brett favre hanging up his cleats

even as a die-hard bears fan i'm sad to see favre go. after 17-years in the NFL (16 years with the green bay packers & 1 year with the atlanta falcons (didn't know he was drafted by atlanta in '91 did ya?)) favre officially announced today (tuesday, march 4th) that he is retiring. for three off seasons now there has been talk of favre retiring. many people, including myself, thought he was crazy for coming back again this past season. then he surprises us all & takes the packers one game shy of the super bowl.

there are not a lot of favre like athletes left in the NFL. the NFL like so many other sporting institutions is being taken over by money & marketing. you've got to have cable now just to watch a monday night game (now on ESPN) or a sunday night game (now on TNT). with the introduction of the NFL network, you'll have to pay even extra to watch your home team on TV.

players bounce from team-to-team every few years chasing the dollar signs. endorsements are out of control too. almost every player dances in the end-zone now. hell i see a guy make a basic tackle & he celebrates like he just won a million dollars (maybe he did - so many contracts are tied to player stats). i miss watching players like walter payton who could score touch down after touch down & be humble about it.

i'll miss watching favre & the class he brought to the game. he's going out on top in my book. he's healthy, he proved that he can still lead a team, & he's leaving on his own terms.

standard presumptive value

have you ever bought or sold a used car & when you go to write up the bill of sale you tell a small fib regarding the actual purchase price of the vehicle to avoid paying a higher tax on the vehicle you just purchased? if it’s something you’ve done before don’t bother trying to do it again in here in the state of texas.

standard presumptive value (SPV) relates to used car buying here in texas. it's a new law that was passed in late 2006 that places a regulation on how your vehicle’s value is determined. rather than going by what is written on the bill of sale for what you paid for the vehicle, state will evaluate your vehicle's value & based on their determination of your vehicle’s value that is the dollar amount for which you will pay in sales tax.

no more “tricking” texas on this one.

a commitment contract

i am not referring to a form of marriage... i am referring to a concept that the folks behind stickK used to bring together a group of folks (ie: user community) that are trying to stick to a commitment (usually to quit smoking, start exercising, loose weight – those annoying things that the majority of adults commit to – why not commit to getting smarter & this doesn’t simply mean committing the normal yearly goal of “to read more”) & by publicly vocalizing/socializing this commitment they are more likely to actually stick to that commitment.

as an added incentive for someone to stick to his/her commitment he/she can put a dollar wager against their commitment. if they stick to their commitment then the person gets their money back & if not the money is donated to a person or charity of their choosing.

so it’s the sharing of the commitment & possibly the wager of money that help (force) people to actually do something – heck their reputation is on the line.

this concept is so true & follows us ever where we go. need a meeting set up with someone at work? you don’t play the fools game & say we’ll just synch up when we can because you know that will never happen. instead, you agree on a time/date with that person & even allocate an amount of time with that person so you & he/she are committed to having that discussion.

a co-worker, jeremy, is doing this very thing of vocalizing his commitment (weight-loss) on his blog 80-in-08. his goal is to loose 80 pounds in 2008. by publicly announcing this goal & sharing both his good days & bad days with all of us he’s putting extra pressure on himself that wouldn’t normally be there if he weren’t telling so many people about what he’s doing. while i don’t think i can get jeremy to abandon the bog site he developed for himself & switch to stickK, i wonder if i can get him to ante up with a dollar wager to better entice him to continue shedding the pounds as we progress further into ’08 :)

if you don’t want to develop or keep up with a blog like jeremy is doing, yet you want to publicize a commitment, then i recommend that you sign a commitment contract using stickK.