Take A Peck

After a long day of blood, sweat and tears (ok, maybe not) Take A Peck has undergone a redesign. Thanks to Adii for releasing this free theme, which I modified slightly to get things like I wanted. There are still a few kinks to work out but overall I’m pretty pleased with how it’s turned out. Here are a few notable changes:

• Subscription options are now at the top of the page, so they’re easier to find
• Moved some basic info up top (About Me and Sports Business Resources) so people will know what this site is about right when they get here
• A contact page for anyone who wants to get in touch
• 3 ad blocks for advertisers. Click here for more information and site stats
• If you feel inclined to scroll all the way to the bottom, you can see some of my Flickr pictures

I gave up watching football today to do this redesign (though it was probably a good thing or else I would have gotten mad about Steven Jackson getting hurt again and my fantasy team getting destroyed). Hopefully, this will make the site more usable and visually appealing. I’d love to know what you think about the new design, so feel free to let me know by answering this poll, commenting and/or contacting me. Thanks!

 Loading …

Share This

I think it is hilarious that mainstream media are still debating whether or not mixed martial arts and UFC have overtaken boxing in terms of popularity and fan interest. ESPN’s Michael Wilbon recently said he still hasn’t been able to get into mixed martial arts. Newsflash! MMA is already dominating boxing.

This is just one indication of how fast MMA has risen. Last night I went to a sports bar to watch UFC 73, a pay-per-view event. The event had a pretty solid lineup, with 2 championship fights and another big name fighter (Tito Ortiz) in the octagon.

I got there 15 minutes early expecting to find a seat easily. When I got there I was shocked to find that they were charging people $5 just to watch the fight in a large room off the main bar. And people were paying–there were no tables left. I was lucky to find a chair to put in the corner, while others paid the money just to be able to stand and watch.  I don’t know many people who would pay to watch most boxing events, except for the De La Hoya-Mayweather fight–the kind of fight which hardly ever comes along in the boxing world. Some have said that may have been the last HUGE fight for boxing, but that debate is for another day.

Another  thing that shocked me was WHO was watching UFC 73. There were almost as many girls as guys there, and most of the crowd was educated enough to know when to cheer, what the moves were called, and when to boo. Yes, people were cheering–that shows that MMA is here to stay.

The crazy thing is boxing MIGHT have one or two events this big each year. UFC has one almost every month. Besides having shady promoters and weak storylines, boxing killed itself when it stopped showing good fights on network and cableTV. Hopefully, the mixed martial arts world has learned from this and will continue to show fights on SPIKE and HDNET, while still having the big event shown on pay-per-view.

Share This

Mashable has a post about how Facebook will look in 40 years, “once the younger generation is playing Bingo and having hip operations.”

This got me thinking about if/how we actually will use Facebook in the future. While I can see it becoming irrelevant for the people who don’t care about being connected with their friends, I believe it will still be relevant for many of us. Once you’re used to being able to check spur-of-the-moment on what your friends are doing, it’s hard to quit. Most of us desire connection in some way/shape/form, and Facebook gives us this–it may not be as deep a connection as it would be if you call someone on the phone or talk to them in person, but this doesn’t make it any less real of a feeling of connection. The beauty of Facebook is that it allows us to at least feel like we know what’s going on in people’s lives (thanks, mini-feed), even if it is just a small slice of what people reveal. And we don’t have to spend a lot of time doing this, though I’m sure some people will continue their stalker-behavior for life and continue spending hours each week using the site. In 40 years, the only thing that will change is that there will be more old stalkers…great.

While we might not be adding as many new friends in the future as we are now, I think we’ll still be using Facebook, just as 20-30 year olds today still play video games, even though many people thought they would grow out of them.

Share This

Stumbled upon this story from MediaPost about a TNS Retail study called “Men in Grocery Stores.” The Reuters story is here. According to the story, and I agree, there are very few happy male grocery shoppers. Things are hard to find, layouts are different in every store, and sometimes you can’t get good cellphone reception if you need to call your wife/mom/girlfriend to see EXACTLY what she wants.

For many guys, going to the grocery store is like getting a haircut–complete waste of time, but something you have to do. You’d have to pay me to look like the guy below when I’m in a grocery store (unless I’m getting something to grill out, and I can get out fast)

I agree with this part of the article in particular: “there are just too many choices. More is not really more–it’s just overwhelming. Supermarkets that can do a better job of editing will be more engaging to men.”

I’m all about having choices but sometimes when you want pasta you don’t want to examine 10 different brands to find the best one. Pasta is pasta.

If grocery stores wanted to really appeal to guys with some choices they care about (and make it easy for them to find), they should have a guys-only section and stock it with peanuts, snacks, meat, microwaveable entres and beer–and lots of samples, of course. Samples and TV would get me to stay longer, and probably buy more, too.

It could also be cool if brands could tie themselves into the grocery store experience. What if Geico had a section called “Caveman Essentials” in every Harris Teeter. The section would have groceries their “sophisticated” brand mascots purchase, such as roast duck and mango salsa. The Caveman picks could change weekly. This would help both Geico and the food brands as it would get them additional exposure and conversation. Something like this could reenergize the grocery store experience and make it more interesting for guys, in addition to making us stay longer and buy more.

Share This

If you look at the sidebar on your right under “Subscribe to this” you will see a new addition–a button that lets you add my blog as a widget to many different services, such as Facebook, MySpace, Google, your own blog, and/or others. So, if you’re already using Facebook all the time, why not go ahead and add my blog as a widget there. That way, you don’t have to even leave Facebook to get updates. (If you do this, it shows up under “Posted Items”).

Widgets are poised to revolutionize the web experience (and eventually they will be popular on cell phones, too. Alltel’s LG AX8600 comes with Celltop, an application that utilizes widgets and won CTIA’s Best in Show Award.) Essentially, widgets are any third party application that can be embedded in a webpage, or downloaded and kept on someone’s desktop. There are so many possibilities here it’s hard to just describe a few. But I’ll try anyways.

A bar or restaurant could offer people widgets that let them keep up with the nightly drink and food specials. Instead of having to call or visit the restaurant’s website, people would get automatic updates through widgets. You might say people who won’t even visit a website to get a special are extremely lazy, but why shouldn’t a business make it easier for people to find out about them?

Grocery stores can advertise their specials and discounts by taking advantage widgets (They could even save money on printing costs and reduce the amount of hard copies of coupons). Media companies can offer video snippets as samples to get people interested in their shows. Individuals can use widgets to expand their spheres of influence and reach more people. To echo, my last post about Twitter opportunities, the possibilities are endless.

This blog was widgetized using Widgetbox.

Share This

This is pretty cool. It’s a revolving earth that shows in real time who is updating their Twitters, where they are, and what they’re saying.

I could imagine big companies using something like this (that would update automatically) to see what’s going on at each of their offices all over the world at any given time. Or a company like Starbucks could set something like this up and customize it based on what kind of drink someone buys. So they could have it show them who all is buying an orange mocha frappachino at any given time all over the world–not sure why people waste money on those expensive drinks but you get my point.

Personally, I’d like to see a mashup of this with sports scores all over the world. Or wave reports for surfing. The possibilities are endless….

Share This