a room, watch your big screen tv, have family game night and more. Let's see a Droid do that.
Another amazing deal that never seems that way at the time is music. A song on iTunes costs $1.29. Some of us are pissed because many of these songs used to be just .99 cents. The nerve of Apple! But in reality, we drop a little under the cost of a Metro Card swipe, and we get something we really like....forever. That's right. You can use it as many times as you like and it never gets old. Not only that, but thanks to the Cloud and multiple mobile devices, you can take this song just about anywhere. How many times do you think you play a typical song over your lifetime? A few hundred? A thousand? If you amortized this and really did the math, Apple would owe you money.
Now that we're headed into the winter, a lot of us will wear a wide selection of coats and jackets. You need one for the football game, and another for skiing. An over coat for work, but a casual wool coat for the weekend. So, when you look in your closet, you realize that you've had many of these items for years. Many of them may have cost between $500 and $2000, and you cringed at the cash register. But if you think about how many days you've worn them, it may turn out to be just $1 a day. You'll have to periodically buy a new one here and there, but don't hesitate. It's the best deal in your closet.
At the start of the new year, several of us will join new health clubs to coincide with a resolution we'll never keep. Gyms are getting fancier than ever with spa-like locker rooms and lap pools. After the tour, they break the news that you have to pay a membership fee and then close to $100 per month or $1200 per year. While at the gym, you'll use treadmills, bikes, and ellipticals. You may use the pool. You'll work on nautilus machines and lift free weights. If you had all this equipment in your house, it would probably be over $15,000. Some of the machines would eventually break, and you'd be responsible for fixing it. At the gym, you just move to a different machine. When you calculate the added health benefit of the exercise, there may be no better deal in the world.
The last very valuable item that consumers consistently bitch about is the cost of their phone/internet/cable package. Everyone moans about the monthly cost and switches their provider every one or two years to get the best deal. In the end, they settle around $150 per month or about $2,000 per year. For this price, you can stay on the phone for an unlimited amount of time with anyone in the country. You can access the internet with lightning speed which in turn gives you access to Facebook, iTunes, You Tube, Google, Yahoo, and Netflix. When you have HBO and Showtime, you can watch high quality shows without commercials and on multiple devices. With the right set up, you can even view the internet on your television, or make a phone call on the internet. In terms of data communication and entertainment, there really isn't anything you can't do. So is $2000 per year really a bad deal to have your entire life On Demand?
So, the next time you think you've found the perfect gift for the perfect price, remember that the best deals out there are already sitting in your house.
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