SEO Arbitrage

SEO Traffic Arbitrage
My father, besides being a wild Texan, worked on Wall Street. I’ve never understood exactly how my father paid for things. It was as if he could tell me but then he would have to kill me so, despite multiple attempts, I never could get my youthful mind around what he did everyday besides disappear and return. I did hear terms like “Arbitrage”, “Carry Trade” and “Fed Funds Rate” before I was out of shorts.

Once, and this is a true story, on a beak from college my dad shared his reports from the Feds. Did you know there are regional federal reserve banks? We spent a Saturday working on paperwork together. I flew almost 4,000 miles to see my father. It was years since I saw him, and it would be years before I saw him again. Besides playing golf talking about fed reports was the coolest thing since sliced bread for my dad. All lost on me. Dad got me on the mailing list for the St. Louis Fed's report and it was like trying to decipher hieroglyphics. Little note at the end of each report read, "we could tell you what this gibberish means but then we would have to kill you." I didn't renew my free subscription.

Nirvana in my father’s business is the risk free trade. There is never any such thing, but that doesn’t stop a million computers crunching a billion calculations looking for Nirvana. You could argue this "risk free" idea is what got us in the situation we are in, but let’s walk past that idea to another one. Let’s discuss SEO Arbitrage.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Since well-tuned webs sites generate traffic from organic listings there is a potential for arbitrage. Here is how Wikipedia defines arbitrage:

Arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices.

Here is the definition of SEO Arbitrage:

SEO Arbitrage: the practice of creating a traffic market on one or more keyword phrases by tuning a web site for top organic search listings (page one or two) then creating a combination of deals to capitalize the traffic at some multiple of its development cost where profit is the difference between the strike price (price traffic sold to another web site) and the SEO arbitrageur’s traffic capture costs.

SEO Traffic Arbitrageurs are different cats. They are the fighter pilots of the web space. Their hats* are at least grey and may go all the way black depending on how bad papa needs a new pair of arbitrage shoes. They eat what they kill, have no back end costs (no ad costs, no warehouse and their staff costs are a tenth of sites who actually ship things). If you little corner of the web is free of SEO traffic arbitrage you are lucky, BUT every corner of the web, every keyword, every phrase will be arbitraged at some point. Think like my father or you will be in trouble. Now if I could just understand what he did for a living. I know, he could tell me but he would have to kill me.

Martin

Want to read about my “Wild Texan” father, try these stories about growing up with a true Texan:

We Happy Few (shopping with dad at Hunter and Buck)

My Dad's Hunting Lesson (in Texas shotguns are a rite of passage)

Why Are We In Iraq (hunting Sky Bo ranch with my dad and our dog Friendly)

* Hat color is a colloquialism for if you are on the right side of Google Laws. Black hats break laws and dare the sheriff to catch them. Grey hats straddle the fence and white hats try to do the right thing. I say "try" because it is a moving definition. What was white yesterday can go grey tomorrow and black the day after that.

401K Rant

I made the mistake of opening one of my 401K statements (the company one) and I won’t do that again. Inside my company 401K was a nice note asking me if I wanted the good news or the bad news? Next to the question were two web URLs one for “good news” and the other for “bad news”. I copied the “bad news” URL into my browser. Here is what the page said:

401K Bad News
We are sorry to report your 401K lost 40% of its value in the last few months. This means you’ve worked for free for the last year and a half. With the market the way it is you will need to work a long time to catch back up. The really bad news is we’ve fired a bullet and it is just a question of time before it catches up with you. Click on the “Good News” button after reading this note and You Are Fired. Have a nice day.

You know I couldn’t resist after reading this message so I clicked on 401K Good News and here is the message there:

401K Good News
We are sorry to report your 401K lost 40% of its value in the last few months. This means you’ve worked for free for the last year and a half, thanks. With the market the way it is you will need to work a long time to catch back up. The really good news is we’ve fired a bullet and it is just a question of time before it catches up with you. Click on the “Bad News” button after reading this note and You Are Fired. Have a nice day.

Here is what I am thinking about doing with my other statement:


10 Things To Do With My 401K Statement Instead of Opening It

1. Sell it to identity thieves
Hate to encourage crime, but cash on the barrelhead for my account numbers and social security number would rescue something. I would even throw my open statement in for free so they can clean that out too. Starting over is fine, been there done that (several times), death by a thousand paper cuts sucks.

2. Put On Refrigerator To Lose Weight
If I don’t lose weight looking at my statement everyday I never will. This is dangerous because it could easily go the other way. Ever eat when you are depressed?

3. Send to My Colleges and Prep School
Ever noticed the older we get the more demanding our schools become? My prep school is almost yelling at me. “What have you done with all the work we put into you, WHERE IS THE CHECK?” seems to be their not so hidden questions these days. My plan is send my 401K statement to them and offer to split whatever they recover fifty fifty.

4. Eat It On YouTube
I think eating my 401K on YouTube could get me millions of views and I could then sell advertising on my site to help recover my lost retirement. If those Mentos guys can go on Jay Leno what can I get for digesting such an expensive meal? Yeah, yeah, dream on I know.

5. Send it to Congressman David Price asking for congress to bail me out
Yeah, yeah dream on I know.

6. Create a contest
Ask people to put up a dollar to guess the number inside the statement. Closest one wins the pot minus my management fee of course. What is my management fee? Depends on how my goofystupid people give me a dollar.

7. Don’t buy TP for a bit
This solution is self-explanatory.

8. Campfire
How did you put out campfires when you were a kid? Ever write your name in the snow? I am thinking write my name on my 401K.

9. Help Find The 2nd Mrs. Smith
Anyone who marries me after seeing that sad story is a keeper.

10. Sit On It At The Dentist
I’ve always wanted a way to make going to the dentist hurt less. I am betting the pain in my ass is greater than whatever the Hell he is doing in my moth.

Cast your vote and share your comments on what you are doing with your 401K statements instead of opening them. Someday we will look back on this and laugh, well maybe not laugh so much (lol).

Martin

Getting Into College - "I - Me" College Essay Problem

Q: What are you?
You are a high school senior. You’ve worked hard to be Chair of the Math Club, Captain of the Football team, Head Cheerleader, chess champion, in the school play or the biggest social butterfly in school. It is all-good, but the moment you begin your first college application guess what you are? A: A college freshman.

Write your first college English paper with more than two personal pronouns (in any form) and the red ink will flow taking your grade down with each “me”, ‘my”, “I” and “mine”. I remember a particularly nasty blotch of red on my first English paper. “Who exactly is writing this paper Mr. Smith, oh wait I see ‘me’ is….C-. “ Want a C- on your college admission’s essay, over use those personal pronouns.

