Is it smart to go ahead and take on a challenge when the risk may outweigh the benefits? Football fans all across the Dakotas will be finding out on Saturday as the Fighting Sioux of the University of North Dakota face off in Grand Forks against the Cougars of the University of Sioux Falls. The danger in this game for the Fighting Sioux is that they are expected to win, and to win big. If they do not, they will lose more than they can ever expect to gain from beating an NAIA school.
For the Fighting Sioux, they are still in a transition period of moving to Division 1 athletics. This can make scheduling very tough as they are facing an interesting combination of opponents with everything from NAIA, to NCAA FBS, NCAA FCS, and NCAA Division II teams. They had a great showing to start of the season playing in Lubbock, TX against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
At this point, it can be tough for NCAA transitional schools to schedule opponents. There are multiple schools that have had to find NAIA schools to compete against. This is normally not a bad thing but the University of Sioux Falls just happens to be the defending National Champions as well as the #1 ranked team in the country.
Now I am not saying that the Cougars will win in Grand Forks this weekend but I think it can be quite a battle. For one thing, the Cougars have nothing to lose and everything to gain. No one expects them to be much in the way of competition for the much bigger Fighting Sioux. That may be just the extra motivation that the Cougars need. This is a very talented football team. In watching them play last weekend, they did not come close to truly opening the playbook and they were much better than their opponent. They hit harder, they were much faster, and they executed better than many of the teams that I have watched play over the years.
The biggest factor of the game will be whether the Cougars can handle the physical part of the game. There will come a time in which the Sioux will start smacking the Cougars around, will the Cougars be able to answer? Also, while there is obvious talent and athletic ability on the field for Sioux Falls, will they be able to match the depth of UND?
While the battle will be waged on the field, the teams, plus the fans, will face off against a mutual opponent that day as well. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Fighting Sioux are holding Sioux Strong. Each team will be wearing pink wristbands and there will be pink shirts for sale for the fans.

Google is everywhere

Google is truly everywhere and can do just about anything. I discovered a handy little trick today with my cell phone and it interested me enough that I decided to see what all Google and can do and I was amazed at everything that was out there.
First for the trick; Google SMS will allow you to send a text inquiry from your text message enabled cellular device. Simply text message your search query to 466453 (“GOOGLE” on most devices), and
Google will text message back the results. You can inquire on local business information, weather, airlines, directions, area codes, zip codes, etc. To see a list of sample keywords go to the following web site: http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/sms/index.html for example: You are traveling to Miami and want to know the weather there. Send a text message to 466453, containing “weather Miami.” You will receive a text message indicating the current weather, plus a short term forecast.

I have two friends who recently started their own promotions business. They asked me for help with their access and storage needs and I led them to Google. With Google, these partners are able to share nearly everything and access it all from anywhere. They are using Calendar to track their events and bookings. They are using Docs to share excel spreadsheets that hold contact and budget information as well as to store their contracts.

They have been having a great time using Sites to create their own website. They haven’t done much as far as showing it to the public yet but it has become a great learning tool and soon they will be ready to show their website to everyone. However, to make their website easier to share and for people to remember, they are planning on using a web hosting site to host their site. They are posting pictures of their events using Picasa and can share this with everyone.

Perhaps the best thing about Google though is the website can be fun and the people working there always seem to be having fun. I recently stumbled across a slide show from Tech Republic. This slide show covers everything from Google in Pig Latin or Klingon to fun with Google Maps as they set up a street show for Google’s arrival.

As you can see, you really can use Google for a little bit of everything. Remember that if you are ever in Sioux City and looking for great Mexican food. Text Mexican 51101 to 466453 and it will lead you to La Juanitas, Navarette’s, or a host of other great places. Trust me, any of them are well worth the visit.

When I was in high school , yes I know that was more years ago than most of you in this class, I remember my college search very well. I remember most of the people in my class thought I was crazy because I was collecting information from colleges all across the country and I wanted as many opportunities as possible. This was an important decision for me and I wanted as many possible choices as I could find.

