Foulke a Class Act

Today Keith Foulke, the famous Red Sox closer who finished the final game of the 2004 World Series retired today. After the World Series, he never regained his form, having tough injury ridden 2005 & 2006 seasons. Pummelled by the fans and media, especially over the Joe Burger King remark, he never really regained his form on the field or off. Even though he could have stuck around with the Red Sox, he decided to take a 1 year $5 million deal with the Indians. After realizing that his body was not up to snuff, he retired.

He just gave up $5 million. If he had reported to camp, the Indians would have to pay him even if he sat on the bench for the rest of the year. Now that's a class act.

For the millions that pay our players, we expect them to have these incredibly fan friendly attitudes even in the face of tremendous criticism. The same guy that won it all for us one year is then batted around the next. He could have pocketed a ton of cash, yet he frees up the cap so that the Indians could find another player. He decided to hang it up, not only to save his body, but to help his new team.

We won't forget that magical 2004 and all you did for us Keith. Pitching a 0.67 ERA in the 2004 playoffs. Pitching like a rock during the famous turnaround Game 4 against the Yankees. Thanks for the memories Foulkie!

Asthma Post Mumbai Marathon

After coming back from the Mumbai Marathon, I checked my eNO level. It had hit a new high of 49 ppb (learn more about my previous eNO measurement). This was even though I was taking Advair 100/50. That means 2 things: the dose was too low to keep airway inflammation under control, and that my inflammation must have been much higher on previous trips. While my run was slower than usual, I did not necessarily feel any symptoms.

My sneakers told a different story. They went from pure white to as if I ran in a clay field. The amazing part was that the marathon streets were cleaned before the run. The air in India is dusty, but who know that there is that much out there.

During my run today (2 weeks later), it was not particularly easy even though it was a modest 4 miles. Could my lungs still be affected by the particles in the Mumbai air?

Well, let's see how quickly we get the measurement down.

Google's Plans

This is from late 2006, but I'm sure Google's plans are current:

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-10-26-n80.html

Thanks to Andreas for sending it over

Mumbai Marathon 2007 - I Made It

I just arrived in Palo Alto yesterday. The soreness has subsided except for a few spots. I can now touch my toes without pain. I can climb stairs as well.

The 2007 Mumbai Marathon was the most difficult marathon I’ve ever run. My time was a full 30 minutes slower than previous ones. I attribute it largely to the heat and humidity. I knew it would be difficult, but there’s really no easy way to train for the combination of weather and distance with my schedule. I was lucky that my asthma was under control. I tried my hardest to maintain a pace and not walk, but the heat was overbearing. I was tempted by some of the taxis that passed in the driving lane. I wondered many times about the info girl’s hint, “You know the energy drink is only for those running the full marathon.”

Yet the marathon was one of the most amazing runs out of the 4 that I’ve completed. Because the field was relatively small I got to see the Africans warm up. They are thin but all muscle and damn fast. I could barely sprint as fast as their marathon pace. I met one of the elite runners who told me he planned to run it in 2:12. I told him that it would take me more than twice the time, but I would cheer for him whenever I saw him. It was JK M--- (I can’t remember his last name). It was like meeting a rock star because he was one of 5 recognized international runners at the start. When the initial rush came at the start, I got behind him to make sure he would not fall down. If he won, I could claim that I helped a tiny bit.

The path was really beautiful. The organizers tried to put us near the ocean whenever possible. Many of the streets also had good shade in the early half. There are so many modern buildings rising across the skyline. It’s a lot like Hong Kong, but with much more masala. It’s very impressive to see the growth of India juxtaposed with the trees, oceans and older buildings between km 15-30. I tried to memorize the path so I could remember the landmarks as I passed them. I saw Mumbai in a way I’ve never seen before.

Fellow runners were equally nice. I met a whole bunch of people while running. We passed each other with words of encouragement many times. All were very nice. One overweight looking Swedish woman in her 40s had run 20 marathons in the last 5 years. And yes, she did finish in under 5 hours. It shows you anything is possible.

The organizers did an excellent job making sure there were water, energy drinks, and medical aid at many locations throughout. It’s amazing that people are willing to volunteer so much time just to help out.

While there was some bureaucracy in the end, it was pretty good considering that this was only the 4th time the event was run. They will only get better. Maybe they’ll forgo that steep hill at 35 km and start an hour earlier. Then again, just having the event was a boon for the city as about 5 crore was spent cleaning up.

