Are Your Ready for Some Futbol?

I've never been a huge soccer (or futbol) fan, but I started watching the World Cup over the weekend and have become one!

Starting last Friday and going until July 11th, 32 nations will face off in soccer's World Cup. Across much of the globe - most of Europe and west Africa, all of the Western Hemisphere south of our borders - the tournament in South Africa is a bigger deal than the Olympics. However, not here. I'm surprised this is the case with the strong U.S. European history, but recently soccer is getting harder for Americans to ignore.

The so-called 90-minute "beautiful game" showcases balletic movement and momentum swings. Not to mention, for certain fans, hot guys running around in shorts. If you watch, you'll surely see fans from across the globe supporting their teams, the superstar players, who are on average a head shorter than your typical quarterback, in their hued uniforms and hear announcers bellow "goooooooalll." Very exciting.

As the United States population grows younger and more ethnically diverse, the globe is becoming smaller, soccer might finally be gaining a foothold on these shores. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's kind of a big deal, expand yourself. I recommend that you do.

Use Facebook Ads to Make Employers Hunt You Down

If you pay attention to the news, you may think that anyone looking for a job should immediately cancel his or her Facebook account and never sign up again. Headlines read: Bank Intern Busted by Facebook, Employers Look to Facebook Too and Employers Snoop on Facebook. There's rarely anything new in the stories, but somehow they continue to pop up. More and more companies are using Facebook as a recruiting tool, but for the most part any press that has included the words "employer" and "Facebook" has been negative. Not anymore.

When you sign on your Facebook account, you may notice an ad on the right side of the screen. Facebook allows you to target your ads very specifically. More than ever, employers are trying to leverage Facebook to find great entry-level talent, but not many are doing a good job.

An organization called One Day, One Job came up with an idea, what if you reverse the role and have the employee target the company her or she wants to work for with Facebook ads? Basically, they wanted college grads to create an ad for themselves. The goal was to sell yourself with a picture and a few short sentences which would convince any recruiter seeing their ad to click through to their resume, web page, contact information, etc. Most importantly they needed a target. This target would be based keywords, location or company. Targeting by the company is the most likely to succeed, because they could guarantee that they would actually reach people who work at companies that might consider hiring them. How they target would depend on what kinds of jobs they were looking for. Yes, this process does cost some money, but overall when looking at its success rate, it's pretty cheap.

To learn more about this idea and how to set up your own Facebook ad click here.

Sex and the City 2: A Promotion for a Life of Whimsical Carelessness

Even though I'm not a "Sex and the City" fanatic, I saw several episodes of the series and liked the characters and the actresses playing them. I still do. The half-hour episodes were well-written and snappy. However, I was thoroughly disappointed in SATC2 and thought it didn't do the six award-winning seasons and first movie justice, was over the top and borderline insulting. For those of you that loved SATC2, I really don't have anything good to say, so you probably should skip this post.

One of the main reasons I enjoyed watching SATC was for the high end fashion, but for some reason the sequel's outfits didn't live up to my expectations and I felt they were farfetched. The ladies have always loved the labels and bought expensive things, but it was still grounded in some sort of far-reaching reality, rather than a flashing showcase of life where money is no object. Also, this time around I often found myself saying, 'what is she wearing?' Rather than, "wow, that's really cool and unique."

I realize that during the Great Depression, Hollywood movies that portrayed glamour and good times were an escape mechanism and flights of fantasy. But, this is a cruel punishment to the average person in the work-a-day world who is upside down on a mortgage, looking for work and had to watch a quartet sit down to an all-you-can-eat buffet and gorge themselves for two hours, and talk about how utterly incredible the food was.

Starting with a flashback scene in the beginning, throughout the whole movie you're reminded of how old the women are. Samantha constantly talks about the vitamins and hormone creams she takes to stay younger, her Spanx and hot flashes. Yes, these lines are funny, but when the theme didn't stop, I thought, has Sex and the City lost its prime just like the characters?

Speaking of age, while watching the storyline unfold, I couldn't believe some of the characters behavior. The drama produced seemed like something an immature, young woman might do and be ridiculed for. Carrie is married to Big and still needs to be reminded that a kiss is still a kiss and that certain marital fundamentals actually do apply. Miranda quits her job because she feels silent in a firm of all men. Charlotte, a mom of two, shuts herself in a closet when two-year-old Rose's constant screaming and older sister Lily's attention-craving gets the best of her while baking cookies and finally Samantha, who is still single and mingling at the age of 52 insists on wearing the same clothes in Abu Dhabi where the culture is very different.

Lastly, I understand Samantha's character and I really do like her. However, I thought that she showed a lack of respect to a culture when she refused to cover herself somewhat in a Muslim culture country. This issue struck controversy across the globe.

As a young female business professional I really like the SATC storyline featuring single, professionally successful women charting their own course, while talking frankly about their experiences with sex, love and city life. I just thought it could have been done more realistically and tactful.

Minnesota Nurses Negotiations: The Importance of Good Communication from Both Sides during a Strike

The 12,000 nurses that represent the Minnesota Nurses Association at 14 Twin Cities hospitals are threatening to walk out June 10 unless talks produce an agreement about pay increases of three percent for each of the three years, pension contributions and more flexibility in scheduling. Nurses claim to be stretched to the limit and don't have enough say in staffing levels. This is causing a low nursing morale and stressed out.

In this strike there are spokespersons from both sides stating their side of the disagreement. It's important this is, so that the clearest messages are communicated to one another and the press in hopes of reaching a settlement. I think that both defenders are doing a good job representing their sides' wants.

I side with the Minnesota Nurses Association, but still I can see both sides. The hospitals are struggling just like any other business during this downturn. They don't want to guarantee higher wages and pensions and other benefits if revenue is not growing. Also, hospitals want to be able to move nurses around hospital units depending on census numbers, even if a nurse is unfamiliar with their new surrounding and may not work as efficient.

Hospitals are an important part of society and nurses are a big piece of their operation. Patients are nervous that their care will be affected by the strike and hospitals are trying to prepare. Hospital communicators are making it clear that the strike will not affect their patient's care, which is vital. There is hope that the strike can be averted all together before 10 arrives.

Affected hospitals: Abbott Northwestern, Mercy, Unity, United and Phillips Eye Institute (all owned by Allina Hospitals and Clinics), St. John's, St. Joseph's and Bethesda (owned by HealthEast Care System), North Memorial, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Park Nicollet Methodist, Fairview Southdale and the Riverside campus of University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.

Is the Coupon Craze Just a Woman Thing?

As the recession continues, the redemption of coupons hits record highs last year; however men still aren't as quick to clip as women.

According to a Nielsen Media report, 311 billion coupons were distributed nationwide in 2009, but only 18 percent of grocery shoppers who used coupons at least once a year were male. This story was discussed in this morning's Star Tribune.

This doesn't mean that men don't want to save, but that they want to do it another way. Men find coupons to be a nuisance, that it's a pain to cut them, hold on to them and then remember to bring them and use them. They feel the preparation time is too cumbersome.

Does this mean that men don't like to think ahead? Some say that this theory goes back to the hunter/gatherer thing, when it was primarily women who had a vested interested in conserving. Others say that men prefer to buy in bulk than become a coupon clipper and believe they save the same amount of money.

Recently, NCH Marketing Services in Illinois released that nearly 93 percent of men who started using coupons when the recession began in 2009, say they plan to continue doing so. Do you think at least some of those coupons were clipped by women?