Another Honorary Fight Club Member.

It's the least we can do for this poor guy.

Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours."

The Sopranos, HD TV & other assorted tidbits.

I'm a Sopranos lover. Here's a couple of thoughts from the last week (Including the Sopranos final episode which just aired.)

 

• They (the Sopranos family) didn't get wacked.
  
• HD TV is absolutely the only way to watch anything. I bought two HDTV's last week (a 47 inch for the regular TV and a 42 inch for my studio) I'm blown away. It reminds me of my inlaws comments on discovering that a microwave was actually much easier to cook with than a stove... "Now we know". (My wife's not as enthused as I.)
  
• It pisses me off that everything's not in HD.
  
• HD has reached the tipping point since now I have two of them.
• Park City is due an angel group of some sort.
• Phil Burns had better throw some of that Daily Spike traffic my way since he's said such nice things about me.
• Squarespace is hand's down the best blogging software.
• I've got to be more diligent with Fight Club.
• I need to exercise more and get back in fighting shape.
  
• There are a couple of startups that are of interest to me. It's an interesting time.
• I love Land Rovers but gas at $3 is killing me.
  

Kiva funds every single entrepreneur in Iraq.

Here's something of interest: The competiton to lend to Iraqi entrepreneurs is downright fierce. 

 
Kiva, the microloan endevor, was on the CBS news the other night. I've blogged about Kiva before and my daughter has a Kiva fund. What caught my ear is that Kiva was now making loans in Iraq and the Middle East. So what do I do? I jump on and run a screen for Iraq and don't find a single business.  It wasn't until I included all businesses that I found four pages of Iraqi entrepreneurs, every one of which is fully funded. Oddly, they're all for the almost the same amount. I guess you need a grand to get into business in Iraq.

There's even this disclaimer:

This entrepreneur is from a volatile region where the security situation remains unsettled. Lenders to this business should be aware that this loan may represent a higher risk and accept this additional risk in making their loan.

I guess I wasn't the only American who thought I'd do my part to win some hearts and minds.

I'll have wait for the Gaza Strip Fund. 

5280 Angel says bloggings beneficial. Guess it must be so.

Via 5280 Angel:

Here it is 6 months later I am happy to say with confidence that starting this blog was definitely a good idea.

I'll second that. This blog's introduced me to a number of individuals who may yet alter my life's course. We'll see. 

Paris Hilton & The Crying Game

You've got to be kidding.

"...sources saying Hilton was refusing to eat much of the jail food served her. Whitmore said that after "extensive consultation with medical personnel" it was decided to offer Hilton "reassignment" to home confinement, which she and her lawyers accepted."

Is there anyone who's not pissed off by this?

Evidently she cried in prison, couldn't sleep, and refused to eat most of the food. That just sounds like a good jail to me. I'd write more but the tears are starting and the keyboard's getting blurry.

And then there's this:

Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in.

Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer issued his order after the city attorney filed a petition late Thursday afternoon questioning whether Sheriff Lee Baca should be held in contempt of court for releasing Hilton on Thursday morning.

"What transpired here is outrageous," county Supervisor Don Knabe told The Associated Press, adding that he received more than 400 angry e-mails and hundreds more phone calls from around the country.

Sauer himself had expressed his unhappiness with Hilton's release before Delgadillo asked him to return her to court. When he sentenced Hilton to jail last month, he ruled specifically that she could not serve her sentence at home under electronic monitoring.

Funding Universe: Speed dating for startups.

I went down to Funding Universe's speedpitching event which was again worthwhile. Brock has a good thing going there though I've heard him lamenting the fact that FU recieves a flat fee. I'm guessing that he's up nights thinking of ways to get a tiny kicker out of deals that are funded... I'll leave that to the regilstered broker dealers.

Speaking of which, Devin Thorpe of Thorpe Capital came over to say hi. Devin's good people and writes Mid Market Maven.

There were two others sitting at my table whom I had not met and now count myself lucky to have. (Did that make sense?) Andrew Laver from APL Capital and Barry Hobbs from the Bay. Barry's built a house in Heber for the last two years but I understand the old hankerings starting to take hold again.  I discussed the new Park City group with both Barry and Andrew and both expressed interest.

Ask the VC: Must read for startups.

Ask the VC is in my most favored status among blogs.

Here's a sample of why you should be reading it if you're an entrepreneur:

What Are Standard Legal Fee Arrangements For Un-Funded Startups?

Q:  My question is "What is a reasonable compensation package for a startup lawyer/firm"?  I'm now starting a company in Seattle and have been talking with an attorney in Seattle.  After 2-3 meetings, we got around to his compensation proposal and I was a bit shocked. I thought it would be a reasonable equity piece (0.5 - 1.0%) in exchange for deferred/reduced compensation.

...

