Long Shorts in Girl’s Volleyball
This is a pro volleyball team in Argentina.
Tmaffa 1006 points 3 hours ago
Look at John Mayer on the right pretending he doesn’t see it.
Digging Out of a Hole
Let’s chalk one up to Rnningfool. The last post managed 9 comments (2 by me) and 16 likes on Facebook which has to be a record. Jess Baker even acknowledged that she liked the Shark Tank post I wrote which makes me happy because I took a while to write it. With the site performing as average as possible, it’s nice to get some interaction with people. Yes, I had to post the link on Facebook and plead with people to like it but it worked.
The referrals are also worth looking at to see where the traffic comes from. Organic Google traffic sent about 3,054 people this month and direct traffic is 1,045 (This chart does not show this). Google traffic is mainly people finding random pages I’ve created over the years so it’s not that relevant. Also noteworthy is that Gourlay’s Goodies has not sent a single person to my website. Welcome back! Sam sent me 67 satisfied viewers.
Deciphering the stats is fun for me because it shows concrete data of what I’m doing. It’s work being graded. I’ve always been a B student and I’m pretty much getting B marks. I have a good feel for what I’m doing but I haven’t exploded with a Kim K ass pic that breaks the internet. Considering I have virtually no talent and nothing of interest, this will take some serious thinking.
A Shopping Perspective @ KOP Mall
KOP Shopping
I value clothes differently at 31 than I did at 18. When I was in high school I used to like the brand Aeropostale. I had made up in my mind that Aeropostale was good for me and Abercrombie and Fitch was for queers. There was no reason behind this conclusion and was completely irrational. However, this is not uncommon when shopping for clothes.
You choose what clothes you want to wear and associate a brand that works for you. I used to wear Nautica shirts (which I wouldn’t consider touching today), then switched to Polo (which I’m also tired of because everyone else wears it), then I wore some Calvin Klein (which I still like) but if I had all the money in the world I would wear Hugo Boss. Now it’s hard to justify paying $175 dollars for a zip up sweat shirt but it looks damn nice. This had me thinking that branding is critical to success in the fashion world.
I would never buy something from a brand I’ve never heard of before. It’s a strange thought but this is how my mind operates. If I don’t know what it is, I don’t want it. I also tend to like the nicest items so I assign a greater value on something that is higher priced. Once again, probably irrational, but true for me.
KOP Observations
Yesterday I was in the King of Prussia mall mainly wandering but also paying attention to stores and how they were branding themselves. Although I discussed clothing above, I took some shots of many stores and my thoughts on whether I would purchase from them. Here are my observations.
Apple Store – That is a line forming outside waiting for assistance. This was 15 minutes after open. Study the Apple formula hard because it is what works. Clean and open store, many sales associates, and obviously a good product.
The most popular store in the mall.
Tesla – Directly next to the Apple store which is prime location. I couldn’t take a head on shot because the lady was looking right at me and I felt awkward. This was a beautiful set up though for a store and a company valued at 31 billion dollars. Clean with an awesome car looking at you.
Electric Cars are so hot right now.
Smart Toys – This was a horrible name for a store and a horrible sign to boot. Nobody wants a smart toy. They want fun toys. Out of business before season’s end.
Dumb store idea
Marbles – Would you rather buy from Smart Toys or Marbles? Smart Toys looks like an old KBToys filled with worthless shit and Marbles looks like a nice store that will enhance your brain. The Smart Toys owner should be taking notes.
Smart logo.
The Walking Company – Great name. I know exactly what they sell and what it is for. This company specializes in walking. Period.
Do they sell sticks?
Teavana – Is this a play on Nirvana? I don’t get it. Neither does anyone else and why there are no customers. I bet it is closed in 1 year.
Front for the mob.
Dean and Fashion – Who is Dean and why would I trust his fashion sense? I wouldn’t shop here. Also note that shitty $99.99 clearance sign that does more damage than good. Why wouldn’t they just say it’s a sale?
Fuck Dean.
Crew Cuts – If this isn’t a barber shop, it’s misleading.
How can you give a crew cut to the mannequin in the middle?
