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The last day of 2008.  I swear, the older I get, the faster these years go by.  Not much to talk about this morning, so I’ll go right into the bowl picks.  After going 3 for 3 yesterday, I ran my bowl record against the spread to 9-6.  Since I’m pretty sure I won’t be blogging tomorrow, I’ll just go ahead and list the picks for the next two days worth of games.

Dec. 31
Air Force +3.5 over Houston
Oregon St. -2.5 over Pittsburgh
Boston College -3.5 over Vandy
Kansas -8.5 over Minnesota
LSU +4 over Georgia Tech

Jan. 1
Iowa -4 over South Carolina
Nebraska +2.5 over Clemson
Georgia -7.5 over Michigan St.
USC -9 over Penn St.
Va. Tech +2.5 over Cincinnati

Daily Obsessive Google Rank Check:
Pool Cues: #1
Pool Cue: #2

I have really mixed feelings about this one.  As employee #4 of Thunderbeam.com which later became Brainplay.com which was then turned into KBKids.com and finally KBToys.com, I was around to see the business grow from a few orders per day to one of the leading online toystores.  Even so, there was always a complete lack of focus on any business metrics while I was there.  I was continually told that my concerns about basic ecommerce metrics like conversion and customer acquisition costs were a waste of time since we were in the middle of “a land grab” as the former CEO and VP of Marketing continued to remind me.

While I do feel for the 103 remaining employees who are likely going to be looking for work soon, a company that never made any money and had a history of poor management should not be surprised by its failures.  Even on the eToys side, there was never a focus on profitibility.  It was always a cash flow/market share game.  There’s a great article about it at The Denver Post.

On to happier news.  I’m still treading water with my bowl picks, now at 6-6 for the season.  Today I’m going with Maryland +2.5, Oregon +2.5 and Rice -3.

Daily Obsessive Google Rank Check:
Pool Cues: #1
Pool Cue: #2

Don’t feel much like blogging about anything today, so I’m just going with the bowl picks.  Last night’s win pushed my record to 6-6 against the spread, but I’m not too high on either of the games today.  The early game has NC State who’s won their last four games a 6.5 point dog to Rutgers who have won their last six games.  The night game has Missouri as a 12 point favorite against Northwestern.

As for the picks, I’m going with Rutgers -6.5 and Northwestern +12.  I’ll probably lose the Northwestern game, but I can’t bet against the old man’s alma mater.