Friday, December 09, 2005

Top 10 Holiday Movies for 2006


Merry Christmas to everyone from the Kauffman Family. Last year I listed my top 10 holiday movies and I wanted to repost the list this year. No changes yet... this list still contains the best of the best. If you have any additions I'd like to hear from you so shoot me an email to give me your feedback at tomkauffman@gmail.com.

THE TOP TEN:

1. Trains, Planes and Automobiles - watch it Thanksgiving evening and skip the rental car scene
2. It's a Wonderful Life - Classic and Donna Reed is a INCREDIBLE
3. While you Were Sleeping - This a fun movie and not because of Sandra Bullock... Peter Boyle
4. Home Alone - Classic
5. Home Alone 2 - Better than the first (very rare)
6. Home Alone 3 - JUST KIDDING
6. You've Got Mail - This movie just dances around the holidays but it makes the cut
7. White Christmas - I know this makes me look like a freak but I love that movie
8. A Christmas Story - This movie killed BB Gun sales all over the country
9. A Charlie Brown Christmas - Remember when you could only see this once a year?
10. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - this IS the bomb and there will never be anything close!

Merry Christmas!

TK

Sunday, October 30, 2005

iPod Nano Rocks!


Apple I salute you! I am enjoying my Nano (white by the way), and must admit this is the best MP3 player I've ever owned... and I've owned a few. My first digital music player was a Creative Labs unit and I loved it. I lost my first unit when I left it on a flight to Washington DC so I replaced it with the same type unit with more memory.

Creative Labs eventually made a smaller unit with even more memory and I snapped that one up in a minute. Eventually I purchased a Zen Micro and never quite got the hang of utilizing it to it's fullest extent. Although the design was adequate, Windows Media Player 10 was the interface and it was a weak combination.

When the Nano appeared on the marketplace I was "smitten" and had a desire to own my first Apple product since I graduated from college in 1988 and bought a Macintosh.

The Nano rocks! It is the lightest unit on the market and with 4 gigs of memory it can hold just about everything you need to take with you on trips. Any iPod is really only as good as iTunes allows it to be. As I was preparing to switch to an iPod I began experimenting with iTunes. I found it to be more intuitive than Windows Media 10 and I don't think I'll ever go back... when it comes to music, I'm an Apple fan.

Finally let me address the scratches everyone has been talking about... it does get scratched. When i throw it in my bag and other items rub against the screen - it does scratch. Everything I've ever owned (except my Rolex Explorer II) that has a plastic or glass screen scratches.

I don't know who's driving the law suit against Apple and the Nano, but I don't see the challenge. I see great color and all of my favorite music on a one inch screen of beauty.

TK

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

CNN's "Today Show"

I have never seen anything as weak as CNN, "the most trusted name in news?" What a joke.

The final blow for me was watching Headline News move to having two anchors who actually talk to each other. Playful banter back and forth, who cares what they have to say! This was the last serious news broadcast and now it's gone.

Why was it "serious?" Because it just reported news with very little opinion expressed in the delivery.

The first cable broadcast I ever saw was on Thanksgiving, 1980 and it was Headline News... that was 25 years ago. For a lot of reasons I remember that date and have always had a sweet spot for HN even though I don't care for the CNN organization.

Well now that HN is moving in the direction of the Today Show I imagine they will be adding a weatherman soon who is slightly overweight and thinks he's funny.

I'm done.

TK

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

If My Son Were President

My son Jack and I were walking through Washington DC this evening and I asked him an interesting question. "Jack" I said, "if you were president and you could make any law (I tried to explain an 'Executive Order') what would it be?"

Jack is 10 and a few decades away from qualifying for the presidency, but I think he had some interesting things to say.

1. Abolish School. I bet if you did a survey of 100 normal 10 years olds you'd get this one every time. I told Jack this was interesting and that he would be "the president of the stupidest country in the world" after only a few years and definately by the end of his second term.

2. Remove All Height Restrictions at Amusement Parks throughout the Country. Is this boy smart enough to be president or what! This is better than "Coke machines in every classroom" and he'd get every kid vote in the country. Karl Rove watch out...

3. Make Everything Free in Stores. Once again I had to step in and I said "well Jack, your Dad wouldn't want to own a store if everything had to be free, how would I make any money for our family?" He didn't get my point - but hey, he's only 10. Econ 101 and guns and butter are a few years away. The boy is a keeper - all my boys are sharp.

TK

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Is a Blog Still Cool?

Blogs are in the news. Business Week has blogs on the front cover, something about blogs taking over the business world and crushing every company in America.

I don't get the point of the piece but I do have a question - Is a Blog Still Cool? If blogs are on the front cover of Business Week I have my doubts. How cool is Business Week? Not very.

Blogging can be a great way to get thoughts out of your head and out in the open (which can be a bit dicey when the entire world has the capacity to see how bizarre you are AND that you can't spell all at the same time. Scairy.

Some blogs like my business blog www.sellingforresults.com have excellent content and serve as a resource for readers intelligent enough to take action on the recommendations given. Other blogs are just weak. Here's an entry from a fellow blogger that just makes me want to lay down and go to sleep - for a few years...

"I turned the comment feature off on my blog because I never get a lot of comments and I didn't like seeing the 0 Comment note at the bottom of each post. Until I installed a stat counter I never thought anybody, other than my buddies were even reading my ramble but it turns out that I get a fair number of hits - far more than I ever expected. Anyway, I figure I'll turn the comments back on should anyone feel the need to rip a post or point out the errors of my ways. To my buddies...you may continue to rip me by phoning me at work or hit me on MSN - I like the distraction at work. ;-)"

What a model employee this guy is... I hope he doesn't work for me!

Anyway I enjoy blogging and being on the cutting edge for now (until everyone reads Business Week). I have committed to write at least once a week here and once a month on http://www.sellingforresults.com/ so "to my buddies" please keep reading - but please do it on your own time.

TK