It's springtime, so that must mean it's...

POISON OAK TIME.

This morning, while putting on my socks, I notice a scratch. Upon closer examination, it has all the signs/symptoms of poison oak. Where did that come from??? Skiing at Heavenly? Walking around downtown Palo Alto. Dammit!!! The only thing I detest about the wilds here is how those oils just seem to jump onto my skin without me knowing it. Okay...done venting.

You know why hotel shams are multi-colored?

To disguise the stains. Nice, huh?

Luckily, we have people like Barry Sternlicht of Starwood to bring us the wondrous Heavenly Bed. This week, while at the Innovations in Marketing Strategy in SF, Scott Williams, Starwood's Chief Creative Officer, enlighted me with a talk on the Bed Wars and Innovation and Design in a commodity market.

Hotels...all the same, right? We typically choose hotels because of cost (cheap!!!), preferred status (points!!!) or location (the conference is there!!!). Then Barry came along and said, "Hey, I sleep in a nice bed, why can't all of our guests?" And voila, the Heavenly Bed was created: white comforters; high threadcount sheets and big, fluffy pillows. Now when you walk into a Westin, you think: clean, comfortable, HOME!!! Marriott and others quickly said "me too" and the bed wars were launched. Not to be complacent, Starwood asked themselves where else can they look to innovate (with a strong leaning towards design). Answer: Heavenly shower...with a curved shower curtain, protecting raised elbows from touching icky curtains; Heavenly cribs...so your child doesn't have to sleep through a Romanian orphanage experience; and Heavenly Dog Beds...so 27 million travelers with pets can pamper Fido.

So...now it's checkout time and as you close the door you give a fleeting look to your newfound flame. You mention it offhandedly at checkout, "boy, I would sure love to have one of those beds in my home." Well guess what...you CAN! The Heavenly Store sold over 5,000 beds last year. You can buy the whole damn Heavenly line if you desire!

Scott's message: innovation and design are hand-in-hand partners now. We can't escape it. His favorite design and innovation trendsetters: Starbucks, Apple (each new product release = AWESOME!) and Masterlock (a nice segue where we learn that new products positioned Masterlock as a security company, not a lock company, radically altering the size of their potential market from $300MM to Billions). We can have cool, nice things for low prices too...think Target. Design doesn't have to mean expensive.

So, if you are locked into a commodity business with a product that hasn't changed in years...you better start innovating/designing now, cause your competitor is gonna sooner or later.

Making gym memberships part of your health plan

My idea: encourage gym usage by paying people to go to the gym. Who should do this? Your health provider, of course. What better way to ensure that you are healthy and in good shape than to have you at the gym several times a month. Each visit, you make $3...go 3 times a week and you have $36...almost covering the cost of a system wide monthly fee at 24 Hour Fitness (~$46). Cap it at $50 a month. Kaiser and their peers should buy up Bally's, 24 Hour Fitness, Gorilla and others and build them out to more neighborhoods (increasing accessibility) and make sure they have a large day-care center (so moms and dads can go and not worry about the kids). Add nutritionists, physical therapists, massage therapists and chiropracters to the locale and you have all that you need...a real fitness/wellness center. I bet this $600 *investment* far outways the healthcare costs of dealing with unfit people.

I heard a rumor that the city of Monterey pays you $1 for each gym visit...you just sign in and they tally it up at the end of the month and send you a check. I spent a few minutes googling this, but couldn't verify it. But...a good rumor nonetheless.

Next idea: you know those VIP cards that gamblers get in Vegas to track gambling activity? They should put those readers on exercise machines so that you can track your workouts: calories burned, heartrate, progress in matching your exercise plan, etc. Make it interactive, make it fun!

C'mon Kaiser, get proactive!!!

Ships flying kites

This is VERY cool...ships that use kites to save fuel and cruise faster. Wonder what they will do at night, put lights on them? Wouldn't want to fly into a kite while in a plane. OUCH!

DoCoMo's vision of the future

Just came across DoCoMo's Vision 2010 project. The streaming video is about 11 minutes and shows some future technology scenarios. Enjoy!

We are a BIG-TIME New York ad firm!!!

