Carried Away

Financial Model For Game Design Start-Up Company

Here is a preliminary draft of a financial model that I am putting together for a hypothetical game design company.  As you can see, it's not much right now -- part of an income statement, with breakout sheets for various categories of expenses.  I will work on the cash flow and balance sheets, additional breakouts, and formatting in the coming months/years.  The objective is to create something that would look professional in a business plan and would be helpful to anybody thinking of starting a company.

This is released under the Creative Commons Share and Share Alike License.  If you would like to use this model as the start of your own and have any special considerations, such as confidentiality necessities, please let me know and we'll work something out.  Obviously, your numbers and company name would not need to be "shared alike", but we would need to work out how to integrate into the main model the functionality you added on your own, if appropriate.

As always, additions, edits, and criticism are always welcome.

Howard Dean Is A Miserable Failure

Ever since I started this blog, I have kept a close watch on the number and type of hits that I have received. In the beginning, friends and family were the main readers, but eventually I started receiving referrals -- i.e., I was being linked from other sites. Lately, the overwhelming majority of readers have been those referred by search engines, such as Google and Yahoo.

Because of the word choices that I used for some posts, I am near the top of Google's list on some search terms. For instance, I am 4th on "China Population Pyramid". I'm 5th on "China's Rise". I am especially happy that I'm 1st on the lucrative search term "Government's Role in US Society". Apparently, my choice of words impacts in a big way the number of readers who stop by this site.

Some clever Democrats have figured out that a web page will be bumped up in Google's list for common search terms if others link to the page in question. For instance, do a Google search for "miserable failure" and see what comes up as #1 (I can't link to them, because it would keep that page at the top of the list even longer). They figured out that you can "Google-bomb" somebody with as few as 12 links. Since turnabout is fair play, I humbly offer this post, so that we can tell all Google users how much Howard Dean is a miserable failure.

In any event, this just goes to show you that it's very kind indeed to link to somebody else's blog while describing what the other person says, because it will directly and indirectly impact how many readers they have. I thank anybody who has linked to any of my posts specifically. Also, it shows that Google likely will weight blogs above traditional news stories that presumably have better, edited writing backed up by much more research. But I don't mind. Just link to me. ;-)

The Amorality of Money

In the real world, money has some attachment to value, and hence responsibility and morality. Money from a job provides for the care of the individual or family, future security, entertainment. Fiduciary responsibility and stewardship are important. Even the richest among us who have no need for this material value may find value in money as a way of keeping score in business or society. In the real world, bad morals with regard to money are practiced. You have to protect your money, because it can be stolen. Acting irresponsibly with your money is a bad thing. If you have a lot of money, then people think better of you, as if you either have better morals or you can give them some of that money. People dress nicely, in part because it indicates that they have some money.

Las Vegas is another world, where money is treated as just a number. When the chips start flying, or slot machine starts whirring, the value attachment is dissolved. It doesn't matter whether you are at a low stakes table or a high stakes table, you are treated similarly well (the service in Vegas is just awesome). If you lose money, it's no poor reflection on you. If you win money, you haven't earned it. Most people dress in jeans, even at the very high stakes tables. That's not to say that a certain minimum of money isn't the necessary entre into this synthetic world, but the minimum is very low. Your money is not stolen from you in Vegas. The odds are bad in many instances, but everybody knows what the odds are.

This is the first time that I have encountered a place with such studied amorality with respect to money. Any other place would collapse upon itself with such an attitude. But it seems to work in Vegas, because they have visitors who are willing to respect and fund this amorality.

7 Card Stud Redux

I ended up $70 after 7 hours of play in two sessions at the $1-$5 7-card stud tables at the Bellagio. Down $55 in the first session of about 3 hours and up $125 in the second session of 4 hours. I remembered the cards that had been played a lot better in the second session.

7 Card Stud

I'm out in Las Vegas visiting my friend Brian.  The game that we have been playing is 7 card stud.  I'm down $55 after about 4 hours of play in the $1 minimum/$5 maximum table at the Bellagio.

While the card tables where you play against other people are the best (never bet against the house), the odds for low stakes games aren't so hot.  The house takes 10% a hand, $5 maximum.  Plus, you tip the dealer a dollar on big hands and 50 cents on smaller hands.  Brian's brother, who lives here, plays at the high stakes tables and they have a much better deal--each player pays $5 a half-hour of play.  Plus, they get comps at the hotel.

It appears that the card tables have seen better days.  While this is still a great place to play, games of chance, such as slots and gaming computer systems, predominate.  These seem addictive.  The casinos were packed last evening.