eransworld -- Making a Mockery-- My Blog

Friday, February 10, 2006

A swift kick to the LoveSac Baby!!!

LoveSac declares bankruptcy.and sticks it to its creditors hitting them squarely in the proverbial nutSac®. It is always sad to see a company declare bankruptcy but what happened here. Shawn Nelson seemed to have it all together. When we last heard from Nelson, he had just won Sir Richard Branson's "The Rebel Billionaire" and was said to have pocketed a cool $1,000,000 bucks and a sweet job with Virgin. Nelson was the Utah boy done good but then he seemed to disappear; then a few days ago it was announced that LoveSac was going Chapter 11.

It appears that Nelson and LoveSac left a wake of people in the lurch for their cashola. LoveSac has $500,000 in assets and $3.2 million in debt. Wayne Schmirler, president of Sino China Trading Limited, is one of LoveSac's unsecured creditors, said his company will end up losing more than $1.2 million from LoveSac's bankruptcy filing. Schmirler says that this may cause his firm to go bankrupt. Another Utah company Ensign Group International is owed $126,000. Ensign officials admit that the LoveSac filing will hurt but not destroy their business.

In October Nelson claimed that LoveSac would have sales in excess of $30 million. LoveSac operates 74 stores, including six locations in Utah, and has roughly 700 employees. So what happened? Did they lose funding? Expand too fast? Or were the prices just too high? It would be interesting to see inside to see what caused such a melt down of an up and coming brand.
So I guess Branson knew that the Sac had some issues or else we would see it as Virgin LoveSac.

Links: LoveSac.com, Rebel Blog (it reads as though Shawn was cautioned by his bankruptcy lawyer).. Hey Nelson I thought you were married? Your blog looks like you have become a roadie for Motley Crue. Could it be you overspent for your Lake Powell Trip?

(1) comments

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Muslim Cartoons: Its Always Funnier in Egyptian Newspapers

On some levels I can understand the outrage in the Muslim world for political cartoons that seem offensive. Being a Mormon we often see cartoons or editiorials mocking our religion. I understand the feelings but I also understand that people have freedoms to express their opinions without interference even if I do not agree with their point of view.

It seems strange that the whole Muslim world is outraged by political cartoons published in a foreign country's newspaper but here is a blog with evidence that the cartoons were published in an Egyptian paper 5 months earlier. Link

(0) comments

"Gay" Penguins and the Penguin Sexual Revolution

People are sometimes just well strange. Case in point. I was reading this morning about a flap at the Bremerhaven's Zoo in Bremerhaven, Germany. The story is that the zoo has six endangered Humboldt penguins. After a few years of not mating and not producing any offspring, in order to help the penguins get of the endangered list, the zoo does some testing and discovers that 3 of the penguins are really male instead of female as was "believed". I guess determining the sex of a penguin is a little more difficult than just taking a peek. I bet being the vet tech for the penguins is a sucky job. Just imagine: the vet tech says, "Um boss I can't tell if these damn things are male or female." "Damn it look again,"screams the vet. Anyway. I digress. So the zoo decides to fly in some hot and sexy Swedish female penguins (I am not joking). These new temptations haven't worked and the male penguins still are not interested in "female" penguins. Meanwhile the gay and lesbian community has begun to protest gay penguin rights. "All sorts of gay and lesbian associations have been emailing and calling in to protest," a spokesman for Bremerhaven's Zoo on the Sea in northwestern Germany said. The protests have become so bad that the zoo released a statement saying, "The penguins can remain gay".

So does this mean that soon there will be a call by penguins, of course, for laws recognizing Gay Penguin Marriage? Do they get healthcare for their "life partner"? It just seems a silly thing to protest about when after all, the zoo is only trying to keep the poor penguin from extinction.

