What the hell

Every single member of my household thinks I will fail in my 72 hour fast. I'm weak. I don't know what I'm doing. I eat too much garbage. My wife and my two kids think I am too weak of an individual lacking the mental fortitude of being able to make a decision not to eat anything for longer than 24 hours, let alone 72.

At least now I understand the reality that my family thinks I am a loser. That I am weak. That I can't accomplish goals.

What the hell?

I am hugely disappointed in the lack of support and the perception that I am a loser. Like I'm some sort of incapable imbecile. None of them are in my court. None of them believe in me. They expect me to fail.

I have one more meal today. I will eat again on Thursday. Prepared with electrolyte supplements without sugar or flavor starting on Tuesday and water starting tomorrow.

I am lion. Hear me roar.

Last day

Tomorrow I am starting a 3 day fast. Today is my last day to eat until Thursday. I would have started today but one of my friends is in town and we traditionally do a barbecue safari when he visits. So.. the fast starts tomorrow.

Motivated to do fast for metabolic reset and autophagy destruction of bad cells and birth of new healthy cells. I also read there are inflammation reducing benefits to fasting.

Let's do this.

Data centers

Each data center should be required to build and maintain its own small nuclear reactor to not stress the energy infrastructure of the surrounding community. If it works on aircraft carriers and submarines it will work for data centers.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Went to visit family for Thanksgiving on Wednesday. Was able to drive back and celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad on Thursday. My sister was able to drive in to complete the circle. That was nice.

On Wednesday everyone was asked to go around the circle and sing kuum by yah and say what were thankful for. I'm thankful my wife has a job. Let's play show and tell. Eyeroll.

Stupid

 

 

I didn't do anything to make memories for anyone one around me; except perhaps my wife. This note doesn't make any sense.  Why doesn't it say something like thank you for being our guest.  We hope you enjoyed your trip.  This is the stupidest email I've ever received after purchase of anything.  

Judge

The judges in this country are out of control. They are not checks and balances in policy. They are arbitrators in crimes or legal disagreements and determinants of restitution. They are not law makers or enforcers.

Dear Donald

Go get Comey and James. Don't stop until they're in prison. They tried to ruin you. Payback is a bitch. Finish the job.

Dead reckoning pt 1

My fourth or fifth time to see it and man - it gets better after screening. When I first saw it I thought it was terrible and this time I was blown away with how good it is. #ethanhunt #missionimpossible #iaccept

Get it over with

Dear Donald - It's obvious you be settin' up for a military strike in Venezuela. Go ahead and get it over with and blow shit up. Make a statement. Act like Israel does in Gaza. Just launch some missiles and bombs and level it to rubble.

Way to go to your horrible justice departmen on Comey’s dismissal. Ready. Fire. Aim. 

Maybe you, Kamala and Joe should have tea to talk about your combined failures in America and throughout the world.  Loser. 

Worship

Our senior pastor is turning 65 next week. Hard to believe he's that old. That'll be here in 10 years for me. Concerning.

Last sundays worship experience was next level. The songs were relatively familiar, the band was locked in. The sanctuary full of energy. Worship was moving and participation came easy.

Yesterday the songs were unfamiliar and either I was off or the band was off. The songs were off. Not sure what the deal was but I felt a lot of friction in me. I wasn't synced up or aligned with worshiping.

Made for a disconnected feeling this week after being fully engaged last week. There was a different group of musicians between services and this week I attend first service after a couple weeks of attending second service. The same but different.  

Second service brings the heat. First service is a bit more reserved. Second service has higher attendance. They're both crowded but one is more crowded than the other. Service lasts 1.5 hours usually with the first starting at 930 the second starting at 1130 with a 30 minute break between them. 

As I think about it, those musically leading last weeks service are a little better at telegraphing the syllable changes in the songs - maybe that's what makes the difference. 

Both messages were consistently good from week to week.

Anyway….

Hybrid car

It looks like Toyota has a viable hybrid car worthy of consideration as a traditional ice car. By worthy I mean no sacrifice in performance compared to a traditional car. We're talking 300 or so horsepower and 400 torques with a range of 400 miles when driven rationally.

It's their hybrid max technology and as of now it's in 2 cars. The Crown platinum and the Grand Highlander. Not yet available in Lexus which is unfortunate.

The powertrain consists of a turbo four banger and an electric motor up front, a six speed automatic transmission - not some cvt time bomb and an electric engine driving the back axle. Built for performance and not just miserly fuel consumption.

Zero to 60 time is approximately 6.5 seconds. Fuel economy rated at 30 mpg, which is fantastic for such a powerful car.

