I ran across this in BoingBoing today: http://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/fiscally-responsible-john-mccain...

Apparently, John McCain has a higher net worth than Barack Obama, most of that worth is from his wife, and they have quite the credit card bill.

Barack, on the other hand, has about 1/10 of the net worth of McCain, but earned it himself, and although the article said nothing about what he owes on credit cards, he has put a size able amount away for his kids' college fund.

Hm. I wonder who will manage the country's finances better?

*Quick note: I'm not here to push a political agenda, though I will make no secret that I'm leaning heavily democrat this election, as I do most elections. I just wanted to make an observation.

Alright, this is just funny as hell

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=359...

And you know that WoW nuts would really go for it.

(For those of you unfamiliar with the Onion, it's a comedy site that posts fake news. So in other words, no, this isn't a real game.)

I hesitate to post about this because of the echo in the internets, but I want to respond to this post by Seth Godin on his blog.

For the most part, I agree with him, and for someone who isn't very responsible with their money, it's great advice. But what happens when you walk into a bank and ask for a loan to buy a house (one of those things that increase in value)? Well, if you follow the advice that Seth gives, they'll pull your credit and see that you've never exercised it, which means you have limited credit, which means that if you do qualify, you won't get as good a loan as you might otherwise.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for living within your means, and on a personal level, the idea of owing someone else money always bothers me. So, my advice is this:

1. get a card with a reasonable limit, ie, a limit no higher than what you could reasonably pay off in total within a normal month;

2. use it lightly, say keep the balance at no more than 30%;

3. keep enough money in reserve that you could pay off all your credit card debt at a moments notice if needed;

4. make regular payments, preferably more than is required;

5. finally, never ever get an adjustable rate on any loan that you plan on paying for more than a year.

If you aren't ready to do all of those things, then definitely, Seth's advice is solid. Better to rent and live frugally than end up with debt collectors chasing you down.

Another chapter is upon us. In this one, our author illustrates how important it is to know your audience. This is getting into the "nuts and bolts" of making a connection. There are a few steps to take here;

1. know ahead of time who you want to make a connection with. This usually involves getting an idea of who will be at a given event. In the author's example, he helped organise a business conference, and so had access to the list of people who would be there.

2. Find out about your target. A little research goes a long way. Try to find some common ground that you can use to kick start a conversation. People will appreciate that you made the effort to find out about them. After all, "people naturally care, generally above and beyond anything else, about what it is they do." (Ch. 7, p. 67)

It kinda sounds dehumanizing to call a prospective contact and valuable part of your network a "target," but that's really what your doing; you're singling out a specific person. And really, it works a lot better than a shotgun approach.

I did mention that my posting schedule would be unpredictable at best right?

You'll probably see me point this out again in the course of these posts, but brevity is a virtue, and Keith Ferrazzi seems to understand this. I believe my 11th grade social studies teacher put it best, "Keep answers like miniskirts; short to keep it interesting, but long enough to cover the subject."

The chapter is short, but an important point is made; there is no point in making a connection if that connection has no value. That value of course, is the benefit derived from the contact. It could be as insignificant as just knowing a person you like because they are interesting and you like them, or as earth shattering as being the connection for your next big break for your business.

Kieth points out that when one mentions networkers, the image that springs to the minds of most people is a guy in a suit handing out cards, always looking for the bigger fish to fry. This is one of the most ineffective ways to network, because even though you may end up with a bunch of names, none of them mean anything because there was no meaningful connection. If any of them do remember who you are at the end of the day, then it will almost certainly be with a negative connotation.

It is preferable by far to spend the better part of an hour long social event making a real connection with a few people than making a lot of weak, probably bad connections with many people. It's really not hard to make a good connection with a person, all it takes is some effort at being a decent human being. Be honest about who you are, what you need, share your goals when and where appropriate, and listen to what others have to say. It's so simple, I almost hate to just come right out and say it, but to have a valuable network, you need to convince your network of your value to them, and that's what you are doing when you treat people like people.

Yeah, that's right, I'm hijacking Jake's schtick. He's not the only one who reads rss, and I've got a couple of contributions.

Feed Title: VGCats
Feed Link: http://www.vgcats.com/vgcats.rdf.xml
Content Link (Non RSS Feed): http://www.vgcats.com/
When I Started Reading It: I've been aware of it for some time, but I started reading seriously about 2 or 3 weeks ago.
Update Frequency: Weekly, mondays.
Core Demographic: Video Gamers (right up my alley!)
What I Get Out Of It/Notes: I like webcomics, and this one is just plain funny on a very consistent basis. The guy obviously is a gamer and has a very funny, sometimes very twisted take on some of the biggest games on the market, as well as classics. A lot of the jokes are inside ones that you have to have played a certain game to get, and that's a little frustrating at times, but you almost get a sense of accomplishment when you see a joke and think, oh, man, I remember that part *proceed to rofle*.

