Breakfast Italiano! - Eggs in tomato and basil

It’s wet, it’s grey, it’s dark at 1 o’ clock in the day, there’s a recession, the country is falling apart, I’m working too much, I NEED comfort food!! OK, maybe it’s not that bad. This recipe is a perfect “pick me up” when you need something warm and comforting, it’s as far from “fine dining” as you can get, it’s wet, sloppy, requires lots of bread for mopping and is the perfect cure for a bad mood. There’s no way to dress it up, it’s simple, rustic and soooooo delicious. I love fried eggs anyway so the addition of tomato sauce makes it even better.

what you need:

1 x 400g tin of Italian tomatoes

4 eggs

1 small onion

1 clove garlic

olive oil

6-8 leaves basil

grated Parmesan cheese

sea salt and black pepper

tsp sugar

lots of crusty bread or Parmesan mash

what to do:

1. chop your onion and garlic

2. fill the base of a pan with oil, add your onions and garlic and cook over a low heat for 7-10 mins until soft but not coloured

3. add your tomatoes and cook for 10 mins until starting to thicken, season, add your sugar and basil and cook for a couple of minutes

4. add your eggs to your sauce

5. cover and cook until the white is cooked and the yolk is soft and runny

6. season and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese

7. serve with crusty bread and enjoy the childish fuzzy feeling of breaking the egg

eat, mop, slurp……….repeat!!

buon appetito!

Scared of heights? Try "The Ledge"

For those scared of heights, the Sears Tower Skydeck was probably never on their list of “must-see’s.” But the new glass floored observation point will undoubtedly thrill those looking for the ultimate view from the United States’ tallest building.

“I’m not going out on that thing” is one common reaction to the just opened addition to the Skydeck, named “The Ledge.” But even more common is an exclamation of amazement (with perhaps a tinge of fear) from those who have stood looking between their feet 103 floors straight down. And yes, a very high percentage of the younger visitors do seem determined to lie down on The Ledge as you can see from the photo above taken opening weekend.

Maybe you have never been, or maybe you’re a Chicago native who has been to the top a number of times. Either way, with the Ledge you have a whole new reason to go.

Alternative Uses for Everyday Things

The recently-launched AltUse website does exactly what you’d think it would do: suggest alternative uses for everyday objects around your home (Not in a “make a hat out of newspaper” kind of way, but more in a “coffee grounds make excellent fertilizer” kind of way). I would link to some of the more engaging entries—like the Aspirin Facial, or Toothpaste Bruise Healing—if the website itself wasn’t contstrcuted so poorly (you can’t link to individual entries, it seems, and some weird scripting prevents the use of the backward and forward navigation buttons). Despite these limitations, I like the idea that this database is out there and growing; the spirit of waste-not-want-not revised in a modern context.

Cash for Clunkers

The Car Allowance Rebate System (acronym: CARS) is going into effect today. Commonly known as “Cash for Clunkers,” the program gives cash vouchers to people who trade in inefficient cars for new, cleaner ones. The New York Times’ Wheels blog summarizes:

Essentially, consumers can get up to $4,500 toward the purchase or lease of a new fuel-efficient car or truck if they bring in an old vehicle that gets a combined average mileage of 18 miles a gallon or less.

On paper, “Cash for Clunkers” hits something of an immediate domestic policy trifecta: it reduces our dependence on foreign oil; it saves Americans dollars at the pump, allowing for increased consumer spending (and the economic stimulus that generates); and it should help bolster the sputtering market for Detroit’s latest offerings.

And that’s not to mention the environmental benefits, which could be huge. (Does that make it a quadrafecta? A superfecta?) Gather this—American cars more than 12 years old account for only 25 percent of the miles driven in the United States, yet they produce roughly 75 percent of all automobile-born pollution, including greenhouse gasses and low-level pollutants like ozone and fine particulates that wreak havoc on the lungs of urban dwellers.