Here is the problem. You are eighteen or younger. Your worldview is your family, your school where you are the Big Cheese finally and maybe the volunteer work you do. Your life is sealed like a jar. There is nothing wrong with being like everyone else, but are you really? No way, you are unique. So first reason to not fall into the “I – Me” problem is you create positive differentiation. Remember, your reader knows you back three generations now. Admissions people know you better than you do. They know you are writing the essay don’t remind them.

The other reason to avoid “I – Me” is it slows your essay down. In working with a student this week I compared “I – My” to being tapped on the shoulder when you are concentrating on reading. The tap pulls you away from reading. You get focused again start to mentally project the essay you’re reading and POW "I-Me" taps you again. When I was reading admissions essays (1980 – 81) I allowed three taps after that your essay, the essay you worked so hard on, got a low grade and I moved on. Too much work, too little time and way too little writing expertise, so three taps and you are out.

Writing around personal pronouns is hard but not impossible. Here is an example of my writing from above:

I remember a particularly nasty blotch of red on my first English paper.

Now let’s write around the personal pronoun:

“Who exactly is writing this paper Mr. Smith, oh wait I see ‘me’ is….C-.”yes this was the nasty red blotch smeared all over this poor freshman’s first English paper almost thirty years ago.

Seems like this edit is wordy, but it collapses two sentences so it uses less words in the end. Long way to go to eliminate a single I maybe, but what would be your reaction to that nasty comment? Mine was to review my writing, count use of personal pronouns and cut them by half then half again. Before you read further count personal pronouns on your essay. More than two – REWRITE. Zero = Great.

“I – Me” Problem World View
In a matter of months being cool in high school + four dollars = Latte at Starbucks. You may have worked on high school cool for years. You are basking in its glow and now someone tells you it matters not at all. Sorry, high school cool in college is less than unimportant – it can hurt you. Approach this essay dripping any of that “LARGE AND IN CHARGE” cool on your essay and you’re done, you essay is hammered and you’ve broken the “do no harm” essay rule. If you haven’t read all my college diatribes the “do no harm” college essay rule says potential for your application essay to get you into college is small whereas the chance your essay will hurt is HUGE. Don’t do that is my advice.

Confidence is important. Over confidence gets you squashed like a bug in a rug. Confidence without specifics is groundless boasting. Back up any claim you make with who, when, what and how context and confidence can work. Confidence is factual with specifics is not boasting.

Expansive World Views and College Interviews
Expansive worldviews in eighteen year olds are rare. 99 out of 100 essays broke the “I – Me” rule. 99 Interviews out of a 100 broke the “I – Me” rule. Q: What should you say to an admissions director in an interview. A: As little as possible and nothing EXCEPT context and specifics. An old boss of mine told me, “I’ve never seen anyone LISTEN their way out of a sale, but I have seen several TALK their way out.” Same is true in your interview. Here is a scenario. You are the 8th interview in a long day for an Assistant Director of Admissions. You sit down in my office and I ask you my opening question something like, “John tell me something about yourself.” What do you do?

Best option answer the question and immediately ask one. John might say, “I’ve been at Choate for three years, do you know Choate?” This is a great answer. You’ve brought a powerful part of your application to the front, you are attending a great prep school, and you’ve asked a question you know the admissions director will be able to answer in the affirmative. You are starting a conversation. Conversations have TWO parts. Ask your interviewer questions. Every question you are asked always contains a hidden question you should ask in return. Here is an example.

Admissions Director, “are you taking AP classes?” You think you need to answer and you do, but did you hear the hidden question? Here is a great response, “Yes I’ve scored a 4 on the AP History exam, I saw History is a powerful department at Vassar can you tell me more…..” trailing off into silence. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Vassar doesn’t dabble in history it has world-class history professors. One thing you can do when you work in admissions is rattle off the stuff your college is word class in (in your sleep trust me). You (the student) control the interview when you play to your strengths, find and ask the hidden questions and have an expansive worldview.

If you talk more than you listen in your interview welcome to the waiting list. Admissions Directors are academic salesmen. They can riff their college in their sleep. Your job is to make an impression you do that with your ability to LISTEN. Why? Because every other candidate is busy talking. Talking is like your essay. You don’t talk you way into any college, but you can sure talk you way out. When I was an Assistant Director I had an undeniable Admit on paper. Male applicant (very valuable at Vassar) with a solid high school, 5’s on AP examines and perfect boards. ADMIT, ADMIT and ADMIT right? Wrong we wait listed him because he was psycho killer. He pulled his chair to where our knees touched. He hadn’t bathed in what smelled like days and he had a strange dialog going on never answering my question. He seemed unstable and crazy to me so I wrote 500 words describing all the reasons I would deny this clear ADMIT on paper. We made the paper with that reject as Vassar becoming more exclusive. Now this guy may be a Noble Prize winner as I write this, but for my college during my time he was all wrong. Vassar was just getting past the newness of having men graduate. I believed we would hurt our goal by admitting this student. My words really don’t do justice to just how clinically insane this young man seemed in that interview. I may have been wiling to step aside if his recommendations said he was good to go, but they damned him with faint praise (quick note if your faculty can’t RAVE about you don’t have them write a recommendation). He was out. Don’t make his mistakes. Bath, don’t invade the personal space of your interviewer, ask questions you are asked and ask the secret question always buried inside of every question you are asked.

Good Luck. More on college admissions interview secrets and the hidden question in every college application soon.

Getting Into College - Martin's Secrets

I was an Assistant Director of Admissions at Vassar College, my Alma Mater, from 1980 to 1981. I've helped sons and daughters of friends receive admission offers from the college of their choice. Now, through the magic of the web, I've been able to share knowledge and help students from around the world. At this time, there is no charge for my college essay writing assistance. My work with students is a way of giving back. This page includes links to all of my "Getting into College" secrets. If you would like help with your college or graduate school admission essay, please email martinsellingzoe (at) aol (dot) com. I use Word on a Mac. If you use something else, just include your essay or questions in an email.

Can I really help? Here is a note from B, a student I am helping now:

Thank you very much for your corrections and advice! No one has ever done such a spectacular job analyzing my work before. I have learned many valuable lessons that I hope to use in my future writings.
Name withheld until B is in to the college of his choice

Benefits of Martin's College Essay Advice - Link to Brian's Note (now a freshman at the college of his choice :).