It's on the radar for next car. On the used market in 3 years or so. Once I get a job with comparable income to last job and the vehicle depreciates to an affordable price. A new Crown is 56 thousand dollars. That's a lot.

Sleigh Ride

Leroy Anderson may have written a perfect piece of music capturing the essence of a winter sleigh ride in a winter wonderland. An expertly crafted piece of music.

Julie Masino - CEO - Cracker Barrel

Glenn Beck recently did an interview with Julie Masino and some stooge at the company to do some "brand rehabilitation" after the debacle of changing the logo, the interior decor of the store and removing the gift shop.  The stooge was talking about the changes made to the menu that were difficult to execute with the kitchen.  Julie Masino begging for forgiveness that she never meant to hurt anyone or damage the brand.  As she put it, "it's my job to insure people love cracker barrel."   They both went on to say they lost their 'north star' or some kind of politically correct mumbo jumbo for how they nearly destroyed "the brand."  Cracker Barrel is hanging by a thread - unsure if they will recover.

They interview probably did more to trigger the cracker barrel customer than heal the wounds done to their customers through what looked like to me was an insincere cathartic meltdown to try and prevent Julie and the stooge from being promoted to customer.  Interesting to note - Julie Masino is gen x and is the same age as I am.  She's held positions at Taco Bell, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Mattel and Starbucks.  When Masino did an interview on Good Morning America shortly after the branding debacle she was wearing the nerd glasses ala Rachel Maddow or as trump calls them "clark kent glassess" when worn by Rick Perry.  For the interview with Glenn Beck she traded the nerd glasses for the serial killer special edition originally worn by Jeffrey Dahmer in 1992 and debuted for this century by Gwyneth Paltrow at her ski accident trial in 2023.

There was a weird lack of realization that people saw themselves in Uncle Herschel sitting in a chair propped against the cracker barrel.  Glenn Beck remarked that going to CB was like going to grandma's house.  Further extending the analogy to the doilees under the lamps on the tables at grandma's house and no one gets to move them because that's just one of those strangely familiar and special things about Grandma's house.  Then it was commented about changing the decor was removing the "stories of America" that were told with the artifacts hung on the walls.  Apparently the CB resonates with a certain demographic. Without a doubt it was Masino's job to "grow the brand" to a younger customer as evidence by a hoedown that was thrown by CB for social media influencers as part of the brand's relaunch.  News flash - social media influencers only ever sat foot in a cracker barrel when visiting their great grand parents while visiting the smoky mountains of Tennessee.  

 Listening to Masino's beg for forgiveness and redemption from the CB faithful was sad.  She almost started crying.  Or pretended.  What do I know?  I don't know what in her heart.

The easiest way to broaden the appeal is to sterilize it.  Take out the old man.  The nostalgia gone.   Make the logo look like a slice of cheese out of a toaster with the words cracker barrel burned into it.  So it fits nicer on an iphone screen.  Whatever.  Shutup.

Masino treated her rebrand attempt like a class project from a college marketing class.  She keeps referring to it as "the brand."  I don't think Masino ever set foot in a cracker barrel until she worked there and was probably repulsed by what she saw.  Old timie.  Antique.  Dated.  So it makes sense to light all that one fire and make it neutral.  Soulless.  Bland.  Boring and Ordinary.  Complete backfire.

You can't lead a company like cracker barrel unless it means something to you.  Masino claimed "everything was missed in the data" about the brand.  That's because a brand is more than data.  People have strange relationships with brands and chances are good the CB customer is stuck in their ways.  While you may want to increase the appeal to a younger generation you can't alienate the core customer. Unless you don't want the core customer anymore.  News flash - the social media influencers would never be caught dead in a CB.  They would probably feel more comfortable in some "new and modern pancake house.  Like the Original Pancake House.  It's got similar food and is a lot less entrenched in Americana.  

A new leader of a nostalgic brand isn't capable of leading a nostalgic brand because their incapable of understanding the appeal of the brand in the first place.   Unless they've had a relationship with it.  There's no understanding of the customer it appeals to or what's important to them.  You can't just turn it on it's head.  To lead a nostalgic brand like CB you have to know it and love it with your heart.  Understand what you can do to lead change.  Not radically transform.