4pm...sitting at my desk...phone rings:

*me* Hello
*btafg1* [on speaker phone] Yeah...how much do your memberships cost? I'm with an ad firm and we want to give away your memberships?
*me* Could we back up? Who am I talking to?
*btafg1* Look, we are a BIG-TIME New York ad firm, working for a BIG-TIME global telco, working on a promotion to give away predictions about the future.
*btafg2* Yeah [indecipherable mumbling on speaker phone], we want to know how much a thousand memberships costs.
*btafg1* How much are memberships to your website?
*me* I'm sorry...I need to know more about who you are and who you work for. And, who is your client? A telco or the top 1000 Forune companies?
*btafg1* I am not at liberty to disclose who I am or my firm's name. We are a BIG-TIME ad firm, though.
*btafg2* The telco is our client...who we want to be our client. We want to give about a thousand memberships to the Fortune 1000 companies.
*me* You mean get memberships for all of the Fortune 1000?
*btafg1* Yes...how much will that cost?
*me* [I take this time to explain that we are not just a website, how we work, how we market our services and how much our services cost.]
*btafg2* So we can't give away trials to your memberhips?
*me* No, we don't work that way, we don't do trials and we don't give discounts.
*btafg2* Oh...well, we can't afford that.
*btafg1* Yeah...we can't afford that.
*me* Have a great day.

Interesting, no? I'm picturing these two clowns sitting in a 40th floor office scheming about how to pitch their client. What cracked me up most was their usage of the term: BIG-TIME. Now c'mon...if they were really BIG-TIME New York ad guys, what the hell are they doing at 7pm on a Wednesday calling me up. Wouldn't one of their lackeys be doing that? Wouldn't they be chasing some tail at the hip, new bar-of-the-moment in the Village?

By the way:
btafg1 = BIG-TIME ad firm guy 1
btafg2 = BIG-TIME ad firm guy 2

The thwarting of innovation over 50 years ago

I just finished watching The Man in the White Suit starring Alec Guinness, in a 1951 movie about the invention of fabric that won't wear out or get dirty. After toiling in various labs, Guiness's character, Sydney Stratton, finally produces the magic polymer and a suit of the material is made for a press conference. The textile mill owners quickly realize that it will be their ruin if such a material is produced and band together with labor to supress the technology by attempting to stop Sydney's idea from becoming public. A chase ensues, leading to a surprise ending. Funny thing: nanotech is making this movie more and more likely.

Nowadays, innovation paranoia isn't as prevalent, though it does exist here and there (Verizon's recent attempts to thwart the city of Philadelphia's efforts to deploy broadband via Wi-Fi is a good example).

The movie leads to thoughts about existent and nascent technologies/services, allowing serious changes to business/profit models:

• VOIP...sorry telcos
• File sharing...sorry movie companies
  
• Wi-Max...sorry mobile providers
• stain-resistent clothing...sorry detergent and washing machine makers
• stem-cell therapies...sorry drug manufacturers
  

Lots of companies will lose money, though lots will make money; many people will lose jobs, though many will find new jobs. All I know is that the consumer benefits time and time again. Keep your eye on the future...it's gonna be fun to see what happens!

Obsessions

I woke this morning, unprompted (as usual), at 6:30am. Doesn't matter when I went to bed (was up til 4:30am reading last night), what I had to eat, or what I have to do...I wake up at 6:30am. However, this time, I had a blogging inspiration: obsessions. In particular, I'm interested today in WordNet 2.0's 2nd nounal definition:

obsession: an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone [syn fixation].

Sound familiar? Ah yes...we've all had them.

It being a being a cloudy/ugly holiday, I thought I would reflect on obsessions and my experiences with them.

Let us begin by dividing them up into various categories: self, collecting, digital. And then let us delve into the various precursors for obsession: genetic, boredom (sorry...couldn't find a decent link for this) and culture (yeah, yeah, yeah...this link was gratuitous...what of it?).

Let's walk through a few of my life's obsessions:

1. Baseball cards (collecting...culture) - In 1978, I collected baseball cards. Not Fleer. Not Donruss. My cards were Topps. I lived and breathed these things. As soon as I had some loose change, or a dollar or two...up the street to the Candy Store I would go to get more. In the end, it all came down to Duane Kuiper...I sent word out that anyone who had Duane would get ALL of my duplicates, triplicates, etc. Meaning...one card was worth another three or four hundred to the lucky finder of Duane's card. I look back now and think: WHAT AN IDIOT. All those cards for Kuiper? At the time...it was the only thing to do. It ended my obsession. I got Kuiper and could rest easy. The cards now rest in my room in my mom's house. Not sure what condition they are in or when I'll ever see them again. Perhaps it is time to send them back into the collecting world for others to obsess over. (Note: I will never forget Duane's name...impossible to do so. Upon moving to the Bay Area, a smile was formed when I found out that he is the local color commentator for Giants broadcasts.)
   