Most of all, the fans who sat along the course were inspiring. Lots of kids called out “Rajiv Uncle” and slapped my hand. Many people cheered us on the hot sun even though there were no famous people or race to see. It helps push you along. My parents, Rajesh and Sameer were waiting for me at many points along the course. It was so nice so see them each and every time. It makes a huge difference. You know you have to finish. When I saw my father a ways away at the Finish, I grit my teeth and ran as hard as I could. I felt that as difficult as the end was, I had to finish strong. I hit 8.2 mph at the end, the fastest I ran that day.

I was lucky that I was well enough to go to dinner that evening with the Position2 Mumbai team. I didn’t actually feel all that sore, though it could be the Advil. That came the next day, but I’m glad to have some gas left in the tank to do all those meetings the next day. Even the plane ride back was OK.

Thank you all for the warm support and kind words!!!

Here's a pic taken by Sameer from our Mumbai office:



Below are some kind comments by Sameer from our Mumbai office:

Mumbai Marathon - One of the most grueling courses in the world. Non-natives are known to melt in the intense heat and humidity. Rajiv braved the 42.3 kms + the bureaucracy to get his medal & certificates to finish 171 of several thousand marathoners. This feat was achieved well under 5 hours, which is amazing, since many marathoners give up mid-way or do not get ranked if they exceed 5 hours.

This is him at the 18 km mark with the official drinkskeeper (me).

More pics of crossing the finishing line, jubilation, medicine tent, etc to follow.

Mumbai Marathon

Phew, I just finished the Mumbai Marathon. Not a sparkling time at 4:48, but happy to finish. Mumbai itself was beautiful even in the heat.

More later...

Nardelli's Ridiculous Severance

I'm amazed at reading stories of Robert Nardelli's $210 million severance package. As a CEO, I find it disgusting by any measure. A man as wealthy as him should be embarrassed by the size of the package for failing to deliver for Home Depot. In his time, we worked to make the company more efficient by destroying the service led culture of the company. After he took over, you could not find what you were looking for. On top of that, you couldn't find people to help you. Even worse, those that worked there could not give advice on what to do. Then when you found something, you'd have to wait in a long line to pay. This is not how to run a company. It is how you get short term financial results.

No wonder Lowe's ate their lunch. No wonder Home Depot's stock is down. CEO's have great responsibility - that is for sure. However, large company CEO's have access to great resources for consultants, staff and capital investment. With all that is available to them, CEO's should be fired if they trash a company. Being allowed to take shareholder money like this shows a lack of diligence from the Board of Directors. It also sends a terrible message to other employees about how their work is valued.

The risk/reward equation for large company CEO's is completely screwed up vs. the entrepreneurial founder and CEO. If you fail at a startup, you typically lose money, especially if you started it. If you fail at a large company, you make money while you are failing and then get more on your way out. This makes no sense. Shareholders need to take action to prevent this if they want innovation and performance.

Back from Hawaii - Off to Mumbai

Our fun family trip to Hawaii is over as the New Year begins. See the sunrise from the our house above.

Somehow my wife always finds an excellent house for us to rent. This one was in the little town of Kualoa on the Windward side of Oahu. It's a place where Jurassic Park was film with , soaring mountains that would hide their tops in the clouds. Our house faced the beach, where we could see the rising sun every morning from our bedroom. Because of the protection of the coral reef, we had a mellow beach where the kids could play all day without worrying about any undertow. You could walk half a mile and the water would never get more than chest high. While canoing we saw a sea turtle up close that darted away the minute they sensed our presenced. While nothing like Hanauma Bay, snorkeling provided excellent views of all kinds of fish.

Given that the Mumbai Marathon was only a month away, I decided to run a 17 and 20 miler during the week. Oahu had 2 of the 3 elements I would face in Mumbai - heat and humidity. I'm hoping that I will be able to cope with the pollution. The runs were grueling, but with some weight loss before the event, I hope to finish - albeit slower than previous times.

The best part was spending time with my immediate family and my uncle's family that happened to visit Oahu at the same time. We took them to the Polynesian Cultural Center (terrific web site) and the Big Waves of the North Shore. We saw 20 foot waves crash into the shore - some with manical boarders.

I thank our clients for taking time to enjoy the Holiday Week. It allowed me to actually get away from work for the first time in over a year.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy Holidays - Off to Hawaii!