Martin's Getting Into College Secrets

Getting Into College: Dreaded Application Essays

Getting Into College 2

College Essays That Work
NOTE: I received great feedback from Nathan on having no more than 3 readers. Students I am working with who followed my recommendation for 10 readers seem more confused than anything else, so let's amend that idea. No more than 3 readers should give you feedback on your essay. This insures your voice is in there still and that is what is truly important in the college admissions process. Read the comments for this change and I will alter the article when I have a chance.

Getting Into College Be Yourself

Getting Into College: Don't Oversell

Getting Into College:"I-Me"College Essay Problem

Getting Into College: Admissions People

Why Applying To College Sucks

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Getting Into College - Don't Oversell

I was an Assistant Director of Admissions at Vassar College, my Alma mater, from 1980 to 1981. I've helped many sons and daughters of friends receive admissions offers from the college of their choice. Now, through the magic of the web, I've been able to share knowledge and help students I don't know.

I’m working with a smart student on his applications. Yesterday he shared his supplemental essay. He used the essay to make his case for why this college, let’s call it ABC College, was right for him. This is a good idea, but never be careful of overselling. The best way to make your case is to be specific on both sides of the equation. This means outline why ABC College is right for you. Show and share research you’ve done.

Let’s call the student I am helping BW. BW did his homework about ABC College. He visited for an overnight, attended classes, knew professor’s names and knew the area around the college. He also read the college’s material, spoke with Alumni and participated in forum discussions. Research is fundamental to your ability to do college work. In my other Getting Into College essays (see links at the bottom), I’ve discussed how your ability to do college level work is the hidden question of all admission’s essays.

Once you’ve identified five things you like about the college of your choice match your experience and passions to them. If the college produces world-class physics make sure your participation in the physics club is noted. Here is how to be specific on both sides of the fence:

Example Supplemental Essay
Prior to my overnight stay at ABC College I learned of Dr. Smith’s work in high-energy physics. Reading Dr. Smith’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech I learned he was the captain of his school’s math team. I share Dr. Smith love of physics. When the 30 members of The Bronx High School of Math and Science asked me to be our captain I accepted without hesitation. I am happy to serve even as I was surprised by their request. We meet weekly, share interesting articles or problems and support each other. Last week I shared Dr. Smith’s speech highlighting his discussion of his math club years. Everyone at Bronx Science feels connected to Dr. Smith now. I can’t wait to meet him. ABC College is my first choice and where I would like to matriculate next year. Continuing my math and science work at ABC would be exciting. I hope the ABC College admission’s committee will offer admissions. If you have any questions or need to reach me for any reason, please call me on my cell at xxx.xxx.xxxx.

Example Essay Points
Note how I stress specifics throughout the essay. I also use several strategies including:

Dr. Smith’s Work = work could be research but I used work to connect to “Continuing my math and science work at ABC” at the end of the essay. Most high school seniors have not done “research” yet so the use of the word “work” connects BW’s life to Dr. Smith. Subtle thing, but intelligent connection is what you are after.

Love = passion, most high school seniors are spread thin. This is a natural result of being interested in many things. There is nothing wrong with your interest in rugby, hiking, chess, basketball, acting, AV club, squash, debate and young chefs, but discuss all those things and you don’t get into college, or you are making your acceptance harder. Most students think quantity is important. The spread the table with many interest hoping the college will pick their number. It doesn’t work like that. In fact that kind of thinking is common high school student urban legend. Quantity is not important. Quality and passion are key to successful applications. No one can do 10 things well not even high school seniors, so pick no more than three activities (and 2 is better). Be specific, meaning you must use examples and tie those examples to what ABC College is all about.

That last sentence is tricky because you are unlikely to really know what ABC College is all about. You can get an idea, but, like most things, colleges must be experienced directly be understood. This is where the overnight stay comes in. I highly recommend such a stay (even though my first day at Vassar was Freshman orientation). When you are on campus you will see and hear things that no brochure, web site or forum can teach. Your mission during your overnight is to find at least five specific things you can reference in your essay, five things that matter to you. Finding five doesn’t mean you use all five. Write all five out and then edit at least two out.

Your goal is to see and hear things that excite you because you are also passionate about those things. If you are a booze hound and spent the weekend passed out under a table then you could spin your social skills and how you love antiques (lol). BW’s original essay sounded too much like ABC College’s brochure. I reminded him he is probably writing to the people who wrote the brochure, so no chance to do anything but bore them playing back their language. On the other hand, using their words connected to BW’s life mean those proud words are now inextricable from BW’s application.

Ask For The Order
Colleges know you are applying to multiple schools. If you really want to go to ABC College tell them you will accept their offer. This statement could get you off the wait list. Colleges play student roulette. They offer admission to 600 knowing they can only handle acceptance from 400. They are trying to structure a class with intelligence, diversity and the ability to make ABC College proud (someday).

I know what you are thinking. You will ask for the order on every application. I would not do that. College admissions is a very small club. Being dishonest could come back to bite you. If you are torn between ABC College and DEF College you can ask for the order from them both, but that is as far as I would go. Even if you don’t ask for the order, be sure to use these ideas with your backups. Do the research and create connection. Know who you are applying to and why. Don’t treat your backups like they don’t matter, you may end up going to school there so have solid reasons why you want to go to every college you send application money too.

Contact Information
I used modern technology, cell phones, to make an offer that will never be accepted. You have to decide whether sharing your cell is a good idea or not. They won’t call you, but it shows confidence and openness. It is also YOUR number not the phone in your home. Sharing your number is a sign that you are independent and ready for college (even if mom and dad still pay your cell bill).

Google Warning
If there are pictures of you lampshade on your head holding an empty bottle of Jack Daniels screaming at the top of your lungs on your MySpace page take it down. Assume admissions Directors will be looking at your page (they probably won’t but why risk it). Google yourself. If your lampshade picture comes up on your friend’s MySpace pages and is in the Google index attached to your name ask your friends to take it down (if you can). If you can’t get the picture removed then you may have to do some damage control. I would put this need at less than 1%, so if you suspect you have a PR problem email me and I will take a look and we can create a plan for how to address the problem in your application. If you’ve aced your SAT’s then repeating a negative is never a good idea. If you are a probable wait list there are ways to use your essay to shore up your application. Those lessons are complicated and dangerous and will have to wait for another time.

Good luck and don’t forget my offer to help in any way possible. Send an email to martinsellingzoe (at) aol (dot) com with questions, copies of your essays or anything you are worried about. BW told me he is not sleeping much right now. Don’t forget, what you are doing in class is still important. You aren’t in the college of your choice just yet. Once you receive a fat envelope from the college of your choice, and you will, you can relax a little knowing your life’s next chapter is about to begin.

