Kevin Meyers

Heading for the triple

Wow. K-Swiss is going all the way on the Kenny Powers ad campaign.
Check out the billboard my brother spotted in Times Square.

I should state for the record that I am a huge Kenny Powers fan. I
have the entire Eastbound and Down season one on my computer, to watch
on flights. But even I will concede that Eastbound an Down is probably
the most offensive show on TV (I know, it's not TV, it's HBO). The
show is filled with expletives, nudity, drug use, and lots of other
hilarious(ly inappropriate) things.

So why is K-Swiss going all-in on Kenny Powers? Maybe it's because
they've got nothing to lose. As a brand, K-Swiss is irrelevant. It's a
nonstarter. I never think of K-Swiss when I think of sneaker brands.
So it's a swing for the fences. And it's viral as hell - as my
brother's sending me this picture from his phone attests. There are
Kenny Powers videos on YouTube that have also made the rounds of my
friends' e-mail chains, so I know the campaign is getting traction in
it's desired demographic.

Still, I wonder if they really thought this one through. I'm not sure
Eastbound had the greatest ratings, so how many people walking through
Times Square have any idea who that is on the billboard? And of fans
of E&D, like myself, how many of us are going to buy K-Swiss because
of Kenny Powers? I'm guessing not many.

At worst, this campaign blows up in their face because soccer moms and
Bible belt customers are offended by the obscenity and association
with Kenny Powers. At best? Still seems like a dumb idea for the
brand.

I figured out a nifty way to play Madden without feeling like I'm a waste of humanity playing video games all day. With a hat tip to Bill Simmons, who plays Madden while on a treadmill, I have instituted three rules for myself while playing it (and all PS3 games, although currently Madden is my only one):

1. All sitting must be on an exercise ball (don't laugh, it strengthens my core).
2. When not sitting on exercise ball, I must stand. Bonus points for walking back and forth. On a sidenote, standing while playing a football video makes it feel more like I'm the coach pacing the sidelines. When I'm alone in the house, I have no hesitation yelling at my players and berating them. I may even swear like Rex Ryan.
3. Bang out 25 pushups and a 30-second plank at halftime of every game.

So it's a tricky little lifehack to get me to exercise. Or at least burn a few more calories while I'm indulging in something that's traditionally derided as slothful.

Now that Facebook has launched Places, though, I'm not sure I'll use it the same way as I use Foursquare. On Foursquare, I check-in with wanton abandon. I check-in when I stop for gas. When I run into the grocery store. When I drop into Starbucks for a coffee. My check-ins don't go anywhere -- I don't push them to Twitter or Facebook -- so the only people I'm bugging are my Foursquare contacts, most of whom do the same thing and have opted-in to the whole "over-sharing" concept.

With Facebook Places, however, all of my check-ins are automatically pushed to my Wall. This is different. This means when I check-in several times throughout a day, my friends' Facebook Walls are all of a sudden cluttered with my crap. In fact, I just did my first Facebook check-in this morning, and within an hour, I received comments on the check-in post from my eighth-grade English teacher, and a few friends in other cities. These people don't use Places, and they probably don't care to see my check-ins every once in a while. But there's no way they would put up with my checking-in at the same frequency I do on Foursquare.

It will be interesting to see what happens here. Will I only check-in to cool places on Facebook? Will I continue to check-in to both services whenever I go anywhere?

Do you use either service? Do you use them differently? Do you think both are the dumbest things in the world? Give me a holler in the comments.

Here is an attempt to show the minor scratch (less than one inch) in the bottom left of the iPad. This is only really visible if you look closely, and doesn't affect the use of the iPad at all.

This post is really only of interest to you if you are interested in purchasing my iPad, which is for sale on eBay here.

I can come up with a list of thousand reasons why. I found it awkward to hold on the bus. It didn't replace anything in my bag. The new Kindle came out that's much lighter and cheaper, and since the main app I was using on the iPad was the Kindle, there was no reason for me to carry around a giant iPod Touch.

But the real reason why? I got a new gadget that's way cooler than the iPad. Here it is:

So, sorry, Steve Jobs. You've out-innovated yourself. The iPhone 4 has eliminated my need for an iPad. So to eBay I go.

PS - The saddest person to see the iPad go is my 19-month old son, Jack, who loves watching Toy Story on the iPad. But I'm sure we can figure something out for him. Like, I don't know, not watching so much TV?