Hope you all have a great Holiday! I'll be taking next week to spend time with the family in Oahu. Bhairavi has found a house on a quiet beach where we'll be playing with the kids. I hope all of our clients take the week off as well so we can collectively catch a breath.

Will be posting some pictures next week.

I do have a data card, so I will be in touch.

2006 UNH CEPS Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes Silicon Valley entrepreneur

Earlier this year, UNH surprised me by giving me this award. It was quite an honor. It is posted below:

2006 UNH CEPS Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes Silicon Valley entrepreneur

Electrical engineer finds new applications for innovative technologies

DURHAM, N.H.— Silicon Valley entrepreneur Rajiv Parikh is the recipient of the 2006 University of New Hampshire College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award.

Originally from Goffstown, Parikh now lives in Palo Alto, Calif., where he is currently founder and CEO of Position2 Inc., an online performance marketing company that combines search engine marketing with ad networks to generate sales leads for companies around the globe.

“Twenty years ago, when I first came to UNH, I never thought that I would someday receive an honor like this,” Parikh said after receiving the award at a dinner co-hosted by the New Hampshire section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the CEPS Alumni Society on April 21. What’s amazing is that a lot of the professors I had are still here, and the passion is still here for uplifting students and taking them to the next level.”

The annual dinner meeting was also attended by engineering seniors just inducted into the Order of the Engineer. “You are taught a structured way of thinking, and that is something that offers tremendous value, not only to yourself, but to society,” Parikh told them. “As long as you are passionate about what you do, you’ll succeed.”

Since earning his bachelor of science in electrical engineering from UNH in 1990, Parikh has been an entrepreneur and executive in the high-tech and life sciences sectors, specializing in matching innovative technologies with new applications. “I had a hard time trying to determine how to describe Rajiv’s career because he has been so successfully involved in so many different ventures,” said Mike Dalton, chairman of the society’s award selection committee. “Passionate, dedicated, entrepreneurial and innovative are some of the adjectives that can be used to describe him.”

After graduating from UNH, Parikh worked as a sales manager at AT&T Global Information Solutions, before earning an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1997. He then held senior positions at Sun Microsystems and AltaVista Company before co-founding Aperon Biosystems. He led the venture-backed medical device startup, which has so far raised more then $20 million in investor capital, for two years. He has also worked in the software, hardware and wireless industries.

While visiting UNH, Parikh toured the newly renovated portions of CEPS’ home in Kingsbury Hall. Currently under construction, Phase II of the project includes a computer cluster that Parikh and his wife Bhairavi Parikh ’91 helped finance. “I was really excited to walk through the new Kingsbury,” he said. “I saw the same great professors, but a much better facility, making it more fun to work in the labs.”

PHOTO CAPTION: Rajiv Parikh accepts the 2006 UNH College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award from Mike Dalton, chairman of the CEPS Alumni Society award selection committee.

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Copyright 2006 The University of New Hampshire • College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
UNH is part of the University System of New Hampshire.
Kingsbury Hall • 33 College Road • Durham, N.H. 03824
Phone: (603) 862-1781 • Fax: (603) 862-2486 • E-Mail: ceps@unh.edu
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Last updated 2006-Jun-01

Big Win at Position2

Today we secured a significant new client at Position2. This firm is a significant, public software company. Since we did this through a partner, we can't mention the name yet, but we will be able to leverage our experience with db40bjects and Pathworks Software to grow their base of leads.

The best part is that the client chose us over a major SEM firm that did not expend the resources required to properly serve them. This is for PPC and SEO.

There will be even greater momentum next month.

Why Goodbye to Nixon

As a fan, it's sad to see dedicated, hard-working players like Trot Nixon are not re-signed. He gave the team everything he had and it's probably why he injured himself so often. I'm sure he would have re-signed with a hometown discount.

I'm sure the Red Sox were looking at Nixon's stats and the declining number of games and power. His slugging average has dropped from the .500s to the .400s though he's maintaining his OBP (maybe the A's will want him). Meanwhile JD Drew has stayed in the .500s even coming off of an injury year.

There's one thing that most don't factor in is that Nixon does poorly against left handed pitchers (LHP). Typically, Nixon is not played on days with a lefty starter. This reduces managerial flexibility and pumps up his statistics. Drew vs. Nixon against LHPs is .814 vs .620 OPS and .263 vs. .207 BA over the last years. That's a huge difference.