Martin's Other Getting Into College Essays:
Getting Into College: Dreaded Application Essays

Getting Into College 2

College Essays That Work

Getting Into College Be Yourself

Finding The Long Tail

It is exciting to see a beloved book's, The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, ideas proved in actual experience. This week I calculated web site sales by item. Virtually every item on our site sold at least one. In fact, we sold more products than we actually carry due to products flexing in and out of our inventory.

Seeing the Long Tail
To calculate the long tail's value I create a running total. The column on the far right is a simple running total. The calculation is simple. Move the first value over and then sum Gross Profit from the second entry with the running total above
$229,172 + $339,582 = $568,753. Copy that formula down the column and you have a running total. You are looking for your 80 / 20 split (explained below).

URank	PRank	Descrip	Units	Sales	Profits	Running
1	1	Prod A	10,711	$363,367	$300,000	$339,582
2	2	Prod B	8,200	$237,000	$229,172	$568,753
4	3	Prod C	3,000	$149,000	$118,118	$686,871
5	4	Prod D	3,329	$98,000	$94,482	$781,353

URank = sheet sorted by units this helps you understand product velocity or customer preference. Once you have this sort cut in a new column to create the P Rank.

Prank = Profit rank and is s simple resorting of the sheet in descending order by profit.

URank – PRank = what you want vs. what customers want. In the example above the item with the fifth unit sales rank has a profit rank of 4 so there is an opportunity to increase dollars to the bank by any number of strategies. If unit rank is higher than profit you may want to slow or move demand. By having both ranks on the same sheet you can create relevant merchandising strategies.

80 / 20 Split
Here is how Wikipedia describes the rule:

The principle was suggested by management thinker Joseph M. Juran. It was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population. The assumption is that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes.

The rule doesn’t explain the importance of the split. Where you split tells you something about your business. When I started managing the site I manage today, in my day job, the split was at 140. Now the split, the point where 20% of the products control 80% of our profit is at 270. We’ve almost doubled our split point in six years.

Find your split by looking at the running summary to find the number that is 80% of your total. When your running total equals that number then you’ve reached your 80 / 20 split. This information can help in many ways. Once you know your 20%, the 20% of your items that control 80% of your profits you can build new merchandising to sell more of what is already selling (always easier than bringing something up from the bottom).

Another thing you can do is value the tail. Add the gross profit from all the items after the split. In our case the tail is worth almost a $1,000,000. This helps put the tail in perspective. A cost cutting CFO may want to cut your tail off. On the surface, and if you look at inventory as things on a shelf, this decision may make sense. The problem is inventory is now a form of advertising (read my earlier article for more). You may reduce one cost, the carry cost of the inventory, and cut your tail. This is the definition of running in place. You cut $10 in costs and $10 in sales at the same time or, and this is worse, you cut $10 in cost and $20 out of the tail so you are down $10. You cost cutting actions, normally helpful to the bottom line, just cost you $10. Cut the tail and you cut yourself.

Google’s Long Tail
Google has the memory of an Elephant. Cut an item with hard won PageRank (PR) and you just lowered your organic value. Do enough of that and a loss of $10 will seem like a pleasant memory. Web indexes should only ever go in one direction – up. This means if you had 100 pages index by Google et al. last week and you have 50 this week you are doing something wrong. My company’s legacy system controls web pages. Discontinue an item and it is automatically removed from our index. WE DO THIS TO OURSELVES because the system was created before search engine indexing was a big deal. NEVER, NEVER reduce the size of your index, instead redirect the old page traffic to a new page. Don’t do this with a 301 because that is spam. You can’t create rank for one page and shift it to another. You can tell your traffic, “Sorry we no longer sell X, but Y is great follow this link to Y.” Eventually you will decay out your rank from the old page. Once that happens feel free to remove the page.

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Getting Into College - Be Yourself

I'm working with a solid student who is worried about her need to create distinction in her college applications. If everyone is trying to do something one sure way to create distinction is swim against the tide. Every applicant is trying to impress. They are shining up their accomplishments and trying to "look" like they think they should look. To say that admissions personnel can see any such attempts a mile away is a vast understatement. I used to call these students "busy bee C's" when I was an Assistant Director of Admissions at Vassar College (1980 - 81). A "C" in an admissions folder is not a good thing.

Better to do one thing well with passion than fifty with little attachment or involvement. Don't try to impress just be yourself. I know this is easy to write and hard to actually do, but you are much better off rejecting any attempt to do something fly fishermen call "matching the hatch". In fly fishing this means match your bait to whatever the fish are eating. As a high school senior you have no way to match the hatch to where you are applying. Any attempt to "hook" a college will backfire (believe me they've seen it all).

Avoid SAT words unless you use them in your "real" life. Avoid arcane references unless you know those references backwards, forwards and sideways. I am a STRONG believer in bringing in references to your essay. Anything from Prince to Heidegger is acceptable, but you better be able to walk and talk anything you include. References are key because most high school seniors are pretty solipsistic (they only care and think about themselves). I used an SAT word because it forces me to spell it and it keeps it fresh in my writing. Use a SAT word out of context and you just look like you are trying too hard. You will have good company, but positive distinction is what we are after. Be yourself, don't worry and don't worry.

Remember, I am here to help with essay notes, suggestions and reactions. There is no charge for this service (at this time). I want to help as a way of giving back. You must have multiple readers. I suggest at least 10. When you write include your essay and let me know your college list, or where you plan to send the essay you are having me read. Your list provides perspective. I will see your A, B and C choices and understand what you are trying to accomplish. Knowing where you are sending your essay will tell me how much play we have with the essay. Harvard essays are different, to some degree, than Vassar essays. This sounds like an attempt to match the hatch, but it isn't. Knowing something about how the college you are applying to approaches the admissions process is intelligent. Send the crazy well written arty stuff to my Alma matter and send the "future investment banker" stuff to Harvard (kidding).

Good luck and my email is martinsellingzoe (at) aol (dot) com.

Mobriff

Mobriff Twitter Site
Mobriff is a Twitter Site dedicated to word art and word artists. Artist such as Jenny Holzer, Ed Rushca and Barbara Kruger will be featured. Mobriff is also a home for orginal word art. Mobriff is not a single artist, but a collaboration of different artists. If you would like to contribute to MobRiff, please contact MobRiff @ Gmail (dot) com. Login information will be provided to artist accepted into the MobRiff Collaborative.

Take me to the MobRiff Twitter Site.

