Dirkmonster

Dad's letter from the war

This is the first Veteran's Day after my father's death earlier this year.  Dad served in the Navy during the late 1960's to the early 1970's as a bombardier navigator with VA-65.  VA-65 flew A-6 bombers.  He had two tours the first in the South China Sea on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.  The second in the Mediterranean Sea on the Independance. 

Dad joined the Navy voluntarily after college and was accepted into the flight training program.  I was born at the Pensacola Naval Air Station while he was in flight training in Georgia.  He told me he celebrated with his fellow trainees all night and then flew back to see me. 

Last year I recovered dozens of letters Dad sent Mom from the ship.  These letters gave me more insight into Dad's war experience than he ever cared to talk about when I was older.  I want to share part of a letter he sent my mom the day after my second birthday.  Dad was in the South China Sea on the tail end of the cruise.

 Dad goes on to write:

I wrote you that our magic carpet ride request had been turned down. The way it was explained to me, 'magic carpet' for flight crews was instituted when pilots were being shot down left and left and right over the North, and was for surviving crews who had to come back shortly to the war again. Since that isn't the case anymore, apparently the powers-that-be feel the expenditure is no longer justified.  Anyway, everyone will be riding the ship back - 13 aweful days from from Cubi Pt. to San Diego with no stops en route. We'll arrive San Diego on the 4th or 5th, but will be flying some of our aircraft off on the 2nd or 3rd, to fly directly to Oceana.  I will likely not be among these, since my pilot has only been out here 2 months.  The rest of our birds will be craned off in San Diego including the six Marine A-6's we have to take back to Norfolk.  So chances are good I'll arrive by A-6 at NAS Norfolk about the 6th or 7th, although, of course, nothing is firm yet.

This morning early we lost another A-7 and pilot.  He was only an aquaintance of mine, but it was quite a shock, since he flew into the water near the ship on an approach, with no indication of any difficulty.

I've been flying every day lately.  I won my fifth Air Medal recently, which really doesn't mean a damn thing.  I've also been nominated with Rick for a Navy Commendation Medal, for a hop we flew last April.

There is absolutely nothing left of the air war over here now, which is a good sign.  We're flying fewer sorties  and dropping less bombs, still on nothing.  NVN infiltration has dropped to almost zero.  Perhaps the end is finally in sight; it's something to pray for. (The above is highly confidential , by the way).

 I am proud of Lt. Terrell S. Plantinga's service during the Navy.  He took his job seriously and was very good at it.  That's the way he lived his life.

Facebook's hubris threatens their market leader status

With the launch this week of Google+ pages, Google is taking another step towards its goal of knocking Facebook off the top of the social network mountain.

Facebook's has gotten defensive in response.  This week Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg took a shot at Google claiming Google was trying to build its own little Facebook.  Any market leader that says something like that in public is not taking the threat seriously at some level.  I'm thinking about MySpace's attitude toward Facebook before becoming totally irrelevant.

I notice that Google seems unafraid as the hunter. It has a Facebook page with 4.4 million "Likes".  But Facebook is issuing snarky sound bytes this week intead of establishing a Google+ page like most every other major technology brand did immediately.

It's not going to be very long before Facebook is going to have to acknowedge the Google threat in public by improving its advertising engine for starters.  Facebook can hit back at Google by building their "own little AdWords" or something comparable to Google's targeting and reporting capability.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

We mega-rich should not continue to get extraordinary tax breaks while most Americans struggle to make ends meet.

OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

via www.nytimes.com

This incredibly honest piece by Warren Buffett made me choke up with emotion. I would love to hear from anyone on this, but particularly those (Bo and Devin, Payne you too) who may disagree. I have an open mind. Bring it.

Siblings wanted in bank robbery, shootout arrested after chase - CNN.com

(CNN) -- The end of the line for three fugitive siblings came Wednesday on a rural stretch of Colorado interstate. With guns scattered around their wrecked white Subaru, the suspects made their play.

via www.cnn.com

I heard they had Allstate Insurance to protect them from Mayhem.

Right-sizing my fear of snakes

I went over to a friend's house this morning after his youngster spotted a snake in their kitchen. Naturally, that was a terrifying experience.  Even more disconcerting is that the reptile disappeared before being introduced to the shovel.

