Highlights of my week -

So, I was on the flight back home after attending the "society of competitive intelligence professionals" meeting in Orlando. All of a sudden, the plane started bouncing around like an amusement park ride, and the flight attendants beat a hasty retreat with the beverage cart. It then got even worse, prompting a lady seated right behind me to blurt out "God help us!". The flight attendants appealed for calm, implying that such turbulence is common, but who really knows. The rest of the flight passed without incident.

The meetings were meant to get me up to speed on what I'm supposed to be doing here, but seemed less than useful to me. At the end of the day, on the ball people who are perceptive and listen will do well, and those that aren't probably won't. That's what I learned. I also learned that I will never be as smart as Clayton Christiensen, who gave an amazing talk about innovation and churn in the business world. His conclusion: the only way that traditional companies can hope to survive is to establish autonomous companies with a mandate to kill the parent corporation. Bleak, but very timely given lots of the challenges we're facing at my company.

I had to cringe when I saw an Applebee's commercial with Sammy Davis, Jr. digitally patched in this week. I find it highly objectionable to use dead celebrities to hawk products. Now if someone wants to buy an Elvis shirt, and his estate wants to make a buck on that, so be it. I have no problem with that. I also have no problem with Tiger Woods endorsing Buick, a brand that's way more Sam Snead than it is Tiger. Tiger decided to make a fool of himself. I do have a problem with Applebee's and Sammy's estate deciding posthumously that Sammy prefers Applebee's to Chili's, TGIF, Outback, Olive Garden, and every other lame-0 micro waved food outfit supplied by Sysco (thank you, Tom). Why, during the middle of a commercial, do I have to ponder on how Applebee's and Sammy's relatives hammered out his latest deal? Why is Applebee's stupid enough to think that people won't think about that when they see Sammy in their commercial?

The proliferation of password "help'' questions continues. I've been thinking, and here are some you are not likely to see:

• What was the serial number on the first can of soda you ever drank?
• How many times were you screened for scoliosis in elementary school?
• What was the name of the first store in your hometown put out of business by Wal-Mart?
• Who makes up your favorite 2 man luge team?
• Why don't you like jazz?

I was called to be the assistant teacher's quorum advisor. The boys are pretty rowdy, but I think I can still beat most of them up - maybe not all at the same time, though.

No pics this week - sorry.