College Admissions Essays That Work

College Application Essay Rules
I’ve worked with several students this summer to improve their college essay. One piece of good news is their writing is better than what I remember when I was an Assistant Director of Admissions at Vassar College (1980 – 1981). The bad news is, not surprisingly, teenagers don’t follow rules very well. Here are rules to follow when writing your college admissions essay if you want to have a fat envelope in the mail from the institution of higher learning you are applying too:

College Admissions Essay Rule 1: Answer the question being asked.
This may be the hardest request. We all bury leads all the time, but do so at your peril on a college admissions essay. You have seconds to capture my attention and get me to read your essay. If Assistant Director of Admissions got paid a lot of money I would be doing that work still. They don’t and, during admissions season, they work like dogs. Don’t answer the college’s question and you’ve lost me. I will start skimming the rest of your hard work. If I can’t find any hooks to keep me with you I rate the essay “poor” and move on. There is no time to waste during admissions season so don’t waste the college of your choice’s time by not answering their question.

Here is an example college essay question:

Q: Tell us about an experience in your own life which illustrates a maxim that has special meaning to you.

Read this sentence carefully. “Tell us” is asking you to share a story. The “your own life” part should make your eyebrows rise a little. Q: Why would a college essay question use such poor repetitive writing? A: Because they really want to hear about your life. I just had a student answer this question with a strange dream sequence. In and of itself a dream sequence is not bad, but it has to be tied to the student’s “own real life” or she is not answering the question asked.

What do you think is the point of college admissions essays? The point is to see if you are capable of doing college level work. Don’t answer the question and you’ve answered a crucial question in the wrong way. Another important point about college essays is they can rarely get you into a college. If you don’t have the scores and the grades your essay isn’t going to save the day (sorry), but your essay can get you bounced. If you read this as you have more to lose than gain then you are thinking with a college brain. BE VERY CAEFUL. It is very possible to do harm with your essay. My advice, don’t do that ☺.

College Admissions Essay Rule 2: Edit, Edit and Edit Again
If your essay starts at 1,000 words cut it in half. Good places to cut are personal pronouns. You are the writer so use “I”, “me” and “my” sparingly if at all. Usually when I start cutting personal pronouns I have to cut large chunks because it forces me to show and not tell (see rule 3). Making your essay about you without using personal pronouns is possible, but VERY rare. What do you want your essay to do? If you guessed make your application stand out while doing no harm you win a bonus.

Another good place to chop is redundancy. The question is redundant, “your own”, but that is because they are beating you over the head with it. Watch your adjective use and make sure the nouns you modify don’t already imply your modification. Here are some examples of over modification from a recent student essay:

“quaint southern gentleman” – southern gentleman already implies quaint

“inquired the quixotic figure” – quixotic is an SAT word that was modifying something that was already well beyond the definition of the word. Avoid using SAT words since they make your writing sound like it is trying too hard. Better to play well within yourself and hit the ball out of the park than reach and strike out. No one expects F. Scott Fitzgerald so don’t even go there.

“deranged incarnation” – keep your college essays light and fun. I can probably find a way to use “deranged” in a light, fun way, but why put myself through that much work. Better to find words that don’t sound like a bummer. Remember your reader is reading thousands of essays. Bum them out and you don’t get in, or you don’t get the best rating from your essay. Not getting the best rating on your essay means you’ve broken the “do no harm” rule.

College Admissions Essay Rule 3: Show Don’t Tell
If you tell me you are creative and thrive on new challenges that is fine, but it is infinitely better to show me. Showing means you go deep and use examples from your life. The college wants to know you, who you really are. We all believe certain things about ourselves. We are good looking, smart or athletic. I guarantee every applicant believes in at least one of these three personal truths. Some believe in all three. Your assertion of intelligence, good looks or athletic prowess must have solid examples to set any such assertion apart from your fellow applicants.

Here is an example of the Show Don’t Tell Rule.

Tell:
I am creative.

Show
I founded a children’s theater workshop with fourteen children of faculty from The University of North Carolina. My students’ ages ranged from a precocious seven year old boy to a mature fourteen year old girl. I wrote a children’s version of MacBeth using character from Jim Henson’s Muppets. Here is a comment from one of the parents, “I’ve never seen my Johnny so engaged and excited, Martin’s play has changed how I see my son and it was fun and entertaining.”

Note how specific #2 is because the devil is in the details. You "show" me when you tell me all the details behind the thing (whatever the thing is). Who do you offer admissions? I would campaign hard for #2 and look to do what I could with any shortcomings found in the application. Such a creative mind, I would argue, belongs at Vassar and to Hell with the grades, SAT’s or whatever. Why did I become so passionate - because I had the details and they struck my heart. An old wise boss once told me, "People buy with emotion and they justify with logic." This means your essay needs emotion and logic.

College Admissions Essay Rule 4: Do No Harm
I’ve already discussed this, but it bears repeating. In rare instances, essays will create a champion on your behalf among the admissions staff. Damage is a much more likely result. Don’t hurt your application by poor spelling (no excuse now with spell checkers everywhere), slopping sentence structure (you can have anyone edit your essay after all) or strange references. Have your essay read by at least 10 readers. If 3 find something offensive or confusing kick it and start again. I call this the rule of 3.

Most of your readers are going to be noncommittal. Read noncommittal as half of one full vote for harm. If you get 6 readers who give you soft platitudes then you have 3 full rejections. Start over. Your college essay is not a time to work anything out. If you need to see a counselor or doctor, but NEVER riff on anything strange, sexual or failure in your college admissions essay. If you are a POWRFUL writer you may be able to get by with metaphors as cloaks, but this is not the place to work out your issues. This is a place to build yourself up by showing and not telling just how great you can be given the chance.

I worked with a Dental School applicant on his third attempt to get into UNC Dental School. His essay needed to address the prevous applications, but he had to do it in a positive way. I helped him restructure his essay to emphasize how much he wanted to be a UNC dentist. He continued to work in the field even after his rejections. He was putting his money and time where his dream was, and, once we removed his negativity, he was offered admissions. Third time was a charm. My help on his essay was not the tipping point, but, and I feel confident in saying this, if he submitted his orginal essay he would not be at UNC today. Address issues but never run yourself down, ever.

Good luck and send me your essay if you would like me to share my notes:

send your college admission essay to: martinsellingzoe @ AOL (dot) com.

Don't forget to read my other essay on crafting a winning college admission essay:

http://scenttrail.blogspot.com/2007/12/getting-into-college-college-essay.html

Earlip Fantasy

What inspires you?
I like to go for random walks down Google's back alley. An Earlip Fantasy is a combination of words that currently have a single Google result. Here is the single link on this term as I write this:

e

This site looks like spam. It uses words such as erotica in the site's meta-information. Then the site has nothing to do with those words. I think "e" may be a new kind of art and magic. There are over a hundred links. Here is one link I found in the haystack of the site:

The Word Company

I loved the random word generator created by artist Adib Fricke and his (her?) word installations. I worked with Jenny Holzer after founding Found Objects with Janet McKean and Adib's art reminds me of a more surreal version of Jenny's work. Powerful, beautiful, confusing and strange. Great, great work. Glad I had this earlip fantasy (lol).

