Subpar Bowl
Well, if there’s one positive thing to be said about the Super Bowl, it’s “at least we didn’t go to the game”…as a particularly apt meme quipped, imagine buying a $7,000 ticket (plus airfare and accommodations) to see a Maroon 5 concert and a punting competition.
Attendees didn’t even get be creeped out by watching Alexa turn off the planet’s power grid by accident, which seems a shame.
Sure, Sunday’s decisive contest unfolded with all the excitement of a lower-tier high school football matchup, with both offenses struggling to muster the slightest bit of cohesion, but when it was all said and done the Patriots came out on top and my daughter was happy…even more so with her upcoming birthday not overshadowed by an exciting game.
Even so, someone at our party may or may not have napped through the 3rd quarter.
In any event, it’s hard not to congratulate the Patriots on some level…making an entire professional sports league monotonous and predictable over multiple decades is no easy task, and hasn’t been accomplished in the Northeast since that time the Celtics won the championship for 13 years straight. (Not a joke, can you imagine??)
I will have ample time to reflect on their greatness when I’m wearing various Patriots gear for the next month or so after losing all the bets…should be fun getting drawn into unmerited conversations about Tom Brady with total strangers.
Reclaiming Our Time
While we’re discussing word on the street, I’ve been hearing a lot about a product called Quiker and finally decided to give it a try.
Quiker is aimed at streamlining some of the more tedious aspects of running an agency…most of our clients staff routinely spends a majority of their time switching back and forth between Outlook and the agency management system, a process so enjoyable a friend rightly refers to it as “soul-sucking activities.”
In a welcome change of pace, Quiker works directly with AMS-360 to automatically document and categorize customer interactions. In fact, the site claims that using the inexpensive software can save an agency up to $7,000 yearly in lost time, not to mention untold mental wear and tear. It’s like not going to this year’s Super Bowl.
Laptops for Less
If you’re looking for a new laptop at a great price, you’ll find this next segment a lot more interesting than this year’s Supe–okay, I’ll stop. Seriously, I found this cheap Chromebook on Amazon for a friend and he absolutely loves it…a lot of bang for about 200 bucks. If you want some more options to consider, check out this CNET feature on 2019’s top picks for bargain-conscious tech shoppers.
Google Chrome Remembers
Creating passwords for your various accounts involves a delicate balance. By now we all know the dangers of a truly lazy choice like “password,” but I’m sure I’m not the first person to devise a password so secure that not even I can crack it…fine when Chrome has saved it for later use, less so when I have to enter it on another computer or in a linked app.
Fortunately, Google has thought of this.
If you, like me, don’t stand a chance in heck at mentally recording several random strings of letters, numbers, and characters to enter at a moment’s notice, there is a way to bring them up on demand as long as you’re logged in.
All you have to do is click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the screen, go to settings, and then access the “passwords” tab, where an eyeball can reveal all to you. Got it? No? Well, here’s a little video that might help.
The Last Word
All right sports fans, that should wrap things up for this week! Thanks as always for making time in your regular routine for another illuminating installment of “Brad’s Blog!” I’ll be right back in your inbox on schedule next time around, here’s to another strong week for us geeks!