The one thing is character and Nixon has it in spades. It is telling that someone is willing to opt out of a $11 mil/year contract for a $14 mil/year one. We hope the atmosphere of the team is contagious.

If you want a real in-depth analysis, go to the Dec 6 post of the Weekend Sports Page. It's really well put together.

Managing an Operation in India

Today over dinner I was asked a number of questions about running an operation in India. Many hear the press reports about call centers where people "fake" being an American or where getting an Indian technical support rep means incomprehensible service. What people do not hear about the success stories: large scale, successful technology projects that deliver quality deliverables on-time and on-budget or successful services delivered by American sounding customer service operators. These examples are occurring over and over with greater frequency. The media would rather focus on examples of failed implementations run by poor management teams who did not hire, train and operate based on the realities of the people and market.

If you are used to hiring US high school graduates for a call center or highly scripted technical support operation and are experiencing high turnover, what would you expect with Indian college graduates? There are cost and quality advantages with an Indian team, but if there's a labor cost advantage of 10:1, it is unlikely to translate into a 10:1 total advantage. Why? Buildings and computers cost the same. Quality management will not mirror the cost advantage. There will be training and communications costs. While 2:1 or 4:1 is certainly achievable, you have to account for other costs, especially in the beginning. As you grow, the cost advantage can be signficant.

From a quality standpoint, I have seen equal or better quality. People coming out of Indian colleges are well versed in their field. We get the best of both worlds as many on our team have advertising, marketing and business backgrounds and also have a strong comfort level with math and statistics. Moreover, they enjoy the challenge of working on an international client. There's a strong desire to prove how good they are. While many are accustomed to a hierarchical system that does not encourage thinking in the workplace, when people are "given permission" to think, quality of work and efficiency soars.

I've seen this already in my team. People really enjoy their work. They are always coming up with creative ideas. Supporting groups find ways to buttress line operations. Our senior management is so strong that I don't need to be there more than every other month or so.

This requires a lot of work, trust and calls on Skype. So don't believe everything you read. There are a lot of quiet success stories that far outweigh the failures. Failures have more to do with poor execution than anythign else. I can tell you that my Indian team can go toe to toe with anyone.

I'm going to spend a lot more time on this subject, so feel free to comment.

How Entrepreneurs Look at Things

My wife and I were driving with an executive of one our companies. We were joking about how every time someone talks about a problem, we see a new company.

Later on, Bhairavi brought up an idea she had. I saw great potential. In fact it would be more of a clinical trial situation than technology hurdle. Meanwhile, you could see the, "Here they go again," rolling of the eyes with our exec. As sharp as she is, all she sees is risk.

When most people see risks, entrepreneurs see great potential. We like 10% probabilities because there are great rewards if and when we make it work. And we feel we can make things work.

If you are going to think, think big.

effinfunny live!

I'd like you all to check out effinfunny.com. It a new site started by Sandeep, an improv comedian, director and now entrepreneur over in LA. The site will add a new original clip a day by up-and-coming comedians that were shot with a live studio audience over at The Empty Stage in LA. One of Sandeep's friend, Rich Kuras, finds great comedians and books them. Then the team puts the whole event together and edits the clips.

My team at Position2 put together the site. We worked with Sandeep on the strategy, design, development and marketing. We put together an amazing content management system for the site that is flexible and powerful enough for a new media content and community site. We are operating and running the marketing of the site. I must say that the group did an amazing job.

It started as a brainchild of mine when I was thinking about cool new media projects. Imagine having comedy clips that you can view anytime you want. Sandeep gave life to it by focusing on edgy, intelligent comedy and running the operation. Some of the stuff is over the edge. Other stuff is just really clever. You'll never look at an ATM or your wife the same way. Many times, I find it even funnier the second time - it's that good.

Check it out and leave comments. We want to improve. We wouldn't mind if you click on an interesting ad either :).

Landing Pages - Gotta Have 'em

When you've been in this business for a while, you simply expect people to understand the value of landing pages. A meeting with a client the other day really brought this to life for me because it's hard for people to get away from the home page mentality of website development.

What is a landing page? It's a place that you land after you click on a PPC ad (there's value in SEO, but we'll focus). It's the place that tells your prospect more about the ad they clicked on and encourages them to contact you or buy your product or service. The page is different than your home page where you are trying to give the visitor the ability to find whatever they are looking for. This includes products, services, management info, press, contact info and so on.