This is the kind of information that's invaluable and usually comes only with experience. I love the web. 

Spammer Arrested: There is a higher power.

Via CNN.com: Feds say top spammer arrested.

"He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day."

"This is not just a nuisance. This is way beyond a nuisance," Warma said.

Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing company to advertise their products, authorities said.

People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment said.

The Spamhaus Project rejoiced at his arrest.

"Soloway has been a long-term nuisance on the Internet -- both in terms of the spam he sent, and the people he duped to use his spam service," organizers wrote on Spamhaus.org.

Monitizing Traffic: Making money from your blog.

I have more than a few blogs.

 
Posting to them seems to be somewhat cyclical. For a while I was posting almost daily to this site and neglecting others. The roles have switched lately and I've been posting to my medical blog.

Here's my current list of blogs that I write or have created:

• Medical Spa MD: Information for physicians in cosmetic medicine.
  
• Nimble Theory: This here blog.
  
• Pony Tail Club: A fourteen year old & her horse.
  
• Kid Agent: Inside the life of a Hollywood child agent.
  
• Wild Blue Creative Partners: Advertising & Marketing
• Surface Medical Spas: My medical business site.
• Fight Club
  
• A few others.

Medical Spa MD has the most traffic, 18000 unique visitors, most of which are physicians. (This blog has about 7k unique monthly visitors.)

So, the rub. How to monetize your traffic without seeming crass and turning off your readers.

I use Yahoo PPC and my Medical Spa blog earns between $100 and $250 a month pretty consistently. I lean towards creating something more since it's a hell of a lot of work to grow a blog.

So, I'm using my blog to generate revenue indirectly rather than try to make money from PPC. I've a strong feeling that it's a better method for my market and could generate much more revenue than the ubiquitous PPC.

• I've created a classified section to allow physicians to buy and sell their used lasers, IPLs and medical equipment. With 18k readers this should generate some traffic and value... especially since it's free.
• I offer a needed piece of equipment, a spectrophotometer, at a significant discount. (I take a percentage.)
• I've organized much of the information I've generated and plan to offer it as a book, guide, or structure for starting and running a medical spa or cosmetic practice.
• I've built a portal to address every cosmetic medical practices main concern and need, driving new patient traffic. This new site will be a vertical marketing portal where a physician can build, customize, and send direct mail at a 30-40% discount from the current deep discount printers. (This is a big play in the market and I'll link as soon as the site goes live.)
• I've created a medspa membership list to garner info about my visitors.
  

Will it work? How well? We'll see.

The Real Geek Squad: Fighting terrorism with your slide rule.

Geeks can be fierce.

 
Via CNN.com: Cyber-spies tracking terrorists through the web.

 Resembling a modern-day Clark Kent, Weisburd is a boyish 40-something former computer programmer who decided to use his background and skills to track terrorists following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

He's proved himself a force to be reckoned with, fighting -- and winning -- a war waged against the "dark side" of the Internet.

To do this, Weisburd poses as a member of the Islamic Brotherhood, using what he's learned from al Qaeda's terrorist networks to glean information and then pass it on to the appropriate people -- whom he calls "associates."

These "associates", says Weisburd, may or may not necessarily be affiliated with law enforcement.

To emulate and catch the bad guys, Weisburd adopts their language and behavior, noting that it's rare to be kicked out of a terrorist community forum for being "too radical."

"If somebody reports on the latest terror attack, then the Brothers usually think that's a cool thing, so they'll respond with praise for the bombers. That would be appropriate behavior," says Weisburd.

Weisburd's reputation has earned him the nickname "the vigilante" in cyber space, a legacy he's eager to shrug off.

"If I was a vigilante running a Web site, I would hurt you," says Weisburd.

"If I find that you're running a Web site for al Qaeda, I'm not going to hurt you. I'll report you to people that will ask you to come quietly, and if you don't go quietly, they may hurt you," he says.

Vote for Mozy if you've got any gumption.

You can vote for Mozy, if you like and use them.

I'm just a fan of Utah startups. 

The paradox of unlimited choices

Via Presentation Zen:

Happiness, decisions, & the paradox of unlimited choices

 If some choice is better than no choice, and more choice is even better than that, then how can still even more choice — a seemingly unlimited array of choices in fact — not be a kind of decision-making nirvana where people make both better decisions and are happier about those decisions? Do not more choices and a greater number of options lead to better decisions? And if so, why then are people unhappy with their decisions even when a decision is a good one? Why do people feel regret even when they choose well?...

Learning to love constraints
 At the end of the book Schwartz ends with 11 ways we can end the crippling effect of too much choice or  “the tyranny of small decisions.” The last one in the list is simply this: “Learn to love constraints.” I recommend the book, but you can save your money and get a pretty good feel for the book’s content by watching this 2005 presentation by Barry Schwartz at TED (below). This is a good presentation, though you will surely have some tips to offer him on both slide design and on the issue of making appropriate fashion choices on the day of your presentation.