So now that the specifics of the program have been hammered out, how did we do? Bloomberg has more details:

Consumers will get $4,500 vouchers if the new car they are buying gets 10 miles-a-gallon better gas mileage than the model they are trading in. For light trucks, the improvement must be 5 mpg better than the older model, and for large light trucks, 2 mpg.

For a $3,500 voucher, the improvement for cars must be 4 mpg or better, for light trucks, 2 mpg, and for large light trucks, 1 mpg. The trade-in vehicle must be no older than a 1984 model and get 18 mpg or less in combined city/highway fuel economy.

New passenger cars purchased with the vouchers must get at least 22 mpg in city/highway fuel economy, light trucks must get at least 18 mpg, and large light trucks 15 mpg. Domestic as well as foreign models sold in the U.S. qualify.

Unfortunately, you can’t use one of these vouchers to buy an efficient used car. But the Sierra Club likes the program. They have a calculator up on their site that will show you the money and carbon you could save depending on your current car, new car, and annual miles driven.

Anyone out there planning to take advantage of this Cash for Clunkers program? What are you trading in and what are you getting?

Starting from Scratch

I paid $5 to rent Righteous Kill from Blockbuster today with great enthusiasm and anticipation. After all, it was De Niro and Pacino, united for the first time since Heat. Half hour into the movie, it started to get stuck. I moved the movie forward and back with one result - frozen screen.

So I cleaned the DVD with a clean cloth to start with, with cleaning liquid 5 minutes later and was tempted to put it in the dishwasher for a hail mary, but then I noticed a thin line across the diameter of the disk. Urggh! Scratches!

So I started wondering if there was an innovative way to remove scratches from CDs and DVDs. I scratched my head for 10 mins and came up with this one.

The Banana CD scratch remover

What you’ll need:

• A banana
• A banana peel - you will get this as a result of peeling the banana - wow! how insightful
  
• Some glass cleaner

1. Take a CD / DVD that has smudges and minor scratches on it. Better still if it is rented from BB and you were as frustrated as I was.
   
2. Using a circular motion, apply a freshly cut banana to it.
3. Next, wipe it down with the banana peel. The wax from the peel will help polish and further clean the disk.
4. Take a clean cotton cloth and wipe the entire surface of the CD / DVD. Be sure to apply moderate pressure while moving in a circular motion. This should be done for around 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Finally, spray the disc with glass cleaner and wipe it clean.

Voilà! Your scratched CD or DVD should now look like new! Please note that this trick will also help you repair scratched PS2 and Xbox CD’s and DVD’s.

Let me know if it works for you!

Michael Jackson Dead

5:32 Pm. WSJ alert! I thought the market lost 400 points. Instead I found out the world has lost MJ.
I suspected OD; the article said cardiac arrest. Well, I might still be right.

Anyways, however mixed up or eccentric this man child was, we've lost an incredible entertainer/musical genius. One, that in my opinion ranks up there with the likes of the Beatles and Elvis. I find the news of MJ's sudden death very sad and disturbing. I grew up with his music. There isn't a Michael Jackson song that I hear that doesn't remind me of a certain time of my life. And I'm sure that goes for many.

I don't know if he was a creepy pedophile, maybe he was just a perpetual little boy trapped in a man's body, who never ever got to live his childhood as a boy and was desperately trying to. A naivety of sorts. A true Peter Pan who was severely misunderstood and tortured in his own mind.

He certainly touched the lives of millions of children, metaphorically, I mean. He will forever be remembered for his music and the moonwalk.

R.I.P. Michael, you are missed.....................

Back from Europe

Just came back from Europe - Paris, Switzerland and Germany. Paris was Paris - wine, women et al. Switzerland was breathtaking - every time I opened my eyes, it was a postcard shot. Germany was relaxing - a good way to end the trip.

10 days, 3 countries, whirlwind trip - trip of a lifetime.

Here are some peeves, though:

1. While Switzerland has some of the most beautiful lakes in the world - Lake Zurich, Lake Luzern etc. why do Swiss drink bottled water for 5 EUR. BTW beer costs 3 EUR and wine costs 4 EUR. highly recommend either to water.

