This is not a man with a blog.

Does Patron Tequila need its own social network?

By Shabbir | August 8, 2007 | Comments Off on Does Patron Tequila need its own social network?

Ok, so I don’t have to tell you that social networking is popular.  You’d have to be pretty much dead to not know that MySpace, Facebook, and other social networks are all the rage.  But let’s say you’re a brand of tequila, for argument’s sake, let’s say you’re a premium brand.  Should you have your…

Facebook vs. Second Life

By Shabbir | August 7, 2007 | Comments Off on Facebook vs. Second Life

As of August 5, 2007, Second Life has 8.6 million residents who have logged in in the last 60 days.  Facebook on the other hand, has 30 million solid users. Whatever time you’re spending thinking, planning, hanging out in Second Life, as a marketer you should clearly be focusing at least twice as much on…

March of Dimes launches video contest; advice for engaging in your own

By Shabbir | August 6, 2007 |

The formula seems easy enough to the lay person: announce a contest encouraging people to make their own commercials about your cause or product and submit them via YouTube.  Offer a modest prize ($5,000) and sit back and wait for the great ideas to roll in. For the right organization or cause it’s a brilliant…

The karmic weight of poker.

By Shabbir | August 3, 2007 | Comments Off on The karmic weight of poker.

From some random online casino news website: "A dealer can be a gamblers best friend or worst enemy, depending on the cards. But at the Isle of Capri Casino, they’re also expected to be a subtle observer. Jewel Cooper, a counselor with the Gambling Treatment Program at Allen Hospital is teaching those dealers how to…

Giving USA’s 2006 fundraising report

By Shabbir | August 2, 2007 | Comments Off on Giving USA’s 2006 fundraising report

Giving USA released their 2006 fundraising report this past week.  It’s a mixed bag for non-profits, which means you really need to read it.  Overall giving has risen by about 1% average across the board, but that losses in some areas were masked by gains in others.   I encourage you to subscribe to it and…

The enduring image of the CNN/YouTube debate

By Shabbir | August 1, 2007 | Comments Off on The enduring image of the CNN/YouTube debate

Like it or not, the enduring image of the CNN/YouTube debate is Billiam the Snowman.  The question itself represented a frontal assault on the prime directive of candidates in debates: control what you can about the environment.  I believe that the candidates’ staff probably felt they had an understanding with CNN that there would be…

You’ve gotta train to run a marathon

By Shabbir | August 1, 2007 | Comments Off on You’ve gotta train to run a marathon

What’s it like to be entirely on top of your poker game?  Why let me tell you… So I visited Lucky Chances yesterday and played a long session.  I intended it to be short but more on that later.  I did half an hour at $1/$2 spread limit and doubled up my $100 stack when…

Learning history from archive.org

By Shabbir | July 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Learning history from archive.org

If you’ve ever wanted to know this, use the Internet Archive’s Wayback machine. I was at the CA Farm Bureau’s site (http://www.cfbf.com/) and noticed they had redesigned.  But when?  I went to archive.org and found the archive of all snapshots of their website at: California Farm Bureau index at Archive.org Then I stepped backwards a…

Ballot initiatives on the West Coast

By Shabbir | July 28, 2007 | Comments Off on Ballot initiatives on the West Coast

I’m closely following the initiatives in California heading into the 2007 primary and 2008 general election.  Though not as busy as the sunshine state, Washington, Nevada, and Oregon do it too. The summary?  Community college funding is on the ballot, along with measures to segregate transportation funding and funding for regional high speed rail.  A…

Young voters and video

By Shabbir | July 27, 2007 | Comments Off on Young voters and video

So this is the week of the young voter and video.  CNN and YouTube are congratulating themselves for getting the usually uninvolved 18-24 year old demographic for paying attention to the Presidential debates.  There is no doubt, this is an accomplishment and has traditionally been a hard nut to crack. Also this week, the Pew…