“Imagine finding yourself lost on the open road. You finally see a lone gas station up ahead, you’re hungry to discover the route back to the freeway. You ask the attendant for directions, and he begins to offer plan A and plan B and plan C, each with varying degrees of specific detail. Rather than finding the clear, simple, and concise directions you were seeking, your brain is now swimming in a sea of even greater confusion. Clear, simple, and concise directions are all that you want.”

We've all had a similar feeling while using a poorly-designed website, application, or even a cell phone that did everything under the sun except make calls that didn't drop halfway through a conversation.

Simple, clear, concise
As daily life becomes even more complex, and the options and choices continue to mount, making designs which are clear, simple, and concise becomes all the more important. Clarity and simplicity — often this is all people want or need, yet it’s increasingly rare (and all the more appreciated when it’s discovered). You want to surprise people? You want to exceed their expectations? Then consider making it beautiful, simple, clear…and great. The “greatness” may just be found in what was left out, not in what was left in.

Business Networking: How to build your personal value.

Businesspundit has a post on networking for introverts.

So you're really not much good at networking. You keep a drink in one hand and the other in a pocket. You stand against walls. You avoid direct eye contact. You pretty much suck at it and since you suck at it you hate doing it. You're constantly standing around trying to look pretty and hoping that someone you're interested in meeting will come and talk to you. 

Me too.

It's interesting to watch the dynamics at a networking event. I've attended many but there's often a sense of being disassociated from the main conversations. The worst are the hard sellers.

The Hard Sellers: These guys are there to pitch. For the most part they're talking to themselves. Whenever I'm near a hard seller I'm tuning them right out and trying to scrape them off my shoe asap. The Hard Sellers listen little and talk much. They've done this and that and would appreciate it if you validate their existence by doffing your cap. 

I hate that and respond poorly to it as most people probably do.

Poor networking is usually cause by embarrassment and fear of rejection... hey , it's just like dating. (Here's my eminently readable post on Horizontal Networking)

I have a good friend Chia in NY who's a photographer. She's about 4'8" and 73lbs (I'm 6'3" and 260) Chia used to be an actress before she became a photographer and now she's the most sought after actor photographer in Manhattan.

Chia lives down in the Flat Iron district (The triangle shaped building in Spiderman). A boxing gym opened up next to her building and  Chia thought it would be great exercise to take up boxing. (Here's her boxing photography)

Interestingly, the gym owners thought this was kind of cool so Chia hired a trainer and started hitting a heavy bag. It was a scene straight out of Million Dollar Baby except that Chia was much shorter.

Of course Chia never actually wanted to fight. In fact, the gym ordered her a pair of pink boxing gloves which, I have to say, were really cute.

Anyway, Chia hit like a girl. She'd prance around and make 'hitting' noises while she punched at the air.

Chia wanted to be more serious. She wanted to move and hit like a boxer, not like a girl. When she talked to her trainer he looked at her like she was as stupid as a bag of hammers. "Chia", he said, " Just act like a boxer." That was it... Chia knew how to act and she was a boxer after that.

The point being: It's always something you can act through. If you're not a great networker... act as though you were.

Works for me. 

Design fckr: Good advertising & funny.

I love clever advertising.

It's funny and there's an old saying in advertising. "Tickle their funny bone and open their wallet", (or something like that.)

Of course it's more tricky than anything. Someone has to actually be sitting in the right spot for the illusion to work. It's common to try to find clever solutions like this. Hard to say how effective they are but I like the clever ones.

Park City Angel Group: Fight Club for the financiers.

Park City's going to end up with some kind of Angel group... at least that's the intent.

Through my nonsurgical medical clinics I came into contact with Clint Carnell who's the VP of Domestic Sales for Thermage. (Surface is a big user of Thermage.)

Clint and I met two weeks ago and spent almost four hours discussing who we know in Park City that might be interested in getting together al a Fight Club for investors. There are a lot of guys (or gals) in Park City who are already in this area but there's no real grit in the oyster around which to coalesce. Here's what we think:

• Park City has some people with a little money.
• It would like to have a place to go.
• It's generally smart money and in some cases very smart money.
  
• There's little access to Utah's deal flow since there's no vetting group and most of these guys don't know each other.

The goal will be similar to Fight Club but from the other side. (Limited group with some kind of ass filter.)

Certainly Utahs entrepreneurs could only benefit from increased completion for investment dollars, and there are more than a few guys who would like to have some sort of entity here in PC so they could write off vacation travel.

So we decided to put some smart people we know together in a room and see what happens. I've send two or three emails to people who I know and have received compete acceptance so far. I've heard that Clint's had the same feedback. It should be good.