Yeah, you heard it right…on Friday, October 27th, I’ll be writing up a review on the book title The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing.  My first book since Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Place You’ll Go.  Given to me by a friend!  (ahem)

Be sure to check out the ongoing reviews of the book at AllFinancialMatters and many other great bloggers!

Anonymous comments are always interesting. Everytime I see a comment by an Anonymous poster, it gets my juices flowing…is it going to be critical? Is it going to be an outright bashing? Is it going to be something real? I always hope it’s the later…something I can learn from. However, I do get comments that make me wonder if they even read my post in the first place…

For example, take this comment about my recent post on tip jars:

At 28/6/06 23:14, Anonymous said…
i hope you’re joking. don’t tip if you don’t want to. it’s really that simple. 

Now really, as if I didn’t know that. The point is, the tip jar is excessive. It should be put where a transaction is concluded, not where it begins. It’s really that simple.

Or take this example, in my post on a deceptive 0% offer, I wrote, “Sure it’s my fault for mis-reading the offer, but still it just doesn’t make sense.” So I get a comment:

At 15/6/06 23:17, Anonymous said…
It IS your fault. I would not have waived that. You got lucky. 

Did I miss something here? Uhhh, I said, “it’s my fault.”

And finally, in response to my post on commercials I despise…

At 21/6/06 10:31, Anonymous said…
The Mac commercials are amazing. What I am finding interesting is how many PC users get upset at the Mac commercials? Is it striking a nerve…? 

Let’s face it. Macs are a superior machine. Hands down.

Let me ask you this, Anonymous, what’s your goal in posting something like that? To stir up a childish “PCs are better than Macs” war? Hah, please. The proof is in the pudding(?). Just look around…there’s a reason why PCs are much more common…and the reason why Macs now share PC hardware. So hah, Anonymous. Take that! (Really, I like Macs…)

Commericials should convince you to buy. For whatever reason, whether you just like the few seconds of entertainment provided, the value of the product, the principle behind the company, whatever it might be, the commercial should “sell you.” I wrote about commercials I despise…this time, I’d like to write about commericals I’ve enjoyed.

Southwest.com - Funny and/or gives me useful information.

Mastercard - Priceless commercials really hit home for some reason. Well done IMHO.

American Express - The one by M. Night Shaymalan was really good. I liked it. Almost like mini movies…great idea. Probably not as effective, but entertaining.

McDonalds - Always positive, puts a smile on my face.

Toyota - I like Nissan automobiles, but I got to admit, those Toyota truck commercials work. The meteor-proof, resilient trucks…

Vytorin - Yeah, I really like these commercials. They are educational and catchy.

For the most part TV ads are entertaining, especially since the superbowl ad craze began anyway. However, some just, well, piss me off, and make me want to boycott the products rather than support them.

I especially hate ads that promote consumer ignorance and/or play to the uninformed consumer, put down other companies, don’t tell you what they are selling, are plain old pointless.

Here are some of them…

Apple - The recent ads with the Mac and PC guy just stirs up some real bad feelings. I’m a PC user, so of course, you can say that that is the reason why, but I’ve never held resentful feelings towards Macs because I always thought they were good computers too. They do especially well in certain areas. Now that Apple introduced these commercials, I am an Apple hater. I can honestly say I will never purchase an Apple product for life since they want to stereotype PC users so considerately.

Pepsi - I am just bothered by the commercials where the Coke can gets smashed. I’m not sure why. Sympathy? I will go out of my way to look for Coke products now.

Burger King - The one with the “bucking chicken” just irks the hell out of me. What is that? Not to mention the disturbing “king” dude.

Volkswagen - That new one with the “fast” devil dude…disturbing and irritating.

On the flip side, there are commercials that I really like…I’ll post on those later.

This is kind of neat…if you want to take a shot at immortality…here it is. Enter to be featured on McDonald’s packages! If you decide to enter, good luck!