With all this going on over a six day period, much of the UK enjoyed clear blue skies and, for the life of me, I couldn’t see anything resembling a cloud, volcanic or cumulus.  It didn’t seem right, so I checked out several forums and Twitter to find out what other people were thinking.  The usual conspiracy theories were there from secret terrorist threats to UFOs.  It was fun reading some of this stuff but not fun for the hundreds of thousands of people.  Many with families who were now, with no planes flying, stuck where they were.  Some trying to make their own way home from all over Europe found they were being charged huge amounts of money to hire a car or taxi.

On the other hand, what was inspiring, was the generosity of ordinary Americans, Spaniards, French etc who willingly provided food and accommodation freely to weary, stranded people. There was even airline passengers wanting to give up their seats to those who were desperate to return home.

We enjoyed our few weeks away, we were also lucky to miss the UK general election with the inevitable boring TV and press coverage. My wife though is dreading what’s on the horizon, the world cup soccer tournament!

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In researching Christmas, I have found it has had a patchy history.  There is no mention of Jesus’ birthday in the New Testament.  The month and year of his birth being determined by a certain Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk in the sixth century.

The early Christian leaders attempted to convert many Pagans to christianity by promising them they could continue to observe the Roman festive period of Saturnalia. This  meant lots of drinking and giving of gifts lasting from the 17th to the 25th December.  This time also includes the Winter Solstice, the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere, celebrated by Pagans as also the rebirth of the sun.  The same early Christian leaders adding Christ’s birth day to that period.

It was Saint Nicholas, a fourth century bishop, who became famous in many countries for his generosity in handing out gifts to the poor, although even his existence cannot be verified.  It is generally accepted he is the figure we now think of as Santa Claus.

In 1931 the Coca Cola company, following an advertising campaign, gave us our modern perception of Santa Claus as a rosy-cheeked, white bearded character in a red suit.  For all its checkered history and attempts to change it, Christmas survives and in the hard economic times there has been a big uptake of people buying traditional, religious Christmas cards.

Christmas means for many, Christmas carols, giving and receiving presents, and getting together with family and friends.  So I hope you enjoy Christmas for what it is, and as poor tiny Tim observed “God bless us, everyone!”

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I was intrigued because having worked for 8 companies over the years, I wanted the lowdown on one of the top companies in the world that employees just love to come to work for.  My experiences(I used to be a maintenance engineer) generally are of managerial indifference.  As long as you turned up for work everyday, and did as you were told, life was tolerable.  Their idea of motivation would  be to shout and criticize, and would never recognize a job well done. But if you messed up,  God help you.

There have been line managers that could not manage a kiddies’ birthday party never mind an engineering department.  These incompetent individuals could make live a misery, as they possessed power and a bad attitude.  With the inevitable result that there would be a regular turnover of staff.  I’m sure these ‘types’ can be found lurking in all businesses, from the street corner shop to big multi nationals.

Down at Google headquarters, the TV report continued, the staff enjoy free food, as much as you can eat.  There is also a games room, where you can wind down playing table tennis.  Apparently Google lets it’s employees work on whatever they want to for approximately 8 hours a week.  Some of Google’s best product ideas come from employees messing around during their 8 hours of ‘free time’.

Steve Yegge an ex Googler (employee) though, maintains that much of Google’s employee motivation comes from the expectation to make huge amounts of money. That may be, but it’s said that as an employee, you just can’t help but want to do your level best for the company, because you owe it to them for taking such good care of you.  Well done Google.

I can picture it now, me and Mr Bolt the cold, heartless manager from years ago, playing table tennis together!

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It’s only a few minutes long and Marlon is such a character, just turn the volume down on your computer first, he is loud!  Click on this link:  marlonsnews.com It really is worth a few moments of your time.

Enjoy,  Raymond Bork.

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I don’t know about you, but I agree with Frank Kern (infamous internet marketer) that emails are usually associated with exchanging messages between friends and work colleagues.  Frank thinks a lot of marketers are approaching email campaigns in the wrong way.  Now Frank knows that his subscribers will always open his emails, because he’s not always trying to sell us stuff.  Unlike the majority of internet marketing emails I receive, he’ll invite us to watch his latest video, which will contain some nuggets of quality info, or casually mention some product to check out.  There is a list of about another 10 marketers that also don’t try and ‘hard sell’ me.

Lately, I’m also being targeted by marketers who “Are astonished and bewildered” that I haven’t taken up one of their amazing offers.  One marketer has even sent me 3 emails in a week, each one getting gradually more desperate.  Listen guys “I don’t have the money”.  If I did my wife would mug me for it!

I can see a major cull of internet marketing subscriptions are on the horizon again.  It’s all my fault, of course, as I still have so much to learn, I end up downloading lots of interesting, free reports.

