Jeff the Great Discovers Nike Alumni Network!

If you are one of the tens of thousands thave have worked for Nike, Inc in the past and you are on LinkedIn....there is now a LinkedIn Group for Global Nike Alumni.

If you have Nike listed as a past job in your LinkedIn profile, follow the below link to join the group:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/104175/1C7E490D8C95

This shoud be a good way to stay in touch with co-workers and find job opportunities during life after Nike.

-Jeff the Great

Jeff the Great Raises Money for Cancer Research!

I've written in the past about my brother-in-law, his family and his fight against cancer. On December 20th, 2007 he passed away at the age of 23.

Later this month I will team up with the family and friends of Klinton Boylan to particpate in the 2008 Tacoma Relay for Life. We are walking in rememberence of Klinton and with the goal of raising money for the American Cancer Society.

I would appreciate your support and any and all ways. One way is to make a donation directly to the American Cancer Society through my personal fundraising page: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/jmartens

Thanks for your support. I pray that you and your family will never have to go through what Klinton and his family did.

-Jeff the Great

Jeff the Great Saves You Money at the Pump!

Pop Quiz: which is more expensive to produce?

1. One hundred units each of 17 different types of MP3 players

or

2. Seventeen hundred of 1 type of MP3 player

Answer: Generally speaking, option #2....just 1 type of MP3 player.

Pretty easy question, huh? If it's that easy, why doesn't our country figure that out in regards to gas production? According to Exxon/Mobil, our country has legislated 17 different formulations of unleaded gasoline as the state and county level.


Take a look above, 17 different formulations with the specialty mixes dominating the most populated areas. There is even a little slice of west Texas with its own type of gas that one one else in the country uses. My home state of Oregon requires 3 different types, and the hardly populated state of Nevada requires 4.

Any wonder why gas prices are so high? The limited (and old) refineries in our country have to produce 17 different types of gas. When one goes offline, another has to retool to make a different type of gas than they usually do. When there may be excess crude on the market or crude at lower prices, not just any refinery can buy it and produce gas for the geography they serve.

Instead of wasting time with Congressional hearings and oil executive questioning, when is someone in government going to stand up and standardize US gas requirements? Does anyone doubt that we could get by with 1, 2 or even up to 4 formulations?

Does the presidential candidate you support plan on changing this if they are elected? If you don't know, you might want to ask.

-Jeff the Great

Jeff the Great Gets Some Sugar!

I've been working hard as a consultant for a local hair care product line from the Hickox Studio. Today we received some great validation for all our hard work when one of the web's hottest beauty blogs featured the products.

BellaSugar.com had this to say about Hickox products:

"Justin Hickox has grown up with hair. As the son of a hairstyling couple, he's been around it all his life — so it's no wonder that he's opened his own studio in Portland, OR. Using so many styling products on a daily basis, he had a hunch that he could improve upon many of the formulas. And that's just what he did.

The Hickox Studio line is small, but it doesn't mess around. The star of the line is his Styling Cream ($19), which is, he claims, an improvement upon Bumble & Bumble's coveted and similarly named product that changed its formula a couple of years back. It also includes two different styling waxes, a volume-boosting foam, curl products, and a thermal protecting spray.

To see what I thought of a couple of the products, read more."

To read the rest, visit the Hickox Studio article directly here. If you are one of the few Portlander's that hasn't yet tried these products, now is a better time than any!

-Jeff the Great

Jeff the Great Puts Out a Call to Action

If you are in or around the Oregon area and love technology, you have probably read my favorite blog: Silicon Florist. A few weeks ago Rick, the author of Silicon Florist, wrote a story about how Oregon students get a "D" in technology education.

Lots of people commented on the blog post. In fact it may have been a record response to a Silicon Florist article. People were generally passionate about doing something to improve technology education in Oregon. It was a great sight, the Portland technology community was jumping into action.

Rick followed up a few weeks later with a call to action and a few ways we can start to get the ball rolling. One was a newly formed discussion group through Google Groups (thanks to Dave Merwin) and the other was a proposed Silicon Florist internship program.


What great plans! Except for one thing. The Google discussion group has been quiet. What happened to the folks that generated the 30+ comments on Rick's original blog post? Where is the passion and desire to act that everyone expressed?

I am disappointed.

So I put out a(nother) call to action. If you care about technology education in Oregon. If you care about the jobs your kids will be qualified for when they are your age. If you love to complain about public education as much as I do. Get off your butt and join me in making a difference.

See you in the Oregon Education & Technology Google Group.

-Jeff the Great