Janet's Birthday

The first time I saw Janet Anderson McKean she was folding laundry. I was unknowingly in the “pick up” laundry on Park Avenue in Rochester New York. I wore a “Vassar” pink and gray tee. “Did you go to Vassar,” were the first words she said. I hate doing laundry and will look for any excuse not to do it, so speaking to a beautiful girl (we were children of 24 in 1983) is an easy choice. “Yes,” I answered finally looking up. My glance met a whirl of energy. Janet’s smile could melt sand to glass. She is one of those people who smiles with their entire face.

“My sister Annalise is at Vassar,” Janet told me. She introduced herself. We shook hands. I asked her what she did for a living. I can be a little slow especially when women are involved. This wasn’t one of those times. Within moments I projected our marriage. My “she is the one” alarm sounded loud and clear. No such reciprocity for Janet. She had a boyfriend, cute girls and attractive women always do. We had a little chat folding laundry at the "pick up" coin operated laundry.

It was hard to chat because a girl next to us heard Janet say she was in the Management Training program at Sibley’s. Sibley’s, the last of the family owned downtown retail store chains, was moving Janet in and out of every job to teach her retailing. The girl wanted to know how Janet could hook her up. Janet was opening a new store and impossible to reach. This was 1983 so no Internet and Janet didn’t have an answering machine. I called her for ten days at all hours of the day and night. Never reached her. I fired up the typewriter that got me through Vassar. I kept it simple,

“I met you at the coin operated laundry off Park Avenue about a week ago. Would you like to have diner with me? Martin”

I included my phone number. I didn’t mail my poorly spelled letter. Janet gave me her phone and address when we were folding laundry (no way she or anyone would do that these days). I left my note under her door. She called me the next day explaining why she was so out-of-pocket. We arranged our first date for that Friday night. I have no idea why I didn’t give up. In my mind we were already married. When I shared my vision, the long-range plan, after our third date; Janet thought I was crazy.

I was lucky to have a third date. I showed up for our first date with a blue blazer over my Choate football jersey. Why I wore old #28 that first night I have no idea. We ate Chinese at a restaurant near our Park Avenue apartments. Inside the restaurant there were booths against the wall, carved into the wall really, with bead screens protecting them from the rest of the dinning room. Janet requested one of the sequestered booths probably to hide her goofystupid date.

I had no money and lived in a five hundred square foot studio apartment with an area outside my back door used to create my large paintings. Why Janet left her sophisticated Lebanese boyfriend for such a clod (me) I can’t begin to imagine, but she did. We moved in together after three months of intense dating. We were married a little over a year later.

How does more than twenty years go by in a blink? I think it is true that time, or the perception of time, speeds up as we age. The twenty-two years of our marriage danced by, or most of them did. No marriage ever ends well. Ours was not an exception to the rule. In the five years since our marriage became a statistic I’ve spoken to Janet three maybe four times. I am the levee and, as such, more stuck than Janet. The rockets on my ex’s feet have moved her safely far away from my galaxy. She moved so far and so fast it is clear I created hatred and bile where I meant to develop support, protection and love. Our natural desire is to do the right thing, but many times reach exceeds grasp, petty emotion and ego win over truth and events overtake us.

Irony is cruel. I’ve been a better husband since our divorce than during our marriage. I am sure that statement is as strange to read as it is to write. I take nothing for granted now even as memories begin to fade. I’m calm now. This is the unique calm that arrives as we shelve our young ambitious selfish selves. Developing the ability to think about and serve others is something I learned from Janet. Janet’s retail background meant she devoted herself to helping others. One night about ten years after we were married I watched Janet work in the store she managed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. I’ve never been so touched by something that didn’t involve me. Janet helped customers with passion, honesty and care. I watched each customer’s face light up and their burden lessen. One older lady told Janet about her grandchildren, hometown and why she was in Chicago. Janet’s direct gaze never left the woman’s face. Janet's eyes and smile were large and attentive. She handed the woman’s purchases to her staff. They worked the register. Janet’s eyes stayed fixed and attention total as her customer shared her story. It was the most powerful customer service I’ve ever seen. Janet’s is a retail artist capable of instant connection, total attention, shared passion and love. Years later I read Tim Saunders’ excellent book Love Is The Killer App and thought of Janet's passion to serve as I turned every page.

I didn’t serve Janet very well. All lasting relationships must be mutually beneficial. Unknowingly I created cracks that would eventually split our marriage. I started to get it toward the end. I saw just how careless I’d been with a most important magical gift. Realizing anything in the end is too late. Conversion after a tipping point just looks like “deathbed confessions”. Janet was already gone. I came home from a trip to New York to have her pick me up at the airport and explain she moved out while I was away. If I was more present then, I wasn’t present at all for a year or so, I would have understood picking me up was Janet’s last service. How many women do you know who, upon deciding to move out, pick their soon to be ex-husbands up at the airport? It was an old pattern and Janet’s last gift.

Dylan sings a song that I can listen to about every third time it shuffles up on my iPod. It is If You See Her, Say Hello. Dylan sings to an ex who may be in Tangier. I hope Janet is somewhere as exotic. “She still lives inside of me, we’ve never been apart,” he sings. We are changed by each other. Janet changed me. She made me better. I will probably never see or speak to her again. “If you are making love to her, kiss her for the kid who has always has respected her for doing what she did for I know it had to be that way it was written in the cards,” are Bob’s instructions and hopes. Hopes I share and understand. “Sun down yellow moon I replay the past. I know every scene by heart they all went by so fast,” Dylan concludes again to my agreement.

Today is Janet’s 51st birthday. Happy Birthday JA. Thanks for the gifts over these many years. I hope you are well and living in Tangier.

Martin #28

Painting on Film

Top 5 Painting Sequences in the Movies
Painting is not exciting unless you are an artist. Most of what is going on when a painter paints is in the artist's head. Very little interesting stuff is happening where anyone else can see it. Artists watch other artists painting on film differently. As a painter you channel the actor's movement, stance, approach and the "mind, body, canvas" connection. Painting requires Zen focus. Most artists I know crank the music (me too back in the day). Music creates a painting's rhythm, its beat. Music focuses the mind losing the now. You disappear. Time is lost and, if you are lucky and good, a painting worth keeping results. Here are ScentTrail's top 5 "painting on film" movies.

