Ohhhhhh-cho Loco

I Twittered a few weeks ago about how Chad Johnson, WR CIN Bengals, filed in Florida to legally have his last name changed from Johnson to Ocho Cinco and it seems that he has actually gone forward with it.

You see, Chad Last-Name-To-Be-Changed was fined by the NFL in 2006 for wearing "Ocho Cinco" on the back of his jersey. As I recall when watching the game, there was a grand production that centered around ripping the "Ocho Cinco" off to reveal his true last name, at the time.

NFL policy states that a player may only wear his (or her) last name on the back of the jersey. Now that Chad has changed his last name, will we see Chad "Ocho Cinco" on the back of his jersey this year?

You know what I'd really like to see? Trade Chad I-Haveta-Have-My-Name-In-The-Spotlight-Constantly to a team that has the number 85 retired. That list includes:

• DET #85, Chuck Hughes
• CLE/LA/STL #85, Jack Youngblood

Hmmmm... not prominent enough for Ocho-Loco. That boy will have to go to a large media market in order to fully test the limits of his ego. As a friend of mine said the other day, "Too much of a good thing is sometimes too much."

Anyone got an over-under on the time until Chad Johnson-Ocho-Cinco goes muy loco?

Facebook Hits 100 Million

Facebook hit 100 million users this week, read the announcement. I switched over from MySpace over a year ago and still believe that Facebook has created a better addiction than it's largest competitor. It took Facebook something like 4-5 years to reach 100 million, which was longer than it took MySpace, but I think Facebook has a much tidier and simplistic formula.

I created a reunion group on Facebook for my high school graduating class a few weeks ago. At the time we had maybe 15 of our class on Facebook. We now have almost 70 from the class of 1989 in the group, plus another 30-40 from the years around 1989 that have come to join us.

Their adoption is purely because of the simplicity by which you can jump on Facebook, add photos, join discussions, search/reconnect and get the constant newsfeed about what your friends are doing.

Personally, I think we are directly responsible for the 100 millionth member. Do we get a candy bar or something? A T-shirt?

Props to the stay-at-home moms and the teachers (who were off during the summer) for jumping on the phone and email to track down the names that kept popping up as lost. I guess it also helps to have a bailbondsman in the graduating class.

Back to Facebook... they also claim that 20% of their user base has "visited" the redesigned site. I'm one of the 20%, but I reverted back to the old site immediately. The new site gives me less info about my friends than the old site and, by golly, that's the glue! HELLO?

Facebook is trying to spin the 20% into a grand accomplishment, but I have a vocabulary and I can do simple math:

• 100,000,000 users x 20% = 20,000,000 visited the redesign.
• "Visited" does not mean adopted. Straw poll amongst my friends on Twitter yielded ZERO that adopted it, but let's give Facebook the benefit of the doubt and say...
• 50% of the 20% adopted the new look.
• 10,000,000 is a big number unless you have 100 million users.
• 10% of your users adopting your redesign is absolute crap. FAIL!
  

BTW, why can't you comment on the Facebook blog? Doesn't really make much of a conversation, does it?

Neighborhood Entrepreneurs

Mollipops and I hit the brakes for a neighborhood lemonade stand in Lee's Summit the other day... we're swayed by cute kids waving signs, what can we say?

The kids were not only making some good lemonade, they were donating a portion of their profits to a local charity/organization (I think it was the Children's Hospital). Nice co-marketing, kids.

We bought two glasses at $.50 a pop and paid $2 bucks.

As we rolled away, lemonade in hand, we heard one of the kids say, "Two bucks! Now we're in business!"

Priceless.

Say no more: Alcoholic Popsicles

When times get tough (recession, war, global warming), consumers seek comfort in nostalgia. Anything that taps into happy childhood memories has more appeal these days.

Gen Xers and older Millennials are known for their Peter Pan-like attitude. If this group is down with Hello Kitty, videogames and Rock, Paper, Scissors tournaments, then drunken popsicles are right up their alley.

Gives a new jingle to that creepy white van coming 'round the corner in the 'hood, doesn't it?

How dey do dat? How da thermos know to keep da hot stuff hot and da cold stuff cold? My bottle-a vodka doesn't freeze, so how dey make it into a popsicle?

Mobile Ads & Alerts

4INFO, one of my former haunts, had an interesting ad in a text alert that they sent me last night announcing another loss for my beloved Royals.

"*DRIVE SMART! AVOID FLOODED WASHES/ROADS!"

It's a branding message because there is no link, but there's also no brand. So, I suppose it's simply public awareness, but who's paying for it? And, knowing that 4INFO can target ads geographically (although I'm a Missouri resident with a San Diego area code), I'm wondering if that aspect is coming into play at all. Perhaps my peeps at FINFO will provide some insight.

For all my renewed Mid-western friends, you need to set up your free MU/KU/KC text alerts NOW!

1. Address a text message to 4-4-6-3-6, which spells 4-I-N-F-O on your phone.
2. In the body of the message, type "alert missouri tigers" or "alert kansas jayhawks" or "alert kc chiefs" to have scores automatically texted to your phone.
3. If you want to get alerts more often, like every time the score changes, visit http://4info.net, sign in and set alerts to your heart's content!

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll be happy to assist!

Obama out-fems HRC

I constantly wondered why Hillary never took advantage of the fact that she is a woman. She tried so hard to be like a man during her campaign that she ultimately lost because her opponent, Obama, was more feminine than she.

Seriously.

A friend, author (The Culture Code) and respected psychologist, Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, recently wrote:

"Hillary lost the nomination because she was not wearing a skirt; she missed the feminine trend. She did not lose because she is a woman, she lost because she is not
enough of a woman – she is not feminine enough.

Obama won because he was more feminine than Hillary. He is soft, integrative, is not exclusive and for unity. Men make definitions by exclusion. Woman are into inclusion, they make definitions by adding – “this is it, this is it too, and this is also it” and it never really ends. This is the Obama structure. He integrates different countries, different races, different classes and this is what is appealing
to the world.“we have to be on the Internet.”

How many times did I ask, "Why doesn't Hillary ever wear a skirt?" Too many! I'm not saying that I was a supporter or HRC during her campaign, but I was vocal about how she was trying so hard to avoid her gender that she was losing out on a real opportunity.

When we've been a divided country for this long, the natural tendency is to seek unity. Men are exclusive (the sword). Women are inclusive (the chalice). We want inclusion. We see the problems. We want to be part of the answer.

Too bad, HRC. BTW, did you pay off that campaign debt yet? If that's how you're going to run a campaign, I'd sure dislike how you woulda run the government anyhow.

Smashed Glass & Mollipops

If you did this, you're an S.O.B.

My new, very lovely kissy-face partner and I discovered a crime after we'd been out for an amazing morning of coffee and conversation followed up with Chipotle for lunch.

As far as we can tell, nothing was stolen. In fact, I doubt they even opened up the glove compartment or center console. There was a rock on the floorboard of the passenger side.

A strange thought occurs to me... if the intent would have been to steal something, I'd almost feel better about the act. But when it's simply to vandalize, then what's the point.

Thoughts?

As an aside, I was happy that I could be there to help Mollipops get through the whole thing and arrange for her car to get fixed.

Thanks for a rad weekend minus the shattered glass!