(0) comments

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Capitalism Alive and Well

Even the outraged Muslim's know how to make a buck in times like these... Gaza shopkeeper stocks up on Danish flags to burn!!! "When entrepreneur Ahmed Abu Dayya first heard that Danish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were being reprinted across Europe, he knew exactly what his customers in Gaza would want: flags to burn."

And just to be fair there are sites supporting Denmark... The Dissident Frogman

(0) comments

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

This letter made me laugh... There has been a hunting battle brewing in the Deseret News This is a letter from a few days ago that helps put it all into perspective.

Satisfaction in hunting?

I'm going to have to agree with Wendy Mair (Readers' Forum, Feb. 2). Hunting is indeed extremely honorable and satisfying. Not many hobbies or recreations serve the honor or gratification I feel when I blow a small animal away with my shotgun.

Illegal poaching is indeed reprehensible and abhorrent, but we enlightened hunters are continually researching and developing more improved, humane ways to blast a hole in an animal.

Hunting is also a great way to bond with your children. Nothing says "I love you, son" like sharing the heartfelt moment of discharging a slug into a doe. I also hope that this legislation passes. Our young children need to escape the distraction of simulated violence and gore in today's video games and movies and experience them in real life.

Andrew Meyer
Riverton

(0) comments

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Questar sings "Just Can't Get Enough..."

Questar Gas has offered to cut its rates $10.2 million in exchange for the state of Utah to allow Questar to adopt a new method for collecting its overhead and labor costs Currently Questar is forced to link its overhead and labor costs to the amount of gas used by its customers. Questar wants to radically change this policy and remove the fixed costs from the amount of gas used to a variable rate based upon its operating costs. Why is this a lame idea for the consumer? It takes all the business risks inherent in a business and places them squarely on the consumer. Example: Questar has to pay more for labor and will pass the buck directly to the consumer instead of going through the Utah Committee of Consumer Services for rate hikes. So what happens is during the slow seasons when gas usage shrinks Questar wants to pass the buck to consumers by charging them more for their products via the increase in the "variable" rate. So Questar thinks they can just cut prices by $10.2 million dollars and get the state board to give them the keys to the hen house. In the recent past Questar has ousted outspoken members of UCCS who have called for accountability for Questar's rate increases. Hmmm Ross Perot: "If the fox is in the hen house the farmers a sleep." Latest blasphemy from Questar

(0) comments

Monday, February 06, 2006

Here's a Quarter Utah Call Someone Who Can Design.

Seven years ago the United States Mint started to redesign our money. Quarters began to have individual state designs on them. The first ones were very cool and designed to represent the state. I think most of them are quite good.

Recently Utah released their final designs. Wow. Who chose these designs? Mrs. Adams 4th grade at Provo Elementary class? It looks as though there were few entries to choose from so they chose the only three entries.

The Beehive.
This has turned into another Mormons vs. Non-Mormons battle. Oh brother. Beehives have about as much to do about the LDS religion as L. Ron Hubbard does (absolutely nothing). Brigham Young thought that it represented industry and working together for the greater good so he used it as a state symbol. Non-Members seem to think it to be the ultimate symbol of Mormonism. To non-Mormons it might have well been a swastika on the quarter. My complaint is they could not have made the beehive more boring in appearance.
Gag Me

Golden Spike.
It is true that the transcontinental railroad met in Utah in 1869 unfortunately the design says 1896 the day Utah became a state. Promontory Point is just a desert wasteland now and really isn't as important to Utah's identity as other designs. It just seems kind of silly.

Bad Date

The Snowboarder.
Yeah this does nothing for me either. It looks like a drawing out of a 1970's LDS New Era magazine.

Lame Design

Fragile Arch
This one showing the natural wonders that is Utah. I feel that this one represents the state the best but of course Governor Huntsman put the kibosh on it. It is only good enough for most advertising about Utah.

Should Have Used This

The Governor and Utah Travel Council should pull their collective heads out of their behinds and chose something marketable. These three designs suck. Learn More about these crappy designs here.

(1) comments

Web	www.eransworld.com