Basquiat Directed by Julian Schnabel
Schnabel is a great painter. His freshman film includes the best painting sequences on film. All the "Basquiat's" created for the film were painted by Schnabel. Basquiat's family would not grant permission for originals to be used. Amazingly, you don't miss them (and I love Basquiat's work). The sequence of Jeffrey Wright as Basquiat painting in the basement studio supplied by his dealer (Parker Posey playing Mary Boone to perfection) is stunning. Loud cool jazz on the stereo, shirt off, cigarette hanging from his lips and focus on five paintings at once makes Basquiat the best painting sequence on film. My favorite segment in Schnabel's film is when Warhol, played by Bowie, and Basquiat are creating paintings together. I know this really happened, but it still floors me everytime Basquiat paints over Warhol. Magic, joy and one painter's generosity for another.



New York Stories the Scorsese "Life Stories" segment
Position two and three was a toss up. I selected Nolte's portrait of the fictional artist Lionel Dobie. Nolte successfully taps two hard things to show. Dobie's search for inspiration is serendipitous. He is anxious and angry until he finds what he is looking for in the crook of his soon to be ex girlfriend and aspiring artist Paulette's (well played by Rosanna Arquette) ankle. Next Nolte cranks tunes finding his painting's center. He layers paint, accepts, rejects and reworks pigment with brush, hand and the top of a trashcan. You watch Nolte disappear into Dobie's painting. Paulette leaves. Scorsese's next shot is not in the studio. Next we see Dobie at his opening. He stands in front of his masterwork (and about 30 other masterful paintings by Chuck Connelly ) Dobie's response, recruit a new Paulette to continue his "life lessons", insures another group of great paintings.


Pollack directed by Ed Harris
Takes a brave man to tackle this project. Ed Harris has Pollack's action style down. He channels Hans Namuth's film. Harris the actor and Pollack the painter are one. My favorite segment is the painting on glass riff filmed originally by Namuth and faithfully copied in the movie. Pollock created great paintings before his drips. Guardians of the Secret (1943) and Mural (1943) would be masterpieces even if there was never a single drip. Thankfully Pollack pulled away from the canvas. Ed Harris shows the "action" style of New York School painters along with Pollack's emotional pain.

Girl with A Pearl Earring directed by Peter Weber
Colin Firth's Vermeer is a tad on the angry and brooding side, but his obsession is well depicted. Here again frustration gives way to inspiration with the simplest, the tiniest, of things. A set of pearl earrings, a maid and a blue headband create one of the greatest paintings ever painted. Firth and Weber explore working class aspects of painting. Pigments are purchased and ground into rich oils. A Camera Obscura is rented and used. The painting sequences here are not as seductive and exciting as other films mentioned here, but the end result is, well, magical.


Slaves of New York directed by James Ivory
Not sure why Ivory and Merchant turned their camera on the hot New York art scene of the 1980's, but I am glad they did. My favorite sequence in this film is when the fictional artist Stash shoots pictures of cartoons on television. Those pictures, blown up and colorful, become his art. The power of this film is in its normal studio moments. The screenplay is the most knowing about how artists really live and work. Tama Janowitz wrote the stories and the screenplay. She gets it. Her artists are children, fools, brilliant, sad, happy and criminal like all of us.



Have a favorite "painting on film"? Share it with me so I can NetFlick it up and see your favorite. Don't forget to tell me why it works for you. I showed you mine, now you show me yours. :).

Enterprise Search Question

Crowd Source
Need help finding a cheap ($10K max) enterprise search solution for my company. Fully explained on LinkedIn here: http://tinyurl.com/3zk3wp.

Looked at Google mini and the bigger box and it seems like it would work, but the bigger box is too much money and the little box may not go across all documents we need or into all places we need (mostly internal shared drives). We also need to tag documents and images. Not clear on how we tag images so they come up where we need them too.

Email questions to martin at martinsellingzoe@aol.com

Plastics

Ben's Journey
I am sitting out the debates. I am watching Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft in The Graduate instead. An irresponsible act, but one I earn by writing this ScentTrail blog riff. Did you know Anne Bancroft was 36 when The Graduate was filmed? Hoffman was 30, so there was, in actuality, only six years between Mrs. Robinson the first “cougar” and her prey.

I know Ben Braddock. He lives in culture as metaphor. He lives for me as classmates, friends and, at times, me. The film is set contemporary to its 1967 filming. Watching the film now it appears a talented Art Director successfully created a period piece. This is not the case, or at least not to the largest degree. The film is how we lived then: gaudy, over-the-top and as stiff as a cardboard collar. I was nine in 1967, but I remember the look of it, plastics everywhere and lots of big Texas hair.

Things were so much easier then. Stiff, shallow and mean (older generation) versus hip, searching and full of existential angst (younger generation) makes picking sides easy. Nothing is ever easy. The purpose of Nichols' art is contrast Ben's fear to self-important pomposity of "the other" (everyone else except Elaine and she has those genes as we see clearly at the wedding).

Robert McKee in his outstanding book Story explains every screenplay, every movie, has a precipitating event. All other events flow from the precipitating event. It is a film’s raison d'être. The Graduate’s precipitating event is Mrs. Robinson cornering her prey (Ben) in her daughter’s bedroom. Ben is lost. We watch Ben lose virginity and more, much more. Ben loses his raison d'être.

Ben is trapped by disaffected ritual. He’s cored his life emptying principle after principle. He drinks. He smokes. He lies to his parents. Ben can’t become a man; he can’t find himself, until there are no lower floors. We are in Ben’s basement. Ben’s single aspiration, the only one his minimal mental and physical workload can afford, is continuation of meaningless self-destruction. Maybe “self destruction” is too harsh. Meaningless stasis is Ben’s simple objective. Backwards is impossible. Forward’s, the future, best promise is “plastics”. Who wouldn't want to just stay still, very still?

Ben’s basement floods when he takes Mrs. Robinson's daughter out. Ben drowns himself in his own shit. His cruelty is self-directed. Feminists posit Ben as stalker and Elaine as victim. I see Elaine as Ben’s salvation. She is idealized beauty. Woman as Madonna to her mother’s whore. Angels and devils exist simultaneously (in all of us). Art isolates and projects so we see, so we see ourselves. The Graduate is a film of its time. It is like a diode with only two distinct states: on or off, black or white, good or evil.

Is Ben good, evil or just lost? Interesting in 1967 no one says, “You better go back to school or you will get drafted and end up in Vietnam.” This absence is another example of art’s reduction. We sharpen focus on Ben’s “meaning” vs. “meaningless” possibilities because “life” and “death” is not seemingly the conversation. Life and death is actually Ben’s real struggle. A life worth living or a living death?

