29 July 2008

Internet is back

WooHoo!!! back into the 21st Century. Our current Internet Service Provider has us back online. It certainly was strange not being able to hop online when I wanted to or needed to. Let's hope no one has to go through what I went through this past week. Well, I will post more later.

27 July 2008

Power is back

Power has been restored and we are happy campers. Then again there is still something like 75,000 people without power.

However, BIG KUDOS to those organizations that have kicked it up a notch and making it bearable for those individuals during their time of need.

MAD PROPS TO: State of Texas, Texas National Guard, Red Cross, Salvation Army, American Electric Power (AEP), Magic Valley Electric Cooperative, Hidalgo County Government, Cameron County Government, Willacy County Government, HEB, LOWES, and yes, even FEMA.

Keep up the good work and while you are at it, please update your websites to reflect your efforts and keep us up to date. Those of you that have done so, thanks.

24 July 2008

Power Power...NO Power anywhere

I am thumbing the post from the keypad of my trusty Palm Centro. It seems that Hurricane Dolly may be history but she is still very much alive inthe sweaty, sticky hearts of the estimated 200,000 people without power here in deep south Texas. Yours truly included.

It has been over 24 hours since the power went out at home. It is understandable, a hurricane just blew by. However, once the storm past the work crews were out in full force. ..or so it seemed.

I live about 1 mile from two power plants (AEP & Magic Valley Electric Coop). At night I can see the lights of those facilities making 'lectricity. However, right I have to wonder who they are making for because they are not making it for me and my neighbors. As went enter the first evening after Hurricane Dolly, I can only think about two things as I see the facilities light up my night sky: how much are they going raise my rate because they worked to give power and how glad I am I found my car charger last week.

..and how was your day?

18 July 2008

Happy Birthday to me (x2)

This past week I received something special and very interesting in the mail: a birthday card from my stockbroker. How nice? Not really.....

See, six months ago I received a birthday card from my broker. Yep, 2 cards in 1 year, six months apart. Both cards were signed by every broker in the local office of this NATIONALLY recognized brokerage firm (who happen to have their name on a sports center in the city of Brotherly Love).

I am starting to get a little nervous about these guys. Mind you, they do not hold the majority portion of my investments but they are the first brokerage firm I ever used so they have been with me for a long time. Up to this point, there was great customer to brand loyalty. Now I am not so sure.

I mean if these guys can't get my birth date right then what else aren't they getting right? I understand it's better to send two instead of one, however, they have documents that must filed with the federal government and along with my SSN, my date of birth is a key identifying component of those documents.

So now I have to ask two questions: (1)What else are they misrepresenting about me when they file documents with the federal government? (2)Who else are they misrepresenting when they file documents with the federal government?

Stick around to see how this one works out.

tag this: , , , , , , , , , ,

13 July 2008

Too Much, Too Fast??? (a Starbucks kind of story, well sort of)

By now you have heard what's happening over at Starbucks. Shutting down 600 or so units and displacing countless employees. Starbucks is obviously a victim of its own success. This not anything new and this will happen again to another company or companies. Currently, there are not that many nationwide organizations that have been expanding (at the speed of Starbucks) yet they are out there. There are two organizations that are on my radar: Best Buy and Walgreens.

I am not singling them out for any other reason than that I personally feel that while their brand is highly recognized it is also reaching a saturation point.

Best Buy: I don't know about your neck of the woods but these guys, in my neck of the woods, are expanding ALL over the place. I kid you not, the following statement is true: If I go the to busiest intersection in the town next to where I live and drive for 10 minutes in one of three directions I will be at the front door of a brand new BEST BUY store. Seems like a little "too much, too fast" kind of growth for me. Of course, this alone will not bring down the consumer electronics giant, but will certainly cripple it. The current economic situation is driving too many variables to make any kind of prognostication about the future of Best Buy and especially, its expansion plans.

Walgreens: This is no secret, over the past number of years the Walgreens organization has been buying up corner properties all over the U.S. and setting up shop. In my town, there are two Walgreens less than 5 minutes apart. How is that for market saturation?

So why does Walgreens pop up on my radar? With so many stores, one can't help but wonder when the bubble will burst for the Walgreens expansion? I bet the Deerfield, Illinois organization also took the news from Starbucks to heart, because on July 10 they issued a press release declaring that they will be scaling back "organic" growth "in fiscal 2009 to provide flexibility to invest in its core strategies and improve shareholder value."

However, this might not be enough to save Walgreens. There are just too many outside forces that are driving the economy right now and to X them out is not wise. There does exist, at least, two things that will help save Walgreens from (or at least slow down) a complete collapse and that is the aging population and the diabetes epidemic. So long as they can effectively deliver the product and service to support those two sectors of the healthcare industry, Walgreens stands to be around longer than those that do not or can not deliver.

So for now all I can offer, is that if you are invested in any of these two organizations please continue to monitor the situation very closely....I know I will.


tag this:
, , , , , , ,

07 July 2008

2008.5 A.D.

The year is half over and where am I in my New Year's Resolution? Yep, I really did write New Year's Resolution...I know...I know...who do I think I am bringing up those three words so far into the year or so far from the start of the next one? Call me crazy but I am gonna do it.

When we started 2008, you may remember, I made a couple of resolutions. They were to read one book a month, run in a 10K race, Finish 2nd Draft of New Book by end of March, Drink less coffee, Drink more H20, and Volunteer. These were some pretty ambitious resolutions and as real life has a tendency of having its way with us, I am nowhere near where I should be by now. However, I am still fighting through and hopefully make it to the end of the year in one piece. Seriously, let's take a quick look at how things are progressing.

Reading: Not exactly one book a month. By now, you know I am working on my MBA full time and that takes up about 80% of my reading time. Still managed to sneak in a book here and there. This time it is The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon. WOW! What a book, I was not expecting what I got out of the Energy Bus. This book while did not rock me to my core, it certainly made me think about how I am doing things and how I am NOT doing things. So I got on the Bus and became a Chief Energy Officer. Thanks 800CEOREAD.com for including this AWESOME book to the Mystery Box offering, best $20 I ever spent.

Running: I am still hovering at the 5K mark and that's a good thing. Things have not progressed but with a little more focus and waking up a little earlier everyday I will start increasing the distance.

Writing the book: This is falls under creating my channel. I have been fine tuning the document and at some point I just need to stop fine tuning, otherwise it will never be finished, and get it ready for the world. Anyone out there care to recommend a Literary Agent that specializes in Business Leadership and Management books?

Drink less coffee & Drink more H20: I have been drinking so much Water that I am growing gills. As for the coffee, well all I can say is: I might need to rethink this resolution.

Volunteer: This one I am still trying to figure out where I fit in. Of course, I give money to charity and would like to do something more. Just have not found the right one. Of course, there have been some local charities that I have talked to and have done somethings for in the past but nothing nothing has panned out into a permanent situation.

That's about it for catching up on how things have been going with my 2008 New Year's Resolutions.

How are your resolutions doing?

tag this:
, , , , , , ,