Okay, let me set this one up for you…

About a month ago, my smart, talented, and beautiful wife and I decided to remove the sides from our daughter’s crib, giving her the ability (we thought) to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Well, all in all, it seems to be a pretty good experience. She loves the freedom, and it hasn’t caused any huge headaches. (No midnight potty runs yet)

But there is one thing i’ve learned from this whole experience… I HAVE A SUPER SNEAKY KID!

Yeah sure, you’re thinking… she is so loud sometimes, she couldn’t sneak up on a deaf guy at a rock concert, but she has you fooled.

She is a future Ninja in training.

You wake up, take a shower, get dressed, brush your teeth, then turn around and AHHHHH this sweet little face is staring at you from danger close.

No “Hi Dad” or anything, one second she’s in bed, the next second she’s staring up at you through her disheveled golden locks.

At least I think she’s in bed… maybe she hangs from ceiling to “observe” for a bit until it is just the right time to scare the living daylights out of me.

THANK YOU TO ALL FORMER AND CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE U.S. MILITARY. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines…reserve, or active… past or present… Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you do.

These are the people that truly deserve a day off today, although during war time I know there is rarely any time for vacation. No matter how much appreciation we give to these people, it will never be enough.

We live in a time where our ALL VOLUNTEER force is guaranteed to see combat action within their first year of joining. You don’t sign up for the service these days asking if you’ll go to Iraq or Afghanistan, you only ask when.

These people give up many things we take for granted (soft bed, seeing your family everyday, Starbucks coffee in the morning) just to defend our rights to these things.

If you are, or have not been a member of the U.S. Military, all I ask is one simple thing. Say “Thank you” to a Veteran or service member. Whether you agree with the premise of our current conflicts or not, support the men and women that fight in these conflicts, and realize that they have a far bigger impact on us than we realize.

Support for natural disaster victims across the globe, numerous charitable campaigns, and the anti-drug and border patrol efforts they provide in their “off time” from the Middle East. Many of these go overlooked by a public that sometimes doesn’t realize how good we have it.

So once again I want to say thank you to all of the current and former military members out there. And to all my fellow Marines, Semper Fi!

And please, everyone out there, not just today, not just this week, every time you have a chance, thank our Military Members for their service, they will appreciate it.

Sincerely,

James Erickson
Former Marine

P.S. Remember especially this Holiday season, almost 200,000 military members will be away from their families in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you want to do a little more than saying thanks go online to http://www.ourmilitary.mil, and see how to send care packages, well wishess, and even donate your unused frequent flyer miles to members of the military. http://www.ourmilitary.mil

I didn’t watch the Academy Awards, and I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve been in a theater for a first run movie.

In general I don’t like award shows, or even awards. They all seem like comittees of the unfit created to recognize the best of the mediocre. Politicking and campaigning for votes is not only OK, it’s encouraged.

This year “Hurt Locker” won the Oscar for Best Picture. I haven’t seen it, or Avatar, so I don’t know which I like better, but I do know one thing.

James Cameron is winning the ultimate prize.

The “Hurt Locker” has, up until Monday grossed $14.7 million at the box office in the US. Not bad at all, but the production budget was $15 million dollars. They have a gold man, but they are still $300K in the hole. (And the market for US military movies overseas is non-existent.)

“Avatar” on the other hand had a $500 Million budget… but, get this, has grossed over 2.5 Billion in worldwide box office sales.

Having a business mind, I know which project I’d rather be a part of, and it’s not the one with the gold statue, it’s the one that has a 5 to 1 ROI.

I mention this because I see a lot of online businesses and even traditional advertising agencies posting about their big award at the whocares.com conference. Or how their last campaign was nominated for a Cleo.

I don’t care what kind of hardware you have on your mantle, and I’ll assure you that my bank doesn’t either. All I want is cash in the bank. If your advertising/product/business will be profitable, I could care less what awards you may have or be mentioned for.

If I am profitable, that means one thing… that I am providing solid value to the group that has the only vote that counts. They vote with their pocketbooks and are emotionally and monetarily invested in my business.

I know that “Hurt Locker” will make millions more in the weeks to come because they are Oscar winners. But, they give away Oscars every year. There is, however, only one highest grossing movie of all time (And Avatar will continue to add to it’s impressive box office numbers).

The point is, if you ever listen to or read someones features/benefits statement, and they refer to being a winner of this or that award, you may want to hit the door, close the web browser, or unfollow them on Twitter. It may be likely they do not have your best interests in mind, and are just looking for someone to fund their next award campaign, whether it is of value to you or not.

And, if you are an entrepreneur, DO NOT set out to win awards, but set out to provide massive amounts of value to those that really do the voting… your customers. Happy customers that return again and again will be all the reward you need.

Here are the Top 5 viewed videos in my 30 videos in 30 days series… enjoy:

1. Creating A Cool And Simple Intro For Your Video Blog
2. Create Your Own URL Shortener On Your Domain With WordPress And Pretty Link Plugin
3. How To Turn Your Handwriting Into A Cool Personal Computer Font
4. The Lego Marketing Principle
5. How To Add Google Analytics To Your WordPress Powered Blog… No Plugin Needed.

There you go… top five.

And here’s an honorable mention for those of you that got a Flip or Digital Camera for Christmas:

Build A Digital Camera Mount For Less Than $5

Follow me on twitter to see what I’m up to next… this will be good!

Hey guys, Day 30 is here, and this series is over… this is just a fun video of me putting togethe r my 16 month old’s trike that I got her for Christmas… she’ll love it.

Thanks for hangin in there…