Does Ben’s win in the end? Look carefully at Elaine and Ben as bus drives away from church. One future lost another pirated away. Has anything really changed? In The Graduate II Ben lives on the beach making large steel sculptures (think Calder’s Stabiles or Mark di Suvero at Storm King). Elaine is missing in action. Long divorced, Ben found his true love, a painter, and they live for the reality of each other. This is my Graduate sequel. What is yours?

Panic

Panic is contagious. I grew up in Texas. We owned a cattle ranch named Sky Bo ranch run by a leathery Texan named Bo. We used to hunt Dove there. Cattle were always around and a bit of a pain. Texas is hot, so I could never understand why cattle would huddle so closely together. One would think this would be hot and smelly. Texas is not crowded with natural cattle enemies. Snakes, unseen Armadillo holes and man. Men confuse cattle. Their nature is to run away.

Cattle live their lives afraid of one thing or another. Mostly they are afraid of the wrong things. When they should be stampeding, the day they arrive at the feedlot to be fattened for market, they settle in for a nice meal. All that panic over nothing leads to no protection at all. Sound familiar?

The markets are in what one newscaster just defined as, "An old fashioned bank panic," and we are acting like cattle. We are creating our own danger. Instead of staying our course, trusting our past, and knowing our strengths we run pillar to post. As sentient beings we surely know withdrawing money amidst a panic expands frenzy thus creating exactly what we fear.

Two fears underlie our current panic. First we want ours. At all costs we must get our money out. What happens to you and your money is simply not my problem. This is goofystupid cattle thinking. We know our systems are interconnected, global, and more interdependent than ever. What happens to me changes you. What you do affects me and vice versa. Q:If we all get ours and what we get is worth nothing where are we? A: Lost. If, on the other hand, we recognize we are in this together then we thrive together.

Death is the second unstated fear. We've given money a magical property - it will stall death. I just finished a great book, Not Fade Away: A Short Life Well Lived written by Laurence Shames, and Peter Barton. Peter Barton did it all. He lived fast, made millions working in the Wild West that was cable television and had the perfect life. Perfect until he got sick. Peter Barton's money didn't buy one more day. He lived his life, loved his family and created cool stuff (MTV). Cancer taught Peter valuable lessons:

* Cherish your family
* Time is too valuable to waste
* Money is nice but not an end unto itself
* Honesty is hard but necessary
* What matters in life is who you are not what you do
* Death will someday find us all

We all know Barton's truths, but maybe it is not a bad idea to think about them before watching the news tonight, opening our IRA statements or visiting the bank tomorrow. The philosopher Frederick Nietzsche is famous for saying, "if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger." Nietzsche wished his friends hardship and trouble. If you were on Frederick's holiday card list you might get depressed if you didn't understand the content of his, "Hope you get sick this year," wish. Nietzsche wanted his friends to know themselves. He was convinced self knowledge was possible only in the face of stress, hardship and failure. The Nietzschian Superman is someone who looks for trouble. Trouble is where superheroes live. We can discover our real selves, our Nietzschian supermen and superwomen, right now. Cattle or superheroes? I'm opting for the strange German guy what about you?

An Open Letter To Our Soldiers

Sunday October 5, 2008

As I sit comfortable writing this letter in my favorite Sunday bistro I'm aware that many of you don’t sit nearly as well. Your Sunday will be different than mine. I can’t pretend to know what your Sunday will be like, but I hope it is safe and that you are well as you read this.

Saying THANKS seems like a poor gift, but it is what I bring. Thanks for your protection, care and courage. Thanks for your willingness to step up and stand sentinel so others may enjoy Sunday brunch. Politics don’t mean much to me, but your sacrifice, creativity and spirit mean everything.

If some of your time last week observed the media and people in general hand wringing over money I apologize. Sometimes we collectively forget what is really important. Money is important and I don’t relish a return to Grapes of Wrath poverty, but what you are doing is so much more important. We can always make more money. We can never replace time you spend in harm’s way. We can’t bring back your friends, our friends.

Sometimes we think only of ourselves, but, and this is why I love America, those moments are fleeting and rare. Mostly we know we win together or we lose. This is not to say we agree and act in lockstep. We rarely agree on anything other than our obligation to each other and our debt to those who sacrifice so much to protect principles we cherish. Freedom is my ability to write this note in an air-conditioned bistro in North Carolina while you are in Afghanistan or Iraq guns at the ready and enemies beyond the wire.

I wish I could be there with you. Thanks seem hollow and shallow when I know at 50 I won’t be handed a pair of boots, a gun and precious little else to protect ideas and people having brunch in bistros. I face challenges too and only hope I can be half as brave. I wrote a friend recently that true courage is being scared spitless and going forward anyway. You do that every day and I thank you. We thank you.

Our challenge is to give right now. By “our” I mean everyone comfortable at home as you risk all over there. We must give with our heart, soul and money. Giving when we are afraid, worth less on paper this week than last and scared is as close as we can get to sitting in a hot, dusty rat hole with people shooting at us. If we can put our worry and fears aside to focus on the big picture, to recognize there are bigger things going on than our bank accounts, then we walk our talk. We are Americans. We are the America I love with all my heart as I know you do too.

If there is ever anything I can do to help you please email martinsellingzoe (at) aol (dot) com. A single person, a computer and a few bucks can start a revolution these days. I must walk my talk. I’ve put up $500 of no obligation funds to help someone I don’t know (see my onFavor post). I hoped I would hear from a soldier or a soldier’s family when I created the onFavor grant. $500 isn’t much I realize, but it is a start. If $500 can help you, your family or one of your friend's in a meaningful way please tell me so I can write a check. If there are other things I can do, anything, please let me know.

Writing a check is a tiny, small thing. I know this and promise to think hard about what else I can do to help. Sitting here having brunch it is hard to imagine all you may need sitting there. Please count me among your number even though I haven’t earned that right. Count me as your friend, supporter and a person who pays his debts. Right now I pay them with thanks and a little cash. This is a puny down payment I know, but it is a start.

Thanks, keep your head down and come home safe,

Martin (Marty) Smith
Martinsellingzoe (at) aol (dot) com

Giving Away $500...onFavor

onFavor
It is harder to give away money to someone I don't know than I expected. Last week I put up $500 from my savings account to anyone who emailed me why they need some or all of the money. There are no strings, its not a scam and I explain why I'm trying to do something that may be a little crazy (especially given the market lately). Use the link below to read more about onFavor.

Yes, I am interested in how I can receive a check from Martin for $500.