Trophy Wife

I don’t think it’s sexist for a man to call his wife a trophy if she is okay with it. I don’t think it is self-humiliation for a woman to see herself as a trophy. I think it’s empowering. Anytime the subjugated class can re-appropriate a word designed to subvert the subject class’ humanity in way that is positive, it’s a win. Like it or not, Blacks using the “N” word, or Strippers re-branding themselves as “Dancers” takes the bitter sting of Socio-Economic warfare out of the hands of the “Haves” and re-balances the fight in favor of the “Have nots”.

Furthermore, Any man who appreciates his woman as a Queen worthy of being held as his most valuable Asset has a right to identify her as such. If you don’t like the word “Trophy” as the descriptor, change the word. Look up the etymology…understand the meaning of the word, and move on.

Additionally, Any woman who can appreciate herself as a Queen worthy of being spoiled and treated thusly has a right to self-identify as “Trophy”. If you would prefer a different word, take it up with Merriam-Webster or Encarta.

Story of a champion, sorry I’m a champi

Story of a champion, sorry I’m a champion

~Jay Z

I really don’t wanna leave you Rhapsody

I really don’t wanna leave you Rhapsody, but you are leaving me with few choices

Trying out this new website called hoots

Trying out this new website called hootsuite.com. We will see.

GamedayPassion.com

I found GamedayPassion.com to be very interesting. As a University of Illinois (Fighting Illini) alum, I love the idea that I can represent my team in a new and quirky way.

The strength of this business model is the use of benchmarking. Some companies and individuals have the capital or imagination to develop and Blue Ocean or brand new offering. I don’t. So I am always interested in finding out how other business people leverage existing processes and technologies to take advantage of an under-serverd market.

The weakness of this business model is the underestimation of competition and the compulsive nature of fan gear purchases. It is my experience that people buy their fan gear on game day. Fans that buy in advance make their purchases because they see the gear hanging on the rack of their favorite department store. GamedayPassion.com cannot compete in either of these circumstances.

Pssst…I got a tip on a stock

I think the best way to get a person to participate in a predictive market is to reward them with whatever motivated that person, or group of people to join. For example, HSX.com could give away movie tickets to people who bet correctly on the success of a movie. If you correctly bet on the success of a Jason Bourne sans Matt Damon movie, you could win tickets to see the movie. Of course, why you would want to is beyond me.

Same for elections. If you bet on the correct candidate, you should automatically win the next election, or get a political appointment, or win an ear mark for your Llama farm, you get the point. Although, I see some areas where application would not be so great. For example, if the predictive market is Middle East unrest, and you bet against a certain colonel of a North African nation, whose  name might rhyme with Toomar Karate, if you won, you might get selected to clean up all of the debris from the blown up bunkers.

There are areas where you probably would want to lose, especially if you are close to the stocks in questions. For example, you may have an uncle with a bad liver from drinking. You may bet that he will need a kidney in 5 months. If you win, you gotta give up a kidney. Who wants that.

Over all, I believe donuts from Krispy Kreme and Coffee from Caribou is always the way to go. Who doesn’t like donuts and coffee? Nobody doesn’t. That’s who.

Harrisonburg…A new favorite place

There are so many things to do in Harrisonburg, Va. Everyone should visit

You cain’t be me, cause I’m so awesome…

Taking the Fam to Massanutten. Indoor Water Sports. Take that however ever you choose. Dueces!

You wish you would…

How cool is it that I can blog, and my blog goes to my Twitter and my Facebook.

Me Likey Crowdsourcing…

One main difference between crowd-sourcing and traditional product development is the speed with which a product goes from concept to prototype. since crowd-sourcing leverages minds from many different industries, each facet of a products design is attacked by the SMEs most familiar with it. If a corporation were to design a new plane, through crowd-sourcing, the aerodynamics of the plane could be designed by aeronautical engineers, while the seats are designed by furniture engineers and the brakes by mechanical engineers, and so forth and so on. In a traditional product development program, one team would have to attack each aspect of the aircraft in a phased approach. For example, only after the aerodynamic problem is solved, would the product development team be able to move to the mechanical engineering problems of designing a plane.
Another difference between crowd-sourcing is the cost of innovation. The cost of paying a freelance “Problem Solver” on a per innovation basis is far cheaper than paying a full time employee who is equally talented. Even if you were to pay a Problem solver an award equal to the annual salary of a full time employee, the cost-benefit would still outpace a regular full time employee. A paid full time employee is not a guarantee of a fresh idea, while a paid “Problem Solver” is.

A similarity between crowd-sourcing and traditional product development is the relationship between the quality of the innovation and the quality of the innovators. Whether a company approached a problem with a dedicated team of engineers, or shop the problem to a company such as Innocentive, the quality of the innovation is a function of talent. Average engineers provide average solutions. Quality, outside-of-the-box engineers will produce quality, outside-of-the-box innovation.