Happy New Year.....Finally!

Here we are with 2009. I'll say it again....FINALLY! I like the holidays. Ah, let me adjust, I like most things about the holidays. It comes down to gifts. It is not the financial "hit" you take.....that does not bother me. It is the simple act of going, finding, thinking and buying what you think is a good thing for person "X" but really they could do without. You know this because they get you the same thing. Not the same thing - but just another thing that is nice but you could do without.

I love buying the kids - mine and others tons of things. That is what I love most. For adults, I think it is time for our families to do the name drawing thing and buy one big gift for one person.....from a LIST! It would be so much simpler! We live in a day and age where for the most part, most people but what they want for themselves.

Hey, I **LIKE** that.

And then you go buy it.

Somehow we get through these holidays every year. Maybe someday we'll get to just do the get together....the dinner (I'll even cook again)....and just celebrate not being at work and watching the kids have fun. Don't buy me anything. I really don't need it anyway.

Happy New Year to everyone.

iCannot Stand the iPenetration into the iMarketplace

Ashlie wanted a new mp3 player. First stop, Best Buy. They carry Sansa and crapple. No Creative Zen. Sansas are not too bad but I see them on woot about 2x a week selling refurbs so I assume they have a high rate of defective units. Best Buy has a deal with Sansa and their eMusic site hence the reason they carry them.

We wanted a Creative because we have had several previous Creative models and have liked them alot! Plus, the Zen has an SD slot to expand the size of the storage. This way - we can buy a 4 GB and add an 8 GB SD card for $20 more. She can use that for the thousands of pictures she wants to put on her mp3 player without eating up all of the music space.

Our second stop was Ultimate Electronics. For those of you that are familiar with the Twin Cities, Ultimate Electronics is the new name (for the last 3-4 years) of the old local Audio King stores. They changed the name so people would assume they did not carry just audio products. UE is a nice store - and carries both low and high end. Their high end is better priced and better displayed than Best Buys Magnolia store within the Best Buy stores. All they carry is crapple!! I could not believe it!

This shopping happened on 12/22. Best Buy had an overflowing parking lot. UE had 5 cars. When the salesgeek said they only had crapple, I asked if he was aware that there is a large contingent of people out there that hate crapple. He said yes but they still decided to go with the single brand. Unable to hold back, I said, "And clearly the store is thriving!". His answer was that they had $40K in sales that day. OK....40K a few days before x-mas....in electronics? Best Buy did 40K in the Oakdale store between 5 PM and 7 PM and it was probably the 4th 40K of the day.

As we walked out, Jess reprimanded me for being an asshole to the salesgeek. "Why do you have to do that?"

The answer is....I don't know. I love to harasss salesgeeks. In Best Buy, I purposely go over to the cables area to listen to their pitches on why you need an $80, 6 foot HDMI cable and then tell their customers that the same cable is available online for $10. I get such personal enjoyment from this side of myself....but it is bad, I know. I have always been this way. In college, I'd go to Sam Goody just to ask why their CD prices were $4-6 higher.

In the end, we found the Creative 4 GB unit at Target. We bought two....one for Ashlie and I went back to get one for Jessa. They earned my business by carrying more than just crapple.

Does This Gift Keep Giving?

We often see where individuals or estates give very large gifts to nonprofits or colleges. Just today, a couple gave 60 Million to St. Thomas University which can be viewed in the following story. http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1506010.html. This is the largest donation to a Minnesota university ever surpassing the previous high of $50 million also donated to St. Thomas.

There are stories of the numerous people that win the lottery that become bankrupt not long after their large windfall.

Do the nonprofits do the same? Will St. Thomas have to raise tuition or start a big fundriaser in 5 years?

I recall a large gift given to Como Park Conservatory in Saint Paul some years ago. Within months of the gift, a large construction project began, adding a large new area to the conservatory. Did Como shoot the whole wad on one project or did they put some away for a rainy day (or hail-y day with tons of broken windows on the conservatory ceiling)?

It would seem that an institution that probably was not rolling in the cash up to that point would want to have the terrific interest as a residual source of money to maintain the great Como facility. A modest facility could have been built with the remainder earning interest. I should confess, that may very well be the case with the Como situation. From the outsider's view of the annex, it would seem they spent all they had.

If the money donated was specifically earmarked to a project, building or stadium, full allocation is warranted. Often, these gifts are simply nothing but a donation.

Now we look to universities. $110,000,000 between these 2 gifts! What will a relatively "rich" system do with that money? Build something all at once? Provide financial assistance to students that deserve a school like St. Thomas but could never afford? The StarTribune story indicates that the "lagest part" of this fund raising goal is to provide financial assistance to students of the future. This donation is part of a larger fund raiser.

Assuming this is true, and St. Thomas allows this money to give and bless for years to come, it clearly makes the generosity of these individuals much more monumental than the even the initial donation. I hope St. Thomas makes good on their word with this windfall of money and more importantly that other entities follow their example.