Now, I have a son who is a junior in high school and he is facing this same decision. He is lucky enough however that the colleges have been coming to him. During his sophomore year, he took the ACT Plan test. At the beginning of this test, he gave them his name, address, phone number, and email address. I am sure he had no idea how much mail and email would end up coming his way. He is a smart kid and did very well on the test.

Around the end of January, he just happened to check his email and he had nearly 50 emails from colleges all over the country. Big schools, small schools, some very prestigious universities and a few I will admit even I had never heard of. As all of his information has started flowing in, he has been overwhelmed at times at the amount of paperwork that is coming his way. He had to use a way to keep track of everything and start narrowing down his list.

To my surprise, he created an excel spreadsheet to track all of the schools he had received information from already. He has a second tab of the sheet in which he is tracking his top choices and what they offer for majors that he is interested in studying. Even more amazing, is that he has started following these schools on Facebook and Twitter. That has really helped for him to keep up to date with the athletic teams that he hopes to play for in the near future.

Technology has taken a tough slow process and made it easier and faster. When I requested information, I had to look up the address in a guide book, send it snail mail, and wait for something to finally come back. Thanks to the internet and today’s technology, a college or university can send out more information to more people than they ever dreamed of in my day.

December 31, 2006. So very much has happened in our world since that time. The United States has elected
Barak Obama as the first African-American President. The world economy has fallen, gotten back up again, and depending on whom you listen to is in various stages of recovery.
What’s important about that particular day? That was the last game that

Michael Vick played in the NFL. As a member of the Atlanta Falcons, Vick at that time was finishing up another strong season that moved him to third in the career list of rushing yards by a quarterback. He had thrown for nearly 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns and his team was bringing in a new coach that was looking to install a high powered offense.
All of that of course changed in July of 2007 when Vick began to be investigated for running a dog fighting ring. By November he was beginning to serve a nearly two year prison sentence and many wondered if he would ever play again. It is obvious now that he will play but what will the public reaction be once he begins to play?
I feel that Philadelphia is a very good city for Vick. If a player performs well, the city will forget everything he has done in the past and he will be a hero. However, if he is struggling, the city will come down hard on him. This is after all the same group of fans that once booed Santa Claus at a game. This is also the same fans that threw batteries at J.D. Drew after he refused to play for the Phillies and made his first visit into the City of Brotherly Love as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
PETA has already said back in May when Vick was signed by the Eagles that “the move disappointed millions of decent football fans”. With the number of animal rights activists around the country, some of whom can be extreme, it is easily to believe that there will be protests around each stadium that Vick plays in. Fans, which can be very cruel, will of course be hard on Vick. Not that long ago there were fans all across baseball that through large syringes onto baseball fields near Barry Bonds. That chorus of boos rang down whenever he came to the plate. That will also happen to Michael Vick wherever he goes.
All that being said, I am cheering for him to do well this week and as he moves through his life both on and off the playing field. I would like to think that if I made a mistake and had to spend time in prison, that there is an employer out there that gave me the same second chance that Vick received. If he is foolish enough to make mistakes again though, I believe he should be thrown to the dogs.

I want my burger!

Can a promotion be too successful? TGIFriday’s may know soon enough. The restaurant chain has decided to use social networking to find out just how big of a promotion a free burger or chicken sandwich can be.
TGIFriday’s is using Facebook to reach out to its customers. Their offer is that the first 500,000 fans to become a fan of Woody will receive a free Jack Daniel’s grill burger or chicken sandwich. All you have to do is give them a valid email address and be over 21 years of age and you will receive your coupon by email. Woody, the self-proclaimed biggest fan of TGIFriday’s is more than willing to help out and is now at over 700,000 fans. Their new goal is to give away 1,000,000 sandwiches. Yes, I did already register. I was more than happy to become a fan and get a free meal.
Woody
I think this was a great idea for TGIFriday’s. The marketing has been fantastic. Sure they may have spent quite a bit of money on the commercials but this is money they would have spent on advertising anyway. They also have a special at this time where you can buy a burger for chicken sandwich for five dollars. If they give away 1 million coupons, that will equal $5 million. That seems like a very large amount to give away. Most people though would not go there to get only the free burger. I know that when I go, I will also get fries and a drink. I will have others with me and they will be having meals and drinks, and probably an appetizer. The fact that I will have to drive 75 miles just to get there, I will make this a special trip.
I know that is how most people will be, and that will make this a very successful program for TGIFriday’s. I am guessing the average person will spend at least $25 dollars on their trip to the restaurant. Most of these people will be like me, and would not have made this trip in the first place had it not been for the coupon. It would be very interesting to see how much they make as a profit on this promotion. I am guessing that if it is as successful as it should be, you will soon be seeing more companies doing the same thing.

