• It’s true. Dominoes Pizza is bringing back the “Noid.” Here are the bizarre stories behind other famous mascots.
• Have you heard about DefCon in Vegas? Scaaaary. An entire conference dedicated to best practices in hacking. Listen to the unnerving NPR story here.
• A fascinating look at the life of stray shopping carts.
• We want one! Lamps that look like gigantic cherries.
• Fido in the 18^th century? Amazing pet portraits by Andrew Pinkham that defy time.

Hats off to VAMortgageCenter.com for their sponsorship of Ken Schrader’s #32 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was fun to see the logo we created for VAMortgageCenter.com on the hood of the car running at Martinsville this weekend.

Operation RMI 51-59 is part of an ad campaign that includes candy tins filled with M&Ms. This past week we prepared the first half of these tins for a mass mailing to a select group of potential clients. If you’re one of those lucky enough to receive an aforementioned candy tin, I must apologize for the lack of blue M&Ms.

The mystery of the missing blue M&Ms began on Monday March 16, 2011. With an office full of M&Ms (330 lbs to be exact) and empty tins, it seemed as though we were prepared to begin filling them. I arrived to work at 8:30 a.m. sharp, with the expectation I’d be putting this all together, since I’m the most qualified (a food handler certified by the state of Missouri). It seemed like all was as it should be while I attended the weekly production meeting, held every Monday. Afterwards upon my workstation I found that all the bags had been opened. This to me was a simple open and shut case, the M&M gnomes came in and had a go at the bags. The M&M gnomes have a business plan that works as such:

• Phase 1: Collect M&Ms
• Phase 2: ???
• Phase 3: Profit

However, upon further investigation I discovered the culprits couldn’t be the gnomes – only the blue ones were missing.The gnomes take all the M&Ms they can get their hands on; therefore, it was very peculiar that only the blue ones were missing. This called for a full on investigation where my suspects now were those closest to the M&Ms, those that work here. Lucky for me, I had watched enough Scooby-Doo growing up that I knew how to narrow down suspects and look for clues. The first clue as to who the culprit might have been came from what I had noticed about candy in the office. I knew it couldn’t be Shannan because not one week after Valentines Day, she brought in a bunch of candy for everyone to share. Anyone bringing in candy for others to enjoy wouldn’t have a craving for M&Ms to the point they would get into the bags in the office. I also knew it couldn’t be Mike because he was out all that week in St. Louis and wouldn’t have known about the candy sitting directly beneath his nose. Therefore, my suspects were Brooke, Kevin, and Ellen. My next clue was from the mailing labels we were going to put on the tins; they had traces of blue fingerprints on them, which knocked Kevin out of the mix because Kevin wouldn’t have touched the labels since he wasn’t involved with them. This left Brooke and Ellen. My final clue came from the thought of who would have access to the office on the weekend, someone with a key. The only people with keys are Mike and Ellen; therefore, it had to have been Ellen. Upon this revelation, I went into Ellen’s office to find her nibbling on the evidence she hadn’t had a chance to dispose of yet.

It was at that moment, I knew I’d found the culprit. I not only solved the mystery, I had caught the thief blue-handed.

March is my favorite month of the entire year. It’s a month that I anticipate because of all the athletic events that happen throughout its 31-day duration. I will begin my multi-part blog by explaining one of these events I count down to on my calendar.

NCAA Basketball Championship (March Madness)

The first reason I love March is simple: college basketball and the entire NCAA tournament. I love the tournament because there is no home court advantage, there aren’t multiple chances at winning, and players aren’t playing for a contract but for something more – for pride. These factors make for very exciting basketball games.

