What's that smell?

Its fear.

Apparently a lot of people I know (me included!) had money in the stock market. Money that was there (and theirs!) a month ago and now sadly, 40%+ is gone.

I have heard friends and friends of friends say that they are no longer going on vacation/buying a new car/purchasing that cabin on the lake/eating out (?!).

With the market falling everyday, and the cable pundits screaming "don't sell," or "sell if you ever want to see your money again - or in the next 5 years," or "12 more days like today and the Dow will be zero," it is easy to see why many Americans are confused and more than a little panicked.

My favorite quotes so far came from a WSJ article:

Investors seem, above all, to be in a state of shock, bludgeoned into paralysis by the market's astonishing volatility. How is Theodore Aronson, partner at Aronson + Johnson + Ortiz LP, a Philadelphia money manager overseeing some $15 billion, holding up in the bear market? "We have 101 clients and almost as many consultants representing them," he says, "and we've had virtually no calls, only a handful." Most of the financial planners I have spoken with around the country have told me much the same thing: Their phones are not ringing, and very few of their clients have even asked for reassurance. The entire nation, it seems, is in the grip of what psychologists call "the disposition effect," or an inability to confront financial losses. The natural way to palliate the pain of losing money is by refusing to recognize exactly how badly your portfolio has been damaged. A few weeks ago, investors were gasping; now, en masse, they seem to have gone numb.

In my family we have a saying: "Ignore it - it will go away." Annoyingly, it doesn't work, but each of us have tried (and failed) to go with this advice on one occasion or another.

Apparently our family saying has been adopted by the country?

A friend's mother announced she wasn't reviewing her brokerage statements "for a while." Just wasn't going to look. If only it were that easy?!

What are you doing? Not content to sit and watch,I am at least generating some commissions. I shifted much of my beleaguered portfolio out of weaker stocks and into high dividend paying blue chips, beaten down in the frenzy of last week (best example? swapping Tim Horton(THI), the Canadian donut shop for GE, with its 7% yield. Call me crazy.)

Also, I having been buying my old friend Berkshire (BRK.B). Buffett has got to be going nuts in this market - why not having the world's best picking stocks for you? I have been a big fan of his since 1991 - when as a graduation gift, a friend got me the collected ramblings of Warren's shareholder letters. Amazing stuff. He hasn't let me down yet!

"The new phone book is here!"

Few of us ever got as excited as Steve Martin's character did in The Jerk at the arrival of the new phone book (here is the scene recreated in the Sims!?).

That said, for years we have dutifully brought in the new phone book and recycled out the old one.

Not this year. This year, I recycled it the day it arrived.

What's the point in keeping it? We never use it.

How much longer will they keep printing them? If I need a number, I can go online and get it easier and quicker. Not at a computer? Google's free service (1-800-GOOG-411) is just as good as the "411 and more" service provided by my cellphone carrier - and it is free.

When is the last time you actually saw a print encyclopedia? (don't count garage sales!). An essential part of every book report I ever did, the encyclopedia was the guilty purchase of middle-class parents in the '60s and '70s ("You want you child do be smart, don't you Mrs. Jones?"). This staple of my childhood is nowhere to be found today...

How long 'til phone books are in the same boat?

(One interesting sidenote - in our neighborhood, by my count by far the #1 advertisers in the Yellowpages are attorneys who handle personal injury cases.... what does that say about the current demos of phone books? Or at least my part of the world?)

Shes cheating on herself....

There is a very special community on our spectacular divorce site. (Well, we think its spectacular).

Anyway, we do enjoy a terrific community of users. We regularly see difficult, real world issues - abandonment, cheating, the breakdown of marriages. Tough stuff. We try to be respectful in the way we handle everything - it is what people deserve and at the end of the day, these are people's lives!

A recent post caught my eye is being unusual and something that could only happen in today's modern world. A woman's husband is cheating on her - but with her! I'll let her describe the situation.

We wish the family well - and hope things work out for them.

Chrome - Google's new browser

I have been playing around with Chrome, Google's new browser.

First, like other Google products I use, I like it.  So far my favorite aspect is that its super sleek design gets more of a page above the fold, which I think is important.  You could always do this with other browsers, but it was hard, not the default, and still not as small as this.  It seems designed to be super-fast (also a huge win to me). 

One thing - it doesn't accept the Google toolbar? (I know, this would be expanding the area I thought was too big on other browsers, but).  That seems um, super stupid.....  What if I want to see page rank, etc? I'm trying to picture the conversation at Google justifying that ("People don't need Page Rank or one-click access to Google Maps, lets just ship the thing, and if enough complain, we can add it later...")

Argh.

testing,testing, testing

The best part of the Web is that unlike retail or newspapers or direct mail etc, you can test new ideas super fast / cheap / easy. You don't have to move concrete or reshoot an ad or anything. In a few hours we can almost totally redo big parts of our site.

Of course, the corollary is that the worst part of the Web is that unlike retail or newspapers or direct mail, etc., you can test new ideas super fast / cheap / easy.

Got an idea? lets throw it up and see what happens. It is tough to stay focused, stay disciplined, measure and learn from it. Especially when you need something fixed NOW.

Having worked with companies online since, um, 1993 (oooof), I believe one of the the dirty secrets of the Web is most companies don't test ad positions, navigation, images, etc. It is "set it and forget it!!!"

We are seeing good to great conversions from our new landing page.

All comments welcome and appreciated!

Really odd prenups!

I Don't if You Do: From Pets to Smoking, Prenups Contain Almost Anything

read more | digg story

Woman's Day

We are seeing a nice fit with our new partnership with Woman's Day Online .

Check out the latest article: divorce360 on Woman's Day Online. The article, 10 Habits of Happy Couples, is an interesting read. Not sure I'm hitting all 10 at home....