Afterwards, my friend and I discussed what in the world could be done in response to this problem (it was not the first time this happened).  He's tried sealing tiny slither spaces into the house.  He's consulted professionals.  It seems like it might just be a fact of life for their beautiful home in a country setting in the south.

And still, the fear of a snake in the house near sleeping children might drive a family to "abandon ship". While I tried to call that strategy into question, what would I do if the scales were on my floor?  I know I would freak out and check into a hotel.  But I've learned some tools to avoid choosing long term decisions in response to short term problems.

The first tool I've used is to talk to someone I trust who is not directly involved in the trouble.  When I am fearful, I often have trouble thinking rationally.  At my best, I am not too proud to ask someone to do some thinking for me.

Turns out, there are only 8,000-10,000 snakebites annually in the USA.  "Approximately 3,000 of those are classed as illegitimate, meaning the victim was handling or molesting the snake when the bite occurred."  Those bites result in 12-15 deaths per year.

You may accept the analogy of snakes in your space to drunk drivers on your road, e.g. you are out among the drunk drivers all the time and manage to avoid them, but sometimes there are injuries and deaths.  If so, consider these stats:

In America, nearly 12,000 people die every year in DUI-related accidents.

So, it seems that your comparative danger of dying from a snakebite vs. drunk driver is one tenth of one percent.  But I am much more fearful of snakes than I am of drunk drivers.  After all, I would steer clear of snakes at all costs while I drive the roads at all hours.  How might I drive fear out of the equation given my threat meter is all out of whack?

One way is education.  This site, explains the psychology and facts behind the fear of snakes.  This site is all about the drunk driving epidemic in the USA.

The best way I've found is to work towards replacing fear with faith.  I need a God that has the whole world in his hands, and has a particular interest in me.  To the extent I can turn my fears over to that power, I am much less likely to be consumed by my circumstances.

 

And lest you think I am some kind of spiritual giant, I would take a snake bite right now over the kick in the pants the stock market game me over the last week.

 

 

Gmail man (Office 365 Advertisement)

via www.youtube.com

This is the best attack ad on Gmail (and Google) that I've encountered. Almost seems like GOOG's competitors sense blood in the water just in time for Shark Week.

Technology Is The New Smoking | TechCrunch

We’ve all been there; You’re at an outing or a dinner table with friends but itching to check your email or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Google+ or Yammer or what ever digital hit of serotonin you prefer. Have you ever “gone to the bathroom” in order to check email or come up with a socially appropriate excuse to pull out your smartphone just so you can check your @ replies on Twitter?

via techcrunch.com

I have the technology equivalent of a three pack a day habit - 7 devices that access the Internet via two local networks.

A low budget pay per click test requires high commitment

It's not just the big brands with their million dollar PPC budgets that recognize the need for pay per click advertising.  It's simply the most effective online customer acquisition campaign channel.  But a great number of AdWords and Facebook advertisers have monthly budgets under $1,000.  How do they spend their limited dollars most effectively?

Commit to starting with a solid testing plan: Let's say this is your first time trying PPC advertising. You suspect that Google AdWords and Facebook Ads my help your business aquire new customers or qualified traffic to your web site.  You are on the right track.  Pay per click advertising works in retail, travel, technology, B2B and simply driving the right people to your site.  But your resources to prove it are limited to $1,000/month.  The greatest danger at this point is spending $1,000 and proving nothing one way or the other.  So a solid testing plan with built in flexibility is essential for success. For example, you will be tempted to manage the test campaign to make your $1,000 last for 30 days, spending an equal amount each day.  In my experience, that rarely makes sense.  In order to gather enough response data to learn what's working (and what's not), I tend to spend it over 1 - 2 weeks instead.  I have a hard time learning anything from a drip, drip, drip of impressions and clicks that $30/day buys me. On the other hand, $100 day spent wisely can give me some indication of where to focus.  Even better, save $3,000 for the test phase and speed up your learning over the first month.

I'll focus later some key aspects of a solid test plan, but if you are not willing to trust the process, you'll pull the plug after the first $100 spent because you don't see acceptable sales numbers.  I don't know of a successful advertising program that didn't start with a test campaign involving trial and error up front. Advertisers that were willing to trust the process with a solid test plan reaped the rewards down the road.

The key here is to resist testing half-heartedly.  Be committed with a good test plan and you will break through a barrier that many advertisers are afraid to approach.