2. Exercise/Food (self...culture) - In high school, I was pretty good at the 110-high hurdles. (Thanks for all that coaching Max, wherever you are!) When senior year rolled around, I got off to a lousy start, my times were not as good as I thought that they should be, and I blamed it all on my weight: a whopping 5 pound increase from the year before. I would train at practice, and then come home and stretch and do plyometrics and have a very meager meal. I NEEDED to get better. I was TOO heavy. Luckily, the French Club interrupted the season and while living large in Montreal and Quebec City with my classmates, I gained 7 pounds. Upon my return, the new weight changed everything: the records started to fall again, and I finished the season on a high note. And...I learned that food is fuel, not a foe.
   
3. Games (self/digital...boredom) - The summer of '92, I spent at college, working part-time at the HUB and hanging out with friends. Most people were taking classes, so while they were busy studying, I was busy mastering Minesweeper. I HAD to have the best score on all the levels...and once I did, I had to beat that score. I think my records were: 6 seconds, 28 seconds and 62 seconds for the three different levels. It was INSANE how much time I spent playing that idiotic game. Luckily, a project came up that soon became my new compulsion (history project for a club I was in). To this day, I detest playing video games since I see them as such a waste of my time.
   
4. Reading (self...boredom) - Sometime, after college, I REALLY began reading for pleasure. I typically jump around from genre to genre, but sometimes, I get hooked on a certain writer and immerse myself in her/his works. The last immersion was Vonnegut. I think I covered about 12 of his books in about three weeks. This isn't necessarily bad, but I have seen it impact my work in the past...staying up really late to finish a book and then being dead tired the next day. These days, I actually wish I had more time to read.
   
5. Social Networks (digital...culture) - This is a relatively new phenomena...last 5 years or so. The Bay Area seems to be the hotbed for these networks (either founded or highly popular here): Ryze, Friendster, MySpace, Orkut, Mixermixer, LinkedIn; and now a few new destinations to steal time from my soul: Flickr, Blogger & Bloglines. I have a profile on every social site known to man. It probably didn't hurt knowing some of the founders (helping out their cause), but I definitely went WAY overboard in my dealings with those sites. The upshot...I made tons of friends, so the time can't be seen as a complete waste.

So..now you know some of my life obsessions. Do you have any to share? Are you living any of your own now?

One more reason I love my Alma Mater

In college, I participated in an event (dancing and organization) called the Dance Marathon. It supports the Four Diamonds Fund and is run by the Greeks of Penn State. This year, they did it again by raising over $4.1 million. The increases have generally been on steady uphill climb since the first event in 1973 raised a few thousand dollars. Even during periods of recession, the event generally matched the efforts from the previous year.

Back in the mid-90s the Children's Miracle Network knew a good thing when they saw it and took the idea and have franchised it to several campuses around the country. A few weeks back, while returning to work from lunch, I passed by a couple of canners (kids collecting money) for Stanford's Dance Marathon...their first Marathon. It brought back a wave of memories and money quicly flowed into their can.

Kudos to the kids at Penn State...JOB WELL DONE, again!!!!!!!

The Michael Jordan/Wayne Gretzky of Lacrosse

Last night, I had the opportunity to see the San Jose Stealth lose (14-6) to the Colorado Mammoth in a National Lacrosse League match (thanks for the tickets, Joe!). It was the last regular season appearance in San Jose for lacrosse legend Gary Gait. True to form, Gait either scored or assisted on the first three Mammoth goals.

I have to admit, I had a great time at the game. To describe it quickly...imagine regular outdoor lacrosse played like hockey: it had the back-and-forth quickness of tennis, the in-your-face agressiveness of hockey, the light-up-the-scoreboard scoring of basketball (well...peewee basketball). Perhaps this is why it is the fastest growing high school sport in America.

Based on what I saw last night and what I have read today...this sport is going to grow in popularity over the years. If you get a chance...check it out!

From Aaliyah to Zulma...

Check out the Name Wizard to see how the popularity of your name has waxed and waned throughout the years. Trends I noticed:

• If you want your kid to stand out, have her/his name start with an F
  
• Vowels...very popular these days
• No one names their kid Claribel, Madonna or Mortimer anymore
• Mercedes has been around longer than I thought
• Boys dominate Q, U, W & X
• Girls dominate K & Y
• Pascual has come and gone a couple of times
• There is only one Cher
  

Dearest Netflix...why I love thee so

I wanted to see what happened with unreleased movies(Saw and The Motorcycle Diaries) when placed in the #1 & #2 slots of my queue. Would they ship on time? Would they be passed over, due to "Long Wait" or "Very Long Wait"? Nope and Nope.

