I'm still here

Forgive me readers (yeah, all three of you), for I have slacked. It's been eight days since my last post.

No excuses really. Just been enjoying my vacation.

If you're looking for some help on setting and sticking to New Year resolutions, here are a couple of LifeHacker posts I saw recently that could help:
Ten commandments of goal-setting
Hack Attack: New Year's to-do's

Hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year!! I'll be posting a recap of 2005 soon as well as some 2006 predictions for Billwildered. Peace!

Hangover cures

'Tis the season to get to get tipsy. Fa la la la la, la la la...ouch, my freakin' head. Between office parties, social events, family get-togethers, and the customary rounds of Beer-Who, you're bound to toss a few back this time of year. Well, here's a post on Lifehacker that shares some tips on ways to bounce back - Ask Lifehacker: Hangover cures?. Just as interesting are some of the reader comments.

I also saw this recent article in Business 2.0 titled, "The Upside of Hangovers." It mentions a few of the remedies you can pick up at your local drugstore, of which Chaser is the best-selling and apparently has some actual scientific proof it works.

Or you could do what I did in college...start drinking again. Hey, it got me through four--ahem--five years of college.

In any case, enjoy and remember to drink responsibly.

These guys are way funny

You may have already seen the hilarious talent that is The Lonely Island. If you watch SNL, then you've seen Andy Samberg who joined the cast this season. And if your sense of humor is anything like mine, you've most likely spewed whatever your Saturday late-night beverage of choice is from your nose due to the writing of his cronies, Jorma Taccone and Akiva "Kiv" Schaffer.

Collectively known as "The Dudes," these guys have been putting together shorts, spoof music videos, and even a pilot for Fox (wasn't picked up) and releasing them online under a Creative Commons license since late 2004.

Their latest creation, The Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia, is all over the blogs. I found it through this post on Boing Boing. If you prefer, you can go straight to a flash video of the short available on YouTube (see my earlier post on Online video-sharing services).

Tips for remembering to send in rebate forms

Consumerist is a relatively new blog targeted at empowering consumers. In addition to pointing out when retail stores and service providers screw up customer service, it also highlights consumer tips, great deals, and examples of exemplary service. This post (Consumerist: Never forget to claim your rebate again), in particular, provides a great tip for remembering to submit those "pain-in-the-butt" rebates.

Can you Riff it?

I learned about Riffs from this post on Lifehacker a few weeks ago. It basically takes tagging and ratings beyond just websites. It allows you to "Riff" on pretty much anything you want--Music, Books, Movies, Cars, People, Places, Events, TV, Sports, Restaurants, Games, Software, Websites, etc.

When did "competition" become a bad word?

I can't get enough of The Apprentice. I'll admit it. I've been hooked all four seasons. (I'll qualify that by saying I've never once watched the faux-Apprentice by ex-con Martha). And Kerry and I called it at about week 5 that Randal would win. Although you might not think so from watching the show, all the candidates have pretty impressive bios. If you're interested, check them out and start with Randal's.

I don't agree with any of this rubbish about the so-called "controversy" when Randal told the Don that he should only hire one apprentice. I agree with Randal. He shouldn't have to share the spotlight with Rebecca. It's a competition. There's only been one winner every other season. Why should this be different? If anything, I think that Bill and Kwami from the first season were a harder choice than these two, and yet, there was still just one winner. It was wrong for Trump to even put Randal in that position.

I'm not sure when it changed, but it seems that "competition" has become a dirty word. And that the premise of having a "loser" is just too much for people. To me, I think there's no better example than the vanilla-ization of school events and youth recreational sports. The idea that "everybody" wins, ergo, nobody loses. Sounds to me like new-age fluff--the brainchild of a committee chock-full of over-protective parents who spent their formative years getting picked last in gym class.

While I agree with the underlying lesson of "It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, but how you play the game," we can't shelter kids from the fact that sometimes...you do lose. Not everyone can be in the top half of the class. Not everyone can be the lead in the school play.

And what about the business world? When you sell a big contract, it means someone else didn't. If you're awarded the Baker account, someone else wasn't. When you get promoted, someone else wasn't. And while you won't always know who that someone else is, it doesn't change the fact that they lost.

Aren't we better served preparing our kids for the times when they are the someone else? Shouldn't we be teaching them how to pick themselves up, learn from the defeat no matter how small, and move on while handling themselves with integrity? It's a lot better than sugarcoating their competitions and filling their heads with the idea that they'll never lose.