Zumiez – I’m not buying anything from a place I can’t pronounce. It’s also way to busy. By the time you read it you’re dead.
Some skate shop with 1783512 likes.
Just for my reference I also took a picture of what is “hot” nowadays. Taylor Swift, Hunger Games, Walking Dead, One Direction, Big Bang Theory, and the Biebs.
Easily the funniest sign I saw all day. Tell me I’m missing something here. Why would I watch batteries being installed?
Help! My Wallet is Destroying my Credit Cards
I have 7 cards in the 4 slot of my wallet in this exact order:
Driver’s License – Used frequently to get into bars.
Business Amex – Used when I want to charge a business expense. Used 2x a month.
JP Morgan Chase Card – My most commonly used credit card. Recently switched from Mastercard to Visa and the cause of this post
Amazon Visa Card – Used for Amazon purchases and stores that don’t take Mastercard
US Air Barclay Mastercard – $89 per year and that got 40,000 frequent flyer miles. I rarely use this card for purchases outside of flights.
Bank of America Visa Card – One of the first credit cards I ever opened and I use it strictly to deposit into Bovada.
PNC Bank ATM Card – Frequently used to withdraw money from ATM’s. Kept in the very back for reasons to be mentioned.
On the other side of my wallet I have a Sam’s club card, Macy’s, Best Buy, 2x Golf cards, 5x Casino cards, IBX card, and a Home Depot card. These are all rarely used.
Why would I spend the time dissecting my wallet? I had a traumatic experience checking out at Sam’s Club and it’s imperative you know all the details to why it happened.
Sam’s Club moronically only accepts Mastercard. Previous to this and if you read above, my JP Morgan Chase card was a Mastercard so I never had an issue paying at Sam’s. For the first time today I noticed that it had switched to a Visa card. As I was getting ready to pay, I realized I wouldn’t be able to pay like I usually do and fumbled for my USAir Mastercard. This card wouldn’t swipe. I started sweating bullets because I knew that this card was my only hope.
So I’m standing in line feeling like an asshole and a deadbeat because I have no means of payment. She tried running the card manually but was failing for lord knows what reason but she didn’t give a shit. The people behind me were about 4 deep now and I was getting this feeling of “fuck it”, I’m just going to sprint out of the store. Probably not a great move but now I’m a shithead standing in line having to leave the cart with all the items because I can’t pay. I eventually realized I had $110 dollars in cash in my wallet and had to return 2 lightbulbs so I could pay in cash. This little story comes with a bigger problem.
With the 7 cards I have in my wallet, when I pull them out, the raised numbers scratch the back of other cards. This causes the magnetic strip to become damaged and thus not working. For this reason, my USAir card doesn’t work, my ATM card works about 25% of the time, and my Amex card has been replaced 3 times within the last year and after writing this post I’m finally aware of why it happens. There are too many cards in the one side. If there were only 4 cards, there wouldn’t be as much pressure. I’m not sure if my wallet situation is similar to yours but I believe it’s smart to have many credit cards all paid off. Now I have two options, 1) get a bigger wallet 2) carry less cards. I’m not sure what I’ll do but I think I’ve pinpointed the problem.
Twitter Spat With Larry Taylor
95% of my tweets are stupid thoughts that I have and the other 5% are trolls. A troll is when you are trying to upset the other party. Yesterday I accidentally trolled a free-lance writer. Free-lance writer kind of sounds like blogger but I think you get paid minimal amounts of money for writing the same quality work I do. Anyway, this dude Larry Taylor wrote a post on back-up QB Brock Osweiler and how he got faked out going in the game by Peyton. It’s not worth reading but he ended the article with this line, “Brock Osweiler may have been upset with Peyton Manning, but it is doubtful anything will happen moving forward.”
This twitter spat followed.
@LCTmoviesnob A joke right? "Brock Osweiler may have been upset with P. Manning, but it is doubtful anything will happen moving forward."
— Tom Stortz (@rnningfool) November 11, 2014
@rnningfool yeah a little sarcasm dude…
— Larry Taylor (@LCTmoviesnob) November 11, 2014
@LCTmoviesnob the article is hardly even newsworthy. I couldn't tell.