With this event, office pools (or “bracket challenges”) arise, where sports fanatics and uninformed folks can equally compete by filling out a bracket and naming who they think will win the tournament. The odds of getting a perfect bracket and correctly guessing all 63 is a number so large I don’t even know what to call it, but it equates to this: if everyone in the world filled out a bracket every second of the day, it would take 43 years to have every possible combination (DocSports). Filling out a bracket makes every game exciting to watch. Some general tips to remember when filling out your bracket this year are:

• Tip 1 » Bet What You Know.
  • Don’t pick a 16 seed that you’ve never heard of to win its first round game, simply to get an upset.
• Tip 2 » Be a Sponge for Info.
  • Listen to what the analysts and others who study this for a living say. If they didn’t know what they were talking about then they wouldn’t be getting paid to do it.
  • Start by watching the CBS selection show, where the analysts will announce each team in, their seed, and their backgrounds.
• Tip 3 » Be Confident.
  • If you’re going to pick a team to advance, don’t pick them based on personal preference unless you feel they actually could win.
• Tip 4 » Worth Backing
  • Is picking the upset worth backing? Probably not if you have them losing in the next round anyway. Why risk it.
• Tip 5 » Go With the ‘Coach’
  • If a team has a coach who has been to the Championships before, odds are he is better acclimated to it than a coach who is new.
• Tip 6 » Consider the Location
  • Where is the game is being played? If a team like Hawaii is playing Mizzou in Kansas City, odds are Mizzou will play better and Hawaii will be jet lagged. Plus Mizzou  will likely draw a larger fan base due to its proximity to home.

Selection Sunday is this Sunday, March 13 @ 5 PM central on CBS.

Go Tigers!

-Kent Becker

In this day and age it seems impossible to live without the convenience of the Internet. Not just at home, but now on your mobile device as well. This ability has made the shopping experience more convenient for consumers. At the end of the day consumers must ask themselves if it’s really “better” to shop online. Take into account these positive points about online shopping:

• You can view a larger variety of products online and have numerous options on where to buy from.
• Items online can usually be found cheaper online than in stores.
• Searching for an item is as simple as going to Bing or Google.
• Items are delivered directly to your doorstep.
• You can shop without having to change out of your pajamas or deal  with crowds of people.

On the flipside, there are some downsides:

• The inability to try/feel/see the exact product before purchase.
• Added cost of shipping and handling charges.
• Customer service is not immediate.
• Annoying spam emails.
• Must wade through the clutter to get to the item
• Risk of “scams” or “phishing.”
• Possible fake or incorrect items.

I have always been a technologically savvy guy, but still primarily used the Internet for its entertainment aspects. Up until recently, I had been a thoroughbred “brick & mortar” shopper for certain items such as clothes, shoes, and large ticket electronics. For me, the downsides didn’t outweigh the upsides. The only things I would purchase online were through Amazon, TicketMaster, and occasionally Ebay (for niche items, i.e. Jeremy Maclin signed Eagles jersey). I had however heard people say that online shopping was becoming more hassle-free and some even offering free shipping and handling.

Due to these rumors I began exploring, starting with the purchase of a new pair of shoes through Zappos. The experience was amazing. I put in exactly what I was looking for, got a list of suggested shoes, and was able to change style and color with easy price comparisons. After ordering my shoes, they came in the mail about a week later and I couldn’t be happier with the purchase.

However, I was still skeptical about online purchase benefits because of an order that had gone wrong in the past. Essentially, I ordered a specialty jacket and was sent the wrong size. After repeated attempts to get  a response from the company, I contacted PayPal (who I used to pay for the item) and was informed they couldn’t refund my purchase since it was made with a debit card, but they would hassle the company in the mean time while I contacted the Internet Crime Complaint Center(IC3) and worked on sorting out the mess with them. After dealing with them and PayPal (both of which were very friendly) nothing ended up getting solved, and I was out $75 plus the $15 for the return S&H fees.

Finally, I got over this mishap and gave online shopping another chance when I was in need of a new computer. However in this case I wasn’t going to trust the ordering company to know what was best for me. Instead I was active in every stage of the buying process, shopped around, contacted numerous vendors and compared prices. Eventually, I zeroed in on Dell’s online service to completely customize and tailor my computer to me. The best part about the experience was the live chat with a sales rep to walk me through every step of the way answering my questions instantly. At the moment I was ready to place my order, I saw the discount code box and asked the sales rep what it was all about. They responded with a code to put in and ended up cutting my cost down by 20%. After the purchase I received my item and couldn’t have been happier, so began using my new computer to do more online shopping.

Through simple Google searches I have been able to find a coupon for everything I have bought. These coupons and the customer service available to those willing to pick up the phone or open a chat window have turned me into a full-on online shopper. Now if I could only find some way to stock my fridge through online shopping, I would never go to the store again.

Til next time—