Going For It On 4th And Long
By Max | August 20, 2007
I just read this article about the upstart UFL. Mark Cuban and some of his rich buddies have begun researching the possibility of competing with the NFL. Mark Cuban is a very smart guy and I know he has a lot of money. Previous efforts to compete with the NFL have failed because they weren’t implemented well or ran out of financing.
Check out what Mark has to say about this idea on his blog.
I think his 3rd point is really the only relevant one. Competing with the NFL could be tough, but if some really wealthy guys wanted to, competing with the NFL for talent would be relatively easy. Because of the salary cap in the NFL, an upstart league could easily outbid an NFL team for a top prospect because they would be limited by the salary cap. Unfortunately, the NFL isn’t dumb. They could quickly have an owners meeting to get around this problem if they needed to. Another idea would be to allow players to join the UFL immediately after high school. I bet more than a few would take them up on this deal since the NFL requires a player to wait several years after graduating.
I think the UFL should initially set their sights a little lower. No sports team is successful without fans. Competing with the NFL is great, but if the UFL isn’t focused on fans, they will fail. The obvious idea is to found teams in large cities without an NFL presence like LA or Portland. They definitely will do that. Going head to head against the NFL could be a mistake. They should start small and compete with Arena Football. The AFL has been around for almost 20 years. They now have TV exposure and are experiencing record attendance. They have been able to carve out their own niche in the sports world, and are largely successful with it. Mark Cuban should study the AFL closely and figure out how to mimic their success before tackling the NFL.
It can take years to build a fan base. If the UFL’s founders really want to form a successful league, they’ll focus on this as their primary goal. Once you have local fans, everything else will fall in to place. Then you can go after some of the bigger name college players and start competing with the NFL.
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The Winning Strategy For Ron Paul
By Max | August 17, 2007
Ron Paul can win the primary. Thats right, I think he has a shot. For a normal candidate it would be difficult to overcome all the poor media coverage, but Ron Paul has an edge that needs to be exploited. He is the single anti-war candidate in the primary. The top Democrats aren’t even expressly anti-war. Most of them are pushing for a slow withdraw from Iraq.
Ron Paul’s supporters need to make a grass roots push to inform the anti-war Democrats that their only option is to vote for Ron Paul in the primary. The beauty of this plan, is that the Democratic voter can still vote for their candidate in the Presidential election. We only need them to change their party affiliation to vote in the Republican primary. Put it to your Democratic friends this way… “Would you rather have voters in the general election choosing between more war and their favorite Democrat, or no war (Ron Paul) and some other Democrat?”
To win the primary you don’t need 50% of the votes. A candidate only has to have more than the other candidates. Getting just a few anti-war Democrats to vote in the Republican primary could really swing things into Ron Paul’s favor.
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My High School Reunion
By Max | August 16, 2007
I am headed to South Carolina tomorrow for my 10 year high school reunion. I just got off the phone with Karen, the president of the class of 2001. She had a couple of extra tickets left. Its nice when the proactive people of the world plan ahead and take care of the lazy people of the world. I was supposed to have RSVPed 3 weeks ago. 
Unfortunately, I don’t remember any hot chicks in my class. Most of the cute girls were in the classes ahead of me or behind me. I am hoping a few blossomed after graduation, but that could just be wishful thinking. Also, I am from a small town and there have been A LOT of marriages since I left. I will definitely be one of the few single people left. That goes for girls too. Realistically I am looking at recent divorcees if I want to hook up at this HS reunion.
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The Best Site On The Internet
By Max | August 14, 2007
Just click the link, there is no explanation necessary, and it is safe for work.
Topics: Work humor | 4 Comments »
FOX News Fraud - They Hate Ron Paul
By Max | August 13, 2007
Fox News coverage of the Iowa Straw Poll was completely ridiculous.
This is the graphic captured from Fox News.