— Tom Stortz (@rnningfool) November 11, 2014
@rnningfool checked your twitter profile, didn't see anything there where it said you're the authority on what is newsworthy.
— Larry Taylor (@LCTmoviesnob) November 12, 2014
I honestly thought he was going to rape me, he had the craziest look in his eyes. To defend my position here, I could not tell that he was joking about the last line. The article was published on Business2Community and I don’t know how this even becomes news. He is missing that the only person who is going to click on this article is a sports fan and his closing line is a joke that only die-hard sports fans are going to find funny and even they won’t find it funny. It’s misleading to everyone else.
Him challenging my authority is even funnier. My Twitter profile doesn’t say that I’m the authority? Would it be the case if it did? I was hoping he was going to write that he checked Rnningfool.com and would give me a free plug to his 600 followers. This does show one important point to note, if someone who I didn’t know read my last post on my football playing, they would be bored out of their mind. Which shows why articles need to be geared to everyone.
Either way, Twitter is great because of interaction. There is a sense of fulfillment when the person responds to you and I’d say that people who have less than 1,000 followers usually do. People with <10k sometimes do. People with over 50k rarely do. The point of Twitter though is do generate a reaction and this post shows that.
Rand University
The 30 for 30 tonight dug into the life of Randy Moss. Wow is the #1 word to describe his abilities. Randy was 6-5, 200+ in high school and was the definition of dominant. He played baseball, track, basketball, and football and owned in each. As like most 30 for 30’s, the athlete’s story was educational and inspiring.
Randy grew up in a small town called Rand in West Virginia. He was in the 2% of blacks in a school of racial tension. He fathered a child in high school and got in fights that led to disciplinary action. He would have gone to Notre Dame or FSU if it wasn’t for legal issues. He blossomed at Marshall and then went to the pro’s to have a hall of fame career.
Having a teacher during your youth is crucial to developing the skills to succeed. There was a figure in the community named Sam Singleton who coached all the sports the kids in Rand played. All of the sports. His life was teaching the youth how to play sports and helping them grow as people. It reminded me how lucky I was when I played sports to have parents who would dedicate their life to a child’s success. I’m not sure there is a greater gift you can give as a parent.
Sam Singleton’s son was the best scene of the entire Randy Moss 30 for 30. He was Randy’s best friend and his life took another path. The clip below shows a man who missed his opportunity and how there are far more of these stories than stories like Randy.
[dropcap background=”yes” color=”#333333″]”My mistake lasted forever”[/dropcap]
If you get the chance you should watch the 30 for 30 because Randy is unreal. You feel bad for him at times but you know he has to take responsiblity for his actions. He was an immense talent and it was great to see it work out for him. I liked his reaction when Dennis Green picked him with the 21st pick and how happy he was and how hard he would try to show Dennis how good of a pick it was. Great stuff.
The Creative Juices
I don’t like using words like juices, wet, or moist because it comes off as slimy. For lack of a better title though, I haven’t been putting much thought into blog topics. I will however bore you with football talk.
I had too much to drink on Friday night but it wasn’t black out too much, it was my stomach was too filled up with liquid to enjoy myself. I woke up the next day for a double header in our co-ed rec football. We destroyed the first team in game one but the second game was quite competitive. The person I was covering scored 3 TD’s, burning me twice for long ones which was demoralizing. There is no worse feeling than getting burned on a deep pass and having the entire team shake their head. We ended up losing by 2 points which was actually a moral victory because the team was solid.
I went back and slept after that because I was so tired. I put some money on Michigan State which lost and recovered from Friday. On Sunday I was feeling good and worked out before watching the games. I hit a 100 dollar wager on the Jets and then 70 on the Lions only to give 100 back on the Rams and Bears. I also have major chances for some nice cashes in Fanduel which will hopefully dig me out of this little hole I’ve got myself into.
I also have a chance of going 4-0 in Fantasy as long as Lesean goes for under 23. This has many implications so I won’t go into any until the game is over. Either way I’ll be watching closely. Eagles -7 is too much.
Birthday Wishes!
Yesterday was my birthday. Most people don’t think about the break down of birthday but it was the day you were birthed. So for some crazy reason, society decided it was important to keep track of how old you are and to celebrate the day you exit your mothers vagina. Wonderful.