Landing pages are different. You paid for the click. You have every right to limit their choices. Using your home page as your landing page offers too many choices and only delays a decision. Or worse, people forget about why they are there in the first place. Searchers have ADD. Either give them what they are looking for or go elsewhere.

Make sure the landing page is consistent with your ad. It seems intuitive but many do not do that. They forget to repeat or build on the messages of the ad. For example, if your ad says “2 easy steps to sign up. Hassle free” in the ad. The landing page should clearly show step 1 and step 2. It should have a box with benefits that would highlight why it is hassle free. We've seen dramatic improvements in conversion rates (rate at which you click turns into a lead or sale) when the landing page is aligned appropriately. Moreover, it is said that it improves your quality score with Google. That means you pay less or get higher position on your ad.

Keep it simple. Do not clutter your landing page with all kinds of information. Less is more. There's no need to confuse people.

Don't forget about the big red or green button. You know, the one that tells people to contact you or buy now. Study after study shows that this works. So use it and make sure it is front and center. This was a key area of discussion with a client.

Place a form on your landing page. Try to make it simple and unobtrusive. It allows you to track the success of the campaign, have a lead to contact and have another prospect in your database for newsletters, updates or special offers.

Use references to increase your credibility. This could be customer testimonials, parter quotes, logos of the Better Business Bureau, etc. Anything that makes that decision easier, especially if you in a very competitive market.

Use human faces, especially for services. Nothing sells and increases comfort more than the happy face enjoying the benefit of your product or service. Notice how Apple uses the gyrating dancing men and women to push the iPod. We have seen dramatic improvements with this. So much so, that we put people on our front page.

For easier tracking, use confirmation or thank you pages to complete the contact process.

Try to use text over text images. It makes it easier to make modifications, especially if you do a ton of pages to tune your campaign.

This goes without saying but keep with the look and feel of your brand. You customers will see you again. Don't confuse them into missing you.

Finally, test and retest. Never stop testing. Use split testing or even better Taguchi testing (see Andreas' slides on the beta of Google's MultiVariate Testing software). You would be amazed how many times the page that you considered as the worst, turned out to be the best in conversions.

Thanks to Soumya for helping with her comments!

My Asthma Returns... There's Hope

When I came back from India in late November, I returned with that familiar feeling in my chest. I have been starting to feel it as of my last couple of trips from India. It's that tight, coughy feeling - that shortness of breath. There's a feeling you get when you breathe in too deeply. You can't go all the way. A number of times I had a difficult time in the rickshaws breathing in the soot from other rickshaws. It's a long way of saying...the asthma is back.

It's a sad feeling - been over 25 years since I last felt symptoms. The memory never goes away, but I really thought I beat it. Well this time when I went to see my doctor, he listened to me describe my symptoms and prescribed Advair - inhaled corticosteroids with a long acting bronchodialator. Usually I despise medication, but I took it as I felt a great deal of chest tightness. There was some impact within days but it's still there. I know that a low dose of Advair takes a while to have impact.

The story twists here... Well I went over to the Apieron office this weekend to measure my exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) levels. As many of you know, Bhairavi and I started Apieron. We are building a device that measure exhaled nitric oxide or eNO at the parts per billion level. eNO is indicative of inflammation of the airways. High inflammation leads to symptoms. If you can catch and control inflammation early, you are much less likely to feel symptoms. In my case, I've been typically measured at in the low 30s over the years. Today, I was at 46 ppb - this is after 3 days of Advair. Much much higher than normal. While there is no established protocol for treatment in conjunction with eNO measurement, it's clear that lowering eNO and inflammation is the way to go.

I was happy about one thing - eNO works. My measured level is much higher than normal. As a mild asthmatic, my normal level is higher than non-asthmatics. To see it this high really hit home. It is one thing to hear presentations on studies that have been conducted. It's quite another to feel it directly. The measurement works - our device has value.

Every week, I plan to go back in to see the decline. When it gets low enough, I plan to see if I can switch to a pure inhaled corticosteroid vs. Advair.

In one way, this stinks. In another way, it's heartening that our collective hard work can truly help the world.