I’m not a total freebie hunter.  Once I did download a free report and bought the $67 product.  Know what?  I never heard from him again!  No follow up emails, nothing at all.  I just disappeared off the guy’s radar.

Now I’ll share some of my favorite marketers with you, these guys always give good content in their emails – John Carlton, one of the top copywriters, ever; Jimmy D Brown, an expert on short reports; James Penn, a young guy still at college, lots of good list-building info, etc; Randy Smith,  Sales Letter ABC, I open his emails because he always writes about what’s going on in his life, including quality content and doesn’t try to beat me over the head with sales pitch.  As for the others, where is the unsubscribe button?

John Carlton,   john-carlton.com

Jimmy D Brown, jimmybrown.com

Randy Smith,  RandolfSmith.com

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Now I am sure  clandestine organisation members out there don’t belong to Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter, or maybe now they are joining in droves.  Talk about losing credibility, well that’s what I think celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey has done.

TV chefs are always telling us to use fresh ingredients when preparing meals and frown on us for eating ready meals from supermarkets.  What shocked me was the admission by Gordon Ramsey that his bistro restaurants serve pre-prepared meals made by a company that supplies many restaurants with these products.  Now I am sure people who choose to eat at a Gordon Ramsey’s establishments expect to be served freshly prepared meals, talk about losing credibility!

Finally, there is a certain internet marketer who has built a very successful online empire selling information products.  My experience though of doing business with him, is abismal.  Maybe I am one of those that slipped under his otherwise slick business operation.  The point is I will never do business with him again.  The damage is done and no clever sales letter for another clever product will convince me otherwise.  Talk about losing credibility!

As I work on  my eBook creation product I will have to tape a reminder to my computer screen ‘Never lose credibility’.

I am just switching over to Twitter, just checking if there are any MI6 agents following me!

Check me out on Twitter if you like :https://twitter.com/razzorfish

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Unlike the majority of bands AC/DC’s five members have no inflated egos, because the obvious star personality is Angus Young, the lead guitarist.  From early on in their career Angus decided his image would be that of a mischievous school boy, complete with a school uniform and cap.  With added plastic devil’s horns on his head the little rascal charges around the stage.  Apart from the singer Brian Johnson the rhythm guitarist and bass guitarist stay riveted to the floor throughout the two hour show. It’s really Angus the huge crowd shout for.  On most (not all) CD covers, posters and tee-shirts it’s Angus who is featured.  As I gazed around the stadium there were hundreds of plastic horns worn by the audience, who didn’t mind paying out £8.00 (Approx $12:00) a pair.  T- shirts were selling for £20.00, and there were hundreds of eager buyers.

AC/DC don’t tour often so it’s no surprise that the ‘Black Ice’ tour has been virtually sold out in North America and Europe, with over one hundred shows.  The tour title is the same as their current CD, which they promote by playing several tracks. With ticket prices starting at £55.00 and taking into account promotional items,that’s a heck of alot of money generated!

My teenage daughter was with me that night surveying the souvenir stalls. She thought £8.00 was a lot to pay for plastic devils horns.  Later during the show as darkness enveloped the stadium, hundreds of devils horns on hundreds of heads started flashing on and off, now she definitely wanted a pair.  Luckily for me the volume of the music was sending me temporarily deaf!

More on AC/DC

Follow me on Twitter if you like! https://twitter.com/razzorfish

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Named  after J.Wellington Wimpy in Popeye cartoons.  When served burgers he would say “I will gladly pay you Tuesday” he wasn’t stupid.  Established in 1954 the Wimpy chain gladly served great tasting burgers with real chips, with knifes and forks.  There was waitress service, and the burgers were cooked on a griddle to order.

At it’s height the chain had one thousand outlets in twenty three countries, good grief a British burger was taking on the world!  But then in 1977 Wimpy Bar introduced a counter service, copying McDonalds which had just opened in the UK.  The hammer blow was delivered in 1989 when the Wimpy Bar chain was sold to a group that also owned Burger King, an American rival to McDonalds.

Most Wimpy Bars morphed into Burger King and the remaining outlets shrank into the side streets run by independent franchises.  The American chains introduced real fast food service and established themselves on every high street.

A few years ago I railroaded my family into a Wimpy Bar while on holiday. The experience was not the same as I remember, the food was average and the place was a copy of any American fast food outlet.

Wimpy was originally opened in a corner of Lyons Corner House in Coventry Street, London offering friendliness, quality, value and service.  The same philosophy endorsed by ‘In & Out Burger‘ a highly successful fast food chain operating in South Western USA.

I think the bottom line is, the Wimpy Bar chain didn’t serve fast enough.  Shame, nowadays I don’t need ‘Fast’, if I ever did!

Check me out on Twitter if you like! https://twitter.com/razzorfish

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpsAyeVzn5w

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