I'm reminded of the Corvette brand.  Every logo looks like a corvette logo.  They're all the same but different.  You don't just burn it to the ground  and create something new.  You change a brand the same way you eat an elephant.  One bit at a time.  You don't take away the elephant and replace it with brussel sprouts.  Every corvette has the crossed flag logo and it has changed with time.  It's still a corvette.  They didn't take anything away from it.  It evolved with each generation of the car.  But it's still a corvette.  Those who have are on the corvette understand the history and heritage of the corvette.  It's logo, it's place in the market, the customer - both old and new.  I would be they love the brand.

Masino doesn't love CB.  She hates it.  She burned it to the ground.  And there was a revolt.  Now she's pandering to keep her job.  All she had to do was evolve the brand in baby steps.  She would have been fine.  I guess the other option was to launch a new brand with the same food and a new look as more of a pilot experiment in one store instead of a remodel across the board and brand.

In the meantime - go back to your north star and make food that works with the existing kitchen.  CB customers don't want something new.  They eat the same thing they've eaten everytime they've been there.  Don't mess with it.  Don't move the doilee.  You can add to it - but don't take away.  

That concludes today's branding leadership lesson. 

 

Zooran

Cooperating with ICE should never be entertained. How about having an ice officer at the White House when zooran comes for his meeting. Then deporting him before the meeting even starts. Shut up wise guy.

No more penny

The government is acting like producing the last penny and no longer making them is something to celebrate. Waiting for legal determination on when prices should be rounded to the nearest nickel up or down (I'll believe it when I see it). Supposedly will not affect electronic payments. 

We’re being moved one cent closer to digital dollar/digital currency.  Buckle up suckers.   

What's going to happen when a nickel costs more than 5 cents to make. Are we going to round to the nearest dime?

Is there an alternative metal that could have been used to save the penny?

I heard it will save the tax payers 56 million dollars annually. So what? We probably spend more than that on circumcisions in Somalia.

God bless America and the fools that run it.

Tiffs treats

Might as well bake cookies and deliver them. To make it extra special, deliver with icecream.

MicHELLe

Obama says America isn't ready for a woman president as evidence of the last election. She's wrong. America is ready for a woman president - just not a stupid one.  But what is a woman?

Photograph

Not on Facebook but still applies here.

Airport

First time being in an airport as a civilian. People are ugly. They're dressed like slobs. Tattoo. Facial hair. Face masks. It's like some of these people fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. 

Pilot is a fat slob with coke bottle glasses.   

Maybe I'm boring, ugly and ordinary.

Group 6 with the peasants. In steerage  The  airlines  figured out how to monetize the cabin is because no one wants to be in steerage with the working/immigrant class of slobs.  

Queer

Why on earth would any group of people adopt the word queer as part of their identity. It is a word loaded with negative connotations. It is anything but a compliment. Why would anyone adopt such a derogatory term as something to be proud of? Queer. Does it define how they think of themselves?

It’s probably the the same way a black persona can use the N word but a white person cant.  A gay person can use the word queer but a straight person can’t.  

The taxpayers

The citizens and tax payers are being held ransom by government's dysfunction to do their job. What a bunch of low life losers. They continue getting paid while the rest of us are inconvenienced by their incompetence. What a rotten system.

Princess HarryMerkel

Under duress caught wearing a dodgers baseball cap - so he claims. What a pansy. He is such a whiny ass baby. Spare parts for his brother. That's all he'll ever be. Aside from that he's Boring and he's Ordinary. Apologizing to Canada. Loser. Ass kisser. Goodbye. Here's a pacifier. Call the whambulance. What a douche bag.

Prince will I am

He's going bald. So the logical thing to compensate is to grow a beard. Now he looks like John travolta. What a loser.

Jan 1

Let the games begin in NYC.

Zooran Mamdani

Let NY be the testing ground of socialistic policies on a grand scale. Then we'll know on a grand scale if they will be an expected failure or unexpected success.

Healthcare subsidies

It's interesting. The Democrats have the government shutdown because the Obamacare subsidies aren't being renewed and people taking advantage of the exchanges are seeing dramatic increases in premium prices.

Here's an idea - focus on reducing the cost of healthcare instead of funding subsidies for poor people. Something is systemically wrong with healthcare in the US because we have the most expensive healthcare in the world. Some would say we have the best healthcare in the world. Is it the best if it has the highest cost? I think not.

Top tier automobiles

Hyundai and Kia. Known for engine failures. It's really too bad because the Hyundai high end is genesis. Some of their cars look great. And most people reviewing them say while they are nice, they fall just a bit short when compared to true high end moto vehicles. That and every mechanic will tell you, Hyundai is prone to engine failure.

In most products there is compromise. Too bad for Hyundai they compromised on engine longevity and truly high end interior materials. They look cool. Too bad their product falls short.