The actual results of the event are here:
1. Mitt Romney - 4516 votes, 31%
2. Mike Huckabee - 2587 votes, 18.1%
3. Sam Brownback - 2192 votes, 15.3%
4. Tom Tancredo - 1961 votes, 13.7%
5. Ron Paul - 1305 votes, 9.1%
6. Tommy Thompson - 1,009 votes, 7.3%
7. Fred Thompson - 231 votes
8. Rudy Giuliani - 183 votes
9. Duncan Hunter - 174 votes
10. John McCain - 101 votes
11. John Cox - 41 votes
How can they leave out Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul? They showed 1-3, and 6-8. This is just irresponsible news reporting. America might as well give up on getting a real candidate elected. The only ones that will be covered by the media are those who have sold out. Actually, don’t give up. Get angry. Get angry and tell all your friends to vote for Ron Paul.
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Why I Won’t Be Buying A House
By Max | August 11, 2007
People are always asking me if I have bought a house here in AZ. Its actually starting to get old. I don’t plan on buying a house in Arizona. Here’s why:
1. Houses are too damn expensive in Arizona. I really believe prices are unsubstantiated here and will likely fall by 20% or more over the next couple years. I don’t know who they think will be buying these overpriced things, but I imagine people who purchased over the last year or two will be disappointed when they realize how much their home is worth 2 years from now.
2. I don’t plan on staying in Arizona forever. I got lucky to have made as much as I did when I sold my house last year. The next time I buy a house though, I want to make sure I’ll be there for awhile.
3. The whole buying and selling process stressed me out a little too much. I had some expensive maintenance costs along the way too. I definitely felt a little trapped by owning a house. I didn’t like knowing that I was tied to a particular area and that I needed to keep my job to be able to make the payments.
Here’s a chart of the Phoenix real estate market…
Topics: Investing, Max | 5 Comments »
Pushups Update
By Max | August 8, 2007
I did 100 yesterday. It was easy. I did 1 set of 20 in the morning followed by 2 sets of 10. Then when I found an empty conference room at work I did 2 sets of 10 pretty fast. Later that evening after singing a few karaoke songs I busted out the last 40 with 2 sets of 10 and 1 set of 20.
I am not too sore today, and doing 100 was pretty easy, so tomorrow I am going to shoot for 200. I think I’ll be able to knock 200 out with no problem. My body will probably start having trouble once I get up to 400-500. At that point I am just going to have to build up to 1000. If you only do 1 pushup each minute, it would take 16 hours and 40 minutes to complete a thousand. Everyone has a different strategy I suppose. I would like to finish mine in less than 16 hours, so I can get some sleep, but we’ll see.
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1000 Pushups In 24 Hours
By Max | August 7, 2007
After reading this post on my favorite poker message board, I have decided that I am going to attempt to drop down and do 1000 pushups within 24 hours. Of course I don’t want to kill myself so I won’t be just plunging into it like this guy did. I am going to have to build up to it. I think I’ll start by doing 100 tomorrow. They don’t have to be continuous, just 100 within a single day. Hopefully in a month or two I’ll be able to bust out 1000 in a day.
Anybody else going to take up the challenge?
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Flight To Egypt Booked
By Max | August 4, 2007
Last night I finally booked my flight from Portland to NYC. The travel package I purchased includes airfare. It was $2600 to leave from NYC or $3200 to leave from Portland. I told them I would leave from NYC directly. Then I found a $300 flight last night from Portland to NYC, so I saved several hundred dollars doing that. If you book any trips with Overseas Adventure Travel, you may want to consider doing the same thing.
The flight I booked from PDX to NYC is on Jet Blue. From what I have heard Jet Blue is the best airlines to use when joining the mile high club because the bathrooms are larger than normal. Unfortunately I won’t be traveling with any ladies who would be interested in joining the club, so maybe I’ll just have to join the club by myself.
Topics: Max | 1 Comment »
Work Stress
By Max | August 2, 2007
I have been really stressed at work this week. Thats also why I haven’t bothered to post in a while. Is it really necessary for my boss to tell me how important his deadline is everyday? I am not dumb. If I was they shouldn’t have hired me. I think I understood when the deadline was the first time he told me about it.
Today I found out that I am probably not going to be able to deliver what they wanted by Friday. Its not too bad really. They had extremely unrealistic expectations.
I have learned something about myself after this week though. (Or maybe I have always known) I really just want to party full time. Work gets in the way of so many fun things. Sure the times don’t always overlap, but the standard 9-5 can really suck the life out of you.
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