To my surprise, they shipped the day before they were released and arrived the same day that they could be purchased or rented at Blockbuster. Isn't that nice service!!! Too bad I had plans tonight and didn't have time to watch one of them. Netflix...you got an A for effort today!

Antarctic antics

A co-worker of mine spent a year at the South Pole. At lunch today, he spoke about life down in the land of nothingness:

• The 300 Degree Club - when temps dip below 100 below, they pump the sauna up to 200 degrees, then jump outside for a quick pic in their shorts (with icicles instantly forming on their bodies) next to the YOU ARE AT THE SOUTH POLE sign. He cl
  
• During the summer, when temps reach a balmy 20 below, they race clockwise around the pole for 3 laps...passing time zone to time zone, they quickly go back in time 72 hours...
• Food is just about the only luxury they have, so late night kitchen snacks include leftover lobster and chocolate eclairs
• The postman comes just once during the winter...and he just delivers...no outbound mail
• He was there before that Internet thingy...so he had to pass time by actually *talking* to people....the SAME people...day after day after day. Well...not true exactly, cause winter was just one LONG night.
• Sleep rhythms adjust to the body's norm: two 4 hour naps separated by 3 hours of wake time.

To possess or not to possess?

Yes...I did spend the weekend reading. Just finished with Tokyo: A Certain Style by Kyoichi Tsuzuki. In the mid-90s, Tsuzuki spent a couple of years putting together a photo book of low end Tokyo homes: students, artists, musicians and people who need a place to crash from time to time. The result: an inside look into the *real* urban Japan...that of the masses who are not professionals and who do not need material possessions to rule their lives.

It reminded me of my college and just-after-college days, when magazines, books, and music were my major possessions. Furniture and kitchen/laundry appliances were not needed; or if owned, were secondhand. My fraternity had dozens of rooms...some singles, and doubles and a handful of larger group rooms (the Penthouse and Cook's Room). Creativity and sweat equity were constants during each semester's shift in rooms: painting, ripping up/replacing carpets, constructing/deconstructing wet-bars, hanging tapestries. Hours and hours were spent fixing up my room to be just *right*.

In my first move to DC after college, my possessions equaled one carload. Two months later, en route to my new home of Boston, my material wealth had evolved to two carloads. In DC, I slept on the mattress removed from a foldout couch. In Boston, I slept on the floor for a few weeks and then on a doubled-over waffle mattress cover. That soon turned into a futon and then a real-life double mattress. By age 25, I came of age upon purchase of a real-life wooden bed frame.

In 2001, my move across the country forced me to rent a 17' truck to transport my *wealth*: living room/dining room/bedroom furniture, pots/pans, books, shelves, artwork, kitchen items, stereo/TVs/DVDs, sporting gear and lots and lots of clothes and shoes. I quickly moved to a flat in the city with enough closet and storage space to easily (and cleanly) store everything. Three point five years later, I have downsized to renting a room in a house, with several of my possessions either on loan to friends (thanks for helping out!), stored in boxes in the garage, or hastily stowed away (shoved) in the closet or under my bed.

The next move will again require me to rethink what I want and what I don't want. My gut tells me: those who have taken in my goods will end up inheriting what they are sheltering. What I have learned is that I can easily get by in life with much less than I thought I needed years ago. As long as I have some space to sprawl out on the floor, room to entertain a handful of friends, and quick access to what is important to me then life is good.

Confession: I like Dick

While perusing the company library, I stumbled across Philip K. Dick's The man in the High Castle. Dick was a sci-fi author in the 50s and 60s who is now widely known for his work being turned into movies such as: Blade Runner, Total Recall & Minority Report. He spent a long period of his life in San Francisco, so it comes to no surprise that he writes often of the city.

TMITHC takes place in 1962. FDR's assassination led to a serious change of events: the US doesn't enter WWII, allowing the Germans to whoop the Allies and the Japanese to whoop the US; and now America has been divied up by the conquerers. Along the way, those oh-so-lovable Nazis emptied the Mediterranean for farmland, wiped out the blacks and the Jews of the lands they controlled, sent astronauts to the moon and Mars, and take control of the world economy.

In the US, marijuana cigarettes are smoked for pleasure (legally...remember, he's from SF and he wrote this in 1962...wishful thinking on his part), Americana (antique Zippo lighters and Mickey Mouse watches) is desired by rich Japanese collectors, and people are starting to read a book that tells of an alternative world...one where England and the US were the victors of WWII. The book is banned in German controlled areas, but freely read in the Middle West of America and the Pacific States of America.

I am now inspired to add Dick to my writers-I-should-read-more-of list. What do you think...which of his works should I read next?