It’s been 31 times that I’ve had a birthday and I couldn’t care less. I feel no need to celebrate and it feels like any other day. I even prefer not to be the center of attention. It’s nice for people to come out of the woodwork and wish happy birthday through Facebook but it doesn’t mean much. I’ll give an example, my friend Adam didn’t even know it was my birthday but he’s a better friend than 99% of the people who did wish me a happy birthday. I missed his birthday by 2 days last year. I missed Sam’s 2 years before that. I’m not advocating missing birthdays but it’s not that big of a deal compared to when you were 12 and kids were dropping quarters at Challenges.
I put a picture of Katy Perry and her huge boobs because this is my blog.
Brand’s Inequality of Life
Unlike Gourlay educating you on a pigeon, I’m going to attempt some heavier lifting explaining a few points from Russell Brand’s book Revolution. I will hardly do justice to his full explanation but I will hopefully describe points I found thoughtful. The book is a plea for people to start a revolution against the unfair principals of capitalism, the Gov’t, and corporations.
The 10th chapter used an example of how monkeys feel inequality. Here is an experiment (it’s old but it was the first time I’ve seen it) with 2 monkeys that are told to perform a task (give the rock back). As a reward, they are given food. The first time Monkey1 performs the task and gets a cucumber while Monkey2 performs the same task and gets a grape. No problem on the first try but when Monkey1 gets a cucumber for the second time…well, see for yourself.
The point is that monkeys prefer fairness the same way, most humans do. A focal point of the book is finding ways to separate this huge distinction between the super rich and lower class.
One idea is to reduce security. Security is what separates the wealthy from the poor. It’s what makes you accept that this is the way it is. An excerpt:
“The definition of being rich means having more stuff than other people. In order to have more stuff, you need to protect that stuff with surveillance systems, guards, police, court systems, and so forth. All of those somber looking men in robes who call themselves judges are just sentinels, whose job it is to convince you that this very silly system in which we give Paris Hilton as much as she wants while others go hungry is good and natural and right.”
If the powerful had to live a life without security, and common people were able to interact with them without interference, what do you think would happen? I bet the powerful people would act completely differently because their actions would ultimately lead them to face to face with the people.
This leads into an idea that says to remove titles. “One of the most remarkable things you learn when you work in a position of political influence is just how much titles separate the wealthy and the politicians from the citizens. Ordinary people will use a title before addressing someone, and that immediately makes that ordinary person a supplicant and the title one person of influence.”
He goes on to make the point that the Queen of England is merely a person. She’s only a Queen because we say she’s the queen. She’s not a magical being or an actual queen. She’s only queen because the people are stupid enough to believe she’s the queen because the rich and powerful say she’s the queen. It makes zero sense.
I’m a big believer in the notion that the rich have too much money. The system is in place to protect these wealthy people so that they continue to get richer and the poor stay poor. I have no idea what can be done about this but I have 0 doubt this is what is happening. Ahh fuck it. I’m going to watch another Shark Tank so I can be one of the rich people and segregate myself from the poor.
Being a Student of Shark Tank
I’m rarely an early adopter of TV shows. I like the word to get out that the show is incredibly good and then I’ll binge watch to catch up. Rarely is a network show on my list but after hearing from numerous people that Shark Tank is a quality program, I’ve begun binge watching. There have been 93 episodes and I have probably watched about 50 from all seasons in the past 2 months which I think gives me a good perspective on what was happening in season 1 compared to season 5. These are my observations.
The Sharks
Robert Herjavec – Net Worth $125 Million – Nice guy who enjoys the outdoors, running, cars, and is a family man. He is the tech guy who grew his own 3 person business to a hundred million dollar company. He tends to have morals and stays away from unethical deals. He can get upset with Mark how he bullies the entrepreneurs into making deals. He seems like a nice guy.
Lori Greiner – Net Worth $50 Million – “Queen of QVC” – Lori is known as the warm blooded shark and I applaud her for not getting bullied by Mark. Her main selling point is that she can get the product on QVC which gets tired. She has a good head on her shoulders and connects well with the women. My one pet peeve is when she says “and for that reason, I’m out”.