(BTW, in case you're wondering, my first post here, entitled "Who do you shink I amf?" that was a reference to the vgcats character Dr. Hobo.)

Mario Kart Wii. Now, I'm a fan of the Mario Kart series. It's not the best game around, but for a driving game, that's just plain fun, you can't beat it. Yeah, you can go with Gran Turismo or Need for Speed or another game that tries to mimic real life driving by putting you behind the wheel of a car that's far too expensive for anyone to actually own while cops may or may not chase you down as you cruise down what appears to be an open track but is in fact a closed circuit, all while safe in the knowledge that if you crash, not only will you walk away unscathed, it won't cost you more than a couple of seconds to get back on course.

If, on the other hand, you have friends, and any inclination to play a racing game with them, it's hard to do much better than any of the Mario Karts that have been released for Nintendo's various home consoles. Mario Kart Wii, however, dropped the ball on that one though. Yes, there is multiplayer, but compared to the next most recent Kart game, it's a huge step back.

My biggest complaint here is that when you play with friends, (max 4 without using wifi connection) you are forced to play with a total 12 racers on the track. What that means is that when you throw that bomb, you have a bit worse than a 1 in 3 shot of it actually hitting another player, and not just a computer. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but when I play a game with friends, I like to play a game with my friends. If I wanted to be constantly playing against computers, I'd have become a recluse and social retard after high school.

So you're constantly playing against computers. big deal right? I guess if you want to play with real people, you can always use the wifi connection, but here's the problem: unless you have a total 6 Wiis amongst you and your 11 buddies (that's two players to a Wii) you're gonna have to play with either computers or complete strangers, which can be even worse than playing against computers, for more on this subject, see any public counter-strike server anywhere. (I should mention that I have not yet tried the wifi connection for kart yet. I'm just not much of an online player.)

Ok, let's just put that whole problem on the back burner for now; if that was the only thing wrong with the game, I might have had a better chance. After all, there were certainly a number of steps in the right direction. The graphics are nice, if predictably cartoony for the series (hey, I like cartoony), there are plenty of characters, and lots of new vehicles so anyone's driving style can be accomodated. Speaking of which, Nintendo really hit on a good thing with the control system. You can use practically any controller made for the Wii on Kart, so even though the Wii wheel felt nice and natural in my hands, my buddies were happy with the GameCube controllers they're so used to.

I did have some trouble with the controls, but I worked it out eventually (it felt like every vehicle, no matter how small and agile, handles like a cow unless you drift on your turns. It takes a lot of getting used to.)

Two more points I'd like to cover before finishing up; first, and I know that it's been covered by other reviews, you have to play single player to unlock everything. I'm just going to say that they could have gotten away with having a lot more unlocked out of the package and people would have been just as happy, and that it wouldn't have been such a big deal if there were a co-op mode where you could unlock all that stuff.

Last, Bob-omb blast, and to a lesser extent, Shine Theft (both multiplayer battle modes from Double Dash) were a heavily felt loss. yeah, you there's the classic balloon battle which is fine for a while, but Kart needs a mode where you can hit your opponents all you want and the game doesn't end becuase everyone else gets knocked out. Coin battle tries to accomplish this, and I guess it's adequete, but Bob-omb blast will always be superior for two reasons; one, no computers to ruin your good time, and two, there's just something about blowing up your opponent with a barrage of colorful explosives that gives you warm fuzzies.

so there you go, Mario Kart Wii gets a resounding "meh." I guess it's an ok game if you like racing games you can play alone or online, but if you're that kind of person, I'm thinking that a different racer might be up your alley, so go check out Gran Turismo and Need for Speed. You'll be happier. If your the type of gamer who likes a fun game you can play with a bunch of friends, I'd say Mario Kart Double Dash would be a better use of your money.

Sorry to start out with the vgcats reference. Maybe someday I'll get around to explaining it for those who are out of the loop.

Hi, Jeff here. If you don't know who I am, I wrote the more recent posts on Never Eat Alone (You can see the most recent one here: http://www.askemb.com/blog/book-club-never-eat-alone-ch-5-genius-audacit...). If it's a Never Eat Alone post you're expecting, then I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disappoint today.

Here's the deal, Jake's post volume has been low, as has Eric's, and for various reasons, some I'm not sure I'm able to really talk about, I'm afraid that the post count from them is going to be low. That's where I come in. I figure I've got a few posts in me, and while I'm traditionally erratic in how much and how often I write, I think I can at least keep the readers we've got somewhat entertained.

I'm gonna take advantage of the openness of the format here and just write about whatever strikes my fancy (don't worry, I'll try to work in entrepreneurship whenever possible.) Be forewarned, that will cover video games; I like to think I have a good insight into gaming, so I'll post the occasional review.