I bought NCAA ‘08 for XBox 360 last night and invited David over for his inaugural beating. There was a lot of jawing going on from both sides before the game and it quickly got quiet on one side. David, a.k.a. Mr. Beatdown, took one of the worst beatings I have ever seen or given and as you know…..I am a first degree Black Belt in Kick A$$.

In an attempt to make it fair, we had to pour sand in my eyes, tie my hands behind my back and I had to play with my teeth for the whole second half. This just managed to inspire me as I blindly put 3 more touchdowns on the board.

Here is the proof:

Here is what it looks like after a 50-0 beatdown:

Here we had to call in the medics for CPR:

As you can see, it got just plain UGLY……

I am not into conspiracies but I think I have come across one. I never believed in other universes that mirror ours but now the proof is indisputable. I have discovered another universe that Hollywood has known about for years. I did a little more research to back up my theory for those of you who are skeptical:

• A movie was made a few years back called “Ali” starring Will Smith and you can’t argue that it wasn’t exactly like a real life boxer named Muhammed Ali. Just try disproving that one…
• Another movie “JFK” even went as far as to have the same three letters as a past President name John F. Kennedy as it documented a life very similar to his own

There are just too many to name and seeing is believing…..so here are the pictures:

Me and David

Cowboy Wayne and J.D. McNugent from Saving Silverman

The proof is in the pudding:

I think you are all believers now

This is an unfortunate situation. Whether he is guilty or not is irrelevant….I want to know how they caught that guy. It had to have taken 30+ cops, a net, and barrels of commercial-grade glue. I saw him play one time in Denver against the Broncos and he outran the horse carrying the flag on the field between quarters. That happened to be the same game that he threw a 50 yard pass to himself when the refs temporarily allowed the Broncos to field 16 players on defense and handcuffed all eligible receivers. They had to make it fair somehow….

I just read where Stephen Schwarzman and George W. Bush were roommates in college at Yale. I wonder which one considers themselves more successful? Both have reached levels that are experienced by a very select few. Just thought that was interesting….

I recently received a sales call from a vendor that we have an account with for the products we purchase. They are a 4th or 5th tier vendor that we use when our 1-3rd are out of product (which isn’t that often). Needless to say, we don’t put as much volume into purchasing with them and they are well aware of how much we spend a year with a our 1-3rd options. They want a piece of that pie because there is a major difference in the dollar amount.

This sales call was from a girl we’ll call Summer, and she started the call by telling me we would no longer receive free shipping for orders over $200 because our amount of spend annually didn’t warrant it. She then followed that information by asking me what she could do to get more of my business. I graciously accepted the information and nicely got off the phone by sidestepping the question of how she could get more business. Summer called me back a few weeks later to check in and I took the opportunity to help her by telling her how I perceived the last phone call. I described it as she slapping me in the face and then wanting me to apologize for it. I did this jokingly, so the mood was light and I never try the tough guy role (don’t believe in it).

She then wanted to argue with me that we agreed to buy more with the free shipping on orders of more than $200 and she didn’t see enough of an increase to continue offering that incentive. I had to stop her mid sentence to remind her why she was calling me. You see…she was calling to get more business and she apparently forgot about the big picture. She had now called me twice and bombed by doing two things:

1. Calling me with bad news in a sales call
2. Following that call and trying to argue with me about how I felt when she is the one who asked how I felt.

I do believe Summer is probably good at her job and I know that she works for a good company. I have been very polite with her throughout this whole dialogue and still plan to do so. I wanted to give her a chance because we do need them as an alternative and they are very good at filling that role for us. I asked her if she had a money back rebate or a product sample rebate based on the amount of annual spend that we do (these are things their competitors do).

She said no to both. I know that her hands on tied on a program like that because I am sure that decision is made by the top brass. We basically had to end the conversation with the conclusion that - “it is what it is”. No hard feelings on my side and hopefully none on theirs. All I can figure is, if you don’t do the things necessary to grow……..don’t expect growth.

I just typed in the keyphrase “Google Video” into the Google Search Engine and saw a sponsored ad paid for by Blinkx titled “Try Blinkx Instead”. This is a direct competitor of Google using Google’s own trademark for their gain on the Google Search Engine. This is the equivalent of your competitor standing in front of your office door inside your office building stopping your customers to tell them about their product/service.

There has been a lot of litigation on this subject matter (even against Google) and if I really cared, I could tell you what the outcome was. Just thought it was funny….

This past week You Design It had the honor of printing a variety of t shirts for Amy Hughes. She is from the Houston, Texas area and sings “Texas Country”. She asked us to go contemporary with a country flavor for one of her shirt designs and this is what we came up with. She is selling these at a concert where she is opening up for Roger Creager, a very popular country music artist in Texas.

Check out her website and buy her CD on iTunes.