Barbara Corcoran – Net Worth $140 Million – Marketing & design expert. She is the #1 shark in terms of making your product look presentable and the best to sell on a store shelf. She made her money in real estate and gets along with most people. Extremely likable and I enjoy her personality even though I believe she is the easiest to replace.
Kevin O’Leary – Net Worth $300 Million- Mr Wonderful is the best shark. He is never on the entrepreneur’s side and only thinks about his own wallet. Most of his deals involve some perpetuity where he collects forever on the sales of the deal. He will always low ball and isn’t afraid to tell people when their idea is stupid. Especially likes the wedding and funeral industries. My favorite move by Kevin is when he tells the pitcher that “anyone can come in and do it”. I picture him sitting on a yacht in the Mediterranean, sipping a $10,000 bottle of wine, and counting his money. His catch phrase is either “stop the madness” and “it all leads back to Mr. Wonderful.”
Daymond John – Net Worth $250 Million – Fashion and manufacturing expert who is highly regarded for his opinions on clothing. Daymond says the least so it’s difficult to know what he is thinking but he has a keen sense of an idea and how to scale it. He is one of the sharks who has a night life which is a nice change of pace compared to everyone else.
Kevin Harrington – Net Worth $450 Million – Infomercial guru. Replaced by Mark Cuban after season 1. He wasn’t bad by any means but he also wasn’t good. Mark was a significant upgrade. Kevin was somewhat boring and was a duplicate of Lori’s business prowess. 2 sharks with the same skillset had to be altered and dropping Kevin was right because his television presence was not as significant as Mark.
Mark Cuban – Net Worth $2.7 Billion – Has the biggest reputation, the biggest attitude, and the biggest bank account. He is brash, decisive, pushy, and rarely backs down from his opinions. The Mavs shtick gets old though because it’s all the presenters ever gear their pitches to. The entrepreneurs also have a fascination with dealing with him where they will take worse deals just to partner with him. When you are 10x richer than the other sharks, I can see why, He’s perfect for the show but I view him more as a heel than a hero.
My Observations
The success stories are irrelevant when everyone succeeds because of the notoriety of Shark Tank. The show has turned into an investors dream when after the show your idea gets exposed to millions of people. I would much prefer to see company’s failing or overcoming obstacles.- Mark hates stories. Whenever Lori or Kevin start with a story he has already heard, he starts rolling his eyes.
- Mark and Robert have a personal feud. Mark doesn’t respect Robert and Robert is constantly seeking Mark’s approval. This does not happen all the time but Robert is always looking over his shoulder at what Mark is doing or thinking.
Kevin’s perpetuity deals. Funniest character on the show. Constantly working deals that pay him forever without him doing anything but setting it up. I find him to be extremely savvy although his people skills are negligible. He knows what he knows and does it to perfection.- People who get on Shark Tank only for the exposure is becoming more frequent. This was not the case in the beginning when the deals were mostly 50k for 25%, instead of multi million dollar deals. I saw one where a guy was asking for 3% for 250k and had little need for the money and was strictly there for the exposure. Cuban freaks out when he believes this is the case and rightfully so.
- After the pitch when the person is thanking the Sharks for their opinions is one of the funniest parts of the show. When someone thanks a shark for turning them down Mr Wonderful would say, “what are you thanking me for, I just told you the idea stunk?”
- Dopey music making an idea look dumb is so unbecoming of NBC. I get annoyed when the camera zooms in on a face or essentially leads the audience into thinking a certain way.
- Taking offers has gotten absurd. The sharks will bully the entrepreneurs and tell them they have to make a decision right away when it’s unfair because they haven’t even heard any other offers. Then they childishly say they’re out when they wait. The best line I’ve heard was, “With respect to everyone else, I’d like to hear the other offers.”
- The amount of deals the sharks are taking is becoming unmanageable. With 93 episodes and about 4 deals per episode, that’s roughly 150+ deals assuming half of the people walk. How can 7 people manage 20 deals each? Something is fishy and I wouldn’t be surprised if many deals fall through after being accepted on the show.