A day with out cell phones is like a day without your family

Never did I think that I would become dependent on one type of communication device, especially a modern one that runs on a new technology. I laughed at those people that mentioned in their discussion boards that they would not be able to live without their cell phone or without Facebook. I thought that since I grew up without any of these conveniences that I would easily be able to live without them now. I found out that I am very wrong.
I recently made a trip to a small city. This was my first trip to this city and I was very excited to be there. This place was amazing. The people were friendly, the town was sunk down into a picturesque valley, and everything was perfect, except for my cell phone. As I arrived at the edge of town, I noticed that my signal was weaker than it had been at any point on the trip. I was not concerned about that though because I deal with a weaker signal every day at work but I can still receive calls and more importantly I can still receive texts and check my emails.
As I drove down into the main part of the city for the first time, I realized that I had lost my signal completely. Again I thought maybe it was just a fluke. I was sure that as I moved to a different part of the city, I would have a signal again. I was completely wrong. I won’t say the name of the carrier out of fairness but I am very certain that this company had never heard of this wonderful place that I had come across.
I soon realized that I had not heard from anyone in my family for a while and realized that I was missing it. I always receive a text from my son on his way from school to cross county practice telling me how the day went and letting me know what he has going on for the rest of that day, that never came. I didn’t get a call from my four year old on her way home from school, I truly missed that. I wasn’t even able to tell my wife and kids goodnight. I had no idea that 24 simple hours without a cell phone could be that difficult to handle, but when you are over 300 miles away from your family, it becomes very tough.

It's Everywhere!

While working on a recent assignment for an Introduction to Anthropology class, I ran across an interesting article. The American Anthropological Association is now using Twitter. I found this interesting because here is a society that’s purpose is to study and explore humans. This same society is now using a modern tool to spread their finding. At the same time, they can be using this tool to study humans.
Archaeologists of the future will be using Twitter to explore human society and interaction. The days of digging in the remains of an ancient city will still exist but digging through thousands of internet sites will replace cave drawings and manuscripts.
Until I began researching this a little more, I had no clue that Anthropology would have so many followers on Twitter and found that it has moved on to other blogs as well. Blogs such as this one are normally very against Twitter but are promoting using it to meet and have conversations with other people interested in Anthropology.
The author of this blog also brings up an interesting point. Who isn’t on Twitter? Organizations that you would never expect to be on Twitter or Facebook are joining the Social Networking phenomenon. The local baseball team here in town is on both but I am disappointed in how they are updated. I am sure the time is coming soon that my employer will be using social networking sites to connect with trucking companies and drivers.
The City of Sioux City is on Twitter. The Tyson Events Center here in Sioux City has a Facebook page and uses that to provide updates on what is coming to town. People also have an opportunity to post messages such as reviews and their opinions on what they would like to see in town. Everywhere you go, social networking is there.
So many times, you reach a point where a hot new item reaches a point where it no longer grows. People have had as much of it as they want. Demand starts to drop. In this case, new content will drop. I am not sure this will ever happen with social networking. For one thing, it is becoming easier to update. The percentage of people updating their Facebook status on the go, or Tweeting while being mobile continues to grow. We had better get used to it. All of this is upon us, and it isn’t going anywhere.