Bonds Signing - More Than Meets the Eye

Today, it was announced that the SF Giants would sign Barry Bonds for $16 million base and earn up to $20 mil for one search. Given that Bonds seemed to have no other place to go, various writers in the SJ Merc and SF Chronicle are talking about how crazy it seems.

And it does seem crazy except for one thing. The Giants do need Bonds more than he needs them. A comment from a good friend and season ticket holder gave the answer - personal seat licenses and a big price increase. The 7 year personal seat licenses for season ticket holders are up. They have a choice of either renewing for some ridiculous rate + the game package or a much higher per game ticket price.

By keeping Bonds, the Giants are more likely to get the renewals and keep cash flows going before Bonds leaves.

Why not pay less like $7 mil? Well even if Bonds accepted it from the Giants, he would probably be unhappy and spread that around the clubhouse. That would wreck the season and turn off the fans. So Magowan had no choice but pay extra, get the big personal seat license and season ticket renewals, and then let Bonds go after the season.

I'm sure Bond's agent knew a little bit about this as well...

PPC for More Traffic, More Sales

For those who previously visited our site, you will see a new look. We have changed our tagline and added a whole host of content. We found that many clients did not really understand PPC or Pay Per Click Advertising with Search Engines.

So we asked them, "What do you want?"

"More traffic, more sales." That became our tagline.

Here's why... because we've been delivering. Here are some recent examples:

• MIT OpenCourseware: We recently grew traffic over 100x with the same daily ad spend.
• Finance Business: Grew their sales volume 4x while maintaining cost of acquisition.
• Enterprise Software Firm: Doubled their lead volume while cutting lead cost in half.
• Internet Membership Firm: Grew their paying members 6x in 3 months while maintaining cost per acquisition.

This is with US and international clients with multi-language campaigns in the US, Europe and Asia. This is with large and small clients.

Why? We've adapted our knowledge to build worldwide infrastructure, technology and processes to offer high quality services for a wide variety of clients.

Contact Position2 to learn more.

Aviator - Inspired Entrepreneurship

Many people like to use pro sports as a means to release stress. Yell at the team. Yell at the refs. It's a lot better than yelling at the kids or your employees. Well, I'm definitely there for the Pats and Red Sox. I was definitely at that point for Aviator, starring Leonard DiCaprio as the eccentric entrepreneur, Howard Hughes. This was especially during the Senate hearings where Senator Owen Brewster tried to smear Hughes for war profiteering and all sorts of seemingly unsavory practices. He was basically in the pocket of the CEO of Pan Am.

If you want to get me going, talk about anti-competitive policy in the national security or interest realm. The Senator used his office to hold back competition from a visionary player.

Though Hughes was definitely over the top, he was a true innovator in the aviation and film industry. His story reminded me of the movie, Tucker: Man and His Dreams. Preston Tucker was an innovator who's ideas later became part of automobiles years later: disk brakes, fuel injection, seat belt, safety windshields and padded dashboards. Like Hughes, the established players tried to run him out of business using the Congress as their stick rather than innovations. That backward attitude is why the US auto industry suffers today against Japanese competitors.

Our government should find ways to foster innovation and not prevent it. It should not allow corporate money to stifle entrepreneurialism.

For me, Hughes inspired me to continue creating innovative business. Nothing's more fun than holding the "tiger by the tail."

Please Vote

As many of you know I have strong views on just about everything. I love a good rigorous debate on just about any issue. Whether we are on the same side or not, one thing I'd encourage you to do is get out there and vote.

It is your right. It was fought for by our Founding Fathers. It is what our soldiers do for us every day. It is your responsibility. You do not have the right to complain about what your government is doing or not doing for you and your country unless you lend your voice.

In California where there is a plethora of initiatives, your vote can have tremendous impact - whether it is on access to abortions, funding for infrastructure or taxes on oil and cigarettes. You can sit back and say it is all too confusing or you can do some research and make a decision.

Please don't make a call based on a TV ad. Most of them are appealing to base fears or are distortions. Read what the legislative analyst wrote. Read both sides on the web. Check up on a few newspaper sites (San Jose Mercury or San Francisco Chronicle). It may take a couple hours, but it is your money and your children's money. Make sure it is spent on things you care about.

Also, if its too much of a hassle to remember to visit your polling booth on Election Day, then become a permanent absentee. You can sit there in your own living room, fill it out and mail it in. If you don't get around to it fast enough, you can still deliver it to your polling place.

No excuses - just vote.