2. Are the Swiss hell bent on destroying what nature has given them by 1. smoking incessantly 2. smoking in all public places 3. making smoking a national pastime - 9 out of 10 people I saw had a light between their fingers!

3. Mona Lisa is overrated! Seriously!

Microsoft Zing - Is it the next big thing?

Microsoft, home of the Windows and the Zune, has just announced that they're going to launch Bing, a rebranding and reformatting of their search engine. So far, they've earmarked $100 million just for the marketing.

Bing, of course, stands for Something to challenge Google. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that it is trying to be the next Google. And the challenge for Microsoft is that there already is a next Google. It's called Google.

Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent. In times of change, the rule is this:

Don't try to be the 'next'. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.

If Microsoft adds a few features and they prove popular, how long precisely will it take Google to mirror or even leapfrog those features?

With $100 million, you could build (or even buy) something remarkable. Something that spread online without benefit of a lot of yelling and shouting. Something that changes the game in a fundamental way. The internet works best when you build a network, not when you buy a brand. In fact, I can't think of one successful online brand that was built with cash.

PSBBians - Omnipresent

Not the Malayalees, as popular jokes might say. Not the Chinese, as immigration stats might indicate. Not god, as theists might advocate. And definitely not peace as we all would like. But there is one species that inhabits every corner of the world: The PSBBian - yeah I wanted that to rhyme with the amphibian. Obviously Chicago is no exception.

I walk into an office party, expecting no surprises from the guest list; no Indians for sure I thought. Lo and behold! I come across this Indian guy who was drinking beer and talking to my friend. As the party progressed, I got a chance to catch up with him. As we discuss the weather, a nice opening with any stranger, and Cricket, never fails with an Indian, I found out that we was from my high school, PSBB, too, 2 years my senior. So we spent the rest of the party chatting in Tamil, discussing IPL, Vaaranam Aayiram and Sameera Reddy.

Always good to catch up with a PSBBian!

Meatball Sundae - Seth Godin

As someone who has been in Marketing for the last four years, two of them in Internet Marketing, I often wonder how to convince my bosses that internet marketing really works. Our bosses often make me prove ROI before test a new marketing concept.

But, "What's the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning?"

I often feel like asking my bosses if in the past few months, they've made a product or service decision based on a direct mail piece they received or based on a TV advertisement. (Almost no bosses have). Then I feel like asking if in the past few months they've used Google or another search engine to make a product or service decision. (Virtually all bosses have).

Well now I have something else to ask. Is Your Marketing out of Sync? Buy a copy of Seth Godin's Meatball Sundae. It is an important book. Meatball Sundae will be your tool to help others in your organization to understand what you already get and what you are eager to implement. It will help you to get the buy-in to do the new rules of marketing that you know makes sense.

But first your bosses may need to transform your company.

Meatball Sundae lays out in a convincing manner the transformations that are taking place in business today. These transformations mean that everything needs to be looked at carefully, including marketing. But to just toss new marketing onto the top of obsolete business models is like putting whipped cream and a cherry onto meatballs to make a sundae. (Yuk).

Godin tells a story I really like. Josiah Wedgewood, a potter in England in the 1800's at the start of the Industrial Revolution, was the first to create a factory with a production line and job specialization. He built a showroom and shipped product around the world. And he sold bespoke pieces to royalty but first displayed those fantastic and expensive creations for several months so all could see. (Wedgewood was a marketing genius AND a business pioneer.)

Josiah Wedgewood took advantage of changes in society and technology and changed the way business is done, made millions, and founded a company still famous today. But his brother Thomas Wedgewood stuck to the ways that all potters have worked in the past, barely made a living, and is forgotten today.

Godin says fourteen trends are completely remaking what it means to be a marketer. And while these trends are transforming organizations that have the right approaches, they are crippling the organizations that are stuck with nothing but meatballs. Once again, marketing is transforming what we make and how we make it.

If you ARE the boss, you should buy copies for your board members and investors...